The news is supposed to be all about me

Drat, the post election euphoria didn’t last nearly long enough.

In the midst of the election results news yesterday the nasty guy fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He must have been annoyed that the news wasn’t about him, so did something vile to make sure he was the focus of attention again. The temporary AG, until a new one can be confirmed, isn’t Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, it is Chief of Staff Matthew Whitaker. A sensible question is why him? Whitaker and the nasty guy appear to agree on one thing: Whitaker’s role at the Justice Department is to shield the nasty guy from justice.

And, of course, that means threatening to shut down Robert Mueller’s investigation of the nasty guy and Russia. Though by now, a day later, he may have already done it.

The group Nobody Is Above the Law asked people to sign up several months ago, when the nasty guy needed some sort of distraction and threatened to fire Rosenstein. This group said that if the investigation was under threat they would call for protests the next day. So yesterday I got a notice a protest was set for this afternoon at 5:00. I had originally signed up for a protest in Ann Arbor, but when the notice actually came I found a protest in my own little suburb, one of 28 around Michigan and hundreds across the country. So I went to the local one.

I counted 80 people who braved the late afternoon cold. I’m sure a few more showed up while we were there. The organizer brought extra signs. I met a few people I had worked with on the gerrymandering campaign. We walked in an oval and chanted for about an hour.

Our little protest was along a busy street and next to the police station. Nearby is the district court and the street back to the court has an appropriate name. We had been marching for a while, chanting “No justice, no peace” when I noticed how appropriate that street’s name was.

Here’s another way the nasty guy inserted himself back into the news cycle. Jim Acosta is White House reporter for CNN and a regular target of the nasty guy’s ire. Yesterday Acosta asked a question about the nasty guy’s incendiary language. The nasty guy tried to shut down the question, Acosta persisted. A female WH intern tried to take the microphone from Acosta. Acosta fended off her grab.

The WH suspended Acosta’s press pass. He was accused of assaulting the female intern. Quite quickly the WH issued a video saying it “proved” the assault. Those familiar with video work just as quickly said the film had been doctored.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville noted:

This was clearly a set-up. And it should terrify and enrage all of us that the White House is engaging in this sort of manipulation, propaganda, and personal attacks on journalists as the president's war on the free press continues to escalate.

And fuck everyone who is calling this "a distraction." This isn't a distraction. This is what life looks like under an authoritarian regime, and we had better damn well be paying attention.

Andrea Mitchell reports the confrontation was planned in advance to distract the media from the Democratic victory. A woman was chosen to attempt to grab the mic so the WH could flip the narrative that had been used against Brett Kavanaugh.

McEwan added:

The time between when I say, "This administration is doing X" and people call me a hysterical conspiracy theorist, and then I'm proven right, keeps getting shorter and shorter. #Cassandra

For those who don’t remember their Greek mythology, Cassandra was a woman who always told the truth but was never believed. That led to nasty consequences during the Trojan War.