Day 768 Wednesday February 13, 2019
628 Days to the 2020 election and 706 Days to Inauguration Day
The other day Nick Ackerman was on one of the news shows. He, btw, was a prosecutor during Watergate. He was asked about a little something that Mueller’s lead prosecutor revealed to a judge. That being that something was at the heart of the Mueller investigation. That something being a meeting between Trump people and Russians.
The question being posed to Ackerman was, if this is a question of collusion, “Is there a quid pro quo?” In order for there to be “a favor for a favor” one would have to ask what each side wanted. Trump wanted to win the election and people around him were busily trying to ask or get help from the Russians to do that. Something the Russians were more than willing to do. But what did the Russians want? Putin had invaded the Ukraine and Congress had passed The Magnitsky Act. The Magnitsky Act was passed in 2012 and came before the Ukrainian invasion. It said that the U.S. could freeze the assets of those that committed human rights abuses. Putin retaliated by not allowing Russian children with disabilities from being adopted by U.S citizens who wanted them and could give them aid and comfort that Russia did not have the capabilities to do. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 President Obama imposed stiffer sanctions on Russia.
See if you can figure out what Russia might possibly want from a president Trump and his administration. Here is what Ackerman outlined, in part:
There were five known meetings between Russians and Trump people.
Meeting 1 – topic: sanctions,
Meeting 2 – topic: sanctions,
Meeting 3 – topic: sanctions,
Meeting 4 – topic: sanctions,
Meeting 5 – topic: sanctions.
There were numerous Trump advisors who met with Russians, including Michael Flynn who has pled guilty and is going to jail for lying to the FBI. What did he lie about?
Sanctions.
There is a long line of communication before and after these meetings with various Trump people. What was the topic they discussed?
Sanctions.
The well known Trump Tower meeting (#3 above) was ostensibly about adoptions, which is true, in that the discussion was “Hey Bubby, You lift sanctions we let you adopt, good deal? Yes?”
So what was it that the Russians wanted? Can you take a guess?
Former CIA chief John Brennan was on yesterday and he was asked why all these Trump officials were lying about sanctions. That is – lying about meeting with Russians, and discussing sanctions with Russians.
I’ve come to really like John Brennan. Try this piece of Brennan logic on:
“Well, people typically lie to hide the truth.”*
It’s obvious, once someone says it. But he didn’t stop there.
“And the truth is that they probably did something illegal, or what they thought was illegal, and therefore they wanted to lie to cover up what they did.”*
* I am paraphrasing here. This is my recollection of what he said.
Hum, so if Ackerman and Brennan are right then the Trump people knowingly participated in quid pro quo scheme which on the one side was to help Trump get elected and on the other was to help the Russians get the sanctions lifted. While talking with the Russians about lifting the sanctions may or may not have been a crime, lying to the FBI certainly is and for that one person has been sentenced.
Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee has wrapped up their inquiry into Russian meddling and both the Democrat and Republican chairmen have made statements that they did not find “direct evidence” of Trump or his people colluding with Russians in the 2016 election.
While some Trump supporters may be crowing that this exonerates him, nothing could be farther from the truth. What numerous commentators have said is:
– that it is not the Senate committee’s job to discover if there is “direct evidence” of Trump or his associates guilt or criminal behavior.
– The Senate committee’s job is to discover if there was meddling in our election system and to recommend what to do to protect our election system(s). They are to issue a report on that, which may take six or seven months to write. (Slow writers? I dunno.)
– prosecutorial commentators pointed out repeatedly that in collusion cases there is rarely or never “direct evidence.” If there was such evidence there would be little reason for a trial. Typically, what you have is a series of meetings and communications that all center around a known objective, even if that objective is not stated. Why state the objective when everyone already understands that?
– It has been pointed out that Benedict Arnold was found guilty of passing secrets to the British by the fact that he was in the same room as a British general. There was no direct evidence. He was hung none the less.
So, I dunno. Prosecutors say they don’t believe in coincidence. There seems to be a lot of coincidence in plain sight. The only argument that I can see that can be made is, “Hey, it’s not a crime because we were doing it where everyone could watch – in plain sight.”
Moving on:
There were rallies in El Paso last night. One held by Trump and one by Beto O’Rourke. One person reported that Trump said he had 30,000 people and Beto 300. The actual numbers seem to be slightly different. O’Rourke had 7,000 – 8,000; Trump had 6,500 in his arena and another number outside (maybe 7-10,000? I’m not sure. I’ve heard various estimates.)
One reporter at the Trump rally was attacked for being in the media. Don’t you love it when Roger Stone is upset by Nazi like tactics when he is arrested yet Trump and his supporters find it okay to attack people trying to cover their events?
According to Trump he’s built lots of wall, and now we need to “Finish the Wall,” which he will do, with or without Congress’ help.
The reality is that he has built no wall, zero, while in office. I guess that’s why we aren’t going to the wall to look at the big beautiful wall that he’s built, because it doesn’t exist? Meanwhile, Congress has worked out a way to not shutdown the government and Sean Hannity isn’t happy about the deal. Of course, he hasn’t seen the deal, but he’s not happy about it. Not that it matters what he thinks. We are still waiting, as far as I know, for the real negotiator in chief to weigh in, and that’s Ann Coulter. Mark Meadows, now being touted as the head of The Freedom Caucus (what happened to Jimmy Jordan? I thought he was the head? Oh well.) the deal stinks. Both Sean and Mark say there isn’t enough money in the bill to build the wall. Trump says he’s not happy, but he’ll do other things to finish the wall. Okay. Great. We aren’t happy, but the president will continue to finish his wall. There are fools who can’t see the wall, but if I were the president I’d send some people to the closest Home Depot to the wall where for five bucks you can get an HD pail. Get some illegal immigrants to haul those pails to the border, one in each hand. I mean when you send them back there’s no reason they should walk back empty handed after hauling all that marijuana over the border, besides they have those cantaloupe sized calves! Once they get to where the fence is not, they can take out that concrete that no one can see and slap it up on that wall that doesn’t exist, making sure they are on the Mexico side as the finish the task.
Where would we get the first batch of illegals to do that work? Well, I suggest we start at the Trump golf courses. The ones that have been hiring illegals for years. Wouldn’t that be a great place to start?
I’d like to see Congress pass a law that says if any person is caught working illegally here, before they are deported they have to be paid the legitimate wage a U.S. citizen would have been paid for that job. This could be touted as a way to discourage employers from hiring illegals and paying them less. The excuse of “We didn’t know!” Too bad, ignorance is no excuse. You know like when you try to tell the police officer you didn’t see the speed limit sign? Same thing. “Oh you thought those phony papers you helped that person get as a fig leaf was going to save your ass?” Naturally, we couldn’t send those illegals back right away, we’d have to keep them here to testify. What’s it costing us to keep those kids in cages? $800 to $1,000 a day per person? I think that’s right. While we are waiting for the illegals to testify I think the companies should be forced to pay that amount that to said illegals while they wait to testify at the same rate it costs us to incarcerate those kids. It’s too bad our courts are so backed up. It might be months before a case gets heard. Oh well, that’s the way it would go.
Oh yes, don’t you love how the right wing reporters want to call Beto by his baptized name, even though he’s been called Beto since he was a kid? Let’s not forget Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Okay, fair is fair – president Drumpf.
Now they are going after AOC and her Green New Deal. Never mind that it is a resolution, not a law. Never mind that it is describes as “aspirational” in other words, something to strive for. Never mind that there are general statements and not specifics, that it is outlining goals to work toward. It is touted as socialist, unworkable, and that she is dangerous. (As dangerous as Lenin!) Wait. Huh? Oh I don’t get it? It’s all a plot for her and Elizabeth Warren (gotta throw her in here too) to use as a power grab? Boy, I don’t remember the Republicans being upset about wonder boy Ryan’s first “aspirational” budget. I mean it must have been aspirational because it contained no specifics (like numbers) but only vague things he wanted to see happen.
Speaking of Paul Ryan, they are replaying clips of his saying how people were already seeing the great effects of the Republican tax cuts because their withholdings were less. Do you think he knew he’d be out of office when those self same supposedly happy having to pay less in withholding people were told they owed more money at tax time? Or that they were getting less money back as a refund? Or that the tax cuts didn’t cut their taxes, or boost the economy, or shrink the debt? I think a committee ought to haul Paulie’s ass back in to explain. Where is Henry Waxman? We need a pince-nez glasses guy like Waxman to hold Ryan’s feet to the fire. I don’t want those feet held there for long. Only til they are burned to the knees.
628 Days to the 2020 election and 706 Days to Inauguration Day
PS Koh Ker Temple, Cambodia
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