Book Report: Seth Abramson's "Proof of Collusion"

The good news is that America will survive.

The bad news...

...we are being governed by a criminal conspiracy compromised by a foreign adversary, Putin's Russia.

Abramson's book is unique in historical journalism. He is not an investigative reporter as were Woodward and Bernstein. Well, both of those guys are still around, but not like they were in the days of Nixon. Abramson provides in disturbing detail a narrative from the public record of the crimes of #Individual1 (donald j. trump) and his associates. Most importantly, and as Rober Mueller has now concurred in court filings, the quid pro quo is revealed that the trump family and presidential campaign conspired with Putin's Russia to elect #Individual1 and with the promise of financial rewards in Russian real estate deals in exchange for the removal of sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine and interference in U.S. elections.

The book is disturbing and hard to accept, except that Abramson has been proven correct in his predictions and reporting to date. Abramson's book is basically a narrative of the long Twitter threads he has been providing over the past couple of years analyzing the alleged crimes of #Individual1. There is some cosmic justice that a well-researched and reasoned Twitter feed will help bring down a president who has a dynamic and occasionally damning presence on Twitter. This modern political world is blessed and cursed by new technologies.

I could only read this book after the revelations in court last week confirming the criminal conspiracy far exceeding the Watergate break-in and cover-up. And there's some satisfaction in writing this on the day #Individual1's personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison even though fully cooperating with the investigations (Mueller had recommended lighter sentencing, the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York recommended a bit harsher treatment in the financial investigations and prosecutions ongoing there).

Amazingly as he was sentenced, Cohen said he was finally "free."

trump Sets Grand Jury Record

Robert Mueller, Special Counsel investigating Trump. Now with Federal Grand Jury.

The third Watergate Grand Jury investigated the President. It was convened January 7, 1974, nearly five years after Nixon first became President.

The Whitewater Grand Jury first subpoenaed records from First Lady, Hillary Clinton, in May 1994, over three years after Bill Clinton became President.

News broke today in the Wall Street Journal, a fairly conservative news source, that Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, has convened a federal Grand Jury in the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. CNN reports that this includes financial dealings of trump corporations and links to Russians.

What the WHAT!?

So, in case you somehow haven't heard, trump fired James Comey, the Director of the FBI for, get this:

Lying about Hillary's emails!

OK. I can't help it if I find it hilariously funny in a dark humor sort of way.

I just got an email from a friend who has been walking the world since retirement from my office. He says:

We got through Nixon. We will get through this. I am more concerned in the long term about global warming than I am about Trump.

He has a couple of good points there.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Watergate

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa tells Bill Maher a special prosecutor should investigate Russian election interference  LATIMES.COM

This is important. Republicans are starting to break in favor of independent investigation of Trump and Russian ties. Remember there are three problems starting from most solid to less so (and one and two are pretty solid):

1. Russian interference with US election.

2. Trump campaign and transition personnel contacts with Russia.

Nixon & Elvis

One of the strangest photographs ever of a President of the United States (well, until any photo of the current president over the last three weeks), was this one of Nixon meeting Elvis Presley. Presley presented himself to the President as one concerned about the way the liberal left and drug culture were leading the youth of America astray and away from the patriotic ideals represented by Nixon.

I just watched the Amazon production of Elvis & Nixon, my wife out of town so I could get away with it. I would give it four stars. ****

And the bigger point here is the realization that our current President is the perfect fusion of Nixon and Elvis. All the hypocrisy of both; espousing patriotic ideals while allowing personal demons to self-destruct in front of a national, no, international audience.

Fora Dilma!

Dilma e Lula
Current President of Brazil, Dilma Vana Rousseff, and former President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

I get it now. I've been following the Facebook posts of many friends in Brazil and have been cautious about interfering in their political discussions, not being a citizen of that great nation and all.

Ainda fico muito preocupado com muita fala a favor de golpe militar. Creio que o passo constitutional de "impeachment" será melhor rumo à salvação da nação brasileira. E não tenho problema com as grandes demonstações nas ruas. Esse é o direito de um povo livre.

Dilma Rouseff, Presidenta do Brasil, is under siege for the collapse of the economy - not all her fault, mind you, having failed to recover from the world recession of eight years ago caused by the bankers of North America and Europe and the collapse of Brazilian oil. I still think it was a wise move for Brazilian investment in Cuba before U.S. President Obama began a re-opening and a lifting of sanctions. That will put Brazil right in the middle of increased commerce through the Americas.

Benghazi-non-gate

Our hearts go out to the families of those heroes we lost and to the wounded at Benghazi.

But, the Republican House is convening new hearings to finally blow the lid off what they think is the horrendous scandal of Benghazi or at least get some attention which failed today because of the rescued women in Ohio and the guilty verdict in Arizona.

Testimony today revealed the not so extraordinary information that there was a lot of confusion that night. Shocker!

The New, New Nixon

From Anonymous D:

This from Monica Crowley “PhD” (the italics are mine, she has a real degree from Columbia but with statements like the following it should be revoked). About Nixon on his 100th birthday she wrote:

How we could use his wise counsel today on Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and al Qaeda. He was, after all, the first president to order a top-secret analysis of Islamic terror (in 1973). We could also use his realism on Russia and China. The world has always been a complicated and dangerous place, but Nixon was one of the rare presidents who could see it functioning as a whole as well as seeing its individual parts. He could also see what the world was going to look like 20 years down the road and dare to make American policy to prepare for that world.

Cold War Relic

My college daughter works at the dollar store this summer between terms. I love going in to ask her what each thing in the store costs. "Everything's a dollar!!" I like her other job even better at Tonyburger because of their great family discount! (Mmm, Tonyburger "like") But the dollar store has its upsides, too (besides the fact that "everything's a dollar!"). She was excited to text me today that she had found a treasure in the cash register. Her boss let her take it home. [I got it backwards. It was actually in the till at Tonyburger!]

"Nattering Nabobs of Negativism"

The Less-than-Honorable Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew

Maybe I'll rethink my blog-writing style that does occasionally resort to alliteration. I am currently reading a good book, Very Strange Bedfellows: The Short and Unhappy Marriage of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, by Jules Witcover (Public Affairs, New York 2007). And it reminds me that Vice President Spiro Agnew was the master of musical messaging (oops).

It's a good book by a veteran journalist from Baltimore, so he has a good grasp on the former Governor of Maryland and his background. I know how it ends. Agnew resigned the Vice Presidency in disgrace as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in Baltimore because they had the goods on him for old-style political graft - receiving cash kick-backs for government contracts in Maryland. 

It's Not Because Mitt's Mormon

KSL in Salt Lake City reported on Politico.com's founder's view that while still the inevitable Republican nominee (as this blogger has always said), Romney is limping to the finish line of the nomination by self-inflicted wounds. His religion may play a part, but Romney is his own worst enemy for his insincerity and inability to connect with the average voter (particularly, the average base-voter of the Republican party).

I think that part of this is Romney's Mormonism, but in a very odd way. Romney at his core is Mormon. His faith and family are the most important things in his life. And in Mormonism those are practically the same thing. Romney, to his credit, does not want to reveal those most deeply held and private aspects of his life. So he hides behind his corporate money-making professionalism. That is all real too, and could even be somewhat helpful in the managerial role required as president, but his self-marketing campaign smacks of insincerity reminding us of the old question about Nixon, "Would you buy a used car from this man?"

Rope-a-Dope Hope? or Nope?

Some analysts are saying that the President's release of the original, long-form birth certificate isn't really part of his plan to marginalize the Republicans and their candidates who play into the birther delusions. But even Karl Rove concedes the President was playing a little rope-a-dope. This is likely to help the President politically with the moderate independents who think the birther movement is the craziest thing since Nixon claimed he wasn't a crook. (I will admit that I actually fell for that one at the time. I've been suspicious of sanctimonious conservatives ever since.)

Possible Political Changes

Anything can happen. It is April First, after all.

I've decided that I will become a Republican (again) the day they nominate Jon Huntsman to be their Presidential Candidate. Vice President isn't good enough because sometimes you just need a moderate for supposed balance, like Nixon needed Agnew. It's still amazing to me that Huntsman was ever Governor of Utah. But then he didn't let his moderation slip until he was safely into his second term and then Obama whisked him off to China.

And, I’ll become a Libertarian the day I actually see them using their hoarded gold to “help the poor come out of poverty” and join the “unfettered market.”

And now, for something completely different (and even half serious):