WIRED’s recap of where Friday’s filings takes us:
The Mueller Investigation Nears the Worst Case Scenario
TLDR: It now looks more and more like that Trump was eager to sell out America to make some money from Russia.
To which I say “Duh”. What’s it going to take for his “patriotic” base to realize their hero is Putin’s bitch and only out to line his own pockets (well, maybe not only, Trump probably doesn’t want to go to prison).
Hey! No fair! It was a *shit ton *of money!
I think an interesting question that will come to be relevant is whether the SDNY will abide by the rules of the Executive Branch that the President is immune from prosecution, or if they’ll elect to ignore the norms.
I don’t think that Mueller will go against policy. He’ll just take out all of Trump’s family but leave Trump by himself to spin.
But the SDNY could do so.
Oh, some of them realize it all right, they just don’t care. After all a few were quoted six months ago as thanking the Russians for saving the US from Hillary.
They are all guilty as hell, putting Trump in the clear?
The irony is that this man clearly does not want to be president and probably never did, but staying president might be the best way to keep himself out of jail. Tell me again about the infallibility of the founding fathers.
True. I actually posted a link a few days ago to an article and video describing just that.
I think there are supporters who simply would not care no matter what came out. But I also think there’s a percentage of the base that is just ignorant of how bad Trump is. These people are, ahem, pretty obtuse and lack critical thinking skills which makes them susceptible to rightwing propaganda. They believe the pro-Trump/anti-liberal media fervently and have been conditioned by Trump and others to disregard any conflicting information as Fake News! Cognitive dissonance is high in these people, but they’re probably decent people in most other aspects of life.
If Trump’s crimes and collusion become so transparent and too much even for Fox News and Fox turns on Trump, these people are going to be seriously confused.
Presidental confusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR3Lg0U7rys
As long as he hates the same people they hate, and they still can believe that he’ll bring the hammer down on them, they’ll think he’s great.
What might cause them to lose faith in him is if they eventually* realize that they’re not any better off, and all those blacks and browns and liberals aren’t any worse off, and Trump’s not going to make either of those things happen.
*Key word! I’m not expecting this to happen particularly soon.
I half expected that to happen at the GOP convention, when he could have stepped aside on the first night, and let the assembled convention pick a new nominee.
But of course if I’d thought about it, his motivation for running had been the way Obama humorously sliced and diced him at that White House correspondents’ dinner. (I’m still in awe of Obama’s doing that as the bin Laden raid was underway.) Trump’s purpose in running was to one-up Obama, and anything less than winning would be coming up short.
Tru dat!
It takes a lot to keep a dog from being loyal.
OTOH, a cat would ditch Trump in a New York minute. 
A cat would be thinking, “WTF?! I am supposed to be the selfish and narcissistic one in this relationship!”
Sample of current headlines on Google News:
[ul]
[li]Key takeaways from the latest round of court documents in Mueller’s investigation[/li][li]Prosecutors: Michael Cohen acted at Trump’s direction when he broke the law[/li][li]Trump Goes Off On Mueller, Comey, Rosenstein Ahead of New Russia Bombshells[/li][li]‘No collusion’ by Trump with Russia shown in new Cohen and Manafort court filings[/li][li]Mueller Weaves Trump, Manafort and Cohen Ever Closer[/li][/ul]
Who’s up for a round of the easiest party game ever invented: “Which One is Fox News?”
So… do you think it would be accurate to call them (behind closed doors only, of course) “deplorables”? No, no, even if they ARE that, we can’t call them that, because, well, careers have been derailed by such careless statements.
However, calling your ex-Sec of State “dumb as a rock”-- that’s perfectly okay! In fact here’s a listof insults that are perfectly okay, in case anyone is curious.
These are just the ones directed at James Comey. As of yesterday, 549 other people have been insulted by DJT on Twitter alone.
Yes.
He’s “sticking it to” the Chinese. I wonder what soy bean farmers think of him. They are losing a lot of money here in Arkansas. I don’t know if the Chinese imported our chickens or not.
Trump is going to talk to North Korea again. He doesn’t look bad to his voters for accomplishing nothing with Korea, and lying about it.
I think we should all start to refer to him as ‘Individual 1’.
The hardcore Trumpsters who know what he is or those that identify with him because of bigotry?
Yes, they’re deplorable.
Initial supporters that were conned by Trump and his promises because they didn’t like/trust Hillary or “elite” coastal liberals and felt some economic desperation, not as much. Although, if they still have unquestioned support for Trump after more than two years of seeing him after the election, they’re much less sympathetic.
An anecdote. My mother grew up on a farm in the upper Plains. My cousins who are still there are one generation removed from farming directly. They are conservative and they knew Hillary didn’t reflect their values so anti-Hillary Trump was a gamble they were willing to take.
Naive in my view. To me, it was obvious Trump was a bullying, incompetent, unqualified narcissistic asshole with limited mental capacity. But they’re generally good people but some have faults like bigotry they don’t recognize (one cousin sincerely explained to me, being from the East Coast, that “our Indians are like your blacks out East”). I actually first became aware of Trump in the '80s because when I played high school football Trump owned the USFL New Jersey Generals with Herschel Walker (not owning an NFL team and being slighted by the owners probably fuels his national anthem and players kneeling rage. Trump is always the victimized outsider). I have never been impressed with him but never really cared enough to pay attention until he got the Republican nomination.
Now, some of my East Coast friends are virulently pro-Tump and anti-liberal to the point of self-unaware parody. Posting memes on Facebook every day about how evil libruls are and how great Trump is. After people were floating the “Oprah for President” balloon after her Oscar speech, one guy posted “I don’t mean to be racist, but didn’t we already have a black president? Let’s not make the same mistake twice.”
That’s a guy who loves Trump because of his bigotry, not because of any normal real-world governmental policy, which Trump can’t articulate anyway (well, excepting simplistically stated Trump policies like “build a wall!”, “lock her up”, repeal Obama care, travel ban Mooslims, immigrants are invading!). These are people who feel validated and vindicated by Trump. Those are the deplorables.
Ok, but should we expect to see ‘Individual 1a’ or ‘Individual 1 Jr.’ in future court filings?
Soybean futures. Fluctuate according to conditions. Somebody in a position to know how Il Douche would act on Chinese tariffs would be in an excellent position to make wise investments. Being a suspicious person, I’m betting somebody did. Wouldn’t take more than a nod and a wink…
You got a few million bucks sitting around, and are virtually certain that soybean futures will plummet tomorrow…you don’t pick up the phone? Really?
Maybe Individual Sub1 or Individual 1 1/2.
Individual 1/2 Scoop