Mueller probe takes on new dimension….
These Russian indictments were strategically timed, deterring the drumroll of rightwing nutwings on the warpath against the DOJ, FBI & the investigation, with their only intent being to derail the Mueller team & hide the truth on the Russian scandal. Rosenstein cleverly walked a fine line in his Friday announcement, revealing the seriousness of these Russian illegal acts without initially irritating Trump (he didn’t get livid until he watched the rightly critical news reports over the weekend). A carefully worded sentence by Rosenstein revealed there is no evidence of collusion “in this indictment.” But that leaves the door open for future indictments to blow the lid off the amount of Trump campaign involvement. Trump’s reactions have been so bizarre lately, it’s obvious he’s hiding something quite serious. I just heard David Gergen say the president’s deflections & denials are reminiscent of Nixon in his last days, while he also went onto comment the signs are pointing towards America being at risk of falling into authoritarianism as any other time: Read donald-trump-tweets-
After more than a dozen Russians and three companies were indicted on Friday for interfering in the 2016 elections, President Trump’s first reaction was to claim personal vindication: “The Trump campaign did nothing wrong — no collusion!” he wrote on Twitter. He voiced no concern that a foreign power had been trying for nearly four years to upend American democracy, much less resolve to stop it from continuing to do so this year. The indictment secured by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, underscored the broader conclusion by the American government that Russia is engaged in a virtual war against the United States through 21st-century tools of disinformation and propaganda, a conclusion shared by the president’s own senior advisers and intelligence chiefs. But it is a war being fought on the American side without a commander in chief.
Please check out these insightful articles: another-presidents-day-without
Just as Sept. 11 made clear that private security could not safeguard the aviation system, so the 2016 Russian attack made clear that social media companies cannot safeguard the electoral system. A greater federal role is needed, yet Trump refuses to even admit that the problem exists. The most benign explanation is that he is putting his vanity — he can’t have anything taint his glorious victory — above his obligation to “protect and defend the Constitution.” The more sinister hypothesis is that he has something to hide and, having benefited from Russia’s assistance once, hopes for more aid in 2018 and 2020. Either way, we are at war without a commander in chief.
Inside the link whatever-trump-is-hiding-is-hu
Our democracy is in serious danger. President Trump is either totally compromised by the Russians or is a towering fool, or both, but either way he has shown himself unwilling or unable to defend America against a Russian campaign to divide and undermine our democracy. That is, either Trump’s real estate empire has taken large amounts of money from shady oligarchs linked to the Kremlin — so much that they literally own him; or rumors are true that he engaged in sexual misbehavior while he was in Moscow running the Miss Universe contest, which Russian intelligence has on tape and he doesn’t want released; or Trump actually believes Russian President Vladimir Putin when he says he is innocent of intervening in our elections — over the explicit findings of Trump’s own C.I.A., N.S.A. and F.B.I. chiefs.
In sum, Trump is either hiding something so threatening to himself, or he’s criminally incompetent to be commander in chief. It is impossible yet to say which explanation for his behavior is true, but it seems highly likely that one of these scenarios explains Trump’s refusal to respond to Russia’s direct attack on our system — a quiescence that is simply unprecedented for any U.S. president in history. Russia is not our friend. It has acted in a hostile manner. And Trump keeps ignoring it all. Up to now, Trump has been flouting the norms of the presidency. Now Trump’s behavior amounts to a refusal to carry out his oath of office — to protect and defend the Constitution. Here’s an imperfect but close analogy: It’s as if George W. Bush had said after 9/11: “No big deal. I am going golfing over the weekend in Florida and blogging about how it’s all the Democrats’ fault — no need to hold a National Security Council meeting.”
My guess is what Trump is hiding has to do with money. It’s something about his financial ties to business elites tied to the Kremlin. They may own a big stake in him. Who can forget that quote from his son Donald Trump, Jr. from back in 2008: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets.” They may own our president. But whatever it is, Trump is either trying so hard to hide it or is so naïve about Russia that he is ready to not only resist mounting a proper defense of our democracy, he’s actually ready to undermine some of our most important institutions, the F.B.I. and Justice Department, to keep his compromised status hidden. That must not be tolerated. This is code red. The biggest threat to the integrity of our democracy today is in the Oval Office.
Unless they travel outside Russia, there’s very little chance any of the 13 will ever be extradited back here. But the indictments Mueller handed down more than anything served to inform a domestic audience that as far as this Russian interference, there really is a there there! Here’s a list of my dozen observations as to the significance of that 37-page indictment & the message it’s sending to Americans:
*Shows clear evidence of crimes committed against our nation, actually more an ongoing crime wave if not an outright act of war
*Politically sends a strategic message to the rightwing echo-crowd, proving Russian interference was real & definitely not fake news
*Buys time, as some of Trump’s most loyal henchmen wanted Rosenstein & Mueller fired, or the investigation curtailed, but now more GOP reps in Congress & others are cognizant of the importance to continue the probe till its conclusion
*Clearly shows legitimacy surrounds this entire scandal, which these indictments are but a narrow focus of the investigation & the rest of the facts still need to come out
*Trump lies & denies yet again, misrepresenting the meaning of these findings
*Reveals a far more extensive & far-reaching Russian operation than we ever imagined
*Adds weight & expectations to potential conspiracy & obstruction charges against Americans that may be just ahead, plus more indictments are expected over the campaign email hacks
*A call to action that Americans need to unite around fighting these Russian attacks on our democracy (everyone except our leader)
*The professionalism & thoroughness of the Mueller team, with an extraordinary level of detail & completeness in these indictments
*Highlights how Mueller’s team can keep a secret as these Russian indictments came out of the blue
*Since they don’t show their hand about whatever dirt they may have on Americans, it raises the intrigue that direct evidence of Trump campaign involvement could come out at any time, & doesn’t tip off or alter the testimonies of witnesses still facing interviews
*By first showing us detailed proof of Russian meddling, it may be Mueller’s way of bracing the American people for the shockers that are still to come
Further perspective is found here: robert-mueller-trump-cornered.
Some of the more demented Trump enablers now want the prez to pardon everyone, showing panicked desperation as their suggestion would politically cause all hell to break loose, plus those pardoned would still have legal exposure through state laws. It seems at this point some of Trump’s key people or formerly key people are on the spot, deciding whether to play ball with Mueller in exchange for lesser charges & shorter prison sentences. And Trump is reeeeeeeeally sounding desperate as we can see from his tweet-storm. His tweets are childish, vindictive & often nonsensical. The weekend focused mainly on him & his anger over Russia, while the nation mourned the tragic shooting victims & funerals were held not far from Mar-a-Lago. Some leader, huh? His tweets also try to blame Obama for not dealing with the Russian meddling when we barely knew what was happening, & now that we do definitely know the extent of the attacks that continue to this day, our president is still doing nothing. I’m very confident we’ll find out the reason he lays off Russia is because he had a deal with them, so he’s trying to stop that from becoming known. Whatever the final findings turn out to be on team-Trump’s possible involvement in collusion, obstruction &/or money laundering, we can rest assured Mueller will provide an impressive amount of evidentiary detail like we saw in the Russian indictments that landed on Friday. When that day comes when Mueller presents the findings against the campaign & administration, the evidence of crimes could be so solid, even some Trumpeters will have to admit the prez stepped over his boundaries & can’t remain in power. This might explain why Trump seems to be getting even more unhinged. He may truly be a psychopath & it isn’t funny. Just look at what is happening. Look at his incompetent leadership where his tirades scream out clear signs of raging mental instability. This is very dangerous! I’ve been warning & ranting against Trump for nearly 3 years now, & every day he does things & says things to prove me right. At least James Buchanan can rest easier his legacy moved up a notch, since he’s no longer ranked as the worst American President of all-time!….trump-takes-last-
In bombshell-russia-indictment
The special counsel’s actions raise a host of questions, but here is what we can say with confidence:
*There is no “hoax,” and Trump’s insistence that the Russia investigation is about nothing only reinforces the perception that his ego won’t allow him to concede that he received Russian help and/or that he’s been trying to disable the Russia investigation, precisely because he did not want this plot of interference to come out.
*It will be exceptionally hard, if not impossible, for Trump now to fire Rosenstein or Mueller.
*Mueller and his team are moving with remarkable speed, wrapping up witnesses and substantiating a conspiracy to influence the election. There is much more to this than “just” evidence of obstruction. There is an embarrassing scheme to fix our election by a hostile foreign power that certainly could have been the motive for Trump’s effort to thwart the Russia investigation. Mueller has multiple cooperating witnesses: Michael Flynn, Richard Pinedo (the indicted American), George Papadopoulos and soon, we are told, Rick Gates). Trump and his legal team should be exceptionally worried about what else Mueller has.
*The president’s failure to take action to protect the U.S. election system and prevent another assault on our democracy — a real and ongoing concern voiced by the unanimous testimony of his top intelligence officials — appears to be a gross dereliction of Trump’s duties and an abrogation of his oath.
*The Russian plan was specifically aimed at helping Trump. “By February 2016, the suspects had decided whom they were supporting in the 2016 race. According to the indictment, Internet Research Agency specialists were instructed to ‘use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump — we support them),’” The Post reports. “Prosecutors say some Russian employees of the troll farm were chastised in September 2016 when they had a ‘low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton’ and were told it was ‘imperative to intensify criticizing’ the Democratic nominee in future posts.”
*While Rosenstein said there was no evidence that the actions in the indictment affected the election outcome, such an assertion, he surely must know, is not a provable fact and is legally immaterial. *No one can prove how many people were affected by what the Russians put out.
*A plan of this magnitude involving so many people and so much money could not have feasibly been conducted without the knowledge or assistance of the Kremlin.
*Carter Page is largely irrelevant to the larger plot to undermine the U.S. election system.
Republicans’ efforts, led by the clownish Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), to assist and enable Trump now look foolish or worse. What has been implicit is now explicit: They are doing the Russians’ work for them.
Now knowing the extent of Russian meddling in conjunction with the prez all along lying, denying & not taking any actions against Russia for these attacks, we are now seeing the “T” word being tossed around out there in various op-eds. At the top of the related articles are links to trump-russia-election-hacki
What is the point of having a free republic, if the president turns a blind eye to outside interference from a foreign power? What is the point of having the most awesome military force the world has ever seen if a foreign power can play a hands-on role in selecting the leader of our nation? What is the point of building a wall to keep people out, when our enemies can use technology to circumvent physical barriers and wreak havoc on our electoral process? At the heart of our country is the idea that Americans are empowered to choose who represents them in public office. That fundamental right of governance is under siege right now and the president of the United States is not doing anything about it. Even worse, he is denying the threat even exists. This is an alarming dereliction of duty. This is a betrayal of the oath of office he swore to uphold. This is treasonous behavior and grounds for impeachment.
Inside the link russia-is-at-war-with-our-demo
Millions of people, online and offline, had interactions with people they believed to be Americans who were actually Russians, bots created by them or actual Americans unwittingly paid by Russians. We will never know for sure whether the Kremlin’s influence campaign proved decisive in a close election decided by roughly 80,000 voters across three states. But that’s beside the point; we don’t absolve attempted murder just because the victim happens to survive. But to suggest, as many in Trumpworld do, that not a single American voter was swayed by this three-year-long, carefully orchestrated, wide-reaching information-warfare campaign is a dangerous fantasy — because it downplays the menace that this new kind of threat poses to our democratic system. If you successfully attack the democratic system, you attack the mechanism by which every other decision is made, from tax policy to nuclear weapons. Imagine Pearl Harbor, except that the proverbial flames could engulf our ability to make our own free-thinking democratic choices for years.
Trump and his ardent supporters, of course, are eager to downplay the threat. Because the Russians tried to help Trump win, they want to pretend it was minor, unimportant and unworthy of a response. That helps explain why Trump failed to impose sanctions that Congress passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, why he bizarrely proposed setting up a joint cybersecurity task force with the same government that conducted a major cyberattack against the United States and why he keeps acting as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief apologist in the West. But we cannot afford to view foreign attacks on U.S. democracy through a partisan lens. U.S. intelligence leaders warned this week that the Kremlin’s operations continue today. It’s striking that the indictment says the Russian operatives stoked polarization by backing left-wing political events afterTrump was elected, hoping to drive a wedge between Americans. Russia benefits if American society tears itself apart, holding rallies to attack one another rather than rallying together to protect democracy from foreign attacks.
The Trump administration’s strategy of defending the Kremlin rather than defending American democracy has sent a clear signal to Moscow. Putin has no reason to stop and every reason to get more aggressive. The Russians’ last operations were effective and solicited no meaningful consequences. By enabling Putin rather than deterring him, Trump has effectively rolled out the digital red carpet for more information warfare in the upcoming midterm elections. Finally, it’s worth noting that the Mueller indictment of 13 Russians does not in any way resolve the question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia or any aspects of Mueller’s investigation related to obstruction of justice. What it does make clear is that Russia wants to undermine American democracy. We are letting Russia do so. It’s time not only to fight back — but also to try to find common ground, uniting at least on this issue, to protect the democratic values and democratic system that most of us cherish, before it’s too late.
In this excerpt from muellers-latest-indictmen
Here is yet more proof, not that any was needed, that Russia meddled in the election to benefit Trump—and that Trump’s continued denial or downplaying of Putin’s intervention is nothing but bunk. The indictment is a reminder that Trump won a tainted election, in which he was assisted by Russian skullduggery—and that he has refused to come to terms with that. This indictment only covers one part of the information warfare unleashed by Russia against American democracy two years ago. Roughly speaking, Moscow’s attack had three components: the social media assault, the hack-and-dump operation targeting Democrats, and the penetration of state voting systems. Each had the potential to undermine the election and cause discord or even chaos.
This means that Mueller’s probe could yield additional information regarding the details and breadth of the Russian campaign to intervene in the election to assist Trump. The president, who has yet to say anything in public showing he is committed to preventing Russian meddling in this year’s election, can continue to dismiss such material as “fake news” produced by a “witch hunt.” (According to the Washington Post, in his first year as president, Trump said the Russia probe was a Democratic hoax 44 times.) Hours after Friday’s indictment, Trump issued a statement once again dismissing the Russia investigation for producing “outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories.” But with this indictment—and possibly others—Mueller has demonstrated that Trump, by refusing to acknowledge fully the Russian assault of 2016, has been helping Putin cover up a crime.
In the very next link donald-trump-is-having-a-
Trump’s tweet appears to misread the indictment, which revealed that some of the Russians had been in contact with “unwitting individuals” from the Trump campaign. As Mother Jones predicted earlier, the president’s declaration of vindication is a misinterpretation of the fact that these initial charges don’t include collusion. (In announcing the indictment, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was careful to emphasize that no Americans were implicated in the scheme in the current indictment, but did not preclude further indictments that would include Americans.) The tweet was also significant in that Trump characterized Russian interference efforts as an “anti-US campaign,” after having previously dismissed them as a hoax.
Now we get to the category of what a swell guy? I’ve heard reports in the past Trump complained about what Melania’s pregnancy at the time did to her figure. So it was shortly after she gave birth to their only child, our future prez had the Stormy affair with the porn star, while at the same time was messing around with a Playboy playmate. The demon-inspired National Enquirer actually suppressed the story on the playmate affair just prior to the election, with reports of her pocketing a six-figure hush money stipend which even exceeded what Stormy got paid. Somewhere in this mess it was very likely campaign finance laws were broken. Of course, uniquely to this prez, the rule of law is a mere suggestion if not more a nuisance. Of all the recent high-profile sexual abuse cases the past few years, the only one who has yet to lose his job over it is Trump. And between mistresses & Russians & who knows who else, how many people out there are actually in position to blackmail our U.S. President? In the article donald-trump-a-playboy-model-a
There’s a very real possibility the Russian attacks really did alter the election. We’ll never know for certain, but there’s a high likelihood Trump is an illegitimate president. It could well be we didn’t really elect Trump, the Russians did! In the article how-much-did-russian-interfere
So stay tuned & follow along with these commentaries & many, many, many of the most important/relevant related articles pulled off the newsfeeds. The huge number of links today is probably a new record. The great part about all these articles, they come from professional journalists & the news reports are verified by multiple sources. Then when we see different news publications reporting on the same topics, it multiplies the accuracy & credibility of these articles. Especially in this era of fake news coming from the echo, Russia & various shady sources, we must seek out facts. A democracy is reliant on an informed electorate, which is a big reason America is now in trouble. At least we can all do our part by sharing this info. We are called upon to be modern day Paul Revere’s, warning our fellow Americans of enemy attacks. Only this time it’s not the British, but the Russians who are attacking us, along with the amazing prospect we may be witnessing Trump treason through inaction. And for some strange reason he reveres Putin who is above criticism. There was never any possibility after Pearl Harbor that FDR would have denied it was the Japanese & heaped praise on Hitler! Think about that, it may be the basic equivalent of what we’re now watching our president doing! How many more reasons do we need that preserving American democracy must require defeating Trump, his enablers, the echo & Trumpeter base?
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