Anybody watching the Watergate special on CNN?

[Ocelot II]

Déjà vu all over again....

[FakeNoose]

1. No however I've been watching the mini-series "Gaslit"

... and it's deja vu for me, on all the characters and events of the early-mid 70s.

[Ocelot II]

2. There are a lot of similarities vs. Trump,

except that Trump is even worse. But nobody should forget how bad Nixon and his minions were.

[canetoad]

5. I gave up on that

There was something about the way Sean Penn's jowls didn't jiggle.

[blogslug]

6. I am impressed by Gaslit

I realize they took a lot of dramatic license, but damn, it's good.

[Samrob]

22. Less dramatic license than you can imagine.

Lived through it. What came out then is pretty much in ling with the series.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Watching it and taping it.

I've been looking forward to it. Hard to believe that Watergate was 50 years ago.

[AntiFascist]

4. I'm watching....I've always viewed Watergate as an iceberg...

and all we've gotten to see so far was the tip with maybe some of the depth.

[Ocelot II]

7. There's a new book, "Watergate: A New History" by Garrett Graff,

which I've almost finished, and which does an excellent job of collecting the various strands of a much bigger web, a lot of which didn't come out, or wasn't widely reported, at the time. It's fascinating, and it shows how Watergate foreshadows Trump's insurrection attempt and other malfeasance in so many ways. Nixon had his own Steve Bannon in G. Gordon Liddy, and John Mitchell was every bit the sleaze that Bill Barr turned out to be. Really worth reading.

[AntiFascist]

8. I'll have to check it out...I wonder if it covers any events that occurred in 1963 n/t

[electric_blue68]

13. I got it as an e book out of my library. Unfortunately urgent events in my life shortened my

reading time.

I got to where they'te burglarizingv Ellsburg's physc guy.
Not even up to Watergate itself, yet! 😄


Because it's probably in pretty big demand don't know how many weeks it'll be before I can read more and I'll
have more time, too. 👍

[Deminpenn]

18. Sounds good, thanks for sharing

nt

[IL Dem]

21. I finished it last week.

I learned a lot, even though I thought I was already pretty familiar with it. Brought back a lot of memories of the time.

One thing I learned and that stands out is the Chenault affair. Another election in which there was "rat-fuckery" along the lines of Reagan's people working behind the scenes to sabotage the release of the Iran hostages. We could have had progress toward peace in Vietnam and Humphrey for president in '68. But it seems they were able to sabotage peace talks.

[hedda_foil]

9. Yes. it's terrific. Two hours tonight and two next Sunday.

[Ocelot II]

10. And they are clearly foreshadowing TFG.

There's a reason they are airing this as the 1/6 hearings are starting.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

14. Yes! OMG what a bunch of power mad criminals, the whole WH staff, it does remind me of...

[badhair77]

11. The parallels between then and now are amazing.

I attended the Watergate hearings and followed the news but I’m learning new pieces of the puzzle.

[Hekate]

12. No, my husband's watching a doc about the 6-Day War in 1967 on JBS. We were young back then...

I don’t think I could stand reliving Watergate — and I don’t know if I have the stamina to watch the current catastrophe all the way thru, either.

I was glued to the TV during the Watergate Hearings; I still had robust hope for my country, and felt vindicated by the Hearings.

So much has changed since then, and I feel so old and depressed.

I will definitely tune in to the 1/6 Hearings — but…

[question everything]

15. After Nixon won in Nov 1972, Lesley Stahl, I think, commented:

Watergate did not move the needle.

I am afraid that the same thing will happen with Jan 6.

[Ocelot II]

16. There wasn't much press coverage before the '72 election - Watergate was still

just regarded as a burglary at that time. It wasn't until after the election that things really heated up, not until spring of '73. So the situation is different in terms of timing. I don't think the 1/6 hearings will change minds that have been made up, but maybe some people who haven't been paying attention will start doing so - which is what the '73 Watergate hearings did, but too late for the election.

[Raine]

17. No, I lived thru it and that's enough for me. nt

[Deminpenn]

19. Watched and so far, tremendous

Dean really goes into how corrupt Nixon and those around him truly were. Nixon and company had big plans for more and dirtier tricks in their second term, too.

[PCIntern]

20. Yes, and having lived through Watergate as a college student

It was a life-changing event. The thing is, there was much more to this story than ever was allowed to come out, and it would get alluded to once in a while by a broadcaster who would be quickly stifled by either the moderator or his or her boss. From what I understand, don’t believe everything you hear about Maureen Dean, I’ll leave it at that.

And when Nixon refers to “the whole Bay of Pigs thing“ he’s talking about the Kennedy assassination. That was a given in those days. We knew exactly what he was referring to …