Feb 282019
 


Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra de’ Benci 1474-78

 

Perhaps against better judgment, I just can’t keep silent about the Michael Cohen’s in da House show performed on February 27. I was watching it and increasingly fearing for the future of America. We had all been able to read his prepared statement before he opened the party with it, and therefore we all knew there was nothing there. So why did this thing take place, and why were all the cameras and reporters there? Do we live in split realities these days?

Both before and after the gruelling -for the viewer- session, words like ‘explosive’ and bombshell’ were all over, so I thought I’d watch, since I might have missed something, but no, there was nothing, there wasn’t even a there there. Apparently, US House members are by now immune to being revealed as nutcases frantically phishing for evidence of accusations they formerly made but could never prove.

A phishing expedition with a willing whale in the center who sort of volunteered to be harpooned, and still came up with absolutely nothing but blubber. And then like 4 hours of that. There’s never been a more convincing picture of what US politics and media have become. But they’re all entirely impervious to it. They’re discussing nothing for hours on end with millions watching, and they see it as normal.

Now, I’ve been following the decay of the American press ever since Trump entered politics stage right, and I’ve written a hundred thousand words about it, but it really hit home during the Cohen session. Tellingly, the Republican House members were exclusively focusing on Cohen credibility, since he had been caught lying to Congress before, and the Supreme Court just days ago disbarred him.

But this was not about the man’s credibility, and sure, I felt sorry for him too, it was about the fact that he had nothing at all to say, but Republicans had nothing on that. They instead joined the Dems in questioning him about nothing, pretending it was big and explosive and stuff. If anything has ever resembled the Emperor’s new clothes, it was that charade there yesterday.

 

If you insist, we can walk through a few of the topics. A nice example that was not in the prepared statement was that Cohen claimed he had never wanted a White House job, but even the CNN pundits were saying he had wanted one for a long time, and was very insulted when he didn’t get it. Poof! went the last shred of his credibility. Well, not for the House members, they have shorter memories even than CNN talking heads.

Second, the issue of a Trump Tower in Moscow, about which Cohen allegedly lied earlier on, in that the plans were shelved later than he had claimed. But the only thing that really interests the House, because even they understand that wanting to build a hotel in the city is not some criminal thing, is Russiagate, invented out of thin air but still popular stateside.

The one thing related to this that collusion ‘experts’ emphasize time and again, and it came up again in the Cohen thing, is that Trump supposedly planned to gift a penthouse apartment in a potential Trump hotel on Red Square to Vladimir Putin. Conveniently, not a single American appears to have wondered whether Putin would be interested in such a gift.

And I can assure you he wouldn’t. Putin can get -just about- any piece of real estate he wants on Red Square, besides he already has the Kremlin, and he can get anything built there which he might desire. Accepting a free dwelling from a US builder makes no sense. Why should he? Still, this is one of the main items Russiagaters keep coming up with. It makes no sense, and that’s fitting, because neither do they.

Second, pornstar pay-offs. Male politicians worldwide and through the ages have had affairs, and in modern times (re: JFK) there’s been an understanding that the media leave these things alone. On the one hand, it’s proof of virility, something voters like in their candidates, and on the other it shows infidelity, something they don’t. A battle no-one can win, hence the understanding.

In France, this all plays out a bit more openly, though never in the open, but in the US you can break the pact if you want. And since the initial story was that campaign funds had been used to pay Stormy Daniels, there was a potential criminal angle. But we now know that that angle was fake, so no there there either. Trump paid so it (true or not) didn’t become a big campaign story, and that he did so just before an election is irrelevant, because the whole topic is irrelevant. Unless you want to exhume JFK.

 

Third and what pisses me off more than anything, is that Cohen both volunteered, and was coaxed into, talking about Roger Stone’s alleged contacts with Julian Assange. Cohen talked about a conversation between Stone and Trump on July 18-19 2016, in which Stone allegedly said he had talked to Assange who told him WikiLeaks was going to release a big batch of Hillary-related mails.

The DNC convention was July 25-28, the WikiLeaks release July 22. Looks like a slam-dunk collusion story, right? Except that Assange had said 5 weeks earlier, on June 12 2016, that such a batch would be released. So even if Stone had talked to him, there was no news there. Moreover, both Assange and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied the conversation ever took place. And of course Assange can’t defend himself against anything anyone says anymore.

And we can keep going: the assertion that the DNC mails were hacked has been refuted many times, and if they were stolen it was by someone inside the DNC. No story, no collusion, no there there. Only hour after tedious hour of Michael Cohen House testimony about nothing at all.

It felt a lot like a new low point in US political history, but you need to be careful with such classifications these days, since competition’s stiff and still picking up. I liked the following lines from an article in the Guardian this morning to appropriately describe the goings-on:

Trump’s former fixer cautioned that he could not prove the “collusion” with Moscow that the president vehemently denies. Still there was, Cohen said, “something odd” about the affectionate back-and-forth Trump had with Vladimir Putin in public remarks over the years.

Here’s the best thing Cohen could do in the entire time wasted on the topic:

“There are just so many dots that seem to lead in the same direction,” he said.”

How does that not make you want to scream? No collusion, only “something odd”, and “so many dots”. A thorough analysis out of the mouth of an at least questionable character who worked closely with Trump for a decade. That’s all the US House of Representatives had to show for the show it put on. And that’s a really big problem, but there’s no-one in sight to address, let alone rectify, it.

There are a thousand things wrong with Donald Trump, but even though that would not necessarily disqualify him for the presidency, the Democrats and the mainstream press have opted to go all-in on the Russia collusion theme, which even two years and change of Mueller hasn’t been able to prove.

Whether this will be the winning ticket for the Democrats in a next election is very doubtful, and what the press hope to get other than a few more readers and viewers addicted to scandals is anyone’s guess. But more importantly: why do they do it? Why focus on all the made-up stories instead of going out and finding the real ones?

Even if the Cohen show not constitute a new low, it was certainly scraping the gutter of American political reality, and someone better do something, or entirely new and thus far unimaginable lows will be attained. Not a single national political system can survive on entirely trumped-up accusations for long, let alone that of the globe’s most powerful nation. Does anyone ever wonder what the Dems will do if Trump wins again in 2020? Where can they flee to?

I’ll leave you with a few Twitter voices who also see no there there. Note: the first one is dated July 7 2016, some two weeks before Stone -unverifiably- said he talked to Assange (who always denied it, but it wouldn’t matter even if he had) :

 

 

 

 

Home Forums The House Hit A New Low

Viewing 18 posts - 1 through 18 (of 18 total)
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  • #45633

    Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra de’ Benci 1474-78   Perhaps against better judgment, I just can’t keep silent about the Michael Cohen’s in da House sho
    [See the full post at: The House Hit A New Low]

    #45637
    rapier
    Participant

    What does this have to do with anything. Oh yea

    Ka ching

    #45639
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Like I said, America is now a reality-free zone. You make a bad habit of only presenting substantiated public evidence. Nobody cares. True, false, it’s all the same now. It’s whatever I say and want to be true, if I’m caught, I do it again and am never discredited, forever and ever, for generations almighty, amen.

    So when true and false are the same, theorem: false = true, what is that? Oh yes, #StarkRavingMadness, full, violent psychosis, self-referential #Narcissism, #Antilogos and incidentally anti-science, anti-evidence, and anti-law.

    Order and reason can only return when things can be defined, their definitions don’t change depending on who you are, and a thing and its opposite are not the same, none of which are true at this time, practically anywhere in our borders, nor indeed wherever we tread worldwide.

    So, running down, Cohen, a liar by occupation, and a proven liar who is going to jail for lying TO CONGRESS, says before Congress that Trump is a poopy-pants, and incidentally either cannot provide evidence of *anything* or openly exonerates Trump of virtually all wrongdoing. Yet this bombshell that both exonerates and hollows out Trump is the evidence that also proves it was all completely true. So a thing and its opposite are true in #Antilogos Land, #AntiLogos America? Yes. And those who partake of the poisoned chalise ACTUALLY THINK a thing and its opposite are true, and therefore evidence=non-evidence. Then the look up to the crowd with a confused expression wondering why the American people are not similarly convinced by their non-evidence, that is evidence, which isn’t evidence.

    So long as much of the country is similarly psychotic, what would you suggest we do? I say we furious push to pass 100 bills that can never become laws, or if laws would never pass the Supreme Court then pass $100 Trillion dollar bills that will be green-powered by unicorn farts and rainbows. Why not? Certainly less harmful than what we’re doing at present.

    Good news: you can’t have a civil war in this condition, as everyone is too self-important and psychotic to coordinate anything. Bad news: you’re living in a violent loony bin, and nothing sensible will ever function again.

    #45640
    zerosum
    Participant

    ” there wasn’t even a there there.”

    Too bad that people don’t understand numbers and math.

    or

    numbers don’t matter when you have already made up your mind.

    ( You know how it works – it doesn’t matter who is in power)

    eg.
    Which came first?

    July 18-19 2016, in which Stone allegedly said he had talked to Assange who told him WikiLeaks was going to release a big batch of Hillary-related mails.
    July 25-28The DNC convention ,
    July 22 the WikiLeaks release . Looks like a slam-dunk collusion story, right?
    June 12 2016, Except that Assange had said 5 weeks earlier, that such a batch would be released.

    ( sorry that I made it so obvious for those that are math challenged.)

    #45641
    Dr. D
    Participant

    …Including my grammar, apparently.

    #45642
    zerosum
    Participant

    Cohen will be sent to jail because

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-28/cohen-accused-perjury-made-numerous-willfully-and-intentionally-false-statements

    Mr. Cohen repeatedly testified that he did not seek employment in the White House following President Trump’s election. This is demonstrably, materially, and intentionally false.

    Oppps He will be there for something else…. lying

    #45643
    rapier
    Participant

    #45645
    rapier
    Participant

    “Collusion” is a McGuffin. It’s a misdirection as well. The simple story is far more common and seedy. Like a hand job in a strip mall massage parlor. Trump was motivated to make a buck, well several hundred million bucks for himself, by influence peddling. The influence in this case the policies of the United States of America. Not based upon any principal that has ever been stated by Trump or anyone near him. (I am and have been well prepared since before Trump to advance the ideas that our Russophobia since the fall of the USSR has been profoundly destructive) There were no principals involved. Just seedy money grubbing. A sort of ultimate betrayal of Democracy.

    There is nothing fancy or meta about the whole affair. It was all a figurative hand job for a fruitcake and a pig. Donald Trump.

    #45647
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    What’s always been just a little interesting to me is when Trump, during his campaign rally, called on Russia (if they are listening) to find the missing 30 thousand emails and not Wikileaks. Something “odd there” don’t you think?

    #45648
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Any one who has held on to their sanity, surely sees the fantastical reality created by twisted people and their twisted ideals.
    If that acurrate vision is the context from which the U.S. is framed; then its true health is obvious.
    A sick society ruled by equally sick fascisti…
    Record numbers of U.S. citizens are leaving for distant places they view as an improvement.
    If in fact they find respite; it will likely not last, until and unless the U.S. is brought to ground.

    #45649
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    My goodness! I don’t know! Chill pill, hand job! After all this vitriol I’m thinkin’ I’m needin’ somethin’ to get right with the world again. MAGA

    #45650
    toktomi
    Participant

    It appears to me that there is a grand operation in progress to jam all the media networks with massively contradictory misinformation and to ratchet up the public angst to stratospheric levels in preparation for something quite lovely not. The matrix is surely functional. Lies, lies, lies, lies; everywhere lies.

    I have but one fundamental interest at this point; most of my other interests are insignificant and transitory. I for sure don’t give a damn about goofy national politics, although I had a passing interest in Cohen after his “surgery”. It seems to have remedied any possible serious thoughts that he may have had about being seriously nasty with any Trump dirt. My biggest interest is in the remote possibility of being able to sift from the endless barrage of public bs news a hint of a forewarning of lights out if indeed there will be a designed event to get the show on the road.

    #45651
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    My goodness! I don’t know! Chill pill, hand job!
    PlanetaryCitizen

    Oh, you mean Prozac?
    I guess tis the season for snowflakes, no?
    Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt…

    #45682
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    Ooh oweee, he called me a snowflake! Waaaa! First of all @ 70 I don’t take any prescription drugs, I don’t need them. But never mind that, it’s irrelevant.

    I’m also not oblivious to the crass commercialism and the striving for material success that is the west and the U.S. in particular. I’m also not oblivious to the abuses of power that have dominated international relations among the so called colonial powers of the last several centuries. Unfortunately they are not alone. Ask the Manchurian’s, the Philippine Islander’s, the Burmese and other Pacific Islander’s how they enjoyed life under Japanese rule. Or ask the Tibetans (which for all intents and purposes doesn’t exist anymore) how life is for them under Chinese rule. Ask the Chinese how life is if you don’t have enough brownie points to be able to fly or take the train. Ask the Singaporeans how life is if you get caught chewing gum in public and what public caning is like. Ask what life is like for the untouchables in India and and the second class status of women there as well as the most of the greater Middle East. Ask Malala Yousafzai what happens if you are a girl and want to get an education in Pakistan. Or a woman what she thinks of honor killings for what ever reason some male putz in her family feels his precious ego has been wounded. Ask about what life expectancy is for journalists in Russia who criticize Putin and the oligarchy. Or what happens to people who run against them/him politically. Or what life is like there if you happen to be gay. Or what happens if you criticize the church like Pussy Riot. Believe me I can go on and on all over the globe.

    This notion that the East is some shangri-la and the West is part and parcel to the 9 circles of hell… Sorry, but life for all too much of humanity is just one flavor or another of a shit sandwich and megalomaniacs aren’t in any short supply anywhere.

    When it comes to criticizing the US I’ll go to the head of the line and I do so frequently, and I also do what is in my power to make things better (to the degree that I understand things), not just for the country I was born in and care about but for the planet and all life as a whole. And yes, I’ve no doubt that in the eyes of many that makes me a snowflake. But frankly, I just don’t give a damn. There are a great many people in the west and around the world trying to do the right thing and this reductionist antipathy that is so often exemplified in our relationships when we have different notions and biases is at the crux of the problem. I also don’t claim to be immune to the tendency.

    Peace out!

    #45685
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    PlanetaryCitizen

    @74 I take no prescription drugs either.
    I see absolutely nothing to chill about.
    To minimize the actions of the U.S. around the world by listing the wrongs of other countries/cultures is just ludicrous.
    The U.S. is openly claiming to have the right to act with impunity towards the entire world; and frequntly does so; with the consequent deaths of millions of world citizens.
    No other country in history can claim such outside of a world war; remember; there are no declared wars since WWII…

    #45686
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    I’m not minimizing the actions of the U.S. I find a great deal of what the government does in our name to be reprehensible as do a great many people I know. A great many of us make efforts to change it. Your comment about a sick society and equally sick fascisti is just what I said it was, reductionist antipathy and a gross mis-characterization of American society. Your constant refrain is how wonderful the east is and how awful the west is and you do it with a vehemence that is beginning to border on tedium and banality. The government is not the people and I take offence when someone tries to claim it’s so and lumping me and people I know in with the crimes of a government captured by corporate cabals and their greed.

    #45736
    Wolfbay
    Participant

    Maybe our presidents should actually follow the constitution they have sworn allegiance to. One example is Obama who claims to be a constitutional scholar. It’s almost comical if it wasn’t so sad. He allowed spying on millions of Americans without probable cause. He ordered the drone murder of two American citizens without due process. He started wars without a declaration of war from Congress.
    He claimed to have the most transparent administration in history and this did turn out to be true but only because of Snowden.

    #45742
    toktomi
    Participant

    @Wolfbay

    Do you sincerely believe that a “President” has this kind of power or authority or indeed, any authority at all beyond the selection of the dinner china pattern?

    Consider this possibility. There are scores of corporate titans with adequate financial assets and vested interests in presidential discretion that could have family members of any politician disappeared, and there are equal numbers of the global ruling cabal whose insane assets are not even kept in their names who could have the family members of the corporate titans disappeared. Does that sound like a possible scenario where a measly little millionaire would be allowed to swashbuckle his way through four or eight years of cheap celebrity?

    May I suggest that we quit blaming the pissants for the deeds of those who hold the reins.

    ~toktomi~

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