Senator Saltine on Diversity

 

JD Vance laments the diversity of New York City ahead of Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally:

“London doesn’t feel fully English to me anymore. Right? New York of course is the classic American city. Over time, I think New York will start to feel less American.” pic.twitter.com/W8p4yXcZQS

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 27, 2024

Poor Jimmy Donuts. The swarthy children of the Empire came home to roost in London Town and assorted Caribbeans are trotting through New Amsterdam! It's a multicultural chaos I tell you!

Reminder:

 He knows better. But out loud and in public he's doing a whole different thing:

TWGB: Mike Lee is Storming the Cockpit

 

I'm so old I remember when Mike Lee wasn't gonna support Trump, but there has been a whole lot of water under that bridge between 2016 and now, including Mike Lee helping with the fake electors plot, but why even go there? Senator Mike Lee has endorsed Donald Trump. Wholeheartedly.  Why is that?

He added, “And so, whether you agree with him on every point or not, if you are not content with the status quo — the status quo of lawlessness, of putting America last — it’s time to get behind Donald Trump, and I wholeheartedly endorse Donald J. Trump in his bid for the presidency in 2024.”

Wait a minute--lawlessness? Let me check this out--the former president who wants the Supreme Court to decide he had infinite hall pass on crimes while president is the remedy to lawlessness? The guy who said he wants the economy to fail while Biden is in office because it helps his election puts America first?   

The rapist, racist business fraud, who took classified documents and incited a riot on 1/6--is supposed to be the not-chaos guy? Prithee, how, sway? 

Although, how is that any different from what Gov. Chris Sununu has said? He would support Trump as the nominee even if he's convicted of crimes.  Because even Trump--proven criminal, but a Republican, is better than a Democrat of any kind whatsoever. 

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! 

We Can Figure Out this Kennedy Conspiracy

 

RFK Jr. has filed to run in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. He is an anti-vax loon. He talks at events where neo-Nazis are in attendance. Maybe someone is hoping his name recognition is a threat in Democratic circles?

Sigh. You can see what's up with this. I can see what's up with this. But they are trying it.

UPDATE: Well, exactly--Steve Bannon apparently pushed for a long while to get RFK Jr. to do this dumb thing because he might be useful as a chaos agent to spread anti-vax memes. Is Steve Bannon actually like a billion viruses in three shirts and a jacket? Because he's behaving exactly like a billion viruses in three suits and a jacket, or maybe like a guy working closely with or for an actual CCP agent who is just trying to fuck up the US. 

I don't actually think all the anti-vax, friends with Flynn, Stone and Bannon, and talking in fornt of neo-Nazis and such will win him friends on our side, even though I once admired his environmentalism. Anyway, I used to like Ralph Nader, until he ran third party in 2000 like a dude who was too Ralph Nader to just buy a sports car for his mid-life crisis. Anyways, get back to me when Robert's son Conor wants to run for office. 

Also, a funny thing that would come up for RFK Jr. is how he, the environmentalist horked onto Hugo Chavez, the leader of a petrostate, the way his dad was associated with actually good labor leader Cesar Chavez. 

Anyway, that's funny as heck to me now because of the whole Smartmatic/Dominion connection to deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez thing. My sense of humor hasn't been right since like, 2000 or so. 

So, I thought you all might appreciate it. 

TWGB: Seditious Conspiracy

 

In very interesting January 6 news, Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy regarding the violence that day.  It wasn't hard--they had Rhodes talking about civil war and 1776. His mess of people weren't just being security for Roger Stone--they were intentionally looking to disrupt the process of government and take the results of the election into their own hands.

It was an insurrection. 

Ah well. All kinds of people were there. But so many claim they thought they were doing what Trump wanted them to do.

This is because the people swarming the Capitol on 1/6 were taking all their cues from Trump's disinformation about the election fraud that wasn't and saw an opportunity for the overthrow of government. The possibility of being the top dogs in a dog-eat-dog world. 

These dogs are getting kenneled. 

Anyhow, in other news, Mark Meadows is going to have to testify in Fulton County, just like Lindsey Graham did. Stephen Miller testified before a federal 1/6 grand jury.  Tony Ornato testified before the 1/6 Committee and so did KellyAnne Conway. 

It just seems like a whole lot of TrumpWorld business is going to get aired out. And it seems like Trump never expected that aired out life. But he's very welcome to it. 

Durham Yeet

 

For a little while, there. MAGA had a lot of faith that the Durham investigation was going to lead to some kind of version of the Qanon "storm" where just loads of the Deep State operatives who always had it out for Trump would finally get their asses in serious trouble. The theory, as far as I can understand it, is: there were people in the USG sympathetic to the DNC who engaged in some kind of shenanigans to create a totally FAKE!!! investigation into Trump's completely innocent Russia connections to try and DESTROY HIS PRESIDENCY!

Durham was going to be the guy who uncovered the vicious plot against the one term-twice impeached wonder and suddenly, after a methodical study of all the facts, thoroughly exonerate Trump and his absolutely sterling and not at all dodgy character as not just a 2016 candidate for office but as a human, a father-figure, an aspiring Christian and a chosen leader for a more righteous America, and justify everything he ever did in his four years, forever and ever, we are not owned and turning into corncobs, AMEN!

And that did not happen, because the entire concept is incredibly faulty and not based on any facts in the entire world. So once again, Durham tries to get some kind of conviction, and it does not happen. 

TWGB: World of Discovery

 

Now, I have a guaranteed break-even strategy regarding gambling that has never failed at me not losing money--I don't bet. That's one way to never lose. The TrumpWorld folks aren't me, a working-class kid with a tenuous middle-class existence in adulthood. They are whales, machers.  They live whole lives of fucking around without the guarantee of finding out. They gamble. They risk a whole country. That's why I write about TrunpWorld, in part--the fascination for how they think. 

So, you all know about Alex Jones' phones and the specter of some "intimate conversation" with Roger Stone? (Yes, I had to do a third-eye wash to not see the word "intimate" and "Roger Stone" together and be like "Ewwwwwww." It's probably way more like Stone's entirely not weird caught on documentary video conversation with Matt Gaetz about pardons than the way my brain tried to interpret "intimate".)  Yeah, I think there's more there though. There's supposedly two years worth of communications, and it's not like Jones is in the Secret Service and has the incriminating bits extremely intentionally wiped, right? 

The worst thing about a conspiracy is that the people in on it have to communicate to keep their cover-up alive. Is that why Trump isn't supposed to talk to Mark Meadows anymore? This is a reasonably fraught thing--it might very well legally benefit Mark Meadows to shrive himself before the DOJ or the 1/6 committee, but there is hardly anything in this world Trump loves like he loves loyalty tests and witness tampering. 

It's clear that Trump's current legal team understand the circle is tightening. Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury regarding his knowledge of events re: 1/6, and claims of executive privilege regarding Trump are basically really slim. Trump is not president and preserving his time in office is a campaign goal, not an official task of the executive office. 

And then there's the funny old thing about the revelation that Trump DOJ lawyer (oddly working on behalf of the Trump campaign) John Eastman was still looking for the very elusive proof of the voter fraud that didn't exist weeks after 1/6.  He was also looking to get paid. This is so amateur. Trump believes he should be defended because his cause is always sanctified and is its own reward because he is who he is, and I don't know how Eastman (or Giuliani, or anyone else) failed to notice that. Also, too, Eastman and Giuliani and other lawyers never did get pardons, because like a Trump wife or girlfriend, he expects his lawyers to get themselves off. 

But while Eastman never secured a pardon, it's pretty clear people thought his plot was probably legally contentious if not treasonous. They knew it was wrong in Arizona.  They knew it was wrong in Wisconsin. 

Even Trump's 1/6 rioters know the buck should stop with him. It's his "privileged" associates who are late to understanding their legal jeopardy in all this. 

Trump is at the center of this, and it's his party, and he should cry if he wants to, but all signs point to his culpability. And if he doesn't get served, boy, I don't know. I just don't.  But I don't like what that implies. 

TWGB: The 1/6 Committee Is Getting Very Close

Just as the 1/6 Committee hearing was underway, I saw Mother Jones dropped a story regarding leaked audio from Steve Bannon from before Election Day, explaining that Trump was just going to claim he won regardless of the outcome. Because that was always the plan/

They aren't exactly ahead of the reporters, the 1/6 Committee, because a lot of what I'm hearing now, I know I knew either contemporaneously or from later investigative reporting, but now it's even more substantiated. And I don't feel in the least jaded. My word! 

Tie the latest thing about Steve Bannon's speculation that denying the election results and claiming they were always rigged via Mother Jones (which he was always going to do, c'mon, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see that) with the revelation that Trump was calling Bannon pre-1/6, and this was exactly where his podcast's claim that all hell was going to break loose came from. That's a sign that Trump was directing his flying monkeys in the right- wing media system to send troops where he wanted them. (The 1/6 Committee video of this was effective.) 

This has echoes of Julian Assange's suggestion in 2016 to Don Jr. that it might be more interesting if his father lost, because he would then be able to create fuckery by claiming the system was rigged. It also serves to remind us that "Stop the Steal" was created by Roger Stone in 2016 for just that kind of fuckery. What we have is a big picture coming into focus.

TWGB: The Criminalization of Politics?

 

One of the themes of today's 1/6 Committee hearing was "Roasting your Insurrectionist Co-Workers" because they brought the receipts that when Trump intimated to Richard Donoghue that he just wanted the DOJ to declare that the 2020 election was corrupt and he and his Republican congress people would take it from there, they really committed to "taking it from there" whether there was any proof of voter fraud or not. Those same pontificating lying "just concerned about the accuracy of the vote" people turned around and asked for pardons. 

Rep. Kinzinger, bless his normal-person heart, thinks the only reason he can think of for requesting pardons is consciousness of guilt. But there are Republicans who exist in the world who will tell you that is not the only reason. No, you have to go deeper--they say: like Mo Brooks who wore armor to the 1/6 rally at which he spoke, who sent a letter requesting pardons because the socialist leftist Dems were surely going to be out to get them.  How dare they violate the ability of folks to just hang out, and talk about--

Trying to fucking Ocean's Eleven a whole ass fucking Presidential election! Because I'm sorry, but things like criminal conspiracy aren't just basic right to assemble once you are assembling to dissemble to tell people there was voter fraud when there wasn't, to reinstall a presidential candidate that didn't win! Your Constitutional rights are totally valid up and until reasonable cause exists to think you literally engaged in acts already determined to be illegal as fuck. After which you get due process--we can happily assume you are innocent and should have a vigorous defense, but sweetums, you better have a better defense than "No fair judging!" Because you will be subject also to a rigorous examination of the facts.

TWGB: Are We New to This?

 

Trump "ReTruthed" a comment regarding civil war on his lil' Mastodon knock-off, and yes, it is pretty serious that he's endorsing the idea after an attempted coup and on the same weekend he's shared a CPAC event with a notorious racist (I mean, among other notorious racists, c'mon....) but to be quite honest--there have been echoes of civil war with Trump for a very long time. This is definitely not the first time, and it hasn't even been subtle. 

"Civil War" was even a branded clothing item worn at the 1/6 insurrection. This isn't new, and long past disturbing. 

This is why I don't doubt the story that Trump suggested that MI elections official Jocelyn Benson be tried for treason for not overturning the results in that state. It is partially a joke to call Trump the "MAGA king", but in his mind, this person who likes to talk about shooting people in the legs--is it too far out to think he might declare "Off with her head!" like some demented monarch? 

It also isn't so far out to think he directed State Department officials to meet with activists pushing, let's be entirely clear, fraudulent election fraud narratives. How in the hell is that State Department business? you might ask, if you didn't already know Trump's attitude was "L'etat c'est moi." 

America First...Is Definitely Not That

 

I'm not ever not going to hammer home that the various iterations of MAGA hat mentality often display racist and actually anti-American (or at least, anti-Constitutional) vibes. Of the slogans that I've had the least use for, the worst is "America First". The America First movement I always think of was the Hearst/Lindbergh pro-Nazi wanks. And that is not auspicious at all.  And of course, I also think about the Klan. 

The funny thing about America First is that it never represents the actual America that we have, but the America certain people want. It isn't about the vibrant, culturally diverse nation united under the rule of law. It's white bozos wrapping themselves in a flag and casting shade on the Constitution. It's overtly hostile to what is best in us in favor of a kind of white, Christian identity politics and vastly decreased empathy and morality in favor of militant social control. 

TWGB: Fraud and Sedition

 

Photograph of *Roger Stone* on *JANUARY 6th* with Joshua James, who just pled to SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY and obstructing an official proceeding and is facing 7-9 years in prison as part of a full cooperation agreement.

This is going to get quite interesting. pic.twitter.com/5LpeHDLTVY

— Spiro Agnew’s Ghost 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@SpiroAgnewGhost) March 3, 2022

That's right: a member of the Oath Keepers just copped to seditious conspiracy, and allowed that the intent of the riot that day was to obstruct the official proceedings of Congress in certifying the 2020 election. The information about the Oath Keepers' part in this conspiracy suggests a lot of planned armed violence.  

But in addition to that bit of news, the January 6th committee has determined that John Eastman hasn't any reason to claim attorney/client privilege because he conspired with Trump to defraud the US people by fabricating a fraud to steal an election. Trump was advised he lost, Eastman also understood what the vote meant, but maybe there was a legal strategy to overcome the facts? 

I don't hate lawyers, but this sort of shit is why lawyers get a bad rap, you know. Trying to steal whole elections, Circumventing democracy. Basically undermining the entire jist of our American experiment because some rich dude said it was okay to get funky with your bad theoretical self and imagine facts weren't so. 

The election-theft lie was always specious and kind of stupid: Italian satellites, German servers, Chinese thermostats and Venezuelan voting machines is just conspiracy theory Mad-Libs: references to odd, random fictional data points to have conspiracy theorists play connect-the dots with shit that isn't even part of the same puzzle book, let alone the same page, as the problem of why Trump didn't win. 

TWGB: The Open Questions

 In Des Moines, IA, elder statesman Chuck Grassley openly embraced the traitorous and obviously unwell twice-impeached one-term ex-president while he ranted his way through grievances and conspiracy theories. Which hearkens me back to when the Senate Pro Tempore tweeted that maybe the Vice-President wouldn't be available to do his ceremonial duties on 1/6, and how wrong I had been. Pence showed up then, in the breach, and did the right thing. Grassley shows up at a rally, 9 months after Trump has been out of office, and at this advanced age and reputation, kisses Trump's medi-ochre behind because he would like another crack at being Senator. 

Because what else is there? Eating you know what, riding a tractor, telling the History Channel to get off his lawn and bothering with "pidgins"? 

Of the two, Grassley looks like the one who is up for a grueling campaign, though. Trump looks sad. His hair is gracelessly in denial of the baring of his scalp, as much as his clothes can not contain the drooping quality of his gait and posture. But why should Grassley be any different than the young suck-ups who salute Trump and then do their thing? The salute is what matters. Keeping that untidy Trump ass pleased and almost normal. Denying his obvious transgressions. 

I am Feeling Confident

 

EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Beast has obtained a confession letter that Joel Greenberg wrote while working with Roger Stone to obtain a pardon… and it directly implicates Matt Gaetz https://t.co/hJNkkmnudq

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 30, 2021

But you know, go ahead and wire me $250, 000 and send a detailed letter of all the nasty stuff you did. Because no one gets a pardon from Trump unless he understands what you did (I mean, whoever heard of a very open-ended broad pardon from a US president?) and be sure to throw in a lot of stuff about your loyalty.

Is loyalty rewarded? Uh, sure. I am confident. 

I am sure in Roger Stone's mind all of this was hilarious except the dude was taking screenshots. Because this is TrumpWorld. 

TWGB: All His Trials

 

Despite the miserable reviews that Trump's own lawyers in the impeachment trial have received, even from Trump himself, I found myself tinged with wonder the six whole Republican senators agreed with the Constitution and precedent and found the proceedings to be constitutional. As many as that! Six! Because while the acquittal of Trump is perceived as likely given the Republicans' great moral failings, how much more preferable it might have been for them to dispense with a trial at all, and go on ignoring how much blame there is to go around.

Mitch McConnell certainly knew he didn't want a piece of this when he blocked Chuck Schumer's request for an emergency session while Trump was still in office. He still didn't when he voted that it was too late to go trying Trump now, even though this is only taking place now because he ensured it didn't happen while Trump was still in office. Republicans might like us to forget that part, too. 

But truth, justice, and the whole damn American way aren't served by forgetting these things. 

There will be focus on Trump's speech right before the attempted insurrection--but there's more to what happened than that. Trump and his team put the focus on the date, but Trump was undermining the results with his fabrications not just since the voting had ended, consistently using language that used words like "rigged" and "stolen", but had begun undermining the validity of the vote, especially the mail-in vote, well beforehand. (His bitching and moaning about a "rigged" system has been a constant, at least since Ted Cruz "stole" the Iowa caucuses from him in 2016.) Trump laid a foundation. brick by brick, for his supporters to think "they" (the evil Democrats) were out to get Trump, and by extension, them,

Take the last impeachment as an example--Trump's surrogates tried to assert that impeaching Trump was the same as impeaching his supporters. Even now, they are trying to claim such absurdities as Trump is being impeached not for what he did, but for who he is, or that somehow, by winning the election, the Democratic ticket has disenfranchised the 74 million Trump voters. (The latter strikes me as really rich considering my vote could have literally been thrown out as a Pennsylvanian if they had their way.)

What's more, Trump et als, even though they frame their argument (such as the 60 plus cases that were lost/laughed at of court) in terms of "election integrity" now, the rhetoric was often more apocalyptic: "Fight or you won't even have a country." "Save America." They were using a "Flight 93 election" narrative. Even if Trump didn't have the votes (and he looked, and he asked others to look!), what he wanted, and wanted his followers to want, was that the election be overturned for him. By force if necessary. 

And here's how you know: Trump had been hinting about use of force for a long time. He mused about "second amendment people" during the 2016 race. During 2019, he talked about the military, police, and Bikers for Trump as if he had his own militia. He has regularly used "civil war" language about out current-day divisions. He infamously told the Proud Boys to "stand by" in his first debate with Biden. And near to the events of the day in question, his recently-pardoned longtime associate, Roger Stone (accepted by the Proud Boys as one of their own), was seen palling around with Oath Keepers. 

And there's more where that came from. The House impeachment managers assure us that they will be presenting evidence that we have not seen before. And I believe they certainly will, because there is more to that story. 

(For what it's worth, there's more to the Russia investigation and what Giuliani and pals were up to in Ukraine that could all be aired in a bit.) 

Trump might still get acquitted in the Senate. But the public trial is, FWIW, where I think Trump's star implodes. And if there's justice, it drags several other truly deserving people down into it as it goes.

TWGB: The Pardoner's Tale

 

President Trump has been discussing the possibility of issuing pardons for his family members and some close associates, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News. https://t.co/fMlVbecclY

— Breaking News (@BreakingNews) December 2, 2020

I have a funny feeling that there is a good bit of distance between what Trump considers "illegal" and what, say, the law, considers "illegal", so maybe the feeling of being "embattled" that the president has is actually a consideration that people might have the gall to side with the law in the event of his leaving office. He's aware laws might have been broken; he's of a different mind about whom they should apply to.

The idea that he can just issue pre-emptive pardons to his family members that are really broad and not at all about something specific sounds great, and why haven't more presidents done things like that? (After all, close adviser Sean Hannity says Trump should definitely do this, and throw himself in for good measure.) It seems like it might not actually be what the Chief Executive has pardon power for, in other words, but what do I know? 

I know AG Barr during his confirmation hearing indicated that he believed it would be wrong for a president to dangle a pardon in exchange for not ratting him out. Would that apply to something like Trump's willingness to pardon Flynn after it became evident that he was not cooperating with the Mueller investigation? Maybe, maybe not--but if it was a clear as all that (like, he had every right to pardon someone even if it was a matter that traced back to himself), why not just go right to the pardoning regarding Roger Stone instead of all the DOJ business with requesting a reduced sentence before commuting his sentence? 

In TrumpWorld, it has seemed a bit like reality is whatever Trump gets away with. Take the possibility that Giuliani has been looking for a pre-emptive pardon (he says no, and I certainly have no reason not to disbelieve him) regarding the federal investigation into his association with illicit campaign finance schemes and international shenanigans in Ukraine. I've always thought there was a mutual, but fraudulent benefit to Giuliani's relationship as Trump's free personal lawyer, and there's nothing like pardoning Giuliani to basically admit--yeah, it was just like that. (And wouldn't that blast client/attorney privilege to heck?) That sounds to me like something that could pose a difficulty for both of them in the post-Trump presidency.

Eh. As I always say, if something looks bad with this lot, it probably is. Whatever could I make, then, of the news that the DOJ is investigating a White House "bribery for pardon" scheme? I mean, this president, solicit a bribe and abuse power--impossible! (Heh!) You know, unless it was something really good like dirt on a political rival or maybe, at this point, cash money (those notes are coming due, and sadly, the grift only pays for so much).

All I know of is, it's a sad thing that when the names of the lobbyists for this scheme, and the potential recipient of this ill-gotten grace are redacted, there are so many, many possible names of people in the Trump orbit that the mind can go to of genuinely dishonest, unethical, and legally compromised people who might be involved.

There should be a moral to this tale, but it's TrumpWorld, kid. You should know by now morals have little to do with it.

TWGB: Trump Reads Marks and Angles

 

I keep saying Trump is basically a con-artist because his mode is definitely not that of a legitimate business man. He's business as performance art. The hair! The tan! The offensively not tailored suits! The third world dictator gilded glitz of his Trump Tower penthouse, and the marble and tile of his Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago. His rallies that cheer all his weird pronouncements, even his peculiar idea of dancing (and Ellen should sue, also she is a better dancer). 

It's a con. Things that give him some kind of brand and play up his schtick are a con. Trump University was a con.  Trump's supposed charitable foundation was a big con. The wall was a con. His business model is a con. This is a con--and Trump knows it. 

But cons sometimes work, kids. Don't forget that. And if you get away with a con once, what really stops you from trying it again? Conscience? Morality? Of course not! This is TrumpWorld. So, if "But her emails..." worked once (they weren't even her emails, but Podesta's, for crying out loud!) then why wouldn't "But Hunter Biden's emails..." do the same job? 

(Not that Team Trump has given up on Hillary Clinton's emails even still. At this point, they have to be considered some kind of completists.)

TWGB: This Never Was A Hoax

The long-awaited 5th volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding Russian active intelligence measures is public, and goddamn. So, Russia was definitely trying to interfere, right? And the Trump campaign was definitely okay with that. And it really looks like there was probably kompromat, and like Trump lied about whether he ever spoke with Roger Stone (you know--this Roger Stone) about Wikileaks, and it looks like Wikileaks was laundering the DNC emails for Russia, and Paul Manafort is understood to have definitely been sharing campaign information with a "Russian intelligence officer", Konstantin Kilimnik. It also shows that criminal referrals were made to DOJ regarding untruthful statements being made by folks like Steve Bannon and Don Jr. in 2019--although somehow the DOJ must have eaten them, because whatever could have happened? (Why, AG Barr happened, just like he happened to the end of the Mueller report. I reckon he means to be the wall-to-wall rug of Trump cover-ups.)

What we find is, in short, there was plenty of reason for a counter-intelligence investigation into the potential manipulation of a US presidential election by a hostile foreign power (not that Donald "Love Letters to Dictators" Trump understood it as such) and real concern about the many contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. along with the obvious business connections Trump had in Russia, despite his vehement denials about both (which only made things more suspicious). It would have been derelict not to have investigated.

And now, here we are--the Senate Intelligence Select Committee produces this (with intriguing redactions) report covering what I've been trying to cover with TrumpWorld Grab-Bags. The conclusion appears to be that, well, it looked bad because it was bad. This information was available to to certain senators since before the impeachment hearings, and even if it wasn't source material, news reports made these same conclusions likely--the Russians were trying it and the Trumpers were onboard.

TWGB: Some Paragraphs on a Commuted Sentence

Roger Stone is depicted in the above shot having a pint and giving the white power sign while surrounded by the colorful group known as the Proud Boys. Old Rog is alleged to have stood for whatever a first degree Proud Boy is, which is where I think they still let you wank. Sometimes you need thug friends, I guess, when you need battles fought on the mean streets of social media, I mean, like the ones your friends are still allowed on.  Which is a paradoxical place to be in when one is also a guy who just gets his sentence for seven counts of assorted obstruction fuckery commuted by the actual president, after sentencing tampering by the AG itself just wouldn't do.

And lets not golf clap too hard for Bill Barr, who says he didn't think Trump's clemency order regarding Stone was a great idea--it's not a great idea, but he doesn't think that for "rule of law" reasons--it's optics. It looks bad--because...have I said this before? It is bad. Barr previously did urge for reduced sentencing but called the prosecution of Stone "righteous". What Trump has done undermines the DOJ. It practically screams: If you are of use to this president, he has got you covered.

So let's talk about what's wrong with the statement the White House put out about the rationale--and how impolitic and purely political it happens to be.  The statement leans heavily towards Trump's regular assertion that the entirety of the Russia investigation was a "hoax", but the entirety of it is not, even if the actual collusion with the Trump campaign part were. The DNC hack and the subsequent leaks by Wikileaks (regardless of any extent to which Roger Stone might have had advance knowledge and shared it with Trump himself) were real, as was the disinfo scheme that promulgated fake news on social media. Special Counsel Mueller made a rare op-ed to reiterate the legitimacy of this investigation.

TWGB: The Truth Still Matters

The funny thing about Trump ally Roger Stone being sentenced to 40 months in prison, which falls short of the original sentencing request from the DOJ prosecutors, which was later amended to a lighter sentence request, which lead to the resignation from the trial of some of the prosecutors, which was followed by today's prosecution team offering the original guidelines (did you keep all that straight?)--is that Judge Berman Jackson was probably going to go with 40 months anyway. All that foofaraw was...unnecessary? The judge was always going to take multiple factors into account. Stone certainly didn't help himself by flouting the limits of the gag order regarding the trial, etc., but in the end, the sentencing wasn't abusive.

Of course, Trump can decide to pardon Stone. What he can't really do, though, is fully exonerate him.  A pardon would relieve Stone of the penalty he was sentenced to, but doesn't erase that he was tried and found guilty in a court of law, that the evidence was actually against him, and would only serve to highlight part of what the judge said at sentencing:

"He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the President. He was prosecuted for covering up for the President."

 A pardon might be considered something the president has as part of his executive power, but to use it as part of a pattern of corrupt behavior, such as obstruction of justice regarding investigations into himself or related parties of interest is a clear abuse. It shouldn't be used to undermine the judiciary, or to serve as a bribe to encourage acts of obstruction or other violations of the law.

Which is relevant because in other recent news, it was confirmed by former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher that he went to see Julian Assange and offered that Trump would pardon him if he would provide evidence that the DNC was not hacked by Russia. It's hard to determine how much impetus that might have had from the Trump side of things, since then-COS Kelly was actually performing a reasonable level of gatekeeping at the time (but the man couldn't be everywhere, could he?) and Rohrabacher strikes me as the kind of guy who could use his own initiative (he went with rumored floor-shitter and actual Holocaust-denier Charles C. Johnson, so place your bets folks--these are weird people).

It would be worth a little investigation though, you think? Of course, I don't think anyone expected Assange to ever dime out his "sources" regarding the DNC hack because he was active in promoting the Seth Rich hoax just like Michael Cohen's third client and for some weird reason everybody's go-between, Sean Hannity.  What is interesting is still the extent that Trump goes to pretend that Russia never was involved in 2016. Like his talk of the 400 lb. mystery guy who did the hack, His asseverations that he believes Putin. His promotion of the very wrong and debunked Crowd Strike hoax, which was a big part of his own damn dumb stupid impeachment, which was just recently handled very well by 60 Minutes.

For goodness' sake--it was Russia!  They did actually do a shit-ton of bots and social media ads. The help is pretty hard to deny. Except--Trump is still denying it, and because he's president, the results are far more destructive.

It comes out that the sudden installation of Ric Grenell, current Ambassador to Germany, Trump loyalist and former internet troll, to Acting DNI has a little bit to do with what should be a routine update on election security to the House Intelligence Committee, Apparently, both parties on the committee were briefed regarding the security of our elections and the intent of Russia and other foreign actors to again interfere. Trump, in his paranoid and guilty little mind, took that to mean that the Deep State was telling on him to Lil' Shifty Schiff and the rest. And thus, a competent acting DNI (who was limited by the vacancies act, regardless, but still was at least, qualified for intelligence experience) is being replaced for now by someone who does not have intel experience and will be advised by another loyalist, Devin Nunes associate Kash Patel.  (Yeah. That Kash Patel.)

Oh well. Grenell won't be there for long, and it's only an outside shot that Trump will appoint Rep. Doug Collins. Who really wants to run for Senate, and really, I would love that more than having him as DNI.

Anyway, this year is going to stay weird, and I just want to end with another important quote from Amy Berman Jackson: The truth still matters. Some people want to make a regular habit of passing off on the truth, ignoring it, acting like business as usual while our institutions are under assault by people who have been entrusted with real power, but seem to have no respect for what care and duty and time and history have built up.

We all need to care. Truth matters. And Trump is the one who wants truth buried, and encourages lies. I would far prefer a president who said things that stung, if they were only true.