Avenatti

When I first read about the Avenatti arrest for domestic violence, my reaction was "Good." While I initially approved of the guy's punchy style, his proposed presidential bid annoyed me, just as it annoyed many other Dems. In 2015, many Republicans were similarly annoyed by Donald Trump, and that precedent is haunting. We don't need any more hyper-macho blowhard populists who lack political experience.

I can't blame anyone for feeling antipathy toward Avenatti. Yet this antipathy may blind us to the strong indicators of political skullduggery. The smell of fish pervades the air.

The story broke on TMZ, a very Trumpy gossip site -- a National Enquirer for the under-60 set. The original story said that Avenatti had hit and bruised his estranged wife. She denied the claim and said that Avenatti had never hit a woman in his life (to her knowledge). His first wife also came to his defense.

So who is the alleged victim? At this writing, no-one knows. We were promised photographic evidence, but so far, it is not online. Nor are we told the nature of the injury.

Avenatti was arrested on suspicion but not charged -- a fact which strongly hints that the accusation is iffy. He has denied striking anyone. Say what you will about the guy: He's not stupid. He knows he can't get away with denying an act that provably happened.

Recent Avenatti tweets:

First Mueller and now me. When we are fully exonerated I am coming for you Jacob Wohl aka Surefire.

There is a lot of inaccurate reporting out there. For example, (1) I have NOT been charged with anything, let alone a felony; (2) Lisa wasn't even with me Tues; etc. Numerous other "facts" being reported are completely bogus. Why is TMZ's news "standard" the new standard?

Is this whole thing an op? The fact that this controversy erupted so rapidly after the abortive Mueller "hit" is more than a little suspicious. Just as suspicious is the fact that the right went into immediate combat mode -- trolls, bots, cartoons, memes, the works. When a genuine surprise occurs, the right-wing siege machine usually needs a day or so to wheel into place.

There are women in this country -- and puh-lease do not insult my intelligence by pretending otherwise -- who will happily sport a shiner for a cool million. Maybe $100k. Maybe less than that. (It's like that old joke sometimes ascribed to Bernard Shaw: "We've already established what kind of woman you are, madam. Now we are discussing price.") We know from the Mueller "hit" that the smear merchants thought that $20k should suffice. The Mueller op went south only because the dirty tricksters played it cheap.

We don't know how convincing the photo evidence truly is. Remember when Roger Stone claimed to be a victim of "polonium poisoning"? He also had photos. Do not underestimate the shamelessness of this crowd.

I have seen no evidence, yet, that Wohl has any connection to the Avenatti imbroglio. However, this background briefing on Wohl will prove very enlightening.

Let's leave the Avenatti case to one side for the moment. Speaking generally, it is clear that right-wing activists love the idea of weaponizing feminist neo-puritanism against Democrats. For the right, it's like shooting tin cans on a fence: Plink plink plink, down they go, one by one. Gales of laughter with every plink. The first plink hits a genuine bad guy (Weinstein), and that plink is used to justify the rest: Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, Robert DeNiro, Ryan Lizza, Keith Ellison, Eric Schneiderman, etc. (Keith Olbermann? There are rumors.)

Whenever one points out the problems besetting any of these claims, some idiot will inevitably say: "What about Weinstein?" Weinstein was real; therefore, all such allegations are real. So runs the logic.

A similar problem occurs whenever one tries to discuss Bill Clinton. How many times have you run into people who argue that the Monica Lewenski affair proves that Juanita Broaddrick must be telling the truth? And never mind the fact that Broaddrick's story was so full of holes that neither Ken Starr nor the National Enquirer would touch it.

(Broaddrick supported Kavanaugh. Apparently, only Democrats rape -- or such was the impression I got from her Twitter feed.)

Weaponized feminism will continue to destroy male Democrats until liberals wake up and realize that not all women are truth-tellers and not all men are Penismonsters. Most guys are, in fact, pretty decent. So are most women -- but not all. Corruption comes in all colors and genders. So does rationalization.

If you still think that females never lie, consider: James O'Keefe could not have smeared ACORN without the aide of an actress pretending to be a whore. Then again, was it really a pretense? What word should I use to describe the Franken accusers?

("Cannon, are you ever going to get over the Franken thing?" No.)

Mueller. Trump claims that he knows everything going on the Mueller investigation. We know that the Trumpers have spent much of the previous years searching for inside information. The appointment of Whitaker means that Mueller now has fewer secrets. Perhaps no secrets.

My personal belief is that Mueller has less on Trump than we would like. The cronies have only pretended to cooperate; Trump will pardon his way out of his troubles. The Manafort delay suggests that Mueller is waiting to see if information from Cohen and Gates will finally force Paulie to turn stoolie, as promised.