(Illustration: Salvador Dali’s ‘Soft Watch at the Moment of First Explosion,’ found here).
Clear and a bit on the cool side this Thursday evening here on California’s north coast — a beautiful day, and even with a chilled wind, the afternoon was gorgeous with bright sunshine and blue skies. A few puffy, white clouds were off in the distance, so the shine was fairly continuous.
Some rain maybe late tonight, but after that, supposedly dry until the middle of next week.
And in turn, weathering the T-Rump horror story. As the year unfolds, the action in DC is mounting — more and more becoming way-way-obvious T-Rump, his kids and just about everybody around him, are really nothing more than just cheap, petty criminals. Despite it all, a third-rate crime family, low-class and stupid, mean and nasty, too.
Americans apparently are noting as revealed in a Quinnipiac University National Pol, released Monday — ‘President Donald Trump committed crimes before he became president, American voters say 64 — 24 percent.’ and furthermore:
Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, American voters say 59 – 35 percent.
But Congress should do more to investigate “Michael Cohen’s claims about President Trump’s unethical and illegal behavior,” voters say 58 — 35 percent.
American voters believe Cohen more than Trump 50 — 35 percent.
Cohen told the truth, 44-percent of voters say, while 36 percent say he did not tell the truth.
Voters approve 41 — 36 percent of the way Democrats in Congress handled Cohen’s testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
Voters disapprove 51 — 25 percent of the way Republicans handled the Cohen hearing.
“Cloudy and 38. The future of Donald Trump’s presidency and the percentage of people who support him mirror the March weather in D.C.,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
“The answers to two survey questions deliver a double-barreled gut punch to the honesty question.”
“When two-thirds of voters think you have committed a crime in your past life, and almost half of voters say it’s a tossup over whether you committed a crime while in the Oval Office, confidence in your overall integrity is very shaky,” Malloy added.
“Add to that, Michael Cohen, a known liar headed to the big house, has more credibility than the leader of the free world.”
Steve Denning at Forbes yesterday matched the polling and the assholes:
Beyond Russia, Michael Cohen’s testimony last week before the House Oversight Committee pointed to the possibility of wide-ranging criminality within the Trump Organization before, during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, including election finance violations, bank fraud, charity fraud, tax fraud, insurance fraud, obstruction of justice and suborning perjury.
Beyond Russia, Michael Cohen’s testimony last week before the House Oversight Committee pointed to the possibility of wide-ranging criminality within the Trump Organization before, during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, including election finance violations, bank fraud, charity fraud, tax fraud, insurance fraud, obstruction of justice and suborning perjury.
…
Cohen’s testimony pointed to multiple possible crimes.
Is he credible?
As widely noted, Republican members of the Oversight Committee spent most of their time attacking Cohen’s credibility rather than defending President Trump or the Trump Organization.
This may have been prompted by the fact that Donald Trump himself has made more than 9,000 false or misleading statements since taking office.
Cohen made the plausible argument that working for such a habitual liar required becoming a liar himself.
Cohen admitted in his testimony that he was a fool to have done so and warned Republicans not to fall into the same trap.
A good view/recap of the T-Rump’s criminal/scandalous standing in history came via Axios this morning, maybe more corruption and ugliness than Watergate.
And here’s another dime for the crime — a glaring, blaring example displayed today of that criminal element of the T-Rump (Vox):
Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison by a federal judge Thursday — in a far lighter sentence than was expected.
Manafort had been convicted of eight counts of filing false tax returns, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign assets last August, in the only case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller that has gone to trial so far.
But Judge T.S. Ellis III opined that Manafort had lived “an otherwise blameless life,” and that the probation office’s guideline sentence of 19 to 24 years would be “excessive,” according to CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz.
Instead, Ellis gave Manafort just under four years.
Manafort is not out of the woods yet, however.
He will be sentenced for a second set of crimes by Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, DC, next week.
Among Jackson’s decisions will be whether to let Manafort serve that second sentence concurrently with his first one — or consecutively. (That is, whether the DC sentence should be added on top of Ellis’s 47-month sentence.)
All of the charges against Manafort have so far related to his past work for the former government of Ukraine, his finances, or attempting to interfere with the investigation.
He has not been charged with any criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 elections.
Just law breakers, criminals and such…