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comment by mk
mk  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 22, 2018

After the Cohen deal, I expect Trump to try to shut down the Russian investigation.





b_b  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No way. Imagine the blowback from republicans! I'll bet at least half a dozen of them would publicly go on record as saying that the president's actions are unfortunate.

mk  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Trump is well aware of how spineless both parties are. If he's going to pull this shit, he's going to pull it asap, because he doesn't want the Dems to take the House and Senate. He can shut down the Russian investigation, then control the messaging up to the elections with trade wars or real ones.

ecib  ·  2070 days ago  ·  link  ·  

We went from having three branches, to having two parties.

WanderingEng  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If he does, what do we do? I was one person in the 100,000 people marches when Scott Walker busted the teacher unions. It's eight blocks around the Capitol, three traffic lanes and wide sidewalks on each side. The biggest one wasn't so much a march as it was standing still as the crowd was so large it prevented any meaningful movement.

The unions were still busted.

kleinbl00  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-is-more-worried-about-michael-cohen-than-robert-mueller-2018-4

Look at it this way: Russia is "did the Trump campaign talk to the Russians." Yes, obviously. Trump is quite fuzzy on what that means to him, and the country in general is, too. From a foreign influence standpoint it's a big fuckin' deal but from a Trump standpoint it's not like he's Boris and Melania is Natasha. Although that's an awesome image.

The Cohen investigation, however, is "Trump's personal fixer for ten years has flipped to Federal and State investigators." This is a president whose tax returns are... ugly. We don't know how ugly, we don't know why, but we know he's been fronting for Russian oligarchs for a long, long time.

We're more interested in Russia. From Trump's personal standpoint, Cohen provides a lot more personal jeopardy.

mk  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, that's how I see it. Cohen was privy to a lot of Trump sausage-making over the last several years. That's why I expect Trump to do something desperate soon. At that moment, the GOP are going to be put in a serious quandary. Trump's desperation is going to signal that he's trying to hide some serious shit. At that moment they have to fold or raise.

kleinbl00  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Mueller has Trump in a fork: he can either sacrifice his rook and throw his full weight at dealing with whatever revelations Cohen has about Trump's finances, or he can sacrifice his queen and throw his full weight at the Russia investigation. He can't divide and conquer: it's clear that the Trump administration is already over capacity with bimbo eruptions and the dike now has two big holes in it.

It's starting to look like encirclement. I hope I'm right.

mk  ·  2071 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I hope so. I'm tired of his negativity.