The Republican House barely passed the "cruel" budget with hefty Medicaid and Medicare and education cuts. 216-212. Now they are set up to pass the "tax reform" on Nov 6th. Can't say I'm excited about seeing my taxes raised to give billionaires huge tax cuts.
The Republican House barely passed the "cruel" budget with hefty Medicaid and Medicare and education cuts. 216-212. Now they are set up to pass the "tax reform" on Nov 6th. Can't say I'm excited about seeing my taxes raised to give billionaires huge tax cuts.
Again, Trump made EXPLICIT, repeated promises to not cut Medicare and Medicaid on the campaign trail. One could argue that aside from immigration it was what set him apart from the field as far as policy is concerned. Of course, it was a giant lie.
Anyway, working for Whitefish right now is a sweet deal.
Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $227.88 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food.
Do I really have to do the math for you? One work-year is 2080 hours so "journeyman lineman" makes about $474,000 annually at that rate. These workers are the 1%. Also, $332 per night for accomodation--at that rate I could stay in a 5-star hotel in Manhattan. How about I stay in a Motel 6 and just pocket the difference?
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
Anyway, working for Whitefish right now is a sweet deal.
Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $227.88 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food.
Do I really have to do the math for you? One work-year is 2080 hours so "journeyman lineman" makes about $474,000 annually at that rate. These workers are the 1%. Also, $332 per night for accomodation--at that rate I could stay in a 5-star hotel in Manhattan. How about I stay in a Motel 6 and just pocket the difference?
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
Sounds like a sweet deal! How do I apply for one of those jobs? I'll bet I won't find those positions listed on Monster...
Anyway, working for Whitefish right now is a sweet deal.
Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $227.88 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food.
Do I really have to do the math for you? One work-year is 2080 hours so "journeyman lineman" makes about $474,000 annually at that rate. These workers are the 1%. Also, $332 per night for accomodation--at that rate I could stay in a 5-star hotel in Manhattan. How about I stay in a Motel 6 and just pocket the difference?
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
HOWEVER,
a journeyman lineman will not work 2000 hours. At most, they will probably have a 3 month contract equating to lets say roughly 500 hours. That would equal $114 000 (rounding up) for three months before taxes. After taxes, according to this, the take home would be $83,289.25 for a Single filer with zero dependants.
Then we can take off the nightly accommodations, with the region being without power and transportation networks still in disarray, something the workers will have to take, it will just be under 30,000 for 90 days. Food... 90 days... $7,200.
Interesting, but that's not a like for like comparison. You've calculated the $92 per hour as the net earnings after costs and taxes, but the $33 is the gross earnings and the net equivalent would be far smaller.
Does the US not have regulations in place to control Public contracts? I am sure this scheme would be illegal in Finland.
This scheme is probably illegal here as well, it's just that no one is going to do anything about it. We haven't seen anything remotely like the corruption coming out of the Trump Administration since Tammany Hall and Teapot Dome.
Yeah...that looks like a corruption lawsuit there. That is unenforceable if that ever got into court. Because apparently government (like anyone else) does have the right to ask a company why they're getting charged what they're getting charged.
Oh, and those rates make for entertaining reading. I pulled the entire contract.
80 dollars/day per person for food. 330 dollars/day per person for lodging. 1000 dollars for each 1 way airline ticket. Almost 15 dollars per gallon of Jet-A fuel when it's not even 5 dollars per gallon IN PUERTO RICO. 4000 dollars PER HOUR for a passenger helicopter. 20000 dollars PER HOUR for an airlift helicopter. 337 dollars PER HOUR for "Mobile Truck Satellite Command Center". What the HELL is this? 140 dollars PER HOUR for UNSKILLED general labor. LOL?! Man, those linemen can keep those fancy 300+ dollar an hour jobs.
I had to laugh at a reply to that tweet:
"Halliburton: Nobody's profited more from disaster capitalism than us. Whitefish: Hold my beer." -Rob Simons
Interesting, but that's not a like for like comparison. You've calculated the $92 per hour as the net earnings after costs and taxes, but the $33 is the gross earnings and the net equivalent would be far smaller.
Ya I was too tired to do the math anymore. But the concept still holds. The company needs to entice skilled workers to come and help out, so paying a premium for that service is understandable. $92 an hour after taxes to be displaced to a torn up region with barely any amenities is fair IMO. You'd see a legit company offering the same.
The take away is that workers are being paid this amount so workers will be taxed on it and then the company will turn around and take the excess profits from them.
The $1000 airline ticket is another example of this. I was going to add to my post the workers may have to pay their own airfare, but most tickets to PR cost less than $400 now, so I scrapped it. The company is pocketing roughly 600 per person they fly in.
If PR is having to foot this bill by itself, their cost of living is going to sky rocket in the coming decade.
FEMA Disavows Puerto Rico Power Contract Amid Investigations
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it had no involvement in the decision to award a $300 million contract to help restore Puerto Rico's damaged power grid to a tiny Montana company from the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
It's not even the numbers that are the most blatant thing here, though they are way too high imo. The problem is that this company is clearly connected to people near the top of the Administration, and the juxtaposition when compared to what would usually happen in this situation. From NPR:
Usually after a catastrophic power outage, utility companies call a trade organization to initiate mutual aid. The American Public Power Association, of which PREPA is a member, organizes a network of state and regional public power utilities to restore electricity quickly.
Meena Dayak, the association's spokeswoman, tells NPR that the mutual aid program is "basically a matchmaking service" — utilities contract directly with one another to provide services and work out payment.
That's what happened in Texas after Harvey, and in Florida following Irma. The day after Irma's departure, Florida Power & Light said it had more than 20,000 workers from 30 states and Canada deployed to restore power.
Whitefish has, at most, 300 people in Puerto Rico. Whitefish appears to have subcontracted the Jacksonville Electric Authority and Kissimmee Utility Authority to do the work. Whitefish doesn't have any electrical worker employees. They are simply a contractor with utilities working under them. There is not a single reason they needed to be involved at all. Either of those two companies working under them could have been hired without Whitefish as a middle man, or, if a middle man was needed, it would have been the American Public Power Association, which exists to take care of this type of situation, and WAS used to take care of it in Florida and Texas.
Now, the Administration is saying the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority made this decision. I suppose that is technically true when it comes down to it. But just what are the chances that PREPA would somehow find this small, two-person contractor in Montana who just so happen to be personal friends of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke?? The odds that these two entities find each other without an intermediary putting this together in a country the size of the United States are infinitesimal. Moreover, upon looking into them, and knowing everything we know about them from just the research done on this site, how could anyone possibly conclude that this company was deserving of a NO BID contract??
Sounds like the 'good ol boy' network 'workin' at it's finest. Same crook of a plan different place and elected people. If it was Wall Street I'd call it insider trading.
This aired on fox and friends this morning so you know Trump watched it, if he hasn't already started his weekly golf vacations to one of his own resorts.
The fact that this "Uranium One" nonsense is back in the news is a classic case of the Soviet-tactic of "whataboutism", and the effort of the right-wing media to make it yet ANOTHER go-nowhere Clinton scandal (Whitewater, Travelgate, the White House Christmas card list, Benghazi, emails) is most of the evidence you should need that they fear Mueller.
Here is WHY this story is being pushed: hearing the word "uranium", to many people on the right, does nothing but evoke the idea of nuclear technology (much like I believe the word "email" played into the fear of technology many of Trump's older voters) and is meant to suggest that Hillary Clinton was giving away nuclear secrets and materials to Russia. News flash: Russia has had nukes since the 1950s. Cat is out of he bag on that one. But, more importantly, not only didn't Hillary Clinton have the power to approve OR stop this deal, NO uranium has ever gone to Russia. This story was de-bunked by at least two fact-checking sites during the campaign, and here is a third just because it has resurfaced. Pay special attention to the part about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
And after reading that, wrap your head around he fact that last night Sebastian Gorka, on Sean Hannity's TV show last night, said that Hillary is comparable to the Rosenbergs and should be given the chair. That is the line being pushed full throttle by now by the right-wing media.
Meanwhile, while shell companies like Whitefish are being gifted $300 million dollar contracts to get power back to Puerto Rico, we are now finding out that not only has the official death toll risen dramatically to 51, but that the island has resorted in many cases to burning their dead, and that no one who died of "natural causes" have been counted in the death toll, despite the fact that hospitals were without power for weeks. The true number of dead may be closer to 1000. Who knows how many of those could have been saved by hospitals with normal supplies and power sources?? At this point, we will never know. The people of Puerto Rico have been abandoned by the government, and, quite frankly, the rest of us as well.
CNN reporting the first charges are filed in the Mueller Investigation. It's not reported publicly what that is or who is involved, it's a sealed indictment.
CNN reporting the first charges are filed in the Mueller Investigation. It's not reported publicly what that is or who is involved, it's a sealed indictment.
All we know at this point is that it's a start.
Again, the stories the last few days about Uranium One and who funded the dossier research were NOT a coincidence.
The front page of FOX News is now calling for Mueller to resign. Lol.
This is not a good weekend to be named Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn. If it is one of those two, I'll remind everyone of this: these are the EXACT people I was advising people to focus on when the entire Russia angle was basically being laughed at. Secondly, Paul Manafort ran Trump's campaign through the convention, and has known him since the 1970s, and lived in Trump Tower. Michael Flynn was with the President 24/7 on the campaign trail.
In addition, I also do not think THIS story is a coincidence:
Boente is in the immediate line of succession of being put in charge of the DOJ (given Sessions is out) on Russia if Rosenstein is removed. This is quite likely a move to set up Trump's own Saturday Night Massacre. Either that or he is involved as a witness. Reporting seems to indicate he did not plan on resigning.
Lol....wow....Whitefish Energy is a house in the middle of nowhere in Montana, and when you go to investigate, apparently the locals arent' too happy about it.....
Lol one of these things is not like the others. What's sad is that people believe that channel. Two channels are featuring the real headline story and one is trying to invent a scandal on a 10 yr old deal that Hillary had no power to do anything with and was discredited in 2015. They must not have been given their"talking points" yet on how to spin the indictments.
Lol one of these things is not like the others. What's sad is that people believe that channel. Two channels are featuring the real headline story and one is trying to invent a scandal on a 10 yr old deal that Hillary had no power to do anything with and was discredited in 2015. They must not have been given their"talking points" yet on how to spin the indictments.
No, their talking points are right in line, just based on the last 3 days. The idea is to obfuscate the issue. First off, it should be noted that the FBI Investigation, and therefore, Mueller's investigation, predates the dossier. It was revealed today who initially funded the dossier before the Clinton people picked up on it after the primaries, and it was the conservative media outlet the Washington Free Beacon. I don't know how one can both claim the dossier is a fraud AND still be scared enough of what is in it to be making it seem like an issue, but anyway......
The plan for conservative media is this: Use Hillary Clinton, who, as we all know, lost the election, as a foil to keep the base in Trump's corner. They will believe anything they are told. What is happening with Clinton is classic Republican projection. When the going gets tough, accuse the other side of the exact thing you are guilty of to muddy the waters JUST enough to get 33% of the population on your side. The idea now is to create enough uproar that they can somehow justify Trump firing Mueller. For some reason I can't even remotely fathom, they are even trying to tie Mueller into the non-existent Uranium One situation. It doesn't matter. Benghazi, emails, Uranium One, Fusion GPS. No one in the Republican base watching FOX News has a clue as to the details about any of these things. They a pavlovian code words meant to induce frothing at the mouth hatred of Hillary Clinton.
Again, a women who has been a private citizen and out of power for a full year. The media continues to treat her as if she is still Trump's campaign opponent, which is exactly what he wants. She isn't, the campaign is over. And it boggles my mind that they are being duped into this trap, or that any citizen is. Show me an instance where Bill Clinton is attacking Bob Dole in late 1997. Show me an instance of George W. Bush constantly referring to John Kerry in late 2005. Or show me Barack Obama doing the same in regards to Mitt Romney in late 2013. No one will be able to do so, because it never happened. Using your defeated political opponent as foil is a tried and true tactic of authoritarian regimes. The rest of the media, as usual, is buying into this right-wing spin that Hillary Clinton is some sort of President in exile who is just waiting in the wings for a chance to strike. It's nonsense. I even heard Susan Page of USA Today just yesterday say that the later-stage funding of the dossier was a "problem for the Clinton campaign". THERE IS NO CLINTON CAMPAIGN!!! The Clinton campaign has been over for a year. A entire year. The only thing we have now is the Trump Presidency, and Mueller's investigation. And, as I've been saying, we now know for absolute certainty WHY two news stories that are both well over a year old suddenly popped back into the news cycle in the last 72 hours. And it's because Mueller has now filed charges, and they had to cling to whatever they had to throw meat to the base.
Let's face it, they are better at this shit than actual governing. It was always the case that it would have been better for business at FOX if Hillary had won, so they could run this kind of stuff everyday (after all, MSNBC is now thriving again like it did during the Bush years). But it turns out they just decided it didn't even matter if she was in office or not. I've said before, as much as liberals might be pissed or upset at conservative voters who went for Trump, we have NOTHING on the level of contempt FOX News and the right-wing media have for them. Because they feed them blatant lies 24/7 and not only expect them to swallow it, but are certain that they will. I expected this kind of coverage if she won. Even I didn't think that their strategy a year in would be to just PRETEND she is President.
Let's face it, they are better at this shit than actual governing. It was always the case that it would have been better for business at FOX if Hillary had won, so they could run this kind of stuff everyday (after all, MSNBC is now thriving again like it did during the Bush years). But it turns out they just decided it didn't even matter if she was in office or not. I've said before, as much as liberals might be pissed or upset at conservative voters who went for Trump, we have NOTHING on the level of contempt FOX News and the right-wing media have for them. Because they feed them blatant lies 24/7 and not only expect them to swallow it, but are certain that they will. I expected this kind of coverage if she won. Even I didn't think that their strategy a year in would be to just PRETEND she is President.
I mean, in "1984", it was two minutes a day. I can turn on my local conservative AM radio station right now (called "The Flag", of course) or FOX News and get it 24/7. What is especially pertinent and comparable to "1984" is how what is believed by the people who consume this media can be turned on a dime, (as in, "we've always been at war with East Asia"). It happens on deficits, it happens on how you treat the commander in chief during wartime, etc etc etc. You can say what you want about the MASSIVE faults of CNN and MSNBC, but they were not designed from the bottom up as propaganda outfits. Roger Ailes specifically made FOX News for the purpose of never having to go through another Watergate (he was a media consultant to Nixon). His dry run was Rush Limbaugh's short-lived television show (the one where he infamously called Chelsea Clinton, then a 13-year old girl, a "dog"). That didn't work, but it gave him the spark and genesis for the idea of a 24/7 alternate reality. It's reached critical mass at this point. Ailes is dead, but (and I mean this wholeheartedly) he created a propaganda network that Goebbels would marvel at. I think they are the most destructive force in American discourse, but FOX News is BRUTALLY effective at what they do. It is not hard to find testimonials of people in their 30s or 40s who say they no longer recognize their parent's personalities after watching FOX News as their main source of information for a decade.
Who ever is charge is now currently out of the country so cant be arrested (they did have a three day head start).
Who ever is charged gets pardoned before the new year.
Trump tweets that the charges stem from Fake News and Mueller is .
I mean, the smart money is on Manafort, we've known it was almost a certainty he was going to be indicted for weeks if not months. I suppose it may be someone under him, or possibly (but less likely) Michael Flynn, but Flynn is coming eventually.
The pardon issue is of course going to be huge, but Mueller has been specifically working with the New York attorney general to fill him in on this stuff, and if Mueller is fired or there is a federal pardon, he will step in, as Trump has no power to pardon state crimes.
As for the fake news, I mean, that is already happening. Trump has said literally EVERYTHING that has happened that could be perceived as bad for the last 11 months is fake news. All of it. According to him not a single press report has ever been accurate about anything.
I wouldn't bet on pardons, to be honest, unless Trump's own family members were charged. I find it just as likely that Trump would not stick out his neck for these people.
Comments
I couldn't make this stuff up.
Anyway, working for Whitefish right now is a sweet deal. Do I really have to do the math for you? One work-year is 2080 hours so "journeyman lineman" makes about $474,000 annually at that rate. These workers are the 1%. Also, $332 per night for accomodation--at that rate I could stay in a 5-star hotel in Manhattan. How about I stay in a Motel 6 and just pocket the difference?
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
Sounds like a sweet deal! How do I apply for one of those jobs? I'll bet I won't find those positions listed on Monster...
I also realized about 30 minutes ago that those 79 investors in Lance's company could all be shell corporations hidden in his web of companies, allowing him to invest the entire $14 million amount from his own money, meaning that Lance ultimately realized all the profit for himself. People in that world--classified by one sociologist as "top out of sight class" because you cannot see their houses from the road--still do things like introduce their daughters to society at debutante balls.
HOWEVER,
a journeyman lineman will not work 2000 hours. At most, they will probably have a 3 month contract equating to lets say roughly 500 hours. That would equal $114 000 (rounding up) for three months before taxes. After taxes, according to this, the take home would be $83,289.25 for a Single filer with zero dependants.
Then we can take off the nightly accommodations, with the region being without power and transportation networks still in disarray, something the workers will have to take, it will just be under 30,000 for 90 days.
Food... 90 days... $7,200.
So we are looking at roughly $46,000 for 90 days or $92 per hour. That is three times the average salary a Journeyman Lineman makes in the US. Which makes sense as you need an incentive to displace a person for 3 months of their life.
Trump’s longtime assistant was named Norma Foerderer. She retired in 2005 and was replaced by Rhona Graff.
In a phone call, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Washingtonian he did not recognize the name Carolin Gallego.
Repeated calls to several women named Carolin(e) Gallego across the United States went unanswered.
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/10/26/trump-carolin-gallego-letter/
Oh, and those rates make for entertaining reading. I pulled the entire contract.
80 dollars/day per person for food.
330 dollars/day per person for lodging.
1000 dollars for each 1 way airline ticket.
Almost 15 dollars per gallon of Jet-A fuel when it's not even 5 dollars per gallon IN PUERTO RICO.
4000 dollars PER HOUR for a passenger helicopter.
20000 dollars PER HOUR for an airlift helicopter.
337 dollars PER HOUR for "Mobile Truck Satellite Command Center". What the HELL is this?
140 dollars PER HOUR for UNSKILLED general labor. LOL?! Man, those linemen can keep those fancy 300+ dollar an hour jobs.
I had to laugh at a reply to that tweet:
"Halliburton: Nobody's profited more from disaster capitalism than us.
Whitefish: Hold my beer."
-Rob Simons
The take away is that workers are being paid this amount so workers will be taxed on it and then the company will turn around and take the excess profits from them.
The $1000 airline ticket is another example of this. I was going to add to my post the workers may have to pay their own airfare, but most tickets to PR cost less than $400 now, so I scrapped it. The company is pocketing roughly 600 per person they fly in.
If PR is having to foot this bill by itself, their cost of living is going to sky rocket in the coming decade.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it had no involvement in the decision to award a $300 million contract to help restore Puerto Rico's damaged power grid to a tiny Montana company from the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2017-10-27/fema-disavows-puerto-rico-power-contract-amid-investigations
Corruption
Usually after a catastrophic power outage, utility companies call a trade organization to initiate mutual aid. The American Public Power Association, of which PREPA is a member, organizes a network of state and regional public power utilities to restore electricity quickly.
Meena Dayak, the association's spokeswoman, tells NPR that the mutual aid program is "basically a matchmaking service" — utilities contract directly with one another to provide services and work out payment.
That's what happened in Texas after Harvey, and in Florida following Irma. The day after Irma's departure, Florida Power & Light said it had more than 20,000 workers from 30 states and Canada deployed to restore power.
Whitefish has, at most, 300 people in Puerto Rico. Whitefish appears to have subcontracted the Jacksonville Electric Authority and Kissimmee Utility Authority to do the work. Whitefish doesn't have any electrical worker employees. They are simply a contractor with utilities working under them. There is not a single reason they needed to be involved at all. Either of those two companies working under them could have been hired without Whitefish as a middle man, or, if a middle man was needed, it would have been the American Public Power Association, which exists to take care of this type of situation, and WAS used to take care of it in Florida and Texas.
Here is WHY this story is being pushed: hearing the word "uranium", to many people on the right, does nothing but evoke the idea of nuclear technology (much like I believe the word "email" played into the fear of technology many of Trump's older voters) and is meant to suggest that Hillary Clinton was giving away nuclear secrets and materials to Russia. News flash: Russia has had nukes since the 1950s. Cat is out of he bag on that one. But, more importantly, not only didn't Hillary Clinton have the power to approve OR stop this deal, NO uranium has ever gone to Russia. This story was de-bunked by at least two fact-checking sites during the campaign, and here is a third just because it has resurfaced. Pay special attention to the part about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
http://www.factcheck.org/2017/10/facts-uranium-one/
And after reading that, wrap your head around he fact that last night Sebastian Gorka, on Sean Hannity's TV show last night, said that Hillary is comparable to the Rosenbergs and should be given the chair. That is the line being pushed full throttle by now by the right-wing media.
Meanwhile, while shell companies like Whitefish are being gifted $300 million dollar contracts to get power back to Puerto Rico, we are now finding out that not only has the official death toll risen dramatically to 51, but that the island has resorted in many cases to burning their dead, and that no one who died of "natural causes" have been counted in the death toll, despite the fact that hospitals were without power for weeks. The true number of dead may be closer to 1000. Who knows how many of those could have been saved by hospitals with normal supplies and power sources?? At this point, we will never know. The people of Puerto Rico have been abandoned by the government, and, quite frankly, the rest of us as well.
All we know at this point is that it's a start.
The front page of FOX News is now calling for Mueller to resign. Lol.
This is not a good weekend to be named Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn. If it is one of those two, I'll remind everyone of this: these are the EXACT people I was advising people to focus on when the entire Russia angle was basically being laughed at. Secondly, Paul Manafort ran Trump's campaign through the convention, and has known him since the 1970s, and lived in Trump Tower. Michael Flynn was with the President 24/7 on the campaign trail.
In addition, I also do not think THIS story is a coincidence:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/dana-boente-resigns
Boente is in the immediate line of succession of being put in charge of the DOJ (given Sessions is out) on Russia if Rosenstein is removed. This is quite likely a move to set up Trump's own Saturday Night Massacre. Either that or he is involved as a witness. Reporting seems to indicate he did not plan on resigning.
The plan for conservative media is this: Use Hillary Clinton, who, as we all know, lost the election, as a foil to keep the base in Trump's corner. They will believe anything they are told. What is happening with Clinton is classic Republican projection. When the going gets tough, accuse the other side of the exact thing you are guilty of to muddy the waters JUST enough to get 33% of the population on your side. The idea now is to create enough uproar that they can somehow justify Trump firing Mueller. For some reason I can't even remotely fathom, they are even trying to tie Mueller into the non-existent Uranium One situation. It doesn't matter. Benghazi, emails, Uranium One, Fusion GPS. No one in the Republican base watching FOX News has a clue as to the details about any of these things. They a pavlovian code words meant to induce frothing at the mouth hatred of Hillary Clinton.
Again, a women who has been a private citizen and out of power for a full year. The media continues to treat her as if she is still Trump's campaign opponent, which is exactly what he wants. She isn't, the campaign is over. And it boggles my mind that they are being duped into this trap, or that any citizen is. Show me an instance where Bill Clinton is attacking Bob Dole in late 1997. Show me an instance of George W. Bush constantly referring to John Kerry in late 2005. Or show me Barack Obama doing the same in regards to Mitt Romney in late 2013. No one will be able to do so, because it never happened. Using your defeated political opponent as foil is a tried and true tactic of authoritarian regimes. The rest of the media, as usual, is buying into this right-wing spin that Hillary Clinton is some sort of President in exile who is just waiting in the wings for a chance to strike. It's nonsense. I even heard Susan Page of USA Today just yesterday say that the later-stage funding of the dossier was a "problem for the Clinton campaign". THERE IS NO CLINTON CAMPAIGN!!! The Clinton campaign has been over for a year. A entire year. The only thing we have now is the Trump Presidency, and Mueller's investigation. And, as I've been saying, we now know for absolute certainty WHY two news stories that are both well over a year old suddenly popped back into the news cycle in the last 72 hours. And it's because Mueller has now filed charges, and they had to cling to whatever they had to throw meat to the base.
Let's face it, they are better at this shit than actual governing. It was always the case that it would have been better for business at FOX if Hillary had won, so they could run this kind of stuff everyday (after all, MSNBC is now thriving again like it did during the Bush years). But it turns out they just decided it didn't even matter if she was in office or not. I've said before, as much as liberals might be pissed or upset at conservative voters who went for Trump, we have NOTHING on the level of contempt FOX News and the right-wing media have for them. Because they feed them blatant lies 24/7 and not only expect them to swallow it, but are certain that they will. I expected this kind of coverage if she won. Even I didn't think that their strategy a year in would be to just PRETEND she is President.
Who ever is charge is now currently out of the country so cant be arrested (they did have a three day head start).
Who ever is charged gets pardoned before the new year.
Trump tweets that the charges stem from Fake News and Mueller is {insert insult here}.
The pardon issue is of course going to be huge, but Mueller has been specifically working with the New York attorney general to fill him in on this stuff, and if Mueller is fired or there is a federal pardon, he will step in, as Trump has no power to pardon state crimes.
As for the fake news, I mean, that is already happening. Trump has said literally EVERYTHING that has happened that could be perceived as bad for the last 11 months is fake news. All of it. According to him not a single press report has ever been accurate about anything.