Heads, which had barely begun to heal from the initial release of Mueller's written report, exploded anew when the special prosecutor announced he would prefer not to testify before Congress. His report, he said, speaks for itself. He is so, so done with it all.
Ranking House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries summed up his party's dilemma all too well when he groused that "there is a difference between reading the book and seeing the movie on the big screen.”
It seems that Trump isn't the only American who doesn't read. Polls have revealed for years that most US citizens don't read more than one or two books a year. And despite its best-seller status, "The Mueller Report" is pretty dry reading, even for die-hard readers.
Who has the time, anyway? Even an article in The Week about people not reading much any more was classified as a "speed read" in a probably futile effort to get more people to read it.
If it's not on a screen, then it doesn't exist. And with so many shows to choose from, the recent bravura C-Span-streamed marathon reading of the report by an ensemble cast of Democrats attracted only a tiny number of eyeballs.
Politics is spectacle. Politicians see voters as a blob of consumers addicted to their various screens. The consent has been manufactured by the corporate media conglomerate, and the learned passivity is complete.
So the longer that our congress critters can keep the Mueller-centered suspense (and the #Russiagate franchise) alive, and the electorate barely awake, the better they think it will be for their ultimate goal, which is limited to winning elections and raising scads of money to do so.
Since Democrats are damned if they do impeach and damned if they don't, they might as well do the right thing as ordained by the Constitution. Otherwise, win or lose, they won't be treated kindly in the history books.
Oh, I forgot. People don't read actual books, not when there are rage-filled twitter feeds and Facebook flummery to keep them amused.
That's why corporate media outlets pounced with glee when Trump wrote one of his typically garbled tweets this morning. "Trump Tweets and Then Retracts, Statement that Russia Helped Him Get Elected" shrilled the New York Times in a particularly egregious example of "gotcha" churnalism.
Here's the original tweet that had media heads exploding in Toldja So! triumph:
It's somewhat surprising that the Times isn't also reporting that Trump falsely claimed that Russia has literally disappeared off the face of the planet for the sole fact that it had nothing to do with getting him elected. But that would have entailed getting their fact-checker to refer to Google Earth in order to determine whether Russia is still there, and then writing a brand new outraged article about Trump's Eleven-Thousandth Lie.
....say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false accusation, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!
It's exhausting. And it's futile.
ReplyDelete"Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast . . . a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over those desk-bound men with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
~ Edward Abbey
These days when someone mentions reading a book, there's a better than even chance they are talking about a comic book. Or at best, an audiobook.
ReplyDeleteMexico's Environmental Secretary Víctor Manuel Toledo Manzur declared this week that the earth's climate crisis and the almost certain end of civilization and life on this planet are directly attributable to "parasitic and predatory neoliberals".
ReplyDeleteBut here at home we are more concerned with whether Justice Department policy allows legal action to be taken against a sitting President or whether it would be advantageous for political considerations to hold off impeachment hearings until 2020.
Mexico has definitely surpassed us on the reality front.
ReplyDeleteo/t After 8 years of deprivation, Julian Assange's health is reported to have taken another dive. His lawyer says his client cannot carry on a conversation. Assange has been transferred to the hospital wing of Belmarsh Prison. MSM is going out of its way NOT to report Assange's worsened condition.
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/29/wikileaks-expresses-grave-concerns-for-assanges-health/
From Washington's point of view, it would be nice if Assange were to die in jail (or go completely bonkers and disappear forever behind a high-walled mental institution). Because there was always a chance he would have been cleared of the rape charge in Sweden and, with a top-drawer legal team, have had his case thrown out in a US court, given press freedom precedents.
To be on the safe side, people, please remember this: It is a crime to report long-term and systemic crimes against humanity, whether you're a whistleblower inside the system (e.g., Manning), or a journalist outside the system (e.g., Assange). Therefore, if you have concerns about the system, report them to the system.
I'm on target to read 45 books this year and that includes audiobooks which I listen to and then read the actual book, back and forth, because I live in Vermont and to do anything you have to drive 12-15 miles, even to go swim at the pool involves a 24-mile round trip so I get an hour of the audiobook, so what else does one do because I stopped listening to NPR / VPR years ago because it seemed in 2014 I was driving 15-hours roundtrip back to the Baltimore area to address my mother's declining health and Terri Gross always seemed to have a program about some transgender issue: a new book, a new play, a new movie, a new opera, a new podcast, a new TV show, a magazine, it was like enough, please stop it. And I think Edward Abbey said, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." It is very quiet and calm on the lake today with the green trees getting more luxurious every day and Mozart, the barred owl will make an appearance when we have a campfire. I hope he survived the winter. it was a doozey!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”
~ E.B. White
ReplyDeleteSlouching back on topic, I bring you this tidbit.
According to an emeritus Princeton professor who has spent his life understanding Russia and America's relations with Russia, this empty Russiagate story is much more than a post-election dirty trick against the victorious Trump who won fair and square in 2016 according to the rules of the screwball system for presidential elections. According to this scholar, Russiagate the story––not Russia itself, not China, but the homemade Russiagate chimera invented by the Director of National Intelligence (Clapper) and the CIA (Brennan) and dutifully spread about since before Trump by the MSM––has become "one of the greatest threats to national security."
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/manufacturing-war-with-russia/
What he's saying is that the invented Russiagate story is taking the USA, step by step, into a great big nuclear war with Russia. Not to worry, we'll get a twofer out of such a war. First of all, the USA will of course emerge the winner; secondly, the nuclear winter to follow just might neutralize global warming.