That's all folks!

  
Do we dare hope?  Is Robert Mueller about finished with his investigation?  Please?

With congressional mid-term elections just a little over 3 months away, Special Counsel Robert Mueller will either have to wrap up his investigation soon, or hold it over until after the election.  A final report out immediately before the election is not going to happen, particularity after Comey botched a similar situation back it '16.  The Democrats are probably hoping for the former.  Both say their position, whether pro or anti Trump, will be vindicated.  I predict....only Robert Mueller knows. *wink*

Seriously, it seems to me Prez Trump's only hope to avoid the political guillotine is for the economy to continue to boom.  "It's the economy, stupid" has never been more true.  That's overwhelmingly what the 40% who avidly support him tout about him.  Truth is, he has indeed helped the economy stretch its 10 year rebound from the Great Depression of '08, but he is really just riding the recovery coat tale.  Not that Obama fixed it either....the economy had little place to go but up after our $%^&# crooked bankers nearly tanked us all.

I think Trump and his team will be in a world of hurt when Mueller makes his findings known publicly.  There is ample evidence that at least some of those around Trump were duped by Putin and his intelligence people.  The Russians originally recruited Trump's team, not the other way around.   Still, Trump's team didn't walk away, and may have even taken the Rooskie's bait to Trump personally, and when the "implied" offer of help was accepted....BOOM!  Putin has likely been reeling him in ever since.  Or Trump's vulnerability may go back several decades with Russian money financing his businesses after US banks told him they'd had enough of his fast-and-loose financial shenanigans.  We'll see.

And if Mueller does in fact indict some of Trump's team, or his family (Jr, Jared?)....well, the plot thickens.  With something like a 95%+ successful prosecution record, the smart money will be betting on Mueller to win this one, too.  And that's IF Mueller and the DOJ (Rosenstein) agree a sitting president can not be indicted.  If they puncture the presidential shield of prosecution....YIKES!....Watergate redux!  Look for popcorn sales to skyrocket!  *snort*

But not to worry.  We'll survive this, too, whatever happens.  I'm pretty sure.  :)

S

Gee thanks, Facebook

Does anyone understand this Cambridge Analytica / Facebook thing?  I think I've figured it out, and if it's what I think, it pegs my Stink-O-Meter!

It seems a few years ago Facebook began prohibiting companies from secretly mining information from Facebook users for commercial purposes.  They would, however, allow member mining for academic purposes.  That's when the geeks and financial backers of what became Cambridge Analytica combined efforts with a British academic who had a waiver to mine Facebook accounts and began their covert invasion of our privacy.

They offered an app to Facebook users whereby they could get a personality profile of themselves, and the offer was accepted by 270,000+/- people.  What they didn't realize was that Cam Anal (appropriate acronym) also gained access to all their friends, and their friend's friends, and their friend's friend's friends, etc.  They could then see how many "likes" and "angry" responses they left on which stories, and over time establish a profile of them all.  For example, if someone consistently "liked" stories on gun control or immigration reform, they were deemed liberal.  "Liked" views on ICE roundups or our terrible trade deficits were deemed conservative.  They eventually knew more about individual Facebook users than their spouses did, or so they claimed.

Eventually Cam Anal *snicker* developed a very good idea of what 40-50 MILLION Americans thought about various issues.  They were able to micro-analyze individual towns and even precincts. 

Here's where it gets sticky:  The major financial backer for all this was the ultra-conservative Mercer family, the same Mercer's who funded Breitbart and Steve Bannon.  They even made Bannon a VP at Cam Anal.  (Steve Bannon eventually became a senior advisor to Donald Trump.)  Cam Anal then began marketing themselves to like-minded conservative candidates such as Ted Cruz and later, Donald Trump.  Then they kicked it up a notch by trying to influence voters by putting out bogus news stories (aka Fake News) to Facebook users that were read and "liked" and "shared" by their friends, over and over.

I remember seeing one from a veteran who told of how Donald Trump's Tower Air once sent a plane to pick up stranded soldiers in the Mideast after the Gulf War, and how he will always be grateful to Trump for his kind gesture.  Knowing something about the airline biz, my BS meter shot up.  I checked it out and found it was totally false.  Trump never had an interest in Tower Air at all.  He did own the short-lived Trump Shuttle, but they never transported soldiers home from overseas.  (You can read about it for yourself here.)

By using tricks like this they were able to identify disgruntled / undecided voters in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio in particular, and flip (some of) these historically Democratic voters to Donald Trump in the general election.  Cam Anal determined what they wanted to hear, and then put out fake news stories to pull them in.

The plot thickens:  enter the conspiracy theorists. Remember a few months ago when Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 individuals and several companies in Russia for interfering in our 2016 election?  They were accused of planting fake stories on a micro-level, much of it aimed at the same voters in PA, MI, and OH that Cam Anal / Trump were also targeting.  How did they know which micro-level voters to target unless they were receiving guidance from Cam Anal / Trump?  If that connection can be made by Mueller, that's the collusion smoking gun he's been looking for.

Evidence suggests Facebook knew of this privacy violation several years earlier and did nothing about it.  Cam Anal says they deleted all this illegally obtained information long ago, but now a whistle blower, one of the original founders of the company, says not true.  He says that personal info WAS the company.  Without that, they would have nothing to offer to potential customers.

Gee thanks, Facebook!

S

Everyone has an agenda

Our national attention span seems to last only few days at a time.  The media reports one thing, President Trump says another, and it's into the pit we go for another round of mud wrestling.  Then the next week we're on to something else.

Our most recent bout with dysfunction resolves around whether the FBI used the infamous Steele dossier (written by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele) as the basis for obtaining a FISA court order allowing eavesdropping on the Trump campaign in 2016.  

Republicans say that Mr Steele was working for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was in turn being paid by the Democratic National Committee, and that his dossier should therefore automatically be considered biased and invalid.  "No Steele dossier, no FISA court order, no FBI spying, case dismissed" they say.  The Democrats....wait for it....disagree!  *BIG shock*

Brief background:  The investigation by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS on Donald Trump was initially funded by a conservative political website, and was later picked up and funded by the Democrats after Trump emerged as the probable Republican nominee.  Fusion GPS contracted with Steele, asking him to use his foreign connections to investigate Trump.  Following Trump's election funding from the Democrats ceased, but Steele continued working on the report, with financing coming directly from Fusion GPS principal Glen Simpson. 

Lost in all this "yes he did...no he didn't" BS is this:  Is the information contained in the dossier true?  If the collection of 17 memos, aka "the dossier", written by Steele between June and December 2016 are accurate, then I personally don't care who paid for it.  I don't want Russia worming their way into our election system, and possibly into a position where they can blackmail a candidate they helped.   

We're not talking about a friendly Australia or Canada or even Spain here folks....but RUSSIA!  Russia is NOT our friend.  Vladimir Putin longs to see Russia elevated back to the level of power and prestige enjoyed by the old Soviet Union.  Contrary to popular myth, Russia in NOT a great  economic power today.  In fact, Russia's GDP is roughly equal to that of the state of California.  Their ace card, of course, is that they still possess a massive nuclear arsenal, and they are rapidly modernizing their conventional military forces as well.

Putin alone controls Russia.  The billionaire business oligarchs inside Russia operate with the approval and support of Vladimir Putin, and they in turn know that when Putin calls, they respond.  Nobody crosses him.  (The few that have tried have found themselves charged with "tax evasion" and locked up, or worse.)  Think of it as an old-school organized crime family.  Russia's objective is to weaken (mainly) the United States, NATO, and the European Union any way possible.  If the West bickers and fractures, Russia benefits.

This is a serious position we're in today.  Much is at stake.  Anyone who doesn't understand this and blindly tries to stymie Special Counsel Muller's investigation are potentially doing the United States great harm. Let Mueller do his job, and if there has been Russian collusion, say so and put away the guilty.  And if not, tell us that, too, and lets move on.

S

Oh my, the internet is on FIRE today.  Nasty political name calling is rampant.   It seems like we're on the verge of a coast-to-coast cage match.

From a slightly different perspective, let me ask you this:  Eventually Special Counsel Robert Mueller will come back with the findings of his year-long investigation.  If you're a PRO-Trumper, and the news comes back saying there WAS collusion between the Trump camp and Russia, will you accept the findings, after a trial by jury?  And if you're an ANTI-Trumper, and the news comes back saying there was NO collusion between the Trump camp and Russia, will you accept the findings?

Regardless of your preference, if you say you will NOT accept the findings of a thorough investigation (pending a proper trial if applicable) if it goes against your preferred outcome, then I contend you're an ANARCHIST.  You're not a patriot, or a loyal American, but a traitor to the principles our country was founded on. You're an ANARCHIST.  

Of course you can have an opinion, and you can bemoan a decision that goes against how you personally believe.  But if enough of you no longer care about democracy and the rule of law, then America is finished.   FINIS!  Turn out the lights....

So then what?  Is it every man for himself?  Do our AR-15's suddenly become useful for more than just "recreation"? And if the United States of America someday disintegrates, who's the big winner?  Who will be the world's BIG DOG still standing?  Think about that.

I say we'd best come back to reality, take a deep breath, and work together for the good of the country.  

Country over politics!

S

So tell us...have you stopped beating your wife?

Donald Trump's worst enemy is without doubt his own mouth, and it has his lawyers sweating...umm...bullets.

Yesterday I heard several legal experts who were asked if Donald Trump has to speak to Robert Mueller's investigators under oath.  Their unanimous answer:  yes he does.  Some Supreme Court decision awhile back (Nixon...Clinton?) said if subpoenaed, the President must appear and answer questions.  Trump's lawyers can indeed try to negotiate favorable terms for him, but Mueller is in the drivers seat.  "I don't remember" will likely backfire as these slick gubment prosecutors can ask seemingly innocent, unrelated questions that are all really leading up to the same answer, one they already know the answer to.  

Where Bill Clinton's Rhodes Scholar mind carefully considered the question before he answered "it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is", Trump will just blurt out whatever first comes into his mind.  He doesn't understand the concept of "the powerful pause" before answering.  Proof?  See yesterday's "shithole African countries" comment.

They said if President Trump's lawyers can't negotiate a deal whereby he can answer written questions with written answers carefully crafted by them, they'll likely advise the President to just pardon everyone remotely involved and then resign.

Interesting times.

S

All Hail The Chief!

Presenting the 46th President of the United States, Michael Richard Pence....wha....what?  Not yet?  Six more months?  Oops....never mind.

It's looking like President Donald Trump's worst enemy is turning out to be his own family.  To supposedly be so smart they're turning out to be serial dummies.  The smart Trump kid has been in the news every day this week, and every day he keeps on digging a deeper hole. 

"I never heard of her."

"She was just some Russian Lawyer lady who wanted us to adopt some kids."

"She said she had some embarrassing stuff on Hillary, but never delivered anything."

"She was a Russian Government lawyer who (promised) documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and be very useful to Daddy."

"Oh, and did I mention it was ultra-sensitive stuff and part of Russia and its government's support for Dear Papa?"

"But like I said, other than that, I never heard of her."

"Trust me....I'm a Trump."

It looks like it's a GREAT time to be a Washington or a NY lawyer!  *cha ching*  Now son-in-law Jared is scurrying for cover, too.  Even the Trump Administration's Deputy Assistant to The Third Proxy In Charge Of The Copy Machine is lawyer-ing up, and more importantly, leaking incriminating info to the media as fast as he/she can.

If this much scandalous (?) information about Trump, Inc has fallen into the laps of the media and in turn, us peons, just imagine how much info the FBI and Special Counselor Robert Muller have been able to uncover?  Start the countdown clock, and put the fat woman on standby to sing "Turn out the lights..."

But then will come the hard part.  Somebody is going to have to tell Vladie Putin he isn't going to be the 46th President of the United States.  Ouch!  You think he'll demand a refund?  (Rumor has it he has a temper, a shovel, five acres behind the Kremlin, and an alibi.)

S

Just pokin' the bear....

Later this week President Donald Trump will meet one-on-one with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at the G20 summit in Germany.  Putin has over the past two decades proven to be a master geopolitical manipulator.  He managed to take over a run-down, disastrously managed piece of real estate and then bluffed his way onto the Big Stage.  

Let's be honest for a moment....Russia is just a second-rate conventional power, with a nuclear arsenal they won't dare use.  Putin understands "Mutually Assured Destruction" as well as Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev before him did.

At one time Putin had considerable leverage over Europe by threatening to withhold from them Russian natural gas shipments.  Europe has wisely worked around that threat and has in fact grown a pretty impressive backbone, led by Germany's Angela Merkel.   Growing up in Communist East Germany, she knows full well the evil reach of the Russian bear.  Even the new French President, Emmanuel "Pretty Boy" Macron, has shown he's willing to stand up to Putin.

After Putin blatantly sent his forces into Ukraine and seized the Crimean peninsula, the supposedly limp-wristed Barack Obama joined our European allies and others to put crippling economic sanctions on Russia.  And after Putin's people were caught red-handed cyber-messing with the US, Obama again bitch-slapped him by seizing two Russian-owned compounds in America and sending home a planeload of Russian "diplomats".

Meanwhile, back in America, President Trump is reportedly paying scant attention to anything "Russia" when the topic comes up in his regular security briefings, infuriating all our intelligence chiefs who know full well of the growing Russian mischief.  Trump has zero knowledge of and zero interest in learning anything about geopolitics.  For 71 years his interest has been in making money, not practicing international relations, and it looks like he isn't going to change his ways now.

Putin will be coming into the G20 meeting with guns blazing.  He will reportedly be demanding the two properties back in America, and will be wanting a rollback of the earlier economic sanctions imposed on his Russia.  Our European allies are standing pretty firm against giving Putin a second chance.  They for good reason don't trust him....he's in their back yard!

All eyes at the G20 will be on Donald Trump's response.  Will the leader of the most powerful economic and military power in the history of the world stand firm with Merkel and Macron and the rest of Europe, or will he cave to Putin?  Which begs the question:  If he caves, why?  What incriminating evidence does Putin have on Trump?  

The infamous "dossier" compiled by a former British MI6 agent, the basis for a special investigation now underway by Robert Mueller, suggests the Russians have compromising sexual or financial material on him.  Trump of course denies it all.  I predict that if Donald Trump caves, the dossier conspiracy theorists will gain immense credibility.

If Trump is scared to call out Putin for the gangster he is, I'm not.  My blog pageviews from Russia have already shot through the roof.  I'm apparently already a burr under somebody's* saddle there, and I'm loving it!

S

* Probably a computer algorithm keeping track of negative comments about Mother Russia.

LATE EDIT:  This on Yahoo News this morning...

Exciting times we live in!