America, meet Boris, your next White House Chief of Staff

By Mark | December 14, 2018

I often wonder, based on how strange things have gotten over these past two years, just how much weirder things could still get before this chapter in American history draws to a close. As I’ve mentioned here on a few occasions, I think it’s highly likely, for instance, that, before Trump leaves the White House, we’ll have our first Oval Office murder. And I’m not kidding about that. I really do think that things are going to take a much darker turn as we approach the end, and the walls begin to close in on our Adderall-snorting Commander-in-Chief and his family of hideous grifters. And I’ve read enough Shakespeare to know that, in these kinds of situations, people always die. But, today, it occurred to me that murder might not be the weirdest thing in front of us. No, I think that things could get even more strange than that. What if, for instance, unable to find a human to fill the role of Chief of Staff, Trump announced that he was going to be bringing a robot into the White House to fill the role being vacated by John Kelly? And what if that Robot really turned out to be a tiny Russian inside a C3PO costume? I know it sounds implausible, but all of this has been implausible. I mean, we have a reality television star President who, as we learned not too long ago, likes to be spanked by porn stars with rolled up magazines containing articles about himself, right? At any rate, here’s my inspiration for today’s post.

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Michael Cohen gets three years in prison, and the National Enquirer flips, telling investigators that they paid off Karen McDougal for Trump with the intention of helping him win the election

By Mark | December 12, 2018

I just found that the 1979 Peter Sellers film Being There is available on Amazon Prime, so this is going to be brief. I just want to note two things before I sign-off for the night.

First, Michael Cohen, the guy who posted the following to Twitter back during the last presidential campaign, was sentenced this morning to serve three years in prison for crimes committed at the behest of Donald Trump. With tears in his eyes, the former tough guy sobbed, “My weakness could be characterized as a blind loyalty to Donald Trump.”

For those of you who don’t follow the news closely, Hillary Clinton, having committed no crimes, is still a free woman. In fact, she was just spotted dancing to Bollywood music with John Kerry… Living well, as they say, is the best revenge… But, with that said, one suspects she must be taking some pleasure in watching the wheels of justice slowly grind these second-rate hoodlums into dust.

Oh, and it’s worth noting that Cohen wasn’t just Trump’s “fixer,” and the man who, on the President’s behalf, arranged for the illegal pay-off of both a porn star and a Playboy model in violation of campaign finance law in hopes of changing the course of the election. He was also a deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee.

Second, it was announced today that senior officials at AMI (American Media Inc.), the parent company of the National Enquirer and Globe supermarket tabloids, have admitted to prosecutors that they made the $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal in “concert with” the Trump campaign “in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election.” This, it’s worth pointing out, directly contradicts Donald Trump’s claim that the pay-off had nothing to do with the election.

So, yeah, AMI, which is owned by Trump’s friend David Pecker, didn’t just help Trump by printing dozens of fake headlines about Clinton’s health, and supposed crimes that she’d committed, but they set out on his behalf to illegally influence the outcome of the election, buying McDougal’s story with the promise of running it, and then ensuring that it would never see the light of day.

What does all of this mean? Well, it means that Donald Trump, once he leaves office, will definitely be facing prison time. This is a certainty. We now have sworn testimony that he directed Michael Cohen to violate campaign finance law by paying off multiple women with the intention of influencing the election, and Cohen, his co-conspirator, has already been sentenced to prison time for his role. Trump, no doubt, will argue that these pay-offs had nothing whatsoever to do with the election, and, therefore, shouldn’t be considered a campaign expense. He’ll say that he was just trying to spare his family the pain of publicly facing the fact that, while his new wife was at home nursing their infant son, he was having unprotected anal sex with the star of Operation Desert Stormy. We now have both Pecker and Cohen, however, saying that was not the intention. No, the intention was to win the election.

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Trump invites Pelosi and Shumer into the Oval Office to humiliate him in front of a silent Mike Pence

By Mark | December 11, 2018

Someone apparently thought that it would be a good idea for Donald Trump and Mike Pence to invite Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer into the White House today to discuss border security in front of live television cameras. I guess the thinking was that Trump would make them look weak and cowardly. Well, that’s not what happened. Pelosi and Schumer, after agreeing with Trump on the need for border security, then began to systematically tear apart Trump’s argument for the wall, noting not only that it would be costly and ineffective, but that he lacks even the support of Republicans in Congress. By the end, Trump looked like an angry baby, threatening to shut down the government if he didn’t get his way. And that’s not an exaggeration. Here’s the video of Trump saying, quite clearly, that it wouldn’t be the fault of the Democrats if the government came to a standstill over this, but his fault alone. [This, you can be sure was the not the framing that the Republicans wanted.]

Word is, after the meeting, Trump “stormed out” of the Oval Office, throwing a folder full of papers, irate that Mike “elf on the shelf” Pence had just sat beside him, with his eyes closed, pretending as though he were someplace else, as Pelosi expertly picked him apart, and Shumer made jokes at his expense.

Returning to Congress after the meeting, Pelosi, according to reports, said the following about Trump and his wall. “It’s like a manhood thing with him — as if manhood can be associated with him,” the incoming Speaker of the House said.

Trump, for what it’s worth, also lied about the status of his wall during today’s meeting, saying, “Tremendous amounts of wall have already been built, and a lot of — a lot of wall.”

For this of you who might not know, none of the wall has been built. Not even a single foot. Congress did, earlier this year, appropriate funds for increased border security, but it was with the stipulation that not one dollar be spent on the construction of the ridiculous wall that Trump promised the uneducated, xenophobic base of the Republican party. In spite of that, though, Donald Trump has said some 86 times that construction is underway, earning him an unprecedented “Bottomless Pinocchio” rating from the Washington Post fact checker.

If you follow the previous link, you’ll be taken to an interactive Washington Post website, where you can move your cursor over an enormous pile of Pinocchio heads, reading quote after quote fro Donald Trump, like this one from March 29… “We’ve started building our wall. I’m so proud of it.”

And here’s another example from earlier this morning.

For what it’s worth, Trump didn’t just lie about the status of the wall today. He also lied about it’s necessity, saying that ten terrorists had recently been caught trying to cross the border into the United States. When asked if they could identify these ten terrorists, Homeland Security today said that they could not.

If what we saw today is any indication of what awaits us as the Democrats retake control of the House, these next two years are going to be one hell of a ride.

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Russian agent Maria Butina reported to her Russian handler that she’d “laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next U.S. administration” during the Trump campaign

By Mark | December 10, 2018

[Republican operative Paul Erickson and his Russian spy lover Maria Butina in happier times… According to prosecutors, Butina “privately expressed ‘disdain’ for him“.]

Back in July of 2015, not long after officially launching his presidential campaign, Donald Trump attended a conservative event in Las Vegas called “Freedom Fest.” It was at this event that Trump, in response to a question posed by a young woman in the audience, went on the record for the first time, saying that, if elected, he’d roll-back the sanctions against Russia imposed during the Obama administration. The woman in the audience who asked that question identified herself at the time as a Russian student. We know now, however, that she was, in fact, a Russian spy. Her name is Maria Butina, and news broke this morning that she’s decided to start working with federal prosecutors about her campaign to infiltrate and direct the activities of conservative organizations, like the NRA. [Butina has been in custody since this past July.]

You can find the entire “Freedom Fest” exchange between Butina and Trump on Youtube, but here’s the gist of it.

And, now, it would seem, Butina is ready to start talking about everyone, from Republican operative Paul Erickson, with whom she was having a romantic relationship, no doubt to further political objectives in the United States, to her Russian handler, Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank, and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. It was under Torshin’s guidance, according to documents acquired by ABC News, that Butina, “sought to establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics.” [Torshin is the founder of The Right to Bear Arms, a Russian pro-gun group.]

Erickson, it’s worth noting, sent an e-mail in May 2016 under the subject line “Kremlin Connection” to Trump campaign adviser Rick Dearborn. In that note, he asked Dearborn and then-Senator Jeff Sessions for help setting up a meeting between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin at an annual NRA convention.

Here’s a excerpt from the ABC News report:

…(A)ccording to the agreement, Butina has acknowledged that with U.S. Person 1’s assistance, she drafted a proposal called “Description of the Diplomacy Project” in March of 2015 which was later sent to the Russian Official, in which she said that she had already “laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next U.S. administration” and requested $125,000 from a Russian billionaire to attend conferences and meetings to further develop those ties. The Russian Official, the agreement said, confirmed that her proposal would be at least partially supported.

The government has alleged that U.S. Person 1 “worked with Butina to arrange introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics,” including high-ranking members of the National Rifle Association and organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast, that would ultimately give her a surprising level of access to conservative politicians, including — in one memorable interaction captured on video — to then-candidate Donald Trump…

It would appear that, even as Erickson was helping Butina forge those connections, he may have been aware of the political implications.

“Unrelated to specific presidential campaigns,” Erickson wrote in an October 2016 email to an acquaintance that was later obtained by the FBI, “I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [unnamed political party] leaders through, of all conduits, the [unnamed gun-rights organization].”

And during an FBI raid of Erickson’s South Dakota home, investigators discovered a handwritten note suggesting Erickson may have been aware of a possible job offer from Russian intelligence services: “How to respond to FSB offer of employment?” Erickson scratched, an apparent reference to the Russian equivalent of the CIA…

What’s this? Butina claimed to have “laid the groundwork for an unofficial channel of communication with the next U.S. administration”? Erickson was contemplating an official offer to become a Russian agent? There just doesn’t seen to be any bottom to this, does there? Oh, and all of this is coming out just days after the revelation that Michael Cohen had outlined yet another Russian connection for prosecutors, bringing the total number of Trump associates to interact with Russian agents during the campaign to 14.

I’d like to go on, but I have a headache. Can one of you please finish this up for me?

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Donald Trump, identified as “Individual 1” in court filings, is implicated in campaign finance felonies

By Mark | December 7, 2018

This coming Wednesday, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is scheduled to be sentenced on the several criminal counts that he’s admitted guilt to over the past year, from bank fraud to lying to federal investigators looking into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russians. Today, in advance of that court ruling, both Robert Mueller and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued sentencing memos, recommending to the court what kind of prison sentence they believe Cohen should receive.

While the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is pushing for Cohen to receive “substantial” prison time, suggesting the possibly 3½ years, the real story seems to be that our President, as of today, has been officially implicated in two felony counts. Here, with more on that, is an excerpt from this evening’s Washington Post.

…The memo from New York prosecutors identifies three people at an August 2014 meeting: Cohen, “Individual 1” and “Chairman 1.” The document elsewhere identifies Individual 1 as Trump, and people familiar with the case said Chairman 1 is David Pecker of the National Enquirer.

“In August 2014, Chairman-1 had met with Cohen and Individual-1, and had offered to help deal with negative stories about Individual-1’s relationships with women by identifying such stories so that they could be purchased and ‘killed,’­ ” the prosecutors’ memorandum says.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to violating campaign finance law when he arranged payments to an adult-film star during the 2016 election. At the same time, he pleaded guilty to a handful of other crimes, including making a false statement to a bank. In recent weeks, he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about efforts during the presidential campaign to get a Trump-branded tower built in Moscow…

So, Donald Trump, we now know, gave the word to Cohen to violate campaign finance law and pay off his former lovers. Here, explaining why this is significant, are short video clips of Rachel Maddow, Congressman Ted Lieu, and former U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.

As Katyal says, “For the first time you have Federal Prosecutors essentially saying that Donald Trump committed a felony.”

Donald Trump, however, appears to see it differently. No sooner did news about these sentencing memos break, than he tweeted out a bizarre message, stating that he’d been “totally cleared.” For what it’s worth, as noted above, he hasn’t been. Not by a long shot. He was actually identified as “Individual 1,” and evidence exists, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, that he committed campaign finance felonies when he instructed his fixer, Michael Cohen, to proceed with the payoffs to the women in question. [Trump has yet to be indicted for these crimes, likely because the DOJ seems to be of the opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but one would expect that Mueller’s final report will suggest that Congress take action to impeach Donald Trump. Regardless, he will likely face these charges when he leaves office, however that comes to pass.]

Here, America, is the terrified, delusional lunatic you elected to be your president.

One last note… It’s interesting, I think, that The Atlantic tonight is speculating as to what Trump might do when he starts running out of options. “From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law, President Trump may legally do all kinds of extraordinary things,” they report. And, really, given what we know of Trump, there’s no reason to expect that he might leave office gracefully in hopes of sparing us the civil war, is there?

[If you’d like to read today’s sentencing memos, you can find them here: Mueller, U.S. Attorney.]

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