I want to focus on happier subjects in the near future – for instance, I am planning a review of at least one role-playing game – but I did want to sweep over the latest catastrophes with Donald Trump.
The mainstream press is reporting that Trump is acting more belligerent towards the Mueller investigation because, after losing moderate insiders like Hope Hicks, he’s decided to “trust his gut instinct.” But look, Donald Trump is president. He’s gotten this far on trusting his gut instincts. Let’s face it, he’s got a huge gut.
But not only has Trump referred to Robert Mueller by name in Twit for the first time, he decided to fire Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe (who was Jim Comey’s acting replacement) just two days before his retirement. It has been alleged that the firing was justified because of a “lack of candor”, specifically in McCabe saying that he had authority to share information with the media, approved by “the director” (Comey), and that this contradicted Comey’s direct testimony under oath when he denied authorizing anonymous leaks to the media. However, McCabe didn’t say this until his official statement after being fired, and even if this is the legal justification for “lack of candor”, the Administration could have fired McCabe at any time for other reasons. The fact that McCabe was fired just two days before being eligible for retirement – when Trump complained about that retirement benefit three months beforehand – only proves that Trump had this done because he could, really.
Likewise Trump could fire Mueller or Attorney General Sessions at any time just because, but that would be ridiculously stupid. As in, even more so than he usually is.
The factors on this are explained in a pretty good article in Vox from Monday. It is technically more complicated to fire Mueller than McCabe (because he’s the assigned special counsel) but Trump can at least fire Sessions, in order to fire Assistant AG Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller. Allegedly this would require “good cause” but it’s not like he needed it with McCabe. The real problems are that even if Trump got rid of Mueller, or hampered his probe, it wouldn’t stop the separate grand juries that have already been convened. Moreover, a shutdown of the probe would only encourage more leaks of what has been discovered, given that there would no longer be a point in concealing them: “Mueller’s probe has been remarkably leak-proof so far. Should the probe be shut down in what looks like a corrupt manner, it seems unlikely that would continue to be the case. At least some law enforcement officials would likely prove more willing to take the legal risks for leaking, should they feel it’s the only way to prevent a cover-up. And of course, the leaks after Comey’s firing were eventually followed by Mueller’s appointment. ”
As I’ve said, I am getting a bit tired of going over the obvious with our political situation, which is not only that Donald Trump is an evil moron who should not be president, but that the longer the ruling party refuses to admit this, the more legal responsibility falls on them for his crimes. Nothing will be done about this until the midterms, and given Democratic fecklessness, it remains to be seen how well they can capitalize on public anger. Nor is it necessarily a good idea for Democrats to make Russiagate a campaign focus for 2018, because that puts the focus on them. But Republicans have been gambling that they can get the “good stuff” by conservative standards (tax cuts, Supreme Court nominations) without the myriad liabilities of Donald Trump. The problem for them is not that Democrats will make Trump the focus of the election, but that Trump is making Trump the focus of the election. Of course the real problem is that Republicans cling to this goon as desperately as they can because he’s the most popular politician they have.
But in terms of not making Trump the issue, today was a particularly bad day. This week he decided to charge Stormy Daniels with violating her non-disclosure agreement, and seeks to charge her 20 million dollars – 1 million for each alleged violation. Today, however, The Wall Street Journal reported that she passed a polygraph test on the matter. Elsewhere, Trump got “benchslapped” in court when a Manhattan judge ruled that Trump had to face a defamation lawsuit brought by Summer Zevros over actions occurring while she appeared on The Apprentice with Trump. And also today, former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal opened up her own lawsuit to kill her non-disclosure agreement, on the grounds that her own attorney at the time had conspired with Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, to buy her silence on the pretext of buying magazine articles from her that were never published.
That sound of running water isn’t a dripping faucet, it’s a crack in the dam.
But friends and I were discussing this case on Facebook, and it did inspire me to make an observation on another point. Many of us – socialists, libertarians, and others who realize that machines will make unskilled labor near-obsolete – have been trying to find some way to make universal basic income possible. I have just figured out how to make universal basic income possible WITHOUT raising taxes OR cutting government services.
Because Donald Trump’s legal case hinges on him NOT having had sex with Stormy Daniels, because he paid her $130,000 to NOT say he had sex with her, and because only three people (the wives that he’s had children with) can be legally established as having sex with Donald Trump, therefore everyone else in the country is eligible to collect $130,000 from Donald Trump.
Excuse me, not Donald Trump. His lawyer.
Yeah, his lawyer.
Sure.