2018

It’s Thursday, or as they say in the native language of my people…Thursday.

TRUMP SENDS CEASE AND DESIST LETTER TO BANNON, ANOTHER TO MICHAEL WOLFF AND PUBLISHER OVER “FIRE & FURY” BOOK

This is rich. Trump’s legal team sent a cease and desist letter to Steve Bannon in regards to an interview in a book that place more than six months in a workplace where not only are non-disclosure agreements aren’t binding, but the reporter who wrote the book was given permission from complainant to interview everyone.

Let’s count the ways this won’t fly…

First, the NDA cited was signed in late 2016 for the Trump Campaign. The campaign ended with the election. The NDA, assuming it’s not worth less than toilet paper, which it is, would only apply to privileged events during the campaign. It would cease immediately upon the creation of the Trump Transition Team, since that was a separate legal entity.

Second, NDA’s can’t be applied to the White House. Everything that occurs in the day-to-day operation of the government is a matter of public record, aside from information restricted for security purposes. Because everything is on the public record, a non-disclosure agreement would be in direct violation of this. FUN FACT: The career politicians refused to sign the NDA’s before joining the White House, because they knew it wasn’t worth the toner used on the paper.

Next, Bannon gave his opinion on a topical event in the news as it was breaking, and talked about people and events he was not involved with. Trump wasn’t even the person Bannon was disparaging, it was Trump’s child, son-in-law, and a campaign staff member who was yet to be named the head of the campaign.

Trump’s standing for defamation is dubious at best. He’s a public figure, and the bar for libel and slander is VERY high. Not only would his team have to prove that what Bannon said was false, but that it was said with obvious malicious intent, and was intended to be injurious to the complainant. Trump would have to prove that Bannon was lying, knew it was a blatant lie, and intended to hurt Trump with this lie. This is a nearly unreachable legal bar to attain.

Finally, not only did Trump give permission for Bannon and the rest of the staff to speak to the author of the book, Trump took part in it, lambasting and attacking his staff and allies at every opportunity. Trump let Michael Wolff set up shop in the West Wing, and everyone and their mother talked with him, including Trump.

Trump doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, and is trying to scare Bannon into staying silent. This will never see the light of day, but what it does do is create an enemy out of the head of one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Breitbart.

Worse yet for Trump, any attack in the courts against Bannon would likely be met with countersuits and motions to dismiss his precious NDA’s, which would open the floodgates for everyone who’s ever worked for Trump, but didn’t have the ability to fight him in court. Trump doesn’t hire good attorneys, because good attorneys wouldn’t work for him. Instead, he gets lousy attorneys from lousy law schools, that likely used the same boiler plate NDA for each and every Trump venture. All it would take is one lawsuit, and any and all NDA’s with that same language would be null and void.

By the way, Wolff taped dozens of hours of interviews.

WHITE HOUSE STAFF EXPECT MUELLER TO TAKE DOWN TRUMP

This book is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does everyone think he’s an idiot, but Mueller is going to destroy him.

Might explain the stress eating.

U.S. TO END POLICY THAT LET STATES DECIDE MARIJUANA RULES

The Associated Press reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered the Department of Justice to roll back the Obama era orders that gave the states leeway on how and whether or not to prosecute marijuana related crimes. This move may effectively end medicinal marijuana in the country.

Last year, more than 64,000 people died of opiod overdoses. Not one person overdosed on THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

I look forward to Jeff Sessions receiving his eventual comeuppance.

TWO MEMBERS OF FREEDOM CAUCUS CALLING FOR JEFF SESSIONS TO RESIGN

Two members of the Freedom Caucus, the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, also called the Tea Party, are asking for Jeff Sessions to resign. This is being seen by anyone paying attention as an attempt to get Sessions out of the way so that Trump can get Mueller fired.

How? Since Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian Investigation, that puts Rod Rosenstein as the only person who can fire Robert Mueller. If Rod is fired and Jeff Sessions is still in the Attorney General position. If Rod is fired now, the power to fire Mueller goes down the chain, not up. But, theoretically, replacing Jeff Sessions would allow that power to go back up the chain, or at least let them choose a crony under Rod who would do their bidding.

At this point, Mueller has game planned this out. He knows that Trump will try to fire him at some point, and has likely prepared for that scenario.

One of the lawyers on his team is Michael Dreeben, the best Appeals Prosecutor alive. He is one of a handful of attorneys to argue over 100 cases before the Supreme Court, and he has won most of them.

Why do I bring this guy up? Because I think part of Mueller’s plan is for Trump to either try to pardon him and/or his family, and to fire Mueller. Both of those actions are unconstitutional and/or illegal, but have never been argued before in Federal court.

Here’s what I think will happen: as soon as Trump tries to fire Mueller, or attempt to pardon himself or his family, sealed indictments charging him with felonies of Obstruction of Justice, and a few other things, will be unsealed. Simultaneously, lawsuits will be filed in both criminal and civil court, claiming that these actions by Trump are unconstitutional, and that they should be immediately stopped with an injunction. The Appeals court issue the injunction, and this case will get fast tracked to the Supreme Court. As this is going on, the greatest leakstorm will flow, including tapes of Trump conspiring with the Russians to sway the election.

When I say immediately, I’m talking less than a week from the time Mueller is fired to showing up before SCOTUS, and the injunction would be filed the same day.

Who better to argue the case of a lifetime in front of the SCOTUS than the best lawyer alive?

BLOOMBERG: MONEY LAUNDERING IS SERIOUS, TOO.

I’ve talked before about Money Laundering. Now, Bloomberg goes into some of what Bannon said in the book.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we may or may not see charges against Team Trump for espionage or treason, but we will definitely see some financial crime charges, including money laundering.

That’s is for today, so far. It’s early in the day, though, and as every other time I write a post in the afternoon, something explodes at night. I look forward to editing this post by 9pm EST.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

2017 Retrospective

Hello there, it’s been a while. December has been a very rough month for me. I’ve had maybe 3 days this month where I haven’t been sick, and 2 of those were spent fighting a broken furnace.

But it’s that time of the year when everyone and their mother throws together a compilation list of the best and worst stuff that happened in the past 365ish days, then go on vacation for the rest of the year.

I hate those posts.

I don’t like nostalgia for nostalgia sake, and 2017 doesn’t deserve a “best of” send off.

I hate it when people talk about the “good old days” and wax poetically about a memory of a time that was a hell of a lot worse than their rose-tinted glasses made appear.

Instead, I want to talk about what changed in 2017, what stayed the same, what was learned, and why it’s worth fighting.

While this is mostly concerned with what has happened in the News, I’m also including personal change as well. I’m hesitant to call it growth, but change is accurate.

WHAT CHANGED IN 2017?

For anyone reading this after waking up from a coma that started the last week of October 2016, I’ve got some bad news. Trump won the Presidential election. But, as we’ve come to learn, he didn’t do it alone. He had a lot of help from his friends in Russia, and there were more than enough Americans that helped him as well.

2017 started off weird, as the Obama Administration has just instituted several major new sanctions on Russia. Trump didn’t seem to want to do anything to Russia, and evidence was still coming in about what happened in November. The MSM was still hoping that Trump, a 70 year old misogynistic, racist, ignorant fool would somehow not embarrass the country in front of the world, and that if we gave him a chance, he might actually not suck.

That hope lasted all of about two days.

After a small inauguration event, Trump’s team went into full-on propaganda mode by distributing false photos of the event where they photoshopped a much larger crowd, while going after anyone who spread the real photos. At the same time, his Administration went after the Parks Service, trying to erase any mention of climate change from Government sites.

That’s when the Resistance started.

The Women’s March. The Alt accounts. The March for Science. The Airport Protests. The March for Reason. More people had marched against Trump by April of 2017 than against Cancer all year long.

It’s also the first whispers that something wasn’t right in the White House. In between trying to undo everything Obama did and implement his Muslim Ban, word came around that Mike Flynn was in some serious legal jeopardy. (SPOILER ALERT: He’s now a convicted felon.) Trump’s team was told in late January by Acting Attorney General Sally Yates that Flynn had lied to the FBI. She was fired the next day. Flynn resigned 18 days later.

This is just up to February.

A couple things changed in February for me.

First, I found PostimusMaximus on Reddit, and read a lot of his posts. I assume it’s a him, but I could be wrong. Reading his work was eye opening, but insane. I saw many of the markers of old school conspiracy theories, but there was something different with his work. Instead of citing places like Coast to Coast, he cited real sources like the Washington Post and New York Times. I decided to keep an eye on him.

Next, I rejoined Twitter and started following a few people. Claude Taylor, Louise Mensch, and John Schindler. Eventually I followed a lot more people like Countercheckist, Tea Pain, Eric Garland, Rick Wilson, and more politicians, lawyers, and spooks than exist outside of D.C.

There was a weird feeling following these people on Twitter. It was sort of like joining a conversation halfway through and only catching small slivers, and then realizing that the slivers are in a different language. They were talking about indictments and grand juries and investigations by the FBI, the Steele Dossier, SIGINT from the Mayflower Hotel, while the rest of the world was still stuck on Trump and Twitter.

In March, that’s when Russia came roaring in to the picture. During a late night rage tweet, Trump said Obama had tapped his phones. Even though this was a horseshit claim, the House Intelligence Committee decided to hold a hearing about it and invited FBI Director James Comey to testify.

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations confirmed, under oath, that the Trump Campaign was under a counterintelligence investigation that started in July 2016, and that grand juries had been impaneled to deal with that investigation.

Hole. Lee. Shit.

This confirmed that at least part of what the Rumor Mill was saying was true, and that it was worth looking into the rest of their chatter, if just to see if it was a case of a broken clock being right twice a day, or if there was something to this group fighting for Democracy.

Over the next few months, I noticed a few other changes. I stopped viewing the CIA and FBI as “the enemy.” I questioned the source of my news more often. I viewed what other people took as gospel and investigated it myself. I became more politically active. I started sounding like a complete nutter when I tried to describe what I was seeing and hearing about Trump and Russia. I was becoming more and more outspoken in my criticisms.

I also realized that these were historic times, and I should write down what happened so one day my kids could ask me “What The Fuck, Dad?”

I toyed with the idea of doing this blog back in May when Trump fired Comey and Robert Mueller was named the Special Counselor. I was looking into it when news of the June 9 meeting broke, and Donnie Jr proved to be the Dumbest Mother Fucker in the history of Dumb Mother Fuckers. I eventually got around to it in July, and I’ve been here since.

WHAT STAYED THE SAME IN 2017?

This is still the United States of America, a country of laws, not men, or wealth, or personalities.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

I learned not to take the press for granted.

There are quite a few people willing to sacrifice the future for small gains now, and those people must be dealt with. Unfortunately, there are quite a few more of them than I originally thought, and a lot of them have too much money. That doesn’t mean they’re invincible, it means the battle will be that much harder.

Sometimes conspiracies do exist.

A conspiracy is only as strong as the weakest person involved. It’s been 5 months since George Papadopoulos turned States Evidence against the Trump Campaign, and less than a month since Mike Flynn was convicted and flipped. George is a young man who doesn’t want to grow old in jail, and Mike Flynn just became a granddad.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Trump and Russia, but the evidence at this point leads to a conspiracy between them to steal the election in Trump’s favor. Nearly every member of his campaign and transition team either had contact with Russians, or knew about it.

Trump is a micromanaging asshole. No one in his circle does anything without his approval.

Donald Trump is unable or unwilling to change his ways.

The Trump Family is a crime family.

Some laws are easier to convince a jury about than others.

IS THIS WORTH FIGHTING FOR?

Absofuckinglutely. The moment we give in is the moment that everything this country was built on dies.

This is America. Churchill said it best when he said that we will always do the right thing, we’ll just try everything else first.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I want my kids to grow up in a world where the United States is still that shinning city on the hill where dreams can and do come true, where everyone is equal under the law, and a persons worth isn’t measured by their bank account, but the content of their character.

That’s it for today. I hope to be back up and writing on a normal schedule soon. Stuff did happen over the past couple weeks, including a confirmation of sorts that the RNC knew about the Trump Campaign colluding with the Russians, and that they actively took part in targeting specific zip codes, using information gained by Russians.

Thank you, and have a good one.

GTKYG – Chain of Succession

Welcome back to the “Get to Know Your Government” series. Today, I want to talk about a subject that might not be known by too many people outside of history buffs and Constitutional Law scholars, but that I feel will be heading to the forefront of conversation in 2018.

The American Presidential Chain of Succession.

As I covered in GTKYG-Presidential Removal Processes, there are a few ways that a presidency can end prematurely. When that happens, the Vice President assumes the role of President, and under the powers granted to them under the Second Section of the Twenty Fifth Amendment, they are allowed to nominate their choice for Vice President. This happened when Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following Richard Nixon’s resignation.

But, how far does the chain of succession go? What if there were a situation where multiple people died at once, or were removed from office? What happens then?

In that case, it goes down the line to then person in the chain.

Following the President and Vice President, the Speaker of the House is third in line. The Speaker is the elected head of the House of Representatives. That position is currently held by Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin.

After them, it’s the President pro tempore of the Senate. This position is an honorary one, awarded to the Senator who has served the longest in the Senate. Currently, that position is held by Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah.

If, by some chance, all four of these people are unable to assume the presidency, or turn it down, the chain of succession goes through the Cabinet, by order that the position was created, starting with Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General (the original four positions from Washington’s first Cabinet), then through the rest of the positions, in the order that they were added.

CHAIN OF SUCCESSION

Below is a list of those positions, those mentioned above and the Cabinet positions, along with who is in the position, and their party affiliation, if available. OPEN represents that the position is not currently filled, or has an acting head who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.

President Donald Trump (R)
Vice President Mike Pence (R)
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R)
President pro tempore Orrin Hatch (R)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R)
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R)
Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R)
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R)
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue (R)
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R)
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta (R)
Secretary of Health and Human Services OPEN
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PRESIDENT
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I)
Secretary of Homeland Security OPEN

If, and I mean IF, by some infinitesimal chance that everyone in the list above is not able to assume the office of President, then the chain would go through Congress, in order of the leadership bodies first (Majority Leaders, Minority Leaders, Majority Whip, etc.), then through each person in order of their tenure in office.

THE DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

I’m not talking about the ABC show with Keifer Sutherland, but the idea that the show is based off of.

Before any joint session of Congress where the President, Vice President, and Cabinet get together, one member of the Cabinet is chosen to spend the event in a bunker somewhere. They’re taken to a non-disclosed, secure location, where they’re kept under guard. This is in case the unthinkable happens.

In case the Capitol is attacked, and everyone inside is killed.

If that were to happen, then the Designated Survivor would be sworn in as President, and they would be tasked with restaffing and rebuilding the government.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

It’s important to understand how things work, especially the government. If something falls apart, we need to know how it can be fixed.

Really? Ok, here’s why…

We are in uncharted waters with the Russian Investigation. I’ve written many times about how many people are tied up with Russia, or have their own looming legal troubles. There is an above zero percent chance that multiple people in the chain of succession could be indicted at once.

Here’s the list again, along with why they might not be able to, or interested in, taking the presidency.

President Donald Trump (R) – Russia, RICO, Obstruction Investigations
Vice President Mike Pence (R) – Russia and Flynn
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R) – Russia, Money laundering at RNC
President pro tempore Orrin Hatch (R) – Clean, but REALLY OLD
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) – NY Fraud Investigations, Russia
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin (R) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Defense James Mattis (I)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R) – Russia
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (R) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue (R)
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (R) – Russia, tied to Putin family in Paradise Papers, Money Laundering ties with Paul Manafort
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta (R)
Secretary of Health and Human Services OPEN
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson (R)
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (R) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PRESIDENT – Immigrants are not eligible for the Presidency.
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos – Russia.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin (I) – Abuse of Public Trust, Taxpayer Funded Trips
Secretary of Homeland Security OPEN

The craziest of the rumors I’ve heard have Trump, Pence, and Ryan all being indicted and/or removed from office at once. If that happens, then Orrin Hatch would be the next in line, but he’s 83 years old, has hinted at retirement, and reportedly might have dementia or Alzheimer’s. After him, the next clean person in the list is Jim Mattis, Secretary of Defense.

Is it likely that we end up with President Jim Mattis? No. It’s not impossible, but highly unlikely. This is one of those crazy scenarios that just isn’t likely to happen. Then again, I said the same thing about Trump becoming President.

BREAKING THE CHAIN

There is one other part to keep in mind. Remember when I said earlier that if the Vice President becomes the President, they get to choose their own Vice President?

That could come in to play, and could be used to elevate someone up the chain, especially if there is some kind of Quid Pro Quo in place to provide a stable transition of power.

Let’s face it, Mike Pence is likely to become the 46th President of the United States, and it will happen before 2020. If it has to happen, I’d rather it happen late next year. Under the 22nd Amendment, if a Vice President serves more than half of their predecessors term, they can only run for election once. If they serve less than two years of a term, then they could run for two terms. If it’s late enough in the year, he won’t be able to cause too much harm, and will be stuck in his own legal quagmire with Russia.

Assuming Mike Pence comes to power, he would get to choose his own Vice President, pending approval of both houses of Congress. One of the rumors I’ve heard would have him choosing a “safe” choice that would serve as a place holder while he’s going through his own legal mess. Someone who’s integrity isn’t under question, and knows the lay of the land.

And that’s how we could possibly end up with President James Mattis.

Daily Check-In 10/30/2017

Monday.

PAUL MANAFORT, RICK GATES TURN THEMSELVES IN TO THE FBI FOR VARIOUS TAX AND MONEY LAUNDERING RELATED ISSUES.

This may be my new desktop at work. 🙂

Paul Manafort, and his assistant Rick Gates, turned themselves in this morning to the FBI. Paul’s history is well documented on this blog, but Rick caught me off guard. He’s been a lesser name in this whole mess, being Paul’s assistant in Davis Manafort, a senior member of the Trump Inauguration Committee, and the aide to billionaire Tom Barrack.

They turned themselves in to the FBI this morning, and were charged on a dozen indictments, mostly related to tax evasion, money laundering, and failure to register as foreign agents. The scariest sounding one is Conspiracy against the United States, though that is more or less another way of nailing them for tax charges.

Reactions from all over were visceral, with people taking to Twitter, Reddit, and other Social Media today to express their relief that justice, though slow, is moving in the right direction.

Per Steve Reilly from USA Today, the D.C. District Court, where these indictments were executed from, has 4 more “Sealed vs. Sealed” case dockets between number 17-182 (See Next Section for details on George Papadopoulos) and 17-201 (Manafort). 185, 190, 198, and 200 are still sealed. It’s a little bit of a logical leap that these are related cases, but it’s a safe one to make.

Just to show how good Mueller’s team of lawyers are, they were able to successfully petition the court to compel Manafort’s former attorney to testify against him, by arguing that the attorney-client privilege can be waived by the court in the case of a crime of fraud. It was pretty ballsy, and it worked.

Bail was set at $10 million for Manafort, and $5 million for Gates. Keep in mind, bail can only be paid with legally begotten funds, and one of the punishments of money laundering and these other crimes is asset forfeiture.

Might explain why Paul Manafort had a public defender.

The Trump team was very quick to throw Manafort under the bus, saying that he was a bad person when he came in, was bad when he left, and that none of these charges were related directly to the Russia Investigation. Sean Hannity and some other Right Wing Media talking heads joined in the clarion call.

That chorus lasted all of about five minutes, until the news about George Papodopoulos broke.

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS ARRESTED IN JULY, PLED GUILTY IN OCTOBER. WAS COOPERATING WITNESS SINCE HIS ARREST.

Third man in from the left is George Papadopoulos, a 30 year old member of Donald Trump’s campaign, and a senior member of his National Security Task Force.

This picture was taken on March 31, 2016 in the Trump Hotel International in Washington, D.C., and was later put on Trump’s Twitter and Instagram, sans names. A picture with names labeled like this is never good.

George lied to the FBI earlier this year to the FBI about the timing of when he received mails from Russia, and lied about trying to set up a meeting between the Russians and the Trump Campaign.

He was arrested July 27th, and pled guilty on October 5th to a charge of lying to the FBI. He has been a cooperating witness ever since. He gave Mueller all of his mails, all of his files, all of his contacts.

He wore a wire. Anyone that talked to him since July is on tape with the FBI.

Sleep tight, Corey.

TWO COMPANIES IMPLICATED IN MANAFORT INDICTMENT ARE MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND PODESTA GROUP

Two companies were named in the indictment as places that worked with Paul Manafort to spread their messages, Mercury Public Affairs and Podesta Group.

Tony Podesta, head of the Pedesta Group and brother of John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s former Campaign Manager, left his company today.

FACEBOOK SHOWED RUSSIAN CONTENT TO 126 MILLION AMERICANS DURING THE ELECTION

It wasn’t just paid advertising that the Russians used to spread propaganda. They also released thousands of pieces of free information which was shared freely across the web. All in all, this was seen by 126 million Americans.

RUPERT MURDOCH OWNED OUTLETS GO FULL TRUMP TODAY

At this point, it’s no longer a question of if Rupert Murdoch is in deep shit, but how deep it is. Fox News, Fox Business, New York Post, even the Wall Street Journal are joining in to the coordinated circle jerk in an attempt to distract his viewers from the impending storm.

A couple months back, I talked about rumors from Louise and others about how Fox News was under FBI investigation for their role in spreading propaganda. Later, a lawsuit came out alleging that the White House had coordinated stories with Fox News about the Seth Rich killing, right as Robert Mueller was appointed as the Special Counselor.

At this point, Rupert knows he’s screwed. Fox News had the chance months ago to either be a news organization that could own up to their role in things, or become state run propaganda. They chose the latter. Time will show they choose…poorly.

KUSHNER DELETES TWITTER, TAKES UNANNOUNCED TRIP TO SAUDI ARABIA, MARYLAND WANTS A PIECE OF HIM

Is it any shock that over the weekend, after news of the indictments came out, that Jared Kushner deleted his twitter account, and took an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia, under the pretense of securing financing for his 666 Fifth Avenue building?

By the way, Saudi Arabia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, but we do have a crap ton of soldiers there, many of whom are experts in capturing and retrieving persons of interest.

Speaking of interest, Maryland wants to ask him a few questions regarding his shady business practices as a glorified slum-lord. Jared has a bad habit of suing his tenants for small, insignificant things like complaining when their buildings flood, or coming after him for not paying his bills and the sewage gets shut off.

Remember, state charges cannot be pardoned by a President.

TRUMP MEETS WITH PENCE AND SESSIONS FOR LUNCH DAY OF FIRST PUBLIC INDICTMENTS

One way to deal with the impending doom and destruction is to have lunch with the Vice President and Attorney General.

Trump has two moves left in his arsenal, and that is to fire Mueller and pardon everyone. Neither move will be successful, and will end his presidency sooner rather than later. I’ve already described in Pardon Limitations why this won’t work, but it’s his only move left to keep everyone from flipping against him. He is the big fish. George is a minnow.

SPEAKING OF FOOD, RUMOR HAS IT TRUMP STRESS EATS

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Last night, I saw a similar rumor that Trump had ordered the entire menu from Olive Garden over the weekend and was stress eating. I shrugged it off, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised. Multiple insider accounts corroborated these stories.

It would really suck if he died of a heart attack before he can be tried for espionage and treason, which are capital offenses and carry the death penalty.

PUERTO RICO CANCELLED WHITEFISH CONTRACT, FBI BEGINS INVESTIGATION

The Washington Post reports earlier today that the territory of Puerto Rico has cancelled the contract between their electric utility and Whitefish, the two-man company from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s hometown.

To make things even more interesting, the FBI has begun an investigation into this contract, to see if there was any impropriety.

ORRIN HATCH, TREY GOWDY, BOTH CALL TO ALLOW MUELLER TO DO HIS JOB

Senator Orrin Hatch, President Pro Tempre of the Senate called for calmer heads to prevail, and let Robert Mueller do his job. In a separate statement, Trey Gowdy, a long time Trump supporter, receiver of dubiously timed donations, and new head of the House Ethics Committee, also called for everyone to back off and let Mueller do his job.

What I find interesting is Trey saying this, not Orrin. I’ve suspected for a while that Trey is under investigation, and is up to his eyeballs in some crap. Him coming out and saying this tells me that he doesn’t want to be seen as a co-conspirator, or at least wants to distance himself from Trump.

That’s it for today. It was a crazy day, let’s see where tomorrow takes us.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur