Russia Monitor

  “Show me one quote/tweet from Trump personally (1) praising new sanctions on Russians, (2) endorsing lethal weapons to Ukraine (3) supporting more NATO troops near Russia’s border (4) calling for Russia to leave Crimea or (5) criticizing Putin’s anti-democratic policies. Just one.” — Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tweet (1/12/19). ***** “This is not a traditional president. He has unorthodox means but he is President of the United States. It’s pretty much up to him in terms of who he wants to read into his conversations with world leaders.” — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) CNN State of…

  “Donald Trump Delivers a Wet Fart Oval Office Address” — Daily Beast headline from author and Never-Trumper Rick Wilson (1/8/19)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/11/19) Dear Fellow Readers, The most important Wall for Trump is his scramble to protect himself from Trump-Russia corruption news and special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Trump’s latest attempt at deflection needed an ‘A’ game address to change the political dynamics. Without the free-flowing lies of his high-energy rally venues he failed miserably. The point being, there is growing proof of Trump-Russia collusion. Trump is trying to politically run ahead of this…

“It’s pretty clear that what’s driving Trump now isn’t a governing strategy. It isn’t a re-election strategy. It’s a “hold enough of your base to stop the Senate from convicting when the House impeaches” strategy. Trump must expect that the Mueller report will be very bad for him.” — Conservative pundit, author & Never-Trumper Bill Kristol tweet (1/6/19).   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/7/19) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump chaos, Russian information warfare, reelection, impeachment, and — of course — “Build The Wall!” The high notes — or deeply low notes — of the past few days raise a herd of…

  “At times it looked like it might cost them their jobs, their reputations, and maybe even their lives.” — Tagline from All The President’s Men, the 1976 film about two journalists investigating Watergate.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (1/3/18) Dear Fellow Readers, A Commoner Call reader suggested watching the 1976 movie about Nixon and Watergate,  All The President’s Men again. It was a great suggestion. There comes a point late in the movie where Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are told their lives are at risk. They dug in and worked harder. There is a funny exchange where…

  To the extent that Trumpism is a thing, I propose the following definition: “Trumpism (noun): Bad people doing hateful things ineptly.” — Tweet by Riley Roberts (3/6/17)   ***** BREAKING: A caravan of Democrats was spotted heading for the House of Representative’s and will arrive on January 3, 2019. — Tweet by Hear Me Roar‏ @Stop_Trump20 (12/29/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/28/18) Dear Fellow Readers, If want to skip to what might be the single best concise summary to date of Trump-Russia corruption as offered by Daily Kos, near the end. Or… Are you tired of all the winning? We’ll…

  “I alone can fix it.” — Trump from Republican National Convention, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” June 2016. By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/24/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Did anyone imagine that in 2018 this would mean that in one year we’d be experiencing Trump’s third shutdown of the government? Did anyone imagine Trump would head a government managed by an acting Secretary of Defense, an acting Chief of Staff and an acting Attorney General? It’s not only the chaos he’s brought to government, he’s also “sent markets tumbling with…

  “Arguably you sold your country out” — U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan (12/18/18)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/20/18) Fellow Readers, How Trump-Russia has changed. It feels like only yesterday the refrain was a mixed chorus, “Russia, Russia, Russia, too much about Russia – give Trump a chance, Hillary lost because she never visited Wisconsin, liberals need to own their responsibility for bringing about Trump”. It’s like a scene change and the chorus now sings, “Russia, Russia, Russia, ‘you’ need to see the big picture, we need to broaden our view, it was never all about Russia,…

  “Everything Trump Touches Dies” — Book Title by former Republican campaign consultant and Never-Trumper, Rick Wilson. ***** “Mr. Trump’s repeated lies cannot contradict stubborn facts.” — Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis on CBS News. ***** By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/17/18) Dear Fellow Readers, “Everything Trump Touches Dies” Given the non-stop horrible news for Trump over the last several days it seems that this observation applies directly to Trump and his family. There are many attempts to summarize and we’ll work with this one: Mounting Legal Threats Surround Trump As Nearly Every Organization He Has Led Is Under…

  “I love treason, but I hate a traitor.” — Gaius Julius Caesar ***** “I think people would revolt.” — Donald Trump during Reuters interview in the Oval Office (12/11/18) ***** “When you come at the king, you best not miss.” — Omar Little, drug dealer character on The Wire.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/13/18) Dear Fellow Readers, These three quotes reflect where we now stand with Trump-Russia and what must be done. How deep does Trump’s guilt run? How much shit will Trump throw at the fan to fight the consequences? Will the rule of law prevail or…

  “This has been the most consequential day of the Mueller investigation.” — NBC News investigator Ken Dilanian (12/7/18)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/10/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, guilty of a federal crime of violating campaign finance law and there is proof of collusion between Trump and Russia. There were three different court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday. Though they were procedural there were enough facts and clues to make it clear that the Trump-Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has the goods on Trump – there is more than…

  “This memo is more blacked out than Brett Kavanaugh on a school night.” — Trevor Noah, The Daily Show, tweet (12/4/18)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (12/6/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The former Trump National Security Adviser and retired 3-star U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to a single charge of lying to the FBI following investigation of influencing U.S. foreign policy to benefit Turkey and coordinating in secret with Russia to negotiate a quid pro quo deal related to U.S. sanctions against Russia; these sanctions were in place prior to those related to Russian influence…

  “This is literally the “I am not a crook” tweet:”  @realDonaldTrump FollowFollow @realDonaldTrump “Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail…” — David Frum re-tweet of Donald Trump tweet 11/30/18 ***** “I have no deals … because I think that would be a conflict.” — Trump denial during presidential transition press conference. ***** “People…

  The Daily Podcast / The New York Times (11/30/18) Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, has pleaded guilty to lying about Mr. Trump’s business ties to Russia and has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel investigation. It’s the second time this week that a subject of the inquiry has been charged with lying. On today’s episode: Michael S. Schmidt, who has been covering the special counsel investigation for The New York Times. Background reading: Mr. Cohen admitted on Thursday to making false statements to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and about Mr. Trump’s involvement in…

  Empire Files (11/28/18) In this exclusive extended interview, Randy Credico tells his side of the story on his role in the Russia investigation, his upcoming interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and true nature of his relationship with Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone. With never before revealed details about Roger Stone and the Mueller investigation, Credico details his long-standing ties to the political operative and answers the hard questions about his alleged coordination with Wikileaks. The interview highlights the larger context of the multi-front assault on Julian Assange, Wikileaks and the future of press freedom. Link to 44-Minute Video

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/29/18) Dear Fellow Readers, We’ll open with a conclusion – Trump is in trouble. If you want the short version of ‘why’, jump to the end. For anyone seeking a simple linear narrative for Trump-Russia corruption the last 48 is not that. Three big stories landed followed by a plethora of refinements, interpretations and cautions. We’ll point out what happened, why it could be important and some reasons for caution. Diving into the deep end: Mueller Has Emails From Stone Pal Corsi About WikiLeaks Dem Email Dump. Jerome Corsi is a far-right conspiracy theorist best…

“The pseudo-sophisticated defenders of Trump’s assaults on judges, scientists, and civil servants try to give his crude attacks a patina of respectability. But nihilism isn’t skepticism and being a know-nothing isn’t being unconventional, no matter what his defenders pretend.” — Bill Kristol tweet (11/25/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/26/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The sides are drawn. We need to understand the battle for what it is, and be on the right side. Who better to describe the battle lines than former Trump senior adviser and campaign chairman Steve Bannon. Bannon is spending most of his time in Europe,…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call. (11/22/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump believes he is above the law. Despite his shady conduct during the campaign and his often illegal behavior in the White House, so far he’s right. Will that last, will history have him as above the law? What does a single day in the Trump White House look like? In order of breaking news: 1) Trump dismisses the findings of his CIA to side with Saudi Arabia over their murder of journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi;  2) Trump adviser and daughter Ivanka Trump illegally (based on GOP…

  “His 3-hour workday is about to go bye-bye” — CNN conservative reveals how Trump prepping for ‘rectal exam’ from House Dems By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/19/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Because it’s too good, and with the help of a Commoner Call reader, we use the above headline from a RawStory article to summarize the current Trump-Russia corruption climate. “It’s about to get harder without Republicans controlling all the levers his three-hour workday is about to go bye-bye,” she said (CNN S.E. Cupp). “With Democrats retaking the House, the next two years will be the equivalent of a…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/15/18) Dear Fellow Readers, It’s been a relatively quiet news cycle since Trump rage-tweeted his way to France and back. Filling the void has been a drip-drip of new Dem election victories as close races are decided. One that won our nomination for most notable was: Democrat Kyrsten Sinema Wins Arizona Senate Race, Flipping Second GOP Seat. Regardless of who won, Arizona was going to have its first female Senator. Kyrsten Sinema’s opponent was Republican Martha McSally who embraced Trump through the election, but unlike Florida Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott, she and state…

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. By saying “our interests first”…. we erase what a nation hold dearest…its Moral Values.” — French President Macron at Armistice celebration with Trump seated before him, Nov. 11, 2018.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/12/18) Dear Fellow Readers, With a sigh of relief from the election results and opinions that there is a safe path for special counsel Mueller’s Trump-Russia corruption investigation, we can go forward. Trump took a few days off from his presumptive role as Secretary of State for Georgia, Florida and Arizona…

  “It’s danger time.” — Former US Attorney Southern District New York Preet Bharara tweet (11/7/18).   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/8/18) Dear Fellow Readers, As a wise man once asked, “Now what?” Within hours of the dust settling on the mid-term elections we have: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Resigns At Trump’s Request. As expected, Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III is out. “Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned on Wednesday at President Trump’s request, ending the tenure of a loyalist Trump had soured on shortly after Sessions took office in 2017 because the former senator from Alabama had recused himself…

  “This time, our eyes are wide open.” — Dana Milbank, “We Have No Excuses”, Washington Post (11/2/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/5/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Will there be new Trump-Russia subpoenas brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office after next week? Let’s come back to this. Mid-term elections are Tuesday. In advance Dana Milbank offers a view of how we got here and what we now know about Trump. We’re well past a point two years ago when “many Americans held their noses and voted for Donald Trump”. Milbank offers his own litany of Trump actions but it’s…

  “In Georgia’s upcoming gubernatorial election, popular confidence is threatened not only by the undeniable racial discrimination of the past and the serious questions that the federal courts have raised about the security of Georgia’s voting machines, but also because you are now overseeing the election in which you are a candidate.” — Former President Jimmy Carter calls on GOP Georgia gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp to step down as Georgia Secretary of State By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (11/1/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Within a week we will know the results of the mid-term election and whether we have any…

  “The president is now inventing nonexistent domestic riots.” — Daniel Dale, Toronto Star reporter tweet (10/20/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/22/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Trump is a liar. His lies are now offered with no attachment to reality, they are getting bigger, more frequent and his GOP apologists either fully embrace or duck for cover. Other than our own sanity, there are few if any checks on Trump’s grandiosity. Classic fascism in which the leader portrays himself as the only solution to self-invented risks and fears, always from the dreaded ‘other’. Trump’s performance as president — we…

  “Frequently people who go along a treasonous path do not know they are on a treasonous path until it is too late.” — John Brennan, former Director CIA, May 2017 By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/15/18) Dear Fellow Readers, In March 2017 House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) led the first committee to hold a public hearing on Trump-Russia corruption. Nunes has suffered repeated catastrophic failures while trying to quash and deflect any consideration of Trump-Russia, this was to be one of his most infamous failures. Nunes called then FBI Director James Comey as one of the…

  Author David Cay Johnston on Trump: “The people he brought in, want to destroy the existing order, they HATE the United States of America. We have a president who is not a loyal citizen… There was an ongoing conspiracy… between the Kremlin and the Trump Administration.” Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston’s latest book, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think”, Video.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/8/18) Dear Fellow Readers, This is a summary collection of lengthy reporting and writing that takes us convincingly and in great detail through the history of Trump’s ‘comeback’ fortune…

  “He was simply a spy. A traitor to the motherland. He‘s simply a scumbag, that’s all.“ — Russian President Vladimir Putin (10/4/18). By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/4/18) Dear Fellow Readers, It is a common trait of strongman nationalists to enforce order and attack their opponents. This is more than political hardball and Trump has brought this to the U.S. Trump demurs and says, “many sides” and his cult nods, smiles, laughs and stand with him because they hate the same things — the same people. When Trump offers his “many sides” with a smirk and a shoulder shrug…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (10/1/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news cycle has been — and will be this next week — dominated by Trump SCOTUS nominee Federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings including testimony accusing the nominee of sexual assault from Dr. Christine Blassey Ford. One important point that could well have been missed was an action taken by the American Bar Association to downgrade Kavanaugh’s judicial rating following concerns about ““his professional experience and the question of his freedom from bias and open-mindedness.” Questions were raised about his “ability to be balanced and fair”, one interviewee described him…

“Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration. They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.” — Trump to UN Security Council (9/26/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/27/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Along with all the accusations of Russian hacking and claims of U.S. ‘readiness’ ,Trump offers his own news that it’s China we have to watch because “they do not want me to win”. It’s hard to take anything at face…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/24/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news this cycle is complex. We’ll start with the most important which also turns out to be the easiest to present – the New York Times has produced an impactful summary of ‘how we got here’. So in this order: Timeline of Russia’s Unprecedented Interference in the 2016 Election Payments Made Before and After Donnie Jr.’s Trump Tower Meeting with Russians The Lying and ‘Correction’ by Trump’s Former (pleaded guilty) National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s Assistant – K.T. McFarland New Trump-Russia Book and a Chance to Directly Question…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/20/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The news is dominated by a negotiation over whether the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee will give a fair hearing to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford over her accusations that SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her during a party in the 1980’s. Eleven Republicans make up the majority on the committee; all of them are men. One in particular was on the committee when Anita Hill testified about sexual harassment perpetrated by now SCOTUS Judge Clarence Thomas. That hearing was a circus, a travesty of injustice to Hill and…

    “Manafort has flipped! BOOM (the sound of broomsticks breaking the sound barrier crashing to earth – NO witches). The entire Trump family now in jeopardy. No pardon for Paul from Trump. No nice things to say about Mansfort by Rudy. Nightmares at the White House will be unending.” — Onetime Nixon White House attorney of Watergate fame John Dean tweet (9/14/18) By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/17/18) Dear Fellow Readers, On Friday Trump campaign chariman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty. This is in addition to his recent conviction on eight federal criminal charges. Manafort’s plea deal says he…

“You’re a fucking liar.” — Former Trump lawyer John Dowd, “something he could not bring himself to say to the president”, from Bob Woodward’s ‘FEAR, Trump in the White House’.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/13/18) Dear Fellow Readers, Are Trump’s lies catching up with him? While most Americans somberly reflected on September 11 Trump managed to draw negative attention including much attention to past statements and claims about 9/11 over the years. We’re reminded of Trump’s complete lack of empathy, in this instance he was interviewed that same day by Alan Marcus for WWOR: What Trump & Clinton Did On…

  “Well, for one thing, everyone’s wrapped up in the guessing game. But the underlying problem remains: Republicans don’t want to know what’s wrong and don’t want to conduct oversight. There can be no better reason to throw them out of power than their unwillingness to perform basic duties — defending our constitutional system of elected government…” — Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post (9/7/18)   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/10/18) Dear Fellow Readers, We’ll begin where we left off with the last edition with commentary on the New York Times Op-Ed written by someone senior in the Trump…

    By Martin Cizmar The Raw Story (9/7/18) Jack Bryan, the director behind a new documentary on Trump’s Russian connections, Active Measures, appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night to discuss his movie. Bryan’s film starts with Putin’s playbook, and how he’s been able to undermine other democracies. It then goes into Trump’s history as a desperate and failing businessman. “It’s almost inevitable that they would figure in each other’s lives like this, the stooge and the puppet-master,” Maher said. “He’s the perfect mark, is he not?” Bryan explained that Russian intelligence looks for susceptible marks…

  “The greatest threat facing the United States is its own president.” — David Rothkopf, Washington Post opinion (7/4/18) ) ***** “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.” — Quote in Bob Woodward’s book “Fear:Trump In The White House” regarding advice from then Trump attorney John Dowd to his client regarding the wisdom of testifying before Mueller investigation.   By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/6/18) Dear Fellow Readers, The nod for this column goes to Watergate journalist and author Bob Woodward with his new book, ‘Fear: Trump in the White House’. The book will be officially released on September 11 but…

  By Dan Peak The Commoner Call (9/3/18) Dear Fellow Readers, We’ll look at two subjects related to Trump-Russia corruption. There are several recent polls that bode poorly for Trump. But we’ll start with an update on Trump’s “witch hunt”. Before we jump in let’s take note of the handful of Trumpsters that were either disinvited or rued for their attendance at the memorial service for Sen. John McCain: Three Men Unfit To Eulogize John McCain. In another sign of the shift, Trump was not invited to speak. In fact Trump was disinvited. Instead there was this lame attempt by Pence…