Inconceivable

The rot runs deep. Kavanaugh is a fucking perjurer (and perhaps worse), and he'll get on the court. I almost really can't believe how aggressively Republicans were willing to trade the country for power. If we were cell-mates in prison, they'd have sold us for a pack of Lucky's.

I also fear there'll be no tumbrels, no climbing off the Fascist Slide – see, in part, above. If the election is rigged, and why should we assume it's not, where does it stop??

And now school has started, and it's really hard to look away from it all, but the year is going to be busy AF.

FSM help us.

Hint: Hitler only last 12 years in power, and some of his lieutenants were executed. Other supporters were blacklisted. Whenever the reckoning comes, I'll enjoy watching some of these folks swing. 

Yes. Yes, I will. 

Notes for what is coming down the pipe

I haven't been paying much attention to issues of timing, regarding Trump's outbursts and hysterics. Which is a bad job by me, since I had drummed on that pretty hard in the Presidents class this spring.

Meaning - we know NOTHING of what Mueller is doing, what he has or what his team is able to demonstrate. But as we noticed in the spring, Trump's outbursts were sometimes precursors to big developments in news. Whether that was future indictments, search warrants, expansions of the investigation, etc., there could almost predictably be crazy or fantastic outbursts from Trump.

And things have been developing and unfolding so quickly since the Russian indictments and the Helsinki betrayal that I've been losing track of some of the outbursts.

So a couple things - earlier this week Rosenstein again visited the White House, and this was followed by Trump's moronic Cabinet meeting confessional. Last time he did that, he informed Trump of the Russian indictments.

Friday Trump jumped on the NFL and flag protests again. He's flogging this morning Mueller's team specifically. (Does he even know there are MORE than 13 people on Mueller's team? Like a lot more?)

Anyway, I just wanted to sort some of his outbursts this week in the context of shit going down: the disaster and fallout of the secret Helsinki meeting is really starting to trouble actual intelligence professionals and staffers. (AHEM: "Deep Throat" was an FBI agent.) The stupid-ass "double negative" explanation. Butina's arrest (outside of the Special Counsel's office). One of Manafort's trials starts soon (like 10 days), he's in custody awaiting it, and losing every supportive defense motion. Cohen has also shown signs that he's praying for a pardon OR flipping.

(I have to say, on Cohen, hard dude for me to read. Like he seems totally crooked, the type of dude that used to complain at the door of the bar about why we couldn't legally deny them admission, etc. because somebody told him they read a lawyer saying you couldn't be denied entry. And that makes me think he is utterly reliant on a pardon, which he expects to receive. He is publicly begging for one. OTOH, he makes references to patriotism and nation over party and personal loyalty, which is a great sentiment if it is genuine, which see above.)

Other gob-smacking things from the week, which ordinarily would have caused strokes, coronaries and resignations in ANY other administration:
Rudy Guliani may have voided attorney-client privilege on the Cohen recordings. Doofus.
Oh, on attorney-client privilege, let me here say this:
These ignoramuses think that it works in this way: as long as 1 lawyer is present, any conversation between any group of people is "protected" by privilege. And, uh, anybody with a brain knows that's not at all how that works. 
The payoffs are now becoming a larger issue because of Rudy's stupidity. I really want to believe the abortion rumor with the other bleach-blond porn star, but that one looks like legit it may be Broidy. [frowny face]

Everything is Fine!! Yayyyy Daddy!!  We're going to need bigger tumbrels.

Speculation is in order:

Cohen either has or is doing this week his "Queen for a Day" parley unless Trump pardons him. And then he flips. But a pardon wouldn't get him out of legal jeopardy in IL, NY and whatever other states he's been busy in. This seems like Keystone #1 - or -

Keystone #2: Manafort. He's lost most of his motions to exclude evidence. He's been moved to a jail closer (and perhaps less glamorous) to the trial. Maybe he begins to feel the immediacy more, and from everything that I understand, the USG has him dead to rights. Trump will probably still pardon him, but if Manafort goes to trial, that seems like an enormous risk to die in jail. Maybe he'll take it. Maybe Putin will poison him (which would really suck, because they've already attacked us electronically and digitally, and Trump would still do nothing). And I don't want Paul to go out that way. Too quick.

Trump moves to pardon Butina because Putin asks him to, and because the Maga Hari has the fucking goods on everyone. (That fucking story amuses me endlessly. I would almost pray that she be the one who flips and brings this whole damn thing down. I hope the IC is doing a god-damned number on her. If the torture-fetishists are going to demand it be done to non-white people in our name - and it's bullshit and I believe doesn't work - then Maga Hari can have it, too. But mostly because I just want to hear the story! I want the televised public Congressional hearings of her letting Wayne LaPierre do his little fetishes on her. Ohpleaseohplease.)

Any/all/worse than the above will elicit no more than tsk-tsk from Republicans. I think that's becoming the most (literally) incredible thing: the actions of an entire political party to subvert democracy, and their complete indifference to it as long as their (retrograde and unpopular) policies are enacted.
Unfuckingbelievable.

I recall being described as un-American by this fatuous little troll. Tick tock, motherfucker.

That is the look of a shaken, defeated and PWND dude. Trump is Putin's bitch.

Well that's not a terrifying thought ... Or, it's not a NOT terrifying thought?

This snaps a lot of things into potential clear focus:

Bernie was in on it too. 

  

And here we have THE WINNER

"I'm getting the shit whaled out of me"

So said Tip O'Neil, May 1981, as Reagan and the Republican Revolutionaries crammed the first preposterous supply-side tax cuts through Congress.

In any event, some news of late that represent a nice change of pace from the ass-kicking the Good Guys have been taking lately. Interesting reading.

The more that unfolds, the deeper the conspiracy goes, the more clear becomes the treason, and the higher the likelihood of ongoing collaboration IN PLAIN SIGHT.

But in any event, this is not optimal. I would point out that in the Weimar Republic, it took one heavily propagandized attack on a government building to catapult the fascists to complete and unquestioned power.
Just sayin.

NOT Cassandric!

It has been hot as blazes here lately – a week of 90s and heat index 100+. So both cats are now sleeping in the bedroom with the AC, which means I have not been sleeping well at all, since Franklin is usually on my half. Thus I took a nap earlier today, and now am pretty awake. Since it has been a really bad week for the Good Guys, I thought I'd put a post here.

Plus, summer Sox/Yankees are on the tv, so seems apt. 
How a bad week you ask?

[Wow, seriously, I can't indent?!? Poor paragraph editing options. Otherwise this would structurally be better. But I know, it's free, blah blah]

• The SCOTUS travel ban and Kennedy retiring (we now know his political lean)
• The bullshit Janus decision
• Marching in the streets is underappreciated

 Granted my week was pretty swell. We're doing a job search, and HR is still coordinating visits. I was really productive in terms of writing lectures (hello, Ambioris) and even reading. See above. But the Union thing is really suck.

Sorry I didn't clip the credit, but tbc: not mine!

I did a bad job labeling the "receipt," but I would agree that this only ends with marching in the streets. And not the torch-lit night-time marching either.

Mostly though, something has been bugging me, and a public threshing out would be good.

But a larger thing has been percolating in my head, and here I can at least list the theory: Trump has the RNC emails. Given to him, obviously.
Granted, those could only have come from "someone" who had authorized and state-supported extensive hacking into Western political organizations.

(You seriously think only the DNC emails were hacked? You also probably think that back-channels into this White House don't exist. If you also think that Dear Leader Trump is great and MAGA!! – please leave this blog.)

I've seen marginally thoughtful people struggling to understand why and how the Republican Party has capitulated so thoroughly to Trump. And I would point at them and laugh. (Thoughtful people know why – they read Kruse or Schickler or Sugrue; there are others on my list, but I have only read through these so far.)

Because THIS is what the Republican Party has been working toward since the 1910s.

Yes I know the problems of this picture, thus her mother here is clearly shown being searched.

Why the leadership of the GOP has gone so quickly, so willingly and so FAR down the rabbit hole of authoritarianism and fascism without so much as a "Meep" to the effects this could, perhaps have on their political party is interesting though, just the same.

So: Putin gave Trump the RNC emails to ensure the party's docility. 

And if Trump did have the RNC emails, and the coordinated propaganda and character sliming, and the Gorsuch conspiracies, and the financial crimes (looking at you, NRA and Cambridge Anal), that would explain the deafening silence. You know, if you needed an additional reason beyond the racism and ethnic cleansing.

This champion's name is roslyn la liberte it seems. She can have capital letters when she reca..... well, or not. 

APRIL 9

Today is April 9. I wish you a happy Surrender of Traitor RE Lee and the Treasonous Army of  Northern Virginia to U.S. General Ulysses (Sam) Grant Day.

Just going to live blog this one

I am glad I left campus/office hours a tad bit early.

And that I cheated on dinner tonight - delicious Brockton-based Cape Cod Pizza which is pretty stellar.

It could be an eventful night. Things today have developed in the ongoing snuff-show Live-Action Treason – Michael Cohen got raided and Trump is losing it. He's so unbelievably incoherent. I can't believe that people actually accept that such a powerful person sounds like a complete fking dipshit. (Seriously - see transcript below.)

Ironically, while I was making cookies this weekend, I was watching All the Presidents' Men again. I don't know I will be able to sleep, and I sure won't be able to work tomorrow in my break. I'm on Twitter overdrive.

So: last seen, Trump was having a "War Cabinet" meeting (chickenshit: see Fussell, Paul) and had a WATB-Meltdown. (God, this guy is such a putz it hurts.)

• Going to prognosticate: a few big things will happen this week, maybe involving DOJ firings; it will escalate significantly. Republicans will do nothing. Trump will also do some major damage to Syria, which will also escalate profoundly shit with Russia, which (hypothesis) is actively blackmailing Trump through this crazy Back Channel that was actually set up. So Trump is pinned in. 
• And this – Dobbs is setting the agenda and counsel. This is exactly what happens, 72 hours. +/- 

Also, that idiot said these things, surrounded by an august group of men and women in uniform. Conservatives/gun-h**pers and Trump supporters your support of "the troops" is an insulting joke. Anyway, that idiot said amidst his war council:

The Beginning of the Next Phase...

I believe we've seen the end of the Beginning. Time that back to the indictment of the 13 Russians, or the Gates plea deal – something from late February. It seemed like it at the time, and the dribbles of information suggest that as well. More subpoenas to more orgs (including Trump's, which duh...)

I don't know what stage this will be that comes next, but it's unfolding. Still circulating that Mueller seeks an interview, and the OSC is negotiating that with the White House Staff. Trump has lost his shit this weekend. And the big shoe to drop next is that Trump moves to fire Mueller.

A lot of the "history will show ... " shit is coming out, so as a historian, let me set out a few of the questions that I will be interested in learning the answers to, and how I will be teaching them, FSM willing, that is still an option.

Both taken c. 3:50p

• RYAN and MCCONNELL: These guys will have to be two of the more odious shits (Odious Taints - h/t Rep. Schiff!) when all this unfolds. They sat and did nothing. How this came about is going to be really interesting. 

To wit: McConnell seemed awfully comfortable standing firm against Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland. He has seemed awfully smug. (And heavens I cannot wait for him to receive his. He's like #4 on the list.) When did he know about The Conspiracy?

Ditto Ryan: I expect for him it was more of a fait accompli. Someone said: "the Russians are going to help us win, the NRA is the conduit for laundering the cash, we'll build up a large enough majority in the victory to seal off investigations, and nobody will ever find out. Unless you open your big mouth, betray your party, your beliefs and ideological fantasies of sharing a warm post-coital moment with Ayn Rand. Now, Paulie, you wouldn't do that, would you, when you are [squeezes fingers down to a Strontium atom size] this close to getting everything you ever politically dreamed of, WOULD YOU?"

And Paul Ryan, that feckless tool, caved. 

• CHEETO Mussolini: Support for him now is confined to only these potential justifications; I refuse to accept anything else: 

1.  Authoritarianism
2. Racism
3. Misogyny
4. Avarice and cupidity
5. Stupidity

But there was something else I intended to speculate on, but now it escapes me. I know it dealt with Mueller, etc. but between the shower and here it slipped my mind.

Finally, not quite a Victory Lap, because I'm about to go on it and do some stupid shit, but ~~~VICTORY LAP~~~ \\ ~~~ `o– ~~~

The reason I quit posting on there with any frequency (aside from the several obvious ones) was because it harvesting user information to sell. That is ALL it ever did. It's kind of offensive that people are now Shocked – SHOCKED I tell you!! that Zuckerberg was in with Cambridge Anal*. Yeah, no shit, and anybody else willing to pay them.

 

He's on the list too, but way way down. Like #10. I need to post that soon. 


Now Go Get 'Em...