When Big Media Cried "Wag the Dog" on Stormy Daniels and Trump's Bombing of Syria

The Stormy Daniels story seems poised to dominate media coverage in the coming months. There's potentially a story there with serious policy implications, but it is now being remarkably ignored.

Trump is not my favorite subject to write about, but I feel this is important given the media obsession with him, which seems set to escalate. And I should note that along with a very small handful of people, I pegged Trump fairly well from before his presidential run, see my recent “Trump is the Opposable Thumb of the Establishment” overview.

Ref my recent piece “Worse than any Payoff: The Case of Stormy Daniels Charges and Syria Bombing Timeline -- Wag the Dog and the Dogs of War” — the “wag the dog” charge at the time of the US/UK/French April 2018 attack on Syria was fairly common. This included media figures Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Bill Maher and Kathleen Parker. But it has been rather remarkably avoided following Trump’s recent indictment as best as I can tell from several searches (I don’t typically monitor such sources). To be totally honest, I rather suspect that if “independent media” to the extent it exists were to make the “wag the dog” aspects integral to the story, Big Media might actually scale back its coverage.

Much of Big Media like to mock Trump, so with the focus now on the Stormy Daniels story, you’d think they would highlight how Trump apparently — as they argued at the time — bombed Syria after she got on “60 Minutes” charging he paid her hush money and just after the FBI raided Michael Cohen’s home.

But talking about the Syria attacks is problematic for the establishment for a number of reasons, as documented in my timeline:

• The alleged April 7 gas attacks which acted as the pretext for the April 13 US bombing seem to have been fabricated and there has been an elaborate coverup of this.

• The US government seems to have sped up the attacks to head off the OPCW inspections, which were set to start work the following day, so you could tell things were rigged even before the bombing happened.

• The bombings themselves seem to have helped head off wider moves toward peace in the region.

• The bombings took place just as Trump brought in Bolton and elevated Pompeo. This highlights that Trump’s “antiestablishment” and “America First” posture is a con. This also raises questions about what the relationship was between Trump bringing on Bolton to adopt a more aggressive foreign policy and Trump’s political aims. That is, adopting an aggressive foreign policy is advantageous politically in a number of ways, Trump had been deemed “presidential” by CNN following a 2017 bombing of Syria. This includes giving him a “wag the dog” option. Highlighting this case also clearly undermines the Russiagate narrative, as on April 15, 2018, the Times reported: “Trump to Impose New Sanctions on Russia Over Support for Syria.”

• It would also be problematic for establishment media to talk about this since there is still some memory in the public over Clinton’s apparent use of “wag the dog” in 1998. A serious examination of the dynamics of use of presidential violence doesn’t seem functional. And even without the bombing aspect, the parallels between Trump and Clinton on this score are fairly evident down to there being a payoff: While Trump allegedly offered Daniels crass cash through Cohen, Clinton suave apparatchik Vernon Jordan had called up big wigs at major corporations and gotten Monica Lewinsky a job offer at Revlon.

Additionally, the mantra about “the president is not above the law” falls apart if one looks at US policy to Syria and this indicts both Trump and Biden:

• Biden has had US troops in Syria, quite arguably in violation of the war powers resolution. Israel has been bombing Syria with effective US support. That is, the destabilization of Syria from the 2018 attacks is part of a chain of illegal attacks on Syria that continues to the present day.

• US bombing of Syria is illegal, even under US law. The Times reported on April 17, 2018: “Mattis Wanted Congressional Approval Before Striking Syria. He Was Overruled.” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor and foreign policy speechwriter, told Politico in early 2017 that President Obama feared impeachment if he targeted the Syrian government.

In addition, the attacks prompted some in fairly positive liberal establishment media play for Trump. April 2018 ended with fairly puff coverage of the Trump-Macron meeting: