Maverick's World

The Daily Donald 4/3/2017

The stench of illegitimacy around President Trump grows.

The blunt testimony of former FBI Agent Clint Watts in front of the SSIC, the worst fears of President Trump has been realized - people do not think of him as a legitimate president - they see him as a pretender.

This thought leads to the inevitable conclusion (AFAIK) first publicly opined by George Takai - if there is clear evidence of Trump campaign & RIS collaboration in the 2016 election, then Trump is not the winner - Hillary Rodham Clinton is.

When I first heard this from George Takai, I dismissed it as a democratic party fantasy. Now that I have seen the testimony of Agent Watts, I think George is correct. There is no doubt in my mind that there was collaboration between the Trump Campaign and RIS. The RIS directed financial resources and information operations at the behest of people in the Donald Trump campaign.

This is a criminal act.

It grievously damages the sanctity of the electoral process. Both the people that voted for Trump and the people that voted against him but put faith in the sanctity of the process are betrayed by this. The constitution is violated and quite frankly our great nation has been defamed in most horrific manner.

This is treason on a scale beyond any imagined by the framers of the constitution. The question of whether Donald Trump knew (as raised by Mark Cuban) may be relevant at sentencing but the crime is visible to all those who choose to see it.

I do not expect Trumpers and GOPers to get this. Like a gangster's moll they are too blinded by the desire to hide their own mistakes. I will not be surprised if they continue to deny it or dismiss it out of hand. I also feel what they think or do at this point does not really matter. Donald Trump has managed to achieve what no Russian nuclear missile could - he has damaged the soul of the United States.

He clearly knows what he has done. This explains his strange tweets, his bizarre behavior at the EO signing ceremony and the manner in which he sends family members on unannounced trips to various countries in the world. This also explains his desire for secrecy and his preference for meeting in places like Mar-a-Lago.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, his actions are far beyond the pale of what little remedy the Constitution provides. Given the lack of specific guidance in precedent or canon of law, we are left at the mercy of a deeply personal sense of jurisprudence.

Any Judge, DA, Police Officer, FBI Agent, Secret Service officer - any LEO or any Senate or House Committee could now privately determine based on publicly available evidence that Donald Trump is impersonating a Federal officer. Once that determination is made - there is no going back. The legal machine would kick in and he would find himself in jail. The GOP would be torn between the factions that support him and the factions that want to see him replaced by Pence. The resulting fracas would completely shut down the government and lead to a bureaucratic coup by default. (Curiously similar to what the Japanese DIA officer Shigeki Arakawa produces in the Patlabor Movie)

This is a massive instability. This state off affairs cannot continue for too much time. This will collapse on our heads. 

The entire "Trump Rally" on Wall street is held aloft by people who think that Trump will overcome the Fed's reluctance to issue debt and pump money into US infrastructure sectors. Everyone including major players like Goldman Sachs are pushing this line. There is a massive overlap between the ethnic group that were targeted for recruitment by the Trump-Russia campaign and the people who make critical decisions on Wall Street. This thing is going to come crashing down very fast at some point in the near future.

posted by maverick @ 5:33 AM