As the pressure mounts, the desperation sets in

Trump is in a hole, and he is in desperate need of a major distraction. Step forward, Tulsi Gabbard, with a doozy.

I’m going to be honest and tell you that today has been a difficult day for me. I say this not in search of your sympathy; I’m sharing the fact that just as many of you become exhausted with the performative misdirection and bare-faced lies that we have to navigate every day. Even I, on some days, find it challenging to make sense of where we are so that I can unravel the lies and disseminate the truth from their cesspool of disinformation. I took one look at it today and thought, I can’t face it, I just can’t. I chose instead to take a long walk with the love of my life, who has been a central part of my world for 46 years. Who better to provide me with the motivation to dig in and find a way through the desperation I was feeling, faced with the shift to open warfare on Barack Obama, a man for whom I hold the utmost respect.

We are a unit that has stood the test of time, both politically engaged but on different sides of the Atlantic. She is the go-to expert on British politics, while also providing support to me in my passion for US politics. Collectively, we understand that the two political arenas are inextricably linked in a geopolitical drama that has a significant impact on socioeconomics on both sides of the Atlantic. It is well known that "When America sneezes, Europe catches a cold". Never has this been truer than in this moment.

We are blessed to live near a manmade lake that is a product of reclaimed land from our industrial past. A massive wetland and bird sanctuary project that emerged from the region’s coal mining heritage, which dominated the area from the Industrial Revolution to the late 1980s. One of the great things about living in the UK is its rich history. Not all of it is good, might I add. I really must share some of that local history one day, because it’s not only fascinating, but also a story of local landed gentry with a social conscience that provided homes for its workers and education for their children.

Yes, I am blessed to be surrounded by the history and splendour of 18th-century architecture, which is being preserved for the nation. A building used for several film projects, including the Oscar-winning ‘Darkest Hour’, which featured Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. It was also featured in Downton Abbey, Victoria and Gentleman Jack. They also serve a very nice afternoon tea.

Nature is a great replenisher of the soul, which is at the heart of my writing. Add that to a conversation with a soulmate and a woman I love more today than the day I was lucky enough to marry her 46 years ago. With her in my life, everything seems just a little less daunting. A lifetime ago, we decided to hitch our horses to a relationship that has endured the test of time, notwithstanding some significant challenges. Yet, here we are, the same two people holding hands, older and wiser, I hope, in a world we both fear for in this moment.

I have decided to take a detour from the planned part three of my series of posts on Trump living on borrowed time. This will follow tomorrow. I simply could not let Trump’s new wild goose chase escape my assessment.

Clearly, the Epstein story was reaching a point at which it seemed to be engulfing Trump. He was losing control of the narrative, so they had to come up with a massive distraction that would shift the focus of the base away from the Epstein case. They have chosen what they believe to be the nuclear option and gone after Obama. With a piece of performative infographic art in the form of Tulsi Gabbard’s so-called exposé. It is an absolute classic Republican deliberate conflation of three separate issues.

1. Was Russia involved in attempting to influence the 2016 US elections?

2. Did they conduct probing operations of election systems to see if they could change vote outcomes?

3. Did Russia conduct influence operations to change public opinion, which might influence the outcome of the 2016 election?

All effective disinformation campaigns are delivered to the public wrapped in elements of the truth, which is what gives them their plausibility, allowing them to be passed off as fact. Trump has long claimed Russian interference in the 2016 election was a hoax; it was where the political hoax was born. I have said many times before that I have a grudging admiration for the way they construct these narratives. It is undoubtedly a skill that Democrats are not blessed with.

There can be no doubt that Russia interfered with the 2016 election; it’s what Russia does across the world. At the same time they were meddling in the US election, they were actively involved in influencing the Brexit campaign in the UK, in which they certainly achieved their objectives, which is now costing the UK up to £140 billion every year.

You can get a better understanding of the background of US election interference in this article from the New York Times by Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger on July 18th, which you can read with my compliments without the paywall. The piece notes:

Intelligence agencies and Senate investigators spent years reviewing the work, and concluded that during the 2016 election, the Russians conducted probing operations of election systems to see if they could change vote outcomes. While they extracted voter registration data in Illinois and Arizona, and probed in other states, there was no evidence that Moscow’s hackers attempted to actually change votes.

The Obama administration assessment never contended that Russian hackers manipulated votes.

If it is one thing Trump has always excelled at, it is playing the victim, and never was it more so than in what he called the Russia hoax. Gabbard’s story is a nothing burger, but that is irrelevant to the purpose of this exercise. They know it will not result in prosecutions, but that will not stop them from spending as much taxpayer money as necessary to create a very public made-for-TV drama to create an illusion of wrongdoing, because it will provide a sustained distraction not just from the Epstein case, but from the deluge of incoming bad economic news ahead.

The truth is that this is a story resurrected from 2020 that, to quote the Times, “Obama-era officials sought to undermine him while investigating Russia’s 2016 election meddling” It’s old news dressed in a new suit that was reported in the Times by Nicholas Fandos and Julian E. Barnes on the 21st April 2020 (again, I have provided free access to the paywalled article) In it, they noted:

“… a long-awaited Senate review led by members of Mr. Trump’s own party effectively undercut those allegations. A three-year review by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously found that the intelligence community assessment, pinning blame on Russia and outlining its goals to undercut American democracy, was fundamentally sound and untainted by politics.

“The I.C.A. reflects strong tradecraft, sound analytical reasoning and proper justification of disagreement in the one analytical line where it occurred,” said Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the panel’s chairman. “The committee found no reason to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusions.”

Trump’s own members carried out this Senate review, and the conclusion was in line with all the evidence provided. Trump didn’t like the outcome back then, and he did what he always does: he installed yes men.

Hence, the publication of the Durham Report resulted in three criminal cases being brought against Kevin Clinesmith, Igor Danchenko, and Michael Sussmann. The latter two were acquitted in a jury trial, and FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith pled guilty to altering a document submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in connection with a FISA application on Trump associate Carter Page. He was given 12 months’ probation.

Trump is simply going to relitigate the same argument as political theatre. Given the hole he currently finds himself in, he sees this as a weapon he can deploy to distract from his ever-increasing troubles. It is crucial that Democratic activists refrain from engaging in rage-tweeting over this theatrical event. All it serves to do is advance Republican talking points. It’s just a matter of sticking to the facts and persistently dismantling the lies.

There are many more important points to focus on, and we must not fall for the constant distractions being thrown our way to keep us busy being outraged. In the week ahead, I’ll be focusing on some significant societal impacts that are slowly becoming the imposed new baseline for American families. This administration has every faith in the fact that Americans will focus on self-preservation at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable. All I see at the moment is performative protesting, which may look great on Instagram and TikTok. Real action, utilising spending as a weapon, is the only way forward. Yet, very few are willing to engage in this type of action because it doesn’t make for a great image on social media. In addition, it leads to that age-old enemy of developed economies, ‘inconvenience’.

Nobody is coming to the aid of America from the outside. This revolution will have to come from within, and tragically, I see little appetite for economic pain. People support protesting, provided it does not have a financial impact on them. The age of protest like that embarked upon by the Civil Rights Movement is gone in an internet-dominated world. The longer this administration is left in power, the less power the people will have to rid themselves of this tyranny. As for waiting until 2026, when elections might happen. If that’s the plan, can I suggest seeking medical help? Unless there is an awakening, it’s game over, I’m afraid.