Maverick's World

The Daily Donald 3/29/2017

It seems that Cypriot financial authorities have turned significant amounts of evidence concerning Paul Manafort and his bank accounts over to FinCEN at the US Treasury Department. While it is likely that this will cause further fracturing of the Trump establishment as efforts to distance itself from Paul Manafort will increase in strength, for the moment at least the Trump administration appears to have stalled the Russia investigation in the House.

As things currently stand, Chairman Nunes has clung on to his post for all of yesterday defying numerous calls to resign from within his own party. As most of you are aware Chairman Nunes has been part of the Trump admin's transition team - an organization that was widely believed to be massively infiltrated by RIS agents and agents of influence. It comes as no surprise that Chairman Nunes seeks to  stall the inquiry on behalf of President Trump, but what is more interesting is that Speaker Ryan intends to let him do so.

Given Trump is overwhelming more popular that Speaker Paul Ryan, it should be easy for the President to push Ryan over. However as we all know Donald Trump is incompetent and usually fails at most things he does. His ham handed attempts at trouncing Speaker Ryan have largely failed and the Paul Ryan clings to his power. As the President increases the intensity of his efforts - it is unlikely that Speaker Ryan can hold on for ever. It is only a matter of time before Paul Ryan is out.

This should be obvious to Paul and one would think he would be looking to make an honorable exit - preferably something that covers him with glory and makes him look like a martyr for the nation as a whole. All opinion polls show that the majority of Americans want to see an impartial inquiry into the Trump-Russia ties. Clearly Chairman Nunes is trying to prevent that from happening.

What better way to cover yourself in glory than to take Nunes off the HPSCI and then let things proceed in a bi-partisan way? What is the worst that could happen if Paul Ryan does that? I know Trump loyalists will try to unseat Ryan - but they are doing that anyway. What more can they do that they haven't done? If anything Paul Ryan would become much harder to remove if he does that. To remove the speaker who supported a bi-partisan inquiry into the Trump Russia affair would be extremely devastating to the GOP.

So it is curious why Speaker Ryan hasn't already removed Chairman Nunes. It is almost as if Speaker Ryan is keen to prove he is the slow witted bumbling idiot that his enemies accuse him of being. He is living up to Steve Bannon's caricature of himself from Breitbart News editorials.

I am aware that the GOP is dependent on corporate payoffs so that bills like the repeal of the FCC's broadband privacy rules but do they really need Donald Trump's approval? Would it not work to the GOPs benefit if they passed all sorts of bills and had Donald Trump hold them up because of the "Trump Russia" inquiry stuff? Hey - isn't that the approach used with the Obama White House? That worked wonders electorally. By all rights the GOP should have been voted out, but because their voters were stupid and blinded by hatred of a black president - they voted them back in vast numbers.

So why do GOPers think it can't work again?

It is in the GOPs best interests to replace Nunes right away. It puts the entire Bannon faction in the WH on notice and hobbles the Ivanka-Kushner-NYC crowd permanently. This would put Preibus in a position of total domination until the Trump Administration collapses and is replaced by the Pence dispensation.

And the stinger in the tail here is that if Ryan chooses not to act right now. His replacement will.

posted by maverick @ 5:17 AM