How to Get Chaika
This is a follow on to:
- http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/07/trump-wants-chaika.html
- Given that Trump still wants a "Chaika" style Government
The Question to Ask is
- How Does Trump Achieve that goal?
How to Fight Off the Investigators
This weekend we found out that Trump tried to fire Bob Mueller in June 2017. He backed off, reportedly because his deputy Donald F. McGahn II refused to carry out the order. He subsequently hired Ty Cobb (amazing name if you love Baseball) and has been claiming to go along with the investigation ever since. But we know he still wants to fire Mueller.
If you were a nascent Dictator how would you fight off an investigation?
You would do it the way Trump is doing it. Tell the press you are "cooperating with Mueller" while digging for dirt and ruthlessly attacking everyone supporting his investigation. After I started this post, Trump succeeded in driving Donald F. McGahn II into retirement. His next target is Rod Rosenstein, who has the power to (and refused to) fire Mueller shortly after he was hired. Trump is on his way to getting his Chaika. It may take a bit of time.
Enter Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb was hired in July, put a stop to the brutal strategy. I can imagine his conversation with Trump:
- "Don't want sanctions? close the office that has the job of imposing them!"
- "Don't want Mueller? organize a campaign to discredit him and the FBI!"
- "Don't want to implement Civil Rights, close that office."
- "Can't get States to go along with voter suppression? Move the work to Homeland Security where you can keep it secret!"
- "Can't get Mueller fired? Go after everyone who supports his investigation, leading to Rod Rosenstein, who is his boss!"
- "Can't find anything on Rod Rosenstein? Here's how you do it. Take something he did that was classified, like his approval of FISA intercepts..."
Judicious Use of Kompromat
Trump already had practiced some of these tricks as a "player" in New York crime and politics. He would spread rumors. Sometimes pretending to be someone else. He would attack his critics with allegations. Some of them even true. And he had his own private security firm for years. He boasted about using compromising materials (kompromat) to keep the police, prosecutors and politicians off of him. His casinos and Hotels, he boasted had cameras. His modeling agency, the story goes, could be used to gather material for blackmail as well as a means of bribing friends. These are all the kinds of things that have kept Vladimir Putin in office in Russia.
Reward friends, blackmail enemies, save evidence of criminal behavior in case friends turn.
Wonder what happened to Lindsey Graham?
The Russians hacked our congressmen, the republicans, as well as US Democrats and State Governments. Even without the Russians, it is a trivial thing for the corrupt to use corruption to win friends, influence people and destroy enemies. It is no surprise that the "never Trumper's" one by one turned into fawning friends. There is evidence that Russian Mob money was invested into congressional races. It is possible that Trump's organization, the Mob and/or the Russians are gathering kompromat on congressmen like Lindsey Graham and that is why they've backed off on criticizing Trump. The combination of rewards and threats are powerful in politics. I don't know if that in fact has happened or not, but my spidey sense says yes.
Subverting DoJ, HS, etc...
Homeland Security is easy to subvert. The officers in that department are eager to deport "illegal aliens."
The FBI have a mix of hard right and moderate agents and career officials. They are old style Republicans from when the Republican Party had some integrity. It will take some time to subvert them.
Turning Evidence of a Crime into A Crime
The news is making it pretty obvious what the GOP strategy is for shaking off investigations and subverting the DOJ. Yesterday's flap over the FISA Memo that Nunes wrote is illustrative of the methods. Nunes is supposed to be recused from the Russia investigation due to being a prime suspect for Mueller. So instead of recusing himself Nunes is persecuting the FBI, playing a dishonest McCarthy role in ginning up "evidence" that the investigation is evil because FBI agents have Democratic wives, or like Comey. Basically they are making it a crime to not swear an oath of fealty and abject subjugation to Donald Trump and his whims.
Use the Classification System
Apparently Carter Page has been under investigation and surveillance since 2013 when he was recruited by 3 Russians who were later caught and tried for espionage (being an unregistered agent). Intelligence people have believed he was an unregistered agent since then. Evidence has mounted over the years and FISA warrants have been reauthorized based on this accumulating evidence.
...So Nunes is offering up a "memo" that purports to claim that the FISA warrants against Carter Page were unwarranted. This despite the fact that a FISA judge gave those warrants to both DOJ Administration Criminal investigators on evidence of criminal behavior by Carter Page, evidence submitted every 3 months by both Obama and Trump. His memo makes claims that the justification for those warrants is false. Apparently he claims that it was based on the Steele Dossier, which would be nonsense since it is based on intercepted behavior...
Carter Page, evidently, was being spied on because evidence had turned up he's a Russian Agent! So why does Devin Nunes go after The Officials who submitted documents to FISA to monitor him as a spy? Incredible! So they can fire Rod Rosenstein, who is Mueller's boss.
The memo will be released without footnotes, redacted, but with salacious accusations where the underlying evidence is classified. The Democrats have already written a counter memo, also based on the underlying evidence. The Democrats on the Intelligence Community universally denounce the memo as making false claims. So of course the GOP has decided that Democrats shall have no role in such investigations. The Democrats minority report on this "memo" was shut down. They are going to release the Republican report in 4-5 days and US democrats will have to find a way around their one party rule.
Trump can act as a dictator without ruling by complete decree. One party rule accomplishes the same thing. We Dems better turn out this summer and vote. This is the end of our democracy otherwise.
Sources and Further Readings
- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/politics/trump-mueller-special-counsel-russia.html
- http://www.businessinsider.com/how-vladimir-putin-rose-to-power-2017-2
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1456763/Secret-at-the-heart-of-Putins-rise-to-power.html
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