Continuing the Trump-Putin/Russian Saga or Whatever: Rollup Review

Bannon front then, Priebus, Spicer, and Trump Bringing up the Rear 

(Pale Horse of Death Himself)

From the Boston Globe, the key parts I want to emphasize today re: this whole Trump-Putin/Russian mess or whatever we choose to label or call it, demands a more serious investigation by the FBI — and Congress — because there is likely more to discover, or even a 9/11-type commission since the House Intel arm under Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) seems to have gone off the rails as it were (more on that below).

Why do I say this? Well, all the threads mirror Russian sustained efforts to undermine European governments and now our own system (i.e., the Russian hack of the DNC and John Podesta, followed by the “Fake News” campaign).

I want to emphasize my view on all this while waiting for the whole truth and final story. That is we the people, the public, does have a compelling need to know the truth, either way – clear and honest. This is my view on all this, which I suspect is also the same view shared by many others - that view is:

Perhaps Trump and his campaign knew nothing about Russia’s plans to help elect him – ergo: Then give us truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…

However, the Trump team and his own personal and frenzied efforts to squelch just about anything like official inquiry, or media questions and thus it makes the Watergate era under Richard Nixon look like a model of transparency and sanity.

For example, Trump lies grow more grotesque:

1.  His claim that Barack Obama wiretapped him also slanders the FBI.

2.  Long before that, he claimed that no one in his campaign had spoken to the Russians – a pack of lies.

3.  Recently he lied contemporaneously about testimony by James Comey.

In all his hysteria, Trump also makes liars of his lackeys, who torture truth to excuse his falsehoods like for Press Secretary Sean Spicer:

1.  He who rationalizes Trump’s slurs about Obama until his words lose all meaning.

2.  He falsely claimed that British intelligence (GCHQ) helped Obama wiretap Trump.

3.  He also said former campaign director Paul Manafort only played a very limited role. 

4.  He then called Michael Flynn, a principal adviser who traveled with Trump throughout the campaign and who spoke at the RNC convention and who became Trump’s national security adviser, simply “a volunteer.”

All that remains for Spicer is the Japanese ritual of “Hari-kari” – and that does appear to be forthcoming sooner than later.

As for Trump himself:

1.  He reinforces mendacity with threats and distractions.

2.  He threatens to hunt down the “lowlife leakers” who revealed the FBI investigation — “fake news” that Comey revealed to be true.

3.  He threatened to deputize a friend to review our own intelligence agencies.

4.  He even tried to compel those agencies to support his lie about Obama.

All of this raises the most-logical of questions like: (1) If you try to concoct evidence of a lie, have you destroyed evidence of the truth, and (2) Do congressional Republicans want to know the truth?

With the exception of Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), it seems the GOP in total does not want the truth or anything close to the truth – that is regardless of their floor speeches and other political nonsense.

For example and below in several other posts: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, minimizes contacts between Russia and Trump’s campaign, claiming there is no evidence of collusion and, therefore, no need for the investigation that could uncover it. Then:

1.  He instead focuses on punishing those who revealed the contacts.

2.  He himself held a hasty press conference and then visited the White House, all without informing his committee members, to defend Trump by saying that legal surveillance of Russians captured conversations with Trump’s campaign.

His purpose? 

At first it was to obviously justify Trump’s lies about Obama wire-tapping, and in the process Nunes confirmed the contacts. That alone has provoked Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member, to counter by now saying that the evidence of collusion was now more than circumstantial.

Then, in a just a matter of days, Nunes backpedals even on his own original assertion.

My view: Nunes needs to be removed from the House Intel Chair seat. Then he might leave Congress, too – he has done more harm than good.

B/L: Americans must know whether Trump is merely Putin’s useful fool or his slick partner in betraying our democracy.

For the GOP or anyone else to avoid the truth (ugly or not; real to one side or not) would be a betrayal all its own to the public which they all profess to serve.

Others to watch who may follow under close scrutiny are: Paul Manafort; Michael Flynn; Carter Page; Roger Stone; maybe Jeff Sessions; Wilbur Ross; Jared Kushner; and who knows who else. That cesspool runs mighty deep.

Another at the center of attention is this:

Strong track record of laundering money for Russia

(Also ties to Wilbur Ross)

As Yogi Berra would say: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”