Morning Reads for Friday, July 14, 2017

Every time Trump says something denigrating the work of the intelligence community, as he did last week when he stated nonsensically that “Nobody knows for sure” if the Russians attempted to meddle in the election, intelligence professionals that devoted his or her career to serving the country in that capacity nod and turn the thumbscrews another revolution. These people are anonymous, having spent their entire careers training to be anonymous. They have the means and skill to dig up an endless array of dirt on someone as loud, attention-hungry, and stupid as Trump has been for thirty-plus years. They probably have every piece of information they need to reduce him to a blustery ruin, and they’re leaking it piecemeal.
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Even a half-wit would not have spent January crapping on the people with the greatest potential to destroy him. Trump thought that if he belittled the CIA and NSA enough that he could convince the public that everything intel agencies say is false. After months of Trump excuses, denials and lies comes an admission of pre-election collusion ahead of the NY Times, likely in possession of intelligence-leaked information, publishing the damning emails itself. There will be another release of more damning evidence as soon as the current hoopla subsides.
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Leaking is a direct result of Trump’s total disregard for law, democratic norms, and the people who serve government. Those people know that GOP complicity will cause normal investigations to be politically quashed. That leaves them two options, sit around and watch a clown crap on their life’s work, or leak and stop a corrupt incompetent’s debasement of the country.
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It’s the conclusion of another week of things moving closer to the point when the evidence of Trump’s unfitness for office is so damning and overwhelming that even congressional Republicans can’t ignore it without imperiling their own political careers.

GOP Congressman won’t be hosting town halls during the shortened August recess because they’ll be too exhausted after all they’ve accomplished in Washington in the last seven months. They’re polling though, https://gop.com/listening-to-america-surveys/ until their spines heal enough to permit unscripted public meetings.
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Repealing Obamacare, healthcare, and cutting Medicaid are so unimportant that none of the 32 questions in “the Listening to America” made mention of any of them. But Sharia Law merited a question. Now there’s a matter that merits their attention!

Didja hear Alabama had banned the sale of pitchers of Margaritas in restaurants? Damn if that won’t run Mexicans out of the state pronto!
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/07/alabama_abc_says_no_to_margari.html
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Pitchers of margaritas were banned because there’s no assurance the amount of tequila in each pour from a pitcher is the same, evidently unlike pours from pitchers of Mimosas.
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Trump rubes, doing the GOP proud!

Perhaps my last for this day…..such a week!
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US Attorney Bharara, at the time of his firing by Trump, was overseeing a case against Russian mobsters accused of massive money laundering. The case was settled in May by Bharara’s replacement. From CNN in May: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/13/world/prevezon-settlement/index.html
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“The case aimed to expose how Russian mobsters allegedly stole $230 million and hid some of the cash in New York City real estate. Also sure to come up was the suspicious death of the Russian lawyer who exposed the alleged fraud, though US prosecutors weren’t alleging that the defendants were behind it. Federal prosecutors announced they settled the case with Prevezon, the company accused of buying up “high-end commercial space and luxury apartments” with laundered money. Why was the investigation cut short? “What most concerns me is: Has there been any political pressure applied in this?” asked Louise Shelley, an illicit finance expert who was set to testify in support of the US government in the case.”
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Who was the Prevezon’s attorney that made the deal with the Justice Department? Natalia Veselnitskaya. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because she is also the same attorney who flew from Moscow to meet with Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort at Trump Tower in June 2016.
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Competency had been dispensed with before Trump was even elected. It’s well beyond Coincidence to Collusion, and there’s a whiff of Corruption. Another C that could makes itself known is Conspiracy.