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Trump's Pecker plays starring role in indictment [1]

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Date: 2023-03-31

Trump in the ear of his Pecker. David Pecker of the National Enquirer that is.

Confession. I wrote this story just so I could use that headline. The pecker I’m referring to of course, is the Pecker that put out this trash during the 2016 election.

National Enquirer trashing Hillary just before the 2016 election. Photo by Kent Moorhead.

It’s the same Pecker who the Daily Mail described in “Trump bombshell as mystery witness is revealed”. I fail to understand why the Mail — or another of the Brit tabloids — didn’t beat me to my headline.

If you’re hoping for tidbits about Pecker’s testimony & what it means for Trump’s coming trial, I’m sorry to disappoint. I don’t know any more than the press covering it; speculation aside, they don’t know anything for sure and won’t until the indictment is unsealed. Rather than guess, I’m prepared to let due process take its due course. Presumption of innocence. Jury trial. Rule of law and all that.

This story isn’t about the indictment itself (background music courtesy of Trump’s hyperventilating GOP-greek chorus). Instead I’m celebrating the landmark indictment of an ex-President with a trip down memory lane as I recall my favorite moments of our long national nightmare. Afterall, it’s important to remember how we got here.

This is a screenshot from just one of the pieces of disinformation that spewed from the Russian-generated firehose of pro-Trump social meda. As with all things Trump, it involved a heavy dose of projection.

2016 pro-Trump social media.

Who wants to forget Pizzagate? (raises hand)

Pro-Trump social media post-election 2016.

As Trump heads to trial, let’s recall those many “lock her up” memes.

Pro-Trump social media 2016 style

I heard the “lock-her-up” chants first-hand during a Trump New Hampshire Rally.

2016: Trump announces the FBI re-opened the Hillary Clinton email probe at his Manchester NH rally.

It’s been a long road since. Trump was on the ropes the day of his Manchester rally. The Access Hollywood tape had just come out and it was tanking Trump’s numbers. Who knew that bragging about one’s sexual assaults could have a negative impact? Then the conversation flipped on a dime as Trump announced during the rally that the FBI was re-opening its probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Beforehand, his crowd was lethargic, depressed, rousing itself only when Mike Flynn led them in a heart-felt rendition of “lock-her-up”. After? The place was electric, the crowd ecstatic, hopeful for the first time. Don’t tell me it didn’t make a difference.

We now know another piece of the backstory. That the former head of the FBI counter-intelligence office in Manhattan was playing footsie with Russians during 2016. He’s been arrested for it. It’s long been rumored that Comey informed Congress about the Clinton email investigation only because of internal pressure from the New York FBI office. We know Guiliani was teasing a bombshell before the Trump-Comey reveal.

What actually did happen? Why did Comey notify the congress of his re-opened investigation? An investigation that found nothing new and was closed again before the election. Unanswered questions from 2016 persist.

As Trump began his Presidential transition, social media disinformation continued unabated. Spontaneous demonstrations against Trump’s election were immediately framed as coordinated riots. Riots organized by none other than the “communist” hedge-fund operator, George Soros.

Screenshot of 2016 Russian disinformation on social media.

Then there was the weird shift to pro-Russian /anti-Ukraine sentiment among the US far-right crowd. A shift tied to Trump that came much earlier than people realize. Here’s an image of Trump supporters from the League of the South. Look at that placard on the right. Curious thing with southern nationalists attacking Ukraine way back in 2017.

League of South demonstration in 2017.

Remember when Nancy Pelosi said that with Trump, all roads lead back to Putin?

Charlottesville Virginia, 2017. Trump described these guys as “very fine people”.

And there were also the very fine people on both side in Charlottesville. Remember them?

No wonder the international image of the US plumeted during the Trump years. I live in Stockholm, so saw that happen in real time. This is a story from the Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet. The headline translates: “We cannot trust the USA”.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, May 2017: “We cannot trust the USA”

Early in 2017 Sweden momentarily become the focus of Trump’s ire when he declared the country unsafe as the result of an imaginary terrorist attack that he invented. (It was actually a swipe at Swedish immigration).

Trump declares a terrorist emergency in Sweden after making up a terrorist incident.

Perhaps Trump should have taken Carl Bildt’s advice.



Carl Bildt, former foreign minister of Sweden, tweeted this at Trump during the “Last Night in Sweden crisis” of February 2017.

Which brings us back to today. Trump never stops digging, does he? Then again, that was always the point. Digging shit and shoveling so much of it our way that we lose sight of what matters. For Trump distraction isn’t just distraction — it’s the main show. And enough of us fell for it — especially the press — that it worked.

To quote Dylan, “You just kinda wasted my precious time — But don't think twice, it's all right”

Trump thought he could out-manouver & out-run the rule of law. Why not? Distraction, delay and running out the clock has always worked for him before.

Now, at last: time is up. And we have his pecker to thank for it.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/31/2161257/-Trump-s-Pecker-plays-starring-role-in-indictment

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