Day 679

Day 679 Friday November 16, 2018    912 Days to Go

Is the excrement close to the fan?

I think so, but it’s hard to say. I’ve been hoping every election cycle that we throw the rascals out and, at least, get a new group of them in. This past election did that somewhat, yet a nazi sympathizer hung in there as did two indicted Congressmen, and any number of “god fearing” folk. Let me be clear, by god-fearing I mean they use their interpretation of the Bible to justify all kinds of mean crappy decisions that they are all for until they themselves are caught in such transgressions. 

But now we have some interesting news. Turns out the DC Circuit Court is hearing some pleading (is that the right word? I don’t know.) behind closed doors. On one side is the Mueller team, on the other is we-don’t-know, but whomever it is, it’s high level because these things go right to the front of the line of cases. This is – btw – the court just below the Supreme Court. There is one judge on this court appointed by Trump and this guy worked in the White House. He wouldn’t tell the Senators exactly what he had done in terms of giving legal advice to the president as it pertained to Russia and the Russia investigation (it wasn’t about the Comey firing, or Manafort) but he did say that if any of those matters that he advised the president on came before the court he would recuse himself. Guess what? He recused himself on whatever this matter is before the court. 

So what could this matter be?

How about Trump, or Trump family members, and others or maybe all three of the buckets of deplorables* I’ve mentioned are going to be indicted in some manner related to Russia meddling in our election and their colluding with them.

*(I list Trump, the family members active in the administration: Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Jared), and anyone who is a lackey and/or sycophant** for them as deplorable.) **(too many to list.) 

And, I contend, that the Trump team of lawyers who may or may not get paid by Trump or anybody, are fighting like hell to prevent this from happening.

And, I further contend, that this is one of the main reasons Donnie is grumpy. That and the steady drip of Democratic candidates that keep winning elections that were too close too call on election night.

Let’s look at two of those races:

One is in Maine where the Democratic candidate won out over the Republican. He didn’t get more votes than the Republican, but he won. How did this happen? Maine has an interesting law. Voters are asked whom their second and third choice for an office is. If no one gets over 50% of the vote then the second choice votes are added in to each total of the front runners, and the third choice, etc. until someone gets over 50%. The idea is to drop out third party candidates and or two moderate candidates that split the majority vote and let a wild card with a lower percentage (think Paul Lapage) from ascending to office with a minority of the votes. 

It worked in Maine. Once the third party guy was dropped out of the vote totals and the second choice of voters was counted, the Dem won.

And a Dem won in California too.

And there’s a third race to talk about, it hasn’t been called yet, but it’s an interesting story to me. It’s Emily Randall. She’s running for state senate in Washington state. She’s a college buddy of my daughter. I gave money to her campaign because my daughter called me and asked me to because, “Emily is awesome.”  I put somewhere on the form that I was Katie’s dad. When Katie talked to Emily the first thing she said to my daughter was, “Your dad gave me money.” That’s the closest thing I’ve ever gotten from a person running for office as a personal thank-you. 

Then the election came. It was too close to call. Mandatory recount. She was 134 votes behind, then 146 (.22%) then 74 behind. As of yesterday she’s 88 votes ahead.

There’s also a report that McConnell took money from the Russians, $3.5 million. So did Rubio and Graham. This isn’t an open and shut case, but it does seem troubling. The fellow, Leonard Blavatnik, gave money to Repiublicans, and in 2016 gave a lot more than he usually gives. He was a Russian citizen who came to the U.S. in 1978 to study. He now has US/UK citizenship and he’s worth $16.7 Billion. We owns the Warner Musical Group and has been trying to buy a major studio for years. He made his money starting in Russia as the country disposed of its state held assets. His buddy from his time in college is Viktor Vesksleberg whom the Mueller team boarded his private plane on a stopover in NYC. Blavatnik is also friends with Mikhail Fridman of AlfaGroup (and I suppose Alfa Bank, the bank that set up a server to talk to a server in Trump Tower). Together Blavatnik and Fridman formed AAR, which diversified into oil, chemicals and all that stuff.

Blavtnik has been lavish with his money earning him a knighthood in Britain. However, you gotta ask, “Is this all his money that he gave to the Republicans? Or was there something more?”

Maybe, we’ll learn someday.

912 Days to Go

PS Go Emily Go!