On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 members of the Russian GRU for attempting to sabotage the American election. Donald Trump knew the indictments were coming. But, when they were announced, he was unimpressed. Andrew Coyne writes:
“I think I would have a very good relationship with President Putin if we spent time together,” Trump mused the next morning at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May. He would, that is, were it not for “the rigged witch hunt.” By which he meant the investigation, under special counsel Robert Mueller, of possible collusion between the Russian government and members of the Trump campaign to throw the 2016 election to the Republicans.
All along the way, Trump has been monumentally incurious about Russian involvement in the election:
A thought experiment. Let us suppose the Trump administration were entirely blameless. How would an entirely blameless government ordinarily be expected to react at even the first whiff of suspicion that a foreign power, let alone an acknowledged adversary, had tampered with U.S. elections? It would be leading the charge. It would have ordered its own inquiry. It would have demanded answers from the Russian government. And the more evidence it had that its suspicions were true — long before the laying of actual criminal charges — the more ready it would be to impose penalties of some kind.
Yet at every turn the Trump administration and its supporters have done the opposite. They have not just been stunningly incurious about the worst American intelligence debacle since the Rosenbergs — they have been actively hostile to any attempt to get to the bottom of it.
The closer Mueller gets, the more Mr. Trump appears to have something to hide. So far, there has been lots of smoke. But it's clear that Mueller is getting closer to the fire.
Image: The Nation
17 comments:
The Russians also sucessfully spearfished their was into the RNC, RNCC, RCCC and several sitting Republicans servers. Through the GRU ( Russian Military Intelligence) run DCLeaks run disinfo site, they leaked a couple of McCain's and Yurtle the Turtle's emails as "proof of life".
Meuller's running two paralell investigations, one is Criminal, the other CounterIntelligence. He keeps adding more and more staff, as Treason Tribble Трамп's Crime Cartel keeps criming. It's pretty much guaranteed that he has the Republican data as well.
An interesting point was raised by Friday's indictments,
- active Russian State involvement in a cyber war with the US,
- the Chimpy McStagger's Administration's addition of CyberWar to the lists of things the US considers "acts of war",
This puts past actions and current inaction, into the realm of "treason",
I agree, Jay, we're talking high crimes here -- not misdemeanors.
In addition to the indictments, Meuller walked out of the Grand Jury with 100 more subpena's.
Looks like this is going to be more of a Verona Investigation digging everything out root and branch,
Than the Nixon/Chennault Treason, the Watergate High Crimes, the October Surprise Treason, the Iran-Contra Treason, where in a large amount of the rethug rot was left in place.
Not wanting to split hairs but I think Trump is more culpable of sedition. Treason is a tough one to prove and requires a very specific intent.
Zakaria had an interesting look at Trump and the GOP today. His view is that Trump and his followers are charting a path inward to a new variant of isolationism while, at the same time, maintaining the facade of leader of the free world and global policeman.
Whether he's right is not the point. One way or the other, America has turned unreliable, erratic and volatile. Anyone who follows a leader with those qualities is heading for trouble. Unless Congress reins Trump in and soon, the remainder of free world countries should consider a post-American reality, one in which America is at best a reluctant participant.
A good place to begin might be the rationalization of NATO. The alliance, like the EU, needs to sharply define membership criteria and recognize that, in order to go ahead, it must cull the rolls. Such core qualifications such as a commitment to liberal democracy could go a long way to shoring up unity among the membership. NATO's role also requires reflection. The alliance got dragged into places and wars where it didn't belong in the aftermath of 9/11. From there it morphed, unofficially, into Washington's Foreign Legion.
At the end of the NATO summit, Trump gave a pitch for American arms as the best in all respects of them all. To some extent he's right. The lesson America has taught us and its adversaries, however, is that you can have All the King's Horses and All the King's Men and still be unable to achieve meaningful military or political outcomes even against a gaggle of illiterate Third World tribesmen armed only with Korean War vintage assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades.
NATO and the EU have become bloated, unwieldy. Eastern Europe has not proven to be a particularly good fit. Now, with America easing itself out the door, it may be time to act accordingly.
There has been a lot of Republican corruption post Watergate, Jay. By the time Mueller is through, one wonders if there will be a Republican Party. Perhaps its extinction would be a gift to the nation.
One of Trump's aims is to reshape the world order, Mound. One way or another, he'll acomplish that. The question is, will the world be in a better place in his wake? He'll test the reslove and the creativity of his allies -- even though he has none.
US Law holds that treason can only happen when the State is "at war", or has been hit by an "act of war",
Meuller's Friday Indictments moves Republican collusion, complicity, obstruction and inaction, into a whole new Ballpark.
While a big focus of the complicit US MSM is on "e-mails", ( of course), of note in the Meuller Infictments was the indictment noting that the GRU hacked Voters Rolls in 5 States and deleted over 500,000 voters from the rolls.
At the State and Federal levels, the Rethugs are doing nothing. Only Blue States are taking actions to protect the vote.
The IC is pointing out that Russian attacks are continuing, while Trump's HSS/Nazi is mealy mouthing inaction.
It's another "Bin Laden determined to strike" moment, with again, venal Rethugs in charge.
If you follow Rethug scandals from America First of the '30's through to now, it's always the same names, and their protege's oozing their way through history. The Rethug party's needed a series of repeated enema's for a long time.
"The lesson America has taught us and its adversaries, however, is that you can have All the King's Horses and All the King's Men and still be unable to achieve meaningful military or political outcomes even against a gaggle of illiterate Third World tribesmen armed only with Korean War vintage assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades."
Actually one can "win". The problem is that "winning" requires the creation of a Keynesian Liberal Democracy protected by a Civil Society, funded by a Marshall Plan.
"We" don't even pretend to believe in that at home anymore.
You're right, Owen. He's out to reshape the world order. And we know, by that, he means to reshape it to America's liking. The question then is what are we and our former traditional allies going to do about it? Will we accept it with resignation and resentment or take it as an opportunity to rationalize our defence and trade posture in ways that best suit our collective interests? Trump is a bully and a blackmailer. You can appease him but he'll always be back for more. The acceptance of his terms signifies one thing to him - he didn't demand enough, he left money on the table. Whether that's true is irrelevant. All that matters is how Trump perceives it. He made that clear at the NATO summit when he repeated that, "as far as I'm concerned" the NATO members owe America money. They don't. He knows it. That doesn't matter. How can we be part of a security alliance dominated by a guy who does not consider himself bound by reality or fact?
The Republicans have worked to repeal Keynesianism from the get go, Jay -- even though Richard Nixon once proclaimed, "We're all Keynesians now." And, yes, the same names keep recurring. It's clear that the Republican Party is incapable of renewing itself. It should be sent to the dust bin of history.
That's precisely the question, Mound. Trump is delusional. That's clearer with each passing day. Any attempt to appease him is a fool's errand. There is nothing to be gained by making an arrangement with a madman.
Treason Tribble Трамп's going to be a single term President at best.
He's not going to change the global economic system,
What he is going to change is the ROW's economic, political and cultural relationships with the US. The ROW is now well aware that one US Election is the difference between sane, and cray-cray. Formal Agreements like the Iran Deal will no longer exist, going forward, only Senate ratified Treaties will count.
Due to the undemocratic nature of the Senate, and of course Red State Morons, Senate confirmation and ratification of Treaties, will not happen. So what Treason Tribble Трамп manages to burn down before going to jail, will stay burnt down, for decades.
Was't just the Republicans, although they were the first to jump on the Austerian Straussian Bandwagon,
I forget now who said it but one of the key Rethug's was once quoted as noting " it was bullshit economics, but it had lots of political opportunities".
In addressing the Putin-Trump handler-asset proposition directly one of the contributors on CNN said that he thinks it's more appropriate to cast Trump in the role of Putin's oligarch in America.
Also from CNN 14 Jul: "'Russian GRU officers hacked the website of a state election board and stole information about 500,000 voters,' Rosenstein said. 'They also hacked into computers of a company that supplied software used to verify voter registration information.' … They also took steps to cover their tracks, deleting files and logs on computers."
Would the investigators be certain that files involving voter information weren't deleted or corrupted, or is there no allegation of that at this time? What covered steps might not as yet have been uncovered? If it did happen somebody had better put a rush on getting those ducks lined up at RAGA and the Supreme Court.
There is still alot more of this story to unfold, John. But it's clear that there's no happy ending here.
True, Jay. The Democrats also bought the package from Austria via the University of Chicago. And, you're right. It was less about economics than it was about politics. I also agree that cleaning up what Trump has done will take decades.
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