Will Little Rocket Man & Dotard Talks Yield Results?….The details are down below at the bottom on what happened in Singapore along with explaining where the names Little Rocket Man & Dotard originated from.  But first, a note about us & news on the Russian scandal.  For the most part, thevoracs.com comes out twice per week on Tuesdays & Fridays, divided into 3 separate sections.  Generally, part 1 is mostly focused on the Russian scandal & Trump’s travails, part 2 is on messaging & the far-right conservative media (the echo), while part 3 is on the economy with a song at the bottom we tie into current politics.  We provide commentaries, excerpts & links to articles from major news organizations, focused on spreading truths & refuting falsehoods.  For anyone who digs back through the archives on our blog site, it can be found from our history we have an impressive track record for accuracy.  Not all of my speculation on the Russian probe has come true as yet, but just give it time.

I’m not ready to join this effort (yet) www.needtoimpeach.com, since we need just cause, so we’ll wait for Mueller to show us what the facts are.  With so many in Trump’s circle attacking & attempting to discredit Mueller & the DOJ in protecting a corrupt president, for a proper perspective see attorney-general-under-reagan-bush-urges-gop-to-defend-mueller.  Also this next article from we-republicans-must-all-speak-out-to-protect-the-mueller-investigation provides such an important point of view, I’ve posted the entire thing below.  He is absolutely correct we need to give Mueller time to complete the job, & we should all speak out in support of the rule of law to protect our country.  I encourage all of us to do our part, as we’re providing lots of good material here for you to share:

As a lifelong Republican, I am proud that my party has consistently revered the rule of law as a central tenet of our country’s values. I have been honored to serve under seven presidents, including as U.S. attorney generalunder Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. I know from experience that the Justice Department effectively performs the awesome responsibility of enforcing our laws and assuring that justice is provided equally and fairly to all. Many recent comments about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his investigation have been regrettable and undeserved. I was surprised to see President Trump’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a respected former U.S. attorney, suggest this last week that Mueller is “trying very, very hard to frame” the president, echoing comments made by the president himself that the investigation is “a Witch Hunt.” Those comments are the antithesis of who Mueller is and how he operates. I know Bob Mueller as a colleague in law enforcement and as a friend, and I highly respect his judgment and moral compass. Mueller is the right person to investigate Russia’s apparent assault on our democracy. He possesses the skills and discipline necessary to perform his role, and his past leadership as head of the Justice Department’s criminal division and as director of the FBI leave no doubt as to his ability to evenhandedly conduct significant investigations. He is serious but not sensational and loyal to the rule of law.

Mueller must put all applicable evidence before an impartial grand jury that will decide whether to bring charges. We must let him do his job. It is disconcerting to witness the unfair attacks on the Justice Department now occurring; they erode public confidence and corrode the integrity of a core principle of our country. Our country must not let hyperpartisanship diminish the rule of law. That is not who we are, and it isn’t what we should ever become. I have great confidence in the special-counsel process. Indeed, my party has always stood with law enforcement, recognizing that its job is both difficult and essential. Law-enforcement officials ranging from state and local police to FBI officers in the field to prosecutors and judges must be able to do their work without fear of political retribution. I urge all members of Congress to become more vocal in their defense of the rule of law. Elected officials must stress unambiguously their support of the role of the special counsel and guard his right to pursue this investigation in a fair and impartial manner. Through whatever means members of Congress deem appropriate, they must defend the rule of law and the integrity of the special counsel’s mission. As John Adams said, our country is “a government of laws, and not of men.” This founding principle of our democracy must be protected. We will be remembered by what we say and what we do in this challenging time in America’s history. We must all speak out and work to protect the special counsel’s investigation from interference. As Republicans, we owe that much to our party. As citizens, we all owe even more to our country.

Evidence of Collusion

It’s been proven Russia did interfere in our presidential election, but in these excerpts from republicans-deny-evidence-russia-meddled-trump-invites-putin-to-rejoin-g-7, Rubin reviews some main points about what is so far publicly known about the Trump campaign’s connections with Russians, showing there is plenty of circumstantial evidence pointing towards collusion:

We have evidence that top Trump campaign officials, including the president’s son and son-in-law, met with Russian operatives who offered “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. We have evidence that foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was told by an intermediary, Joseph Mifsud, that Russians had “dirt” on Clinton. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about such contacts. After WikiLeaks released hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton, Trump publicly called for them to keep it up. (“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”) The Moscow Project summarizes: By the end of June [2016], at least eight individuals involved with the Trump campaign—George Papadopoulos, Jeff Sessions, Michael Cohen, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., Michael Flynn, and Rick Dearborn—reportedly had contacts or meetings with at least 13 Kremlin-linked individuals—Josef Mifsud, the “Female Russian National,” Sergei Kislyak, Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, Rob Goldstone, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Rinat Akhmetshin, Irakly Kaveladze, Konstantin Kilimnik, Aleksander Torshin, Vladimir Putin, the individual who emailed Rick Dearborn, and potentially Oleg Deripaska. Over the same period, at least eight countries reportedly passed information about Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election to American intelligence agencies.

Trump falsely complains a spy was implanted into his campaign and he should have been warned about characters like Paul Manafort and Carter Page. However, his campaign was warned. CNN recently reported: Trump was personally warned in August 2016 by senior US intelligence officials that foreign adversaries — including Russia — would likely attempt to infiltrate his team or gather intelligence about his campaign, according to sources familiar with the matter. The security briefing included information about potential interference by foreign actors, including Russia, according to sources familiar with a memo that detailed the August 2016 briefing. In October 2017, senior Justice Department officials gave lawmakers from both parties a readout on the 2016 briefing after Republicans demanded to see documents about the Russia investigation and related matters. We also know that Alexander Nix, former head of Cambridge Analytica, the data analytics firm hired by the Trump campaign, reached out to Julian Assange, head of WikiLeaks, widely regarded by U.S. intelligence as a Russian cutout. The Daily Beast reported last year that Nix “told a third party that he reached out to Assange about his firm somehow helping the WikiLeaks editor release Clinton’s missing emails, according to two sources familiar with a congressional investigation into interactions between Trump associates and the Kremlin. . . . The interchange between Nix—whose company made millions from the Trump campaign—and Assange represents the closest known connection between Trump’s campaign and Wikileaks.”

With every new charge comes more signs of collusion: mueller-s-latest-charges-bring-together-trump-campaign-russia.  Want more evidence of collusion?  It comes from these excerpts in its-been-two-years-since-the-infamous-trump-tower-meeting-what-have-we-learned, where the evidence has become compelling enough that we can accurately call out those echo lies as they keep claiming there is no evidence of collusion.  And we only know a fraction of what Mueller knows:

Saturday it was exactly two years since President Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman eagerly met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower, on a promise of receiving “very high level and sensitive information” about his opponent as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” during the 2016 election. When reporters got word of that meeting, the Trump camp denied it. Then it concocted an absurd false statement claiming that the meeting was organized to discuss “adoptions.” Then, once that lie fell apart, it falsely insisted that at least Trump himself had nothing to do with it. This past week, we received confirmation that Trump personally dictated the statement, likely in order to cover up the true purpose of that Trump Tower meeting. But we only found that out after his lawyers repeatedly, enthusiastically and falsely denied his involvement.

Lie after lie after lie. But one truth has now emerged: The campaign of the current president of the United States eagerly sought to join forces with a Kremlin-linked figure in order to gain an advantage in the 2016 presidential election. Then the president tried to cover it up by willfully deceiving the American people. There are three scandals here. The first is attempted collusion, which became indisputable when Donald Trump Jr.’s “I love it” emails were made public. The second is potential obstruction of justice, as the president dictated a misleading, false statement about an issue of obvious significance to a federal criminal investigation. And the third is the complicity of congressional Republicans, in a cynical bid to protect their party’s standard-bearer rather than protecting American national security and the integrity of our democracy from the machinations of a foreign despot.

The drip-drip-drip emergence of this story has allowed the White House and its breathless Fox News opinion show cheerleaders to claim that any individual drip isn’t a big deal. They are wrong. What we now know about that Trump Tower meeting amounts to a very big deal indeed. The facts are not even contested by Trump’s own lawyers. We have copies of emails from Donald Trump Jr. proving the Trump campaign’s intent to collude with people who clearly identified themselves as working for Russia to help Trump win. And we have a statement from Trump’s own attorneys that states, clearly, that he dictated the statement that obscured the true nature of that meeting.

What we don’t know for sure, yet, is whether Trump himself was aware of the meeting and approved of it. Now, there are suggestive indications. He was in Trump Tower at the time, and it’s pretty ludicrous to assume that he would be oblivious to such a blockbuster meeting involving two family members and his campaign chairman in the same building. There was a blocked call either from, or to, Donald Trump Jr.’s cellphone during a crucial period before the Trump Tower meeting was confirmed. (Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski did testify that Trump’s private residence had a blocked number, but the source of the call is still an open question). And, three hours after his son confirmed a meeting with a Kremlin-linked figure promising fresh dirt about Hillary Clinton’s dealings with Russia, Trump himself promised his supporters that he would soon present fresh dirt about Clinton’s dealings with Russia. Occam’s Razor is often a useful tool: The simplest explanation is likely the correct one.

To be fair, we don’t fully know what was discussed during the meeting itself. But the indications we do have aren’t innocent. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s notes from the meeting include jottings such as “illici[t],” “offshore” and “active sponsors of RNC.” But even if nothing related to Clinton was discussed, that’s beside the point. Attempted murder and murder are differentiated by outcome, not by intent. Attempted collusion shows the same intent as successful collusion. Any failures were not for lack of trying. The president and his allies frequently go on Twitter or on cable news shows to say that “not a shred” of evidence related to collusion has been found. Many Americans believe that. But it is a lie. Television journalists must start aggressively challenging Trump’s surrogates when they make that false claim.

Overview of the Evidence

We’ve seen so much evidence, it would be preposterous to think it was mere coincidence!  The following links provide good overviews of the people, details, charges & timelines of many of the most relevant occurrences from the Russian probe we know of so far.  Those you personally know who echo the catchphrases from Trump & his echo about this all being a witch hunt & they’re only out to get Trump (trump-russia-collusion), let them see these articles below.  The real witch hunt is the crap Nunes keeps trying to pull, requesting classified documents from the DOJ in service to his king.  Obviously, the Mueller investigation is not a witch hunt since the Mueller team is producing substantive results, & although the direct evidence of collusion/obstruction we know of publicly may still be open to interpretation, there’s enough smoke to choke a horse, being thicker than the lava gases from the Hawaiian volcano:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/20/17031772/mueller-indictments-grand-jury

https://www.axios.com/mueller-map-tracking-russia-investigation-718bc918-984b-4df1-b1a0-5dafff0347b3.html?utm_source=sidebar

https://www.axios.com/mueller-russia-probe-timeline-update-70433acd-9ef7-424d-aa01-b962ae5c9647.html?utm_source=sidebar

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/06/08/muellers-witch-hunt-snags-another-witch/?utm_term=.ee0d8851a218

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/9/1770570/-Missing-The-Forest-Through-The-Trees-In-The-Russia-Scandal

These next links about a tweet from a former FBI agent can further help raise our suspicions: twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1005154872117772288 & alsoFormer-FBI-agent-If-it-quacks-like-a-guilty-president-it-s-a-Trump.  Russia is the overriding scandal, but with a leader so devoid of moral character, trouble spots are springing up in a number of different ways.  In addition to possibly sitting down with Mueller or before a grand jury, Trump may have another unrelated court appearance where he’s required to answer some perilous questions: why-the-summer-zervos-case-might-be-the-most-dangerous-for-trump.  And the NRA/Russian involvement is interesting: russian-elites-met-with-the-nra-during-in-the-lead-up-to-2016-election & also nra-officials-met-top-russians-during-2016-campaign.  And it’s amazing all the convoluted attacks on Mueller: one-conway-speaks-truth-to-the-gop.

Little Rocket Man & Dotard Dominate The Headlines

These are articles revealing those are the disparaging nicknames Trump & Jong Un previously had for each other: the-dotard-meets-little-rocket-man-trump-and-kim-are-adversaries-with-many-similarities & also The-dotard-meets-Little-Rocket-Man.  So we’ve come from that to a great honor in Singapore: a-great-honor-in-a-bid-for-history-trump-flatters-north-koreas-totalitarian-leader.

We’ll begin with the news heading into the Singapore summit.  It’s hard to imagine any issue more important that Trump needs to deal with than these talks in Singapore.  With the deluge of chaos, lying, bullying & divisiveness constantly spilling out of this White House, a positive outcome from these North Korean negotiations may virtually justify his presidency & save his legacy.  The stakes couldn’t be higher for Trump, or for America & the world’s security.  So let’s remain hopeful Jong Un will decide to sincerely commit to de-nuking while realizing the odds are not in our favor.  We’re dealing with a ruthless, conniving, murderous dictator & we can’t just optimistically presume a zebra can change its stripes.  North Korean leadership & the Jong Un family have a history of promising denuclearization without following through: in-singapore-remember-history-before-signing-a-deal-with-kim.  So even if a deal is reached, actions speak louder than words.  We’d need some foolproof way of monitoring & verifying the North Koreans will actually do whatever it is they agree to do: trump-must-get-north-korea-to-come-completely-clean.  Especially being the most closed-off country in the world, they never take kindly to foreigners going there to snoop around.

Whatever comes out of the Singapore talks, we can bet Trump will put the best possible spin on it.  We must evaluate the impact of these talks objectively, rather than blindly buy into the hyperbole we’re about to be hit with: how-to-evaluate-the-trump-kim-summit.  And with the whole world fixated on these talks, perhaps that’s the real reason Trump & Jong Un wanted to meet, since they both love basking in all the attention.  If Jong Un comes to enjoy his celebrity statesman status instead of being an isolated rogue dictator, while gaining assurances for his safety & far more prosperous economy for his country, there is a chance at a deal.  Those glittering Singapore skyscrapers Jong Un sees from his hotel window could prove very enticing as a prospective future Pyongyang.  This whole thing has truly become a spectacle: dennis-rodman-weeps-on-cnn-over-trump-kim-summit & also dennis-rodman-death-threats-cries-during-cnn-interview.  And we do remain woefully unprepared for this danger: incompetency-on-emp-endangers-america & we definitely need this: success-after-singapore-hinges-on-credible-us-missile-defense.

See the song at the bottom of part 3 & here are various takes as the talks commenced: for-kim-jong-un-meeting-trump-is-about-cementing-power-at-home & alsograham-north-korea-start-talks-deal-unlikely & also feuding-with-allies-trump-may-need-success-in-singapore-more-than-kim & also north-korea-countries-nuclear-weapons-programs & also trump-kim-greatest-question-presidency & also how-king-jong-un-will-play-trump-at-their-summit-in-singapore & also summit-madness-after-donald-trumps-g7-meltdown-in-quebec-what-lies-ahead-in-singapore & also trump-kim-summit_us & also trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit-letter & alsopresident-trump-wants-north-korea-to-give-up-nuclear-weapons-heres-just-how-hard-that-would-be & also s-e-cupp-to-trump-ahead-of-kim-jong-un-showdown-for-the-love-of-god-mr-president-dont-get-us-all-killed & also trump-unleashed-is-a-danger-to-the-world.

Fast-Forward to Today

Now we get to today’s headlines right after Little Rocket Man & Dotard had their talks which concluded with signing a paper.  As you can see in these takes from major publications below, they’re mainly sounding a pessimistic/cautionary note.  I would agree Trump committing to stop the military drills with the South Koreans without anything concrete in return, other than vague promises about denuclearization, was a plus for Jong Un.  We’ve had those kinds of agreements before with North Korea which they never honored.  The talks really may have been a way for Little Rocket Man to have a photo op for consumption back home showing him on equal footing with his American counterpart, while Dotard wanted the optics to hype the talking points we’re now hearing.  As always, don’t trust anything Trump says.  And the short document they signed has little substance to it.  Before we give further concessions like removing sanctions as China implied, or removing our soldiers from the south as Trump says he wants to do, we’d better have strong ways of verifying that Jong Un is absolutely sincere in his intention to start dismantling his nuclear program.

As someone who routinely criticizes Trump, on this one I’m taking a wait & see attitude.  Despite the backstabbing we received in the past from Jong Un’s dad & granddad, it’s possible this time around could be different, so we need to let it play out.  The more biting sanctions choking off the North Korean economy, plus the madman theory where Little Rocket Man may really be terrified of Dotard commencing the bombing, since Trump does so often come off as temperamentally unhinged.  So Jong Un may go along with the de-nuking process knowing this time if North Korea goes against their word, the repercussions could threaten his very existence.  But it may be years down the road before we really know whether what was started in Singapore leads to a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.  Looking through the prism as I do, believing a nuclear North Korea is not a situation America & the world can live with, we then work our way back to finding any possible viable options & solutions.  At least from Singapore, there is a chance.

The articles from the newsfeeds today are here:

americas-donald-trump-meets-north-koreas-kim-jong-un-in-historic-singapore-summit

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/06/12/how-trump-lost-the-summit-before-the-photographers-even-left-the-room/?utm_term=.dcfe993e182a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/06/12/a-fantastic-meeting-for-trump-and-kim/?utm_term=.33e8c5ef4ca0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/12/the-good-and-the-bad-from-trumps-north-korea-summit/?utm_term=.bf09113cb167

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-kim-summit-trump-says-we-have-developed-a-very-special-bond-at-end-of-historic-meeting/2018/06/12/ff43465a-6dba-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html?utm_term=.c1058d30e97c

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/history-is-made-as-trump-and-kim-meet-but-will-they-produce-something-historic/2018/06/11/98dc5100-6de1-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html?utm_term=.07979abd8e59

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/06/12/trumps-optimistic-news-conference-after-meeting-with-kim-jong-un-annotated/?utm_term=.b0824c3ca54a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/06/12/daily-202-in-kim-he-trusts-trump-sounds-naive-after-meeting-north-korea-s-leader/5b1f1bbf30fb04775d8813c9/?utm_term=.7be260f4fd85

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/06/12/winners-and-losers-from-the-trump-kim-summit/?utm_term=.fca1fce417c1&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-singapore-summit-was-a-victory-for-kim-jong-un/2018/06/12/3731e970-6e44-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html?utm_term=.8be19447989c

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/world/asia/trump-military-exercises-north-south-korea.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/opinion/trump-kim-summit-north-korea.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/391764-trump-and-kim-sign-agreement-denuclearization

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/391801-erick-erickson-obama-would-have-been-impeached-for-kim-summit

http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/391815-at-singapore-summit-north-korea-racked-up-wins

http://thehill.com/homenews/media/391795-tapper-on-north-korea-summit-its-not-as-if-other-presidents-couldnt-have-done

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/391774-trump-if-i-was-wrong-about-kim-ill-find-some-kind-of-an-excuse

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/391850-trump-on-leaving-singapore-immediately-after-summit-there-was-nothing

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-north-korea-summit-agreement-comprehensive-vague_us_5b1f811fe4b0bbb7a0e1009c

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-12/trump-gave-kim-a-summit-but-left-with-little-to-show-for-it

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/12/trump-kim-meeting-press-conference-637544

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/12/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-summit-successful-singapore-nuclear-column/693833002/

https://www.apnews.com/2d80cb7d512c49978e69853a7daa4d5c/Trump-Kim-shake-hands,-commit-to-‘complete-denuclearization

https://www.apnews.com/c4c30dbcc81c458c9ea12b63716c1317/Trump’s-vow-to-end-military-drills-with-Seoul-stuns-a-region

https://www.apnews.com/a0acd517d8f94b649c3d49bb17238235/AP-Analysis:-Kim-Jong-Un-flies-home-with-lots-to-brag-about

http://time.com/5309427/trump-kim-joint-document-denuclearization/

http://time.com/5309556/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit-reality/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-singapore-summit-was-a-bustfor-the-us-at-least?ref=home

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-promised-big-change-at-summit-but-north-korea-keeps-its-nukes-for-now?ref=home

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa/trump-offers-to-end-korea-war-games-after-historic-kim-summit-idUSKBN1J821H

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-kim-summit-was-a-good-photo-op-and-maybe-nothing-more.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/kim-jong-un-propaganda/562613/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/trump-kim-jong-un-singapore-summit/562610/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/12/us-to-suspend-war-games-with-south-korea-donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-summit

https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2018/jun/12/trump-and-kim-document-analysis-singapore-agreement-denuclearisation

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-message-of-peace-recap-4ad7c6d9-bd67-4b8e-833f-c14bdfbb06ac.html

http://theweek.com/speedreads/778458/fox-news-chris-wallace-cautions-that-kim-jong-un-given-nothing-point

https://www.salon.com/2018/06/12/donald-trump-and-kim-jong-uns-nothing-summit-he-went-to-singapore-for-a-giant-photo-op/

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/the-summit-with-trump-couldnt-have-gone-better-for-kim-jong-un.html

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/06/singapore-summit-ends-with-nothing/

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/12/17452616/trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-summit

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-kim-agreement-short-on-detail-f12d01703984/

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/12/1771308/-For-Trump-Kim-goes-from-brutal-dictator-to-beloved-leader-with-great-feeling-for-his-people