Thursday, March 28, 2019

A Cure for the Mueller Hangover

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Robert Mueller: Into the Swamp by Nancy Ohanian

by Skip Kaltenheuser

If you haven’t seen it, the long version of Matt Taibbi’s critique of journalism over Russia-gate, LOADED with supportive sub-links, is worth your time as an exercise in grappling with media herd instinct and the folly of putting our grand papers of record at the head of the herd. It’s also a great contemplation of the journalistic ethics and cautions that have been cut adrift, the sort the Columbia Journalism Review and journalism schools across the country might take note of. Matt Taibbi: It’s Official – Russiagate is This Generation’s WMD.

For this slow reader, it was worth hanging-in, as it’s much more richly detailed than this still worthwhile summation Taibbi recently published in Rolling Stone. The one encouraging item is that the median age for CNN viewers is 60 and the median for MSNBC is 65, so I feel more youthful just for not having cable.

Coming after his piece on unaccountable media that enabled the WMD con that waltzed us into invading Iraq, I think Taibbi ought to earn a Pulitzer or some such for media criticism.

If you didn’t catch the Democracy Now! debate between Glenn Greenwald and David Cay Johnston, it’s also sobering. It does come with the guilty pleasure of sideswiping MSNBC and Rachel Maddow who’ve used their hot pursuits of Russia collusion to challenge FOX in taking up the task of proving Orwell’s enduring wisdom on propaganda.

I’m now bracing under forty lashes administered by this Intercept podcast which includes Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, Taibbi and Naomi Klein, a good wrap-up perspective with a transcript option, if the unseen voices of a Beckett play are unsettling.

I’ve certainly had my fun with Trump, such as Inauguration Day Weather Forecast: 54 Degrees, Cloudy, Light Wind, Chance of Golden Showers. But like many who’ve dipped into journalism, I know the comforts of having it both ways, so I also took such occasions to work in skepticism over the Russian election collusion narrative. I’ve always been of the mindset that even if true, I didn’t care what snake hands me an apple off the Tree of Knowledge as long as it gives me the straight poop. Other than interesting intrigues, I don’t much care if truth comes via a hack or a walkaway thumb drive. After all, which more greatly damaged our Eden’s already fractured democracy, the DNC’s anti-democratic thumb on the scales during the 2016 presidential primaries, or providing the public with proof confirming the weight of the thumb? I’m picking door number one. If media had been doing its job, no such choice need apply. Instead we were left to wonder at mainstream media’s devotion to the Divine Right of Queens, and if it went so far as to grease the skids for the ratings-meister who was conveniently also the opponent Hillary most desired.

If something later comes along regarding explorations I’ve long thought had greater potential, such as if there were violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or, as Howie has often underscored, potential money laundering via real estate portals and other foreign players, etc…, then great, to the ramparts. But should they occur, most enlightenments would be better left to the remedy of elections, not coveting President Mike “End of Days” Pence.

American Gothic Revisited 2 by Nancy Ohanian


Meanwhile, I hope the Democrats can now fully focus on explaining the dangers of galloping venality in this godforsaken presidency, of which Howie has supplied a cornucopia. Topping the list is the risk that the financial sector is again exposing the country to after those trusted with oversight again willfully take their eyes off the ball. Catch up on that queasy feeling by perusing the topics at Wall Street on Parade, I’m pleased to note that after a brief absence that site has fired up again. It is not a cure for insomnia.

Revolving Door by Nancy Ohanian


After the invasion of Iraq, the current drumbeat on Iran by the usual suspects and the weird alliances with Saudi Arabia (which 60 Minutes alleged uses Israeli spy technology to monitor dissidents like murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi), I’ve always thought Israel’s and Saudi Arabia’s influence more of a fright than Russia’s. But we’ll not likely see either party’s leadership seriously push investigations of those actors. The bipartisan piling on Rep. IIhan Omar at the AIPAC conference was as disgusting and as disheartening a political spectacle as I’ve ever seen. Stop it. Apart from the injustice of it, it looked like a parade of frightened fools.

Who Murdered Jamal Khashoggi? by Nancy Ohanian


By the way, last Friday there was a uniquely contrarian conference, on the Israeli lobby’s influence on American policy, for which video and audio are now available, with transcripts coming along. Which is a great thing, because you won’t hear a peep out of mainstream media. I scribbled on it here. Take a breath and consider that in adjusted dollars we’ve spent far more on foreign aid to Israel than we spent under the Marshall Plan rebuilding Europe after WWII . Now tell me it’s not all about Benjamins flowing freely.

Beyond her undeniable cat-wrangling skills, one of the big selling points for Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker was her fundraising ability with big donors. For me her fundraising prowess was a red flag about whom she might be quietly mortgaging worthy Democratic Party values to, from Big Money to Big Tech to those looking to gloss over America’s soul-numbing complicity in the plight of the Palestinians. And what can one say about Chuck Schumer, Wall Street’s Manchurian Senator? For too many Democratic politicians, and for those in the growing military-industrial-fundraising-consulting complex that enables them, Russia was a great distraction from attending to issues on which those politicians and enablers are as for-sale as Trump. Trump is not Washington’s only distraction artist.

The silver lining is that maybe Russia’s creaky ship and the poisoner/kleptocrat at its helm will now stop sucking the air out of the room. That will enable Bernie and the like-minded to better spotlight their critical issues and keep coaxing the party to sail on better currents. And as important, they can now step out of the background noise to make their case to the independent voters they will have to win over to succeed at the ballot box. That goes hand in hand with beating back America’s worst impulses as embodied by Trump and the Republicans, now busy about the game of whittling down health care and all aspects of government that diminish inequality and the wealth gap. Highlighting the contrast has always been the best route to take Trumpster to the dumpster. It’s the cure for the Mueller hangover.

So bon voyage, Russia, and for now, good riddance.

King of Diamonds by Nancy Ohanian

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2 Comments:

At 6:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Where was this kind of critical coverage when it might have done some good? Every bit of it was buried so deep by the big shots that it wasn't likely that most people even knew there was an alternative explanation to Trump's odd behaviors. The democraps fell for the BS hard, because they are too damn lazy to have the slightest understanding of Republicans and the media they dominate. They want their positions handed to them, but won't follow the program unless there is a large check attached.

Just remember this when the system collapses for the last time and the dictator takes over.

 
At 9:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your media critique isn't new. But it is being held incognito by the big money media corporations for obvious reasons.

Taibbi won't win a Pulitzer. If he were even considered a candidate by those who award it, he would have won it years ago in his coverage from 9/11 on.

"Beyond her undeniable cat-wrangling skills, one of the big selling points for Rep. Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker was her fundraising ability with big donors. For me her fundraising prowess was a red flag about whom she might be quietly mortgaging worthy Democratic Party values to..."

I would dispute your declarative about her "skills". I believe she only wrangles the cats because she holds all their food. But your conclusion is both trivial and 30-odd years too late. Once her ambition to wield the gavel flowered, her interest in governance, nation, constitution et al (everything included) became historical footnotes. She's been seeking power for its own sake and nothing else no matter the consequences to people, institutions and the constitution (and you can equate power and money for they are the two sides of a single coin in this shithole).

"And what can one say about Chuck Schumer, Wall Street’s Manchurian Senator? For too many Democratic politicians, and for those in the growing military-industrial-fundraising-consulting complex that enables them, Russia was a great distraction from attending to issues on which those politicians and enablers are as for-sale as Trump."

Yes, they are all for sale and have been since the DLC was formed for that very purpose. However as of 2014, scummer has been irrelevant in the senate except as a whore for future favors to his money constituencies (and Israel). His contribution since becoming the minority "leader" has been to recruit shit, refuse to support good people and generally suppress the electorate on the left with horrid candidates. He'll start ACTIVELY ratfucking the nation as soon as the democraps get 75 in the senate, should the Nazi electorate all fall victim to a flu pandemic or something. Fewer than that and there will be no filibuster the 'craps cannot succumb to.

"Meanwhile, I hope the Democrats can now fully focus on..."

A waste of your hopes. The democraps have been fully focused on serving their donors while putting on some act that they hope will flummox their voters since the formation of the DLC in the early '80s.

Thanks to H. Ross Perot, bill Clinton and the corrupt PARTY was able to serve wall street and enable them to cause the 2008 crash (and get about $18 trillion in toilet paper guaranteed by the Fed -- their cut from the democraps).
Thanks to cheney-stink, we got obamanation (and the corrupt PARTY) who repaid wall street again by making sure nobody went to prison for the $21 trillion in fraud plus a few other things, like the Wells Fargo fake account creation scandal. He also repaid... maybe the CMIC? by refusing to enforce existing torture laws. Among lots of examples.

So... here you've done it again. The PARTY is irretrievably corrupt and feckless. Only its fundamental cowardice has tempered its reflex to serve the money. But serve the money it still has done... faithfully... with perfect fidelity. And that is never going to change.

So, mr. Skip, I implore you once again to be open to the only logical epiphany that is available to you... and start seeking a different vehicle for sociopolitical change. The one you're riding in is a dead and rusty shell on the roadside. If nothing else, hold out your thumb... maybe someone will pull over and offer you a ride.

You ain't goin' nowhere in that heap.

 

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