Hard News: And so it begins ...
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It comes down to a vote, right? 2/3 majority in the Senate, which has never happened, and probably won't, unless a substantial group of Republican senators decide to ditch Trump.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
It comes down to a vote, right? 2/3 majority in the Senate, which has never happened, and probably won’t, unless a substantial group of Republican senators decide to ditch Trump.
It was two years from the day of first indictments until Nixon resigned, so there's a little way to go yet.
Of course, given the utter absence of a moral centre to today's Republican Party, it's hard to say what might happen politically in 2017.
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Let's talk Turkey...
It will be interesting to see what the Michael Flynn / Turkish / Russian connections and contracts reveal as well...It is hard to keep track of all the Michael Flynn scandals. The former national security adviser for President Donald Trump—who lasted only 22 days in the job—is at the center of various investigations. He has drawn scrutiny for his contacts with the Russian government (and for lying about those contacts), for his pocketing of $45,000 from Kremlin-backed RT (and his failure to disclose the payment), for his lobbying for Turkish interests (and his failure to disclose that as well), and for attending a meeting with Turkish officials during which a plan reportedly was discussed for abducting a US-based foe of that country’s president. But one Flynn mystery has received little attention: What was the original source of the $530,000 he was paid last summer and fall—when he was Trump’s top national security aide—to be an agent for Turkish interests?
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Coincidence?
Trump's plaintive 'Whataboutism' sounds a lot like 'Wahhabism'
- live by the Saud, die by the Saud...The thing that worries me about his shrill 'DO SOMETHING" tweet, is how his 'base' will interpret that, and what they might do in response...
(and in an aside, doesn't al qaeda translate as 'the base')
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Fittingly perhaps the Washington Post also has some good coverage:
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Another good source is Seth Abramson (@sethabramson) who posts quite long threads detailing the saga from the point of view of a lawyer.
Very early on he identified Papadopolos as a likely target of the FBI who could be "turned".
It's really interesting to see how a lawyer interprets the various statements and actions and it's really nice to get a clear legal definition of what is and is not a crime and what kind of approach is typical for an investigator like Mueller.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
the Washington Post also has some good coverage:
If, like me, you've used up your month's free access to The Washington Post the story also runs here - http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/ct-trump-twitter-manafort-indictment-20171030-story.html - (and probably can't be far away from appearing on Stuff )
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Stewart, in reply to
I'm with you on the concern about what the fall-out from this will be. While another American Civil War might be stretching it a bit, they could well be heading down the road to Constitutional Crisis.
There's a lot of Trump-supporting folks out there who are likely to take any impeachment proceeding personally, and to react correspondingly. Interesting times, indeed.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
There’s a lot of Trump-supporting folks out there who are likely to take any impeachment proceeding personally, and to react correspondingly. Interesting times, indeed.
Especially that they're being fed an alternative reality at the moment by Sean Hannity et al.
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Fresh from the WaPo: who's who in the Papadopoulos court documents.
IDd so far: Manafort, Lewandowski, Sam Clovis, Rick Gates and a couple of Russian agents.
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The Daily Beast has multiple sources claiming Steve Bannon is exploring ways to kneecap Mueller.
Which is pretty fucking incredible when you think about it.
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Shaun Lott, in reply to
I personally feel that the constitutional crisis started with the Supreme Court vacancy stand-off.
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It looks like Trump has been set up by the 1% to provide a distraction while they ram thru the tax legislation that will restore the Robber Baron status. They may well throw him overboard then.
The silly thing about colliding with the Russians is that it was probably unnecessary, they were only too happy to promote Trump covertly knowing he could bring the US to its knees. My guess is that some little money grubber saw a chance to make a heap of $$$$$. -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Steve Bannon is exploring ways to kneecap Mueller.
If I was Mueller I wouldn't be using anything but FBI-owned planes and transport for the near future... just in case.
One can but hope someone is also planning to kneecap Bannon.
He must be skirting close to treason at the moment. -
Trevor Nicholls, in reply to
He must be skirting close to treason at the moment.
Depends whether your disloyalty is to the Constitution or the President.
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The political body count so far:
√ Paul Manafort
√ Rick Gates
√ George Papadopoulos
× Felix Sater
× Michael Flynn
× Roger Stone
× Carter Page
× Michael Cohen
× Corey Lewandowski
× Sam Clovis
× Steve Bannon
× Jeff Sessions
× Jared Kushner
× Eric Trump
× Donald Trump Jr
× Donald Trump -
Kumara Republic, in reply to
I'm with you on the concern about what the fall-out from this will be. While another American Civil War might be stretching it a bit, they could well be heading down the road to Constitutional Crisis.
There's a lot of Trump-supporting folks out there who are likely to take any impeachment proceeding personally, and to react correspondingly. Interesting times, indeed.
If there isn't a 2nd American Civil War, there could still well be an American Troubles or a Belfast-on-the-Potomac. Already, America has its UDA-in-training in the form of the KKK, Proudboys, Vanguard America & Identity Evropa, with possible know-how and sympathising courtesy of the NRA & Oath Keepers. Who'd be the American IRA? The John Brown Gun Club + Redneck Revolt?
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I personally feel that the constitutional crisis started with the Supreme Court vacancy stand-off.
Yeah, there's something in that.
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I think Bannon's heading not so much towards treason as towards obstruction of justice
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John Cassidy in the New Yorker, quoting Wired:
This weekend, Wired published an article by Garrett M. Graff, the author of a book about Mueller’s tenure as director of the F.B.I., pointing out that most large-scale F.B.I. investigations now follow the same template: “Work on peripheral figures first, encourage them to cooperate with the government against their bosses in exchange for a lighter sentence, and then repeat the process until the circle has closed tightly around the godfather or criminal mastermind. There’s no reason to think that this investigation will be any different.”
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I think Bannon's heading not so much towards treason as towards obstruction of justice
Which was basically what took down all involved in the Watergate scandal. But I suspect this time round, Trump's most die-hard loyalists are an order of magnitude more radical than those who refused to accept the outcome of Watergate. One such Watergate denialist was Roger Ailes, who went on to form Fox News in revenge for Nixon's resignation.
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Jonathan Maze seems to have found a little scoop on Papadopoulos: his LinkedIn three weeks ago.
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Fox News journalists embarrassed by Fox News coverage of the indictments.
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