(Recall that—by Trump’s own public admission—as late as Election Day he did not believe he would win the presidency of the United States.
Trump thought that—on November 9, 2016—he’d return to being a non-politician private citizen free to do big international business deals.
So all of Trump’s historically pro-Russia foreign policy was developed at a time he thought he was making a pitch for Trump Tower Moscow.)
Seth Abramson, The Thread
(Cohen dismissed the Rtskhiladze plan and chose to pursue a third proposal, brokered by a man with a checkered past: Sater. Moscow-born, Brooklyn-bred, Sater started a career on Wall Street, until a bar fight—he stabbed a man in the face with a margarita glass—led to 15 months in prison.) Dan Alexander, Forbes
The serial Tweet is an awful mode of representation. I got lost, both in terms of detail and attention. After a while, the added assortment of Russian names becomes like a novel that leaves out the necessary plot context.
Right from the start, this cold war leftover of a story had resonance, if and only if, I grew up on such tales, and the idiot is a perfect fit to be cast in one of them. Beyond that, it seems odd to me that after all this time, all the efforts at uncovering evidence, not much has blown out into the open to reveal irrefutable malfeasance. If such a tape existed, it is impossible to believe that it wouldn’t be floating on the net for any kid to download. This would be so not because the authorities had secured it — they can’t even get his tax returns — but because somebody wanted to make a buck on it.
It all has the appearance of something some folks want to be true, either because he is such a central casting cliche, or because he has usurped a spot normally kept for the usual type of hypocrite reprobate that normally holds the position. Right now, if I had to choose between Trump and Biden, well, I’d move to Canada. If I was truly forced to do it, I would take Trump. The revolting sanctimony around the Biden-types, long proven, lifelong enemies of everyday people, is impossible to take.
Muller had to come back to clarify things, that there is infact
enough evidence to proceed with impeachment proceedings but
not to criminal prosecution because it is against the constitution
to do so. The problem is that Nancy Pelosi and the centrist faction
of the Dems do not want to proceed because they fear the risk of
tactical failure and that this would negatively affect the outcome
of the next election in favour of Trump.
Many Dems left of center do not have the same misgivings and want
the impeachment process to begin, pronto.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/opinion/trump-democrats-impeachment.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
a short audio by Jan-Werner Muller on the nature of contemporary
conservative populism in the West sheds some light on what is
holding things up for the Dems..
(Have so many people really been converted to the views of the
far right? Contrary to the domino theory propounded by pundits,
and by the populists themselves – first Brexit, then Trump, then
Le Pen etc – the fact remains that no right-wing populist
has yet come to power anywhere in Western Europe or
North America withoutthe collaboration of established
conservative elites.)
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n10/jan-werner-muller/populism-and-the-people?utm_source=LRB+icymi&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190528+icymi&utm_content=usca_nonsubs_icymi