There’s Been A Whole Lot Happening….

Along with Mueller issuing subpoenas to a Trump campaign top 10 list, the news that got me most worked up over the weekend I’ve saved for Part 2, where I’ll dive into Trump’s comments from a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser that helps prove my point of what I’ve been saying all along….This president who has zero regard for the rule of law must be removed from office!  As the Mueller probe continues on its unrelenting path to prove criminal activity done at the highest levels, we can anticipate as Trump goes down, the collateral damage will take much of the GOP & echo down with him.  This version of draining the swamp could be the necessary cleansing America needs to eventually turn things around, after going through the customary rough period that inevitably would transpire from such an upheaval.  We should hope the evidence of illegal activities that eventually comes out is rock solid beyond reproach, so even Trumpeters might hesitantly admit there’s real substance to all this & not get so enraged to go Rambo on us.

We do see the Russian probe is moving merrily along as reported in muellers-net-is-tightening-around-trumps-inner-circle–and-maybe-trump-himself, as we can clearly see from the available evidence along with numerous indictments already handed down & guilty pleas agreed to.  No so-called witch hunt would ever have this much substance behind it.  Former Trump lackey Sam Nunberg, who is wavering whether to appear before a grand jury, also just admitted his sense from when he was recently testifying, Mueller does have something serious on Trump: ex-trump-aide-trump-may-very-well-have-done-something-during-the-election-with-the-russians.  It’s hard to know what to make of his numerous cable TV interviews since he’s too weird to be taken credibly.  These next two paragraphs taken from the Mueller’s net article provide an overview of the facts, where the famous Nixonian question crops up again today, What did the president know and when did he know it?:

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is significantly turning up the heat on President Trump. While the president once again attacks his own attorney general and declares himself the victim of a “witch hunt,” he faces increasingly ominous signs that Mueller has the president’s innermost circle — and Trump himself — in his sights. Mueller’s investigation has at least three tracks: 1) Russian interference with the 2016 election and the possible involvement of any Trump officials; 2) obstruction of justice and related coverup crimes; and 3) ancillary crimes discovered during the investigation, such as the money-laundering and other charges filed against Paul Manafort. In the past few days there have been reports of intensifying investigative activity focused on Trump’s own actions in all three areas. 

Two weeks ago Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. As extensive and startling as the indictment was, it said nothing about other known incidents involving Russians and the Trump campaign, including the strategic leaking of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and the various reported contacts between Russians and members of the Trump campaign. Now reports suggest Mueller may be focused on a different potential conspiracy, this one involving Russian actors and Trump campaign officials or the president himself. NBC News reported Thursday that Mueller’s investigators have been asking witnesses what Trump knew about the stolen emails. These “what did the president know and when did he know it” questions zero in on the key issues in proving any conspiracy: knowledge and intent.

  
 trump in trouble with russia 
  

Trump in trouble is increasingly obvious no matter what he claims.  The prez has said about a gazillion times there was no collusion, but that might end up being like a Cleveland Browns coach trying to convince us his team never loses.  From the echo we’ve also been hearing a consistent refrain there’s been no evidence of collusion.  Not only is that a false claim on its face, but we don’t know anywhere near all of what Mueller knows, plus we don’t yet know what the probe will ultimately reveal, which this video commentary puts things in proper perspective: report-shows-why-mueller-not.  And there is now no doubt who the real target of the investigation is: mueller-is-casting-a-wide-net-we-now-know-the-target-is-trump.  Inside the link trumps-calamities-are-coming-faster-and-in-bunches, Rubin starts off by discussing various calamities which have become a train wreck inside the White House & has Trump increasingly agitated, then she concludes with these sober realities:

Now, anyone who is surprised by the utter chaos, the ethical sleaze, the policy incoherence and the nepotism/cronyism was not paying attention during Trump’s career in real estate or during his campaign. This is how Trump ran his family operation, stumbling through one failed venture after another. This is how Trump wound up declaring bankruptcy multiple times. No one — not Kelly, Ivanka, Jared, the GOP Congress or even Hicks — can keep him on task. Trump is still indifferent to learning policy and is prone to prattle in public about subjects he doesn’t bother to study. No one else can make up for his lack of diligence, ethics and decency. This is not so much as an administration as a weird fusion of the court of Louis XIV and the Mafia, all built around a cult of personality that lacks any self-restraint or awareness. Republicans who empowered him and refused to stand up to him have a giant mess on their hands — a dysfunctional government and a looming electoral disaster. Trump will either be compelled to leave office or will continue to spin out of control. Aides tell the press this is a new level of chaos. Don’t worry — it’ll get worse. It always does.

 

Clicking on robert-muller-questions-list-trump-russia shows what could be construed as Mueller’s top 10 hit list embroiled in this scandal, where they were issued subpoenas to provide emails, texts & documents of communications involving Trump & the campaign.  One unnamed witness in particular (presumably Nunberg) is required to turn over all communications.  They are not the only targets, since those they had contacts with during the campaign are also potential targets.  And if you want a good review of the dates & details that brought on the scandal, the link closing-the-circle-of-collusion provides quite a rundown & wraps it up with this conclusion:

The collusion noose is tightening around the White House. And what do they have in there to defend themselves? The same old pack of lies. Meetings with Russians: What meetings with Russians? Collusion: What collusion? No collusion! No collusion! I’ll bet before this thing is over, we’re going to find that Manafort and his Russian pals squirreled away a whole passel of bucks somewhere for Trumpy. More than 40 high-level people have fled or been fired from the Trump administration in its first year, and even more are headed for the exits. They know what’s up. He’s dirty. He’s guilty. There’s no use in sticking around. When it’s over, this thing is going to make Watergate look like a cup of spilled milk in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. I don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen or how, but he’s on his way out.

 

 

Jared Kushner has been all over the headlines & on the hot seat lately.  Besides the White House violating the anti-nepotism statute, we’re also seeing the infringing on the emoluments clause where a family appears to be using the power of the presidency to enrich their personal business interests, even to the point this pay-to-play scheme could directly be influencing U.S. policy.  Kushner is looking to raise more than $1 Billion for payments due next year on his building at (the appropriately numbered Satanic-Beast address) 666 Fifth Avenue, where he’s searched the world over looking for moneymen willing to invest.  After he got turned down for financing by the rich country of Qatar, suspiciously the Trump administration erected an economic blockade against them: did-jared-kushner-punish-qatar-because-it-wouldnt-lend-his-family-money.  More highly suspicious episodes occurred when Apollo Global Management & Citigroup agreed to provide $500 Million in loans after meeting with Kushner inside the White House.  One bank exec was even promised a job.  This has made it onto Mueller’s radar looking at potential criminal conflicts of interest.  There are several other links in the Related Articles below which highlight sonny-in-law Jared’s apparent shady dealings, including as seen in a-series-of-revelations-about-jared-kushner-have-added-further-credence-to-a-key-claim-of-the-steele-dossier, & also in mueller-team-asking-if-kushner-foreign-business-ties-influenced-trump-policy, plus similar enlightening evidence in jared-kushner-s-conflicts-of-interest-are-out-of-hand.

A big reason Putin may have such animus toward America is because he & much of the Russian people still hold a grudge over the breakup of the old Soviet Union, which they no doubt look at our country as helping precipitate the independence of those Soviet satellites (putin-says-he-wishes-he-could-change-the-collapse-of-the-soviet-union-many-russians-agree).  So as a payback, his attacks on our electoral process & democracy are designed to stoke our divisions & in the aggregate break up these United States, which it looks as though he may be succeeding.  And by tainting the election, Putin may have had the final say who became our American President, plus there’s a new report among other things he also called the shots on our selection of Secretary of State: christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier.  It is absolutely astounding that we have credible evidence to actually speculate America has been infiltrated at our highest leadership levels by a foreign adversary, while their unwarranted obtrusion continues to this day without much resistance.  Just on the surface, it would actually appear the Russians have corrupted our top leadership.  It’s incredible to think, I know, but just look at all the evidence coming out.  Also, keep in mind there must be something to that Steele dossier since Russians are being killed over it.

Trump has never been particularly mentally stable to begin with, but there are several articles below expressing fear he is really coming unhinged, between Mueller closing in & from losing so many close confidants.  The terrifying prospect is as we read the group of links under international threats, Trump in a moment of impulsive rage could overreact to enemy provocations, making a decision that results in a catastrophe.  I was reading this article on pure madness as the news flashed across my TV screen with the quotes by Trump at the Mar-a-Lago GOP fundraiser, that here in America we should try having a president for life, from which I practically flipped out!  This apparent willingness to trample on our Constitution demonstrates yet again the prez lacks judgement, a very bad combination from a leader also lacking the temperament for the job.  So these fears are shared inside this link pure-madness-dark-days-inside-the-white-house-as-trump-shocks-and-rages, which I’ve put part of that article in the following paragraphs below, since as interesting as these reports from inside the White House truly are, even more so they are very scary.  Every day we’re living with Trump as our president, America & the whole world are at a far greater risk:

Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center. These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.” Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is uncertain about whom to trust.

Trump’s closest West Wing confidante, Hope Hicks — the communications director who often acted as a de facto Oval Office therapist — announced her resignation last week, leaving behind a team the president views more as paid staff than surrogate family. So concerned are those around Trump that some of the president’s oldest friends have been urging one another to be in touch — the sort of familiar contacts that often lift his spirits. In an unorthodox presidency in which emotion, impulse and ego often drive events, Trump’s ominous moods manifested themselves last week in his zigzagging positions on gun control; his shock trade war that jolted markets and was opposed by Republican leaders and many in his own administration; and his roiling feud of playground insults with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Still, Trump’s friends are increasingly concerned about his well-being, worried that the president’s obsession with cable commentary and perceived slights is taking a toll on the 71-year-old. “Pure madness,” lamented one exasperated ally. Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed. “I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”

This portrait of Trump at a moment of crisis just over a year after taking office is based on interviews with 22 White House officials, friends and advisers to the president and other administration allies, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss Trump’s state of mind. The tumult comes as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russia’s 2016 election interference and the president’s possible obstruction of justice has intensified. Meanwhile, Kushner, a White House senior adviser, was stripped last week of his access to the nation’s top secrets amid increasing public scrutiny of his foreign contacts and of his mixing of business and government work.

“Trump’s fundamentally distorted personality — which at its core is chaotic, volatile and transgressive — when combined with the powers of the presidency had to end poorly,” said Peter Wehner, a veteran of the three previous Republican administrations and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “What we’re now seeing is the radiating effects of that, and it’s enveloped him, his White House, his family and his friends.”

 

In the links at the bottom, this article shows his lies are spiking upward: president-trump-made-2436-false-or-misleading-claims-so-far.  He also seems to lack the dedication & focus it takes to hold the highest office: a-presidential-milestone-trump-has-spent-100-days-in-office-at-one-of-his-golf-clubs.  And even beyond the moral issues, campaign finance/election laws must have been violated here: trump-lawyer-complained-he-wasnt-reimbursed-for-payment-to-stormy & also new-report-suggests-trump-personally-coordinated-130000-payment-to-adult-film-star.  Trump has simply proven to be a bad apple, & it’s a disgrace for Americans to have him as our president.  We may be given an out from the Mueller findings.  The title of this message Trump in Trouble is more real than ever & he knows it.  Stay tuned & plug others into this unfolding drama by sharing The Voracs articles on social media!

 Views from the far-left….
The rightwing-echo has gone so far off the rails, I post these as a counter to their rabid partisanship.  Plus their hard-hitting reports are rather interesting….