Taxation Without Representation and Mad King Don

 

REPORTER: I've spoken with some economists about your tariff proposals and they say they don't see how it won't make items cost more--

TRUMP: I don't need Congress, but they'll approve it. I'll have the right to impose them myself if they don't. pic.twitter.com/YuRHvzCkE3

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2024

Mad King Don is pretty sure this would constitute an official act and he would get away with it. Sure, it raises prices (he knows it would "punish" John Deere if he put a heavy tariff on their products, so he understands the mechanism when he wants to).

But keep in mind that this is the same person who says that the stock market is up because people are anticipating he will win, when his own stock, $DJT is plummeting, and even its CEO, Devin Nunes, is selling. Something seems pretty sketchy with that reasoning. 

The Trump solution is here, though-- never fear: because something something crypto, something something also a commemorative coin. And the hem of his garment, which possibly cures scrofula. 

Have you even ever met someone with scrofula? You don't know!

Devin Nunes is Just Asking Questions

 

Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes says he has hundreds of thousands of smaller MAGA investors in Trump Media, and they are calling him asking why the stock is tanking, so he filed a complaint with the SEC and says Biden is conspiring with Wall Street bankers to screw him. pic.twitter.com/ZxTEmxeN0J

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 20, 2024

Something about Truth Social puts me in one of those "can't place where all the emotion is coming from" moods, somewhat akin to when Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Art Laffer. I guess it's my strong feeling that shitty economics threatens livelihoods and personal savings--it isn't a game. Supply-side economics does not work in practice. It's an upwards transfer of wealth that has led to increased income inequality and which holds back growth because there is no incentivization for long-term investment or worker protections. 

Something about Trump, the man, the myth, the legend, is trapped in a 1980s elephantine "greed is good" vision of worshipping sacred golden calves. He's wealthy, so he is supposed to be a job-creator--look at how he created a job for Devin Nunes, a man so intelligent he sued an internet cow for defamation for linking to true stories like a thin-skinned goober who never heard of the "Streisand effect".  

Trump is like an icon of a different time. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and all that. That time sucked and the people sucked.  Even Trump's rivals kind of sucked. (Everything was the worst.) 

Anyway, Nunes is looking beyond the Trump Media fundamentals, to blaming the "naked short sellers" for the devaluation of the stock he had to answer for when frankly, the business hadn't done anything yet. (And they will do something--they will be a streaming service for stuff you just won't get anywhere else on the internet, which I promise you is not a thing.)

Nunes Left Congress for This

 

Anyway, you know the TMTG media thing that Trump launched after he left office and that looked like a pump and dump thing because the project seemed to have little material investment and lots of puffery?  The thing that started being investigated right away because wow, if it looks bad, maybe it is bad?  Anyway, subpoenas were issued to TMTG by the SEC and a grand jury for the SDNY--but Trump and Don, Jr. and a handful of other folks were already off the board. Apparently. It's amazing how that happens. 

So, according to the records, Devin Nunes, who left Congress for this, is still the CEO. It's very likely that the merger stuff between TMTG and Digital World was already in the can when he came aboard, and per Truth social posts, TrumpWorld is denying that Trump is really off the board. It's all a misunderstanding and a witch hunt. Except...

Is it? There's something really weird about a "successful" billionaire always being investigated to the extent Trump is (you know, like Trump University, and the Trump Foundation, and the tax fraud..) and always seeming to be dodging accountability (like, being himself or having associates in contempt of court for not turning over documents, which is still going on--would you believe?) that makes it seem like, maybe, just maybe, this Trump character isn't a great businessman, but a kind of possible...crook?

I'm not saying I know for sure. Maybe he's just extraordinarily unlucky. I mean, imagine the odds that Trump "foes" (also known as public servants who were just doing their jobs) like Jim Comey and Andrew Mccabe were selected for intrusive IRS audits by an agency run by a partisan Trump pick? Then throw in the odds that Michael Cohen fell under their gimlet eye as well (although that one doesn't necessarily feel as remote). 

The astronomical bad luck, am I right? You'd have to have some especial low opinion of how the world works (or at least, how certain people work in it) to see a not-so-hidden hand there, given how obviously bullies actually work in the open, yeah? 

Anyway, Devin Nunes, who left an influential seat in Congress for this, once sued an internet cow among other people who said very bad things about him on the internet, all of which were true. I think his current position is udderly ridiculous, and he should be cheesed off about it. 

The GOP Still Supports Putin's Puppet

 

You know, the more time goes by, the more I wonder what exactly was said between Trump and Putin at Helsinki, because the physical attitude of Trump and Putin couldn't have looked more like a smiling owner and a chastised pup. I think about this now because of the stark contrast between the attitudes of Trump and Biden, naturally. I also think of it because Republicans who want to criticize Biden at this moment seem to have lost the plot, if they ever even had it. 

Take today--Devin Nunes doesn't entirely understand why the Biden Administration is telegraphing the moves of Putin before they are made. Why have intelligence, and act on it? It seems deliberately dense to not understand that circumventing disinfo like a false flag operation is acting in a time-sensitive fashion to derail Russia's plans, and that the revelation is about advising Russia and the region that the US has eyes on. If Nunes does not get this, he's daft. But I think he might understand this, and is merely grousing that things are being made harder for Team Trump's favorite dictator. 

After all, one upon a time, Republicans like Nunes would have totally thought that sharing is caring regarding Trump talking to Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval Office, of all places, about highly sensitive things. That was an amazing act, as much as his obligingly servile claim to have gotten rid of Comey just to end the Russia, Russia, Russia investigation (which did not happen). 

So before I hear shit about Biden in any foreign policy capacity, I need Republicans to admit that Trump came off during his four year learning experience of how to almost world leader like Peter Griffin at his terrorist pool party. 

And I need to them to also admit that unlike Trump, Biden is capable of putting American interests actually first. Which I think they are too scummy to admit, but which he actually does, and kiddos, this is why we never trust Republicans. 

 

I also think it's funny when a certain party suggests that the White House release the transcript of Biden's calls with Zelenskyy. Oh, this sweet summer child, someone in the White House has access to the transcripts of many of Trump's "perfect calls" and I doubt that game is something they want to actually play. And no, it isn't a game.  This is real life, where many Ukranians can die and we should support democracies as the supposed leader of the free world. And not extort their leaders or just be ignorant anti-NATO puppets of Putin. 

Some Very Legitimate Business!

 

You know, it's not for me to question the ethics of a congressman who announces he's leaving the US House right about....now-ish, because he already has a really plum job lined up. It might look like he cast around for a job because his new district didn't look as friendly. Sure, some people might say that the only reason Trump wants Devin Nunes on board is their political relationship (and Nunes' abiding loyalty to Trump) but I don't know. He does have recent media experience, if you want to count trying to sue Twitter and a parody cow account. 

Hm. I don't know if that goes against the branding of Trump Media & Technology Group as being all about the freedom of speech, but that might be the least of the problems with anything bearing a Trump brand. 

My original take on Trump's media group is that it's got some big scam energy. Looks like that's not just me--the SEC is very interested in how this plan came together. There's good reason for it besides Trump being involved at all, but I've got to say, when you've got a twice-impeached former president who is going around still making Big Lie noises about the last presidential election, and that guy just happens to be someone who can't operate a charity anymore, ran a fraudulent "university" for six years, and has always been kind of money-laundering adjacent in his business practices--I mean, really? This guy whose Trump Organization is under indictment? Whose taxes may have been fiddled for years? 

I just have a hard time believing that really honest people would be putting their money where Trump's mouth is. It seems like the offering always was about employing the One Weird Trick of knowing when to dump out of it. But then again, some people do put their trust in Trump, I mean like Deutsche Bank--they were always willing to give the sucker a better than even break. Maybe Patrick Orlando just likes the cut of Mr. Trump's jib.

Ah, well, people do stupid things with their money I guess. The poor trusting souls, they are. 

How Now, "Mad at Cow"?

One of Trump's especially dumb toadies, Rep. Devin Nunes, had the extraordinary stupidity to file a suit against parody accounts purporting to be his cow and his mom, and for some reason, he also sued Liz Mair, because they said mean things about him. The parody accounts, as a result of the attention from the lawsuit, did not in fact die, but became more powerful (followed) than Nunes anticipated (see "Streisand effect"). It was recently determined that there was no real way to find out who Devin Nunes' cow actually was, and a recent ruling decided that Twitter was not to be held liable for what randos post there.

This isn't exactly a case of Nunes suing an internet cow and losing. It's more like, because he's a weird conservative conspiracy theorist, he thinks being criticized on the internet is some kind of ploy against him. But no, it's just...speech. Which, like a dumb fuck, he has called attention to in such a way that statements like "Devin Nunes is suing an internet cow" and "Devin Nunes is losing to an internet cow" can be made.

But the grotesque little point to his exercise is twofold: to purport that social media habitats are biased against conservatives because, I guess, accounts critical of them exist? And to try to shift bias rightward.

I have been following the foofaraw about Section 230 for a minute, and have some feelings.  I have existed as a semi-anonymous pseudonymous personage online for over 20 years, at this point, for a dozen on this blog. I think anonymity for non-public figures helps enable free speech without individual penalty and the toll to an internet persona should be reputational for that persona. Providing critical content, even derogatory content, shouldn't be censored so long as it isn't a threat of actual material harm (beyond hurt feelings or whatever). If you are stalking, making terroristic threats, are a straight-up criminal--okay--that's different. But just saying mean stuff? Give me a break!

Conservatives have been alleging "liberal media bias" for as long as I can remember, so claiming social media bias isn't a big shocker. But knowing how the internet or social media works, it means they are kind of pointing out that they aren't actually that popular and are getting a lot of push-back, and when they explain they are going to flounce off to Gab or Parler or whatever, it's kind of like "Welp, let's fuck off to wherever they banished the neo-Nazis to." Because  the thing where people get kicked off of social media? It's not for bias, it's usually for being a damaged tool that that can't even play well with others.

So anyway, am I saying Devin Nunes is definitely a damaged tool? Well, I'm not not saying that! But his district should seriously consider whether a person with a lot of time on his hands to fuck around about internet cows has any bandwidth left for his constituents.

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.

Everybody's a Theater Critic

"Did your investigation find that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from one of the candidates winning?"

Robert Mueller: "Yes."

"And which candidate would that be?"

Mueller: "Well, it would be Trump. The president." https://t.co/4TAVylX3T9 #MuellerHearings pic.twitter.com/6GJYndrEF4

— ABC News (@ABC) July 25, 2019

I didn't watch the Mueller hearing because I was at work like a an awful lot of Americans were, and for what it's worth, I already read the report and have been following the story of Russia's involvement in the 2016 election since 2016, so I didn't really feel like it would be "must see tv" for me. I also don't really have faith in the idea that what folks really need is for the Mueller Report to be brought to life through the magic of color television--it's kind of quaint. See, this isn't the olden days were everyone is watching the same thing and shares the same set of media gatekeepers who minimally shepherd us through the details with a maximum of restraint and professional dispatch. At worst, we have fabulists who will just rewrite what people just saw through a partisan lens (yes, I mean Fox News). And at second worst, we've apparently got theater critics.

"How were the questioners using their time?" "Did Mueller seem awfully monosyllabic? Is he okay?" "Is this 'moving the needle'?" Blah, blah, blah. Instead of concentrating on the overarching message (yes, Russia interfered, and yes, Trump and associates lied and blocked attempts to investigate, and yes, the next election is also ripe for interference, and no one seems to be doing bugger-all about it), media-hours are being filled with reviews of the spectacle, and we've lost the plot.

Robert Mueller is not an actor. Neither are the congressmembers who queried him--although some are doubtless more tv-friendly than others. I hate to go all "Medium is the message", but I wonder if viewing in this format doesn't prime people for expecting a very particular kind of drama, where appreciating actually serious details, like the admission that Trump lied in his written responses to the Mueller team, lack that theatrical whatever that a "Perry Mason"-style confession creates. Another issue is that just because people aren't actors doesn't mean they aren't playing a role--and in this case, the GOP members (Gohmert, Nunes, Gaetz) basically used their own version of theater to pull the proceedings off narrative. It isn't that the conspiracy theories introduced made sense--it's that they were produced at all, that bogged down the narrative.

I don't know what House Dems wanted from Mueller, but when he seemed disinclined to provide it, they should have taken the very large hint that it's up to them to hold Trump accountable, if anyone is to do it. My thinking has been that, if House Dems build a case, eventually public opinion will follow it. (Wasn't it the esteemed statesman Wayne Gretsky who said "You lose 100% of the cases you don't make?" I'm struggling with Speaker Pelosi's strategy, or possible lack of one, in this respect. As with her distancing attitude towards "the Squad" a few weeks ago, before Trump's racist attacks inadvertently created some cohesion, it's possible that she worries about maintaining cover for the members of her caucus in redder districts and doesn't want them maneuvered into a difficult, electorally-damaging choice--but I'm not thrilled about the reasoning there, because the alternative is doing nothing.

That's not a good alternative. It lets Trump off and it lets the entirety of the GOP who have been giving him cover off. It seems like there's an electoral benefit in using that. This Mueller thing has ended on an anticlimax--but the big dramatic payoff waiting for us thrashed about on the White House lawn after the hearing calling reporters "fake news".

ME: “Mueller said you could be criminally charged after leaving office?”
TRUMP: Denies Mueller said this and then when I challenge him on facts, calls me “the worst.” #MuellerDay #MuellerHearing pic.twitter.com/1v66aApQKJ

— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) July 24, 2019

Forget Mueller, you guys--there is an ACTOR! Put him on the stage. It isn't as if he hates attention (unless we're talking about his tax returns, his business dealings, his grades, his bone spurs....)

See what I mean? Drama!

Rep. Devin Nunes is Suing an Internet Cow

Amazing, isn't it, how some characters fall out of the TrumpWorld plot for a little bit, who at one time seemed so integral. I can't actually say that Nunes was missed, but for crying out loud, who doesn't like a little bit of comic relief with your national tragedy? So I am somewhat cheered to present a story that has Rep. Nunes suing an internet cow, Liz Mair (no, she's not an internet cow, she seems okay), Twitter, Inc., and a parody account of Devin Nunes' mama, because she served as his campaign treasurer, which is a whole other thing. 

That seems pretty bizarre, but his side of the story is pretty compelling--people are mean to him on the internet, and he isn't getting nearly the likes and retweets he ought to, and some of the stuff said about him are lies!! And...

And this is a grown man who went into politics on purpose. Every politician takes hits on Twitter, just like they do on talk radio, cable news, blogs and other assorted websites. Does he think people genuinely didn't think the Devin Nunes' Mom and Devin Nunes' Cow Twitter accounts were satire?

What if--?

Scene:

NUNES (looks up from keyboard, eyes damp with tears): Mother, how could you?

DIANE (peering over his shoulder): We've talked about this, Devin. Not everything you see on the internet is real.

NUNES: But what about...this? (pointing fiercely at the screen)

DIANE: Oh for heaven's sakes, how would she even work a keyboard?

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying this happened. I'm being satirical.)

Anyhow, if this goes on, I'm clearly on the side of the cow. 

UPDATE: This is already working out very well for Nunes on social media.

UPDATE, ALSO, TOO: This looks like the type of lawsuit a lawyer might take on if it certainly could not make their reputation any worse, and is probably mostly intended to be a Very Expensive Annoyance (probably donor-funded) to discourage people from saying Mean Things About Dev.

It's dumb but also very vindictive.

TWGB: Investigations and Investments

Of all of the astonishingly stupid things I have seen in following the Trump/Russia investigation(s), the above Instagram post from Roger Stone qualifies as, well, pretty up there. He posted a photo of the judge assigned to his case with a caption bollocks-full of paranoid Deep State speculation. Of course, this was not going to go over well regarding his legal jeopardy, and even though his lawyers (probably twisted his arms) persuaded him to sign on to an apology to keep his ass out of further trouble, he is still going to pay the court a visit because yes, he is in further trouble.

I'm of two minds about why Stone made such a singularly dipshit move; it could very well be that Stone has simmered in the right wing fever swamp for so long that signifying to his digital comrades has more importance for him than not fucking up his bail terms. But it also seems possible to me Stone meets the qualifications of "crazy as a fox" and is trolling the court and his followers alike in a race to see who can benefit him--either he thinks fuxxoring any good will with Berman Jackson would result in a recusal (um, no, because that's a little too easy, isn't it, sunshine?) or because he feels fit enough to do a jail stand if his bail is revoked and that would do miracle sympathy-numbers for his legal GoFundHimself. And either way, standing up against the investigation earns him points with He Who Must Not Be Incriminated, the POTUS with the Mostest (ability to issue pardons).

Long story short, Stone has an investment in Trump that he is willing to sink his liability further into. Maybe that's bad money. I have a theory that many of Trump's supporters right now are in a kind of sunk-cost deal with Trump where they think he'll compensate them for the cost of getting him elected, when getting him elected was the only benefit of their output they will ever, ever see.

Now, some folks necessarily thought they did have actual payable on election contracts as far as I can tell. Take Michael Flynn's dealings. He apparently did have a deal that would result in nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. And it now turns out that whistle blowers realize that nuclear know-how is about to be transferred to KSA, even though Flynn is long gone. It's possible this has something to do with Jared Kushner's relationship to Brookfield. Or maybe it just has to do with Trump's odd indifference to the concept of nuclear proliferation at all, as evidenced by his ignoring North Korea's continuing program and the scrapping of our treaty with Russia and also the promotion of the end of the Iran nuclear deal, that basically would result in us having no say or inspection over what they do. There is literally no thing in Trump's foreign policy that does shit at all re: nuclear proliferation except maybe encourage it.

But I tend to believe that most of TrumpWorld does revolve around some kind of quid pro quo, because Trump has gone so far above and beyond to try and shaft an investigation that would turn up nothing, if there wasn't anything amiss to be found.  I'm reading Andrew McCabe's Threat at the mo, and realize he is in a position of giving no fucks. His investment--career-long, was screwed by Trump with caprice or perhaps, a lack of judiciousness. The word that a CI investigation into Trump was accepted by the Gang of Eight, and that maybe Nunes was a little run'n'tell fool, should let everyone know how real the investigation is, regardless of one's investment in Trump as a political figure.

Trump is a tainted investment, and not solely because of the investigations against him, but because of how and why and what he's done to establish his knowledge of guilt and the behaviors he engaged in stemming from that. He is a likelier candidate for impeachment than reelection, in a world where facts counted more than feelings. And the conspiracy or collusion that gave the US this fool probably also hobbled our good ally the UK (although their politics was also pretty fucked and asking for it).

Anyway, we need to learn from this. Now. I would like to see Trump impeached. But the present GOP is too invested to understand why he is simply bad.

TWGB: Everyone's Lying For Some Reason

Special counsel prosecutors say they have communications of Roger Stone with WikiLeaks https://t.co/baHXXYHiMi pic.twitter.com/Z4NTwaa9Sg

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) February 15, 2019

There's a weird common thread that runs through all the Trump World Grab-Bag posts: people just keep lying about things. Michael Flynn lied about contacting Russia. Jeff Session lied about it, too. Michael Cohen seems to have lied about things having to do with Russia because Trump told him to. It hasn't become an issue just yet, but Don Trump Jr. has apparently lied to Congress.


It's been established now that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, lied about certain particulars involving the Trump campaign and this voided his plea agreement. He's now looking at about 20 years or so in prison, which for a man his age, is basically a life sentence. Roger Stone sort of told on himself about contacting Wikileaks, and seemed kind of forthcoming about the depth of his WikiLeaks contacts, but this picture looks to be complicated.

The big, operant question here is, "Why does everyone around Trump lie?" Just recently, two of Trump's other attorneys were openly suspected of having lied about details regarding Michael Cohen's hush money deals, and this sounds pretty much in line with how Trump wants his circle to operate. With "alternative facts".


Pretty much everyone around Trump lies. For some reason.


And even regarding the congressional investigations, we already know Rep. Devin Nunes didn't always tell the truth (actually, he straight up lied) about matters dealing with the Russia investigation. But for that matter, it looks like Senator Richard Burr is also falling short of accuracy, with claims (picked up by the White House) that he sees no evidence of collusion. But Burr is basically lying about how accessible Christopher Steele has been, and Burr, just like Nunes, can be connected to the Trump campaign.

It's not a curiosity or a coincidence when you see this pattern of lying. It looks like a coordinated cover-up, and that means that the parties involved know very well what it is they don't want to be known because it's real and it's bad. It's Manafort is willing to void his plea agreement bad. It's Cohen goes to jail bad. It's Roger Stone's last ratfuck bad. It's respectable people will possibly become anathema bad.

My mantra all along has been "It looks bad because it is bad." Lying can temporarily make things look like they are not bad. But badness will out.

They Didn't Find What They Weren't Looking For

Republicans on the House Intel committee have released a preliminary finding on the 2016 election: No collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. https://t.co/rSZjvI4n0w

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 13, 2018

Frankly, if this was just going to keep being a farce, with Rep. Nunes coming up with trumpery distractions and members like Rep. Conaway not knowing basic things, with folks either refusing to turn up for questioning or just failing to answer questions (Bannon, Hicks, Lewandowski), well? It might as well be ended, then.

But I promise you, if somehow Hillary Clinton was president right now, they'd still have months worth of material on her damn emails.

The State of the TrumpWorld Grab-Bag

I didn't really pay attention to the State of the Union address because I'm starting to think these staged deals don't really signify all that much. For one thing, they should probably be called the State of the Current President Address, since they seem to be about the president's vision of what the United States is about and what he (or, someday, she) is going to do about it. Your level of approval of the speech probably has as much to do with your level of approval for the current office-holder, and if that's not much, well, you won't think much of that speech, then. And given the current president, I figured it was sure to be a bit dishonest. 

And as for the rebuttals, and I guess we are going to now have multiple liberal responses since there is a Republican in office, the general effect is something like a BBS forum in ye olden 14.4 days. It's not what one would call a rapid response. I had half an inkling that Trump deliberately spoke slowly and had a speech padded out with boring talk to push the response speeches from the opposition until later in the evening to dull their impact. (I think the Kennedy youngster did good, even though he was excessively Chapsticked and sometimes seemed to be falling into his very best Barack Obama cadence. His speech was brief and inclusive and spoke of a much less divided America where we didn't leave people behind so others could get ahead. I liked that very much.)

As for hidden messages amongst the muted dog-whistles of Trump's speech, the one thing that I and others found a bit chilling was the implication that Trump meant to see Federal employees to the door if they weren't on board with his agenda. I know that a kinder, gentler interpretation of this part of his speech might just indicate a weakening of civil service protections to ensure that non-hackers who just weren't pulling their weight get the axe because a federal job ain't a hammock. That's fair. Nobody likes to see taxpayer money wasted. But I've been interpreting this sentiment from Trump differently since way before yesterday. And this is particularly true just now, since the hot new word going around on Fox News and from House Speaker Ryan is "cleansing". There has been a greater turnover rate during this administration,  than has been seen for years.

But one of the problems here is that Trump seems to think he needs to get loyalty from people he interviews. For some civil and public servants, it's really enough that they pledge loyalty to the Constitution, and at least consider the rule of law their polar star. But he has variously leaned on Jim Comey for his loyalty and sacked him when he did not get what he wanted, sacked Preet Bharara and Sally Yates for having a peculiar lack of faith, and has apparently even tried to get Rod Rosenstein to admit to being on "his team".  That sounds needy as hell.  It really does seem like Trump doesn't want any kind of independent government agencies, but wants people who answer to himself, not the voters or taxpayers or the Constitution itself.

Which brings us to the ongoing Nunes Memo saga, which suggests that even powerful members of a separate but equal branch of government, can be momentarily compromised, because this daft git seems to have recognized that the thing in question didn't do all he wanted, and tried to alter it.  This information comes after the FBI indicated that this memo was likely chock full of wrong.

I'm glad that the FBI under Wray is still expressing it's independence. After some of the "text message" charade regarding FBI agents Strzok and Page being critical of Trump meaning they would try to throw the election (although there never was any indication any negative thiing about Trump from any investigation ever leaked) it is interesting to know that Pete Strzok actually helped fuxxor over Hillary Clinton bigtime.  So much for the "rigged in favor of Hillary" thing. It is amazing what comes to light after all, eventually. 

There never appears to have been any rigging in favor of Hillary Clinton at all, which sort of undermines the "rigged" cries of one Donald J Trump.  It's really as if he might have been the one to have help. I really must say. Which sort of does point back towards Russia helping Trump--a lot, materially and obliquely. Or so my eyes do say.

Also something to do with Hope Hicks.  . Because she witnessed Donald Trump using the White House to try and sort out his son's messaging, and also probably stated for a kind of record that DJT JR would not just...Tweet all his bullshit out. Like he did. This sounds bad because it is bad.

In TrumpWorld, Grab-Bag Investigates You!

Imagine that nothing else happened today, but that a president who was accused during his campaign of being a "puppet" of a foreign dictator, who spoke effusively at times of that foreign dictator, when faced with a mandate from congress that overwhelmingly voted to put sanctions on that dictator for interfering in that election, just said "No, because it's such a deterrent to them doing stuff with us." Umph! Like, a deterrent to influencing more of our elections or making other decisions as a sovereign nation? 

It would seem from an actual real-time event like that, just as we have had other real-time events that kind of suggested that Donald Trump was doing the bidding of Russia, this should bother the Congress that passed that act bringing those sanctions, but what actually happened was they decided to release a memo that was made by Devin Nunes, who I will be referring to as Trump's Renfield, and did not release a memo drafted by House Democrats. 

This seems odd. It's like Congressional Republicans both understand that Russian interference was a real thing, but also will only pay the merest lip service to doing anything about it. Huh! And yet, the same House is investigating DOJ decisions for a while, now.  As if the real sin in today's politics is finding fault with Trump.

In other news, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is leaving because there's really only so much a person can put the hell up with before one's legit retirement and maybe one's Director is giving strong hints where the exit door is. He joins a storied company that includes Sally Yates, Preet Bharara and Jim Comey. 

I wouldn't wonder what lessons the DOJ in general and the FBI specifically are taking from this politicized display regarding their office and the approach it shows regarding the rule of law. It might not be what the authors of this deplorable exercise had in mind, though.

In other news, we are sad to hear that Julian Assange is in bad shape because he lacks Vitamin D and the courage to just suck it up and deal with the thing where he took off his condom and tried it.  It's rumored he also doesn't smell great and sent DMs to Sean Hannity parody accounts.  Which does not only suggest Assange's mind has gone a little soft, but also that he and Hannity have possibly had a previous correspondence or so. 

Anyway, what I am saying is, the history of dirt against Trump seems to have been spot on, and the dirt against Clinton and the DNC seems to have been spotty. Trump and his admirers striking out against the investigation seems to me not like they see wrongdoing there, but like they are afraid it will be found with their team.

I'm just saying, as I always do: It looks bad because it is bad.

There's a Little Show and a Lotta Tell In This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag

I've been away so long I hardly know this place, but damn, it's good to be back home--

You know I hate taking a break from blogging, even if it is to catch up on much-needed shut-eye, especially when the TrumpWorld Grab-Bag is getting so extremely full. The last few days have been like a whirlwind of activity and revelations, and it's been difficult to sort the importance of things that should all entirely be BIG NEWS that get lost in the BIG FOREST OF NEWS that we always seem to be in the midst of. 

So--take a thing like AG Jeff Sessions, the head of the Department of Justice, taking questioning in the Mueller investigation regarding the Russian intervention into the 2016 presidential election, from which Sessions is recusing himself, because he not only was part of the campaign and the transition team, but met with Russians and lied about it in his confirmation hearing. That whole thing right there is a weird dynamic. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, but didn't exactly have nothing to do with the firing of James Comey. James Comey, for his part, recounted it being strange that Trump wanted to talk with him about loyalty without Sessions being present. This was the kind of weird that made Comey start taking notes, because it did not feel kosher--

And it doesn't seem to have been, because Trump, in addition to loyalty, wanted reassurances about Mike Flynn, whom he should have known by then was looking like a very compromised thing. Did Sessions know what Trump was going to speak with Comey about? I'm sure Mueller would want to know.

It's damn interesting, and has echoes in the recent news that Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who has been the subject of Trumpian scorn, was asked how he voted in the 2016 election.  It doesn't seem like small talk to me, or like a "getting to know one's staff" sort of question, in light of many things we do know about Trump. It seems rather exactly like an attempt to again find an FBI senior official he could trust to soft pedal or even squash an investigation into any connection between Russia and the Trump Campaign. Loyalty is rewarded--the perception of something less? Is about being a target. In other news regarding McCabe, the Trump appointed FBI director, Christopher Wray, went to bat for McCabe, threatening to resign if McCabe was forced out. Trump relented--I guess.

It seems that Trump and his allies don't have a problem smearing the FBI to pretend that the investigation of the very real Russian involvement into the 2016 election and his very real (as in, he's in the White House) benefit from the same, is about some partisan motivation. A telephonic glitch that affected the text messages of thousands of DOJ personnel that was eventually restored, was treated like a ghoulish deep state cover-up.  A sarcastic joke between FBI associates about a "secret society" was treated as being quite sinister indeed. But these misleading stories bandied about by Trump fans are little compared to the dopey memo that Trump's Congressional Renfield, Devin Nunes, wants everyone to see, and no one to see.  Fox News' Last Honest Man, Shep Smith, breaks that thing down for us.

The distractions are obvious and can't entirely eclipse anything like the news that Trump actually did try to order the firing of Special Counsel Mueller, and had to be talked out of it by White House Counsel Don McGahn, doing the odd duty of protecting both the office of the White House and the ass of the person occupying it from actually obstructing of justice in the attempt to stop an obstruction of justice investigation.  Even though several folks told us Trump never had that on his mind at all. There's good reason to believe that Mueller knows very well what was going on, and has some opinion of it. He knows an awful lot about what has happened in the White House because he has talked to so many people. 

We don't have any reason to think that Trump learns from past mistakes. If the furor over Trump firing Comey didn't stop him from thinking he should be able to fire Mueller, he is liable to try again.  He just can't do it himself so he'll try it through Rod Rosenstein. Or fire that guy. Trump doesn't respect the process or the rule of law. He doesn't want to suffer close scrutiny. This should be a tell. He acts like there is, indeed, something to see here. 

* Why, yes, I did post this late last night and then pulled it until I could do a major edit. I think I am suffering from some kind of Trump fatigue where there are simply too many threads to weave together at once, defying my ability to grammatically and logically hold it all together, especially when way past my bedtime. Many apologies for my earlier, unclear and error-ridden writing. 

This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag Has Security Issues

There are a couple of recent pieces of this TrumpWorld saga that interest me as being of a specific national security concern. One of those things is the knowledge that the Trump transition team was specifically looking for options for secure communications that were encrypted and opted for a program that enabled the record to be deleted. There's something about this that itches the back of my brain: like Jared Kushner's attempt to secure a backchannel with Russia using their facilities, it sort of looks to me like a way for communications to take place without intelligence agency scrutiny. I can think of reasons why the Trump Transition might have wanted something like that--they may have knowingly being having communications that were of an illicit nature, such as conspiracy to subvert federal elections regulations with respect to material aid by foreign governments or possible Logan Act violations, or maybe they just already knew that there was some potential that communications with actors on behalf of Russia might be subject to surveillance since they were already apprised that there would/could be investigation into any attempt of infiltration by specifically Russia into their campaign. 

It's tough to figure out what the Trump Transition team was after, but it does look like, soon after the Flynn contact with Kislyak, White House Counsel Don McGahn pretty much already suspected that what had taken place had serious legal ramifications.  I can't help but think he might have felt a duty to inform the principles in the White House transition--Trump and Pence. But Flynn was made National Security Adviser anyway. He wasn't cut loose when former Acting attorney General Sally Yates informed the White House that Flynn was very compromised, but weeks later when that story went public. And I am not clear on the timeline of when McGahn was checking out "how screwed" Flynn was--before or after Yates' heads-up. (That would be important to know, right?) But if it was before?

It would seem to me like more people knew what Flynn was about and he had consent if not authorization. From...?

You can see where this is going. Anyway, this kind of fascinating info is being unearthed while House intelligence committee chair Devin Nunes, who is supposed to be renounced from all things Russia hacking-related, is part of the push to investigate the FBI investigators.  This is the same cat who played run'n'tell with information obtained from the White House to obfuscate the House investigation which resulted in his recusal. And many people saw through it, anyway. And keep in mind--Nunes was part of the transition and has his reasons for wanting these investigations to go away. 

I also think Pence was in the loop. If nothing else existed to tell me this, I only needed to hear Pence's bizarre Trump adulation that bordered on blasphemy to wonder what kind of mortgaged-souled human talks this way. He might be relying on Trump's good mood--I think a lot of people in the White House sometimes feel insecure. 

There's Money in These TrumpWorld Grab-Bags

"Follow the money" is basically right up there with "Cherchez la femme" for getting to the heart of the plot of most weird capers--the apparent weirdness in the Trump/Russia orbit definitely seems to be a "follow the money" story. Take "Most Likely to Be indicted Soon if He isn't Already Singing Like a Nightingale", former general Mike Flynn. He seems to have at one point been working out a caper in which a green card- holding Turkish expatriate would be forcibly extradited to Turkey, for which Flynn and his son, Mike Flynn, Jr., would get a pay out of $15 million. 

Okay, if you're a TrumpWorld Grab-Bag aficionado, that knowledge doesn't seem all that brand-new to you. And if you're paying attention, that does mean that both Mike Flynn and son were on the Trump transition team contemporaneously with this stupid and not terribly-American thing being cooked-up, and yes, you probably have heard before that Congresscritter Devin Nunes was at a breakfast where...

Well, yeah. That was rumored about before. But now it looks like an actual investigation into all that has fallen into Robert Mueller's purview. So. This would be an investigation Nunes can't interfere with or try to squirt squid-ink on. 

But, of course, the same thing can be said about recently indicted Paul Manafort (whose former son-in-law also appears to be in some kind of legal jeopardy regarding financial shenanigans) who seems to have been doing some money laundering, possibly in connection with his work for the Putin-friendly Ukrainian regime of Viktor Yanukovych. In pursuit of this investigation, Mueller recently received relevant bank records having to do with the Bank of Cyprus. Which is so weird, because, coincidentally, Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whom Trump has known for 20+ years, also is connected with Bank of Cyprus and Russia. He's also not a real billionaire, apparently. 

It's a small freakish world, that's all I have to say. 

But anyhow, some of that financial jiggery-pokery and off-shore investment stuff that Manafort is suspected of playing with, seems to be what was funding Steve Bannon's early anti-Hillary Clinton smears, some of which, though oft-debunked, stay wingnut currency to this very day. This is because the money was coming from the Mercers (the recently-retired Robert and the recently upgraded Bekah) and they (rather like the Koch brothers, come to think of it) hate paying taxes. 

Which might explain why Cambridge Analytica made moves to coordinate with Julian Assange.  Especially since, if they talked to any of the folks in the Trump Campaign who were in contact with Russia and knew that the DNC hack was Russian and had reason to believe that WikiLeaks was the front for the eventual "leaks", they knew this could be paid back with a successful Trump win, since he would try tax reform. You know, the thing McConnell and Ryan seem to be willing to accept any amount of bullshit to pull off. 

I don't know if any recent interview with Stephen Miller might illuminate the Carter Page/George Papadopoulos all that much. That doesn't look to be about money, so much as love of the game. But what a dumb, sordid, not especially American, grifting game it seems to be!

In a sidenote that has nothing to do with money at all, former Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller recently explained that, while he doesn't know of any activity between Trump and prostitutes, prostitutes were definitely on offer in his 2013 trip. He doesn't think anything happened, but hey! Man's gotta sleep sometime!

There certainly seems to be all kinds of leverage in this world. Money is one. Pride is another. But we're closing in to the real "money" question: What did Trump know about all this, if he ever did, and when?  

TrumpWorld Grab-Bags Never Rest

Sometimes I have enough stories to file a TrumpWorld Grab-Bag post, even if I don't entirely get how all the stories fit together...today. Sometimes I magically have a theme, such as "inconsistency" or "disruption", to go by.  Sometimes I pull them together with the best narrative I can pull together--and today, I think I want to meditate on that busy factor of the folks on the periphery of the TrumpWorld. 

You know who never rested? Gen. Mike Flynn. The more we look, the more we find out about one of Donald Trump's most trusted foreign policy advisers. It turns out, there was yet another foreign connection that he had omitted from his security clearance paperwork, this time regarding nuclear power in the Middle East--not at all a fraught concept, I'm sure. He's also recently refused to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee. 

It might just be that he would like immunity--the problem is, the more you shake this guy, the more weird connections fall out of him. Like, right now, Special Counsel Mueller is looking at Flynn's weird adult son, Mike, Jr. because of his connections to Flynn Intel Group and the Trump Transition.  It's kind of weird to think Jr. even was in a position to be important in Flynn Sr's various lucrative consulting gigs with Turkey and Russia and Saudi Arabia, I guess, and all them, and also in any way involved with the Trump Campaign or transition since Jr. was a big old conspiracy theorist, internet trolling whackadoodle. But who knows--maybe that was the point?

How's Flynn Jr. for peripheral? Well, I also don't want you to forget about Devin Nunes. I know, the last I mentioned Nunes was about his trying to obstruct the Trump/Russia probe by being stupid about the significance of the Steele Dossier. But before that, there was the brilliant late night ride to uncover the vicious, probative, "unmasking" things that the Obama Administration was doing! My stars and garters! What ever happened with that?

Well, for starters, folks in the know never thought it was much. And then the testimony of Susan Rice kind of got interesting--it's really all in a day's work to follow-up on why heads of state or their representatives are visiting the US without a heads-up, and it's interesting that the meeting was with Flynn, Kushner, etc.

This should really have people looking into the whole "Logan Act" thing.

In other news, for some reason, the US government agencies are scrapping Russian-backed Kaspersky software products as if they were obviously full of spying malware or something. Maybe they think they could get hacked--I dunno. But maybe the next election won''t even need to be hacked--I mean, who needs to fuck with the votes when the GOP has ways of fuxxoring with the voters? Outside job, meet inside job. (Aw shit, I'm sounding a little like a conspiracy theorist now, maybe?)

But as for the above graphic? That's to commemorate the moment when an Office of Government Ethics decided why shouldn't people raise donations for their legal fees regardless of whether it's possibly payment for past or future favors!

This Trump Administration has issues that never rest, and it makes me restless. So I share it all with you!

This TrumpWorld Grab-Bag is Disruptive

When a member of Duma is so comfortable with the notion of Russia having stolen the US presidential election that he says it aloud, the joke really has gone too far. Whether it's just a kind of boast about Russian capabilities, or a troll about US intelligence lack of capability, it's not actually funny.

It's especially not funny when it's clear that Russia has been very active in trying to influence events here through social media, even using Facebook to arrange anti-refugee and anti-immigration rallies right in the US, that Russian-backed "news" outlets RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik had been part of a propaganda campaign, and that it's possible that UN facilities in New York had been used for some of the operation. 

This is quite a lot of activity going on, with one apparently goal--influence in favor of Trump. There's evidence of Russian meddling in elections in Europe as well, so why not the US as well?

This is why it frustrates me that Rep. Devin Nunes and friends are trying to undercut the Steele Dossier and disrupt the investigation into the Russian hack of the DNC (and really, the election) by trying to discredit it. It just doesn't seem like a good-faith supposition that the real problem with the oppo research dug up in the dossier makes Trump look bad and could have been seeded with disinfo by the Russians for that very effect. The point of oppo is to get factual, damaging information, and this dossier has enough of it. There's not really any reason to believe Trump was not Putin's preference.

After all, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been a continuation of Obama's foreign policy, at best. But with Trump, they could count on a disruption--and possibly even plan a reset of US/Russian relations. Trump, after all, having been able to elide, omit, deny, anything to do with Russia at all publically, however fallaciously, would easily be able to ignore the enormity of the electoral interference on the most obvious of biases--

It benefited him, so it didn't matter. See? Disruption in action.

The problem with disruption though, is sometimes it is not actually...legal. This is a problem for the Trump campaign, because the evidence is piling up that unauthorized people associated were engaging in effecting foreign policy. (Those adoptions? Those sanctions.) And one person who seems particularly in the midst of this dealing was Jared Kushner, who Trump lawyers rather wanted out of the White House, by now.

But he remains, despite several uncomfortable disclosures.  I feel like this is probably something that will end up...disrupted...at some juncture, not without a number of "Please, Daddy"'s on Ivanka's part.

The News is Real, The Leak Was Fake?

So, I mentioned this a little bit as an aside on Wednesday, but Rep. Devin Nunes gave a presser then that did not do exactly what it looked like he was trying to do. It looked like he had received some kind of information that clarified the "wiretapping by the Obama Administration claim" made by President Trump, by virtue of Trump transition folks after the election apparently being caught up incidentally in lawfully FISA'd wiretaps that were just ordinary old SIGINT on foreign nationals.

This sort of made me wonder just who all were the Trump insiders regularly in contact with that might be under surveillance--but that is still a "no big whoop" kind of speculation. Doubtless, Trump and associates got congratulatory calls post-election. Despite our Logan Act, no small number of representatives of other governments might have wanted reassurances and to start "talking shop". Not every call a Trump associate might have gotten swept up in was as dodgy as the "General Flynn calling Russia all the time" thing. Gosh--we can't already be forgetting how Trump got a call from Taiwan that turned into a tempest in a teacup!

But all the same--there is something kind of weird about why Rep. Nunes went out of his way to make his Wednesday statement when he didn't really seem to be carrying too much in his hands on this one. The Daily Beast kind of suggests he got some kind of shadowy summons and disappeared off this mortal plane for a minute while spooky shenanigans went down. I wouldn't know about that.  What I would say is, if Nunes received some kind of ameliorating intelligence to spin to make the Trump investigation look better, he handled it like a drowning man thrown a life preserver who goes on to try to eat it. It doesn't help that he described what he was doing as being out of a sense of "duty and obligation" to Trump--when that isn't his job. Figuring out if Trump did something grossly wrong, is.

So, he walked back even as much as he had said on Wednesday, on Friday--a thing that might have gotten overshadowed by the health-care bill-fail. The upshot of which is, still spinning, nope, no wiretap,  and maybe we aren't even talking about people from the Trump transition being spoken to, but spoken about.

Can it be that what looked like Rep. Nunes possibly leaking classified information to make Trump look right about the wiretap and to undermine the credibility of the Trump/Russia investigation, turned out to sort of be just a case of him making "fake news"?  As in--not news, just performing for Trump's benefit?

Nunes' leak should be regarded as "fake". Except the bits where he reiterated that Trump Tower was not wiretapped. The reasons why Trump should be investigated remain real.