"The next national election will almost inevitably be viciously (perhaps violently) contested. It is fair to say that the right-wing threat to the United States — and its apparent goal of laying the groundwork for a power grab, if necessary, in 2024 — is politically existential. Yet many Americans seem to be whistling past the graveyard of American democracy. ..
A right-wing minority — including many elected politicians — is now practicing a form of brinkmanship by threatening to unilaterally destroy American democracy, daring what it hopes is a timid and somnolent majority to resist. But that majority has the benefit of warning ahead of 2024." - Jonathan Stevenson and Steven Simon, 'We Need To Think The Unthinkable About Our Country', NY Times
Can we all agree that Holman Jenkins Jr. is perhaps the most productive troll in the Wall Street Journal Op-ed stable of trolls (which includes Dan Henninger, Kimberley Strassel, William McGurn)? The question that remains isn't the magnitude of Holman Jr's assholinity and ignorance, but whether he actually believes the garbage that fills each column he churns out.
Exhibit A in the recent cavalcade of codswallop is his Saturday, Jan. 8 brain rot tripe ('Why The Jan. 6th Big Lie Narrative Will Fail', p. A13) in which he basically mocks all those who have warned of our democracy's demise- despite more than one-third of voters (and 70 % of Republicans) continuing to believe Trump's Big Lie. Which - in case it escaped little Holman's attention - has acquired jet fuel acceleration over the past year with even formerly benign "little grannies" now buying into it. This according to WaPo columnistCarol Leonnig appearing on MSNBC 'Deadline White House' last Friday - noting how she was shocked when a granny in a book club actually asked her about the "rigging of our elections." To say she was gobsmacked is putting it mildly, and yet Holman treats it all basically as a joke, the media - especially -being too immersed in "worry porn". In his words:
In the cavalcade of Jan. 6 remembrances-cum-worry porn, NPR’s “Morning Edition” took the trophy, being the first out of the gate with a lengthy report on experts who outbid each other in predicting Donald Trump’s election “big lie” will lead to a civil war or coup d’état in 2024. This formula you now have seen everywhere, including in the speech of Joe Biden.
And lest we forget, recall I had praised Biden's speech in my post last Friday, e.g.
So I suppose I am among the lot who have succumbed to Jenkins' "worry porn" too. I think not! The warning signs are all there and what Jenkins' Jr. misses (whether intentionally - or because he had one too many MJ candies with his brewskie I am not sure- is that the real coup attempt was not manifested in the actual physical assault, but behind the scenes - as the GOP continues to do, e.g.
'Slow-Motion Insurrection': How GOP Seizes Election Power | Georgia News | US News
The violent physical attack, with the rabble in Trump -MAGA gear, was merely intended to delay the certification of Biden's election long enough for the actual (on paper, "legal") plotters led by Jeffrey Clarke - if he become acting AG- to cast out the Biden electors and insert alternate Trump ones instead. This lot of traitors were then hoping for a 269-269 electoral count tie which would have thrown it to the House of Representatives - where state delegations only would vote. Given Reeps hold the numbers edge in these state delegations Trump would have been handed the victory.(Trump lawyer John Eastman and other allies - like Jeffrey Clarke - had suggested pressuring VP Pence to accept alternate state electors for Trump. All the Reeps in congress had to do for this to work was to ensure majorities in House, Senate objected to the state electors for Biden. We know Eastman had at least seven states in his crosshairs, and fortunately the efforts to invalidate Biden electors - for Arizona and Pennsylvania- failed in the House by a handful of votes. It may not go as well next time. The confusing statute regarding objecting to electors arose after the 1876 disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden.)
Nonetheless, in high ignorant dudgeon with his "worry porn" meme, Jenkins goes on, failing to process the details and differences:
And yet, lo, the anniversary also treated us to journalism that actually examines the subject it purports to examine, rather than executing a previously planned narrative. In a valuable piece of reporting, the New York Times describes how many defendants before judges have expressed regret and embarrassment over their behavior in the Capitol riot.
Adding:
In another valuable piece of reporting, the Post on Thursday dwelled on a crucial and overlooked truth: If the Capitol Police had done their job, we would be having a different conversation today.
In each of these cases, Jenkins Jr. is totally lost at sea, and maybe chooses to be. For example, the rabble -rousing insurrectionists now blubbering are only a fraction of the hard core total (over 750) who actually committed aggressive crimes, including using chemical sprays and flag poles as spikes to strike the officers. Their "regrets" mean nada if all they translate to are regrets for being caught and getting their own just desserts. (And kudos here to the amateur sleuths who used thousands of images and social media responses to ID the brigands). Moreover, the claptrap Holman dumps here says nothing of the newer minds being poisoned by the same Big lie, which will be poised for new attacks in 2024.
This isn't partaking of "worry porn", but rather merely checking out the extremist sites' latest chatter. The mistake a year ago was not taking them seriously - as Jenkins repeats in this latest twaddle- and resulted in inadequate forces arrayed against the insurrectionist MAGA mob. That inadequacy, of course, also included Trump's early orders NOT to have any National Guard ready to help the Capitol police - the better to watch all the fracas unfold on his 55 -inch widescreen TV - which had the maggot mesmerized for hours. To see the full details of how the actual insurrection -coup would have unfolded check out:
Transcript: The Rachel Maddow Show, 12/21/21 (msnbc.com)
Hence, Jenkins' piling onto the D.C. cops for "not doing their job" is pure, outrageous horse shit to cover for Trump's behavior, i.e. in failing to give the National Guard orders for support so he could be entertained by the assault by his MAGA mutts on FOX. Is Holman ashamed? Why would he be, given he's totally in Trump's barnyard of slobbering sycophant hacks, hogs and trolls.
To get an education on the power of lies and its relation to the destruction of democracy and democratic ideals, Jenkins needs to read William Davies' book: 'Nervous States: Democracy And The Decline Of Reason'. Because the precise reason his arguments fail is he takes no account of the mammoth power that manipulation of reality - via lies - and of the "dramatic implication it has for the status of knowledge and emotion in society." (p. 125) In the words of Davies (ibid.):
"The most serious threat is not that we lose any respect for truth as such, but that truth becomes a political issue which heightens disagreement and the potential for conflict"
Adding that this may be "exactly what Russian defense strategies are seeking".
Jenkins Jr. then is unable to see that Trump has effectively weaponized language to divide the nation and is the primary ongoing engine for "the mob to quickly spiral into a desire for and celebration of conflict - as a means of collective invigoration and purification."
All of this accounts for the right’s descent into this abyss and GOP complicity with it.
It can't possibly just end in 2024, or this year, or any other year because never will Trump voters' "rage subside" - given any new emission of lies from Trump will have the same exact effect, i.e. of energizing his MAGA mob into renewed celebration of conflict and acts of terror. This is the way weaponization of language via lies works, but Holman doesn't grasp it - perhaps because he himself engages in it. The only way it ends is if the lies end, and the only way that happens - so far as any rational person can see - is if Trump is no longer around to spew them. Unfazed by reason thus far, Holman goes on:
Unvoiced for obvious reasons is the most comforting Jan. 6 reflection of all: The Trump election big lie is likely to fail and dwindle in relevance for the same reason the collusion big lie failed. The latter was not some outsider phenomenon, pushed by people without connection or influence. It was embraced by the establishment and mainstream media, encouraged by leaders of Congress and the executive branch, directly instigated by the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, the protégée of the then-sitting president—so much so that a CIA chief felt obliged to rush over to the Obama White House and report that the Russians were aware of Hillary Clinton’s plan to paint Mr. Trump as a Russian agent.
This is obviously histrionic horse manure, as anyone with a grain of historical sense and recollection knows. It was indeed clear from the get go Trump was a Russian agent. a "Manchurian candidate" if you will. What was illegal was the Trump campaign team holding more than 100 meetings - that we now know of - with Russians, including GRU intelligence agents. Specifically in "Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration," The NY Times tracked down "more than 100 in-person meetings, phone calls, text messages, emails and private messages on Twitter," all made by "at least 17 campaign officials and advisers [who] had contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries."
Further, foreign intercepts of meetings of Trump cronies, e.g. Carter Page, with Russian (GRU) agents meant that the U.S. FBI had to enter the picture with its own unmasking, FISA warrants, surveillance, etc. Not to do so would have violated agreements with foreign intel sources, assets, and would have amounted to dereliction of duty. Hence, there was no evil conspiracy by Hillary, Christopher Steele, Obama, the FBI, or anyone else but the Trump cabal. It exists only in Holman Jenkins Jr's febrile brain. Or perhaps in his fervid, MJ-laced dreams?
Then there are Robert Mueller's GRU indictments [Read the indictment here.] with this partial preface:
"On or about July 27, 2016, the conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts on a domain hosted by a third party provider and used by Clinton's personal office. They also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton campaign. '
Most interesting, this happened on the very same day Traitor Trump appeared in front of the media cameras and pleaded with Russia to hack Hillary's emails, e.g.
"I will tell you this, Russia if you're listening, I hope that you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. You will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens."
This traitor openly betting that if he made the plea in full public view no one would take it as a serious admission of Russian collusion. Who could be that insane? Not realizing a psychotic and sociopath would! Well a lot of people have, except of course his defenders like Jenkins Jr. For all these reasons, Holman's next paragraph emerges as total twaddle:
And nonetheless the big lie was an ignominious flop despite millions of Americans continuing to believe it. It didn’t stop Mr. Trump from being elected, taking office or serving out his term. Tens of millions of voters were willing to disbelieve the media. ... In adherence to their job descriptions and personal integrity, establishment figures like Robert Mueller, Michael Horowitz and John Durham were willing to supply evidence against the collusion narrative.
Of course, what Holman calls the 'big lie' here (the Mueller investigation, Trump's guilt etc.) was surely not a "big flop". Indeed, his very analogy of the Mueller investigation and Trump's Russian collusion with the 'Big Lie' concerning the 2020 election is not only vile, but an abomination. Mueller put all the collusion evidence together in Vol. I of his report. See also: Of Course There’s Evidence Trump Colluded with Russian Intelligence - Lawfare (lawfareblog.com))
For more on those connections and even the methods used and conspiracy to toss the election to Trump, read the Senate Intelligence Committee report final volume, entitled :
“Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities,”
It was Trump-named AG Bill Barr who muddied Mueller's Report findings with his own B.S. spin back in early 2019 e.g.
As for Michael Horowitz, Holman forgets or ignores (my post of Dec. 10, 2019) : The 434-page report issued by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded the FBI had an “authorized purpose” when it initiated its investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, into the Trump campaign. In doing so, Horowitz implicitly rejected GOP assertions that the case was launched out of political animus, or that the FBI broke its own rules on using informants.
As for John Durham, we know his investigation into the investigators was bogus, e.g.
Further it was Trump in cahoots with his toady Barr who concocted the phony Durham probe - to get back at the investigators - who had every right to probe him, see e.g.
The Durham Indictment Fuels the Real Russia Hoax – Mother Jones
But does any of this faze Jenkins? How could it, buried as he is in his lies and historical-verbal manipulations? I.e. spouting even more balderdash next:
The American experiment remains sturdier than we may realize...
Those Jan. 6 rioters hauled up before judges have belatedly discovered the wisdom of adopting a critical mindset toward their news sources. Also worth remembering is the iron principle that the partisan version of everything is almost always a lie.
This is clever parlance for people, usually the gullible, to ignore the ten thousand a month lies spewed by FOX - especially Tucker Carlson - whether on Covid, the vaccines, the economy (inflation), Orban's Hungary or any other poppycock he can come up with. As for the American experiment "remaining sturdier than ever" the work of Barbara Walter shows it is not. From her analysis of the Trump years, by the end of his presidency, the U.S. score on the democracy scale had fallen to a 5, making the country a partial democracy for the first time since 1800.
According to Walter from her text:
“We are no longer the world’s oldest continuous democracy. That honor is now held by Switzerland, followed by New Zealand, and then Canada.”
Our democracy - despite Jenkins' ignorance - is on a knife edge between a marginal democracy and autocracy. Indeed, as Barton Gelman points out: 'Trump's Next Coup Has Already Begun'. E.g.
How Donald Trump Could Subvert the 2024 Election - The Atlantic
But is Jenkins Jr. bothered? No way, as we see him going on to bloviate:
Worry porn, among its many self-deceiving tricks, telescopes time in order to ignore its healing effect. Thus a New York Times editorial last week revealingly insisted (and pleaded), “Jan. 6 is not in the past. It is every day.”...... and points to perhaps the biggest Jan. 6 worry-porn fallacy—the assumption that a few hundred of the worst Capitol Hill rioters are representative of 75 million Trump voters.
This is also glib bollocks. What Jenkins Jr. is missing is that to the extent those 75 million Trump voters (even a solid majority) accept the 'Big Lie' they are representative of the hundreds of lawless renegades that assaulted the Capitol. This goes back to William Davies' arguments (see above) on how the manipulation of reality (via Trump lies) triggers emotional upheaval and mob behavior out of all proportion to the stimulus. So long as Trump lives and has the potential to lie to the nation and especially to his MAGA mob this will be the case. And the sooner little Holman absorbs it and stops pumping out his codswallop columns defending Trump, Trumpers, and glossing over the insurrection - the better. As Barbara Walter writes in her book, “How Civil Wars Start," :
"We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe. No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war. But if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America — the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or the Ivory Coast or Venezuela — you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory."
Asswit and troll Holman Jenkins Jr. needs to read it.
See Also:
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And:
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And:
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by Amanda Marcotte | January 11, 2022 - 8:34am | permalink
And:
by Arnold R. Isaacs | January 10, 2022 - 7:11am | permalink
And:
by Roger Bybee | January 13, 2022 - 6:55am | permalink
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