Here’s the thing about Hannity and Cohen: I’m having trouble getting too upset about it. Sure, it’s weird that Hannity would use Cohen, considering what his “legal” expertise and practice was used for, and I’d be willing to bet Hannity has some things he’d rather not have disclosed publically, but I really just don’t care much in terms of the ethics of it. Both because I don’t think much of Sean Hannity’s ethics anyway, but also because I can’t apply journalistic standards of ethics to Hannity, as I don’t consider him a journalist. I don’t think many people do. He’s a TV personality that occasionally brings up things in the news, but he doesn’t report things. He editorializes and gives a narrative about it. Usually a scumbaggy narrative that involves slander and defamation. Regardless, it would be like if Jon Stewart and Barack Obama had the same personal attorney when Obama was in office. Sure, some conservatives would probably wanna cry about it, but as Steward himself has said time and again, he’s an entertainer, not a journalist.
I don’t personally know Trump’s plan for re-election, but I suspect, based on all his campaigning that he plans to run again, like literally every first term president before him. But who knows? Maybe it is as the Washington Post suggests and perhaps he is considering calling it the quits after his first term. Or least he might have been if the Washington Post didn’t post said article literally titled “Its Becoming Clear that Trump Won’t Run in 2020”. Even if there was a momentary flash in his weird brain where Trump might have considered the possibility of not running for a second term, it was immediately squashed when his least favorite newspaper owned by his least favorite billionaire ran an opinion piece that I can see totally putting Gas in Trump’s engine. If he does run in 2020, I’m not going to say it’s the Washington Post’s fault, but I’m not going to NOT say it.
So some news outlets are reporting that Ex-White House staffers are having trouble getting work. Now, some claims I can see being an issue. Trump’s unpopularity is not something that looks good on a resume, and associating that reputation with a new workplace is apparently deterring some potential employers. Some of it I find rather unfortunate. Apparently some employers question the judgment of a person who was willing to work under someone like Trump, which might be a bit unfair.
So Michael Cohen may prove to be quite a thorn in the President’s side. The fact of the matter is that Cohen has been seen as Trump’s “fixer” for about 20 years now, and what he might know, and what he has probably done in the name of protecting Trump…I mean we can’t even begin to guess. Trump will admit he was no boyscout, and in the process of trying to figure out how Cohen relates to the bigger picture of Trump and Russia, the rabbit hole of questionable or illegal activity…well it could be damning. Trump has to be sweating over this pretty hard.
I’ll give Trump this: he’s certainly good at keeping people guessing what he’s really thinking. One second, you are just certain he’s sitting in Putin’s pocket, the next he’s throwing around tough boy talk and shooting missiles and imposing more strenuous sanctions, then the next day he’s saying “naw, just kidding, no sanctions.” If I was more conspiracy theory minded, I feel like I could connect some dots here, but I’m not, and I won’t. But I’m certainly feeling the whiplash from his flip flops.
Mike Pence called out Russia for being on the wrong side of history on Sunday, in regards to Syria. And you know, that’s probably true. History will not look favorably on Russia for supporting Assad’s regime. But let’s be fair, Pence is on the wrong side of history about basically everything in his own right. He supports insane legislation against the LGBTQ community, and is personally offended by gay marriage, and he supports the more insane of Trump’s policies, including a big, useless wall across the Mexican border. He fully supports the tax bill that railroads the vast majority of Americans, and in general, holds mean spirited views on anyone who doesn’t view the world through his very narrow lens. Calling someone out on being on the wrong side of history feels, if not ironic, then entirely hypocritical.
So Paul Ryan is retiring. Well, more specifically, he’s not seeking re-election, which is basically the same thing. He talks a big game about wanting to settle down, raise his kids, and just move forward knowing he’s accomplished the things he’s want to accomplish, which was apparently to screw over just as many old and poor people as he possibly could. But it’s hard to not to see it as a well time escape. A jumping ship move, or to quote Douglas Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fish!”. It’s hard to argue that the Republicans aren’t in something of a politically turbulent time right now, and how that’s going to shake out in the coming weeks and months must be on the forefront of Ryan’s mind. I wonder if he’ll be getting out soon enough?
So, the raid on Michael Cohen’s place has really amped up Trump and his rhetoric about getting rid of Mueller and killing this Russia investigation. He’s acting like a wannabe mob boss, except, unfortunately, he can actually really cause some bad things to happen. But there is a funny thing buried in articles that no one seems to be mentioning, or at least not yet. Trump is so busy fuming at Mueller, but it turns out Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, personally signed off on the raid. This wasn’t Mueller making a unilateral decision against Trump. He got the a-ok from the guy who would ACTUALLY be able to fire him. I’m sure Trump is probably aware of this factoid, but the way he’s talking about it, you’d think Rod was working his ass off to keep Trump from hearing about it.
Mind the Exit 