Trump

Day 782 Wednesday February 27, 2019

614 Days to the 2020 election and 692 Days to Inauguration Day

Well, today is the day Michael Cohen is due to publicly testify in front of a Congressional committee. It’s hard to predict the reaction. There are certain things he can not talk about because of on-going investigations. Those are matters relating to the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in our 2016 election (which seems like it was eons ago!) However, this leaves lots to talk about. Cohen who was one of Trump’s closest advisors for years knows a lot. There are court filings that mention an “Individual #1” and it is assumed (or stated) that that person is Donald Trump. It’s one thing to have everything point to that fact; it’s another to have it openly stated. Individual #1 is – to use the terminology of the Nixon Watergate era – “an unindicted co-conspirator.” That means that someone worked with you to commit a crime and they haven’t been charged. In this case, if the person was charged and found guilty they would be a felon. This is to say then that in most cases and given the likely probabilities the president of the United States is a criminal, a felon. For those of us who have been following these proceedings this is nothing new. However, if you are in the 30-40% who seem to side with Trump no matter what, there might be a new day, a reckoning. That is the part that is hard to predict.

Will the argument be “Well, I know he’s a criminal, but I’m sticking with him.”? This would be a variant on the “Well, he’s a business man…” argument. Let’s deal, once again, with the “he’s a businessman” claim. He has run businesses – true. Most of them have been closed private companies. The only public stock business he ran went bust. Any public venture he ran was either a scam and/or went bust. His private businesses seemed to have fared the same fate. What he has been pretty good at is convincing a lot of people that he’s a class guy and you should want to spend a lot of money investing in one of his real estate deals. The kind of people who seem to think Trump is a class guy seem to be shady characters. They may not even think he’s a class guy, but rather a conduit to move money into what appears to be legitimate business from what clearly was not. There’s a term for this and it’s called money laundering. That seems to be something Trump is pretty good at. So was Paul Manafort.

Trump seems to have one sales pitch, which has been very successful in conning the suckers. It’s the pitch he used for Trump University and the pitch he used to run for president. The wording and the phrasing is the same. 

The claims he makes are easily proven to be false. Yet that doesn’t seem to bother those being lured in. I understand that. Who wants to admit they’ve been snookered? At some point you say I’ve had enough. There are many who put money up to get training from Trump University only to discover that they got little or nothing except in debt. 

In the case of Trump University which was shown in court to be a scam Trump got out of it by paying a twenty five million dollar fine, I think to the State of New York. There should have been charges brought against him in Florida but he avoided that by bribing (I mean making a political contribution) to the state’s attorney general for $20,000 which went to her campaign re-election. This somehow this brought her on board and she never filed charges against Trump, and is still hanging around him. What about the claimants in her state? What about them? They’re screwed.

In fact, when I look at a lot of these Republicans they all have a similar M.O. Mike Pence did numerous sleazy power plays while governor of Indiana. His excuses and back room power plays to shut down women’s health clinics in that state were particularly egregious. These were similar tactics used by John Kasich in his state. Thom Tillis before he left the state legislature in North Carolina gave his staff huge pay raises while cutting teacher salaries and to add insult to the injury then approved a two million dollar construction project to build a covered walkway between the two chambers on the North Carolina legislative houses. 

These guys seem to be able to fail upwards, which I find astonishing.

I keep hoping that they’ll get their comeuppance, and hopefully before they create too much more damage. Every once in awhile they face reality, but not often. Trump faced it in the United Nations when those assembled laughed in his face. He recovered quickly. First was the smile, and his comment that he hadn’t expected that reaction. I guess he thought he could unload his pile of steamy bull and they’d buy it like so many others. Or at least they’d keep quiet, like so many have had to endure. (I think about Jerry Brown having to keep his head down while Trump stood there and kept saying the wrong name of the town they had just seen that was burned to the ground. Trump “Pleasure”. Brown “Paradise”. Trump “Pleasure”. Brown “Paradise”. Trump “What?”

Bankers who dealt with Trump when his casinos in New Jersey were in trouble said that he didn’t seem to understand the basics of the problem. That he didn’t understand the numbers. It seemed he had not taken accounting or economics, which if you are a CEO, is kind of important to understand that stuff.

We also had the sudden retirement of Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court. This opened the path for beer boy Brett the K-man to get appointed, but why did he retire so suddenly? He had already picked his interns for the next session, had everything going along and then – boom – he retired. Why? Why indeed. His son worked for Deutsche Bank and was the principle bank that loaned money to Trump once no one else would. It was Kennedy’s son who was the one approving those loans. Why was this bank willing to loan money to Trump when no one else would? Was Anthony Kennedy worried that a case might come in front of the court involving his son and Deutsche Bank? Was he afraid he’d have to recuse himself and the vote would be 4 to 4? If he got off the bench then Trump could bring in another zealot like Gorsuch and the vote would be 5-4 and his son’s ass would be saved. Is that what he was thinking? (You betcha.) btw Current betting is that the money for Trump via Deutsche Bank came from Russia, if so they were merely a conduit for illicit money to be funneled to what appears to be a legitimate business. There’s a word for that, what is it? Oh yeah, money laundering. Wouldn’t that be illegal? Like felony illegal? Like time in the big house illegal?

In two hours at 10am Mr. Cohen is due to testify. Will this be that moment of truth for those Trump supporters? Will those people who have said, “Well, he’s a businessman …” realize that no he’s not that he’s a con man and they’ve been duped? That’s he’s a criminal? That he’s a mean petty bully? That he’s a narcissistic delusional fool? That he’s a terrible negotiator? That he’s a coward when it comes to actually firing someone?

What Cohen says will be revealing I’m sure. How revealing? I don’t know. What the reaction will be from the Trump supporters is hard to say. Will they have to see the president cuffed and booked?

My current fantasy is that Donald and Sean (as in Hannity)  both get arrested and booked. I don’t know what for, I don’t care. I like the thought. Then the next day while Rush is tugging on the front of his shirt trying to let some of the steam from his BS waft into the air in his studio that he get arrested and cuffed. 

Listen, I can dream. And no I’m not putting up pictures of people with crosshairs on them. Like some folks and organization are doing. 

Have a nice day! 10am Cspan-3.

614 Days to the 2020 election and 692 Days to Inauguration Day

PS The walls are closing in.

Day 781 Tuesday February 26, 2019

615 Days to the 2020 election and 693 Days to Inauguration Day

America has always been a country of opposites. De Tocqueville wrote of this in his 1835 classic “Democracy in America.” He observed America much as a social scientist would today. For individual liberty, but observing that if one acted alone they would get crushed by the powerful. He believed in individual rights while respecting the rights of others. However, he feared the extremes of democracy. He saw it as a balance between liberty and equality, between the individual and the community. He saw America as competing between its vitality and its decadence. He saw much of a country’s ills as a struggle between rich and poor. As a desire for equality, and a fear that it might come true. Has much changed since de Tocqueville toured America?

Technologically yes, but the underlying fears, struggles, courage, and fight? I think not. 

I was struck by discussion last night of how Trump takes the advice of Putin over his own sources and allies. This is stunning on its face and even more alarming as one digs deeper. It quickly reaches a comedy of the absurd, which makes “Midsummer’s Night Dream” or “Elixir of Love” seem in the realms of possibility. We now have a president of the United States who trusts the word of our biggest adversary over that of anyone else. It’s a manipulation by opposite forces. We have a Republican party that works steadfastly for a small minority – the rich and powerful. To add insult to this is their labeling legislative bills with titles that are the exact opposite of what the bill actually does. The tax cut is a perfect example.

Also, interestingly. many of the Republicans embrace Ayn Rand. Paul Ryan insisted that everyone upon becoming a member of his staff read Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” He obviously did not understand that the very practices Rand was railing against were the very things he and his Republican colleagues were trying to institute. 

Now we have our president going to what was the capital of North Vietnam to talk with the leader of North Korea. Many fear that he will give away something else, something big, in return for nothing, like he did on their last meeting. Given that as far as anyone knows the only preparation the president may have done was to talk to the Russians about what he should do. At least, that is what they are boasting. Surprise, they will have their representatives in Hanoi too. Pure coincidence. 

Last time Trump and Kim met Trump gave away our doing military exercises with the South Koreans. Something both Russia and North Korea have wanted for decades. What did we get in return? Nothing.

Now people are worried that Trump will agree to a peace plan. On the face it sounds reasonable doesn’t it? That’s the danger. If there is peace then why would South Korea need American troops in its country? In fact, the North Koreans could then claim we were foreign occupiers. North Korea’s goal is to unify the two countries under their rule. Russia’s goal is to diminish U.S. presence. In one blurt Trump could hand both a huge gift. Will he do it? I’m betting yes.

Why? He’s an uneducated, incurious, lazy fool. 

He is driven to do the opposite.

He is desperate.

We live in scary times.

Meanwhile, the not too subtle attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes continue. First it was she doesn’t live in her district. Now it’s that her field office isn’t set up. She said it would be ready in March. OMG! That’s like four days away! The horror. Why didn’t she do it right after she got elected? Blah Blah Blah. Well, let’s see. Every media outlet wanted her to appear. She championed The Green New Deal, which has the nation buzzing, and has put the focus on climate change and what to do about it, once again.

She talked about taxing the rich, making education and health care affordable, and she has made working proposals for each. This has driven the right wing to distraction, because fundamentally what she says makes sense. They are twisting themselves and her words in knots. 

615 Days to the 2020 election and 693 Days to Inauguration Day

PS The Mall of America. We are being taken for a ride.

Day 778 Saturday February 23, 2019

618 Days to the 2020 election and 696 Days to Inauguration Day

Yesterday Corey Lewandowski was on and he was trying to be kind and respectful. That lasted about thirty seconds when he launched into what seems to be a favorite of the Fox News and right wing folks which is this, “You want to talk about Russia and collusion? Why isn’t anyone in the mainstream media talking about Hillary Clinton and the Russians? That’s the only collusion!”

Okay, in a nutshell, the reason no one in the legitimate press is talking about what you claim is that your claim is baseless. No one in the Clinton campaign colluded with Russians. Period. But for Mr. Lewandowski and his folks of a similar ilk, let me “refresh” your memories. The Clinton campaign did pay an American firm to continue it’s opposition research on Donald Trump. In case you forgot this research was started by Republicans. Once Trump secured the nomination the Dems picked up the tab.

The American firm was Fusion GPS. It does research using publicly available materials. When they were approached the first thing they did was to buy all the books on Donald Trump and read them. Then they looked at all the publicly available court cases involving Mr. Trump, of which there are a lot. He is reputed to be the most sued and litigant man in America. They also looked at all publicly available legal records like deeds and corporate documents.  Their research left one giant hole. Trump was spending a lot of time in Russia, yet he had little to show for it. The question in their minds was, “What was Trump doing in Russia?” There weren’t many, if any public records. They turned to a man in Britain who is a specialist on Russia. Michael Steele was the British government’s expert on Russia. He not only knew all the players but knew their personalities and foibles. Fusion GPS asked Steele to find out what he could on Trump and Russia. He wasn’t given any particular guidance. The question was open ended.

At the time Michael Steele was first asking around there was quite a bit of general knowledge on the street. In other words people were talking freely. This changed, but at first there was quite a bit that could be gleaned in that fashion. Some of it was shocking. There was the story of Trump staying at the Ritz in Moscow. A place famous for having its rooms bugged. It was said he hired two girls to come in and piss on the bed, because it was the same room President Obama had stayed in. Trump must have still been upset about Obama making fun of him at the Correspondence Dinner. But come on Donnie, be a good sport. It was you who kept saying Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. It was you who said you had sent people to that state and we’d all be very surprised by what you had found. Yet, nothing was found was it? 

Steele wrote up a group of sixteen reports. These were whatever he had heard. It wasn’t confirmed or corroborated, but to date much of it has been verified, and as far as I know, nothing has been shown to be false. His revelations got one person within Putin’s government killed. Steele turned his stuff over to Fusion GPS who in turn gave it to the Dems that paid for it. Some of the things that Steele discovered so alarmed him that he wanted to tell U.S. authorities about it. Fusion GPS demurred. Finally, Steele said he had his own contacts and the firm wouldn’t be involved. Steele met with CIA folks in Italy. His concern was that what he had learned about Trump made him believe “a crime was in progress.” When nothing came of the CIA tip off, Steele gave it to John McCain who gave it to the FBI. 

Separately and apart from this the FBI had already launched an investigation into Trump based on the drunken boasting of a Trump operative in London. This was a top “very good man” according to Trump when he appointed him, but after George Papadopolis’ boasting he got reduced to “I hardly knew him” status (ie coffee boy.) This boasting about having dirt on Hillary Clinton and that it came from the Russians, so alarmed the Australian diplomat in London that word filtered back to the FBI and it was this incident that caused the FBI to open a case about the Trump campaign and Russian interference. 

Others have boasted about having contacts with Russia, notably Carter Page. 

As to the Hillary emails we have Roger Stone, Randy Credico, and Jerome Corsi who have been linked to Julian Assange and Russian GRU fronts (called cutouts. In this case, Gucifer 2.0, and others).

We have meetings between Trump folks and Russians. There is the well known meeting in Trump Tower in which several Russians were there that have been linked to the Russian government. At that meeting were Trump Jr., Manafort, Kushner and others. 

There were multiple meetings and conversations between Russians and Michael Flynn. Jeff Sessions had his secret meeting too.

These are just the things I can remember off the top of my head. 

Now to be fair let’s look at the meetings between Clinton people and Russians. Total number of contacts between Clinton, Clinton campaign, Clinton people and hangers on with Russians – the total is ….

Wait for it:

0

ZERO

ZILCH

Nadda.

So for Mr. Lewindowski and all those on the right who are jumping up and down about “Why isn’t Hillary being investigated?” The answer is because there is no evidence and hence no reason.

As for Trump? There’s lots to look at.

I hope your memories have been refreshed.

618 Days to the 2020 election and 696 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Flores, Guatemala 

Day 777 Friday February 22, 2019

619 Days to the 2020 election and 697 Days to Inauguration Day

In the weird world that we live in Andrew McCabe is said to not be believed because it is said that he lied and because he lied he was fired from his job 1 1/2 days before being eligible for a pension. Those same people do not mention that the president was gunning for him, that the president had repeatedly harassed him and his family and lied about him, that the president sarcastically said it would be too bad if McCabe lost his job before he got his pension, etc. etc. etc. Nor do those people say what it was that McCabe supposedly lied about. Mike Pompeo said this week how can you trust someone whose own people say he lied. Really Mike? You are working for the liar-in-chief and you have the gall to say that? You don’t even have the guts to say McCabe lied. You say essentially, “Well, those around him said he lied,” which is true. If you had said McCabe lied that would be a lie. Very clever Mike. 

Okay so let’s go to the heart of the matter. What is it that McCabe is accused of lying about?

According to a news report in the Washington Post dated April 13, 2018 McCabe is accused by the Justice Department’s Inspector General’s Office of lying on four separate occasions, three under oath. It involves disclosure of information that he authorized to the media. 

The original document says “Oversight, Integrity, Guidance” just below the title of the office. It’s in red caps with stars in between.

The initial question and reason for their original investigation was the disclosure of sensitive information concerning Hillary Clinton, which the Wall street Journal published under a headline saying there was a feud at the FBI about this. The conclusion of the report was that McCabe “may have lacked candor” when questioned by FBI agents about this. It says that he had a different recollection of events and what he said to then Director James Comey about this. It says that while he was authorized to have people within the department speak to the media if it was in the public interest, their report concluded that McCabe’s actions weren’t in the public interest and therefore violated the FBI’s media policy and were therefore misconduct. 

That’s it. That’s the big deal. What? If you’ve ever worked in a large organization and someone is out to get you this is what it looks like. There’s a term for it. It’s called BULLSHIT.  

McCabe in his book outlines what he says happened. The Wall Street Journal was getting ready to publish an article, which had errors in it. McCabe authorized someone within his department to talk to the reporters to try and clear up the errors. He was later asked about this by the FBI’s Inspector Division. He had been assured that the meeting was a friendly one and that he had no need to have a lawyer present. They just had a few questions. When he went to the meeting they showed him a series of emails and or texts between two people in the FBI. The comments in those texts were inappropriate. The two people were having an affair. McCabe had never seen the emails; didn’t know that the two were having an affair. He was shown emails and texts and asked about them. – What did he think? – What did this mean? – What did that mean? – etc.

He had no idea. He had never seen any of this before. The agents were asking multiple overlapping questions. McCabe tuned out. This was not the meeting he was told they were going to be having. He tried to end the meeting. He had been set up.

He and Comey were asked to recall a certain event. McCabe remembers it one way; Comey another. The report sides with Comey and therefore concludes that McCabe violated FBI media guidelines. This isn’t plain BS, this is bureaucratic BS.

The report came out in February 2018. Yet in December of that year, 26 hours before McCabe could have received his pension, he was fired. The president who had threatened to do this earlier, now crowed about it.

If by the standard that was used to fire McCabe was applied to those in the White House and those appointed by this administration I would say none of them would be left in their positions. Not a bad idea. 

In other news – I am a prophet! There is no doubt. Roger Stone was in court and he was meek, and contrite, and said he was stupid. Just like I said!!! This didn’t stop Stone from lying, but come on, it’s Roger the dirty trickster! Yeah. He told the judge that he didn’t know that the crosshairs were crosshairs. He said he thought they were something else, I forget, like a sign of the devil or something? Yeah. Right. One reporter pointed out that Stone has used that symbolism a lot on his posts. He’s also been shown holding a big rifle with a gun site that if you looked through it you’d see crosshairs. Yet, he doesn’t know what it is? He told the judge that he didn’t post something or other. The judge asked who did? He didn’t know. Someone else. Like who? He wasn’t sure. Others had access to his account. How many? Five or six. Who are they? I don’t know. You don’t know who the five or six people are that have access to your account and posted something to it within the last day? That’s right your honor. 

To say that the judge was lenient is an understatement. Stone and his buddy over at InfoWars have caused real harm and inflicted fear on many people. But as Chuck Rosenstein pointed out, Stone will be serving ten to twenty years soon enough. 

The judge said to Stone that this isn’t baseball you don’t get three strikes. He already has two. (I would quibble with that analogy. If Stone screws up again that would be three strikes and he’d be out, but who am I to worry about such details?) 

Okay suckers, place your bets. How long before Roger opens his mouth and is back in front of the judge kicking sand on his shoes and saying he’s stupid and a bad boy and that he didn’t realize … blah blah blah blah blah?

Two days? A week? Step right up. Place your bets. Les jeux sont faits.

(A wonderful French saying, made popular by Jean-Paul Satre which translates to “The bets are placed,” and the call of a croupier in a casino after all the bets are placed. Very James Bondian I’d say.)

Oh and don’t you love the – he’s having trouble putting food on the table – comment?

OMG. After all the dirty tricks, all the lies, all the mean horrible things he’s done, he claims he’s broke!

Moving on. Rachel examined the question of whether a sitting president can be indicted. I fell asleep and woke up from time to time. It kind of washed over me. Let me answer the question – Yes.

Yes, a sitting president can be indicted. Let’s say the president shot someone on Fifth Avenue. (He likes that example.) Would he loss a vote? Yes, of the guy he shot. Would he get arrested? You bet your sweet bippy. (Shout out to our Canadian friends: Rowan and Martin. If you don’t understand it means you are under 50. It’s okay.)

There is a Justice Department directive saying they don’t do it (indict a sitting president.) But they have. Leon Jaworski did it with Nixon. Or he got real close. The directive is weak according to what I gleaned from TRMS and btw it’s not in the law or the Constitution. So? If that directive comes up against the law and the Constitution whaddaya think will happen? I think the four Supreme Court justices that have no business being on the Supreme Court and claim to be strict Constitutionalists and card carrying members of the Federalist Society will twist themselves in knots trying to get out of this one, but the vote will be 8 to 1 with Kavanaugh, beer boy wonder, dissenting.

619 Days to the 2020 election and 697 Days to Inauguration Day

PS Me and Zeus (or Neptune)