The Gaetz Report

 

We heard that the ethics investigation into Matt Gaetz would show illegal drug use (cocaine, molly), paying for (lots of) sex, including with a minor, and well, yeah. He did that stuff.  He left a pretty considerable trail of payments to women--$90K to various women. It's fairly unsavory:

The report noted that while all the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, one woman told the committee the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have "impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent."

Another woman told the committee, "When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated."

For his part, Gaetz had tried (unsuccessfully) to sue to block the report from coming out.  This is because he knew it would look bad--full stop. He's not unaware of his conduct, he's just unclear on why it should have anything to do with how people judge him.

You really do hate to see a person go so wrong from the unfortunate effects of a very comfortable and privileged upbringing. 

Obeying in Advance, or: "What Rats Won't Do"

 

#FBI Director Christopher Wray announces that he will step down at the end of the current administration.

Learn more: https://t.co/W7xY34F37h pic.twitter.com/FIJ5QIjI29

— FBI (@FBI) December 11, 2024

I hear scientists are starting to use lawyers instead of lab rats in their experiments. They do this for two reasons. For one thing, they become less attached to the lawyers. For another, there are some things lab rats won't do.    

 I get the idea that one shouldn't obey in advance, I really do.  And I get the argument that FBI Director Wray should have said "C'mon and fire me." Take a damn stand. Show Mr. Trump and the world what you are made of. 

But he did that. Remember when he shit-canned all the tips about Brett Kavanaugh? Because I'm not forgetting that. Remember when he took the job in the first place after Trump, Jeff Sessions, and Rod Rosenstein concocted a reason for Trump to fire Jim Comey that wasn't what Trump expressly told Lester Holt (and Sergey Lavrov) the reason was (to end the Russia, Russia, Russia investigation).

Kamala Harris, For the People

 

As she began her speech to accept the nomination of the Democratic party, Kamla Harris thanked the audience--a lot. One social media commenter, perhaps a bit confused by the concepts of both gratitude and subtlety, wondered why she was saying "Thank you" quite so much, but most people understood why--

She was grateful for the applause of course, but she wanted to get down to business. The "thank yous" were a signal to the audience to stop clapping because she had a speech to do. And I loved that. Oh, I have seen people bask in well-deserved applause--it's fine. But being ready t get started and move forward was so on point for Kamala Harris.

This truly was the speech of a public servant who cares about what she does and who she does it for. Her biography let us know her dedication to getting things done, to doing them well--and not "half-assed". We learned what motivates her, what she has done, and what she will do for the people--the only client she has ever served. And she drew a contrast between herself and a certain someone who only serves himself. 

TWGB: Predictable

 

Habba attacking the judge: But I was told to sit down today. I was yelled at and I've had a judge who is unhinged slamming a table. I don’t tolerate that in my life, I’m not going to tolerate it here pic.twitter.com/u6Sgd7dnqA

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 6, 2023

It took me forever to figure out what left me so bored and uninspired as a blogger following what should have been a BFD: the former president taking the stand in his own defense at the bench trial that he already...well, lost, to fight for whether he could continue to do business in the state he once called "home". 

It was predictable. Trump, after all, is a guy who said that the Emmy Awards were rigged against him.  The Nobel Peace Prize is rigged against him.  The 2016 Presidential election (that he won) was, nevertheless, rigged against him. The 2020 Presidential election was rigged against him, according to him, in various horrible ways. All these court cases that he has, in fact, managed to catch by the actual sweat of his very own brow, are supposedly "rigging" the 2024 contest. 

In Trump's world, if the results of any process are unfavorable to him, Donald J. Trump, Stable Genius, then, obviously, the process is the problem. And in the clip above, there's his lawyer, Alina Habba, complaining about how unfair the judge was to her, for admonishing her to sit her behind down when she was out of order and um, she did sit down because there was nothing the judge did wrong there.

TWGB: TrumpWorld is Definitely Not OK

 

You know, all I wanted to do last night was post a little bit about Rudy Giuliani fixing to sue President Biden, but I fell asleep at the computer because it got so deep in the weeds, and as of today, there was more to the story:

Look, I think it's great that Rudy Giuliani found lawyers to take this case even though he is being sued by some of his other lawyers for not getting paid and can't seem to keep a Georgia-based counselor to save his behind. He's getting sued by Hunter Biden, of course, and by a former employee alleging sexual assault and harassment which is a case involving details that are profoundly stomach-churning. But these guys believe enough in Rudy Giuliani to pursue a case where his allegations are that Joe Biden's crack about Giuliani being a Russian pawn spreading disinfo cost him his reputation and millions of dollars of business--

In a way actually being a source of Russian disinfo, making wild pronouncements about a stolen election with shoe polish running down his face, putting on a presser at a landscaping service, farting COVID into the face of his stolen election co-counsel, losing his license to practice because of his shoddy ethics and being so frequently intoxicated that it's part of the investigation into the attempt of the Trump Team to steal the 2020 election are not the ACTUAL THINGS that screwed Giuliani's reputation? 

TWGB: Seething Contempt

 

The former guy seemed a little confused about how he ended up with no jury. His attractive strip mall attorney who also does traffic beefs forgot to check a box! (So weird! By his own admission, Trump is always checking boxes.) But anyway, instead of being mad at his counsel (and really, they are what he can get) Trump trained his ire on the AG (of course) calling her a reverse racist again and the judge, which is exactly what you would do if the decision in this case came down to (checks notes) that guy. 

TrumpWorld has poisoned my brain. I start looking for the obvious fuckery every time. Is Trump baiting the judge so he can declare everything was biased against him? Is he baiting him to get contempt ruled on him? Is he just pretending he doesn't know how he ended up with no jury so he can turn around and waste time with an incompetent counsel appeal? 

I have no idea at all. Maybe none of the above (I don't think any of that would pass the smell test, anyway) and it is really just a sad, farcical clusterfuck where the stable genius is watching his life pass in front of him. But he says he's going to testify on his own behalf, and goddamn if that doesn't sound worth the price of admission!

And maybe he also wants to duck the deposition for the Michael Cohen libel trial he initiated because he realized he'd incriminate himself because he's a big flipping dumbass. Because at some point, isn't somebody gonna ask: But wasn't he working for YOU? Like, Michael Cohen didn't get himself into the shit for you without you, hon.

TWGB: Trump Has Some Explaining To Do

 

Now, it might seem like I'm writing a TrumpWorld Grab-Bag because I can't find a hook for the debt ceiling vote that took place, and you'd be exactly right! I hate writing about debt ceiling brinkmanship because it feels a little like "Hey let's pretend we're about to violate the Constitution and shiv the economy to let people know who the real patriots are." 

That's insane, right? Like undermining the courts or the DOJ, or defunding law enforcement or pretending our elections are rigged, all without real proof, this is kind of seditious, you know? And it doesn't really surprise me that the same MAGA Freedom Caucus who did wild stuff like support not certifying Biden's win and some of whom even asked for pardons from Trump? Are down with hijacking the cockpit and bringing our economy down, Flight 93 style. 

They are ideological terrorists. I don't think you could persuade them that fucking up the US economy is wrong because it hurts their constituents and even has ripples in the entire world economy. They have stockpiled guns and freeze-dried beanie-weinies.  They feel good. They are waiting on some kind of political rapture. Maybe that looks like the Second Coming of Trump. I'm not even a good Christian, and that feels all kinds of blasphemous to me. 

TWGB: Rumbles in TrumpWorld

 

So, what if it seems like Trump's lawyers are "dropping like flies?"  What does it mean if Trump's kids are getting stripped from a lawsuit so that the law can focus on the former president himself? What are we looking at when Allen Weisselberg, recently released from his sentence, is faced with going back in on a perjury charge for protecting you know who? 

I know what Trump himself would call it--"Rigged!"  But maybe the problem is with the client himself. He's just, how do I delicately put this? Probably guilty of so, so much? 

See, let's talk about the exit of Tim Parletore. He says it's because one of Trump's other lawyers, Boris Epshteyn, was interfering with searches for government documents--I guess like he thought there was  good reason for some docs to remain unfound, which would be some very serious obstruction, right?  I mean, he would know what stuff he wanted to remain buried as a longtime Trump associate? (I don't trust this MF as far as I could throw him). 

But what am I going to do, pretend Parlatore isn't also a big lying Trump apologist kook here? He's the guy who pretended Trump using a former classified docs folder as a coverup for the little light on his bedside phone was a reasonable thing. That's nuts. You could use duct tape, a Post-It note, a sock. Why a classified docs folder?  

This is the kind of crazy out where the buses don't run kind of logic you employ when you know your client doesn't have any excuse. This is why the lawyers are rumbling--

They are running out of tables to pound. Eventually, someone is going to look at the bare facts of, say, what Trump even did in office, and maybe connect the dots to what docs were taken and understand why.

TWGB: Credibility Gaps

 

Imagine being Fox News, in the midst of trying to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit while still retaining some credibility as a news organization, even to the extent of running a full-page ad in the New York Times trying to bolster their reputation (which is bullshit, actually) while the ratings cash cow they fraudulently supported keeps mooing at them to go and lie some more.

Their bum steer has them on the horns of a dilemma, one might say? 

Probably not. I've been saying this regarding the GOP and Fox alike--your Trump problem is you made him, but you also can destroy him. He's a Golem--rub out the magic words that got him moving and fear him no more. The GOP has stuck themselves to him such that other potential 2024 primary candidates are disadvantaged in trying to challenge him (an imaginary box created by the delusion he can't be criticized or called on his bullshit in any way) and so has right-wing media. 

And yet, Trump exists because of attention--he's trying to have all his trials be made in the court of public opinion. This isn't how anything works--for example, his bid to have his defamation/sexual assault case delayed because of all the unwanted attention following his Manhattan indictment has been rebuffed for the simple reason that he is the one who keeps calling attention to all his trials, and also, there are so many trials he's got going on a delay isn't doing him or the courts any favors. 

TWGB: Arraignment Eve

 

Exclusive: Trump to be formally arrested and charged with 34 Class E felonies for falsification of business records tomorrow. But he will not be handcuffed, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot, per a source debriefed on Tuesday's procedures. https://t.co/3cqbNJD8VS

— Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) April 4, 2023

It's a wild thing to consider in TrumpWorld: Is it better to surrender oneself and not have the mugshot. or is losing the mugshot losing an opportunity to have Trump mugshot-branded swag? On one hand, a mugshot is very bad because a president shouldn't be a felon. On the other hand, the market is there. And it would be the manliest mugshot the world has seen. (Lie: that would be the mugshot of Francis Albert Sinatra who was booked for the charge of seduction--and his hair was perfect.) 

This Holy Week, the transit of Stunato Mundi is truly a representation of the Stations of the Ass and It's Foal he rode in on and no one's palms are clean. Between you, me, and the whole entire internet, I am going to be sick that the arraignment of Trump on April 4th will give Christianist Doomsday heads some Maranatha energy and lets total racist assholes make MLK analogies. People are seriously covering his willing surrender in NYC (his hometown) as if it was notable that he didn't, I dunno, abscond to Argentina. It's for the drama. Trump is a thirsty bitch who lives for the drama. He could have done this by Zoom.  He wanted a display of pretend martyrdom.

MAGAS: Donald Trump is not your bridegroom, Gurl. Just drop that like it's hellfire hot. He's also not a martyr for any damn cause and isn't being denied going to the mountaintop of a second term. He's a twice-impeached pussy-grabbing, mafia-adjacent, seditionist who is wildly earning all the indictments. Get a whole grip on reality. The man looks bad right now because he's been bad forever and never got good. 

His campaign boasts that he's raised $7 million or so since the indictment. If I believe that: good. That money could have gone to actually viable Republican candidates instead of this guy. That money is several $$$ less in MAGA hands. 

TWGB: We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

 

So, it wasn't actually Tuesday that the indictment of former president Donald Trump happened, and I'm not really surprised, because why in the world would we take for granted something he says, anyway? While his planned protests (a disturbing idea in and of themselves) weren't especially robust, he got the turnout I should have known he would have been looking for--a lucrative one. Because it's all about that grift, isn't it? He plucked the pigeons for over $1.5 million. 

The emails are kind of disgusting if you aren't a MAGAt. Save our country (from, what, due process of a reasonably-suspected felon?) and it could happen to you! (sure, I don't know how many porn stars you've ever had to pay off to protect your presidential campaign, but sure--it could happen to you!) They operate on the same absurd logic he used during both of his impeachments--they aren't doing this to me--they are doing this to you. 

But of course that is stupid. He pays fines himself. He goes to prison alone. You, the hypothetical Trump supporter, do what political supporters of other candidates have done since forever. You loved Nixon, but now you are okay with Ford. You wanted George Bush but you got Ronald Reagan. You wanted John McCain, but you got George W.  You wanted Newt Gingrich but you got Mitt Romney--look, there has to be a morning after Donald Trump. He's not the only Republican on the face of the planet who can credibly run for president if you can call running for president after one disastrous term with two impeachments, a net loss of jobs, an insurrection and a post-presidential term classified documents scandal plus the threat of multiple indictments on the docket a credible run! 

Kari Lake and the Lawyers She Rode in On

 

You might have heard that Kari Lake lost her election, oh, about November of last year, but if you are Kari Lake, you are hearing as it if for the first time just now, when for the second time she has been told that her idea of "proof" that the election was rigged against her just simply wasn't. 

As just a minute's worth of throat-clearing on my part, what if things like machines that didn't work properly or the existence of mail-in ballots or whatever, weren't things that only negatively affected Republican voters, but were conditions that existed for all the voters and under those conditions, there was still just a higher Democratic voter turnout? See, I feel like most complaints from GOP pols and their various conspiracy theorist fluffers is basically Republicans claiming some kind of weird victimhood that they were robbed when no, sometimes candidates just lose for reasons. It's the old idea that only Democrats have agency, therefore, Republicans could not possibly claw their way to an electoral advantage by any sort of nefarious means, but Democrats totally do. 

Eh. 

But anyway, whether Kari Lake learns anything from this loss or not, her lawyers will possibly get a hard lesson, because they aren't just looking at sanctions, but possibly the loss of their law licenses. That is serious business, as in, they will be out of business.  What lawyers will learn from this is--don't perform meaningless signifying electoral challenges if you can't prove voter fraud existed. 

What does Kari Lake learn? Nothing, so long as people think it's just fine and dandy for politicians to lie their asses off about whether they won or lost an election to gin up their fanbase. After all, Trump is still doing it, no matter how many times he's been told he lost (and it's a lot--like, an unbelievable lot).  But I think she looks like a whole horse's ass the more she insists on it instead of moving on to anything else, and well, that's good. As an example for others. 

TWGB: What Rats Won't Do But Durham Might

 

So, a funny thing happened in the news that probably only makes sense to old heads who have been doing TrumpWorld for all this time--apparently, the hero that was going to save Trump from the whole Russia, Russia, Russia thing still hasn't found the no good dirty scoundrels who implicated Trump in a counter-intelligence investigation to the whole-ass nemesis people sometimes quite plausibly think Russia is, but along the way he did find Italian officials who said maybe Trump was up to some financial crimes. Because it was a day ending in "y" or something. I dunno. 

Now the TWGB stylesheet having one entire unpaid employee (me) insists I interject the following observation: if it looks bad, it is bad. The baddies who said Trump's campaign was probably likely breached by Russian operatives were George Papadopoulos to Alexander Downer. Don Trump Jr. himself via email telling all and sundry folks boasting they were from the Russian government and were here to help.  Paul Manafort changing the Republican platform re: Ukraine. (Look , that article throws a whole cast of characters around and to ease your minds, hush, you know who worked for Yanukovich and has Maidan blood on his ever-loving ostrich boots, it's Manafort. Shh. Don't get it too twisted.) 

Now, I think it's just great Barr was working with Durham, bustling about Europe, raising questions about why Trump was being treated like Russia targeting him was somehow between anyone else but Russia and the Trump campaign, exactly when the 2019 impeachment thing was happening and we were discussing how Trump was fulfilling Putin's best wishes for Ukraine by denying them military hardware in exchange for Trump being given a better shot at being re-elected. 

It's just great because how stupid is anyone who isn't connecting these dots just yet--Durham will never find the damn dirty folks who implicated Trump in the Russia matter because a lot of what implicates him is him. So what else can we have? Side quests. 

They just don't go anywhere great either.  Frankly, I'd love to know what the Italian government shared about Trump. And why Barr and Durham never followed up on it. Did they bury it, the way Barr tried to bury the Mueller report? So, a special counsel is supposed to be independent, but it looks to me like Durham and Barr were cheek and jowl for a while and they covered up Trump's dirt like cats kicking about in a litter box. 

Now, in whole other news, John Eastman is up for disbarment in California, and has some supporters who are sketch as hell.  Trumpworld is like purgatory for lawyers and where folks are tested and figured out in the balance. I say supporters of Eastman are not honest--their hearts are heavier than the feather of Maat and they must do penance before they see the after-Trump life. But that is just like, my opinion. 

UPDATE: Think about the sanctions/disbarment/suspensions/need for their own lawyers that so often confronts legal professionals who work for Trump. It really seems so not worth it eventually. I would love if more people realized working for Trump will get you gout before it gets you clout. 

Rudy Knows What Time It Is

 

At the conclusion of the morning session of his Bar disciplinary hearing, Rudy tells his lawyer on a hot mic that he mistakenly put two watches on today. pic.twitter.com/v1SJGdVtZt

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) December 5, 2022

Did he do it by mistake? We joke about whether the guy who turned up dripping shoe polish from his head, made a speech at Four Seasons landscaping, and crop-dusted his co-counsel Jenna Ellis with COVID-19 by way of farticle is ever sober or has permanently lost his grip, but this display was so watch-movement obvious it sort of looked to me like at some point, he's just gonna tell folks he's a frail old man out of his mind and never meant to do any kind of coup. And this was just part of the warm-up.

It would be a very sad card to play after what he's said about Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden alike, is all. But fine--he's a constant drunk and a major incompetent--and the guy Trump was listening to in the White House as his very important unpaid lawyer for years. 

Think about that!

TWGB: The Picture Worth a Thousand Takes

 

The rebuttal to the Trump filing I referred to as the "Clown Suit" from DOJ made some of the points I expected it to make, to wit--the former guy and his lawyers were lying about turning over all of the documents and they were already gone over so there was no need for a special master. It also included a picture of the kind of documents that had been found during the search, just to hammer home how clearly the top secret/classified docs were marked.  The white space is redacted. You aren't being exposed to anything other than what should be obvious to you by now--these were sensitive materials that should not have been in desk drawers or closets or boxes in a basement. They should have been in NARA's hands. 

Trump and his defenders are in denial. How dare anyone show these documents on the floor as if to suggest that was where he would carelessly leave them? Why would they take a picture of them if they were so secret? Is this how the FBI handles these docs?

Oh, for fuck's sake. This kind of picture is the story of many a bust. Cops love to pile up the evidence so people can get a tangible picture of what they were doing in a search:

In this case, the point is that you can see the clear markings on the docs, which were mixed in with random other shit and in boxes and in different rooms, because it's Trump who didn't care. The docs were on the floor (and they never did imply it was Trump who put them there) only to show the extent of what they were finding. And then those docs were put into containers and taken to where they were actually secure. The FBI didn't mishandle them--they were documenting what they saw.

TWGB: The Clown Suit

 

I got home from work and discovered to my joy upon hitting up Twitter at the dinner table (don't judge!) that Trump, pro se!  (something, something, idiot for a client) had filed for a bad court thingy against the federal government for being big meanies and taking his precious. 

I mean, the search warrant was as very warranted as a very warranted thing, if you go by the standards of: the FBI actually got reams of the sort of thing they went in to retrieve because it was, in fact, holed up where the informant(s) claimed they were. But Trump has various objections to this standard 4A process, to wit:

1) I was complying in every way possible except for handing over all the docs and actually lying about still having them.

2) It's very unfair to bring politics into this, but DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

3) Did you know this would make my superfans really angry? You won't like them when they are angry!

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. 

Many Things Can Be True At Once

 

I was absolutely not interested in writing about a certain case which has been all over the news, but unfortunately, I get stuck in my writing if something like this goes by and I haven't commented. But I will not refer to anyone BY NAME because I know my readers will know what I'm talking about. And it feels like a nice blind item for a gossip column that way.

Sigh. So here goes...

It can be true that men can be abused. That does not give them a pass to also be abusive. Women can be abusers, but that does not mean that a woman has to be perfect to also be able to say that she has been harmed. The two people in this case both seem to have made each other thoroughly miserable and there was substance abuse involved. I hope for both of their sakes they are getting therapy. I'm not for the purposes of this post taking sides, but if you know what I've written about #MeToo and misogyny previously, you can probably imagine. 

That said, what I want to post about isn't this case per se, but the reaction to it--it's been weirdly personal, and despite getting more details than anyone ever could want and both of these people being famous--regardless, we don't know them. These are people underneath their celebrity and the roles they have performed. We know the cases their lawyers and PR professionals have made on their behalf.  Stories can have more than one side. 

But this case and its result should not affect anyone else's story, or anyone else's right to talk about their own abuse, and I think the reason in part this particular case became so riveting is because people wanted to fold it into some other narrative about cancel culture or whether men (all men, not this particular man) can now shrug off claims of abuse because women won't be believed, because this one woman wasn't believed. 

That doesn't seem right. 

But regardless, while I am not saying that all the people who sympathized with a certain nameless person are rotten people, it doesn't escape my attention that all the really rotten people are high-fiving each other over this jury's decision. And while I don't know the other nameless party personally, I know there are people who have suffered abuse and were not believed and can only imagine how gutting the gloating over this feels for them, because it's like their own predicament is being rubbed in their faces. It could have a dampening effect on other people trying to seek help or admit what has happened to them. 

That doesn't seem right, either.

So I want it clear that it really feels to me like there is some serious misogyny at play and while I'm not going to try to convince anyone about what happened in this case, I ask anyone who cares about domestic violence in general to take a good look around at who is supporting whom, and why. It can be eye-opening. 

Fox Mushroom Farm Has Really Been Spreading That Fertilizer

 

The things you will see on Fox News! (I have called them the mushroom farm which is terribly unfair to actual mushroom farmers and I still like my analogy.)  Apparently, Barr's appointed US counsel in charge of making the Russia investigation look like it wasn't great (despite the multi-volume Senate intelligence report on same) has filed a thing that isn't actually shocking--someone related to the Clinton campaign mentioned to a government agency that a thing they noticed should be looked into, and they never explicitly pointed out that they might be tangentially associated with that campaign, which was over at the time of their being asked. The thing was DNS traffic, and my god, anyone hyping it should have to spell out what they think analyzing DNS traffic means. Because it is actually really boring, and not actually spying or wiretapping. 

The October 2016 news story was so dull I called it "too good to be true" at the time and I'm an obsessive re: Trump/Russia. That's how not a big deal it was. But that doesn't stop the premier propaganda cable news network from bolstering Trump's claims that pointing out a fairly nerdy and easily dismissible propinquity regarding Trump Tower and a Russian bank based on web traffic should result in the electric chair. 

Like, look up things that are publicly available and render an unfavorable conclusion and apparently, that is way too much for our society to bear. That is what this mishigas is about. Someone noticed something in the Trump milieux and not realizing His Nibs was sacrosanct, mentioned it. This got enlarged to supposedly spying on the Trump Administration, and no--the period involving White House traffic was the Obama Administration. Like, maybe Obama can get wee-weed up about it, if he was the type. But I think not. And this is in no way analogous to Trump being "wiretapped!" 

TWGB: Put It All Together, It Spells?

 

In statement, National Archives say they received some documents from the Trump White House that were ripped apart and reassembled with tape "along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House." https://t.co/hiUBYHUbIU

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 31, 2022

Of all of the darkly amusing things about the way Trump's mind seems to work, the automatic secrecy is most troubling. After all, for example, NDA's are for celebrities and corporate structures, not governments. This isn't the first time we are hearing about Trump's fetish for destroying business memoranda; he's even alleged to have tried eating his own words. 

But imagine the thought process, here: Shoot, we've taken notes on a criminal conspiracy...again. I know (rip, rip, rip). But should we be keeping these records? A-ha! Executive privilege... 

Many people are saying the reason these records are kept is because they are not supposed to memorialize episodes of doing crime. 

It's also kind of funny because government is big. So when various Trump associates went trying to see if either DHS or DOJ had authority to seize the voting machines, plenty of people would have heard about it. If Trump and company tried to pressure Pence to overturn the election (which is exactly what Trump recently copped to), plenty of people on Pence's staff, like Marc Short, undoubtedly knew details.  And I think people lower down on the chain, who have worked in and around government longer than Trump had, probably understand the limitations of their stalling tactics. 

But they are certainly putting up a brave obstruction effort, anyway, aren't they? Is it because, bad as it looks, it really is bad?