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Manafort’s Destiny
Robert Mueller III, aka Bobby Three Sticks, authorized a pre-dawn raid on Pauly “foreign bucks” Manafort only July 26. Reading Manafort’s history, he seems like a typical DC parasite, gobbling dollars from whoever he can and delivering results. Lord knows what his banking records will end up showing but I bet there will be some malfeasance. He’s a slimy man, in a slimy town, run by slimy people who pretend their way to riches and power.
The origin of this raid is likely based on the FBI not believing him. Why should they? He’s a lawyer, lobbyist, political consultant, and DC fixer. Nobody in those jobs in DC has an ounce of ethics. They all rationalize away the existence of Hell, probably God as well.
The goal of this raid was to find dirt. The goal of the dirt is to get Manafort in enough legal trouble that he turns on anyone else he has info on or anyone he can make up info on. Solid strategy and one that was never used in the IRS scandals, not because the GOP was unable, but because they were unwilling. They’re unwilling because they are all corrupt as well in their own ways and the last admin spied on everyone.
So what is Manafort’s destiny? Any guesses? I’d tell him to “go west young man” but Alcatraz is closed and Horace Greeley must be a hetero-normative white male oppressor of social justice.
I bet they find unrelated wrongdoing and tell him it’s decades in prison or turn on a Trump kid or in-law. I’m guessing he will count on a presidential pardon for his loyalty rather than be a rat or even worse — be a rat over something untrue.
Published in General
Let’s say non-adherence seems to not matter as to favored identity groups (i.e. designated “oppressed” people). On the other hand, a hetero white male who works hard, lives right and pays his taxes is afforded no protection from political persecution/prosecution by virtue of following the law. Prosecutorial discretion today makes all political things possible in the judicial branch. Watch what you say – the lesson of the Google manifesto writer, so far is job loss. “Hate speech” charges may soon follow. Not in America, you say??
I’m not sure what the crime would be. I wouldn’t complain if Putin gave me say, $30 million, and I wouldn’t think that it was a crime.
Say 35 and throw a nickel in for your fellow music lover.
I think the crime is non-disclosure but it may be deemed as merely inappropriate.
Manafarts turncoating is the goal. About what I have no clue. If it’s an invent a crime on a Trump child that gets pushed hard I doubt the country will respond positively.
This is a tangled web.
Wasn’t a lot of his involvement with the Russians before he worked for the Trump campaign?
He has a long history of foreign money from some dubious people over the decades in addition to working on many GOP campaigns. I only know the all mighty Wikipedia page. Sorry. I mostly wanted to use the 19th century mantra of the US in the title, flash my Greeley card, insult democrats, and make fun of crooked or incompetent republicans.
So, I think we are largely in agreement.
What really gives me pause about Manafort is the omission of support for Ukraine in the GOP platform. Manafort was heavily involved in the Trump campaign at that time and the omission is inexplicable without some approval/acquiescence from the top levels of the campaign.
That in itself is not a crime. But it looks bad in view of Manafort’s past ties to pro-Russian factions in Ukraine.
It looks less bad that he was removed from the campaign though.
Don’t you think this is about ” go to jail or sing like a bird ?
His foreign ties may have indeed been hidden by him and his old GOP bonafides put out front. Who knows ?
Or the line to get into a Milo Yiannopoulos party.
Also: let’s not forget that there is no specific charge let alone smoking gun. Looks bad? What looks bad? Bad how? Politically or criminally? Let’s keep our heads firmly in place here. No need to become Manafort fans, but are we really so inured to all this that our first response isn’t: what’s the charge and what’s the evidence? Perhaps more importantly: this witch hunt is intolerable; either produce specific charges and specific evidence or drop it immediately – this is America and you don’t just get to root around people’s lives endlessly simply because some partisan smear campaign got out of control. Every single Republican should be saying this first and last, every time they speak.
This is the most important part of your post.
Or as Slate called it, “the coolest kind of raid.”
Indeed.
Yet the GOP is mostly silent. It won’t end well I fear.
Yes this Clinton cover up has gone way too far.
The FBI found someone they know is guilty of something. Their next steps will be to blackmail him
Excellent.
And we all know that Republicans can be depended on to NOT do what is both right and effective. They are The Incompetents.
I see a musical group here, Mitch McConnell and The Incompetents
I don’t think you understand how investigations work. When there is suspicion that criminal conduct has occurred, prosecutors begin an investigation and follow the evidence. Here, Manafort’s admitted disclosure failings give more than an adequate basis for suspicion to investigate. To prejudge the entire investigation as a “witch hunt” is almost as irresponsible as assuming that Manafort is guilty. It is certainly no less of a partisan position.
Mueller (and Comey before him) was trusted as an experience, non-partisan investigator until GOP partisan concerns became threatened. Blindly attacking the investigator, rather than arguing the merits, suggests weakness. Not strength.
I don’t think the attacks on Mueller are “blind” at all. We pretty much know where his loyalties lie, and it’s with a specific political party that isn’t spelled G.O.P.
Let’s not forget that the only reason Mueller was appointed was because Comey leaked his own memos to the NYTimes — with the stated objective of getting a special prosecutor.
How quickly people forget Comey’s own self-incriminating testimony on the matter. (Why is that man still walking around free, anyway? Do we just not investigate Democrats anymore?)
It pisses me off that taxpayers are paying for their perfidy.
How do you know where Mueller’s loyalties lie? What crime exactly are you suggesting Comey committed?
Mueller was appointed because Trump fired Comey, and the only remaining DOJ officials who could have supervised the investigation at that point, Rosenstein and Sessions, were involved in the firing. Whether Comey’s statements after his termination made the appointment of a special counsel more or less likely is entirely speculative.
You sound like you are just following the Trump Party line, rather than thinking critically about the situation.
There’s this whole tarmac thingy that blasted that trust straight to hell. How is Comey’s behavior defensible here?
Also, this investigation is, like all witch hunts, out to find anything wrong anywhere. It becomes a self-sustaining thing rather than a focused, specific answer. They must find a crime that the president or his kids or in-laws had knowledge of.
The buzz now is Manafort’s son-in-law being leaned on to convince Manafort to squeal about anything he knows about anything.
Furthermore, the goal will be prove that the president’s odd handling of the partisan insider Comey (IMO) construes obstruction but it helps to have a crime that someone is obstructing. Finding a crime, any crime, anywhere, is the goal and we all know that will be easy with political people.
Yeah, just accuse me of being a Trump-worshiper. That’ll shut me up.
Moderator Note:
Uncalled for.Oh, ha haha hoo-HA!!….tears running… you’ve made us see how ridiculous it is to be paranoid about the government! I mean, after Clapper lying about spying on the US Congress, but still, somehow, being heard to,opine about public affairs–after the Obama ummaskings–how can anyone be so paranoid?
You remind me of Lord Haw-Haw.We can do better here folks. All of us, and I mean me too. Major differing opinions and this is a serious issue. If Anti-Trump people feel baited, no reason for them to respond as well as the Pro Trump people responding to being baited also. We’ve had those pointless talks and it derails things.
No reason for someone to bait and no reason to respond.
PS Donald Trump is the risen messiah. As long as we start from there we can talk.
@DocJay– Fwiw, have you ever thought of having a part-time gig as an online columnist. There is an Australian author I like named John Birmingham who writes for the Brisbane Times. His views are usually too liberal for me but he is very good at political satire (he is also an excellent sci-fi writer; check out his ‘Weapons of Choice’). I’d say you are as least as good, and you might attract a sizeable readership.
As someone who has spent a bit of time studying the Intelligence agencies of the world, I can say this without reservation. The FBI continued role as the counterintelligence agency of the USA is a major threat to the National Security and Foreign Policy of the country. To many times I have read of serious breaches to National Security being perpetrated by FBI agencies and the Prosecutors they serve.
The Goal of the CIA is to prevent attacks from happening.
The Goal of the FBI is to convict criminals and make cases.
See the difference. Who do you want protecting you?
I must say I don’t understand the moderators comment on this post. I have no problem with it. Who by the way is lord Haw Haw?
Just remember to always take me literally, and sometimes seriously.
Let’s though discuss the unmasking scandal? Where is that at the moment? All the information on who and what was unmasked is available to the executive branch which is run by who? Right. It’s run by Trump the unparanoid. In all this time since those revelation have they offered up the proof of what was or wasn’t inappropriately unmasked? No, they leave the charges to hang in the air, but offer no further clarity on the point. Almost as if the obfuscation serves their purposes. Now there is a real conspiracy? Though it is rather petty, as most of these conspiracies turn out to be.
So if I laugh off the general paranoia about the Deep State it is only because your paranoia seems to be so self serving politically.
Yes, they’re not coming to save you — they’re coming to arrest your killer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw
Glad you didn’t have a problem with it, but I do take issue with one member likening another member to a Nazi collaborator.
And once that sort of comment is let stand in a post, the post quickly deteriorates.
yuh, that’s what i’da expected….
–then I guess we’re both gettin’ a chuckle!,
You are really a great asset to Ricochet NYLG. I mean that. Thanks for explaining how investigations work. Seriously. Because I was operating with the false idea that an investigation was supposed to start with an identifiable crime/event and then an investigation would find and examine evidence regarding that crime. Now I realize that it’s enough to simply suspect someone is a nogoodnik.