"Is You Filming Yourselves Plotting a Criminal EFFING Conspiracy?"

Back in 2019, maybe a little earlier, Adam Serwer at the Atlantic made an observation about the general incompetence and lack of awareness of both donald trump and the lackeys he was relying on to corrupt the political system of the United States: 

If Donald Trump’s advisers had only watched The Wire, many of the president’s aides and associates might have saved themselves a great deal of legal trouble.

A scene from the HBO crime drama shows a character named Stringer Bell trying to broker peace between rival drug dealers, and trying to get them to abide by Robert’s Rules of Order. When the meeting adjourns, Bell walks up to a subordinate, who is busy scribbling on a legal pad.

“Motherfucker, what is that?” Bell asks.

“The Robert Rules say we gotta have minutes for a meeting. These the minutes,” he replies.

Astonished, Bell snatches the paper out of his hand. “(N-word), is you takin’ notes on a criminal fuckin’ conspiracy? What the fuck is you thinking, man?”

And thus the Stringer Bell Rule was born: You shouldn't be documenting the criminal activities you're committing.

And yet, trump and his own people - some of whom were at the game of political dirty tricks for 50 years like Roger Stone - kept ignoring that rule.

Because one of the more hilarious revelations from the ongoing House Select Committee investigation into the January 6th Insurrection is that the people setting up and executing the riots hired filmmakers - multiple! - to document themselves in the weeks before the riot took place. Via Hugo Lowell at the Guardian:

Weeks before the Capitol attack, top Republican political activists Roger Stone and Ali Alexander identified the January 6 congressional certification as the final chance for Donald Trump to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The focus on the congressional certification, according to sources familiar with the matter, was one of several areas they marked as potential flashpoints to exploit as leaders of the “Stop the Steal” movement to help Trump reverse his defeat to Joe Biden.

As Stone and Alexander mounted their political operation, their activities were recorded by two conservative film-makers in the post-2020 election period and in the weeks before January 6.

The access meant the film-makers, Jason Rink and Paul Escandon, captured footage of the leaders of the Stop the Steal movement and their interactions with top Trump allies, according to a teaser for the documentary titled The Steal.

In following Stop the Steal, the film-makers’ project documented key moments in the timeline leading up to the Capitol attack, including an “occupation” of the Georgia state capitol in November, and rallies in Washington that almost seemed like dry runs for January 6.

They also caught on camera public and private moments at Stop the Steal events. Among others who appear in the documentary are the House Republican Paul Gosar, former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn...

Stone also allowed himself to be filmed by a Danish documentary film crew that recorded his activities in his room at the Willard hotel as the Capitol attack unfolded, the Washington Post reported earlier this year.

The House January 6 select committee emailed a letter earlier in January asking to review the footage, but a lawyer for Rink declined the request, citing the need to maintain journalistic independence and fears the content would leak from the inquiry.

House investigators did not ultimately pursue the matter after the lawyer indicated he would litigate a subpoena; unless film-makers have said they would only turn over footage in response to a subpoena, the panel has generally avoided that route...

At this point Idris Elba pops up in front of Roger Stone and drops the Stringer Bell Rule, complete with N-word.

I mean, common sense should have told these guys that "Hey wait a second, bringing in gun-toting protestors to break into a federal building like the Capitol is slightly frowned upon by a shitload of anti-terrorist laws. So why should we film ourselves planning out such an attack?"

This is where my former (now retired) co-worker Barbara back in 2016 informed me of the word Kakistocracy: Rule by the dumbest morons available. These riot planners - Stone especially - should have learned from the Mueller investigation that they shouldn't leave emails and paperwork and video recordings of themselves breaking federal laws. Instead, the trumpian elites doubled down and hired outside parties to film them breaking the law for future documentaries.

They haven't explained why they did, at least not publicly, and they probably won't admit it to themselves. But I guarantee you a big reason why they filmed these documentaries is because these insurrectionists saw themselves as heroes against what they believe is a corrupt and evil liberal government.

Look at how the rioters and the political figures like Lauren Boebert leading the charge excused their actions as replaying 1776 as though they were modern-day Washingtons. These Proud Boy / Oath Keeper types really do view themselves as fighting against tyranny instead of being the violent psychopaths they really are. They're living out their Turner Diaries fantasies, and they don't care who else knows about it... until they're in jail and the reality of their lawbreaking makes them change their tune.

And so you get these Roger Stones, these Rudys, these drum-banging sycophants happy to take selfies in the middle of the riots, eager to pose for interviews with Fox Not-News after the blood has spilled, thrilled to hire film crews to stage their very own Triumph of the Will documentaries for future generations of fascists.

Another thing to consider: These ringleaders agreed to have cameras record themselves for posterity because they never believed these recordings could be used against them at formal hearings and in courts of law.

Guys like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon have enough smarts to know what it is they're doing could be criminally wrong... but after decades of never getting held to count for what they've done - Stone got pardoned by trump after a jury agreed with Mueller's charges that Stone was guilty - they've tossed all precaution into the nearest burning dumpster. 

To say it another way: The corruption in trump's inner circle of power runs so deep that they openly flaunted their actions believing they would never get held accountable.

Bet any odds on how Roger Stone and the others still believe that hiring these film crews was a good idea, that they believe that in spite of what the House committee finds they will still get away with it?

Gods help us if they do.