I’m not particularly interested in Lindsay’s motivations. Let’s just chalk it up to intense partisan loyalty and a win at all costs mentality. There’s a lot of money involved.
But what he’s doing by blocking the vote in the senate for release of the full Mueller report because he’s not done with Hillary’s email server, reminds me of what happened about 10 years ago in another country, specifically, Ukraine. Continuously bringing up Trump’s female rival with accusations of illegalities and calls to lock her up is exactly what Victor Yanukovich did to Yulia Tymoshenko.
In 2010, Tymoshenko lost the Ukrainian presidential election by 3.5%. Looks like it was right about the margin of error as these things go. Hmmmm…
Tymoshenko spent time in prison before her conviction was overturned. That was the result of an intense smear campaign orchestrated by…
Are you ready?…
Paul Manafort.
Yes! The man with the “blameless life” worked for Yanukovich and made sure that whatever little peccadillo that Tymoshenko did was blown up to be the greatest malfeasance in history. He probably had a Lisa Page-Peter Stzrok conspiracy as well and some dorky Sean Hannity type hyping the “scandal” 24/7.
Eventually, the people of Ukraine had enough and mounted a Euromaiden Revolution in 2014. Yanukovich was driven out of office and fled to Russia into the open arms of Vladimir Putin. Yulia Tymoshenko was released from jail, in poor physical shape, if I recall correctly, and Paul Manafort beat a hasty retreat leaving documents behind listing all the money Yanukovich paid him for his “help”.
So, we’re seeing a repeat of that play. Lindsay keeps putting Clinton’s email scandal out there, firing up the faithful to “lock her up”. But I’m betting the final act will be the same. Once Trump’s crimes are exposed, the mounting evidence will be harder to ignore. Add in some economic instability from his moronic trade deals, tariffs and “tax cut” that only went to the super rich, and we might see a Orange or Americamaiden Revolution in Washington.
Actually, I prefer green. It’s spring after all. We should wear green baseball caps with wind mills on them. You know, to own the MAGATs and just piss Trump off.
As for Lindsay, tarring and feathering is too good for him and probably illegal these days. But I wouldn’t mind if he was forced to leave Washington and back into the loving arms of whoever is leaving money on his dresser.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Wasn’t Tad Devine, Bernie’s future media strategist, working on that Yanukovich campaign with Manafort? He learned the “lock her up” script well.
Or rather I should say how to use misogyny to damage a candidate.
I guess I wasn’t following all that closely during the Obama era, because I do not understand why the media have ever admired Lindsay Graham. But this last move is completely disgraceful, it is going against the ideas of openness and the so-called rule of law, for purely partisan reasons. His speeches in support of Kavanaugh were also appalling. And I agree that I do not care why he does this, what his murky motivations might be. Probably just the obvious, that he is another Republican full-fledged authoritarian partisan, who would rather see Trump declare himself a dictator, rather than ever see Hillary Clinton as President. And while we all know how much better off we and the world would be, had Hillary won the electoral college, can you imagine what it would be like with the Republican Congress trying to investigate her every hour of the day, blocking everything she tried to do, calling her every possible name? They would have done it. They were prepared to not let any of her Supreme Court nominees ever come to the floor for a vote. This is what they have devolved to. Power without any principle but the will to power.
Forty years ago, there might have been ten or so halfway reasonable Republicans in the Senate. Ten years ago, maybe three or four. Now there are none. Voting against the emergency declaration to build a wall, was a safe enough vote which would be vetoed, plus they didn’t want Democrats to do it if they gained power. Otherwise, they have approved 99% of Trump’s judicial appointments, and 100% of his Cabinet, most of whom are grifters and idiots. The media seems determined to keep up the narrative that Repblicans are “uneasy,” but this means nothing. They are a corps of intense partisans, and most of them don’t know the law, the social history, or much of anything, really. I’ve heard them interviewed. It is a dreary prospect, but the only way to accomplish anything, is to get at least some of them out of office. Most of them, like Graham, are secure in their Deep Red State havens, protected by an antiquated political system. One of the few political pleasures of the last several years, is seeing the House Republicans have virtually no power, and thus being able to laugh at their stupid declamations. Winning back and keeping the Senate, is going to be very, very difficult, with all these tribal Red States having two Far Right senators.
I was thinking about Mueller, and comparing him and his investigation, to that of Kenneth Starr. Mueller is a career law enforcement professional, immensely respected, and dedicated to fair legal procedures. Starr is a hack, who was put in to “get” Bill Clinton. Starr was given more leeway by the terms of the appointment. BTW, how in the world did this all go on in the first place? Whitewater was considered so important that an Independent Counsel was needed to investigate this?? After 7 yearsand $90 million spent, even Starr admitted that he found nothing on Whitewater. Only Clinton Derangement Syndrome,. and a media which had lost its moorings even back then, allowed this idiocy to start in the first place. Well, anyway, we know that Starr investigated every possible thing , and then found an unseemly consensual affair, immensely far removed from the original matter. It is “as if” Starr was just set out there by the Republicans to harass, and insinuate his way into, everything President Clinton’s life, before or during his administration.
Now, with Mueller, the “remit” is narrower. But apart from that. Mueller is not out to “get” Trump, or his children. He is going to follow the DOJ policies and procedures. And there is an opinion that a sitting President cannot be indicted. Mueller is not going to challenge that. He is not going to think, “Well, I’ll indict him, and see what happens.” Maybe if Trump had murdered someone on video, but in these matters, an indictment coming from the Special Counsel’s Office was always a real longshot. Now, the children plus Kushner? I don’t know what Mueller found, but likely not the kind of thing which in his mind warranted an indictment for crimes. Or maybe he has farmed that out to SDNY. But the point is, that this media caterwauling about “no more indictments! That means that Trump is vindicated!,” is ludicrous.
The only person I can think of who is not Trump or a member of his immediate family, who was not indicted, and should be, is Corsi, and it is very likely that he will be indicted by somebody. Stone is indicted. Gates, Manafort, Cohen, Flynn, others. This is not a football game, though the media like to act as if it is. I don’t know, as no one really knows as yet, but I would expect that the full Mueller report will be devastating. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” by a President is a different standard than that of criminal behavior for which one goes to jail. Even if there is no ultimate impeachment and conviction, because of Republicans, there could be overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing, and conspiracy, blatant or more subtle. I am just once again appalled at the way that the media jumps to conclusions which benefit the Republicans. There is actually a piece on CNN which I would link if I knew how to, which began by poetically evoking the the sun shining off the waters of Mar A Lago, as in some overwrought journalism of the 1920’s. It was clearly written by a wildly partisan Trump supporter. Whether this person actually works for CNN is unknown, but that is what we are up against. Writing the story before the key facts are in, is abominable journalism.
I have a sense of relief that this particular investigation has concluded and has successfully charged and prosecuted several individuals directly tied to Trump and Russia.
Trump can (and will) try to gaslight this report publicly, but the fact that he was slient for 40 hours on Twitter until his relatively benign tweets this morning, tells me all I need to know about the gravity of the released report.
Now a multitude of other investigations can continue/begin without concerns about interfering with the Mueller investigation. Furthermore, this report will offer roadmaps for others to pursue.
Read it and weep: