Look, I think a blind man can see what’s happening. The Mueller Report will be heavily redacted. It will show some things about the Russians hacking our systems to favor Donald Trump, but there is no way that Attorney General William Barr will make his new boss look terribly bad when this report finally comes out in the form that he wants. We. Know. This. Most of the United States knows this. This is one of the reasons why Trump’s approval ratings still suck. It’s all a big cover up, and a color-coded one at that. It’s not like Barr hasn’t done this before. And even before that… He’s a Republican fixer, folks. That’s why he doesn’t care about his reputation. Not giving a damn what the public thinks IS his reputation.
This is reminiscent of Rosemary Woods’ 18 ½ minute gap in the Nixon tapes. For those who don’t remember (or are to young to know) Rosemary Woods was President Nixon’s secretary. During the Watergate investigation, it was discovered that the entire White House was bugged. Upon learning this, Congress demanded the tapes. Nixon said no and fought over this as hard as Trump is fighting over his tax returns. When Richard Nixon was finally forced by the Supreme Court to hand over the tapes to Congress, there was a massive 18 ½ minute blank spot. When queried about how this happened, this was the explanation to congressional investigators.
Woods testified that when she accidentally pushed record on the dictaphone, it recorded over part of the original conversation. There’s a famous photo of Woods re-creating the moment, in which Woods attempted to keep her foot on the dictaphone pedal and reach for the phone on the other side of her desk at the same time. Some have jokingly referred to it as the “Rose Mary Stretch.”
“The Watergate tapes' infamous 18.5-minute gap and Nixon's secretary's unusual explanation for it” By ALISON LYNN and LAUREN EFFRON Jun 14, 2017 ABC News
Somehow, in this position, she accidentally erased that 18 ½ minutes.
In other words, this was a massive cover up. There is no other way to explain it. Even though Rosemary Woods was not convicted of anything, this move was one of the incidents that sealed Nixon’s fate.
What do we do? Keep the pressure up. Do not give up now.
This is a marathon and not a sprint. The less they reveal, the worse it gets for them, but we need to get on our reps and candidates to keep the fire burning.
If it looks like a cover up and smells like a cover up, it is a cover up. And it’s not the only one.
Take a look at FiveThirtyEight to see how well the last attempt at a cover up went. Trump’s numbers have barely moved. He has not received any kind of bump from the very kind assessment that Barr said that he didn’t make when the four-page summary of the report came out weeks ago. This next release will let out some stuff that Trump did wrong, but I don’t believe that they will put out anything that will push the president over the edge. If it’s a total whitewash, the cover up story will take hold more easily than we think.
Meanwhile, you might want to take a look at what some folks are saying about the economy. Some are predicting a recession as early as this year, some next. A few are saying 2021, but some of the signs will be there. Meanwhile, Trump will still be spinning whatever he can, starting to truly resemble Hitler and Goebbels in the bunker. He is begging the Fed to reduce rates. Why reduce rates in the “greatest economy of all time”? Because, it’s not. This might be a setup so he can attack the Fed when the economy slips. Who knows? It’s Trump after all.
When the economy tanks (and that is not an if, we’re heading in that direction), the rats will start to abandon ship. Who knows? Trump might be the first one. That is his history. Only, in this case, he might not have junk bonds to cushion the blow.
Look, I realize that you all want him impeached. I do, too. However, until the Republicans in the Senate unclench, we might get only so far as impeachment with no conviction. Impeachment without conviction is like always going for the home run ball. You will get a fair number of strikeouts before you clock a big one. You could end up like Babe Ruth, but you most likely will end up like Steve Balboni. Speaker Pelosi is most likely correct on this one. “It’s just not worth it.” Unless…
There is a little-known proviso called 26 Section U.S.C. 6103. It is a whistle blower law that might allow someone to get those returns to Congress as said whistle blower. Details here.
We will get there. We just need to keep our heads down and keeping punching forward. Leading with our chins (and our hearts) just gets us clocked. Also, 2020 is not that far away.
The struggle continues...