I’ve been working on this for the last two days. Actually, I’ve been working on and off on this for months, but this last compilation is new. Short version: this Mueller obstruction began long, long before the Mueller investigation began on May 17 of last year, it’s far more invasive and persistent than we may be aware, and Trump is at the very center of it.
Here’s the relevant links:
Russia’s Election Manipulation (with a lot of post-sabotage content; this page needs to be subdivided)
Media’s Investigative Attempts
The first one is the one I want to focus on for now. It’s a timeline drawn from the larger timelines that shows the progression of the GOP/right-wing bullshit machine attempts to undermine, derail, and ultimately destroy the Mueller investigation. Those efforts actually began as far back as February 2017, and arguably Trump was laying the groundwork for it during the campaign itself.
I didn’t include a ton of links in the body of this diary; that’s what the above links are for. Start with the first one. Here’s a screenshot of part of that first link, the Untwisting/Undermine page. Every blue box contains a link to more content.
Every blue box contains a “snippet” of content and a link to a larger entry with the same title. It’s pretty simple to use, I believe, as long as you have a decent browser and JavaScript enabled. (The site is not in a CMS, so a lot of nifty and useful features and functions aren’t in this site. I don’t know how to code in Drupal or Wordpress, so I can’t write a site in that.)
Warning: none of these pages are complete. After an enormous amount of time sitting at this computer, I’ve gotten the Russia Manipulation page up to December 26, and the Untwisting/Undermine page is only up to August 31. But with the fucking Nunes memo coming out as early as tomorrow, I wanted to share this now.
What Do These Pages Demonstrate?
Several things. First, the effort to discredit, disrupt, derail, undermine, and generally fuck up the Trump-Russia investigation has been in play since weeks after the inauguration — and as I noted above, you can make the argument that Trump began trying to chum the waters with propaganda during the campaign. It’s been an ongoing concern, and with a few lapses, has been a near-daily thing. One thing the GOP and their cohorts/fellow travelers/lackeys in the right-wing bullshit machine know is how to propaganda.
Second, the tropes have been in a constant state of testing and development since the outset. Think of the media, and its consumers (all of us) as a big focus group. The Trump-GOP-RWM noise machine tosses something out — the idea that investigating the Trump-Russia allegations is “McCarthyism,” accusing Obama and Clinton of collaborating with the Russians (or the Ukrainians, or the Romulans, or whoever), attacking senior members of the FBI, what have you — and then they judge the reaction. Remember, they don’t fucking care what we think. They know we’re going to raise hell about everything they allege. They are watching their base — what gets them up and screaming, what keeps them lolling in their Barcaloungers — and they are watching the mainstream media. Did the spew successfully squirt from Fox News, Breitbart or the Daily Caller into the pages of the New York Times or Politico or whatever? Why do you think we’re hearing 24/7 attacks on the FBI/DOJ, the dossier, and the “deep state’s” surveillance machine? It’s what tested well, and it’s something they can keep ginning up with the likes of Devin Nunes and Charles Grassley at their beck and call.
Third, Donald Trump is driving this bus far more than we might want to acknowledge. Yes, Trump is a barely functioning idiot for most intents and purposes. We’d have a better leader in the Oval Office if we put a spider monkey, or a spider plant, behind the Resolute Desk. But Trump knows how to manipulate the media. He can sense an opponent’s weakness and unerringly go for it, like the sorry excuse for a “boyfriend” who knows he can manipulate his girl by mocking her weight. He’s not smart, but he is cunning. When you visit the Untwisting/Undermine page, notice how many times the various avenues of attack start with Trump — usually with a Twitter blast, sometimes in remarks to the press, but almost always with Twitter. As noted above, Trump is chumming the waters with his Twitter finger, tossing out smelly shit and seeing what gets a “hit.”
Fourth, this is being coordinated. Look at the dates of the propaganda blasts and coordinate them with other, related events. What was happening around February 26, when Nunes called the idea of investigating the Trump-Russia connection “McCarthyism”? The White House was fending off questions about officials’ contacts with the Russians, and behind the scenes, Trump was cajoling Comey to pledge his loyalty and stop bothering that nice Mr. Flynn. March 3 and 4: Trump accuses Chuck Schumer of colluding with the Russians, and accuses Obama of wiretapping him. On March 2, counterintelligence officials got a classified report indicating that Russia’s onslaught against our democracy is not only far more invasive than previously thought, but is still going on. Think that might leak? Better get the media goggling at the big shiny Obama wiretapping accusation first. Oh yeah, and the media learned that Sessions lied about his meetings with Kislyak, and Sessions recused himself from overseeing the FBI’s investigation (and later Mueller's). May 17: Mueller is appointed Special Counsel. The media is, of course, agog. Trump retaliates a day later with claims that the Mueller investigation is going to “hurt” the US “terribly.” What’s a president supposed to do when under investigation? Let me channel my Toby Ziegler: “I welcome the opportunity to have all the evidence presented in a full, fair and impartial manner, and am confident that once the investigation runs its course, I and my colleagues will be completely exonerated.” Not Trump. Why not? Because the media, and the base, would take that as a sign of weakness. No, no, it’s attack and counterattack 24/7/365. Oh yeah, and Wilbur “I Don’t Have a Fortune Stashed in a Cypriot Bank, So Stop Saying That” Ross chimed in to call the investigation a “sideshow” based on “innuendo.” Heard those terms since then? One more — and believe me, I’m just picking these pretty much at random — June 26, Trump accuses Obama of colluding with Russia, and accuses the Mueller investigation of being owned and operated by Clinton Inc. (That’s become a chart topper.) What was going on at that time? Kushner got caught lying on his security form, and Manafort tried to go under the radar to retroactively register as a foreign agent. What they’re doing ain’t rocket science, but it requires some diligence and persistence.
So What’s a Poor American To Do?
First off, don’t panic. The facts and the history of American democracy are on our side — though that’s not enough to win against the tsunami of autocracy coming from the White House and its pet propaganda machine. Second, use the facts against them any way you can. They want to overrun social media with their bots (or the ones Putin’s using on their behalf) and their trained, paid gaggle of trolls? Push back hard and frequently. Rather write letters to the editor? Warm up that typewriter. Rather organize — GOTV, resistance efforts, marches, what have you? Fuck yeah! But whatever you do, use the facts to fuel and inform your resistance and pushback. Don’t just say “Trump is a fucking dictator who wants to wipe his ass with the Constitution and turn our democracy into a totalitarian oligarchy” (he does, of course), but say it and prove it with facts. Frank Vyan Walton’s work on DK is a treasure trove of information. Mark Sumner writes insanely valuable pieces every day. So do ericlewis0, ursulafaw, and so many others. Read their work. Click the links. Become informed. Use that information.
Facts defeat propaganda every time, if used effectively and given enough time. Use ‘em.
#RESIST
And finally, crank this up.