Yes, it’s official–to me at least. That Trump is the scarier guy than Kim Jung Un. But before we get onto that topic, note that we’ll also be talking about the totally unrelated pardon proffer today. A proffer that may already have been made.
First, North Korea. Could Kim and Trump be brothers of another mother? They seem so much alike in the way they saturate the media with their bombastic excursions into idiotic promises of consequences. If it weren’t so serious, one could compare their rants to WWE, or whatever the wrestling consortium goes by today. What if, stop and think about it—Kim thinks Trump is crazy enough to do what he says he will? Is it possible that this might actually work to scare off Kim from shooting missiles or artillery at us or South Korea? Wouldn’t want to bet the lives of everyone on the Korean peninsula and nearby countries. Not to mention Guam, etc. Still, I believe it’s possible. If somebody ever does a remake of “The Shining,” perhaps Trumpy could play the lead nutjob.
The more cautious and sensible route seems invoking Article 25, Section 4, of the US Constitution to remove Trump for being unfit to perform the duties of President. While the section doesn’t spill out all the possible details, being not one or two—but several sandwiches short of a picnic ought to be enough to get him removed. We can at least hope that sane military officers would resist a preemptive strike on North Korea. But why take that chance? Let’s start the ball rolling to get Trump out and committed to an institution where he can get the help he needs.
Onto the pardon prospects. Manafort, following the FBI raid on his home, has new lawyers. One specializes in the kind of financial crimes he might be charged with. The other has escaped the attention of most commentators—other than Rachel Maddow. She noted the other night that Manafort now has a lawyer who managed to get a pardon of an ex-CIA official from George H. W. Bush for a crime that would have had him serving serious time for various felonies. Maddow didn’t speculate, but here’s my take:
Special Counsel Robert Muller wants to flip either Michael Flynn or Paul Manafort—maybe both. In exchange for implicating Trumpty Dumpty, they could get off with light sentences (or none) for the various serious offenses both will face accusations of. But rather than ANY sentence, why not make Trump an offer (through each other’s attorneys) that they won’t rat him out if makes a binding agreement to pardon them? Why else would Manafort have hired Richard Hibey—the lawyer who got Clair George the pardon from Bush? Trump has already been investigating the prospect of pardons. Likely with good reason.
Now that was an earful, lol. I’ve thought about all your scenarios on the Manafort/Flynn dilemma. I think the 25th can’t come soon enough before the 4th Reich takes over. The only good thing about the Virgina protests is that it opened the eyes of many to dump, including many republicans and 3 more CEOs who left his council. They’re dropping like flies and they need to continue dropping. His pathetic excuse of a speech today, too little, too late doesn’t put a dent in his ignorant behavior when a country is crying our for their president to denounce Nazis and white supremists. He has no problem demeaning or humiliating anyone on any given day, but Virginia wasn’t important. Don’t even get me started on his lame attempt to try again today. Besides the fact there was no heart in what he said, the speech alone with the vocabulary used in it was a dead give away he didn’t write, LOL. 🙂 See, you got me started again!
It’s up to four CEOs now. Yes, he did the Monday redo reading from the teleprompter. Aside from being too little too late, he also retweeted alt-right stuff that diminished the slight value his words had. Watch for the GOP guys to go back to normal complacency by Wednesday–much like with the Access Hollywood howls and other briefly lasting rebukes.