Think Republicans Went Bonkers Over the Nunes Memo? Just Wait.

[babylonsister]

http://prospect.org/article/think-republicans-went-bonkers-over-nunes-memo-just-wait

Think Republicans Went Bonkers Over the Nunes Memo? Just Wait.

Paul Waldman
February 4, 2018

If you thought conservative reaction to the memo was unhinged, imagine how much panic the Mueller investigation will unleash.


Did last week make you feel like you were going a little bit crazy? Well buckle up, because it's only going to get worse.

snip//

Welcome to Hannity. Breaking right now, the highly classified FISA abuse memo has now been released and it is absolutely shocking. It is stunning. Now this now is the biggest abuse of power, corruption case in American history. Now, tonight, we have irrefutable proof of a coordinated conspiracy to abuse power by weaponizing and politicizing the powerful tools of intelligence by top-ranking Obama officials against the Trump campaign, against the Constitution, and against your Fourth Amendment rights. They have been deeply shredded by deep state, unelected bureaucrats all in an attempt to influence an election and then undermine a duly elected president, that being President Trump.

This is something that should never happen in the United States of America but it has. We will go line by line through the memo's findings. It shocks the conscience. It proves that the entire basis for the Russia investigation was based on lies that were bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and her campaign. The Mueller investigation does need to be shut down and the people responsible, who we will name tonight, many need to go to jail.

What madness is this? The truth is that for someone like Hannity—whose daily audience of millions includes the president of the United States, let's not forget—the lameness of the Nunes memo only increases the need to play it up as something earth-shattering. Should his viewers decide that panic may not actually be in order, the entire justification for his genre of cable horror show would be called into question.

This problem has its roots in the Fox News ethos, which requires viewers to tune in multiple times a day to learn what and whom they should be hating and fearing. When a Democrat is in the White House it's relatively easy, since every action he takes is a catastrophe portending even worse savagery to come. But when there's a Republican president, toning things down is out of the question. That intensity, that urgency is what keeps the viewers coming back, so every threat to the president must be presented as so vile and monumental that our nation itself will crumble if his enemies are not beaten back.

And what will happen when Robert Mueller's investigation nears its end? Mueller has already indicted Trump's campaign chairman and turned two Trump advisers (George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn), who agreed to plead guilty to minor charges and tell what they know. How will Republicans in Congress and the conservative media react to the charges Mueller raises, when Trump's entire presidency is threatened?

We know already: They'll go positively bonkers. Yes, they'll argue that the whole thing can be ignored, which is part of what the Nunes memo was about: discrediting anything to do with the Russia investigation so Trump's followers will already have their fingers in their ears when Mueller finishes his work. But the more serious the charges are and the more systematic the case Mueller makes against Trump, the more they'll lose their minds. This was just a preview.

[louis-t]

1. The deplorables won't even read it. Any of it.

They'll just wait for Hannity to tell them how to feel about it.

[thbobby]

2. Some sort of civil war

could be coming. Maybe an American version of The French Revolution. RW media incites so much hatred. Hatred already existed in America, but it is being exacerbated to dangerous levels under trump. All of America's Hatred and all of America's Guns. What could go wrong?

[PJMcK]

7. Add alcohol and opioids to the equation

People could act out based on their unhinged perspectives.

[LiberalLovinLug]

13. And they have every radio station in middle America to help coordinate the 'revolution'.

The potential violence is both plausible and scary. This is why I think the Democrats need to up the rhetoric. I know they have slowly increased their tone. From mildly concerned to carefully chosen moments of dire concern, but they have to be shouting down Fox News lies on a daily basis. They have to use as strong or stronger language back. The very fabric of the democracy is at stake. I wish they'd act like it more.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. NO thinking person can watch what has transpired and conclude that

trump and team are NOT traitors.

Therefore, his supporters are OK with treason.

[Angry Dragon]

4. KICK

[chuckstevens]

5. Frankly my dear, I don't give a dam!

And I doubt that Robert Mueller does either. Truth is on our side and the mantra leading up to this needs to be "We are a nation of laws and not men!"

Then tell the Deplorables, if you don't like it, move to Russia!

[Downtown Hound]

6. Oh they'll go crazy all right

My girlfriend's RW uncle has already threatened to close his facebook account because of all the anti-Trump shit that keeps getting posted. Um, I love him and everything and he's been great to me, but too bad.

But after awhile they will resign themselves because the evidence will be too overwhelming for even their brainwashed brains. Oh sure, inside they'll be fuming, but there's not going to be much they can do about it. They will relent because in the end, they won't have a choice.

And I am going to love every minute of it.

[Turbineguy]

8. The fatal flaw in the stategy

is that people have to tune in. They can be free by changing the channel or leaving the TeeVee off.

They may not realize that they have that power. Fox needs them to want to be prisoners.

[VOX]

9. BENGHAZI II: *shocking* *coordinated conspiracy* *biggest abuse of power in American history*

The Hannity shitbird is really flogging the Breitbart-style hyperbole overtime, all in an effort to rile up the Fox faithful, and insert those insane phrases and “ideas” into our shared political “discourse.”

We’ve all been dragged down this path before, with the years-long BENGHAZI!!! investigation which, of course, had no basis in actual fact, but the “abuse of power” and “lock her up” talking points were included in every anti-Hillary screed and Trump rally-chant.

Hannity is playing with fire. Someone is going to be severely or lose their life due to this insanity. He and his guests obsess solely on this issue every night, often with raised voices and always with self-righteous outrage. He is flipping the narrative 180 degrees every 24 hours. Apparently, he is just fine about Russian tampering/hacking our elections; he’s fine with the Trump family’s colluding and conspiring with Russians; he’s fine with the fact that Russians are still at work, pushing pro-Trump propaganda on social media; he’s fine with his godhead Trump not signing the Russia sanctions that a Republican congress actually wanted, overwhelmingly.

I don’t doubt that he talks with Trump daily and coordinates his message with the Dotard’s desired talking points mixed in. It’s state television, trying to take down political opponents by whipping up rage against them.

Vlad Putin has to be loving this Category 5 shitstorm.

[procon]

10. Why is Trump and his tame Republicans always adding the line about

this or that thing being the biggest, the bestest, or the worst in all of recorded history? The lies just keep on coming.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. I'm just hoping it leads to catatonia.

They've made enough noise. Time for them to shut up as the awful truth sinks in.

[lagomorph777]

12. The human nervous system can only remain in a state of arousal for so long

before it either shuts down or starts causing stress-induced illnesses.

Unfortunately, that rule applies to us too.

[humbled_opinion]

14. I'm not convinced

to me this memo was meant to set the groundwork for another special prosecutor one that will be tasked to look into how bias against candidate Trump at the FBI/DOJ Obama Admin etc, allowed government agencies to be used to undermine the incoming administration after he won, there will be charges of sedition, etc. We are already hearing that the IG has put 5 persons at the FBI under investigation, Nunes is going after the State Dept next, that gambit will be for the unmasking done by Ambassador Powers. These tactics are dangerous to Democracy but obviously the GOP doesn't care.