Where Do We Go From Here? Our Own Humpty Dumpty Is Poised For An Epic Fall
" I'm only going to have the best people in my administration." was famously touted by President Trump in the days prior to the election. Perhaps the quote should have been "I'm only going to have the best liars, devious deflectors, and political toadies come to the administration." The names are becoming part of an ugly chapter in American history. As the Mueller probe, the New York, Virginia, and California investigations proceed, and the reinvigorated Congressional oversight investigations reload, the list of "swamp things" associated with the President becomes increasingly long, and the crimes of the administration become clearer and the timeline becomes more evident.
This has gone from speculation to a body of evidence that is so overwhelming that it should be clear to a toddler sucking on it's thumb. What are the crimes that we are, as a nation, coming to believe are truthful?
PERJURY: The willful act of lying to an investigative body is a felony offense. It has been the area where the investigations have been most successful in eliciting guilty pleas. Whether it was Papadoulis, Manafort, Cohen, Trump Jr., Kushner or as yet un-named co-conspirators, the lying to investigative committees is no longer in question. There has been a coordinated effort to lie about key issues that affect the Presidency. People are going to prison on these lies and many more indictments are probably on the horizon. The reader should also understand that perjury laws apply to the President and the willful lying to the American public could fall under perjury statutes.
The question has now migrated from the quantity of lies to the causal factors behind these untruths. Again, the evidence is beginning to point to a singular rational. They are almost all designed to protect the President in his dealings with the Russian government and it's unique oligarchy. Each day we are finding that the reasons this President "serves" the American people is that it provides a platform for personal enrichment and consolidation of power. The unique interaction of this administration with the Russians and the Saudis are increasingly linked to potential business deals that will enrich the Trump "family" of businesses many fold.
OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: As with many criminal investigations, the crime is not as egregious as the cover up to that crime. That cover up almost always leads to perjured testimony and the denials and manipulation of evidence by the criminal or his/her organization. Here it is important to distinguish between collusion and obstruction of justice. Collusion is an act that is not, in itself, illegal. The real crime in this case can be one of many......sedition, treason, bribery, theft by deception, money laundering, allowing foreign powers to influence elections, sharing classified information with individuals who are not cleared for these documents, illegal meetings with foreign agents are all potential crimes. To date we haven't been made aware of which of these crimes have incontrovertible evidence to support, but these are the types of crimes that foster obstruction of justice indictments. It would seem that the obstruction of justice will be the area in which many of Mueller's or other investigations will bring.
RICO INVESTIGATIONS: The evidence is beginning to move into the area of racketeering and the interaction that this administration has with criminal organizations such as the Russian and American mafias. There has been increased association of this administration with criminal organizations such as Deutsche Bank, and the Russian criminal oligarchy. If this area is one that turns out to be supported by the gathered evidence it would lead to major indictments for an A felony.
TAX AVOIDANCE AND FRAUD: With subpoena powers, Congress will be able to look at financial records and tax returns to determine the veracity of certain claims made by the President and his immediate family. These investigations may even look at issues concerning Trump University and Trump Institute.
VIOLATIONS OF THE EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE: The fact that this President appears to be personally benefiting from his business interests through steering and involving foreign agents to his properties to institutions and properties owned and operated by the president, who has, at least peripheral involvement in the business plan.
It is impossible, at this time, to be certain that the President and his administration have violated any or all of these crimes. That is for the courts to decide. What we do know is that the "best people" in his organization are pleading guilty to perjury and obstruction charges. It is being said that this is not the tip of the iceberg but rather the tip of the entire glacier. It has gotten to the point that many Americans decided that enough is enough. The democrats have gained 40 seats in the lower chamber, took over the leadership in 7 states and flipped as many legislatures. Overall, over 500 seats in one election have flipped. This is even more startling than the losses in the first two years of the Obama administration.
Through all this, I haven't even begun to discuss the scandals involving the "best" of Trump's appointments. Jeff Sessions, Ryan Zinke, Tom Price, Steve Mnuchin, Betsy DeVos, and others have either resigned in disgrace or are knee deep in on going controversy. Turnover in this administration has proceeded at breakneck speed. It has become obvious that every appointee that Trump brings on is going to place his loyalty to the President and not to the American people. This is contrary to the founding fathers view of public service. There is no discussion of the President's sexual peccadillos or sexual assault allegations. There has been no discussion about 50 million dollars of taxpayer monies that have gone to take the President and his family to Mar-A-Largo for his golf weekends.
The one thing that we do know for certain is that this administration has a new scandal and possible violation of a criminal statute every day. The plot keeps thickening and the swamp keeps getting muddier and muddier. The only questions now are whether this president will survive his first term and whether the good people who continue to support this president for whatever reason, finally jump off the sinking ship. The stink is coming from the top. Luckily it probably won't last long. This sad portion of American history will end.
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How many people will continue to support this President as the evidence mounts? The witch hunt has already uncovered a coven of witches. The question is when will the warlock be hunted down.
I shake my head that supposed intelligent people (including some in my family) support this scumbag traitor in chief NO matter what he does or says.
Ugh, this is such a said and, pathetic statement to make. You're willing to say Hillary is worse than Trump after Cohen pled guilty to coordinating with the Russians on Trumps behalf just so Trump could build a new shiny tower in Moscow and, in order to do that he and, Trump were willing to undermine our election process and, our government and, you find that Trump is simply a "human with foibles and, faults and, that he isn't perfect". He makes Richard Nixon look like a saint.
Show where the Moscow Trump Tower deal had anything to do with the election. Remember in the Moscow deal nothing ever change hands and the project was dropped as soon as it was sure Trump would be the nominee.
You guys just don't get it. The man is suborning perjury and obstructing justice. He just can't tell the truth about anything and will throw his own family under the bus if it keeps him out of trouble. We all make mistakes, but normal people fess up to them and when they hurt others make amends. Trump does not possess that quality.
Lies, lies, and more lies! How much money are you personally willing to allow our country to waste investigating the lies of Donald J. Trump and entourage? How do you justify the man-hours, overtime hours, travel costs, and other miscellaneous charges being expended to get to the bottom of all this?!
When, all that is necessary to save our nation millions is for the president to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
He is the scum of the earth and a disgusting human being
You keep talking about 2016,.....enough already...….Trump won. Clinton lost. I don't argue that. He won the electoral college. This isn't my point in the opinion. Trump is a criminal and the evidence increases every day.
Denying Trump's obvious culpability at this late date, is nothing short of insanity. Trump is a total piece of shit and the entire WORLD knows it. How can you support this treasonous con artist? What will you tell your grandchildren?
Where is the treason. Be specific please.
You know that the evidence is in the hands of those who will either prosecute or make recommendations on impeachment. That evidence is sealed and may probably be part of the sealed indictments that have been filed in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and New York. If you understand basic legal practice, that is frequently done to stop the statutes of limitation. It would be the preferred approach by an attorney who has the goods on an individual who should be prosecuted, but may not be able to be at this time. That is where the bulk of the evidence lies.
There is, however, evidence that has become public that lays out much of the circumstantial case against Trump. The guilty findings of Paul Manafort, the pleadings of his now infamous aides and their admissions of discussing information with the Russians begin to lay out the evidence. The appointment of Whitaker as acting DOJ head was clearly an attempt to obstruct justice and holds little, if no constitutional authority.
The evidence is obviously there. You just choose to ignore it.
The Mueller investigation was a fraudulent one from the beginning. It was based on a salacious, dossier which was produced for by the Clinton campaign and used by intelligence organizations under the Obama administration to spy on Americans in the Trump campaign. The Mueller probe after it's bastard beginning was always an investigation in search of a crime. It uniquely attempted to build a case via perjury traps and using those perjury convictions to get defendants to say what the prosecutors wanted to hear. None of the Americans convicted had anything to do with a Russia conspiracy, nor did any of the Russians convicted in absentia have anything to do with the Trump campaign.
Recently, liberal Professor Allen Dershowitz said it best:
"During a Thursday night interview with Fox’s Hannity, Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, blasted special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, suggested that the focus of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has changed to look at any possible political crimes and demanded that the Justice Department withhold the investigation’s findings until Trump’s attorneys can respond.
“The problem is Mueller is straying away from his mandate to find crime, and he is now looking for political sin,” Dershowitz said to Hannity. “Building buildings in Moscow, using stolen material from [Julian] Assange — these are not crimes. He has no authority to be a roving commissioner to find political sins.
“So far, I don’t see any evidence of crimes, except for ones that he helped to facilitate by getting people to lie in front of his own investigators.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/30/alan-dershowitz-says-robert-mueller-is-looking-political-sin/?utm_term=.50f2deb7d04c
So ultimately, Mueller will file his anti-Trump report. There may be process infractions or, as Dershowitz calls it "political sins" contained in that report. It will then be up to Nancy Pelosi to file articles of impeachment, which will absolutely fail the test for a conviction in the US Senate. Then the democrats run the risk of the political backlash that Republicans received when they impeached Clinton.
That's where we are.
As Dershowtiz said,
"I think the weakness of Mueller’s substantive findings are suggested by the fact that he has to resort to false statement prosecutions, which really shows that he didn’t start with very much, and that the very fact that he’s conducting an investigation has created these crimes...,These are not crimes that had been committed prior to his appointment," he said. "They’re crimes that were committed as the result of his appointment, and that raises some questions about the role of special prosecutors in creating crimes, or creating opportunities for crimes to be committed.""
If Trump is going to get removed from Office, Mueller is going to have find crimes that he is supposedly looking for. Getting two week jail sentences for lying to him doesn't move the needle much.
Not quite accurate.....there is a myriad of evidence to support at least obstruction of justice charges against the President who is leading the charge with things like the illegal appointment of Whitaker as AG. Dershowitz has been an outlier throughout this administration. Just because you refuse to recognize the evidence doesn't mean it's not there.
Vic, at one point Trump said
"I have no dealings that COULD HAVE BEEN in Russia, because we stayed away. "
That was after he had his personal lawyer attempting to do a deal for a huge Trump Tower in Moscow. Don Jr was involved too.
Donald Trump lies to you. You accept it. When is this going to stop?
Dershowitz has made himself a laughing stock.
Vic, your analysis is straight from Fox News and Limbaugh. You seem like a nice guy. Search out some better information because you are headed for a gigantic disappointment.
Before anyone ever heard of the Steele dossier there have been writers and authors who have commented on Trump's odd relationship with Russians. Many many people know Trump is a crook. He's been lucky so far that he has never been prosecuted or even much investigated. Then he up and ran for president, and this scrutiny can no longer be avoided.
The roof is going to cave in on him. Just hope he doesnt start a wag the dog war out of desperation.
Trump supporters should no longer be talked to; they should be talked about.
So you and Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, are all clear that Mueller has no authority to continue his investigation as is and you and Dershowitz are satisfied that you both now know what will be in a future report - that is, before it is delivered.
None of what you and Dershowitz have written explains why grown men and possibly some grown women have been lying to investigators. Is Trump "lying spiriti" contagious?
Interesting. Where is that fine conservative sense of integrity we have all had boasted to us?
Do you have another pipe? Share.
The appointment of Whitaker is not an obstruction of justice. It is quite accurate to say that Mueller has NO EVIDENCE of conspiracy or obstruction. Mueller is guilty of conducting a political witch hunt. Post #1.3 is my prediction and it is a safe one.
Mueller will have a lot of explaining to do if he can't come up with something other than process crimes.
Is that supposed to be your evidence? That sounds like a line right out of Pravda. I think it is you that needs to read more.
Didn't you once admit on here that you didn't care if Trump was guilty of anything, you just want him out?
The investigation had no criminal pretext. Comey & Mueller's buddy Rosenstein had no right to call for a special investigation without a crime.
None of what you and Dershowitz have written explains why grown men and possibly some grown women have been lying to investigators
Perhaps you should look back at Post #1.3
Interesting. Where is that fine conservative sense of integrity we have all had boasted to us?
The question is where is the progressive sense of integrity, which you never show anyway? Where is the equal justice for this so called lying? Clapper, Brennan, Comey and McCabe ( even Christopher Steele) all lied. Where is the prosecution for perjury?
Do you have another pipe?
No, that was a boomer habit I passed on. Are you Chris Alfred?
No, I am not Chris Alfred? Who is he?
If there is no case, then there is nothing to get out in front of. That some conservatives intend to fight against the results with a whisper campaign simply means the final report should be even more substantive, reasonable, and clear.
A word about whataboutisms. If you, me, we, all manage our day to day events based on deluding ourselves with fake and/or false equivalences, how many of us would get out of bed each day? Because there is always somebody who for whatever reason can or will not 'perform.' We do get up, we do go on, and we never stop the endless search for the truth.
That you know of.
You have no more evidence than Vice does but that doesn't stop you from de CNN laying Trump guilty.
Still a believer?
I would say that he does have the best in his Administration. The best, liars, thieves, and traitors.
*see how I used a Trump supporter's tactic to twist the meaning of the article so that it fit my belief that Trump follows through with his promises*
But he's doing what we want !
LOL
I wish I had a dime for everytime I've heard that.
sad
He's doing what HE wants and what will profit him and his family. We are dirt under this scumbag's feet.
I think he is and has been doing what HE believes will make him the BEST president in history. Regardless of what anyone else thinks he should do. He thinks HE has ALL the answers and everyone should let him do exactly as he wants.
It is.
I think what Donald Trump feels is that he should not change his style or his business acumen just to be the American President. Of course, he is wrong. He wants to bring his personal attitude and the way he has gallivanted across the world stepping on people into a government setting where how you treat millions of people - each in small groups - as a commodity.
At the heart of it, this is what Trump is learning to hate about government authority in the United States—no one man rule. So far, Mueller is not a "hanger-on," Mueller doesn't openly aspire for anything, and he does not falter. Moreover, Mueller applies method over madness.
I haven't seen it. I see he has taken advantage of using his properties to a degree but IF a president's real goal was to line his and probably his family and friends pockets I really think they could do a hell of a lot more. Crap like setting up companies and awarding all kinda of contracts to them even if it meant pushing others like congress people to approve it.
I'm really not a crock, but any decent crook with the power of the president I do believe wold be tapping the till much more than I see trump doing.
I really think this is an ego thing for him.
I don't think he ever did like that about becoming president from the get go. I believe president trump would have much preferred to become King trump or even dictator trump.
That wasn't offered so he took what he could get, for now.
PS: I also think He's workin on the one man thing. (Each day)
and has been since day one or before.
Loyalty to him .....LOL not But it is a peek into his mind.
Actually I think he thought he would be the CEO like with his company and where his ways were accepted and honored through out and he would not be criticized.
about the same phycology. A BOSS of it all with the power to do WTF he wants when and how he wants. and He's pretty much doing it.
Once again I see NO ONE stopping trump. He does WTF he wants and damn the consequences. He also doesn't think shit thru real well in my opinion.
Clean up on isles 1,2,3 5 and 6 PRONTO !
What I, we, Trump observers, did not realize was what corrupting influences Trump, the RNC, and its congressional membership would turn out to be on each other. The republicans are in the thralls of a strong delusion; just imagine republicans appeasing a wanna-be "Am-dictator". . . It's outrageous. It is unimaginable. It is disgusting each and every time I see a republican accepting the con worked on themselves. Republicans used to be nobody's fall-guy.
Donald Trump is walking around politically naked, no sword and scabbard, having no punch; defenseless. Yet, his supporters hold him up as invincible. Trump is a literal figurehead. And, it is about to get worse.
President Donald Trump insulted the entire republican party when he first gave out a sitting senator's cell-phone number on national television. With that one-larger-than-life action: Donald Trump laid the foundation for having Republican politicians "whipped."
Here is Trump's secret: He does not respect other people's power.
And sadly, I watch them hand it over to him one by one by one by . . . .
IMO: trump has little to no respect for anyone, everyone and everything is to be used to his advantage in some way or another or it and any others are either useless or against him.
The World really does revolve around one man at this time. I'd say any human not concerned with this isn't either very informed, intelligent or doesn't care for one reason or another.
Time will tell WTF happens, But I dont believe it will all be rosy.
Many have tried to stop this and him, so far none have been successful.
Along we go riding along as pawns in our own country watching the show as a devided nation and fighting with each other about what each wants to and believes we see and believes about him and it all.
United we stood, devided we fell. Now it's more like where will this one man take us is the question and I really dont see an end to it as long as some people are getting what they want.
The ones in power. sadly, Our employees.
Good Luck America !
And yet, it was a comedy of errors which seriously 'cracked up' the country when politicians along with their folks back home demanded some doing away with pork-barrel spending politics and our officeholders were not able going to bring home the bacon in large sacks, pun intended. That is when the worse cases of gerrymandering and claiming a win by any means became necessary. Between 24/7 talk radio jock shocks, cable news partisan audience viewership, news anchors striving to built fan-bases and gross excess wages, and the building of network social media sites—the collective soul of congress was distorted by all the attention! On both sides.
Enter Donald Trump with a trove of twitter followers spanning the 'underworld' of conspiratorial politics. Ready for an opportunity to take center-stage. It's late. Good night all!
Republicans and conservatives and right wingers should start thinking of finding a way to replace Trump on the ticket. If he runs for president he will bring the GOP to its knees.
It's not gonna break my heart, but the country is better with two parties.
Trump is a "dead man walking" in terms of his political fortunes. It is already clear that his political fortunes are going down even before we get all the facts on the corruption investigation. In the midterms he lost some white blue collar voters and he lost ground with women. The people who left Trump in the midterms are not going back. Even if he isnt impeached or indicted, those people are not going back to Trump. These are the people who are saying "this isn't what we bargained for. This is not our America".
It's over.
We don't know yet if this hard fall of Trump's will be funny or nauseating. Maybe both.
This man is going to be tortured by the next two years. If he had any brains he would quit, but no such luck for the nation.
Time is running out for Trumpsters too. Keep supporting this clown and you will end up looking like bigger idiots than some of you already do.
He did and they have. All because they got some of what they wanted, I look for it to get worse, many still want and he's happy to help them get it as long as he gains power and time in office to exercise it.
I wish I could be more optimistic, but this is what I see for us for years to come, and I see no way to stop it.
The best I fear we can hope for is that trump trumps himself out of office by getting too overboard about something that hardly any one can accept it. That's why I advocate to LET trump BE trump.
24/7/365 the more this man says and does the more outrageous he seems to become. If left unfettered I think he'd trump himself out of office rather quickly as his outrageousness grew unfettered.But at this time He has a lot of enablers around him saving his ass time and time again. Conaway comes first to my mind in this role. He has many.
Let OZ Pull back the curtain on OZ.
Otherwise its still all a show and we are just a devided audience fighting about what we see.
It will end in 2020 if it doesn't end sooner. Who is he going to entice to vote for him? He lost some of his base in the midterm elections. These are people who think Trump is unfit to hold office. Do you think they will think he is more fit in 2020? lol. After two more years of insanity more of the base will be gone. The charade is being exposed.
Plus, by 2020 he may be fighting off criminal charges against himself and his family. That will certainly mean more votes lost.
What is his path to get re-elected? Who do you think he can persuade?
That would be nice, however I think unless his reign ends well before the election I think he will use the power of the presidency itself to get re-elected. He will give away the farm to stay in power, to anyone who will help him stay in power.
Nothing is more important to this man at this point and I stopped underestimating him long ago. Since then he became president when few thought he would, he's done shit many said he wouldn't or couldn't. some of the same people are still IMO totally underestimated him.
I also dont try not to underestimate the amount of damage he is and will do to the country especially long term. IF his means and ways of accomplishment remain after he goes I think we're all fuck for a long long time.
Instead being the BEST president in history, he could end up close to the bottom but really only time will tell.
I just don't think we are going to get rid of him easily, instead I think he will pull every string and turn over every rock to stay in power that it takes to do so.
John, I hope you are correct, I would like to see trump out of there as well. I'll also say this, I have NO idea who I would want to replace him too though. I fear pence would be about as bad in ways and perhaps worse in some.
In Short my friend I think we are fucked for the foreseeable future.
I'm still gonna have a nice day, week, month and year.
I hope you do as well.
The captions are all wrong
Bush Sr.
Obama
Bush Jr.
Bill
Carter
Trump
Sr, Obama, Jr, Bill, Carter
Maybe you should change the picture to put in your captions.
Opps