Over the weekend part of the way I tried to deal with ping-ponging between deeper than normal depression and rage over the overturning of Roe I worked on articulating an opinion piece on just how wise the January 6 Committee was.  The premise was that while many (including me) were disappointed at their suspension of hearings until after everyone got back after July 4 and feared a loss of momentum (and minds are being changed by these hearings) they had a good reason.  The overturning of Roe would dominate the news and since they were making progress, building a case the public could understand AND that it was starting to sink in and generate increasing interest it was better to step aside until a petulant, can’t pay attention to more than one thing at a time (other than celebrity “news”) public might be able to handle two big stories at once  Basically, I “got” their reasoning and was thankful wiser people than me are in charge – and I wanted others to see it the same way.
Look, we all knew the Dobbs decision was coming either last week or this week and Roe would be overturned.  We also, if we thought about it knew the reaction would be huge.  It has been.  Hell, it’s dominated the news and for good reason.  It’s a sloppy, amateurish piece of reasoning to the point where the author hangs much of his hat on some wackjob English jurist who was considered a wackjob even in his own time!  (Not so) Funny how conservative legal eagles express horror at using old legal stuff from other countries in decisions (even stuff incorporated into our own laws from the beginning) but will tout crap that was considered insane even hundreds of years ago.  However that’s a whole different subject for a different discussion.
My point is that the January 6 Committee has wisdom I do not possess, and I’m certain took a look at things and decided that since the news would be dominated by the overturning of Roe and both immediate consequences and the longer political implications including the midterms it would be best to cede the stage for a couple of weeks.  And THAT my friends is what makes the news that suddenly broke about there being a January 6 Committee meeting tomorrow, Tuesday the 28th so huge.  HUGE.  “Bigly YUGE” even.
Something is so important that the Committee decided it can’t wait.  It’s big enough that despite abortion having vaulted to the top of the news that they think it will break through. Important enough that they fear it leaking out and lessening the impact.  As a result, something I’d spent quite a bit of time over a couple of days working on became worthless.  However I don’t mind because whatever is about to go down is I believe going to change things.  For the better when it all shakes out.
My thoughts turned to a Bob Dylan song about wrongly convicted boxer Rueben Carter that came out when I was in high school.  The song (Hurricane) contained many memorable lyrics including one I’d like to highlight concerning those moments when Carter and some pals were toodling around Patterson NJ in the wee hours of that fateful night.  In the same vein, come early afternoon tomorrow one or more people will be going about their typical day and business (in the case of the folks I’m talking about slimy, dishonest business!) with “No idea what kinda shit was about to go down!”
In the song Carter is about to get pulled over for the cops for a routine driving while black (yes, that went on in the 1960s, long before people knew or cared it was so freaking common) but this time it won’t be the cops. Instead it will be the January 6 Committee and the witness or witnesses that will testify against someone who thought they were going to somehow get out of all this if not unscathed then at least free and able to continue to sleaze their way around and grift.  The real cops from the DOJ will likely be showing up soon enough, but the glare of the spotlight will be blinding.
I truly believe that there wouldn’t be any hearing tomorrow if it didn’t HAVE to happen right freaking now.  That the only reason it’s not happening this evening is it will take until tomorrow morning to get everyone (including staff and that includes those that have to handle the audiovisual parts of the testimony) on hand and ready to go on TV.  I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment but I think we are looking at something even bigger than the revelation in the Nixon WH tapes that he knew about the break in at the Watergate and personally approved the cover-up from the time of the arrests.  I think we are talking WHAT? OMFG WHAT? with even GOP types saying they are done with the Big Lie b.s. and a lot (a LOT) of them sticking to it this time.
If at all possible tune in tomorrow.  Not that we haven’t already had some bombshells from these hearings but my guess is that in comparison they will turn out to have been opening salvos.  Illumination shells over the battlefield with perhaps a couple of ranging shots preparatory to dropping the “Mother of all Revelation Bombs.” I have a feeling that when it’s over you’ll be thinking:
Bad Boys 2 – This Shit Just Got Real – YouTube
Something like this, we are WAY past “tick-tock”. We are at the “boom!” stage and it’s only going to be tomorrow when we found out what made the noise.
If I had to make a guess, whatever this is goes way beyond the usual Trump criming as reported. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have direct proof of the inexcusable…like, say, foreign interference that is provable.
My mind is getting carried away with admittedly fantastical possibilities. We’ve seen recent reporting on a call Trump had with Putin during the transition while on the plane. He denies it of course. But other reporting says there have been calls that haven’t been entered into the WH phone logs that are supposed to be kept and that’s credible reporting. We KNOW he’s attempted to cover up communications, even in person meetings with Russians. And kicked out even his own interpreter in one-on-one meetings with Putin.
So, getting to a comment I just made on ursula’s piece what if either that phone call on the plane or some other call during the transition was with that documentarian present? And he even has at least an audio recording of Trump’s side of the call? Now, the official WH call logs might not have it but there IS proof available if you know where to look. Cell phone records for example and as we know Trump like to avoid official stuff and against all protocols would use his or someone else’s private cell phone. But there’s also the good ole NSA which, since Trump went to such lengths to banish professionals from the WH he might not have realized, much less had someone capable of working a little magic on that front.
Every single electronic communication that goes into the ether is recorded by the NSA. And they have incredible computing power to log and keep track of it all. They also have protocols for monitoring anything, even encrypted stuff they might never be able to crack from foreign sources including and especially our enemies which of course to the professionals at the NSA has always included Russia. With special emphasis on leaders.
So imagine Trump treating the documentarian as a fly on the wall for a bit while focusing on his chat with Vlad – one in which he might well have been begging for help. And making promises. As I said the documentarian would have been some insignificant “little person” to Trump BUT even if he wasn’t audio recording at first he started doing so. There might not have been much there from Trump’s side of the conversation. However…
With THAT thread to pull on the Committee would have a date and time as a starting point and getting a National Security Warrant, one of those countless secret warrants we only got a glimpse of during the Mueller investigation was trotted up to Ft. Meade. And they looked up that call. And listened to the recording!
Oops. Bigly OOPS!
As I said, I have a sometimes too fantastical fantasy life but boy wouldn’t this be a doozy. That documentarian would never be safe again. Nor his family. Hell, I can see why he’d try to avoid mentioning something like that, and not turning over EVERYTHING at first and then hoping that time pressure would keep the Committee from uncovering it. But it does make for some fun, if bat-shit crazy speculation!
I think this whole damn mess is turning us all into budding conspiracy theorists.