âWhat difference does it make if itâs true?â
â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â February 16, 2024Â Â |Â Â [View Online]( Â |Â Â [Sign Up]( Wag The Dog, 2020s Edition âWhat difference does it make if itâs true?â
â Quote Dear Reader, What a treat! This week availed us to a whole array of âwag the dogâ scenarios in the news. Wag the Dog, if you remember, was a satirical black comedy produced and directed by Baltimoreâs own Barry Levinson. It was written by the playwright David Mamet, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro among a cast of up and comers. The film fictitiously relates the story of a âspin doctorâ and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. Ultimately, Wag The Dog is a satire about the âoffice behind the Oval office.â Un-serendipitously, the film was released on Christmas Day in 1997 â one month before then-president Bill Clinton was caught trying to launder Monica Lewinskyâs blue dress. âThereâs always been a relationship between Hollywood and politics and we wanted to have some fun with it,â Jane Rosenthal, who produced the film with star Robert De Niro, told Vanity Fair on the 25th anniversary of the filmâs release. âBut as proud as I am of the movie, it makes me very sad that you couldnât even make up some of the shit thatâs going on right now.â The Biden administration was all too happy, yesterday, to pounce on news about the death of Putinâs political adversary Alexy Nevaly. The President declared it was âyet more proof of Putinâs brutality.â Navalnyâs death âunderscores the weakness and rotâ of Putinâs system, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her âsorrow and outrageâ in a private meeting with Navalnyâs widow, the White House released. What are the spin doctors worried about now? Where to start, eh? The obvious âscandalâ the White House would want to distract from votersâ view from today is the Commander-in-Chiefâs pitched battle with his own party⦠and his grasp of reality. Take, for example, the special counselâs report heard round the world. Robert Hur taking pity on president Biden, forgoing criminal charges for steali⦠er, storing classified documents in his garage, because heâs âa well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.â  Even the Economist took notice and deigned to write âthe man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year old. In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown âcowardice and complacencyâ.â Tucker Carlson didnât help. He added insult to injury by allowing Putin to declare he didnât think Biden was in charge at the White House anyway. Putin: PUTIN: âWeâre convinced Biden is not running the country. Letâs say we have good sources that confirm that but itâs plain for anyone to see for themselves. The U.S. has now entered into a dark period. It has unaccountable leadership.â And: PUTIN: âJoe Biden may not even be aware of whatâs going on. He may not understand the level of sanctions thrown at Russia. Who put those sanctions together? Those are our adversariesâ¦. The elites have deserted you.â   Carlsonâs interview, in fact, combined both questions â Bidenâs senility and the âshadow stateâ puppet show â and put them front and center for your attention. As if that wasnât enough, the apparatchiks convened at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. also had to contend with an exposé of new evidence regarding their own skulduggery leading up to Trumpâs successful 2016 bid: Russia-gate. âIt was all a lie,â independent journalists Michael Shellenberger, Alex Gutentag, and Matt Taibbi wrote in the online publication Public, exhibiting exhaustive research theyâve been doing for 8 years. âThe Trump-Russia scandal made its formal launch on January 6th, 2017, when the office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper published whatâs called an âIntelligence Community Assessment,â or âICA,â as itâs universally known in Washington. âRelease of the ICA dominated headlines, fixed Donald Trump in the minds of millions of Americans as a Manchurian candidate controlled by Vladamir Putin, and upended his in-coming administration. âThe report declared that Russia and Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election to âdenigrateâ Hillary Clinton and âharm her electability,â  thanks to their âclearâ preference for President-elect [Donald] Trump.â âIt was powerful stuff. And it was dead wrongâ¦â The Russiagate âconspiracyâ was meant to show that Russians wanted Trump to get elected to the presidency because Trump and Putin were buddies. The opposite is, in fact, true. First, the Russians werenât spying on Trump at all. It was the CIA and other members of the âFive Eyesâ â the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand â the countries with which the intelligence community shared intel openly. Second, the Russians actually preferred that Hillary Clinton win the election in 2016, because she was a known entity and represented continuity with the prior Obama group of White House occupants. In a livestream webcast aired at 4:00 p.m. yesterday, Taibbi exhibited exactly how Lesley Stahl and the CBS flagship news show "60 Minutes" still hasn't corrected its infamous âeye-rollâ over surveillance of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. In preparation for the webcast, Taibbi wrote on his own page on Substack: The tale of improper CIA and FBI surveillance mixed with manufactured intelligence has been in the ether since late 2017 and early 2018. Then he listed âjust a few of the names who reported stories in this direction over the years, in some cases day after day on broadcast shows. An attentive reader will notice nearly everyone on the list has been denounced at some point by the mainstream commentators who got this story horribly wrong.â The list included 11 high-profile journalists who were branded as âconspiracy theoristsâ and âwhack-jobs,â many of whom lost their jobs. Some notable names who got smeared for writing or talking about the truth: the Guardianâs Glenn Greenwald, Fox Businessâ Maria Bartiromo and realclearinvestigations.comâs Aaron Mate. Taibbi also produced facsimiles of the documents that show how the intelligence community of the West was, in fact, spying on the Trump campaign in 2016. As well as recording conversations with members of Trumpâs campaign without their knowledge. âOn their YouTube page, 60 Minutes,â Taibbi writes, âstill hasnât corrected its headline: âPresident Trump repeats unsupported claim about spying.â The âmoneyâ exchange between Donald Trump and host Lesley Stahl: TRUMP: They spied on my campaign, Leslie. STAHL: Thereâs no real evidence of that. TRUMP: Of course there is. STAHL: No. TRUMP: Itâs all over the place. STAHL: Sir⦠TRUMP: Leslie, they spied on my campaign and they got caught. STAHL: Can I say something? This is 60 Minutes and we canât put on things we can't verify. âThis is 60 Minutes and we canât put on things that we canât verify!â continues Taibbi, âStahl said this a year after the publication of Barack Obama appointee and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitzâs report on the Trump-Russia investigation that described how the FBI used âintrusive techniques,â like having informants âinteract and consensually record multiple conversationsâ with Trump aides âboth during and after the time they were working for the Trump campaign.â That Horowitz report used the term CHS, or âconfidential human sourceâ â also known as an informant, also known as a spy â 1,122 times!â Shellenberger, Gutenberg, and Taibbi are all well known for defending free speech during the crackdown and tech collusion during the pandemic. Taibbiâs project The Twitter Files blew the lid of the White Houseâs attempts to censor âtweetâs that spoke out against the mRNA vaccines and mask mandates. Ultimately, the White Houseâs attempts to censor social media landed them in court. The lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, which prohibits members of Bidenâs staff from contacting the major social media companies directly, is making its way to the Supreme Court. The furor also enticed Elon Musk to spend $44 Billion dollars of his âown moneyâ to acquire Twitter and rename Americaâs Town Square âX.â No doubt, during this election year, 2024, the White House would much prefer a  media war against Albania (or Iran) trumped up by Hollywood than have to deal with the fallout of organized collusion between the intelligence community and the Democratic Party coming to light now. So it goes, Addison Wiggin, The Wiggin Sessions P.S. You can find Schellenberger and Gutentag at Public on Substack.com. Matt Taibbiâs outfit, also on Substack, is called Racket. P.P.S. Weâd consider all three journalists â and maybe Tucker Carlson â honorary members of The Grey Swan Fraternity. More on Monday, enjoy your holiday. P.P.S. Thereâs not a lot to say about Donald Trump being fined $355 million in a New York court and banned from doing business in the State for 3 years. Heâs a businessman. His organization borrowed money from banks. Paid them back with interest. If it was a crime, thereâs no victim. Like Elon Musk moving SpaceX from Delaware to Texas last week because the Delaware courts arbitrarily ruled against Muskâs compensation package previously approved by shareholders, Trump will have to move his business from New York to other more business-friendly climes⦠like Florida The Daily Missive from The Wiggin Sessions is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. We do not rent or share your email address. 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