All Eyes on Michael Cohen

Whoa, today was a crazy, loaded day! And not just because Joe Rogan had Alex Jones back on his podcast for almost 5 hours. But because today the whole country was subjected to watching Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee. I watched the whole thing and I must admit, I was very tempted to switch to Rogan’s show, but I managed to push through till the end.

So. There’s several reasons why I’m frustrated with today’s crap show. First of all, the whole hearing didn’t really give us much additional information that we didn’t already know. It was pure political theater and honestly, if you read Cohen’s opening statement, I don’t think you should waste your time watching the hearing. Second, the reason it felt like political theater was because almost everything that was touched upon was simply embarrassing gossipy stories about Trump, which are just headline-worthy. They may not be illegal or impeachable but they do create a narrative and shape public opinion, and the media is thrilled by that.

Cohen is going to jail on May 6 and he will stay there for maybe 3 years. We don’t know exactly how long because from what I gathered today, it seems like he is negotiating to reduce his sentence. And another thing that was frustrating, as I was watching the hearing, is he is not going to jail for anything that the Democrats wished he was. There is no Russian collusion or Russian conspiracy in the list of his indictments. Michael Cohen was indicted on a number of accounts, including 4 accounts of tax fraud, 1 account of bank fraud, 2 accounts of campaign finance violations, and 1 account of perjury. Michael Cohen is going to jail for ancillary crimes that have nothing to do with the initial claim of the Democrats that there was collusion between the Trump team and Russia. But the way Democrats asked their questions today, every time they led up to something along the lines of “And you’re going to jail and Trump is not!” Um, yeah, Cohen is going to jail because he is riddled with criminal activity that is ancillary to what you just questioned him on.

Which brings me to the third reason why I was so frustrated at today’s hearing and that is because today was a day that was filled with real newsworthy stories, yet the entire country locked their eyes on a sleezy disgraced lawyer-now convicted liar who, with or without this hearing, is going to jail. It didn’t provide much new worthy evidence about anything, in my opinion, except that it gave birth to some great soundbites which I’m sure the media will run with for days, if not weeks. And in the meantime, President Trump is having a summit with North Korea negotiating the dictatorship’s nuclear disarmament. Or how about the VERY newsworthy story about Pakistan taking down two Indian planes, which could potentially lead to a nuclear war? But sure, let’s suck the air out of the room by filling the news cycle with the testimony of a convicted liar who will tell us more about the check he paid to a porn star, or the tricks Trump uses to boost his ego, or his SAT scores.

If today’s testimony felt like a distraction, that’s because, in my opinion, it probably was a distraction.

Disclaimer: The image featured in this post was offered on Flick by DonkeyHotey