Every TV show now begins with two words: “Previously On”.
On the one hand, it’s a nod to any newbies who might be watching. These are the basic story threads you need to know about. But, on the other hand, the “Previously On” part of a show is where the storytellers get to remind the whole audience about certain important, key details from the story’s past that are about to become very important to the story’s future.
The point is, “Previously On” begins with a very clear concept: THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW.
This is what the story — and its characters — have revealed and revealed about themselves so far. This is our accumulated, aggregated knowledge. This is our STARTING POINT going forward.
Why, I’d like to know, can’t journalists — well, our most of our video journalists for sure — do this simple, storytelling thing? Why can’t they aggregate a story before reporting on it? Why can’t they start from what we know so far instead of what we knew back then (whenever “then” was)?
It’s like watching a TV show where the audience is always miles ahead of the storytellers because the audience has been keeping track of the story while the tellers keep going back to “fade in”.
If America’s journalists had been keeping track of Donald Trump — adding to what we know about him and then basing all new reporting off of that — Donald Trump would never have been president in the first place. That is, he would never have gotten close enough for his pal Vladimir to vote suppress & cheat “wins” out of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2016. That’s because even before Trump ran, we knew — meaning the information was available in the public domain if only one went looking for it (journalistically) — that Donald Trump was a criminal.
In 2017, before the Democrats re-took the House and the Republicans were going after the Steele Dossier (because they knew it was damning and damaging to them), they hauled Fusion GPS’s co-founder Glenn Simpson (formerly a writer for the Wall Street Journal) before the Senate Judiciary Committee (August 27, 2017). Before Fusion went to work for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, its oppo research on Donald Trump was financed by the Washington Free Beacon — backers of Jeb Bush at the time.
What motivated Fusion to sub-contract out to Christopher Steele, was the question. Steele had been The Guy running the MI6’s Russia Desk. He had the best sources inside Russia of anyone outside Russia. Steele’s rep was solid top to bottom. When the FBI went after FIFA’s Sep Blatter for corruption, they hired Chris Steele to do a lot of heavy lifting for them. He’s good.
But, WHY did Fusion feel the need to sub-contract anything out to Chris Steele? Simpson testified that, upon the hire, Fusion did what they always did — what any reputable research company would do: their due diligence. In Fusion’s case, it got its hands on every PUBLICLY AVAILABLE newspaper article, magazine piece, radio interview, TV appearance — anything and everything about Donald Trump. They researched online. They bought things from Amazon. They listened to Howard Stern. They went to old book stores and combed the shelves. They even went to the public library.
Simpson testified that what Fusion found there — in publicly available material — convinced them that Donald Trump was very possibly a criminal. A shitload of evidence pointed to Trump laundering Russian mob money through the buying and selling of condos in Trump properties and (especially) through his (now bankrupt) Atlantic City casinos. Regardless of whether Trump humiliated himself sexually with Russian hookers on video or humiliated himself by being overtly racist (on video) while Russian hookers pissed all over the bed in Moscow where the Obamas slept, Trump laundered Russian mob money. As much as Trump and those around him insist that “Trump’s a germaphone! He would never consort with hookers!” no one has yet asserted “And he would never launder money for Russian mobsters”.
Strange that, don’tcha think?
You’d think, in the story we’re all bingeing on because it’s our lives, that THAT kind of detail — that no one denies Trump’s a money launderer for the Russian mob — would make it onto the “Previously On” somewhere somehow. And yet, between CNN & MSNBC, no one seems to grasp how stories and storytelling works. They certainly don’t grasp that, in a sense, ALL stories begin with a collective sense of “Previously On”.
If our MSM had “Previously On-ed” this story from the beginning, here’s (a little of) what that “Previously On” would contain…
PREVIOUSLY ON “The Trump Shit Show”:
A family history of racism.
A personal history of involvement with organized crime and criminals.
A further personal history that Trump insists remain hidden from view including his school records, health records and tax returns.
Did we mention that Trump still refuses to show us his tax returns?
Admissions to acts of sexual assault.
An ex-wife who accused him of raping her.
Fraudulent use of his beauty pageant.
Accusations of walking in on underage beauty pageant contestants so he could ogle them.
Accusations — and VIDEO — of inappropriate touching and outright assault.
A history of making wildly inappropriate statements about having sex with underage girls including his own daughter Ivanka.
A long, sordid history with Russia and Russians (including money laundering and likely recruitment by Russian intelligence).
A long and consistent string of business failures and bankruptcies.
A long and consistent pattern of abusive litigiousness.
A long history of dubious hiring practices.
A complete and utter lack of taste.
He paid off Stormy Daniels (and other women) before Election 2016 — specifically to keep those stories from coming out before the election.
He accepted illegal campaign donations.
He openly conspired with Wikileaks and Russia throughout the election.
Mitch McConnell refused to let We The People in on the secret that Russia was actively trying to make Donald Trump POTUS. At the September “Gang Of 8 Meeting” in the White House, McConnell told Obama that if he made that fact public, McConnell would accuse Obama of politicizing the intelligence. In point of fact, Obama was trying to tell America the truth.
Mitch McConnell got the sanctions lifted on Russian spy Oleg Deripaska in order to score $300 million for a Russian aluminum factory in western Kentucky. Deripaska was sanctioned BECAUSE HE HELPED THROW THE 2016 ELECTION to Trump.
He openly admitted to racism: “Mexicans are rapists“.
He openly admitted to rape-behavior (“pussy-grabbing“).
He openly admitted to more racism: “There are decent people on both sides“.
He violated his oath of office the moment he took it. He has violated the Constitution’s Emoluments clause every second of his presidency.
His political party openly broke every established norm that allowed for bi-partisan governance. Mitch McConnell denying Merrick Garland a hearing was a Constitutional crisis all by itself because one branch of govt was denying another its Constitutionally mandated role. We The People voted for Barack Obama. THAT was his authority to nominate judges.
The Republican Party KNEW that members of their party were taking money from Russia.
The NRA took shitloads of money from Russia.
The NRA — and lots of Republicans — were compromised by highly skilled, highly trained Russian Intelligence Officer Maria Butina.
Everyone at the July 2016 Trump Tower meeting knew exactly what they were doing.
The Mueller Report does not exonerate Donald Trump. In fact, it does the opposite.
Donald Trump has behaved not just “strangely” toward Russian president Vladimir Putin (and every Russian), he’s behaved TREASONSLY.
Donald Trump tried to extort Ukraine — which is ILLEGAL.
Donald Trump asked China for help on Biden — which is ILLEGAL.
Trump has clearly conspired with Saudi Arabia’s MBS to cover up the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump’s tax cut for the rich screwed the economy. Everyone agrees.
Donald Trump has put children in cages. He’s separated families possibly forever and traumatized literally thousands of children.
Trump has lied an extraordinary number of times for a human being never mind the President of the United States.
Trump has called the press “The Enemy Of The People” and treated them that way.
Trump’s pandemic response is directly responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans.
The only reason Trump hasn’t been indicted yet is because of a bizarre Department of Justice rule (meant to keep Spiro Agnew from pardoning Nixon). At present he is “UNINDICTED CO-CONSPIRATOR #1” in the Michael Cohen case.
Donald Trump has obstructed justice every day of his presidency. Bill Barr is not behaving as the country’s chief law officer.
Bill Barr OPENLY LIED about what the Mueller Report says.
Donald Trump has gutted the federal government. One of the agencies he gutted would have been actively engaged early on at mitigating coronavirus’ impact on us, our health, our economy.
Tune in tomorrow. You know there’ll be lots more…