You know, I’m rapidly starting to get the feeling that either I’m psychic (not psychotic smartass!), or I’m going to have to start wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the Trumpista’s from stealing my thoughts. I’m getting a little tired of saying shit just to have Great Pumpkin’s administration make me right in less than 24 hours.
In another diary yesterday I was replying to a comment by my dear friend ursulafaw. She was bummed about the speed of the unraveling of the cheap sweater called the Trump administration, and I advised patience, things were just getting started. The first two shoes had recently dropped, surely there were more to come, let’s connect the dots correctly. I also reminded her of one of my favorite sayings, Once is an accident, twice is a habit, and three times is a fetish”.
Starting to look like it’s fetish time for the Orange Julius. The first shoe, after weeks of loud, strident public denial from the administration was the admission that incoming NSA Michael Flynn had not only had those two conversations with the Russian Ambassador, they discussed sanctions. Sean Spicer swore from the pulpit that this was a one off, Flynn was an outlier, there was nothing more to see.
Yeah, sure. Then came the revelation that brand, spanking new Attorney General Keebler-the-Elf had in fact had two meetings with the very same Russian Ambassador during the campaign, directly contradicting his sworn testimony in his confirmation hearing before the Senate. “Once is an accident, twice is a habit”.
The funny thing is that none of this had to blow up like this, if it wasn’t for the administrations Nixonian thirst for secrecy. After all, both men are public figures, Flynn was a well known and long served army general, why shouldn’t he have a simple, friendly conversation with the Russian ambassador? Same thing for Sessions, he’s a long time sitting Senator, and they meet with ambassadors all the time, in fact that is Session’s defense. But it’s the timing and circumstances that are killing them, especially their complete inability to recall any content to the conversations in question. As Malcolm Nance said on MSNBC last night, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, but it’s the smoke that kills you. You almost never burn to death, you die from the smoke”.
But this third shoe is nothing short of ridiculous. And this one makes absolutely no political sense at all. But it is also an indicator that the constant press pressure and leaks are starting to get to the administration. Desperate to stay out of the limelight, the administration self disclosed this one, trying to get ahead of the story. In December, in his office in Trump Tower, Donny’s #1 son in law, Jared Kushner met with Mike Flynn and the same goddamn Russian ambassador! For God’s sake, why?!? Trump was still in transition, and Jared had no explicit role in the incoming administration. Besides, the Trump administration was desperately trying to place distance between its business interests and Russia, so why have the Russian ambassador over to Trump tower for a private chat?
Take my word for it, there will be more Russian connections yet to come. And with each new revelation, the pressure builds for an independent commission to investigate, and as each pebble adds weight to the scale, it becomes harder for the GOP to continue to obstruct an independent investigation without looking like collaborators for the Trump administration. After the original leak, I had figured it would take about six months. But now, with the quantity and quality of the leaked information, it wouldn’t surprise me if the pressure reaches a critical mass by the end of March. Don’t touch that dial.