Trump Attorney Rips Off Mic After Questioning from CBSN Anchor [2021)

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/senate-acquits-trump-impeachment-lawyer-michael-van-der-veen/#x

It turns out some of the greatest patriots in the United States of America are still to be found in the northeast.

They may be few and far between, but they are powerful.

Donald Trump of Queens, New York.

Rudy Giuliani of New York City.

And now Michael van der Veen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

You’ve heard of a “mic drop”.

And this is literally that (if not a “mic throw” [with a lavalier microphone, no less]).

But that’s not the important part.

It was a punctuation of disgust.

But what is important here is that “reality has erupted within the spectacle” (to paraphrase Guy Debord).

This is as close as many people are ever going to get to seeing Peter Finch in Network shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!!”.

And this is as close to a real-world example of that famous filmic moment that any of us have probably ever seen.

Lana Zak has the condescending fake kindness of Jen Psaki and all the charm of a 1980s android prototype.

Kamala Harris is fake as fuck.

Lana Zak is fake as fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

She has to sound disappointed.

And no doubt, she IS disappointed.

That Trump was acquitted.

She has to speak in somber tones.

Because there is only one side to every story.

And she has a role to play in holding up that one side.

From the University of Iowa to Harvard–from ABC to CBS, Lana Zak has proven that she can be trusted (to let absolutely no news leak through the fortified establishment filter).

After many years, she has been rewarded with an anchorship.

She has to sound excited and inspired that seven Republicans in the Senate voted to convict Trump.

This is very hopeful to her.

Her voice rises…as if imagining a future where all dissent will be squashed and her point of view (which just happens to align perfectly with the establishment point of view) is the only view allowed at all…ever…at all times…in all places.

But in the meantime, she is indulging in gross agenda setting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda-setting_theory

She calls the “assault” on the Capitol “deadly”.

Is she referring to Brian Sicknick?

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/maga-blood-libel-why-are-they-hiding-the-medical-report/

Or Ashli Babbitt?

Or the two Capitol Police officers who committed suicide (were suicided?) after the incursion?

Indeed, Brian Sicknick died after the incursion as well (and not, as the above link points out, in the way which most media have described).

Therefore, the “deadly” “assault” on the Capitol, then, was merely deadly for one side:  the side which broke into the Capitol.

Ashli Babbitt was unarmed.

She was shot in the head by a still-to-be-named Capitol Police officer.

She died minutes later.

I am willing to bet that Lana Zak has never said the words, “Ashli Babbitt” on air.

And I’m equally willing to bet that she has said the words “Brian Sicknick” quite a few times on the air.

Yes, there were other “medical emergencies” at the scene.

But all on the side of the protestors.

A Trump supporter had a heart attack when a stun grenade went off near him.

But you won’t hear much about that.

And you won’t hear anyone #SayHerName in regards to unarmed victim of excessive police force Ashli Babbitt.

You won’t even hear about how she was a 14-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

You won’t hear about how she did three tours of duty in Iraq/Afghanistan only to be gunned down, unarmed, in her own Capitol Building.

You won’t hear #HandsUpDontShoot in regards to her.

You will only hear about Brian Sicknick and how he was bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher.

Except he wasn’t.

There is no proof of that.

The New York Times has had to retract that claim.

Every other news outlet ran with it as well.

Except that it appears to be untrue.

It is not supported by ANYTHING.

No video evidence.

No medical evidence.

The worst part is, that is probably the least strange thing about Brian Sicknick’s death.

Again, read it here:

https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/maga-blood-libel-why-are-they-hiding-the-medical-report/

So it should come as little surprise that Michael van der Veen is mad as hell.

The people who stole the election in his city and state (Philadelphia/Pennsylvania) have spray-painted “traitor” on his front driveway in red along with arrows pointing at his house.

All for upholding the due process rights of Donald Trump.

But the very first link in this article, indeed the whole reason for this article, is that no one has so succinctly voiced the disgust that (let’s say) 78 million Trump voters (McInerney numbers) have felt and are still feeling.

We hear about the coup in Myanmar, but how many of you know that Biden and the National Guard are planning on being in D.C. continuously until March 2022?

That news was released today.

Find it.

I’m not going to do all your work for you.

Don’t believe me?

Fine.

Have no vested interest?

Don’t care?

Not my problem.

The global media is non-critically reporting (amplifying) that protestors in Myanmar have the moral high ground.

The same media that told us Trump’s claims of election fraud were “baseless” (thanks, CIA) is taking that same show on the road.

All claims of election fraud in Myanmar (the official reason for the coup) are also “baseless”, we are told.

When the media is slightly less sloppy, they use the word “unfounded”.

But it’s not sloppiness.

It’s signalling [sic]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

If you know the true facts, you know that Twitter suspended Trump IMMEDIATELY AFTER he posted a video urging calm during the #Jan6 events.

Again, Twitter PREVENTED the sitting U.S. President from getting out a message to CALM HIS FOLLOWERS DOWN.

They did this by disabling the ability of the tweet to be shared.

President calls for peace.

Twitter stifles message.

You do the math.

But Twitter’s not on trial.

Twitter pays no price (other than a billion+ in market cap.).

Jack Dorsey pays no price.

He can go on reading The Satanic Verses and twiddling his beard and tweeting about pasta:

Screen Shot 2020-10-21 at 5.25.50 AM

Vijaya Gadde pays no price.

The House impeachment managers are bad “lawyers”.

Jamie Raskin has a J.D. from Harvard.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

Joaquin Castro has a J.D. from Harvard.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

David Cicilline has a J.D. from Georgetown.

Will he be held accountable for the manipulated evidence presented at the impeachment trial?

Madeleine Dean has a J.D. from Wiedner University.

Will she be held accountable for the manipulated evidence?

Diana DeGette has a J.D. from NYU.

Will she be held accountable for the manipulated evidence?

Ted Lieu has a J.D. from Georgetown.

Will he be held accountable?

Joe Neguse has a J.D. from the University of Colorado.

Will he be held accountable?

Stacey Plaskett has a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

What about her?

Eric Swallwell has a J.D. from University of Maryland, likely slept with a suspected Chinese spy for four years, and is still on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees.

I won’t even bother asking again.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/02/politics/house-impeachment-managers/

https://www.axios.com/china-spy-california-politicians-9d2dfb99-f839-4e00-8bd8-59dec0daf589.html

https://www.oaoa.com/editorial/columns/opinion_columnist/hart-the-spy-who-shagged-well/article_64e1c9a2-41ce-11eb-8e36-035c4c7e880c.html

https://www.limaohio.com/opinion/columns/440774/column-chinese-spy-scandal-may-inclue-a-possible-sex-for-secrets-swap

“The prosecutors in this case doctored evidence.”

True.

“I’m not surprised to hear a politician say anything at all.”

Michael van der Veen:  citizen.

Listen to the world “all”.

Awl.

Peg and awl.

WWG1WGA.

E pluribus unum.

“What happened at the Capitol on January 6th was absolutely horrific, but what happened at the Capitol during this trial was, uh, not too far away from that.”

I agree.

Again.

“The prosecutors in this case doctored evidence.”

“The American people should not be putting up with this.  They need to look at who, uh, who these House managers were, uh, and look to see whether these are the folks they want representing them.”

Here’s where Lana Zak goes into full-on #SuppressionNews mode.

She HAS to SHUT DOWN Michael van der Veen.

She talks to her viewers like they are children.

And indeed, anyone relying upon Lana Zak and CBS News for anything resembling the truth are mental midgets.

“TO BE CLEAR FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

“TO BE CLEAR FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

[don’t listen to what this man is saying]

“I want to be CLEAR…FOR OUR VIEWERS…”

“The media has to start telling the right story in this country.  The media is trying to divide this country.  You are bloodthirsty for ratings and, as such, you are asking questions now that are…already set up with a fact pattern [#AgendaSettingTheory ].  I can’t believe you would ask me a question indicating that it’s alright just to doctor a little bit of evidence.”

“And the media should be looking at that at a square, straight way.  A straight way!  When I watch the news, I watch one station and it’s raining.  I watch another station at the same time and it’s sunny.  Your coverage is SO SLANTED…it’s gotta stop! You guys gotta stop…and start reporting more like PBS does…rather than…uh uh uh uh uh…TV news show that doesn’t have any journalistic integrity at all.  What I’m telling you is that they doctored evidence…and I believe your question says, ‘well, it’s only a Twitter check and, uh, changing a date of a year here.’  They switch the date of a Twitter A YEAR to try to connect it to this case.  That’s not a small thing, ma’am.  The other thing they did is they put a check mark on something to to try and make it look like it was a validated account when it wasn’t.  And when they were caught, they didn’t say anything about it.  They didn’t even try to come up with an excuse about it.  And that’s not the way our prosecutors OR our government officials should be conducting themselves.”

At this point I lost power and was freezing my ass off for the past few hours.

I wrote a really great ending to this piece, but it’s gone.

I’m gonna go ahead and publish this before the power goes off again.

Two days later (after 33-straight hours without electricity or heat) I am adding tags to this.

-PD

Democrats [2014)

For so long I dreamed.

Of visiting Africa.

Merely in film.

To say that I was not narrow-minded.

And to honor the one friend I have ever known from that beautiful continent.

A native of Chad.

Tchad.

And a former resident of Côte d’Ivoire.

Because I love geography.

But, even more, I love people.

And I am pleased to report that this documentary, about ZIMBABWE, is a masterpiece.

Directed by a Dane (as in Denmark) by the name of Camilla Nielsson.

And currently available in the U.S. for streaming on Netflix.

It is a recursive process.

For so long I cried.

When I thought of slavery.

When I saw the beautiful face of a black man.

And the teeth with many gaps.

I now know.

I can say.

My dear friend.

You look like you may have come from Zimbabwe.

But recursion may become tiresome.

So we will plop with geography for a moment.

Sadly ignoring Chad and Ivory Coast for the time being, we must locate (firmly) Zimbabwe on a map.

Champagne Castle.

Remove your sanctions.

Remove your sunshades.

Looks like South Africa (south)…and Botswana (west)…additionally Mozambique (east)…and gets hairy from there.

But you needs must only remember that the two Zs flock together:  Zimbabwe and Zambia.

And so to the north (by way of northwest [not possible]) is Zambia.

Lusaka.

And over Angola is Luanda.

Lusaka.

Luanda.

You are really getting the hang of this 🙂

Have you thought about working for the State Department?

Recursive.

Going back.

But wait…there’s less!

Just remember that Zimbabwe is southeast Afrique.

Not on the coast.

That’s -zambique.

But landlocked.

Have you ever heard the rot of colonialism?

No no.

Have you ever heard a landlocked brass band?

The pitiful, wailing clarinets…

Landlocked is potentially poverty.

At the mercy of your neighbors.

Over land.  Over sea.

One.  Two.  If.

Recur thyself!

No…

We must say it:  MUGABE!

A big, fucking rockstar of totalitarianism.

Nah…

Dictatorshit!

Yes.  His dictator shit!

As when the Dalai Lama was a boy.

And they kept his turds.

Because he was some kind of golden child.

But President Mugabe (since 1980) will forever have the ignominy of that desafinado military band behind him.

Celebrations like dirges.

Gloriously out of tune!

Nothing slight about it!!

And every head bows…and every knee genuflects in fealty.

A spry 93 years old.

And President of Zimbabwe for a mere 37 years.

He ain’t a king.

And worse:  he’s only 4th on the list of usurping motherfuckers!

You’d have to go to shitholes like Angola (ahh, Luanda…), Cameroon, and the kicker (!) Equatorial Guinea to find jerks who have managed to outlast the black Hitler.

But I like Mugabe.

[what?????????]

No, no…let me explain.

First:  the guy does have a Hitler mustache.  More or less.

But that’s not why I like him.  I don’t dig Hitler.

Wait…do I like Mugabe?

Well, there’s a time and place for everything (and everyone).

As you watch Democrats (mercifully…for all involved…NOT about the U.S. Democratic Party), you might grow attached to the various fuckers involved.

Politicians.

Lawyers!

But Third World lawyers.

Some sad shit…

But most importantly:  brave, noble human beings.

You wanna see a real revolution?

Watch this film.

You wanna see some real sacrifices for democracy?

Watch this film.

To be sure…democracy is ugly!

And we Americans are the best at it.

Anything goes!

Fight, fuck, kill…but more like lie, cheat, deceive…yeah.

Democracy brings out the worst in people.

But it arrives at the best result.

It’s a goddamned crucible.

Just to think…that the master copy of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (ostensibly the subject of this film) was on a fucking Dell laptop.

Dell.

Right up the road from me.

Round Rock.

In the Westerns…

&

Michael Dell’s Horatio Alger story…at UT-Austin.

Even closer to me.

And #vault7.

So that we know that every scintilla–every Oxford comma was hacked by the CIA and/or NSA and known throughout the Five Eyes…even before the leaked hard copy hit newsstands in Harare.

Ah!

Another capital…

Reçu.

I can never go back.  Enough.  TO give you a full telling.

I guess Paul Mangwana is still alive.

This.

The character that grows on you.

From chuckling social engineer.

To political operative shitting his pants.

How do you say “damage control” in Shona?

Exactly.

And Susan Rice is a bitch.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Because Democrats so precisely parallels the recent U.S. election.

The drama.  Allegations.

The swaggering strongman.

Yeah…Juan Williams would ride to town on that correlation.

So is Trump Mugabe?

Fuck no.

Not yet.

And probably not ever.

But liberals will have a field day with this possibility.

Social justice warriors will mouth off like the surly reporter from South Africa.

What an asshole!

And so we sympathize with Mr. Mangwana.

What a precarious position he was put in!

To try and bring the illusion of constitutionality to the ZANU-PF party.

But wait a minute…wait a minute…you ain’t heard nothing yet!

Remember, remember…that a black leader can repress black people.

America thought it was fine and dandy…and candy-shop clean when it elected CIA agent Barack Obama.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

One doesn’t investigate one’s own employer pursuant to crimes against humanity (9/11) when such equates to biting the hand that feeds.

Obama lost control.

And tried to get a little African in his lame-duck months.

Oops.

Yes…only democracy in the Middle East?  Israel?  You’ve got to be joking.

And Zimbabweans were so hopeful after the Mwangana/Mwonzora conclave wrapped up its two-year-overlong constitutional convention.

Got a little #MAGA in you?

Check out how a constitution is crafted.

If wasn’t all ass-kissing in Philadelphia.

Some genuinely contentious points.

And the Obamacare “Repeal and Replace” that just narrowly failed.

Think that wasn’t stressful?

Freedom Caucus gonna be outta jobs.

Saving their butts.

Sorry fuckers…

But I wouldn’t take their job for anything.

To be in that position.

Because.

We live a little while.

And then we die.

And so Camilla Nielsson deserves a Nobel (or at least a can of General Snus)…because she captured REAL, FUCKING LIFE here.

She doesn’t tell you what to think.

She says (in effect):  “figure it out”.

Here’s the facts. Figure it out.

“I have seen what I have seen”, wrote Ezra Pound in his second Canto.

I can’t explain it.

Some drumming.

Women making turkey noises.

Weird, macarena dances.

And a little boy gets beaten to death.

All to write a new constitution.

And Douglas Mwonzora is right:  Mugabe is evil.

That is a totally valid perspective.

Having seen this film.

[ahh…]

One source.

Never was anything decided on the basis of one source.

But circumstantial runs up against direct.

Very good, Eric Bolling!

And Tony Shaffer was better with MacGuffin.

But that’s just because this is Dossier du cinema.

Not cool enough for diacritics.

One final word…

Mugabe persists from the Soviet era.

Figure it out.

Is he a friend of NATO?

Do the geopolitical math.

Ruminate on AFRICOM.

Pound…was no patriot.  Of his own country.  In a traditional sense.

And the most I can bring you is this.

This attestation to genius.

The genius of Democrats by Camilla Nielsson.

And the sad face of former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai…leader of the opposition MDC party.

Sad.

Like his face had been bashed in few too many times.

And maybe we don’t wanna know.

But the cowed look says it all.

And Douglas Mwonzora risks it all.

Three days in jail without food or water.  Plus another 18 days to make it a full three weeks.

Mr. Mwonzora.

So calm.

Collected.

That cool we see in Jafar Panahi.

Yes.

You can jail me.

But you will have to thoroughly kill me.

To stop me.

From doing what I love.

-PD

تاکسی‎‎ [2015)

[JAFAR PANAHI’S TAXI (2015)]

This must be “Axis of Evil” week here at paulydeathwish.com 🙂

As I have stated recently to a friend.

George W. Bush was the worst President the United States has ever seen.

And Barack Obama was probably the second-worst.

So what does that make me?

Democrat?

Republican?

Libertarian?

Let’s get to that question (if you even care to know) by a circuitous route, shall we?

First, we must again praise the people of Iran.

It was long ago that I saw my first Iranian film.

Taste of Cherry.

طعم گيلاس…‎‎

[Ta’m-e gīlās…]

It was such a profound experience.

There I was.

In a movie theater in Austin.

And I couldn’t have given a shit about cinema.

But I was there.

For some reason.

God only knows why.

And I saw a movie which in many ways changed my life.

[but it took many years to sink in]

Even so, I came to regard the name of its director (Abbas Kiarostami) with a sort of awe.

Yet, I doubted.

[as we all well should]

And so I said to the cinema gods, “Let Kiarostami perform his miracle again…if he be so brilliant!”

And he did.

I was supposed to be watching Life, and Nothing More…

But I made a mistake.

Because my French is so bad.

[you know, Kiarostami died in Paris last year (may God rest his soul)]

I needed 1991, but I chose 1990.

And it was another miracle.

Close-Up.

I don’t know.

Is it…

کلوزآپ ?

Or…

نمای نزدیک ?

[“Klūzāp”?  Or “nemā-ye nazdīk”?]

Because the unfailing Google Translate (now the second-most popular “tr” search after “Trump” [as “translate”]) tells me that both terms mean “close-up”.

But who can translate Trump?

[ahhh…]

Perhaps only an Iranian?

Well, we would be in good hands if director Jafar Panahi was that man.

Why?

Because Mr. Panahi has made a film which is of the same rarefied air as the two Kiarostami films which I have referenced.

The work is called Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, and it is currently available on Netflix in the U.S.

No, it’s not a really trite game show.

No, it’s not some premise for an uncreative pornographer.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi ( تاکسی) pushes the limits of barebones filmmaking in much the same way that the Palestinian masterpiece 5 Broken Cameras did.

[yes, I know the latter film was an Israeli coproduction…with an Israeli co-director…‎‎but the film was very much Palestinian in its inmost heart]

What our director Mr. Panahi adds to the method (budget cinematography) is an uncertainty of reality.

Frankly, I have never seen a film quite like Jafar Panahi’s Taxi.

Is it a documentary?  Is it staged?

One thing’s for sure.

If it’s staged, the injured man and his wailing wife deserve Oscars “toot sweet”!

Truly, it is panic-inducing…

Which is not true of this film in general.

No, dear eggshell friends (if you’re out there)…don’t be afraid.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi will only take you on a “wondrous boat ride” (so to speak) for a brief, more-or-less manageable period of time.

The rest of the film is fascinating…engrossing…painfully and gloriously perplexing.

Yes, Mr. Panahi borrows Kiarostami’s favorite device:  filming from a moving vehicle.

But so what?!?

Panahi was an assistant director to Kiarostami.

And Abbas certainly wasn’t the first to film out of a car window.

But let’s examine for a moment…

Yes, the special part of this method is that the camera is turned INWARDS.

And so we feel we are seeing Homayoun Ershadi vacillate between life and death…all over again.

Or we feel we are seeing the calm, gracious mannerisms of Mohsen Makhmalbaf transposed from motorcycle to taxicab.

But what we are seeing most of all is a director stepping in front of the camera.

Like Truffaut.

And Chaplin before him.

Godard has done it to excellent effect as well.

And Jafar Panahi is like an empty reed of meditation as he navigates an unending stream of chaos which enters his faux-taxi.

But the most poignant moments are when Hana Saeidi reminds us of the childish joy of being an auto passenger…and when the lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh addresses us…we, the watchers of cinema.

Who will watch those watching the watchers?

It’s like Juvenal in a hall of mirrors.

But Ms. Sotoudeh breaks the fourth wall and takes us to a very special place.

Prison.

And so, again, frankly:  we don’t know how Jafar Panahi’s Taxi was ever made.

Isn’t Iran one of the most intolerant countries on Earth?

Just what is going on here??

All of this Shostakovich-ean rebellion is really breathtaking when under the microscope of close viewing.

But Jafar Panahi remains stone-faced.

Like Buster Keaton.

Yet, this is largely no comedy.

This is a big “fuck you” to the government of Iran.

And yet, it is the most subtle “fuck you” ever committed to film.

Only a genius can do such things.

DSCH

etc.

Yes, dear friends.  Mr. Panahi has been banned from making films.

And yet he made one.

And then another.

And then this one.

So we salute you, Mr. Panahi.

We appreciate such in America.

To illustrate:

<–fuck you, fuck you–>, and most of all…fuck you ^

That is freedom.

It is ugly.

Messy.

But it works.

And so as a Donald Trump supporter (yes, me), I say, “bring it on, you whiny, sub-literate protesters!”

Maybe they’re right.

But it’s their right.

To protest.

And so we mix and knead.

And we need the yeast of dissent to ever grow again.

Let’s bake some goddamned bread, people!

-PD