An Obstructed Trumpworld Grab-Bag

I'm not one of those folks who would begrudge people claiming their Constitutional rights, nor am a person who confuses allegations with confirmations of wrongdoing. (I agree with Frances Langum--it's totally within Mike Flynn's rights to refuse to comply with a request if he thinks it will potentially hold himself liable.  I will add that if he wants to cite "escalating public frenzy" as his reason for non-compliance, it seems pretty weird because he used other people's non-compliance and allegations of wrong-doing as just enough predicate to incite others to "frenzy", so--there's that working against his logic. )

But this is only tangentially about General Flynn. It's mainly about what President Trump did when people started looking into Gen. Flynn, which is interesting because as we all know, Trump fired Comey, who was looking into Flynn's connections with Russia, and he tried to tell him not to investigate that anymore.  But then, it turns out, he tried to get the heads of other intelligence agencies to do what they could to stop the inquiry. That adds to the idea that there was obstruction, because now we have the start of a pattern of obstruction.

On Flynn's part, he is doing his thing--not talking. It kind of makes me wonder if Trump's message to Flynn, "Stay strong", was code for "Sta' zitto".  If so, message received! But it looks like Flynn has always had an instinct for when to stay silent. And that's another part of the problem, if Manafort and Stone are giving up what they have...

(I dunno where Carter Page went--anyone else?) Well--what does it mean when people who talk a lot start to play mum? What has Trump and Flynn said? Nothing good.

Lessons of scandals past advise us that the devil isn't even always the scandal, but the cover-up. And I think it's starting to look too much like there's a cover-up. But these guys are insanely private.  Aren't they?  Everything starts to look like a red flag.

This is a Great Day For a Trumpworld Grab-Bag

The president of the United States actually put this stupid thing as his Twitter page header because--oh! Maybe he's actually stupid. I have given the fuck up at this point, because pretending this water-head has guile for miles is a pretense totally beyond my d-list blogging skillset. Any how, the thumbs-up whiteys sort of missed how there's probably an investigation right this very minute into Trump's financial ties to Russia because that was the thing Clapper politically declined to admit because--so classified. And being investigated RN.

See, Trump's Twitter messages look like this:

This is what a caught person Tweets. Because what actually happened is Clapper said Trump's business connections can't be discussed because they are part of an active investigation, and he wouldn't have been in the loop for investigation into any possible election collusion, anyway--he doesn't know means he doesn't know, not that anything didn't happen. Also Sally Yates confirmed that there are already laws on the books that sort of would condemn what the Trump campaign probably has done.

That's pretty interesting to me, anyhow. Also, a really fun thing happened to Ted Cruz when he tried to play Sally Yates over the Muslim ban--he got schooled, because he does this thing where he assumes other people can't be smart. Also, he did not apparently notice the thing where the courts have supported her determination.

In other news, the Trump rationale for having Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn in an important national security role looks beat, because Obama and them tried to warn Team Trump off of him. Apparently, there was some kind of "listening problem". As in, Trump doesn't listen. Also--I am just remarking that I don't understand why Team Trump wants to pretend Obama almost recommended Flynn's ass when Flynn was fired. By Obama. Firing is not a recommendation. It is just not.

In other Russia news, crazy-eyes Carter Page is still crazy.  I don't know what is up with him. He says stuff.

Anyway, despite some spin, I feel like there is still a great investigation going on! I am supporting of it! Trump is not competent and this thing sort of shows it! Except Republicans can't admit it, and want to talk about the surveillance thing, which isn't a thing. (Boo, srsly.) 

I just don't know how to comment on this more intelligently than, "Whoot, there it is. " I mean. Really?

Trumpworld Grab-Bag: The Lost Art of Vetting

This is almost going to be too brief to be an honest to goodness "Trumpworld Grab-Bag" post, because it's really just about three guys: Michael Flynn, Sebastian Gorka, and Carter Page. I have issues with the Trump Administration's basic lack of sense on most issues, but the one that literally blows my mind the most is the national security thing. Trump says things that imply he'll be very strong on national security, and then...

He has people brought into his circle that just aren't the best, that are getting paid by other countries, and that seem like the kind of worldliness-challenged folks that act like a semi-permeable membrane for flow of information between Team Trump and who-knows-who.

Take Michael Flynn's known paid assistance to Turkey while not just being a Trump campaign policy advisor, but also receiving intelligence reports alongside of Trump. It turns out that that Turkey connection goes a bit deeper--and intersects with Russia. Now, you could always question Flynn's judgment regarding his RT involvement, but this goes a little farther. He knowingly was accepting money from foreign interests--full stop. One might want to imagine that a US military man with his distinguished record is capable of discerning and respecting that there are activities that don't befit the role of acting fully in the interest of his own country. US. Rep. Chaffetz' s assessment is stark: there is no evidence that he complied with the law. That means, he very likely broke the law. (Lock him up?)

But Trump chose this person and trusted him. Maybe because he saw him on tv. Trump seems to trust a lot of what he sees on tv.

See also: Sebastian Gorka. I feel like some aspect of calling him a "Nazi" or "Nazi-sympathizer" may be overstated and overlooks the more apparent problem with his participation in reviewing and effecting foreign policy for the US--his credentials look hyped. Haaretz has been doing real investigative vetting of Gorka's credentials. As Buzzfeed shows, Hungary didn't have a use for someone of his "skillset". That sounds...problematic.

Which brings us to still-talking Carter Page--who looked like the kind of doofus that the Rusians might use to try to cruise on inside the Trump campaign. Again--warning flags--but not enough to keep him off the campaign.

So--the best people? Or the most questionable? Seems like the latter, and that's a real problem--not fake news.