A Republic--If You Can Keep It

 

This is what the New York Times chose to publish on Independence Day just one week after the Supreme Court ruled that Republican presidents are above the law. pic.twitter.com/URoJg6ohru

— @StephenWolf.bsky.social (@PoliticsWolf) July 4, 2024

The New York Times, which has been going out of their way to promote "Biden is too old and must drop out" editorials this week, decided the way to follow up on that terrible trend was to platform some mook who wants to pretend voting is a bit of hogwash. Well...not just some mook. Matthew Walther is a Catholic conservative (although it's hard to say if he just sort of is a hater in general--he calls the Constitution a "231-year old piece of toilet paper" in this screed against the Tea Party libertarians) --just like Leonard Leo and Steve Bannon and the derpsticks who ruled Trump is kind of/sort of a monarch.

Encouraging people not to vote (especially if one does, in fact, vote--possibly for Tulsi Gabbard which feels like fuckery) is a kind of voter suppression. Which is weirdly in line with Russian active measures to undermine confidence in voting. 

Democracy depends upon an engaged, informed population. The press can be a valuable part of that process of informing and engaging citizens--or it can do whatever this is. The chattering classes who write about politics are, when not encouraging apathy, so stuck on horserace politics that in the discussion of possibly replacing President Biden on the ticket have invented a fantasy horserace to write about. 

Is there nothing else to write about? Maybe how often Trump was mentioned in Epstein court documents? His new Saudi project? What Ivanka and Jared are up to in Albania and with whom? Anything to do about Project 2025--but especially how it would permit foreign nasties to interfere in our elections? (I remember when Trump wanted to cooperate with Russia on "the cyber"--do you?)

TWGB: The Bride at Every Wedding

 

The highlighting of the above screenshot is courtesy this Tweet from Ben Collins, wondering what exactly Trump is doing here. But I'm the idiot who does TrumpWorld Grab-bags, so I know. He's too clever for us, is Trump. He can't scarper. He won't go scuttling away in the dead of night--why no! he's too famous for that! He won't go abseiling down the wall of the tower he will, Rapunzel-like, be held in. Not even if you gave him enough cable.

He's thinking about it though. Does he think Daddy Vladdy has an extraction team ready to escort him to a well-appointed dacha? Because it isn't 55 years ago, and Russia can't even invade neighbors or land spacecraft on the moon like they used to. They tie up loose ends a very different way now. (He's 90. I mean nothing by this. Of course, I don't. Also...) 

What Trump is saying is "poor, poor, pitiful me" because he is far too rich and famous to disappear and that's just an incredible burden. He's too recognizable--what is he to do, shave his head? Wear sweats? Quel dommage, mais no. Even so, he's known from Jibib to Atlantis.  

Maybe Kushner has an in with the Saudis. I understand they can make people disappear. 

Am I being unnecessarily dark? Sigh. I am cutting up the revelations of the soul-baring of a narcissist who wants you to identify with his plight. Usually, it's only in banana republics a former leader needs to fear coming to justice for a planned coup. Usually, it's only in banana republics a leader plans one. He is, as Francis Albert (who didn't care for him, BTW) sang, doing it his way. And oh! the melodrama! 

Main Character Assassination Coordinates, I Think?

 

So, I'm trying to understand the problem of Elon Musk and his disastrous turn as the head of Twitter, which I think he didn't really want and hardly knows what to do with, and I come back to the meme of the "Main Character" of Twitter. Elon Musk became the main character of Twitter by buying it, but the point of the parable of the main character is that every day there is one, and you should not be it. And yet, Musk offered himself up not to just manage Twitter as a free speech absolutist who hates the things people say, but to possibly fuck it up beyond all recognition. 

I have to think so from the way he's been doing things. If his fucking it all up isn't purposeful, I'd have to think he was actually quite dumb. And that's a very mean thing to think, isn't it? After all, his mum tells us he's very clever, and that has to account for something, yeah?

I just want to point out for posterity that almost every sensible bullied kid from the jump has understood that absolutely nothing would be made better by one's mom dipping her oar in to promote the idea that one's baby is *so* very clever and good. It is absolutely the genesis of another degree of roasting. 

But here's the fun part--Mr. Free Speech banned talking about the obvious diaspora going on by Twitterstans hauling off to Post and Mastodon and Tribel and all of them. Except Parler, TikTok and some other glaring omittances. Anyhow, he admitted there was a drift to bankruptcy going on with the social media site he sort of forced himself to take on. 

And it most definitely is affecting his other business concerns. And his falling Tesla stock is not just a happy accident regarding his poor stewardship of Twitter. It's about Tesla issues, as well. It just takes a push to realize that sometimes a genius isn't actually the savant one wants them to be. 

Anyway, he fronted that the problem with the journos he banned was doxxing him--revealing his "assassination coordinates". Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, really? Anyway, his personal story of dangerous doxxedology got realtime debunked.  

So, what is the main character to do now?

Post a poll to determine how to exeunt stage terminal main character, that's what. 

I actually will link this to Twitter because in my hope of hopes, Google snipes the off-cost social media shoulda been and we have a SM that is less evil. Of course, I'd settle for Mad Monk Dorsey again. I don't trust Musk and think he's screwing shit up on purpose as a possible provocateur. He wants the disinfo people, the Nazis, the illegitimate dialogue, the fuckery. He showed his pasty ass. But he can't be the main character on Twitter and still be Space X and Tesla fronting. He can't. What is more valuable? He has to get back to where, as the Beatles put it, he once belonged. What makes him money. 

I'm still not leaving. He's the one who sucks. 

TWGB: It's Bad

 

The conviction of the Trump Organization for 17 counts of assorted tax fraud charges is, to put it mildly, a bit of a setback for the presidential candidacy of former president Donald J. Trump, although of course, he's appealing it. And we can look back and note that the sad ends of Trump University and the Trump Foundation didn't scathe Trump's image as a successful (and definitely not a con artist) businessman. (They totally should have.) It's hard to say that what should be a bit of a (to use a term) legal coup against a corrupt real estate scion is even the beginning of the end of Trump--the man, the myth, the mofo. 

But why not say it is? Because whatever is going down around him--it isn't good. 

I wonder about little gestures in TrumpWorld, like the revelation that Trump's lawyers have a team investigating whether there were still classified government documents to be found on Trump properties, and while they did find a couple in a storage unit, they are pretttttttyyy sure Trump's usual haunts are clean. 

My favorite bit is where the FBI decline to watch the search:

The team also offered the FBI the opportunity to observe the search, but the offer was declined, the people said. It would be unusual for federal agents to monitor a search of someone’s property conducted by anyone other than another law enforcement agency. Federal authorities have already searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s primary residence, and he spends almost all of his time at those three properties, advisers say.

They would like to watch a search at Trump Tower or Bedminster, is my guess, but doing it when expected is not how this is going to go down.  I just have the vague suspicion that this story is Team Trump trying to get out in front of something.  I mean, Trump;s lawyers say he's got all the clasified docs out of his sstem but they've been wrong before, right? 

Think of the Poor Trump Children!

 

"They'll go after children!" conjures up an image of malicious beasts randomly attacking minor family members for the sins of the fathers, but when Donald Trump says it, he means the January 6th Committee has questions for his middle-aged daughter, Ivanka Trump, a former White House Senior Adviser. If he really wanted to keep his children of-limits regarding investigations into his wrong-doing, he could have kept his daughter and son-in-law out of the White House by not offering them jobs (that came along with, let's never forget, security clearances they would not have otherwise been able to obtain and truly interesting business opportunities). 

No doubt, she follows in her old man's footsteps, but he apparently wonders where a line of questioning into her point of view might lead.  And what a shame--he always did like her best!

UPDATE: I mean, they are his kids, and it shows. 

TWGB: It Really Ties the Room Together

 

Breaking News: Thomas Barrack, a friend of Donald Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was indicted on federal charges of violating a law requiring lobbyists for foreign interests to disclose their work.https://t.co/G8FNAZWqGs

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 20, 2021

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when I read about Barrack's arrest for working on behalf of UAE to influence Trump, because, goddamn it, didn't everyone? Well, maybe not UEA (although, I mean, Elliott Broidy) but you know. Barrack influenced Trump's campaign speech in a way favorable to UAE the same way Manafort influenced Ukraine policy during the 2016 campaign. He wrote an op-ed just like Mike Flynn did his oped for Turkey. (You know when Giuliani wasn't palling around with Russian-affiliated Ukrainians he was also doing his bit for Turkey, right? It's hard to keep things like this straight, but I do try.) And everyone knows Trump for whatever reason was always trying to have good relations with Russia. So what was the stated Trump foreign policy? 

Right: America First.  It's a punchline like "The Aristocrats" is a punchline, and the joke is pretty scandalous if not outright foul.

I was a little surprised that it didn't have anything to do with the Presidential Inaugural Committee stuff (I guess that was top of mind for me, thinking about how Allen Weisselberg was looped into that mess and yet they weren't going after him for that right now, either), but then I started thinking about Thomas Barrack the way one does.  Because he ties the room together. The little story that kind of never got to be the scandal it should be about what for all the world looked like the US was supporting SA and UAE blockading Qatar--and how Jared Kushner ended up getting his big old steaming 666 Fifth Ave debt taken care of (well, if the Chinese won't help...what can one do?) Barrack was right there.

Oh yeah, and then there was that madcap scheme he had with Flynn to sell nuclear tech in the Middle East because you know what? Why not? (You might wonder why Flynn, a paranoid Islamophobe, would think this idea was great, and the answer I have for you is, uh, well money, right? Because whenever I see that bantam rooster crowing about his patriotism, I feel like like I just ate a whole tinfoil sandwich.)

There's probably more there, but it's late at night and I'm just thinking about how that 74 year old wealthy dude is going to sit in jail thinking about stuff until next Monday. 

And I can't help but chuckle.

The October Surprise is We Made it to October

 

I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with information that some computer shop got hold of a hard drive that is from Hunter Biden and is now in the hands of maybe the FBI and also too Rudy Giuliani who is very strong on the cyber. (Like, this is a thing he took money from people to consult on, which is actually embarrassing.) 

So now that the Durham investigation and the "unmasking" thing are apparently duds, we're going to go back to the Ukraine well that got Trump impeached, huh? If that's where the guy holding superspreader events all over battleground states want to go, to advertise his alleged post-Covid-19 fitness while the pandemic still rages and while his actual unfitness for the job was determined well before he botched the pandemic response, well, ok. As for me, I spent the last nearly four years documenting TrumpWorld Grab Bags of the depth and depravity of this Administration, and this counts as the most desperate and fail-flail stuff I have ever seen from a pack of racist cretins and inveterate liars. 

Naturally, Biden has no record that such a meeting as is the focal point of the email allegation from the hard-drive "evidence" ever took place*--"but his emails" is just recycled 2016 hash, and I would adore to know what emails between Jared Kushner and MbS looked like. I don't want to hear about familial corruption from the Trump Administration/family, who are literally soaking in it. 

Trump is desperate for an October Surprise. He will try different things, some entirely stupid. But it's too late--remember how this whole year has gone? Yeah. That's him. That was his watch. He fucked everything up and is now looking for a lifeline. 

I am not even arsed to play this game anymore and chase down all the ways this shit is fake, because even if it was all 100% true, Trump fucked up everything. The economy is bad. The unemployment is bad. The COVID-19 deaths and infection rates are bad. The polarization and mistrust are bad. His relentless lying is bad, and getting worse, because his brain is bad. 

Even if Biden is flawed or his son is a wee bit of a money hungry fuckup--everything in TrumpWorld is worse than we deserve. And Biden is not that flawed. He has the unfakeable funk of a person who actually gives a damn about this country. Trump World's shitheaded rumor mongering shows he never has. 

*UPDATE: And as Steve M. notes, even if such a meeting did take place, it isn't a big deal--or wouldn't be unless you are already primed to knee-jerk assume there must be something wrong there. Long story short--this is for keeping Trump's rubens on the ranch, but it won't derail folks who already know well and good why they are Team Biden.

TWGB: If It Walks Like a Duck

So, the news that the NYT got hold of about 20 years of Trump's tax return information follows a story about how a bankrupt Donald Trump tried to hijack his father's estate in desperation, which follows on Mary Trump's suit against the Trump family for what she as her father's heir should have received, which comes after news that Eric Trump will definitely have to sit for a deposition regarding Trump Org business, and that New York state is definitely looking at a tax fraud investigation against Trump.

This adds to our understanding that Donald Trump isn't so much a self-made man as his father's well-funded failure, and that he's been keeping himself going by various forms of grift, such as using his charity as a slush fund and starting schemes like Trump University. But this week has, among other things, hammered home that the trouble with Trump's finances are also a White House issue, in that he's staying in the taxpayer-funded housing on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to avoid having to stay in less luxurious taxpayer funded housing. He's grifting taxpayer dollars all the time. And his kids are probably not just following in his footsteps, but are also liable as hell.

Trump never was the amazing businessman he ran on for the presidency, he just played that guy on tv. 

If Trump were not elected to the presidency, this kind of financial scenario would make it impossible for him to be given a security clearance because he's basically wearing his leverage on his sleeve. (And he has been! Everyone knows this!) He had to demand Ivanka and Jared Kushner get their security clearances despite what where most likely business-related red flags (of which theirs were the tip of the iceberg to his) as it was.

But the big picture also has Trump scrambling to hold on to the office of the presidency not because he thinks he can do a great job with his second term (he can actually barely articulate what he even plans to do in a second term, which given all he has not accomplished in his first is seriously telling), but because he thinks he is shielded from having to face the music. Someone will shield him from the consequences. The taxpayers, or other interested parties, surely would....

Do what? And that's the problem we've got, yes? Trump needs someone to come to the rescue over his overleveraged ass and he's holding the whole damn US at stake. Winning the White House in 2016 convinced him that that Article 2 gave him special protection and that he owed whoever helped him win in 2016. So it's all very well and good that he says "America First", now (if for the low special customer price of $750 a year) but what exactly is he supposed to say when his notes are due?

(Spasibo i dobroy nochi?)

Anyways, at his press conference where he took very few questions and definitely wanted to talk about SCOTUS, he said the press should compare his financial statements, which he has released, to the tax information, but I think that's why New York State is actually after him in the first place.

(And not to leave this unsaid, my thoughts are with the family of Brad Parscale, who on this Sunday of all Sundays had some kind of bad patch, and I genuinely don't want people associated with Trump needlessly harmed or self-harming. And I also have Michael Caputo and his family in mind regarding his recent cancer diagnosis, which can spin anyone off their axis a bit. I'm the kind of g who prays for folks so they can testify someday. I'm not without a heart.)

UPDATE: This is also the best place to drop that Rosenstein was probably responsible for reining in the Mueller investigation to avoid info on Trump's finances  (Oh was that link deficient--here) due to it being Trump's red line for blowing up the investigation altogether. But Trump might as well have been saying "Yes, this is where the whole problem is please look at my finances" so?!?!?!?!?)

UPDATE: Trump has about 3400 conflicts of interest, which are about 3400 more conflicts of interest than any candidate for office should have, let alone a person who is already an incumbent.

Memorializing "Virtual Nobodies"

We have now passed a terrible milestone in the US: the official count of 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, which I think can not be memorialized properly without also acknowledging that COVID-19 deaths are preventable. We have the information, and have had the information for some time, that the virus is airborne, which strongly indicates that people should wear masks and socially distance. The current president of the US maintains that everyone knew in February, when he was taped by Bob Woodward warning that the virus was airborne, that this was the case.

Even now, we're only quibbling about how far apart people should be to avoid the spread.

Trump admitted on tape in March that he was purposefully playing down news of the virus, and that he was aware that even children could be susceptible. White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany, perhaps unaware that everyone knows she's lying, and that anyway, she's supposed to be working for the White House, not the Trump campaign, says he never plays the virus down and even goes so far as to say he tells the truth. She uses a maximal hypothetical number of 2 million people*, an absurd figure that no one would have predicted for the US by September 2020, as being the number our current death toll should be compared to, instead of the actual death toll of other nations happening right now in the real, not hypothetical world in which we happen to live.

And why does she lie so outstandingly? Because she is hewing to Trump's own "moving goalposts" method of escaping blame. And she's trying to cover for the heinousness of something Trump said recently, like a teen store manager trying to pave over a corporate screw-up:

What Do You Call It--

Months into the pandemic, President Trump has added a new voice to his circle of coronavirus advisers: Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent TV guest who echoes Trump on reopening schools, lockdowns & college football. Limbaugh says Atlas is "countering Fauci."https://t.co/Er6B27s9NQ

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 12, 2020

What do you call it when someone appears to be doctor-shopping and is very excited by the prospect of finding a new drug?

I don't know how responsible this looks to you, but, it's not very.

They Had a Plan, But the Dog Ate It

After posting about Rep. Gohmert's positive COVID-19 test with a touch of glibness, I thought I'd steer clear of saying anything about the passing of former presidential candidate and businessman Herman Cain or of the passing of the co-founder of TPUSA, Bill Montgomery, from the same disease lest I be perceived as being disrespectful of the dead.

Some lamented that news reports pointed out that Cain was at the Trump Tulsa rally and boasted about not wearing a mask. I guess I would say to that "It is what it is", under the general precept that a word to the wise is sufficient, but a fool never learns. It isn't victim-blaming to point out that these would be generally regarded as dumb things to do during a pandemic but for politics, and that isn't grave-dancing so much as a word to others.

But the point is--Republicans and Democrats alike are mortal and susceptible to this disease--it doesn't care how you vote, pray or donate your money, it just looks for a way to weasel into your body and mess you up. Nagging liberals aren't trying to steal anyone's FREEEEDOOMSMS, we would prefer people not get sick and spread it around.

The idea that the contagious disease is contagious appears to have been missed by the Trump Administration, though, because they had a plan, but....Jared:

Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert.

That logic may have swayed Kushner. “It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,” the expert said.

On April 27, Trump stepped to a podium in the Rose Garden, flanked by members of his coronavirus task force and leaders of America’s big commercial testing laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, and finally announced a testing plan: It bore almost no resemblance to the one that had been forged in late March, and shifted the problem of diagnostic testing almost entirely to individual states.

See? It was going to stay a blue state problem, and I guess, only the wrong sort of voter would suffer. (But we knew the Trump folks were being partisan about it all, and we also knew Kushner is not, alas, very bright.)

The pandemic reveals the poor leadership of the Trump folks because it is happening to all of America, and Trump is not a president for all of us. But regardless of who he favors, we suffer together.

(And yes, I think the story is a selective leak by someone who might have it out for Kushner and is blaming him....like a dog. But there's plenty of blame to go around.)

But He Reads Books!

Jared Kushner actually said this yesterday on the much-needed supplies governors were requesting to help with the coronavirus pandemic:

"The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states stockpiles that they then use." pic.twitter.com/Nw2PBVThfa

— PoliticsVideoChannel (@politvidchannel) April 3, 2020

It was kind of awkward when the slim lad who married the boss's daughter said he had a great Middle East plan because he had read 25 books, but it is getting very unfunny to think he's got his library card out now to bone up on federal disaster preparedness and whatnot, and believes he is "getting smarter". And still, somehow, in all of this, does not understand what the federal stockpile has to do with these whiny little states.

He is, in short, a fucking moron. In other words, his father-in-law's idea of smart.

UPDATE: Big Dumb Brother is Big Dumb Brother-ing:

After Jared Kushner’s comment about how the Strategic National Stockpile is not supposed to be for states, lots of people pointed to the fact that its own website says it is.

The language on the website has now been changed.

My screenshot from last night vs. one from today: pic.twitter.com/UwJFAr7uoV

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 3, 2020

I don't know what is more sinister--that they changed the website knowing people were LOOKING RIGHT AT IT or that they seem to feel that changing the present language changes past practices.

TWGB: No, I Mean, Everybody is in the Loop

This second video shows indicted Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman with President Trump and RNC chief Ronna McDaniel at Mar a Lago in April 2018. Trump and Parnas take pics. McDaniels hugs Fruman and says she's glad he is attending. https://t.co/ty87AAWTI1

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) January 30, 2020

"In the loop" is such a funny term. In the part of my brain that is perpetually five years old, I think "Froot Loops" when I think about loops. When I think of people being "out of the loop" politically, I think about George H. W. Bush. He didn't actually seem to really be out of the loop. Regarding the Ukrainian shakedown, Ambassador Gordon Sondland (who is still! after all this! Ambassador to the EU! Which is kind of amazeballs, right?) said "Everyone was in the loop." And friends--

That shit just keeps seeming truer and truer. It seems like a lot of (Republican) people should know better about all of this stuff, well and truly including US Senators who just recently decided they really did not want to see new documents, and they really, really, did not want to hear from more people, regarding the impeachment (which is forever) and the removal (which will happen by law or by entropy) of President Trump from the White House.

After all, some of the folks who cast votes this Friday to hear no more evil, see no more evil, and try like hell to say no more about it, were right there when the Obama Administration tried to leverage out Ukraine's dodgy prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Those senators still were paying attention when Trump held up that aid, like Senator Portman. Senator Ron Johnson is in this loop. Lev Parnas claims that Trump's over-eager Renfield Senator Lindsey Graham is very in the loop, and that a letter was delivered to Graham from Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, looking for sanctions against Ukraine officials. There are US Senators who have been well-briefed that the CrowdStrike theory that Trump wanted investigated was also a lie.

What it Takes, Huh?

Jared Kushner says Trump critics like John Bolton and other former White House officials "didn't have what it took" https://t.co/tGpvDSmvUb pic.twitter.com/HTyfM5EhCq

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 1, 2020

So, the husband of the boss's daughter put in a lot of work, you guys. He read 25 whole books. The peace plan is over 80 pages long. Did any of those people who didn't have a whole-ass real estate background even think of including a map?!

Sadly, real genius like Jared Kushner's (and, for that matter, stable genius like Donald Trump's) is hardly ever recognized during his own lifetime.

Could it Happen Here?

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been officially charged with charges in three corruption cases involving bribery, fraud and breach of trust, which, given his inability to form a government and the likelihood of another vote this year, is not great news for him. I don't pretend to understand much about Israeli politics, but this event reminds me so much of something....it just makes me ask questions, is all.

Like, bribery, fraud and breach of trust--those are pretty bad, right? So, if a leader basically seemed to be engaged in bribes, whether of other governments, or just, like, accepted them, like maybe other world leaders or international businesses gave Trump shit-tons of money in expectation of favors, that would be pretty bad, right? Like if it turned out that Saudi Arabia was renting tons of Trump property for no good reason or just wiring money to the US, and then Trump made decisions about ignoring an obvious murder or just let them have their way regarding military attacks on Yemen or whatever--that would look really like corruption. Or if they leaned on Qatar with a blockade and then Qatar bailed out Trump's son-in-law on a property that was hemorrhaging money--that would be bad, right? 

Because those aren't "champagne and cigars" kinds of bribes. It just seems to me like, if Netanyahu could get indicted over there for something like this, well? Maybe charging a sitting president here wouldn't be such a bad idea. 

Of course, I think (and I don't pretend to understand Israeli politics, once again) that Netanyahu should step down because the government situation is already fraught and he will be very occupied in his self-defense.  After all, once former US President Nixon realized that his presidency would be consumed by scandal, that's exactly what he did, despite his absolute landslide 1972 re-election. 

Of course, Nixon called the whole thing a "witch hunt" at first, and Nixon mega-fan Pat Buchanan actually did write about how an impeachment attempt was a coup d'état. (I love Rachel Maddow, but I will never love how Uncle Pat was a fixture for a while on her show. That 1992 "culture war" speech of his struck me as a war on me when I first heard it, and it did her as well. I guess you could say I have always been in favor of deplatforming Nazis (and Nazi-symps), not parading them as if they were tame. They are never tame.) 

Ditto Trump and Netanyahu. But, in a democracy, we accept that all elected people have term limits, right? We expect them to be held to standards that demonstrate they are working in the public trust--not for their own benefit? It is not a coup when the system of government stands, and the laws and customs remain in place, because governments are made of laws--and human beings are fallible, and no one singular person is essential. 

Anyway, I'd like very much if we did away with the idea that the sitting president is immune to indictment in the event of serious charges of misconduct. Barring that, it would just be great if Trump fans would stop barking about how accusing Trump of things he apparently did and even inquiring about his impeachment is somehow a coup. The Founders put impeachment in the Constitution as a lawful means of dealing with an unlawful public servant. It is not a coup. 

What's Good?

AOC is Pretty Good:

But his WhatsApp https://t.co/kLO3ZHvdbO

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 22, 2019

And this reply to her is also Pretty Good:

Tell me about it.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 22, 2019

And yes, this is and has been a Pretty Big Damn Deal:

What do Jared, Ivanka, Reince, Bannon, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, K.T. McFarland and Hillary Clinton all have in common? https://t.co/BYDSAjXg7s

— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 21, 2019

We've been treated to three years or so of "Lock her up!" regarding Mrs. Clinton's email server, which she had set up for sheer convenience. If what she had done was bad enough, even though it was not illegal and no ill intent could have ever been proven, what the hell are we supposed to think about the use of private email and an untraceable comms service like Whatsapp? Especially given the circumstantial details we do have about how this program is being used? And the very knuckle-headed possibility that such communications are being screenshot (on private devices?) and then sent through the properly retained (assumedly) White House server, with the information (screencaps) still stored on the possibly unsecure device (which can be retrieved under warrant, sort of making the use of WhatsApp just pointless but nonetheless still shady). Especially when some of that info had to do with nuclear deals with KSA. And look who all was in this nebulous and intel-insecure mix.

If National Security heads on the right don't come down on this like a ton of bricks with a "lock them up" attitude, I think we can safely say the case against Hillary Clinton was always made of sheer fuckery. And even if they do come down on this like a ton of bricks, let's just reflect that it even at a glance looks to be a way more intentional and audacious flouting of any electronics use guidelines than Clinton would have been dinged for.

Worth it?

EXCLUSIVE: The White House chief of staff at the time, John Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” by the president to give Jared Kushner the top-secret clearance. w/@maggieNYT @adamgoldmanNYT @anniekarni https://t.co/cDkJjvVzgh

— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) February 28, 2019

Cutting corners regarding national security clearances seems dumb enough, but I can look at the issue a little sideways and see where if there was an experienced hand with a lot of knowledge and good relationships with crucial allies....

But this is just Trump's jackass son-in-law. That's his whole slate of credentials. He married Ivanka.

(Although in TrumpWorld, cluelessness could be considered a plus, I suspect. The Trump Administration appears to critically undervalue expertise. And Kushner is not the only dodgy instance, just one of the more egregious.)

TWGB: A Tale of Two Lawyers and Other Stories

Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani seem, on the outside, pretty different characters. Cohen was Trump's "fixer"--not like a regular lawyer. He was the guy you could trust to threaten reporters or pay off inconvenient people, or maybe even rig polls. He's an okay lawyer from a not-great school who has thug connections. And Rudy Giuliani was once "America's mayor" and even ran for president!

Well, whoopie shit. Giuliani is in the process of learning something that Michael Cohen has probably known for some time. Being Trump's legal counsel, IMHO, looks to be the keto version of a shit sandwich--hold the bread! I am very much reminded of a story about two previous attorneys who worked with Trump, and discovered they needed to sit with him in tandem to make sure he didn't forget things.

Which simply sounds adorable until you realize it's actually pretty abusive. Because it means Trump wanted to lie and make his lawyers help him lie and the "forgetting" and "interpretations" were actually his way of being entirely crooked AF.

This sort of explains why Giuliani is caught saying things like: "I've been through all the tapes...I shouldn't have said tapes." But sure--why not say "tapes"? Because there definitely are Michael Cohen/Donald Trump tapes.  Over a hundred of them. Because Michael Cohen was dealing with Trump alone and needed a backup in case Mr. Trump "forgot things". And some of Giuliani's "gaffes" might be the result of Trump "forgetting things" like telling his counsel the entire story. This leaves Giuliani negotiating a minefield of swearing something isn't so that could very well get revealed later.

Like the Moscow Towers signed LOI. And like the apparent actual development plans, that would not exist if, as Trump always claimed, there weren't any active dealings in Russia.

That is why there are so many "Giuliani is incompetent/a liability/making Trump mad" stories out there right now. It truly does look like "ineptitude".  But I don't know that Giuliani is really in any danger, because his messaging about Trump, even while it incrementally moves the goalposts on Trump's potential liability, stays positive, and because his main function is probably "squid ink" anyway. He blurs the timeline because he can't very well reveal a whole picture he might not even have, right?

It's a dirty job. One Roy Cohn or even maybe Michael Cohen would understand "how" dirty.

But there is another, probably more fraught thing going on in the Cohen/Trump/Giuliani triangle--Michael Cohen recently postponed his House Congressional testimony "indefinitely" because of threats to himself and his family coming from Trump and Giuliani. This seems to have to do with dark-tinged Tweets and murmurings from Trump aimed at Cohen's wife and father-in-law. But I'm not counting out that Giuliani has also, in a way, obliquely crossed a line by hinting at what obstruction of justice is and is not:

“A president firing somebody who works for him, if he does no other corrupt act other than just fire him, can’t obstruct justice because that’s what Article Two of the Constitution gives to him solely. Not Congress. Not anybody else. If, for example, a president said, ‘Leave office, or I’m going to, you know, have your kids kidnapped,’ or, ‘I’m going to break your legs.’ Obstruction—I prosecuted a lot of obstruction cases.”

It's not Jim Comey's life he's suggesting could be turned into a Liam Neeson movie. Why is he saying these things are a possibility for anyone? Because there is someone who does have potentially "reachable" family members. (And anyone might, really. Depending upon how well you understand their points of leverage and social connections.) But probably particularly one of Bob Mueller's most reluctant songbirds.

The one who is still subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee (the one still gaveled by GOP) and will attend next month regardless of all that. Which will make for some lit number of Sunday talking head shows. Lucky spokeslawperson, Rudy Giuliani. Who is, if I am reading his relationship correctly, not actually going to skirt the crime-fraud exemption regarding attorney-client privilege by the time the subject gets to him (because Trump and friends always be criming).

Now, I know there was a conviction in absentia for former Ukraine President Yanukovich for treason and some stuff with Deripaska and sanctions (are they off, or what?)  and other valuable Manafort-related material which I am not addressing, which is probably the really key Trump campaign/administration collusion shit we should be looking at. And I haven't even worked in all the shit about Kushner's security clearance, and how Deustchebank is all up in this.

I will get there soonish--but I had to dump my open tabs right about now. I just got this weird blogger-sense that I better be ready for tomorrow. Because, well, tomorrow is another day! And there will I truly believe be more shit.


UPDATE: If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy the entire TrumpWorld Grab-Bag Series. I have linked a lot.

TWGB: She's a Real Pistol and He's a Son of a Gun

The new pleading from Maria Butina in the Trump/Russia, changing her admission of guilt from "not guilty" to "guilty", with the potential of a cooperation agreement, is apt to be down-played and misunderstood, and I definitely understand why. Butina was apparently very good at making friends and influencing people and a catalog of Google images with her and numerous different people in the Republican milieu  is uncomfortable extensive....to conservatives. Among people she has met with--Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal. Meh. Donald Trump, Jr. 

Wait a minute. Donald Trump, Jr.? It sort of seems that Maria Butina's status as an agent of Russia falls somewhere between Anna Chapman (who her handler indicates she may have "upstaged") and Natalya Veselnitskaya. I don't think it's far-fetched to consider her status as "spy"--she apparently successfully and intentionally infiltrated a known very conservative-oriented social political group with the intent of coming into the orbit of prominent political figures. Making kissy-faces at NRA politics has been a big part of the Republican party for yonks. 

And of course, people meet people and have all kinds of interesting international contacts all the time. But there is reason to believe Russian money got funneled through the NRA to the Republican party, and that the NRA illegally coordinated with the Trump campaign. A very worrisome thing is that the first introduction we have to Maria Butina regarding the 2016 GOP race is in 2015.   Meaning Russia already, before the primary had taken off in earnest, had an interest in Trump (which could have developed in 2013, or 2011, or thirty years ago--this is how far back Trump has had Russian involvement in his affairs).

And yet, Trump wants to allege that somehow, the connections are only being drawn to himself and Russia because he won the 2016 election. Not even close. The timeline on the investigation into the DNC hack started well before Trump ever won. But in the meanwhile, at least 16 Trump associates have been found to have been contacted by Russia, which is more than the "zero" he once claimed, and certainly his very own family's contacts should have been known to him. Not in the least because his family and immediate associates are a terribly chatty lot.

I mean, is it even coincidental that potential front-running AG pick, William Barr, who has written such favorable things about Trump's defense and delusions was previously contacted by Trump prior to his pick for AG as a possible attorney for Trump's defense? (Which would be a very good reason, were he to take the job as AG, to promise to recuse, that sort of thing being very ethically troubling. But I think he's a throwback nutter in several ways, so who knows what he'd do?)

In the also "funny, but that likely merits a recusal" vein, Jared Kushner (last seen bucking up Prince MbS from the "just killed a guy and got caught" doldrums) had met with acting AG Matt "Hot Tub Time Machine Bigfoot DNA Big Dick Toilets" Whitaker, and presumably sipped tea and didn't mention at all the shit he was liable to be indicted for. Because why would that even come up. right?

And this is why people like Nick "Silver Spoons looking got $50 million from consulting and shit MF" Ayers does not even want to be WH COS, even if that would be a really cherry thing to put on the old resume in one's mid-thirties. But the job is poison, now. Being a Trump-wrangler is not worth it, even with hazard pay. Even Mark Meadows has too much sense (as of last I checked).

I have said it before, but it stays current: This looks bad because it is bad. The Trump Administration has to throw lies after other lies are proved to be wrong, because the truth is not good. Other members of the GOP defend this for reason I can not fathom at this point, unless there is also leverage against them (real or imagined).

But the overall picture: not good. And among the potential casualties, the NRA now wonders if they are not able to survive, and are cutting things like NRATV "talent".

To which I say: "Good".

TWGB: The Truth Shall Set You Free

The best place to start the post is with Trump's tweetstorm from Monday, wherein he implied that his longtime associate, Michael Cohen, had done terrible things (with Trump's knowledge apparently), and that he should under no circumstances receive any kind of sentencing deal for his cooperation in the Mueller investigation. He also indicated that the better example was set by Roger Stone, who had vowed not to testify against Trump, and also sort of tilted his hat at the peculiar claim by Larry Klayman on behalf of Jerome Corsi, that it was Special Counsel Robert Mueller who was trying to suborn perjury by leaning on witnesses to lie, instead of being engaged in a truthful fact-finding mission, which grasps at the same kind of "conflict of interest" straws as Trump's claim regarding "Angry Democrats".

Well, why wouldn't President Trump echo the ideas of Corsi's defense team? After all, he and Jerome Corsi have a joint defense agreement, almost just like the one Trump has/or had with Paul Manafort, according to Corsi who was told it by Jay Sekulow (who is so a good lawyer, stop that!) with the difference being I think Manafort is more screwed (because state charges)and yet Manafort is the one I've heard more newsiness about getting a pardon. Also--Mueller has Stone/Corsi emails, which might just be enough without Corsi--

Or without Stone, who is pleading the Fifth. (Egads, it only feels like it was a year and half ago, give or take a century, that it was Michael Flynn pleading the Fifth.) He will show up to any opportunity he is subpoenaed to and will say nothing. And he'll be goddamned if you take his papers, either. Also, maybe Mueller could get a warrant. Or grant limited immunity to get him to talk about, you know, other stuff. He is not a dead end, yet.

Anyways, don't worry--based on Tweets like these, the JDAs and some of the "who talks, who walks" stuff all looks like orchestrated obstruction of justice on Trump's part, a little bit. Or so noted conservative lawyer George Conway seems to think:

The statutes being mentioned here are, well, about witness tampering and obstruction--which is, after all, the crux of the Mueller purview: initiated with whether Trump was trying to tamper with Jim Comey and then fired him to stymie the investigation into whether Russia helped Trump (which it pretty ostensibly did). Folks may well grumble about whether the investigation is taking its sweet time--but this is bosh--it's been terribly successful at getting indictments, guilty pleas, and even a few convictions, and it could certainly be shortened: by people telling the truth more! (They could also probably try not continuing to obstruct justice in other ways.) But it is clearly by no means done, yet.

The best reason we have for knowing this is the Michael Flynn sentencing memo we waited so long for this Tuesday.  Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about his Russia contacts and has now been interviewed 19 times, and has been very forthcoming about more than one investigation (?) with so many details redacted it is not even cute if you are a Trump or related personage sweating it. Because all that "redacted" means there is more truth out there. And Mueller has a pretty good idea of what it is and where to get more.

Michael Flynn is a great case where offering lower sentencing is a good deal for him--he was facing a lot of damage, as Martin Longman points out.

One great resource I have seen about this is Ryan Goodman's perjury chart, which gives a great overview about who, so far, has demonstrably lied about what, and which includes folks like Jared Kushner and Don Trump Jr, who haven't yet been indicted, but potentially could be.

So, it is to be noted, it is Robert Mueller who is sending the message "The truth will set you free". It is Trump who is saying "Keep shtum". Now, "tempus tacendi et tempus loquendi" is a very fine device for the Trump coat of arms, but maybe with applied friction, that "tempus loquendi" will start seeming more desirable?

But why is it Trump demands so much silence? (hush money, NDA's?) It looks like he is always about squashing the bad news that follows him as exhaust follows a bad muffler. He seems allergic to truth--

Maybe because he thinks it will do anything but set him free?