Devil in the Details

The "executive summary" of the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller was released yesterday, and media is tripping over themselves making all kinds of baseless claims. The summary was made by Attorney General Barr, who was appointed by Donald Trump, and who has openly stated his opinion that the President should be above the law. Of course he tries his best to protect his beloved god-emperor as much as he possibly can.

The summary is very telling in what it doesn't say. It makes some claims very narrow, like saying that there has been no conclusive evidence found that Donald Trump's campaign knowingly colluded with the Russian government, while it fails to mention the broader accusation of collusion with Russian operatives who are formally not tied to the government, like oligarchs and lawyers. The summary acknowledges that considerable foreign interference took place in the 2016 election and is likely to continue, but fails to raise a flag of warning or make any recommendations for securing the fairness and independence of the election system.

And, as a telling sign of a redaction being downright dishonest, the summary fails to quote a single complete sentrnce from Mueller's text. If you feel the need to cut parts of sentences out of context, chances are that the full sentence is actually quite damaging. Imagine a movie poster quoting a review as "A most impressive display...", when the reviewer actually wrote "A most impressive display of bad taste and money wasted on a total lack of talent."

We need to see the full report, with redactions where necessary to protect witnesses and ongoing investigations, not an obviously dishonest summary written by a Trump stooge. I am sure the full text will be utterly embarrassing and damaging to Donald Trump and his Republican henchmen, and I am sure we will see it quite soon.

Criminal scum

The President of the United States is a carreer criminal, a fraud, a cheat, a tax dodger, a bully, a con man, a liar, a traitor, a racist, a dumbass and a child molesting pervert. He suffers from severe mental disorder and has rapidly progressing dementia. The apparent inability of a democratic system to remove a person so clearly unfit for office is a sad sign of the worst flaw of good people: we are unable to understand evil people and cannot predict their actions, and we are therefore doomed to being taken by surprise at their blatant disregard for every ideal we stand for and all our aspirations to make a positive contribution to the world.

We must consider being less tolerant towards intolerance, or we will keep getting fooled. There is no reasoning with pure evil. Sometimes you just have to give up on people and realize that they are way beyond redemption, utterly undeserving of our respect, and belong in prison for the rest of their lives.

Desilluminati

Illuminati, "the Enlightened Ones", is an old conspiracy theory that refuses to go away. Depending on who touts the conspiracy, the Illuminati are depicted as evil, benevolent, or just indifferent, cold and calculating in their secret attempts to rule the world from behind the scenes. However, they are never described as stupid.

What we have now instead of a government in the United States is a cabal of Desilluminati, "the Unenlightened Ones". These dim bulbs are trying very hard to turn down the lights for everyone who wants transparency, accountability, honesty and reason from their elected representatives. Their problem is that light always prevails over darkness. It only takes some illumination in the right place for a short while to expose the ugly secrets hiding in the dark, and once the truth has been brought to light, there is no way of hiding it again.

Fortunately for us, Donald Trump and his "best people" are not very smart, and that's what's bringing them down. The dim bulbs are about to be replaced.

Swamp Creatures

The person illegally occupying the presidential seat in the United States made a big deal of his campaign promise to "drain the swamp", i.e. to clean up in the unhealthy environment of Washington DC politics where many elected officials are carreer politicians who only care about their own benefit and their continued reelection, rather than using their granted powers to improve society and benefit their constituents. However, instead if draining the swamp, he and his minions have turned it into a cesspool, or worse. Their treasonous conspiracy with foreign hostile governments, their financial fraud and their obstruction of justice is just a small part of their long list of crimes. Before this horrible period of US politics is all over, we will see the president, people in his employ and numerous elected Republicans be charged and convicted for bribery, perjury, tax evasion, general thuggery, murder, systematic sexual abuse of children and human trafficking, just to name a few of the crimes that are being exposed. Their attempt at seizing power in a totalitarian manner is failing, thankfully, but they are doing a lot of damage by digging in and refusing to stop until they are dragged away in handcuffs.
Before long, Congress may be half empty, and the White House will be deserted. Good riddance. It will take decades to wash away the stench.

Emolumentally Stupid

If this had been a normal presidency, what Donald Trump did this weekend would have been a clear reason to start impeachment hearings. After having lost a lawsuit with the Scottish government, a lawsuit he initiated himself to stop a wind turbine project from somehow ruining the view from his failing Trump Scotland golf course, he took to Twitter and promoted his own business, suggesting that a Trump-owned golf course in Scotland somehow improves the UK-US foreign relations.

This is a clear and blatant violation of the "emoluments clause" which forbids a sitting US president from using the position of power for personal profit. Presidunce Trump is either too stupid to understand this, or too corrupt to care. In either case, he should not be allowed to remain in office.

A more sinister interpretation is that Trump issued a veiled threat against the UK, implying that it would harm international relations if they don't step in and reverse the court decision, which ordered him to reimburse the Scottish government for the costs of the defense. If that is what he meant, and I certainly wouldn't put it past him, he is corrupt like a banana republic dictator and needs to be locked up immediately.

Fortunately, steps are being taken to remove him from office, albeit for entirely different and more serious crimes than this emoluments clause violation. This just adds a little to the already huge pile of crimes he has committed during his sad and pathetic life.