Day 631 Tuesday October 9, 2018 950 Days to Go
Another day another bunch of evidence that the president of the United States, his family members, other members of his team and the Republicans colluded with the Russian and obstructed justice. I know. You’re shocked and surprised. Make America Great Again by Colluding with the Enemy and Taking Money from Foreign Powers. MAGACETMFP!
There is apparently more evidence forthcoming from new accusers of Brett Kavanaugh, but that’s getting ahead of things a bit – maybe. Currently, we can witness the Republican victory lap about shoving a lying drunk and abuser of women onto the Supreme Court. Hey, wait, I’m being unfair. He’s a nice guy. He’s a nice guy like Hobby Lobby has nice people working there. So what if they can’t get certain health benefits? So what if the head of the firm has been on the forefront of many a lawsuit to discriminate against women? So what if he backs a museum that pushes fantasies as fact?
In the wake of the Kavanaugh confirmation there has been commentary about the Republican party, by recovering Republicans. The party they used to support and no longer can. The comments in that regard are sad and disturbing, but reflect a sense of where that party is now. These people say they left the Republican party because it was bereft of ideas; that it was all negative thoughts and attacks set on destroying. That the party had no ideas, no respect for facts, and that they had abandoned the principles and ideas that had originally drawn them to the party. Not only that but there is a meanness, and a lack of civility and empathy that they could not abide.
Oh well. So yesterday we learned that Devin Nunes, unofficial lapdog of the White House, is releasing some of the testimony that his short lived Russia investigation held. You remember they didn’t find any collusion so they shut down the investigation. They also didn’t look for any collusion and we now know that if there was any lead or whiff of collusion Nunes made sure not to follow up on it and went out of his way to block those efforts.
To semi-quote Jennifer Aniston’s restaurant boss in the movie Office Space where he is talking to her about how much bling she is wearing on her suspenders, “I’m not saying you were colluding with the Russians. I’m just saying you’re doing the minimum.” Hell, Devin you ain’t even doing the minimum.
Nunes isn’t releasing the testimony of Comey, and two intel guys, which probably makes sense in that their stuff could be damaging to national security, but he isn’t releasing the testimony of two Congress people either. “As a professional courtesy,” he claims. One is Debbie Wasserman Shultz who says she’s fine with releasing her testimony. The other is Dana Rohrabacher. A Republican who has been called Putin’s favorite Congressman and whom Republican whip Kevin McCarthy said the Congressman was being paid by the Russians. He was joking, but it does illustrate how deeply Mr. Rohrabacher appears to be in league with the Russians.
If we got to see Rohrabacher’s testimony we would apparently learn that when he went on trips he just happened to run into highly placed Russians. Pure coincidence! No Collusion! Really? What are the odds? Like what are the odds the Eric Prince went to the Seychelles for some business reason yet to be stated and ran into a Russian at a bar and they just happened to discuss how the Russians could help Trump get elected and how the Trump folks could set up a back channel to Russia? Now, of course, Trump doesn’t need much of a back channel he just meets with Putin with no other American in the room for hours at a time. It probably takes Putin that long to explain to Donald what he wants him to do next.
Ho hum, then there’s Rick Gates. He’s back in the news. Turns out the Trump election team is an equal opportunity colluder. Not only were they trying to work with the Russians; they were working with the Israelis. It was an Israeli company filled with ex-MOSAD agents that offered their services to the Trump election team. Nothing much, just setting up false accounts to influence Republican delegates to vote for Trump. Not only would they set up phony accounts and personas. They’d have people call the delegates. They realized it probably wouldn’t look good if it was Israelis making the calls so they proposed hiring U.S. citizens to do the dirty work. Gates let three RFPs for such services.
Oh yeah then there’s a little tidbit that I have to say it’s amazing how Trump can make it all about himself. He’s making the claim that his mocking Dr. Ford turned the nomination for Kavanaugh around and “he sailed through” after that. Republicans are now jumping up and down claiming that the Democrats treated Kavanaugh so unfairly. They were so mean! They made Brett cry. Aw, why would they do that? Let’s see. Kavanaugh lied under oath – repeatedly. He insulted Senators. He said he would exact retribution when he got confirmed. He claimed there was a partisan conspiracy out to get him and offered nothing to back up such a claim. Yet, the Republicans claim the Dems were unfair. Kavanaugh and the Republicans ought to know; they’ve done the heavy lifting when it comes to unfair, demeaning, baseless accusation and investigation.
Let’s not forget that it was Kavanaugh while on the Starr Whitewater investigation that wanted the most salacious details of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, that had nothing to do with a bust land deal fourteen years before. It was Orrin Hatch that asked for the details on that business yet now has the temerity to say the Dems acted unfairly toward weepy BK.
I hope that after the election a proper investigation into the allegations against Kavanaugh will be carried out, if for no other reason then to clear the name of the FBI from being a tool of the Republicans in their whitewash of Kavanaugh’s behavior. I also hope that we’ll be able to see the thousands of pages of documents that Chuck Grassely forbade the Senators from seeing about Kavanaugh’s time in the White House when he said he had nothing to do with the White House torture campaign under W, but those in the room at the time said he had plenty to do with it. I want it just to clear his name mind you; I mean I’m sure Ted Cruz and Orrin Hatch wouldn’t want such terrible allegations hanging over Kavanaugh’s head for the next forty years that he’ll sit on the bench.
I got to wonder what Roberts is thinking. How is he going to handle this guy? Kavanaugh has no courtroom experience as a lawyer. Will Ginsberg and Kagan have to explain to him how judicial proceedings work? Or will that fall to Alito?
Oh yes, the district court where Kavanaugh sat for the last twelve years, the guy in charge there is forwarding the complaints, of which there were many about Kavanaugh, to Justice Roberts. I’d like to know why none of that came out in Kavanaugh’s hearing!
There is so much that is wrong in our country now. I no longer have the sense that “We are all in this together.” How can we be? We can’t agree on the basic facts. There is a culture of hate and belittlement, of falsehood and blame. It is tearing us apart.
950 Days to Go
PS Bleah!
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