Two court cases, two huge victories for Resisters
For those of us in the Resistance, yesterday was a great day.
It was an even better day for America.
Manafort and Cohen: both guilty of eight serious counts. Both cooperating with Mueller and the Southern District of New York. Both in a position to end the disastrous Trump presidency.
It’s not over by a long shot, but we’re feeling pretty vindicated. The past few months have been like being underwater, holding our breaths, waiting to be able to breathe in fresh, clean air. But we couldn’t—not as long as these two cases were hanging fire. For all we knew, Manafort would be found not guilty of all of his 18 counts, or the jury might have been hopelessly hung. As for Cohen, we really had no idea where that was headed. So it’s been a tense, ambiguous time for us Resisters.
Not now! We know that these two criminals are going to jail for a long time, or, if they’re able to give Mueller good information to bring Trump and his klepto family down, maybe he’ll let them walk. Either way, it’s incredibly satisfying.
It hasn’t easy being a member of the Resistance. Some days, Trump seems to be winning the P.R. and legal battles. That’s when our hearts sink and things feel hopeless. But then come the good days, like yesterday, and we once again believe we live in a nation of laws. No matter how rich and powerful a person is, he can’t escape responsibility for his crimes.
That reference in Cohen’s plea deal to “a candidate for federal office” is the best thing we have going forward. The candidate clearly is Donald J. Trump; the federal office was obviously the presidency; the underlying crime was the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. Great news for Resisters! Michael Avenatti is ecstatic. We’re going to have a lot more T.V. coverage of Trump’s trials and tribulations.
I begin thinking of Michael Pence. It looks like, sooner or later, he’s going to become president, to serve out the remainder of Trump’s term. I’m okay with that. I think Pence is a delusional psychopath, in the sense of his belief in the literal truth of the Bible. I think that Pence would ban gay marriage all over again (which is not going to happen). I think his politics are insane. But he’s not Trump. He doesn’t possess the charisma, or the hold on the Republican base that Trump has. Pence is a weak, inarticulate, unlikeable man. He’ll be in trouble the second he takes over the presidency. We Resisters will not ease up.
And what of Russia? It’s true—as Republicans are going to emphasize in the days going forward—that none of the charges to which Manafort was found guilty and Cohen pled guilty has anything to do with the Russian election meddling, or with Trump’s collusion, or the collusion of his family. If you’re Trump, that’s the good news. Fox “News” will make much of it.
But here’s the good news for Resisters. Between them, Manafort and Cohen have the goods on RussiaGate. The plea deals and cooperation are well underway between them and Mueller. Mueller is building his collusion and obstruction case meticulously, and the walls are closing in on Trump. He knows it. His family and allies know it. Fox “News” knows it. Congressional Republicans know it. The only people who don’t know it are the droolers at Breitbart and their ilk—monkeys who don’t want to hear the bad news.
La la la la la la la
They’re like those Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender after World War II and hid out in their caves on Pacific islands, living on grubs and weeds.
Well, let them. I don’t care whether “the base” will accept these developments or not. I don’t care if the evangelicals are still willing to excuse Trump’s adulteries and vulgarity. I don’t care if the knuckle-draggers who watch Fox “News” remain in their abysmal denial. None of it matters. They don’t count anymore. The handwriting is on the wall: this abortion of a Trump presidency is in its waning days, with Trump terrified and embarrassed in public, as he deserves to be. Halleleujah! Well done, Resisters! YOU and WE made yesterday possible.
Ripped from the headlines . . .
“With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress”
By Nicholas Fandos and Jonathan Martin
New York Times online – posted “5 minutes ago” [2 AM August 22, 2018]
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html
Excerpt:
“As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.
“But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.
“At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.”