Durham Dissonance: Lots Of Smoke, No Firings

We are listening to a Canadian podcast on which the Svengali behind Justin Trudeau describes Donald Trump as the lyingest liar who ever lied. (Possible). He describes Trump’s effect on public credibility in apocalyptic terms. Never is heard a word about what the Biden Crime Family has done to people’s confidence in officialdom. Nor what Trudeau’s own cupidity has wrought in Tinker Toy world.

There is bliss in the purity of his indictment.  Hustlers always enjoy bliss. While Trump’s penchant for bloviation is beyond doubt, there is something slightly mind-bending about setting down a marker on Orange Man Bad’s effect on the body politic while somehow ignoring Skippy’s effect on Canada.

Insert irony here: This chin-tugging about the dread POTUS 45 was coming just as a U.S. Special Counsel John Durham was announcing that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party conspired with the FBI/ CIA, the Obama Administration  and the legacy media to fix the 2016 presidential election. When that effort failed, the same actors staged a four-year-long running coup against a democratically elected president using the fake Russiagate narrative. (“Worse than Watergate,” thundered Watergate auteur Carl Bernstein.) If they were the tinder then the amenable media was the accelerant.

Like Trump or not— and he has created bitter enemies on both sides of the political spectrum— no president has likely ever had such treachery levelled at him. Any attempts by the Mueller Investigation or inspector-general Michael Horowitz to suggest Trump’s might be not guilty only took the fire higher for his detractors. Yet, even that religious effort almost was not enough. Had Covid not intervened Trump likely would be in the middle of his second term as we speak. 

While John Durham did not announce criminal charges, the political findings should be a irrevocable stain on the FBI, the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and their allies in media. Of course they won’t be. The purge succeeded brilliantly— a huge tranche of the public in the U.S. (and Canada) is still willfully clueless about the fraud thanks to a media that blames everything on FOX News. You can hear the believers crying to their TVs, “Rachel Maddow, I can’t quit you.” (Oddly, Carl Bernstein has gone AWOL.)

It was Veep meets Succession— punctuated by a howling media that shouted “The Walls Are Closing In” and “Blockbuster” since 2016. It’s hard to overstate the epic scope of this parade of venal, crass actors using the apparatus of government to strengthen their grasp on power. Russiagate makes Watergate look like Bonny and Clyde hitting up Dust Bowl banks.

Hours after Durham’s report went public, many of the principals who executed the fraud— like Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and John Brennan— were in their new guises as “correspondents” for MSNBC, CNN and the Big Three networks, ragging on the Report. Their point of attack was that Durham’s findings— findings they’d vehemently  denied— were old news now that they’re confirmed. This was like Nixon allies John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman parsing the Watergate burglars on Walter Cronkite’s network. 

While many signs point to the abject corruption, nothing speaks more than the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the New York Times, The Washington Post and their reporters for a story that is now entirely discredited. And the Pulitzer hacks refusing to rescind awards given to those who carried the fabrications to the public. 

“How can the journalists who bit on all the Steele stories, the Alfa nonsense, Hamilton 68 — how do you all live with yourselves?” asked independent journalist Matt Taibbi. Easy. They’re too far gone after so much time, he continues. “We now know nothing punctures the national (Trump) madness. It’ll be the same with this report. The lunatic is on the grass, and nothing will coax him off.”

None of this has gotten down to Gerry Butts and the Canadian chattering class, of course. They’re as insatiably besotted as anyone yelling “Impeach Trump” down south. The cartoon figures created by their American media idols were passionately embraced by Canada’s media, too. Perhaps with even greater venom by those Canadians who need America Hate to feel whole every day. The stories on bleach, fine people, Alfa Bank, Michael Cohen, border walls etc. were recorded as acts of faith in Canadian newsrooms. And remain so today.

The Laurentian worthies have no idea what John Durham’s report says. Worse, they don’t care. Like the words to a song they learned at camp as ten years olds, the Russiagate Rhapsody will always be in their hearts, an undisturbed moment of happier days when getting stories wrong got you promotions and journalistic prizes. You see, it’s easy to do in Canada, where Mr. Butts’ protegé buys off the media and now empowers the CRTC disinformation czars to control the message. 

What once was Canada’s modesty and trusting nature is now slack-jawed obeisance to American Woke folk. It’s sad. But Mr. Butts probably thinks it’s progress. 

Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent.  https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx