Hard to keep track of it all….
I never would have thought I’d ever say the things I do about an American President, but our current prez has brought the well-deserved criticisms from many of us upon himself. For most people, the President is very hard to like & respect, as we continue to be repulsed by him. It’s no wonder when someone comes across as a liar, bully & jerk, but those traits don’t get a president removed from office. Criminality does! On that front, Mueller is making steady progress as this was yet another week overflowing with tumultuous headlines, including Russian news. The headlines are enough to make our heads spin as the Trump chaos is beyond the pale! In the related articles below, there are numerous stories pulled from the newsfeeds on the key figures in the drama who made news this week, featuring the likes of Gates, Manafort, Kushner, Hicks, Sessions, Page & Stone. Check out my comments, article excerpts & click on some links below to find out the divergent ways this central cast of characters are impacting the Mueller probe. You could watch Fox fake news round-the-clock for a week straight (not that you’d want to put your mind through that kind of torture), & not learn anywhere near the kind of relevant news you’ll see here. I do have an unfair advantage, here we stick to real news & logical viewpoints, whereas Fox doesn’t.
Diving right into the key articles from this week, I’ll admit I’m hooked: mueller-trump-star-in-
Robert Mueller and Donald Trump are joined, along with every American, in a gripping Shakespearean drama that will powerfully impact the future of America. Special counsel Mueller, a hero during the Vietnam War who is now leading the investigation of the Russian attack against American democracy, and President Trump, who was decidedly not a hero during the Vietnam War and is not leading the fight against the Russian attack against America, are the star protagonists in an epic drama that will change the course of history. In “As You Like It,” William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”
Mueller is the epitome of the ethic of duty, honor and country in public service. He is a pillar of integrity and justice in public life. Like others of his generation, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Secretary of State John Kerry, Mueller could have began his career living comfortably after a first-rate education but chose, instead, to risk his life serving our country. He continued his service with a brilliant and honorable career in public life. Trump, by contrast, throughout his career, appears to have asked himself one question: “What’s in it for me?” One of the most dastardly things Trump ever said was in response to the question of whether McCain is a hero. He said he prefers troops who were never captured.
In the Shakespearean drama that is unfolding today, Americans are gripped by regular news of Mueller achieving more indictments, plea bargains and evidence about the scandal of the Russian attack against America that continues today. In the Shakespearean drama that is unfolding, a Russian dictator continues his attack against American democracy and now aims to corrupt our midterm elections. Meanwhile, the special counsel continues his investigation, and the American president stands by idly, at best, and fearful of the truth, at worst. In an upcoming scene of this Shakespearean drama, the president will agree to testify before the special counsel or, more likely, will be compelled by subpoena to testify under oath before a grand jury without his lawyers president.
In another upcoming scene in this Shakespearean drama, the president may try again to fire another prosecutor who is investigating the Russian crimes or pardon those guilty or suspected of being a party to them. In yet another future scene reminiscent of Macbeth, the president will again spew venom against his presidential predecessors while his allies in Congress continue their attacks against the FBI or the special counsel who believes in duty, honor and country. This will force every Republican to take a stand on a defining issue of the 21st century, i.e., whether a foreign dictator should have the power to use covert means to choose America’s leaders. In this Shakespearean drama, the leaders of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are virtually pleading with the president to lead the nation, but they are met with presidential eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear the facts about the foreign attack against us. How will this Shakespearean drama end? Most likely when the special counsel achieves the words that Shakespeare wrote in the Merchant of Venice, wherever they may lead: “truth will out.”
A USA Today editorial from russia-investigation-if-you-dont-see-conspiracy-its-because-you-dont-want provides two choices to the scandal as seen in the excerpt below, was it a conspiracy or just a coincidence? You would need to read the full article to see various other fantastic events people would need to believe to think this whole thing was nothing more than a coincidence. I happen to firmly believe Trump’s involvement with the Russians is far too apparent to be a mere coincidence, so we just need to wait on special counsel’s final report for the proof. But the article’s conclusion is just like what the title says; “If you don’t see the conspiracy by now, you just don’t want to.”
There are two options: Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia worked together to help elect our current president of the United States, or we are witnessing the greatest coincidence since the Big Bang. Call it collusion. Call it a collaboration. Or, even better, call it a “conspiracy against the United States” — since that’s probably what the indictments will keep calling it. Just don’t call it a coincidence, especially if the FBI is interviewing you.
The two paragraphs below I’ve cobbled together from Rubin’s op-ed in trumps-bag-of-tricks-dont-work-on-mueller, where she gives an excellent analysis of the Russian probe & this tug-of-war going on between Trump & Mueller. It’s nothing less than a battle over lies & truth for the soul of our nation:
We have seen President Trump’s routine when threatened politically. Trump is arguably the most thin-skinned president in modern times, and the slightest provocation will set him off on a tirade of insults, counterattacks, distractions and self-pity. We’ve seen it all in the Russia investigation. With the help of his minion House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), he has cooked up one phony scandal after another, including unmasking and the application for a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on suspected Russian stooge Carter Page. He has tried to make donations to the campaign of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe’s wife an issue. He has tried to claim the FBI is tainted altogether based on the texts of two agents who expressed their political views. He has badgered Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself. All along he has whined that the Russia investigation is a hoax or a “witch hunt” (as he tweeted earlier today) despite the indictment of his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chief Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign manager and transition adviser Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, 13 Russians, Richard Pinedo and Alex van der Zwaan. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe even forced Trump to acknowledge there was, in fact, a Russian plot. Trump bellyached to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. (“I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” One wonders why he told the Russians that. Was it to indicate to them that he thought he could be more forthcoming?)
None of Trump’s nonsensical tactics even register with Mueller, except maybe to confirm Trump’s corrupt intent to short-circuit the investigation. Mueller is a decidedly non-political actor by virtue of his job and temperament. Trump, for the first time since he was president (perhaps the first time in his life), has met someone he cannot distract, threaten, charm or discredit. To the contrary, Mueller’s image is doing just fine, according to polls. A new USA Today-Suffolk University Poll finds that “a 58% majority say they have a lot or some trust in Mueller’s investigation, while a 57% majority say they have little or no trust in Trump’s denials.” In addition, “75%, say they take the charges filed by Mueller seriously; most of them say they take them ‘very’ seriously. Just one in five, 20%, dismiss them as not particularly serious.” That’s a dramatic upturn from last March, when 63 percent called Russian interference “very or somewhat serious.” Even worse for Trump, a huge majority (76 percent) think Russia will meddle again, while about 60 percent think Trump has not done enough to respond. (In fact, he has done nothing.) In short, Trump is entirely ineffective when trying to combat our legal system with political tactics. (It’s for this very reason that Trump and other autocratic leaders want to attack an independent judiciary and politicize law enforcement.) So long as they are battling out in the legal — not political — realm, Trump is a sitting duck — which explains why he’s trying to hide from an interview with his nemesis.
We’ll now get into the specific headlines involving various figures in the Russian case, which links to articles are interspersed in with my comments, but there are far more links on each of the stories in the related articles below. As I’ve often stated, Trump corrupts all those around him. Once Mueller returns with impeachable/criminal offenses against Trump as I expect, those around him who participated in the original collaboration with Russia &/or the subsequent cover-up, can also expect to be served with indictments. Don’t be surprised if a lot of people get caught up in all this. And as the news this week highlights, Trump’s inner circle of long-time aides he trusts is shrinking dramatically. See this conclusion to the article beware-president-trump-robert-mueller-is-just-getting-started:
But Trump couldn’t stop praising WikiLeaks in the final days of the campaign. He publicly mentioned them 145 times in the last month alone. He clearly believed that it was a useful line of attack. If he knew about it in advance or helped strategize the emails release, that would be what we call “collusion” — something that Trump has insisted thousands of times that he did not do. Of course, the minute his son read the email that said the Russian government was supporting his father’s campaign and wanted to offer dirt on his opponent and he declared that he “loved it” and suggested they might want to release it later in the summer — and sent it to Kushner and Manafort — the campaign was likely colluding. Reporters may forget it, but Mueller likely doesn’t. Whether anyone in Trump’s inner circle broke the law is still to be determined. But Mueller, to our knowledge, hasn’t made a move yet on things that seemed so long ago. And when he does, it would be worth wondering if Donald Trump made Watergate into the second worst political scandal in American history.
Based on recent reports from witness questioning, an important part of the case Mueller is focused in on involves whether Trump was aware during the campaign of the stolen Dem emails prior to their release to the public. That lends credence the investigation has gone well beyond looking into Trump’s personal culpability over obstruction, & is checking into his other actions with the Russians during the campaign for whatever C-word we want to call it (coordination, collusion, collaboration, compromised, conspiracy & the like). See the timeline of dates & events inside this link why-mueller-reportedly-thinks-
Jared Kushner had a particularly bad week, which it will only go downhill from here as Mueller closes in. Since he can’t pass security clearances, he can’t very well do his job of being the ultimate champion for world peace. Then the week got worse, as reports disclose Kushner received massive loans from companies after White House meetings, an obvious conflict of interest. He appears to be using his White House position to solicit funds to help bail himself out from a NY skyscraper where he is deeply underwater. Mueller also seems to have a bulls-eye on Kushner. So with sonny-in-law Jared feuding with Chief-of-Staff Kelly along with everything else, Kushner could be setting himself up to be the next to leave the White House. Or might Kelly leave instead? What a soap opera! Other key players in the scandal are Gates & Manafort. That so many charges were dropped against Rick Gates likely shows he’s providing special counsel with plenty of valuable info. That so many charges have been added for Manafort signals he’s being stubborn & hoping for a presidential pardon, but his crimes under state jurisdiction can’t be pardoned by Trump.
Hope Hicks stepped down without advance notice, signaling she’s had enough! It’s been a rough few weeks, first being in the spotlight over the highly publicized case of her boyfriend being booted from the White House upon news of him having beaten up ex-wives. Then she’s been grilled by congressional investigators. Hicks like other witnesses who have testified before Congress, dodged the most important questions that need answering. The GOP reps running the committees are letting them off the hook, with witnesses hiding behind the White House giving them talking points &/or executive privilege. But what is abundantly clear with all the lying, denials & obstruction coming from Trump-world, they are indeed hiding something. If Trump & his minions had really done nothing wrong, there wouldn’t be all these non-answers, deflecting & lack of transparency, so instead, they’d be fully cooperating with the investigations. That’s why with the congressional probes hopelessly bogged down in partisanship, we must count on special counsel Mueller to ultimately provide the American people with all the facts.
In losing Hope, look at this incredible picture chart of key staff members who’ve left who-has-trump-fired-so-fa
Mueller also is looking into the possibility Trump tried to remove Sessions last summer. That could strengthen the obstruction case against Trump. The prez continues to hold a grudge & is critical of his A.G. Sessions, which might all be a sinister calculation for creating the optics to justify firing Sessions, with the obvious intent to replace him with a lackey willing to derail the Mueller investigation. Just something we should be aware of in case this war of words between Trump & Sessions escalates. After Trump referred to him as disgraceful & Mr. Magoo, it’s no wonder Sessions pushed back. It was interesting after the Trump Twitter tirades, Sessions was photographed in a picture that night at a restaurant with the other two highest ranking officials in the Justice Dept. Could be a show of solidarity?
Consider the more Trump tries to manipulate Sessions out of his DOJ perch to get at Mueller, the more he only confirms obstruction of justice: trumps-rage-at-sessions-puts-t
In the foreign dangers group, while we still have the North Korean nuke threat hanging over our heads the-olympics-sure-were-fun-now
A wave midterm election occurs when it all comes together for the party that does not hold the White House — an unpopular incumbent president, a good recruiting year, a set of issues that cut against the president’s party, and a scandal (or two, or three, or more). In the case of President Trump, you can add in multiple popular movements (#MeToo and guns) that cut against the Republicans. Even a redistricting fight fell the right way for Democrats. David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report observes that “the Pennsylvania Supreme Court adopted a new congressional map for 2018 that’s close to a best-case scenario for Democrats.
This is a White House circling the drain & steadily descending into oblivion. And since Trump corrupts all he touches, the GOP itself might be hopelessly corrupted. Remember, as a lifelong GOP backer, I’m all for a blue wave this year. We need to drain the fever swamp of the deceit & decay of what has become of the Republican Party here in the Trump era. We’ve seen how Dems have been recently flipping seats around the country, their enthusiasm/intensity is way up, & they lead by double-digits on a generic ballot. This excerpt from voters-vow-elect-congress
Americans are mad, and that is putting Republicans at risk. A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds voters looking toward the midterm elections are overwhelmingly unhappy with the country’s direction, dissatisfied with its political leadership, and interested in electing a Congress that will confront President Trump. By close to 2-1, 58%-32%, those surveyed say they want to elect a Congress that mostly stands up to the president, not one that mostly cooperates with him. The level of voter unrest is rare at a time of prosperity, when a 55% majority rate the economy as being in a recovery. Even that assessment has a partisan cast: Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to say the economy is growing. Seven in 10 Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction. But more than eight in 10 Democrats say it’s off on the wrong track, and seven in 10 independents agree with them.
(With the overwhelming number of news stories this week, the article links are separate)
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