“Russia is waging an information warfare campaign against the U.S. that didn’t start and didn’t end with the 2016 election. Their goal is broader: to sow societal discord and erode public confidence in the machinery of government. By flooding social media with false reports, conspiracy theories, and trolls, and by exploiting existing divisions, Russia is trying to breed distrust of our democratic institutions and our fellow Americans.”
— Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) (10/8/19)
*****
“In no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters. Likewise our relationship with Turkey, a NATO and Trading partner, has been very good.”
— Trump tweeting after universal criticism over allowing Turkey to attack the Kurds
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“While the president has publicly faced allegations from two dozen women, this book reveals another 43 allegations of alleged inappropriate behavior, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact. In this exclusive excerpt from All the President’s Women, Levine and El-Faizy investigate an alleged wave of unwanted touching that preceded his proposal to Melania Knauss, including a disturbing instance of groping at Mar-a-Lago.”
— Assistant Esquire Editor Adrienne Westenfeld introducing review of All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator (10/9/19)
By Dan Peak
The Commoner Call (10/10/19)
Dear Fellow Readers,
- Russian Attacks on US elections.
- Trump abandons ally, ISIS-fighting Kurds.
- Trump as serial sexual predator.
- Impeachment of Trump.
That’s it on a news day when Trump seems to have misplaced his smart phone.
In order, with what may be the single example of bi-partisan work, the sub-head reads: GOP-led panel endorses finding that Russia interfered to help Donald Trump.
Bipartisan Senate report calls for sweeping effort to prevent Russian interference in 2020 election
That’s right, the quote is from committee chair Sen. Burr (R-NC), a Republican. He and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) have mostly worked well together to reach their conclusions to confirm that Russia interfered to benefit Trump and continues to interfere.
This is in stark contrast to other Republican actions. Trump attorney general and personal lawyer Richard Burr is globe-trotting to organize his own conclusion of what ‘REALLY’ happened in 2016. Other Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was forced play his hand before he wanted to, admitting to a ruse that the REAL story was Ukraine influence in the 2016 to benefit Clinton. Senate Leader ‘Moscow’ Mitch McConnell was cornered into allowing passage of a bill to provide $250 million to protect elections but refused to even dictate basic protections like auditable paper trails for voting machines. In other words, a token appropriation that is not meant to fix anything.
This release of a second election interference report follows a report of Trump haranguing UK Prime Minister Theresa May before he “disputed her intelligence community’s conclusion that Putin’s government had orchestrated the attempted murder and poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil”. Meanwhile, “Western security officials” describe the Russian murder of a former Russian spy as the actions of “an elite unit inside the Russian intelligence system skilled in subversion, sabotage and assassination. The group, known as Unit 29155…”
It’s amazing the picture you get from people that know something as compared to Trump’s inventions and whimsy.
*****
Chaos in Syria, Washington after Trump call with Erdogan unleashed Turkish military
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Finally, what is the path forward for impeachment?
Trump’s all-out blockade threatens Democrats’ impeachment drive.
One of the flaws with Mueller’s report was his decision to not force the president to answer questions face-to-face. Trump has learned, it’s Okay to lie to the public, it’s Okay to lie to the media, but don’t lie under oath. So if he does shoot someone on 5th Avenue, he’s happened on a simple defense – you can’t investigate a sitting president and to prove it, he’s making it as impossible as he can to avoid investigation through universal obstruction.
Politico calls this “minimum cooperation, maximum confrontation”. Much like Trump has found his Roy Cohn with Barr, he’s also found a White House counsel who sees his role as solely protecting Trump, unlike former White House counsel Don McGahn who cited “crazy shit” he wouldn’t do and eventually resigned. This counsel sees no such line.
“Trump dramatically upped the political ante on Tuesday, with White House counsel Pat Cipollone blasting the Democrasts’ impeachment inquiry as “illegal” and “dangerous,” and insisting the administration won’t cooperate with a probe it considers constitutionally improper.”
Extraordinary legal positions – on every front. Trump’s DoJ is trying to “deny a House Judiciary Committee request for grand-jury materials from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation”. The DoJ defense is that Nixon “in 1974 should not have given Congress materials from the Watergate grand jury”. Chief U.S. District Judge Howell responded with, “Wow, okay. As I said, the department is taking extraordinary positions in this case.”
There are the votes in the House to impeach Trump. Public opinion has swung heavily in favor of impeaching and even removing Trump from office. One poll even has 28% of Republicans supporting the inquiry and 18% seeing him removed from office.
But as we see daily, Trump’s defense is to mount a Constitutionally invalid defense while offering no cooperation and letting every challenge wind endlessly through legal process.
The challenge for the impeachment path forward does not improve by citing endless current examples. So instead, I will leave you with this final fact.
Trump-Russia – every Trumpster had their Russian and vice versa. While not exactly the same, note that Pat Cipollone graduated from Kentucky-based Covington Catholic High School, “the same Kentucky high school that has come under scrutiny after an encounter between Covington students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and a Native American elder went viral”.
Ongoing Russian election attacks. Trump abandons our steadfast ally in the battle against ISIS Kurds. New accusations of Trump as a serial sexual predator. Lock the White House doors – these guys would never have turned over the Nixon tapes.
Final note; a tweet from Esquire columnist Charles Pierce on Wednesday afternoon:
“Everything you knew was going to happen is happening in northern Syria. Turkey is blowing the hell out of it. The Russians are cheering. And the Kurds, sold out by another American president, are running for cover.”