March 20, 2018

Lou Dobbs and Sebastian Gorka had a get-together on Fox Business last night to help viewers understand that the law enforcement agencies we rely upon for everything from counterterrorism operations to financial fraud investigations is a "viper's den, thanks to Eric Holder and Obama and Loretta Lynch."

What do those three people have in common? What could it be, what could it be?

Oh, it must be that they're BLACK PEOPLE, which Dobbs never says but just conveys via his sneers as he pours forth about what the damn black people did to the DOJ.

"Can you clean the stables of the American Department of Justice?," Gorka wondered aloud.

This might be a good time to remind everyone that Sebastian Gorka does not exactly have a squeaky-clean record. In fact, he had an arrest warrant pending against him in Hungary, which seems to have been dropped now that he has left the White House.

Dobbs, not to be one-upped by the Hungarian gun-toter with an accent, added, "It's important to think back to where do Mueller and Comey come from?"

Answering his own question, he said, "They come from the stable of Eric Holder who had in the Clinton years as the earliest influences on them."

What does that even mean, Lou? But he wasn't done. Indignant, he continued, "Then to track their career over the course of a square century."

Dobbs never mentioned what that meant. But we do have some facts which the Google will spit up, even to Lou Dobbs. Here is one: Robert Mueller was appointed as FBI Director by George W. Bush and confirmed by the Republican Senate. He was asked to stay on for two additional years by President Obama, who was dealing with the fallout of the financial crisis, among other things.

Undeterred by easily discoverable facts, Dobbs spewed, "This is beyond a network of corrupt politicized cronies!"

"This is something close to some sort of organized criminal element within the Department of Justice working against the very purpose of the department."

OH. A CABAL.

Gorka agreed. "It's a conspiracy," he said. "These are individuals who committed felonies. None of them should be in the positions they hold. Some of them are still there. They should all be put on suspension. They should go to clean agencies and clean field offices. Get out of the swamp."

All of which is quite ironic coming from Dr. "I can't get a security clearance" Sebastian Gorka.

After nattering about the FISA court and the judge with the Mexican name (Contreras) that they agreed was useless too, they turned on Trey Gowdy, too, criticizing him for not being able to beat up Hillary Clinton harder and more during the -- wait for it -- BENGHAZI hearing.

This exchange caught my eye because of the time I spent following the Groundswell "messaging group," of which Sebastian Gorka was a part. This group existed and still exists to create messages, sneak them online via chosen messengers, drop them in the echo chamber, bubble them up to Fox News and right-wing radio, and hammer them home on shows like this. See, for example, how they invented the ACA hostage scenario that ultimately shut down the government and other scandals. When I was tracking them, they were developing their strategies alongside Steve Bannon, Cambridge Analytica, and the Republican Party for 2014 and 2016. Listen to the audio recording where they planned the attack on Hillary Clinton over Benghazi in 2013. It's instructive to hear Bannon caution them not to play the Benghazi card on Hillary Clinton too soon because they definitely wanted it not to "appear political" when it clearly was.

As Ellen noted in her roundup, the entire claim that the DOJ is infested with some kind of "secret cabal" is absurd paranoid fantasy, but by the time this group is done I guarantee you it will have echoed across every single right wing blog, radio show, podcast, and television channel, and the blame for the non-existent cabal will be placed at the feet of the black folks, so they can stoke and inflame the right-wing nativists who represent Trump's core.

Working together behind the scenes to gaslight the nation is the work of a cabal, but it's not the black folks anyone needs to fear. It's these white cynical well-paid liars.

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