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. 

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...

More for the record for the Prosecution...

Random things to write down on St. Patrick's Day, 2018.
My wife's nephews are arriving today for a few days, and that should be ... interesting.

Anyway.
Likelihood the "Back Channel" communications are operable:
40% - Like those idiots just stopped trying to set one up because they were told it's "Illegal." Like they care about illegal activity. 

Likelihood the Cheeto Mussolini is being actively blackmailed as we speak:
15%. It's hard because so many of his decisions are moronic and stupid, but that may just be who he is. But - if he is NOT being blackmailed, what specifically would be different? 

Likelihood the McCabe firing becomes an enormous deal:
Has nobody ever heard of Mark Felt?!?! The process of trial discovery is going to be tremendous. This is like 90%. 

 Likelihood some of these are for Cheeto Mussolini and his minions:
Too superstitious to speculate! 
  
There is also this: 

Also: Fuck you Zuckerberg and Facebook.
As a UM Man would say:  keep cashin' dem checks!!!
History – provided we survive – is going to be merciless with these people. 

 Now go get 'em....

I suspect they didn't see that coming...

A couple of things, again just for the record.

Maybe I should upload them here - the various Indictments - so that I can use them in future Presidents' classes.

So that is an idea.

Hicks is resigning - that was announced today. I told my Presidents students today that I think the end of the beginning stage is coming. I've taken Garrett Graff's idea from Wired that there are five major elements of the investigation underway by American Hero Bobby Three Sticks, the Blog's new, official and permanent Object of Veneration.

 

The five things: 

• the Pre-existing business deals and money laundering; 
• the Russian bots and trolls; 
• the Hacking and the Bears; 
• Russian-campaign contacts; 
• obstruction of justice. 

The last I think even *I* could demonstrate. Anyway. I meant to actually write/post an actual thing here, but that was like an hour ago, and I got distracted.

Oh yeah, one thing: HAHAHAHAHA. God That Man is so motherfucking stupid, but it's so enjoyable to watch him pwn his own supporters, who were too stupid to see this coming. Forty-Five COMING FOR YOUR GUNZZZ!!! PEW PEW PEW!! Hahahahahaha.

The Magnificent Bastard may save us all

Follow up on the last post: the Presidents' class is actually going reasonably ok, all things considered.
I think it's largely due to a really good core of students who are very bright. They're engaged and attentive, and for the most part, we isolate discussions of Trump to half of the meeting on Friday. I refuse to let him suck the oxygen up, and away from actual worthies like Andrew Johnson and William McKinley. (Seriously, I did lectures on Johnson and McKinley. Impeachment and war-propaganda, Natch.)

Anyway, I needed a place to deposit these documents, links and thoughts in some orderly or structured fashion. If for nothing else than future Presidents Class courses, where following up on our own private Stupid Watergate will be easier. But seriously, folks, thank god these people are fk*ing incompetent. And may God Save and Preserve Robert Mueller III.

I'm too superstitious to put anything crazy up here. But I will say, on the record, I believe: (along with the CIA) that the Steele Dossier is 90% true; that Trump is presently being blackmailed and that our national security has been gravely compromised; the 2016 election (including the primaries) was deliberately rigged by foreign interests in favor of Trump, with his and the campaign's knowledge and cooperation; a conspiracy exists to cover up these facts that include several major, major figures inside and outside of Washington, D.C.

So far, behavior (consciousness of guilt) and indictments have given more, rather than less, credibility to those beliefs.

Indictments:
Go Bobby Go: Russians


Special Counsel:
Go Bobby Go: Robert Mueller is a Magnificent Bastard
Go Bobby Go: