July 14 Agitation [View all]

[H2O Man]

“I was actually agitated..”
Donald Trump, Jr.; July 11, 2017

“As the headmaster reported to me
My son he really can try as they do to find function “
John Lennon; Revolution 9; 1968


When I joined the Democratic Underground, I was confident that Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury would return indictments on July 14, 2004. It didn't happen that way.

Towards the end of June, 2017, I was sure that either the New York Times or the Washington Post would release a weekend bombshell about the Trump-Russian scandal. A few journalists were aware of a big story that seemed ready to break. But it didn't happen that way.

However, at that time, Fox News was promoting a curious theory that, even if the Trump campaign did collude with the Russians, it wasn't illegal. It came as no surprise that Sean Hannity took this stance. But it was disappointing when former human being Brit Hume followed Hannity's lead.

This week, of course, we've learned why these Trump apologists had taken such a strange stance. The lawyers for Kushner had discovered the series of communications that Donald, Jr. released, and immediately recognized they were explosive. The White House began its outreach to friendly journalists, in an attempt to prepare for the possibility of the information becoming public.

Gossip within the White House saturated all the cliques, and soon others were talking – off the record, of course – to other journalists. A legal expert from CNN, for example, was aware of parts of the story. It became merely a matter of time until a reporter got enough to nail the story. And, as we have seen, the shit hit the fan this weekend.

Some of the most interesting reporting on the issue, in my opinion, comes from MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. He has been focused on the conflicts between a couple of the cliques in the Trump administration. Indeed, these are creating tensions within the Trump family.

Older forum members will recall that it was when there were similar tensions within the Nixon administration, when they were attempting to identify who would be sacrificed, that their efforts at a cover-up came apart at the seams. The same dynamics are at play today. The pressures are growing: consider the unseemly outburst from Marc Kasowitz being reported upon in the past 24 hours.

There are other stories that journalists are working on now that will continue to surface and inflict severe damage on the administration. Some people will attempt to distance themselves from the Trump-Russian scandal, as VP Pence tried to do when he noted that Junior's meeting took place before he officially joined the team. Still others will continue to leak to reporters, providing information they hope will harm other cliques, and save their own skin.

Enjoy this weekend!