Ain't Always Complicated

It ain't always complicated, you know. Maybe you've met somebody, then you notice you're the one who always texts first. I've heard that happens. Don't know anything about it.

Today we're getting toward simple. Donald Trump is acting like a wannabe Putin. He hasn't thrown anybody out the window yet, we hope. Then again, has anyone seen Anthony Fauci this month?

But here's what he has done. A recent CNN poll has Biden leading Trump 55-41. That's a lot. Little Vladdy Wannabe's campaign literally sent a cease and desist letter, insisting that CNN retract and apologize for the poll.

Even in the era of Trump, this seems abnormal, no?

You may recall that the William Barr Department of Justice requested that a federal court dismiss the charges against retired General Michael Flynn. Facing charges of functioning as a foreign agent without registering, Flynn plead guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he held with Russian foreign minister Sergei Kislyak.

May I simply note that Trump's first National Security Director was a known Turkish agent who received checks from the Kremlin? 

Prior to Flynn's sentencing, the DOJ intervened. Prosecutors for the case all removed themselves from the case. Smelling rotten fish, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan knew he'd need backup, so he assigned retired judge John Gleeson to research the case and issue a report. 

Gleeson's report is out today. 

The Government’s ostensible grounds for seeking dismissal are conclusively disproven by its own briefs filed earlier in this very proceeding. They contradict and ignore this Court’s prior orders, which constitute law of the case. They are riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact. And they depart from positions that the Government has taken in other cases.

He literally called the DOJ's move to drop the case "corrupt" and "highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President."

Again, this isn't normal. A retired federal judge, brought in to referee a case, is telling us Trump's Department of Justice is corrupt. 

Then there's Trump's propaganda level from yesterday, which reached the level of Animal Farm's Napoleon. Video shows Buffalo police shoving Black Lives Matter protestor Martin Gugino to the ground. Gugino's head hit the sidewalk, yet police simply passed by as he was bleeding. The event sparked national outrage.

But the One America News Network identified Gugino as an Antifa activist. The reporter previously worked for the Russian Sputnik network--

--you cannot make this shit up.

With no evidence, Trump repeated the Kremlin/Sputnik/OneAmerica line via Twitter.

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?

There's also no evidence the main was trying to disrupt police technology, though I guess that's possible.

But there's a problem. Rather than being an Antifa activist committed to using violence against fascists, it turns out Gugino is a Catholic Worker. He may be politically radical, but he's a pacifist.

As of this morning Gugino remained hospitalized and in a good deal of pain a full week after suffering his head injury, but a friend of his reports that he had a "good chuckle" at Trump's expense.

So here's the sum of it: Trump is trying to suppress a mainstream opinion poll, his Department of Justice has been declared corrupt in a report commissioned by a US District Court, and Trump is accusing Catholic Workers of being terrorists.

Oh. One additional bit of news. Trump says the US is unilaterally withdrawing troops from Germany. I suppose this is because (a) Germany is a functioning democracy that is now openly critical of Trump and (b) this will make Putin very damn happy. Over twenty House Republicans have asked Trump not to do it.

Turns out, Germany has asked for clarification but is receiving no reply from its former #1 ally. Per retired General Mark Hertling, who served as Commanding General of U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army, Germany reports:

Silence towards host country.

 No answer is also an answer...despite requests from various diplomatic channels, the (GE) government has received no response from US regarding reports of troop withdrawal