"Make It Plain" [View all]

[H2O Man]

The media is reporting numerous extremely important stories on an on-going basis. Two current, closely related events include Trump's role in his son's meeting with Russians for “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and Paul Manafort's first criminal trial. The complexity of these stories is such that it can be difficult to remember everything from as recent as one month ago.

Trump and Rudy Giuliani are actively both trying to cloud the issues, and get ahead of bad news they know is coming right around the corner. White House spokespeople are, at very best, habitually having the claims they make supporting Trump being exposed had absolutely untrue. It's a combined effort to confuse the general public.

That's why I think it is important that Democrats – including those running for office – practice one of Malcolm X's instructions: “Make it plain.” (In fact, that's the title of one of the very best books about Malcolm, as well as a related documentary.) I recognize that none of our party's candidates can run exclusively as “anti-Trump,” but it is an issue that will surface in every campaign. And there are some outstanding Democrats in both the House and Senate that are speaking truth on CNN and MSNBC.

It's extremely important that Democrats at the grass roots level also discuss the Trump-Russian scandal. In part, this is to counter the attempt by Trump to confuse the public, so that republicans can have an excuse to not impeach him. It is also equally important to do to educate the public on the dangerous nature of the crimes the Trump campaign committed, and why it is so important to vote for Democrats in November.

I'm comfortable saying here that I believe that vote tallies in sections of three states – Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – were tampered in a manner that changed the “official” outcome of the 2016 election. But I can't prove it, and thus can not “make it plain” in a public discussion. Thus, I focus on what can be proven – that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians to influence the outcome of the election.

The Trump “family business” had extensive dealings with Russian entities connected to Putin for decades. Thus, when Donald Jr. was contacted about potential “dirt” on Clinton, he readily accepted the offer. He wasn't offended that a foreign adversary was attempting to influence our election. No, these were “family friends.” He said that he loved it, especially if the “dirt” came out during the general election contest.

Michael Cohen says that Junior came into a meeting between Trump and Cohen, and informed his father of the offer. Rudy Giuliani denied that, but then spoke of a second meeting that followed, where the top people discussed the upcoming meeting with the Russians. This meeting was to discuss how the campaign could best disguise that the campaign was coordinating with Russia.

In the meeting with the Russians, it was agreed that the stolen e-mails from the DNC and Clinton campaign would go through a cut-out. Manafort identified Roger Stone as the person in charge on the Trump campaign's side. The Russians would make use of Guicifer 2.0 and Wikileaks. In return, the Trump campaign would alter the republican platform on Ukraine, and lift the Magnitsky Act sanctions if Trump was elected.

Junior called his father both right before and after this meeting on a private line. Trump would soon make a claim that he was preparing a speech on Clinton's “corruption.” Manafort was able to pressure the republicans to alter their platform. Although Trump never made the “corruption” speech he had promised, he soon blurted out his infamous “Russia, if you're listening” request. And hours later, Russians attempted to hack Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

In the months that followed, when the Trump Tower meeting was exposed by the media, panic set in the group that had conspired with the Russians. Both the father and son, along with co-conspirators, attempted to lie about the meeting. This shows consciousness of guilt. Junior went so far as to lie to a congressional committee. Some of the half-wits who were not directly involved in the conspiracy would parrot those lies to the media, because Trump lied to them, too. When a client lies to his defense lawyers, it's never a good thing. Thus Jay Sekulow's humiliating admission this weekend that he had “bad information” when he claimed Trump didn't dictate Junior's statement.

The Trump campaign – including the candidate – conspired with the Russians. It's as plain as that.