Yesterday's Durham Hearing Was Interesting

 

MAGA wants Durham to be someone he is not and say something he cannot. pic.twitter.com/AJFhrKDf3a

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 22, 2023

There's the rub--at bottom, you can't actually deny the evidence of Russia interfering. What you can do, is ignore the evidence of willingness to accept that interference on behalf of the Trump campaign, but at the risk of seeming out of one's depths--as if it were possible to investigate an investigation and come up knowing nothing about it. Even fash-friendly five-head Matt Gaetz was wondering what Durham had been doing with this time. (ALthough he alleged a "cover-up".)

Or you can make false statements to congress because there are just some things you can't say about Trump and Russia--you know, like it never was a hoax. 

After all, Congressional Republicans just censured Rep. Adam Schiff for just that--telling the truth. And for what it's worth, for all the giddy Republicans who noted that Trump's poll numbers and fundraising could benefit from the indictments against him--how do they think a transparently unfair censure of Rep. Schiff is going to make loyal Democrats react? 

This is where the House GOP is now, Speaker McCarthy barely has a grip on his folks, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert were inches from a catfight over the privilege and pleasure of impeaching President Biden for...something. Eating crackers, I guess. (They also want to expunge Trump's impeachment, but we will always remember the "perfect phone call.")

What's that tv quote going around? These are not "serious people".

Would I Call it Weaponization?

 

Somewhere, deep down, I feel like nothing is ever over with Republicans. Forget Benghazi or tan suits. They are going to get weird and bring up Chappaquiddick or Alger Hiss or Robert Byrd's Klan connections out of the blue.  So what do I think when Jim Jordan thinks maybe he'll target Hillary Clinton with a new investigation?

If Hunter Biden wasn't already done to death, why would the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy turning their lonely eyes to Hillary Clinton again hit any different?  I mean, Kevin McCarthy, the current and obviously temporary Speaker of the House explained out loud where people could hear that the email investigation hurt Clinton intentionally. And current crank James Comer admitted in the same vein that the investigation into President Biden's family members is supposed to help Trump. 

He still hasn't found what he's looking for, of course. The GOP can't keep track of their whistleblowers. To the extent they exist they are being paid by Trump insider Kash Patel who is a witness in the Mar-A-Lago document scandal and the first impeachment over the Ukraine president's being extorted. So that's not obviously sleazy as hell, right? 

But in the funny old round world kind of way, it comes out just now that the Trump DOJ was already investigating the Clintons via the Clinton Foundation, and they had nothing. See, unlike Trump's slush fund that he called a charitable enterprise which had to be shut down, and his kids had to go to mandatory don't run a charity as a slush fund school? The Clinton Foundation has been on the up and up. 

So--see how that seems like weaponization? And the thing where Trump get tried in courts and actually has done stuff is not weaponization? And how Durham had nothing, and most Republicans seem to be kind of distracting from 1/6 or the documents scandal by deflecting and whatabouting to other stuff? 

It's like they want to pretend "both sides" are equally as bad and they really aren't. And I would through very gritted teeth like to suggest the media report it that way, because sometimes, there are not two sides to everything (sorry current CNN management!) but one side is actually very bad, even seditious. And even undermines the very concept of rule of law via extreme partisanship. 

And what I mean by that isn't hard at all to see or hear if you're paying attention. 

I see Stupid People, But They Don't Know They're Stupid

 

Musk doubles down on his claims that there's no evidence the Allen, Texas mall shooter had white supremacist beliefs, and that @bellingcat "does psy-ops" professionally. pic.twitter.com/60yvbbspYZ

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) May 16, 2023

Do the big fucking Nazi tattoos confuse Elon, here? Because to the extent we have a potential motive, it looks like this shithead was fucked up about Asians. Also, Musk wants to pretend his weird Twitter obsession is somehow like Inigo Montoya but I don't think Elon's father got killed by the woke mind virus or he's doing anything especially brave by being a shitposter. An actually shit, shitposter. 

A Tale Told by an Idiot, Full of Sound and Fury, etc.

 

I'm not literally calling John Durham an "idiot", mind you, because I don't think he is. I also think Jake Tapper probably has the capacity to read and think critically, and you know--I can technically use stairs and take the elevator at every opportunity. What I think is that Durham was given an assignment that was distinctively difficult: try to make an investigation into a critical national security issue seem like it was unnecessary and unfair to a particular 2016 Presidential candidate.

And the very best Durham could do was suggest that, although DOJ and the FBI don't need to do anything different, and even though out of three cases he got exactly one conviction (sentence: probation) the bottom line is his opinion is that the FBI could have been a little slower before going into an investigation that was like, probably just great to be a preliminary investigation based on the little they knew from Downer and the Aussies. 

And after all the Mueller investigation convictions and the Senate intelligence report into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the DOJ IG investigation report, I'm going to just laugh and say: "Well, you tried." 

Because that's me, a person who has been paying attention. And I know that for people who were inclined to believe the Russia, Russia, Russia thing was a hoax based on whatever Trump had to say about it are very inclined to take Durham's word that despite the lack of any connecting of dots to support his conclusion that the investigation still seems hinky to him and will fast-forward to that conclusion whether there is any strength to that argument. 

TWGB: What Rats Won't Do But Durham Might

 

So, a funny thing happened in the news that probably only makes sense to old heads who have been doing TrumpWorld for all this time--apparently, the hero that was going to save Trump from the whole Russia, Russia, Russia thing still hasn't found the no good dirty scoundrels who implicated Trump in a counter-intelligence investigation to the whole-ass nemesis people sometimes quite plausibly think Russia is, but along the way he did find Italian officials who said maybe Trump was up to some financial crimes. Because it was a day ending in "y" or something. I dunno. 

Now the TWGB stylesheet having one entire unpaid employee (me) insists I interject the following observation: if it looks bad, it is bad. The baddies who said Trump's campaign was probably likely breached by Russian operatives were George Papadopoulos to Alexander Downer. Don Trump Jr. himself via email telling all and sundry folks boasting they were from the Russian government and were here to help.  Paul Manafort changing the Republican platform re: Ukraine. (Look , that article throws a whole cast of characters around and to ease your minds, hush, you know who worked for Yanukovich and has Maidan blood on his ever-loving ostrich boots, it's Manafort. Shh. Don't get it too twisted.) 

Now, I think it's just great Barr was working with Durham, bustling about Europe, raising questions about why Trump was being treated like Russia targeting him was somehow between anyone else but Russia and the Trump campaign, exactly when the 2019 impeachment thing was happening and we were discussing how Trump was fulfilling Putin's best wishes for Ukraine by denying them military hardware in exchange for Trump being given a better shot at being re-elected. 

It's just great because how stupid is anyone who isn't connecting these dots just yet--Durham will never find the damn dirty folks who implicated Trump in the Russia matter because a lot of what implicates him is him. So what else can we have? Side quests. 

They just don't go anywhere great either.  Frankly, I'd love to know what the Italian government shared about Trump. And why Barr and Durham never followed up on it. Did they bury it, the way Barr tried to bury the Mueller report? So, a special counsel is supposed to be independent, but it looks to me like Durham and Barr were cheek and jowl for a while and they covered up Trump's dirt like cats kicking about in a litter box. 

Now, in whole other news, John Eastman is up for disbarment in California, and has some supporters who are sketch as hell.  Trumpworld is like purgatory for lawyers and where folks are tested and figured out in the balance. I say supporters of Eastman are not honest--their hearts are heavier than the feather of Maat and they must do penance before they see the after-Trump life. But that is just like, my opinion. 

UPDATE: Think about the sanctions/disbarment/suspensions/need for their own lawyers that so often confronts legal professionals who work for Trump. It really seems so not worth it eventually. I would love if more people realized working for Trump will get you gout before it gets you clout. 

Durham Yeet

 

For a little while, there. MAGA had a lot of faith that the Durham investigation was going to lead to some kind of version of the Qanon "storm" where just loads of the Deep State operatives who always had it out for Trump would finally get their asses in serious trouble. The theory, as far as I can understand it, is: there were people in the USG sympathetic to the DNC who engaged in some kind of shenanigans to create a totally FAKE!!! investigation into Trump's completely innocent Russia connections to try and DESTROY HIS PRESIDENCY!

Durham was going to be the guy who uncovered the vicious plot against the one term-twice impeached wonder and suddenly, after a methodical study of all the facts, thoroughly exonerate Trump and his absolutely sterling and not at all dodgy character as not just a 2016 candidate for office but as a human, a father-figure, an aspiring Christian and a chosen leader for a more righteous America, and justify everything he ever did in his four years, forever and ever, we are not owned and turning into corncobs, AMEN!

And that did not happen, because the entire concept is incredibly faulty and not based on any facts in the entire world. So once again, Durham tries to get some kind of conviction, and it does not happen. 

TWGB: Trump the Loser

 

This previously unseen footage shows Congressional leaders—both Republicans and Democrats—as they were taken to a secure location during the January riot.

Everyone involved was actively working to address the violence. All of them did what President Trump refused to do. pic.twitter.com/fcF4zBLGWm

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022

The violence on 1/6/2021 was premeditated, serious, and was addressed by Congressional leadership while they were under siege and working to ensure that the business of state--the confirmation of the legitimate vote, was continued. This leadership included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who indeed tried to get the National Guard of nearby states to respond to the affray. 

(I am pointing this out because people who were actually there later had the stones to imply that she--who would be every bit the target of such a mob, was the one responsible for rejecting the assistance of the National Guard. They knew better and they lied to protect their little gutless loser President.) 

That mob was inspired by Donald J. Trump, who made up his mind before the election that he would just declare victory and lie his ass off about the results. Why? Vanity? Spite? Fear of his house of bottom-dealt cards falling in?

A little bit of all of the above?  This was a man who spent his entire presidency surrounded by scandals of his own making that he dearly wanted to blame others for. Like the Russian collusion mess. The one he seems to be using as an excuse/pretext for his stolen documents problem right now (which is unresolved in that he may still have documents not yet turned over and is being investigated under the Espionage Act).  (Also too, he's already in deep because he seems to gone out of his way to obstruct justice multiple times on this one, so, he knows they are not his docs and he is too dumb and bad to just give the game up.)

I know, right? We're back to "Russia, Russia, Russia"--oh, honey, we have never left. After all, the first impeachment in part was about trying to get Ukraine to investigate whether Ukraine, not Russia, actually interfered in the 2016 election to set things up to look like he was really colluding with Russia, which is pretty rich and barkingly mad on its face given the state of things. And this is the kind of bullshit line of inquiry DOJ's John Durham is, groaningly, doggedly, pursuing to this day.  (It's not going great and it was never going to. It's a conspiracy theory ginned up to pave over the obvious and already documented truth covered by several volumes of a Senate Intelligence committee.) 

Durham Didn't Deliver

 

Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is acquitted of lying to the FBI in the first trial of special counsel John Durham's investigation https://t.co/ddFPzN2GgS

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) May 31, 2022

Every now and then I just stop myself in the middle of whatever I'm doing and ponder that there is a subset of people in this country who genuinely are like: "Why would there be an investigation into the Trump campaign possibly coordinating with Russian intelligence like that was a bad thing or something?" as if, and no, I don't know how this happened, they do not understand that yes, this would be a bad thing.

While the forewoman of the jury has a point that the charges were a waste of time, I guess we did find out one new thing--the Alfa Bank traffic thing is still kind of a puzzle. But what kind of investigation goes on for three years and at best serves up something that feels like "it should be a crime to do opposition research on Trump, for reasons." Like, the real crime here is noticing that something looks bad. And then for fuck's sake talking about it. 

The hilarity I feel is that this is a standard that doesn't seem to exist with anyone else. I keep saying, "it looks bad because it is bad" because Trump defenders seem to have come to the belief that any criticism or claim against Trump (and associates) is automatically partisan or illegitimate. And yet, from George Papadopoulos to Paul Manafort to Mike Flynn, to OMG Don Jr.'s bizarre sit-down at Trump Tower, from Michael Cohen's Trump Tower Moscow dealings to Jeff Sessions' denial of Russian contacts when he had net with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, to Trump's very public "Russia if you're listening..." shenanigans, etc. something was very obviously up with them. 

Screw the Steele dossier (which plays a part in a future Durham production number); in retrospect the worst things we've learned about the Trump crew came from their very own words and actions. What Durham's doing is a distraction to point fingers at the Clinton campaign or the FBI, but it boils down to something that isn't really criminal, just sad:

No fair peeking at Mr. Trump. No fair telling on him! 

The investigation just has the flavor of a burnt offering to satisfy the palate of the toddler Trump, who insists that everything is rigged against him, and everyone is being so unfair, and he deserves a do-over because of all the big meanies who expected him to not be corrupt and stuff and to be held accountable. 

So, of course Trump's defenders now claim the trial was rigged. The jury was predisposed to be against the Trump campaign. So unfair. Because they still don't get it. The Clinton campaign had every right to be critical (it was a political campaign they were trying to win, for crying out loud) of what turned out to be true: it looked bad.

It was.  Nothing changes that.