Sunday, July 23, 2017

Testify

Rachel Maddow is the only one who gets it.

On last Friday's show, she warned the audience that the Trumpers are going to blame everything on Hillary -- and that they are going to accomplish this trick by way of the Fusion GPS connection. In a previous post, I outlined what I think will happen. Maddow seems to be the only major figure whose thinking resembles mine:
This thing that is about to happen on Wednesday that just got scheduled tonight. This is the thing that I have been saying was coming. This is the thing I’ve been saying was coming from Congressional Republicans and Republicans who want to defend Donald Trump. Sen. Grassley has sent the subpoena tonight to head of Fusion GPS. He has canceled the testimony from Don Jr. and Paul Manafort and instead of hearing from them next week on the collusion issue, the Senate instead, will play host at a big open televised hearing to the big Republican pushback theory that they have been gearing up with, gearing up for on conservative media for a couple of weeks now.

This is the big push back in which they will claim that there is a Russian scandal, but it’s not a Trump/Russia scandal. It’s the Democrats, and the dossier on Trump, that’s the real Russia scandal. That’s from Russia, and the scandal is about Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. We have known this was coming. Now, as of tonight, we know it is arriving on Wednesday morning in the Senate, and the first subpoena has just gone out.
Politicus adds:
The Senate Judiciary Committee is the home base for the Republican defense of Trump on the Russia scandal in the Senate. People should have known that Grassley was going to pull a bait and switch.

Sen. Grassley is dipping into the right wing conspiracy theory pool in a desperate effort to distract from the real Russia scandal. Rachel Maddow smelled a rat here early on. She knew that Grassley was going to abuse his committee’s investigative powers to try and save Trump, and thanks to here people aren’t going to be fooled by the latest look over here gimmick that Republicans are trying to pull.
The pro-Trump trolls have been preparing the way for the testimony of Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS. Hell, they haven't been this active since the election. Pay attention to the trolls: They offer a glimpse of what's about to hit us.

Not long ago, a number of Dems stupidly came under the impression that Simpson's testimony can help them. Good Lord, why don't these people look around and see what's going on? The troll army has filled the internet with a bizarre conspiracy theory in which Evil Hillary took complete control of Simpson and forced him to come up with the Steele dossier, which the Trumpers consider a total fake. (As you know, the right pretends that all of Russiagate hinges on that dossier. It doesn't.) The rightists even say that Simpson was the one who wrangled poor DJT Jr. into that famous meeting in Trump Tower. A preposterous notion, this. Even though the scenario doesn't make one whit of sense, that's their story and they're sticking with it.

(What the right-wingers won't tell you is that Fusion switched sides, and has worked on behalf of Russians hoping to undo the Magnitsky Act.)

Being an irresponsible bastard, I'll take things further than Maddow does. I suspect that the Simpson has been given a script. I think that he is supposed to offer "damning" testimony against Clinton, and that what he has to say will be backstopped by fake documentary evidence, with perhaps a faked recording tossed in. This would be a risky maneuver, but Trump is desperate.

(Remember, during the election, "Guccifer 2.0" offered a massive "hack" of the Clinton Foundation -- a put-up job so hilariously obvious that not even the Infowars crowd would buy it. That episode tells us that we're dealing with people willing to gin up all sorts of "evidence.")

That, in my opinion, is the plan. Of course, my opinion be wrong; there is more than one way to read the tea leaves. But if I am right, this scheme would appear to have hit a big snag: Simpson wants no part of it. Can you blame him? For this operation to work, Simpson would have to give false testimony, and that's a huge risk.

Through his lawyer, Simpson tried to get out of testifying on the grounds that he was going on an overseas vacation. Apparently, it was to be one of those long, long vacations -- the kind of vacay that lasts until the heat is off. So the Committee decided to subpoena him.

From the Washington Times (caution: Right-wing spin ahead):
The co-founder of the Washington-based firm that commissioned the explosive and largely unsubstantiated anti-Trump campaign research dossier will reject a Senate subpoena to testify before Congress next week and invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, according to the heads of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Poor guy. He really, really does not want to testify.
“Glenn Simpson, through his attorney, has declined to voluntarily attend Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing regarding compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” the senators wrote in a statement. “Therefore, a subpoena has been issued to compel his attendance. Simpson’s attorney has asserted that his client will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the subpoena.”
A charge of not complying with FARA is hanging over Simpson. Violating FARA can get you up to five years.

That's the "stick" they will use. In a sense, he'll be given the "Susan McDougal" treatment: He'll face all sorts of legal hell until he agrees to offer false testimony against a Clinton. I predict that he will eventually play ball.

Savor the irony: Nobody is going to charge Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn with FARA non-compliance. They are allowed to register after the fact.

10 comments:

prowlerzee said...

Dammit. I remember the Sundays we got Joan of Arc stories and whatnot. I kept hoping to see the Dirtbags illustrated, in the manner the BernieBros were....something fun like that.

I have not seen the trolls, yet, but I kept seeing this stupid poll showing Hillary as less popular than Donald Trump. Maybe those were "concern trolls." The media is going to comply with this scheme. Rachel's reports won't matter. She's the one allowed to be the gadfly...just as Bernie was, before he decided to run. He was the gadfly allowed to say anything, point out things no one else was saying. The echo chamber always tolerates one gadfly...but the mass of them will be complying with this pivot. And everyone is still in their own bubbles. Even I don't follow what the right believes: thanks for doing our dirty-work for us, Joseph. I was just starting to believe, maybe Joseph is wrong this time, and the pigeons will come home to roost for the Trumps. But why shouldn't they deal the Blame Hillary card? The media will play along, as usual, and it worked for the Bushes (blaming the Dems for "dirty tricks" in revealing truths about Dubya), it can work again.

No one is going to take to the streets. No one is going to disrupt the media, as we should be doing.

Joseph Cannon said...

I do hope I'm wrong on this one. The fact that Maddow saw things in much the same way has me worried. For twenty five years, I've wondered why the Clintons don't do a more aggressive job of defending themselves -- but right now, if Hillary says anything in her own defense, she'll be accused of taking heat away from Trump and making everything about her.

It's a classic no-win scenario.

maz said...

The past week's National Enquirer has as its main cover story the shocking revelation that the Clintons framed Trump on Russia by planting bogus information in her emails. (No, I'm not sure how that is supposed to have worked, either.) Sounds like some pre-emptive positioning in advance of possible new information to come....

Anonymous said...

Why is it everyone accepting the recent poll about Hillary's popularity(or lack off) without challenge. First of it doesn't make sense. Statistics in the last year didn't exactly proven to be the exact science they claim to be. Last year a poll about her popularity with similar result proven to be prejudiced by over 65% Rs in the sample. Those in the sample who were interviewed it seemed to me overwhelming not her supporters from way before her running. So that may signal to me the sampleing wasn't exactly correct. But now with all the campaign going on against her in all fronts I am almost sure that poll was part of it one way or the other.

nemdam said...

OK, now that it's more fleshed out, I see why you think this will be effective. They have prepared this to be the big Trump defense. We will see, but I'm still skeptical (though less so than before I read this post). Trump and his goons step all over their own message all the time, and their counter-narratives are so laughable that they are usually debunked within an hour. This is reminding me of Devin Nunes. I'm sure the Trump camp all thought they were geniuses and bragged to all their buddies for coming up with the "going after the leakers" and "Obama wiretapping!" theory, but it got debunked within like a couple weeks and is now a punchline. Also, I think you are underestimating how difficult it will be to give credible cross-examined testimony about a laughably implausible theory, especially when the Trump camp has blown all its credibility on Russia. There's also the fact that I doubt this Simpson guy is an expert at BSing under oath. This is a tough task to pull off. If this is the plan, I predict he will commit multiple easily verified instances of perjury, and the whole plan will be blown apart.

God damn, after I reread the above, even I don't like how optimistic it sounds. I swear I'm not underestimating Trump and refusing to believe how shitty everything is. But they just suck at messaging. It convinces noone, and the cult doesn't need effective messaging to justify Trump. But I do want to end by repeating that now that I understand how much of the Trump defense is riding on this guy's testimony, it makes me somewhat nervous that this will be more effective than I'm anticipating. Then again, if Scaramucci is indicative of their new messaging strategy, I am worrying to much. We shall see.

nemdam said...

prowlerzee:

I forgot to add in my previous comment that those same polls that show how unpopular Hillary is also show that she would still beat him if the election were held today. Funny how that part of the poll didn't get all the media attention. Goddamn I hate the media.

Anonymous said...

Would it be OK if I cross-posted this article to WriterBeat.com? There is no fee; I’m simply trying to add more content diversity f6or our community and I enjoyed reading your work. I’ll be sure to give you complete credit as the author. If “OK” please let me know via email.

Autumn
AutumnCote@WriterBeat.com

Anonymous said...

Is there an election going on I don't know about? It seems like the attacks on Hillary is going full force. Seriously, what does that woman have or know that scare the shit out of scums and make them rabidly hateful.

Steve said...

OMG...Trump Russia, Russia Russia Trump...this is so very important even if nothing happened that they would even consider taking a meeting to get some dirt on an opponent from a Foreign power...it is unthinkable and should be investigated to the fullest !! Treason! Death to all named Trump!!

Wait a sec...this line of BS would mean what is being said in this video is also very bad...especially when she states "We're holding that in reserve"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9LnhfoyIyM

Just pretend that never happened and move on...nothing to see there because it doesn't fit your "Trump is Evil" and "Hillary was a persecuted angel" narrative.

I don't give a crap who is President or who will be President, etc...never have. I do hate hypocrites though...Big Time !! It is very sad to me that You, Rachel Madcow, Maxine (James Brown Wig) Waters, Fake-Jake Tapper, Dana Bash-Trump, Bull Shitzer, Chuck Re-todd, Chris "Collude" Cuomo, Bull Maher, Van "Nothing-Burger" Jones, Loretta "Devil wears Pravda" Lynch and that Olberman guy are all birds of a feather.

Twist facts and bends rules/laws depending on who you are talking about.

What's up with that?

prowlerzee said...

"Twist facts and bends(sic) rules" ---right. Depending on how many you are talking about. What's up with that indeed.

Anon 12:16, maybe Steve answers your question. Hillary has a vagina, unforgivable!
He who hates hypocrites is one Joseph should give unlimited free rein to, in the name of hilarity.

THANK you nemdam...I had not known that tidbit about that Hillary poll the Bloomberg group was promoting. I hate the media so much as well. Turned it off tonight when Anderson, who should SO stick to morning gossip shows, opined that no one cared about Russia on his loathsome fake news show. That's when I turned his nonnewsshow off and watched an amusing movie instead, based on a true story of a smart troubled dude who misled the FBI for years.