The Trump Presidency VI: Stormy Weather

Was? In many ways that line of thinking is being used to great effect right now.

 

LOL

Well, yeah... fair point!

 

I saw a great comment on the facebooks today. "If I saw my son hit another kid with a stick - I take away the stick."

 

So would Moscow Golden Showers get an X?

 

The Trump administration wants to let Sheldon Adelson pay for moving our embassy to Jerusalem.

 

It's more likely that McMaster is looking for a landing place. Trump could give a shit about it. About the only positions that would be seen as a step up are a COCOM or one of the top two spots in the Army or Joint Chiefs.

 

And here I was going to call BS on this one.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-sheldon-adelson-jerusalem-embassy/366223002/

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson to pay for at least part of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, four U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

Lawyers at the State Department are looking into the legality of accepting private donations to cover some or all of the embassy costs, the administration officials said. The discussions are occurring as the new embassy clears its final bureaucratic hurdles. On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended weeks of delay by signing off on a security plan for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city, according to the officials, who weren’t authorized to discuss the issue publicly and demanded anonymity.​

​

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Godot

 

That was my breakout role in college. Not often would they give the title character to a novice actor, but I landed the part, and totally nailed it.

 

"The only thing that stops a bad kid with a stick, is a good kid with a stick"?!?
NSA-National (Hitting Guys with) Sticks Association.


"The only thing stops a bad kid with a stick, is a good guy with a gun!"
-Wayne LaPierre, NRA

 

Trump pardoning Manafort would be the worst thing that he can do.. For one, Manafort can no longer plead the fifth when under oath as he literally can't incriminate himself. As a result, Manafort can be compelled to testify against Trump truthfully and in full. For two, given one, if it turns out that Manafort has incriminating testimony against Trump and Trump pardoned him, Mueller has Trump on obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy...

Trump's best course of action is to ride it out and hope that Manafort doesn't flip on him and/or something happens to Manafort before he can flip on him.

 

I dunno, man.. I get that Gates has a lot more reason to flip (young family, etc), but Manafort is looking at spending the rest of his life in prison.. I get that it is white collar prison, but it is still going to be a massive step down in lifestyle for Manafort and that has meaning to people.

It also depends on what Mueller is going after here.. If he is going after Trump, then flipping Manafort to testify on criminal activity by Trump could be worth it..

 

That other choice though is having an encounter with a Russian assassin.

 

That sounds like pardoning Manafort would be the BEST thing Trump could do...best for the world, not so good for "the Donald."

 

Considering for deep in debt Manafort is, it might be a step up to sleeping in the gutters.

 

One of the counts is for making a false statement February 1. That was the same day the news broke about him and his legal team breaking up.

It sounds like he was working out a plea deal at the time and lied during that process. I don’t know how common that is but my rough guess is, pretty close to never.

 

I don't think he needs Manafort and I think Manafort is such a criminal that you can't give him a slap on the wrist.

Manafort is the tool by which Russia was hoping to influence Trump, so he has to go down if you are trying to clean house. You only give him a plea option if your only target is Trump, and Mueller isn't conducting a witch hunt.

 

Oh please.. How many mobsters were let off the hook because they were willing to flip on their mob bosses? If FBI/DOJ can get a bigger fish, they are more than willing to let smaller fish off.

I would think that if he gives Mueller a plea deal it shows that he is going after more than just Trump. It has been rumored that Mueller is going after Trump's financials, which might indicate that Mueller is looking into the allegations that Trump has been laundering money for the Russian mafia. If Mueller can get Manafort to flip on Trump and that gives Mueller access to Trump's financials, he could then use that to go after the Russian mafia.. Not only that, but Manafort allegedly laundered money for Russia's intelligence services, if they can get Manafort's help on that front as well? Man, Mueller could go down in history as the man that took down a sitting US president and seriously damaged the intelligence operations of a hostile foreign country..

 

Manafort isn't an underling. He didn't do crimes that Trump is ultimately responsible for. He's the top (or at least a top). He's the American most responsible for allowing Russian influence to enter America.

If you want to be known as the second, then you have to punish people who are part of that. This is bigger than Trump.

 

You're forgetting...collusion is not a crime (is that what they're going with this week?)