The only thing I would say in my defense is that it was impossible to know that Barr would lie and interfere so shamelessly with the release of the Mueller report. Anyone who reads it has no illusions about the breadth and depth of Russian involvement in the 2016 election or the complete criminality of Trump.
But no, I’m not busting out the wine just yet.
I do think Trump is running out of allies, and there is little room for counterattacks based on what’s already before the public – as released by himself.
He/she would likely appear in front a small group of legislators, with no TV cameras allowed. He/she would also be brought in out of the public eye. Anyone in the hearing is bound by law not to reveal the person’s identity.
The individual’s identity won’t be kept secret from those attending the inquiry. I think this whistleblower knew that going in, just how much personal risk he/she (I’m pretty sure it’s a he) was assuming. Very heroic, under the circumstances.
Based on reading the report, he seems extremely conversant with the process and also appears to have acted as a clearinghouse, a point person, so to speak, for information that came to him via several members of the national security community.
I don’t think he expects to remain secret for long – but I don’t think he is going to be a solo whistleblower for long, either. The entire national security community is pretty pissed at how they’ve been treated under this “administration.”
So far, all the chatter around the Trump phone call has been about the Biden stuff. But I think trying to use the Ukrainians to disprove the results of the Mueller investigation was about as bad and no one’s said a single word about that one.
And I’m pretty freaking annoyed at that wimpy-assed coward Robert Mueller about now. He was a loyal suck-up Republican to the end in his own way, deliberately burying his conclusions in hundreds of pages of the driest most boring commentary ever written. He could’ve made that document interesting and readable, but no. And i don’t buy the idea that he wasn’t allowed, under any circumstances, to say that Trump did anything wrong… it’s his fault for emboldening Trump.
And now that Trump is trashing his work and commanding a global army of idiots in order to discredit his investigation, he’s saying nothing. Freaking snowflake.
Is erasing 30 years of diplomatic efforts towards promoting judicial independence an impeachable offence? Of all the things that ‘the West’ (and the US in particular) might export to promote democracy, the notion of judicial independence may be the most important.
It’s probably behind a paywall at the Washington Post, but this piece by Anne Applebaum (who knows what she’s talking about when it comes to places like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, etc.) describes the damage that Trump has done. I hope it’s okay to give a few excerpts here while remembering that with its history of oppression from without, Ukraine was a natural ‘prospect’ to enter the western fold, for “freedom”. Now, not just Ukraine but any similar nation will think more than twice about trusting the US.
Trump is the best asset that America’s ideologic enemies have. His actions in this regard alone justify his impeachment.
[QUOTE=Ann Hedonia;21886629I just saw this story which had a couple of interesting tidbits that I hadn’t seen before.
Back on May 11th, Guiliani had a trip scheduled to Ukraine. That trip was cancelled. The reason he gave was that he “would be walking into a group of people that were enemies of the president”. Which may have been true in some sense, but the real reason for canceling the trip was that Zelensky refused to meet with him.
Three days later, on May 14th, Trump canceled Pence’s trip. It was also around that time that Trump said he wouldn’t meet with Zelensky until he showed a willingness to “play ball”.
Even though the Slate article doesn’t go there, it was also around that time that Trump recalled the Ukrainian ambassador, calling her “bad news”. Something about how she discouraged an Ukrainian prosecutor from pursuing certain cases. The article doesn’t say what the “certain cases” are, but I can take a guess.
So I’m still trying to grapple with all of this information, but am I wrong in thinking that the cancellation of these trips/refusal of meetings was part of a program of intimidation, coupled with withholding of money? Given how vital the U.S. is as an ally, getting the cold shoulder would probably be worrisome.
It also appears–to my eye–that Coats resigning 3 days after this infamous phone call would be related. Especially given that he crashed a meeting to make sure Sue Gordon knew to F.O. immediately. Maybe he knew about the phone call/classification and sought to save himself?
For that matter, in this day and age how is the identity of the whistleblower still secret ? How many intel guys were in or around the WH during the dates and events in question? 100? 10? Would seem it’s just a process of elimination.
I’m an old SD reader but new to the forums. I’ve not yet explored Elections; many thanks for the pointer. But I do fear likely WH counter-attacks. This gets nastier, more perilous. We can’t be over-confident. Shit has only begun hitting fans.
I wish I could find video of this, but there was a Happy Days Episode where Ron Howard’s character was doing investigative journalism for the school paper. He uncovered some sort of scandal and gets an anonymous interview with a “Deep Throat” type informant character, who will only be seen silhouetted behind a screen to protect his identity. It turns out to be Al Molinaro, who had an enormous nose, seen in profile.
Today is rumblings-of-a-White-House-tearing itself-apart day
Barr is pissed Trump lumped him in with Giuliani. (Hint: he’s not. He was instrumental in making this happen, but the import is he has his own team speaking to the press, and he’s distancing.)
Poor Mark Mulvaney, being thrown under that double-length bus for not having a strategy for handling messaging re: the call, transcript, and memo.
Republicans souring on Rudy (may have been linked to above):
I will say, Mick Mulvaney doesn’t really deserve that. It should really be he communications director’s role to come up with strategies to mobilize the message in Trump’s defense, and since a Trump gutted his comms staff because he’s under the impression that he is better than all of them, it’s a bit like a baseball manager trying to call in a left-handed reliever after he’s fired all the pitchers.
But of course, this particular manager has never admitted making any mistake at all, so it must be the hitting coach’s fault that the bullpen is empty.
Yeah, it’s important to remember that the facts aren’t important, the narrative is. The Mueller report was a great example of that. If the Dems lose control of the narrative, things could fizzle out. Hopefully they’ve learned some lessons.
Given that it matters whether or not he was involved, in terms of whether he has to recuse, it’s important to Barr that he not have known about this and that Trump not have involved him.
(What may simply be) Barr’s leak to the press that he didn’t know about this and that he’s pissed that Trump involved him would be the exact cover needed to allow him to refrain from recusing on any subjects related to the topic.
I would want a double-check if there are any communications between Barr and Giuliani before assuming that this story is true. It is quite possible that it is true. However, making that assumption in this particular case would be unwise.
Who else has a motive to give that specific story to the press other than Barr himself? Isn’t it a bit strange for someone to call you up and make an explicit statement, “Why no, I was very very angry and upset about what President Trump said about me. Please write that in your newspaper, thank you. Don’t tell them that I told you.”
Oh, believe me, I get the importance of the narrative. But that’s exactly what gives me more hope going forward.
It’s not Trump who has controlled the narrative, not really. It’s the Republican-held Senate, Fox “News” and more recently, Bill Barr. Trump himself lost the plot long ago, and he deludes himself that he really enjoys all this success under his own steam.
Now, all three of those pillars (piles?) of corruption and misdirection appear to be softening. Barr is putting distance, Moscow Mitch seems to be doing the same. And the Republican Senate could be a cricket farm compared to how quickly they’ve leapt to defend him in the past with one unified, loud, loony orchestra of yips and howls.
The lengths to which they all must go to try and cobble together some sort of bizarro narrative that gives a filmy pretext to Trump’s dangerous and criminal actions grow longer every day. Trump is unstable. His slide off his cracker has accelerated to a noticeable and alarming degree.
Every day, the cognitive dissonance between what people can actually observe with their own eyes and what they are told to think grows louder. At best, probably only 38% (a depressing percentage, to be sure) are willing to blindly follow along. It’s just not enough.
Without the united support of Senate Republicans, Fox “News” and Barr, Trump is toast, I think.
LOL, I’ll bet Barr is a lot more than pissed. He’s probably shitting bricks. There are a fair few potential whistleblowers inside the DOJ who are chafed over Barr’s corrupt practices and itching to spill. What he has done to our DOJ is a travesty. It’s a bad day when Jeff Sessions looks like the principled one.
