Russia heating up
The cable TV news is dominated this week by the disastrous Texas flooding, which those poor people are going to be dealing with the aftermath for years. Overlooked somewhat with the natural disaster dominating the headlines, there’s some very interesting developments in the Russian case. In fact, a lot of new reports have cropped up. Rep. Eric Swalwell on the House committee said the investigations appear to be ramping up at a “pretty dizzying pace” and even raised the possibility of having Trump himself testifying about the big real estate deal in Moscow. Imagine that, if the prez becomes a witness and because he is a known pathological liar, at the very least his sworn testimony could be on a collision course with perjury. Despite Trump emphatically saying as this scandal emerged that nobody in his campaign had anything to do with Russia, whether politically or business deals or otherwise, which we’ve since found out was totally not the case.
Recent revelations include sonny-boy Donald Jr. agreeing to a transcribed interview with the Senate judiciary committee focusing on that infamous meeting a year ago with the Russians at Trump Tower. It was that same meeting daddy-Donny crafted a misleading statement about the purpose of the meeting. It’s apparent that Trump Tower meeting is a central focus of Mueller’s probe. A Russian lobbyist attending that meeting has already testified before Mueller’s grand jury. Then there’s also the Kremlin actually admitting they were approached about a Trump Tower project in Moscow by Trump aide Felix Sater & Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, happening conveniently enough just prior to the presidential primaries. By following the money investigators are tracing things back to the heart of any cooperation between Trump’s campaign & the Russians.
Investigators are focused on some interesting emails from these prime suspects which they’ve obtained. Sater was bragging in a message to Cohen how this Moscow skyscraper project could result in 2 guys from Brooklyn (them) getting Trump elected President. The message went onto say “we can engineer it, I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this.” What do you suppose Sater meant by that? There was that other email we learned about awhile back which Donald Jr. was referring to the Trump Tower meeting in getting the dirt on Hillary, where he exclaimed “I love it especially later in the summer,” which was indeed when Russia leaked those hacked emails disparaging Hillary’s campaign. What do you suppose Jr. meant by his quote?
Other new & interesting tidbits are that Mueller is coordinating with NY Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, working together on the investigation. It’s a preemptive strike against potential Trump pardons. I would argue serial pardons by Trump on anything Russia would provide proof of obstruction of justice, especially considering why would there ever be need for pardons if his staff & family were really innocent. But since Trump cannot pardon for state crimes, if he tried using his pardon power the investigations could just change to state jurisdictions. A state like NY assuming the case may not have the international reach like the feds, but they at least could still pursue the case. Plus any presidential pardons involving Russia would be a political powder keg, raising suspicions which would demand answers all the more. It might cause raised eyebrows even among Russian scandal deniers, with the backlash perhaps rivalling Watergate’s Saturday Night Massacre from which the uproar sealed the deal to Nixon’s soon-to-be resignation.
The latest reports are seeing the walls closing in on Manafort. His associates are required to provide information to investigators, plus Manafort’s smart phone notes from the Trump Tower meeting offered short cryptic notes alluding to Russian donations going to the RNC. What might he have meant mentioning donations to RNC as it relates to the Russians? (I’m trying to keep this super simple so even the echo-crew can understand.) Mueller’s team seeks to pressure Manafort to flip against his former GOP nominee boss. The events of this past month, including the raid on his house, make it clear Manafort is for now the key player targeted by investigators.
We’re also hearing of Trump’s attorneys regularly meeting with Mueller’s team to argue Trump hasn’t engaged in obstruction, which the way he kept interfering in the FBI, Senate & House investigations literally screamed out obstruction, so ironically the more Trump’s minions keep in touch with investigators to plead no obstruction, the more it smacks of obstruction. And Trump basically admitted obstruction by saying the Comey firing was over Russia, which his attorney’s are now arguing otherwise. It’s a muddled mess & Trump’s pleas don’t hold water. It looks as though Mueller’s main focus isn’t on obstruction so much, since the more impactful charges would come from the collusion side during the campaign. Mueller is also enlisting the help of the IRS….interesting. Maybe they’ll see those tax returns Trump refused to show the people. As we’ve been saying about this probe all along, follow the money.
Since Mueller has taken the reins of the investigation, it seems he’s really tightened up on the leaking. So the bits & pieces we’re getting through the news are just a small fraction of what’s being found out behind closed doors. But the hordes of circumstantial evidence we’ve been getting over the past several months, including all the proven contacts with Russians along with the subsequent lies & cover-ups, clearly show something really was going on with the Russians. To what extent we must wait for the investigations to run their course as they connect the dots & complete the picture. With this much smoke that continues to emanate from somewhere, it seems a virtual lock evidence of a crime involving many is on the horizon.
Lately we have seen definitive evidence some involved in the Trump campaign were more than willing to play ball with the Russians in trying to become kingmakers, & it’d be preposterous to think the would-be king wasn’t in the loop of what was going on. Plenty of echo-nudniks deny the evidence, but they are chronic liars. As we keep seeing the different shoes dropping with the intrigue & the testimonies gaining steam, we never know when a really big bombshell might land. Like with Watergate once the wheels came off, the end came quickly thereafter, which could well fall in line with my oft-stated prediction America will have a new President by year’s end. And when the end does come, can we really be surprised given what we’ve seen all along with someone so devoid of moral character.
In other news, Trump’s tone-deaf celebratory tone on his Texas trip as he was patting himself on the back for how wonderful he is in the midst of tragedy, not commiserating or showing empathy with the millions who are suffering, only acknowledging what a nice crowd he turned out. And for a President who measures his success by his crowd sizes & not his accomplishments, he was livid with a long-time loyal aide whom he blamed for not turning out a large crowd to his Phoenix rally a couple weeks ago. Trump has always obsessed over huge crowds with the enthusiasm & cheers that can bring while always concerned about optics, image & showmanship, which is why for his administration’s very first press conference he sent out Spicer as his stooge & sacrificial lamb, making a terse & emphatic (& demonstrably false) statement Trump’s inaugural crowd size was bigger than Obama’s.
The links as always cover a multitude of topics. We start off with the numerous Russian articles, followed by reports of Trump’s personal failings, his Texas photo-op, fallout from the speeches in Phoenix & about Charlottesville, fallout from Arpaio’s pardon, & some interesting new polling in the bottom links, plus a giant inflatable rat. There’s also an article about a new nut-job in the evangelical Hall-of-Shame as Jim Bakker crawled out of his hole. Right below his link is an interesting article on prosperity-preacher Joel Osteen, along with the rising backlash against evangelical Christians which they managed to bring on themselves. The articles are recent & feature the most pertinent picked out from the news feeds, & as is always the case with Trump in charge, there’s no shortage of important information. There’s plenty of warnings to heed about this uniquely dangerous President. Have a happy holiday weekend and I’ll catch you again after Labor Day. That is unless some major headline comes from Trump and/or the Russian scandal, which is always a threat to happen at a moment’s notice with this President.
Views from the far-left…. I include these in going to the other extreme to counter the crazy right-wing echo.
As a Christian I do applaud putting pro-life justices on the Court….but conservative justices and judges are not a panacea. As we’ve seen in recent years, conservative justices are doing enormous political damage with undying support for the Citizens United decision which gives big money the power to help influence elections over the people’s wishes on the absurd notion money equates to free speech. Another conservative blunder in the Court is not correcting the ridiculously drawn-up partisan districts through gerrymandering, which in essence helps to squash voting rights (especially for minorities) while putting extremists on both sides in the House that further ingrains DC polarization, obstruction and gridlock. Absent the unlikely occurrence of overturning Roe v Wade that’s nearly a half-century in existence, I’d say those on the Court like Alito have actually been doing far more harm than good. I still recall him shamelessly shaking his head at an Obama SOTU address when the then-President correctly called out the recent Court ruling in favor of Citizens United. Perhaps my fellow (white) evangelicals who cast their votes for Trump at more than 80% for a more conservative Court may have been drawn in by fool’s gold.
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