Thank you Joe Biden, for doing the right thing and pardoning your son, Hunter. There’s a lot to say about that – and I hope to have it ready for tomorrow.
Fever Dreams
Watch out!!! History is being re-written, “whitewashed”, before your very eyes!! On NBC’s Meet the Press this past Sunday, MAGA-Republican Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee made these “matters of fact” points.
- The 2016 investigation of Russian involvement with the Trump Campaign was not only “fake”, but a collusion of the FBI leadership with the Democratic Party.
- In 2020, the FBI “colluded” with Social Media companies to hide the “true evidence” on the Hunter Biden laptop.
- That “collusion” was the reason that Joe Biden was elected President.
That a MAGA-Republican representative would say that on national television isn’t really shocking. What is shocking is that the Meet the Press moderator, Kristin Welker, allowed all of those “facts” to be posited without objection.
These Steve Bannon “fever-dreams”, will be used to justify appointing a wholly unqualified Kash Patel as the new director of the FBI. (That is, after current Trump Appointee Chris Wray is forced to resign or is fired). Patel, like Bobby Kennedy at Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth at Defense, and Tulsi Gabbard as National Intelligence Director; all are part of Trump’s cabinet picks, chosen for their loyalty to the United States, the Constitution, and most importantly – Donald Trump.
Revisions
Here are some “real” facts:
- The Mueller Report found 140 contacts between the 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia and Wikileaks (the group that leaked the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s emails).
- This guy – a near-blind computer technician wearing a “tam-o-shanter”, is the “direct evidence” behind the Hunter laptop. Tough to believe then, or now.
- There is no evidence, other than MAGA frustration, that the Hunter Biden laptop (or Hunter’s nude lap for that matter, displayed to the world by MAGA-Republican Congressman Greene) would have changed the 2020 election results – anymore than the Access Hollywood video altered the 2016 results.
But we are going to hear a lot more “revisionist” history in the next four years; so get ready. Here’s a list of events that will be whitewashed, and how the new MAGA-Republican Administration will insist they be seen.
Insurrection
There was no Insurrection. There was a peaceful protest at the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021, where a few folks got out of control. If the Capitol Police had simply let them all in, the “peaceful protestors” would have voiced their opinions, and left the Capitol undamaged. Therefore, all of those imprisoned for offenses on January 6th should be released (and pardoned), and those “Democrat” prosecutors who brought charges against them now should be the prosecuted. And besides, it was Nancy Pelosi’s fault.
Pandemic
Sure, there was a pandemic in 2020-2021. But if we had just let the country go, it would have “burned through” the Nation, and we survivors would all now have “herd immunity” (the view of Trump’s appointee for Director of the National Institute of Health, Jay Bhattacharya). While Trump was instrumental in the quick development of vaccines, wearing masks was a “waste of time”.
Those that advocated masks and closing schools and businesses ought to be held accountable for the “damage” they did. The fact that 1.2 million died (and are still dying) from Covid, and that number would be multiple millions more if we tried to gain “herd immunity”, is “wrong-speak”, not accepted or allowed by the New Administration.
Child Separation
If we only made migrants really, really regret coming to the United States, they would stop coming. So the first term Trump child-separation policy was not abhorrent at all, but brilliant. The only flaw in the policy was that the media got access to what was going on. We need to let the “dirty work” to “protect our borders” go on without interference. (It’s the old Kiefer Sutherland in Twenty-Four attitude, secretly “doing American’s wet work”).
The fact that conditions in some Central and South American countries are so bad, that anything, any risk, is better than staying there doesn’t mean anything at all. The Border Guards should grab up their kids, whisk them all over the country on buses, and send the parents to camps and ultimately back to Nicaragua. Ask Tom Homan, Trump’s new “Border Czar”.
Tariffs
Tariffs will protect American industry from foreign competition. If we just make those “furr-in” products more expensive, then we’ll “get back” to buying “good ol’ American stuff”. (So back in the mid-1970’s, I worked for Sears in their TV and Stereo department. My job was to “sell American”. Back then a company called Fisher, was the only “American” stereo manufacturer. Don’t think about Pioneer or Sony, buy American. Sure, it cost more, and the quality wasn’t quite as good, but it’s American – right?)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it best. Tariffs cost American consumers money for imported goods, and the response to American tariffs will cost Canadians more money as well. No one wins.
Resist
Part of the insidiousness of MAGAism is the impact on what we think of as facts. In our current environment, those with the loudest megaphone often get to “declare the truth”, regardless of whether it’s true or not . Add that to the Red State takeover of public education curriculum, and there is a real chance that the Whitewash will work. Most Americans now believe that the Mueller Investigation was false, and that somehow it exonerated Donald Trump. Neither of those are true.
Resistance (Part Two) includes standing for the truth, not some revisionist story. That’s going to take courage, both by private individuals (and “essayists”) but also from journalists who will face intimidation and possible legal challenges for daring to telling it the way it really is. And maybe the high school student who doesn’t allow a MAGA-based history course to pass without objection.
Dan Rather might have said it best when he chose one word to end his nightly newscast on CBS – Courage. It’s what will be required in the new Trump Era.
