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Like Nate Cohn said the night of the 2016 election when it became clear Clinton was in trouble in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, you can panic now. It’s never been clearer that there is a battle for the soul of America. The only way to win is for the Democrats to take over Congress in November. If we fail then Trump consolidates his illegitimate regime. I made this point this morning regarding Giuliani: it’s clear Rudy is playing not a legal but a political strategy. Like he says the only real question is wether to impeach or not to impeach. 

UPDATE: This question remains fraught and unclear over a year later with a Dem House-will the Dems stand for the Rule of Law or will they stand for-dubious-political expediency?

Put UPDATE at bottom?

https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/01/2018-is-the-most-important-election-of-our-lifetime-as-democracy-and-legitimacy-itself-is-on-the-ballot/

If God forbid, the GOP holds onto Congress then we lose our country for a generation. Then wether Trump literally fires Mueller or not, the investigation will be shelved. Mueller hands off his report to the GOP Congress who respond ‘Gee, that sure is great. It doesn’t prove collusion though’ and file it away at the back of some closet some where, never to see the light of day again. And so it is, that an illegitimate election will be allowed to stand-there will not be closure, there will not be accountability.

Same thing with Paul Manafort-like Giuliani, he’s betting big on a GOP win this fall. It’s his only hope at a pardon-he’s placed all his chips on the square marked pardon.[1] He either hits an inside straight-the odds against which are very high in poker-or he’s going to prison for a long time. Or should I say, he’s going to stay in prison-as he’s already there and will be staying there at least through his trial after the current one in Alexandria which just started.

https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/01/the-big-picture-on-the-paul-manafort-trial-there-really-are-no-coincidences-in-law-enforcement/

Like I argued in the post above, democratic legitimacy itself is on the ballot in 2018. Even Morning Joe now understands that:

And as I wrote this this morning, as if on cue, illegitimate President Trump again lashed out. It’s ironic as in a sense he could have just hung back and allowed others to make the argument that Paul Manafort’s tax evasion and fraudlent bank loans are pretty far afield from Russian collusion. But he couldn’t help himself-self discipline and restraint is not really his thing. He declared the Manafort trial a ‘witch hunt’ and demanded Jeff Sessions bring the special counsel to an end. 

“President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, one of the most direct demands he has made of the Justice Department to stop the probe since it began.”

“Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!” the president said in a morning tweet.

Trump is once again lying about a ‘witch hunt’ that has already seen 26 indictments-unlike say Benghazi or Emailgate. As for the myth of the Angry Democrats-even though almost everyone in the FBI is a Republican-Comey, Andy McCabe, Robert Mueller… -he’s now saying there are 17, whereas the talking point was 13 for many months. He can claim it’s a 100 Angry Democrats-that will simply make it an even bigger lie. It’s questionable if there are 17 Democrats at the FBI.

But, as has been noted, he doesn’t act like an innocent man. If he were innocent he’d let Mueller do his work which would inevitably clear him. Indeed, superficially, the Manafort trial doesn’t have much to do with Russian collusion. But for Trump to lash out like this suggests he knows on some level it’s totally connected to Russian collusion and that Mueller must have the goods on him.

But again-not in a way that makes you frantic, but in a way that stops us from being desensitized, you can panic now. We have to take a step back and appreciate how unprecedented Trump’s words are. He’s never explicitly called for the end of the special counsel again.

“Sessions, during a speech in Arkansas about violent crime later Wednesday, appeared to joke about the tweet, musing about how Trump can send orders out “pretty quick.”

“The day I was sworn in as Attorney General, President Trump sent me a clear order. He can send out orders pretty quick. And, you know, he’s serious about it and we salute. But this is one I really embraced, I got to tell you. He told me ‘reduce crime in America,’” Sessions said.

Sessions continues to act like a clown-like when he recently ‘joked’ about locking up Clinton at a Trump rally. Apparently he’s really hurt morale at the DOJ; people don’t get why he neither defends himself or the agency.

FN: Andy McCabe’s lawsuit over his vindictive firing is now under way-Sessions is who fired him for-get this-lack of candor. Sessions of all people upset over lack of candor. 

 

End of FN

In her afternoon press conference Sarah Huckabee Sanders used a common tactic of Trump defenders and enablers-it was just a tweet. Trump’s tweet, she asserted was not an order just Trump’s opinion. 

How many times have we seen this story? Pompeo spent a good deal of time quibbling with Bob Menendez and Chris Murphy in his recent Senate testimony before admitting that Trump’s tweets are policy. 

Now Sanders, Sessions-and Giuliani-are again playing this shell game. Meanwhile when you ask Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell they tell us there’s no need to protect Mueller as he won’t be fired.

UPDATE: Post Whittaker they continue to sing this sad song as McConnell refuses to allow Jeff Flake’s bill to protect Mueller to come to the floor. McConnell is supposedly certain Trump won’t fire Mueller-what about rolling it back where the investigation is sidelined in all but name? If McConnell were really so confident what would be the danger to passing this bill-in that case you simply wouldn’t have to use it.

Back to NBC News:

A bipartisan congressional effort to pass legislation to protect Mueller’s position appeared to hit a dead end earlier this year when GOP leadership in both chambers said they would not bring the measure up for a full vote. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said at the time that he believed such a bill was “unnecessary” because, “based on the kinds of conversations we have had,” he believed that the president would not take steps to remove the special counsel.

In truth there’s only one way to make protect this investigation and get some real closure and accountability on what happened in our elections in 2016 and that’s elect a Democratic Congress. If it’s up to the GOP he really could get away with standing on 5th Avenue and shooting someone.

UPDATE: That has now happened. There will be a Democratic Congress that will be ready to hit the ground running as long as the Dems don’t destroy themselves in a needless firing squad trying to bring down the most successful Dem House leader since 1974.

Mueller wasn’t fired though Bob Barr’s fake exoneration letter offered up before we saw the report was all too successful thanks in large part because of the absurdly credulous MSM.

There has been speculation that Mueller may have been forced to close up early, based on a statement by a Right wing operative that with Barr coming in the investigation ‘was over’-though  Mueller denied this at his July 24 hearing. Still there is the fact that Barr shutdown a SDNY investigation into wether to charge Trump with the hush money payments his fixer is in prison for three years for. 

UPDATE: For more from the justice not done box log, while few will shed tears for Harvey Epstein his ‘suicide’ is pretty convenient for powerful people who now may escape justice.

 

  1. He's now serving a 7 and a half year prison term with more state charges. Clearly he's all in on a pardon ↵

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