Sanity Sunday -Weekly Review (Aug 20- 26) and Nomadic Playlist

by Nomad

Things moved fast and furious this week. In terms of entertainment, the news of the week offered Nomads a lot of pulse-pounding excitement and stunning plot twists. It was the worst week of his presidency. We said that many times and every time it was true.

The lawyer to Stormy Daniels, (and Leadfoot's love interest) Michael Avenetti summed up the week's tumultuous events like this:

"The criminal enterprise that Donald Trump managed for so many years and was at the center of is quickly unraveling and I anticipate that it is going to pick up considerable momentum in the coming days and weeks ahead."

We can only pray he is correct.

Actually, Monday was a slow day. Most of us waited for more from Omarosa. It was, as it turned out, a day of calm before the storm.

Manafort, Cohen and Hunter
Then came Tuesday.

By the evening of that day, 21 August 2018, legal experts and news broadcasters were saying that the date would go down in history as the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. By any measure, the events of the day were momentous.

On Tuesday both Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman and Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer were both brought to justice. Manafort was found guilty of 8 of 18 charges which included five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to file foreign bank account reports. The maximum punishment for his crimes of 80 years. (Chances are, with a presidential pardon, he will not serve any time at all.)

It was revealed in the following days that the 10 mistrial verdicts in the Manafort trial came as a result of a single juror.

The bigger news was Cohen's admission of guilt for bank fraud, tax, and campaign spending violations. The details of his astounding plea agreement including the allegation- presumably supported by a great deal of evidence- that Trump directed Cohen to break the law by making secret payments to women with whom Trump reportedly had affairs. Coming days before the presidential election, these hush money payments very likely changed to outcome of the vote.
But there was more.

The plea agreement also implicated the president's son and the Trump Organization which handled Cohen's reimbursement. Surprisingly to many experts, Cohen's lawyer announced in interviews his client's willingness to testify to Mueller and reveal all he knew about Trump and his possible wrongdoing. He also stated that his client would never accept a pardon from "corrupt" Trump because he "is not interested in being dirtied" or bailed out like Trump's "political cronies."

In other news, Republican Congressman Duncan D. Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted for widespread misspending of campaign funds on personal items — from family vacations to video games to private school tuition.

The indictment represents the results of a two-year investigation by federal authorities. Hunter has represented parts of San Diego County in the United States House of Representatives since 2009.With a lifetime rating of 93 from the American Conservative Union. Hunter's voting record has been decidedly conservative.

Until his indictment, the California lawmaker was headed to victory in November. However, that's now up in the air. Still worse, with Hunter's fate unclear, the Republican majority in the House has been put into further question.

More Details in the Legal Documents

The fallout from Michael Cohen's plea agreement continued on Wednesday. Poor Disqus could hardly keep up with all of the comments on Nomadic Politics. But then there was much for us to chatter about and chew on.

Details of the plea agreement revealed that Cohen paid an unnamed tech company $50,000 "in connection with" Trump's campaign." Along with payments to both the National Enquirer and women with whom Trump had had sexual relations, the Trump Organization paid this unexplained fee claimed as a "payment for tech services."

Quite a few eyebrows were raised since Cohen did not have an official role with the Trump campaign's digital operation, nor did he ever have a formal staff position on the campaign itself. For other points about the plea agreement, Wednesday's NP post offers a few insights.

Other revelations included the admission that Cohen had coordinated with a friend of Donald Trump, David Pecker, the CEO of the National Enquirer's publisher, American Media Inc. (AMI).
During the campaign, the National Enquirer openly promoted Trump's campaign while also running a series of false stories about Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton.
More to the point, Pecker was accused of helping Trump suppress damaging stories just before the election, namely about his affairs with porn stars and Playboy models. Other reports suggested that Trump had control over which stories would or would not be published.

Pecker Jumps Ship

In yet another sign of the Great Trump unraveling, news broke on Thursday that David Pecker is now cooperating with the FBI in exchange for immunity. Other reports claimed that Pecker kept numerous other damaging stories in his safe and that these now almost certainly have been appropriated by the FBI.
With the hundreds of thousands of documents confiscated in the raids of Michael Cohen's home and office, the highly confidential documents found in Pecker's safe could be extraordinarily devastating to the president or his family.

Sessions and Trump At War

Meanwhile, the nasty spat between the president and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, heated up.

In a Fox News interview broadcast on Thursday, Trump sharply criticized Sessions, by claiming that he had lost control of the situation and blamed Sessions for the corruption of the Justice Department. Three weeks earlier, Trump demanded on Twitter

that Sessions stop "this Rigged Witch Hunt right now,"

"Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!"

He has repeatedly attacked his Attorney General on social media and in the press. In his defense, Sessions answered with

"I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in. While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations."

According to critics, this war of words between Trump and Sessions marks another step in the of the liquidation of the Trump administration. Whether this is some kind of larger strategy for Trump, it is hard to know.

It Almost Ought to be Illegal

There were other peculiarities about in the Fox interview worth mentioning. When asked about the decision of Cohen and Pecker to cooperate with investigations, Trump replied

"It's called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal... It -- it almost ought to be outlawed. It's not fair."

Legal experts were stunned to hear Mr. Trump calling cooperation with the FBI illegal and unfair. It's the kind of thing one would expect from an accused mob boss, not the president of the United States.
As CNN pointed out, Trump had a very different attitude on the matter back in 1981 when he offered to 'fully cooperate' with the bureau, proposing that FBI agents work undercover in a casino he was considering opening in Atlantic City.

In the same interview, the president also claimed that if he were impeached, the stock market would crash. (Wall Street analysts shrugged.) To top things off, Trump also erroneously claimed that the actions that Cohen pled guilty to weren't even campaign-related and that they weren't crimes.
Complete nonsense, say lawyers, and, if Trump actually believes this, he is shockingly ignorant of the danger he faces.

Possible Pardon

According to Fox News host who interviewed Trump, the president said that he "would consider" pardoning Paul Manafort of the fraud convictions.
That backs up comments made by Rudy Giuliani who claimed that Trump had asked his lawyers several weeks ago for their advice on the possibility of pardoning Manafort and former aides under investigation. Trump's personal lawyers urged Trump to think carefully before taking such a step.
Similarly, top Republicans in the Senate warned Trump that it would be "an enormous mistake and misuse of his power to pardon" and "would be very damaging to the presidency and to his position as president."

Should you be interested in seeing all of the other false or misleading claims Trump made in the Fox and Friends interview, CNN has listed all 36 of them.

Americans Would Revolt, Says Giuliani
In yet another sign of desperation, Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani told Sky News that, if Trump were to be impeached, "the American people would revolt." When asked whether he thought impeachment was likely or inevitable, Mr. Giuliani said:

"I think it's inevitable that he won't" be impeached... President Trump is completely cleared. You have this Cohen guy, he doesn't know anything about Russian collusion, doesn't know anything about obstruction."

Another Domino Falls
On Friday, the Day 582 of the Trump presidency, there were reports in the Washington Post that Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, has been given immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for sworn testimony. Weisselberg began working with the Trump family in the 1970s and would, as the saying goes, "know where all the bodies are buried."

Weisselberg is suspected of facilitating the processing of what prosecutors described as “sham invoices” at the Trump Organization through which Cohen was reimbursed. His immunity deal very likely includes providing information on exactly who directed those payments.

As Wednesday's NP post pointed out, Donald Trump's sons were in charge of approving of Trump Organization transactions. Furthermore, Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr. were in charge of managing a trust through which Cohen's payments were made.

Weisselberg is also treasurer of the Trump Foundation Federal prosecutors say that charity has been an unsupervised piggybank for Trump and his family for decades and was illegally used during his campaign.

Ominous Silence

Meanwhile, CIA intelligence officers warned ominously that "vital Kremlin informants have largely gone silent." This leaves the C.I.A. and other spy agencies in the dark about precisely what Mr. Putin’s intentions are for November’s midterm elections.

Technology companies and political campaigns in recent weeks have detected a plethora of political interference efforts originating overseas, including hacks of Republican think tanks and fake liberal grass-roots organizations created on Facebook.

According to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released on Wednesday, 57% of Americans believe it's likely there will be Russian interference in November's midterm elections.

To make matters worse, according to Rolling Stone, the Trump administration is trying to block a bipartisan election security bill aimed at fostering "greater coordination between states and the federal government in combating election interference."

Defeat with North Korean Denuclearization

In an admission of foreign policy failure, President Trump canceled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's planned trip to North Korea. Trump cited a "lack of progress" on denuclearization, blaming China for not "helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were."

Following the Singapore summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the president stated that the two had agreed on the issue of the denuclearization of North Korea. Trump, at the time, tweeted that he had "confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake.”

As late as June of this year- only two months ago, Trump was boasting that "a process of “total denuclearization ... has already started.” Experts saw no evidence to support Trump's claim.
According to one source, officials at the State Department were not given advance notice of the trip cancellation by the White House.

Trump's Love Child?
Another "catch-and-kill" story made its way to the mainstream on Friday. The former Trump World Tower doorman was allegedly paid a sum of $30,000 by AMI for information of an alleged affair President Donald Trump had with an ex-housekeeper. The affair, according to ex-Trump employee Dino Sajudin, resulted in an illegitimate child.
After lengthy negotiations between Sajudin's lawyer and AMI, the source is now absolved of his contract, which included a million dollar fine for revealing his story.

Death of a Maverick

The news of the death of John McCain, Vietnam war hero, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, and one-time presidential hopeful. McCain died at his home after a lengthy struggle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

The 81-year-old McCain's long career was a mixed bag. On one hand, his poor judgment in selecting a running mate brought us the horrific Sarah Palin. On the other hand, by casting the deciding "no" vote on the repeal of Affordable health care, McCain thwarted President Trump's agenda. McCain will be remembered by many as a person who could cranky and mean-spirited and yet, at one point in his presidential campaign, he attempted to correct hate-driven misperceptions about his opponent.
How history will ultimately remember McCain is anybody's guess.

McCain's bold rejection of all things Trump stands for will probably be the defining moment in his long and controversial political career.
According to some reports, McCain expressed wishes that President Trump not be invited to his funeral ceremony and that both George W Bush and Barack Obama deliver eulogies at his funeral.

Former President Barack Obama pointed out that he and McCain came from different backgrounds and had different political views, there were vital things they shared.

We saw this country as a place where anything is possible - and citizenship as our patriotic obligation to ensure it forever remains that way.

"Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us can aspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own.

It is the kind of courage that is sorely lacking in Congress. With McCain's passing, we will probably never see another Republican with the guts to defy his party in the name of the greater good.

So that's the week in review. And what a week it was. Any predictions on what next week will bring us?

Sanity Sunday- Bossa Nova

This week for Sanity Sunday, we have music from south of the border. Brazil to be exact. The distinctive Bossa Nova sound (which means "new trend") became popular in the late 50s and 60s.
For me, it evokes a late summer evening with moonlight on the terrace and a cocktail.