May 8, 2019: When Donald Trump Jr. Loved Help from Russia

 

5/8/19: The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Richard Burr, issues a subpoena for Donald R. (for “Russia”) Trump Jr. 

You’ve likely forgotten, but the Trump scion first testified before Burr’s committee in December 2017. 

 

“Part of Russia and its’ governments support for Mr. Trump.” 

Among other problems he will face when testifying again, Don Jr. cannot claim executive privilege and refuse to answer questions, since he does not work in the White House. 

Also, young Don has lied repeatedly in the past about interactions with Russians. 

For some reason there are lawmakers who believe the boy conspired with Russians to get help in swinging the election, having seen evidence of “subtle hints” at Russian willingness to help, as in this June 2016 email exchange. As the Mueller Report notes, Rob Goldstone, a publicist for a Russian singer and friend of the Trumps, informs Jr. that Russian agents would like to meet, and plan to bring along materials damaging to Hillary Clinton. “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” 

Of course, you must puzzle out what Jr. meant by this inscrutable response, “If what you say is true, I love it.”

May 11-12, 2019: A Congressional Subpoena Is Issued for Donald Trump Jr.

 

5/11/19: President Trump is furious to learn that a congressional subpoena has been issued for his son, Don Jr. That means he spends most of his morning tweeting and retweeting stories he sees on Fox News. 

He’s like one of those pigeons in an experiment to see how often they will peck at a lever if they are intermittently rewarded with food. In just over an hour he tweets sixty times. He’s totally exonerated, he says. So are Don Jr., and Manafort and Flynn and Gates and Cohen (no, not him) and Papadopoulos, all now convicted felons, except Don Jr., who worked on his campaign. All  his critics hate America, and they are treasonous and ugly, and losers and lowlifes and skanks.

Updated version: pigeon pecks at different colored bars.

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5/12/19: President Trump is feeling the heat as more and more information about the Mueller Report spills out, including details that point directly at a case for obstruction of justice. 

That means, a crazy man has got to tweet. “My campaign was being seriously spied upon by intel agencies and the Democrats,” Trump howls at one point. He’s praying his fan base will focus on the word “Democrats” and won’t wonder why U.S. intelligence agencies had determined he might be working in the interests of Russia, and not the United States. “This never happened before in American history, and it all turned out to be a total scam, a Witch Hunt, that yielded No Collusion, No Obstruction,” he continued to tap-tap. “This must never be allowed to happen again!” 

In a second tweet, Trump’s authoritarian instincts receive full play. This time he rages, “we have had a giant SCAM perpetrated upon our nation, a Witch Hunt, a Treasonous Hoax. That is the Constitutional Crisis & hopefully guilty people will pay [emphasis added]!” 

Once again, the president is accusing political opponents of treason, a crime punishable by death, and warning “guilty people will pay.”