Last Thursday, I mentioned the new administration's tactic of choice,
diversion. This week, thanks to George Lakoff, we have a handy diagram
for the analysis of tweets from Trump.
So
it comes as no surprise that while Trump lobbed a grenade at
Nordstrom's and while we were all attending to the ninth circuit court
of appeals which upheld the stay on the immigration ban and the endless
confirmation hearings, the explosions were happening elsewhere.
Last night and today, massive immigration raids were taking place in at least six states.
U.S.
immigration authorities made a series of arrests in at least half a
dozen states across the country on Thursday and Friday, sweeping up an
unknown number of undocumented immigrants, immigration lawyers and
advocates said.
The raids, which appeared to target scores of
people, including those without criminal records, mark the first
largescale episode of immigration enforcement inside the United States
since President Trump’s Jan. 26 order to crack down on the estimated 11
million immigrants living here illegally. Immigration lawyers and
advocates said some of the enforcement efforts included traffic stops
and checkpoints, though Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
officials disputed those accounts, saying the agency does not use
checkpoints while engaging in targeted enforcement operations.
These followed the very high profile
deportation of an Arizona woman who had reported as required of her to a local ICE office.
Typically,
while we attend to all of this, we are supposed to be distracted from
the Russia story, but that one grew extra legs just this evening. It
appears that U.S. investigators have been able to corroborate portions
of the dossier we referred to last week as the
Christopher Steele Memos.
Coupled with that one was this.
National
security adviser Michael Flynn privately discussed U.S. sanctions
against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States
during the month before President Trump took office, contrary to public
assertions by Trump officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
Flynn’s
communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were interpreted
by some senior U.S. officials as an inappropriate and potentially
illegal signal to the Kremlin that it could expect a reprieve from
sanctions that were being imposed by the
Obama administration in late December to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 election.
This
story, of course, is the elephant in the room. The Russian connection
to the Trump campaign and White House impugns the integrity of the
election and the intentions of the administration with regard to Russian
sanctions, not only for alleged election hanky-panky but also those
imposed over Russian incursions in Ukraine. It lends credence to the
idea that Putin's antipathy to Hillary Clinton's candidacy was based on a
lot more than a personality conflict and his idée-fixe that she somehow
orchestrated mass demonstrations following the Russian parliamentary
elections in 2011.
Deep Throat told Bob Woodward to follow the
money. It is not hard to imagine that transactions involving Donald
Trump might revolve around money. Alex Mohajer, late of Bros4Hillary,
has constructed bulletin board worthy of Carrie Mathison from a series
of interlocking documents. It is not complete, but is the best job of
connecting the dots so far.
In
light of Wash Post's explosive article revealing Trump's NSA Flynn
contacted Russian officials BEFORE inauguration to discuss lifting
sanctions, it's getting harder to ignore growing evidence that Trump was
involved with Russian oil deal.
See the documents >>>>
From this, we can
see what entities acquired those mysterious Rosneft shares even if
principals behind it remain shrouded. it's great detective work! We
can be relatively sure Alex will not let this opus rest here, so we can
be reasonably sure that he will elaborate as he finds additional
evidence. We look forward to that.
As for Hillary, she has steered clear of the Russian story which she tried to expose at the
October 19 presidential debate. She did, however, register a reaction to the court decision on Thursday. Touted as ultimate shade, her tweet was concise.
@HillaryClinton
Ha!
The thing never to ignore is that Trump and the Republicans are working
as a team. Wherever the fireworks go off, look elsewhere. And watch
this space.
