Things We’re Watching

One of the things we’re watching at the moment, is the Mark Meadows poop show exploding or more accurately, continuing to explode.

Meadows, Trump’s former Chief of Staff is too smart by half squared, which is to say, not very smart as it turns out. But of course at this point, we’re used to seeing the sorts of people Trump hires, come unglued, largely of their own making.

Mark Meadows’ Hot Mess …

There are three things politicos such as myself, see happening simultaneously. They are as follows.

One, Meadows didn’t consider the ramifications of a presumably non curated document dump. That’s like forgetting to stock up on TP before you go into the bathroom to empty your human septic tank. The stuff the January 6th Committee is looking at, is the biggest and stinkiest appetizer course imaginable. It also signals what is to come in the main course once Trump’s appeal about non existent executive privilege gets shot down like a tired old Elk that is already on its last legs.

Then, there is Meadows’ book “The Chief’s Chief” that came out a week ago. As reported, it rankled Trump because it contradicted, whether intentionally or unintentionally, key parts of the Trump facade, including Trump’s steely resolve, revealing Trump to be more snowflake than any of Hillary Clinton’s voters.

Moreover, it demonstrates that Trump brazenly attended numerous events when he knew he had contracted COVID-19, including the presidential debate, putting many at risk and infecting several others including former New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie.

Meadows, nevertheless, did, in the few pages he discussed it, candy coat Trump’s central role in inciting violent sedition on January 6th:

“[I]t was not ranting demands that came out of his mouth; if anything, he was more subdued than usual, simply stating his points and letting the crowd know that he was not going to give up on America, or on them.”

That is a “don’t believe your lying eyes or ears” moment. But the texts now in the hands of the committee tell a very different story from the viewpoint of not only Trump’s media circus, but Trump’s own son, Donald Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows, “He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP.” In another message, he pleaded, “We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

Gee willikers, Jr., do ya think?

Mark Meadows’ Muddled Manuscript …

Trump was angry about the book and is reportedly apoplectic about the texts and emails. Trump has railed about Meadows memoir as “fake news”, derided Meadows as “fucking stupid”, and true to form, lies that the book “confirmed” that he “did not have Covid before or during the debate”.

Even so, Meadows, in the book, does regurgitate the baseless narrative that there was a conspiracy to steal the election and points fingers at both the Democratic party and the legacy media as co-conspirators, without reference to any particular named individuals. And that is by design, because his publishing house’s lawyers wouldn’t permit specific false allegations due to obvious liability concerns.

And thirdly, as numerous legal experts have pointed out – with the combination of the book and the approximately 9,000 pages of material and 2,000 text messages Meadows has already strewn about everywhere, the toothpaste is out of the tube as far as privileged communications claims are concerned.

The ironic internal contradiction with Meadows’ book is that while he purports to argue that the 2020 election was stolen and / or there was a conspiracy to do so, the trove of communications he delivered to the committee, does actually illustrate a conspiracy, the only problem being, it was orchestrated by the Gee Ohhhh Pee and no doubt, Trump himself and not the Democrats or the media. The Washington Post dubbs Meadows as “chief enabler to a president who was desperate to hold on to power”.

So, Meadows, whom the House, by the time of publication will have voted to hold in contempt, has a lot of bees buzzing around in his bonnet.

Dr. Mark Strangelove …

Meadows’ behavior is distinctly Dr. Strangelovian and that’s an understatement. One conspiracy fable Meadows addressed to acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, was a Psilocybin induced account of election fraud in macro, dubbed, “Italygate”.

Ed Pilkington at The Guardian, describes that episode:

Meadows sent Rosen another email containing a link to a 13-minute YouTube video titled “Brad Johnson: Rome, Satellites, Services, an Update”. In the video, Johnson, a retired CIA station chief, gave further details of Italygate, which he described as a secret plot to overturn the US presidential election and stop Trump from gaining a second term.
In Johnson’s account, an Italian defense contractor, Leonardo, had joined forces with the CIA to carry out the dastardly scheme. Together, they had hacked into Italian military satellites, beaming them down on to US voting machines in battleground states and remotely switching votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
Rosen politely replied to Meadows that he had received the video, then sent a copy of it to his deputy Richard Donoghue. Later that day, Donoghue told his boss what he thought of Johnson’s video.
“Pure insanity”, he said.

Apparently Meadows is not even familiar with the basic fact that election systems are not cyber networked with the World Wide Web, except on some localized modems which were de-activated in advance of the election and as such, the odds that they could be receiving signals from any satellite are miniscule at best.

Additionally, the “Italygate” account spawned by a fringe group, “Nations In Action” based in Sarasota, Florida (at a P.O. Box at a UPS Store), had long been debunked prior to the weeks leading up to January 6th.

As a side note, also in Sarasota, is the HQ of the infamous assembly of buffoons known as the Cyber Ninjas that conducted the ‘audit’ otherwise dubbed the “Fraudit” in Maricopa County, Arizona, which at the final denouement of the debacle, found 360 more votes for President Biden.

Mark Meadows’ Inside Job?

There is one more theory I submit for consideration as to what might have led to Meadows’ alternately damning and fawning book and his halfhazard release of documents. Meadows may be doing all of the above deliberately, in order to start or propel a chain of events leading to Trump’s permanent loss of the iron grip he has on the GOP with the intended result, a reset of the party.

What looks like, “Oops, my bad”, could actually be the ultimate inside hit job. I’m not saying I’m at all certain of this, in fact, I wouldn’t put any amount of money on it, I’m just saying it explains some things better than the accidental theory of history with regard to this.

Either Meadows is the empty suit knucklehead we always figured him to be – or he is a Machiavellian multi-dimensional political intrigue chess player.

The more I think of it, the more I am inclined toward the former as opposed to the latter. Something to ponder and to watch going forward and some indication of it might surface in his communications with particular GOP officials. It’s pure speculation but regardless, Meadows cannot escape his personal responsibility for the damage that was done to the country under his watch.

One of many details the select committee has uncovered is that Meadows had been in communication with a handful of the main organisers of the “Stop the Steal” rally, during which Trump exhorted those in attendance to “fight like hell” and to march up to the Capitol and that he would join them.

According to reports, members of the committee want an explanation as to why the chief of staff employed his personal cell phone and an encrypted mobile app Signal, to engage in those communications.

What is pretty certain, is that the trove of 9,000 communications and other assorted documentation that Meadows released to the Jan. 6 Committee, is enabling the committee to create a framework for further investigation, subpoenas and eventual referrals to the Justice Department for indictments. Stay tuned.