Saturday, August 25, 2018

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

Well, here's the good news: The Witch Hunt found and convicted two witches.
The bad news? There seem to be a whole lot more witches out there.
Paul Manafort, guilty of five tax-evasion charges, two bank-fraud charges, and one charge of failing to register a foreign bank account, was the "President's" campaign manager during the 2016 election. How did the "President" choose to acknowledge this legal dust-up? "I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' Such respect for a brave man!"
Such a brave, convicted felon of a man.
Meanwhile, just up the row, the "President's" private lawyer (one of them, anyway) was pleading guilty to eight counts including tax fraud, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to his work for the "President," including payments he made or helped orchestrate that were designed to silence women who claimed affairs with the then-candidate. The reckoning from the White House sounded a little something like this: "If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!" See, it's funny because the "President" did retain the services of Michael Cohen, and so that's the joke.
Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright. The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. But not here in Mudville, where the mighty Trump has just struck out. I understand that the folks who showed up to hear him blather on about NFL players standing for the national anthem and proudly display their MAGA spirit won't see it that way. It's just another bit of Fake News. It's another distraction along the path to making America what it once was: an arctic land mass covered in ice and snow. 
So the Witch Hunt continues. Resignations and indictments continue to abound. All the while, someone is trying to manage a country. How does this happen? In between self-righteous tweets about the fractured reality in which we find ourselves trapped. The one in which our justice system is regularly referred to as "a witch hunt." 
Stay tuned. 

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