If we've learned anything lately it is the people connected to Donald J. Trump are the most corrupt band of grifters in the United States. Last night, after the convictions of Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, more than one talking head, Carl Bernstein among them, likened the Trump crowd to Richard M. Nixon's.
That, of course, is prima facie bullshit. It has become obvious to anyone with a knowledge of history, Trump is heading up a criminal enterprise which has all the subtlety of Whitey Bulger's old Winter Hill gang in Boston. It is an operation so steeped in felonious behavior that these guys make, Dick Nixon look like he ran an unorganized hodgepodge of two bit shoplifters and graffiti vandals.
Manafort and Cohen join a growing list of Trump confidants who are in deep legal trouble. Among them, Rick Gates, who turned state's evidence on his former business partner, Paul Manafort. He is so crooked he admitted to not only helping his former pal defraud the government, but that he also embezzled cash from him during the process. In other words, Gates scammed the scammer during the scam.
Then there is George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty to lying about his Russian contacts to the FBI. It's exactly what former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn did after he had a few surreptitious chats with Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak prior to Trump's nomination and again before the President-elect took the oath of office.
Throw in a gaggle of indicted Russians and you have quite a list. It's one which doesn't even include the initial two members of the U.S. House of Representatives who voiced support for Trump in 2016. Chris Collins, R-NY was the first. He is currently charged with insider stock trading. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, was the second. He, along with his wife, are accused of blowing $250,000 in campaign funds on a trip to Italy and other personal luxuries.
Yes, that whole birds of a feather thing is beginning to look painfully true.
As for The Big Orange Guy, he continues to say Manafort is a good and brave man and his situation is, "unfortunate." And oh, none of his convictions have anything to do with Donald J. Trump. Those statements give us a good idea of how Trump defines good and brave men. They're run amok tax evaders who are convicted of bilking the U.S. Treasury out of millions of dollars, but "unfortunately," got caught.
Conversely, El Don called Cohen, his former personal fixer a, "rat," and "coward," because he copped a plea. Such terms are normally reserved for characters in a Mario Puzo novel. But what else should we expect when the last two counts Mike Cohen pleaded guilty to directly implicate the current President of the United States as a co-conspirator in a plot to violate federal campaign finance laws?
It was a wild ride on cable news last night after Manafort's conviction and Cohen's day in the dock. The panels on CNN did their best to appear deadly serious about what could be an approaching constitutional crisis. On MSNBC the different shifts basically ran around their desks waving their arms over their heads while screaming, "Woohoo, they're guilty, guilty, guilty!" Meanwhile on FOX the main focus was the murder of a white University of Iowa student by a Mexican who, they darkly repeated over and over, has been in the country illegally for years!
Well, everyone has divergent agendas and different priorities. However, despite FOX's xenophobic take on a heinous crime, for the first time since November 2016 the Trump steamroller seems to have taken a major hit. That doesn't mean his mobs are folding their tents. On Twitter, one MAGA troll's assessment of the situation was that even though Cohen admitted under oath he is guilty of paying off two women at the direction of his client/boss, the prosecutors never actually proved he did.
Yeah, I know. It didn't make any sense to me either, but desperate times call for desperate words. Just ask Rudy Giuliani and Chuck Todd. When NBC's Todd told the former mayor of New York and current Trump front man, "Truth is truth." Giuliani instantly responded, "No, truth isn't truth."
The late Hunter S. Thompson once said about Las Vegas, "No, this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted."
He might as well have been speaking about Don Trump, his vile crew of felons and toadies, not to mention the trailer park fascists who unwaveringly follow him down the deep, dark, rabbit hole.
Indeed--their reality actually is too twisted, with or without psychedelics.
8-22-18
Trump's hardcore supporters are going to follow him into the rabbit hole regardless of what he does. That bothers me more and more as time passes. But, The Donald had a bad week, two men very close to him now convicted felons, and now having to worry about what Mr. Pecker says. How ironic is that? As you have stated, you cannot make this stuff up.
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