In the Sunday NYTimes, Rudy Giuliani said that Mueller told him that the Russia investigation would be wrapped up by September 1st.  That was a lie, according to a source familiar with the Mueller investigation.  Giuliani’s statement was “entirely made-up” and “another apparent effort to pressure the special counsel to hasten the end of his work.”

One more lie in the gigantic pile of lies from the now disgraced former “America’s Mayor”.

Last week, the Trump administration allowed Russian spy chief Sergey Naryshkin, who has been banned from entering the US since 2014 sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, to enter our country.  To make matters worse, Naryshkin reportedly met with Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats.  So, let’s be clear…Trump refuses publicly to implement the sanctions ordered by Congress in 2017 for meddling in our 2016 elections; THEN, he allowed the head of Russian intelligence to illegally enter the US to meet with government intelligence officials.

You just can’t make this up.

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chair and friend to Russian strongmen, has filed suit against Robert Mueller, Rob Rosentstein, and the Justice Department claiming that Mueller’s investigation is illegal.  Yep, that’s what they’re wasting time on today.

Understatement of the day comes from white collar crime attorney Sol Wisenberg, who told CNBC, “I think it’s going to be an uphill battle.  These kinds of things usually don’t prevail.”

Manafort has pulled out all the stops.  We’re popping popcorn right now.

The New Yorker has published a depressing piece by Evan Osnos, about how Trump has stupidly ceded global leadership and how China has rushed in to fill the vacuum.  Trump can very likely become our version of Gorbachev, who, you will recall, oversaw the unraveling of the Soviet Union into a loose amalgamation of oligarchies and totalitarian states dominated by Russia.  From the very first moment of his term, Trump has set about unraveling our country’s generations-old leadership position in the world, and China has gladly Hoovered up every opportunity to exercise its new found world position.
One notable of example of this phenomenon was the World Trade Organization conference in Marakesh last October, convened to update international trade rules.  We’ll let Osnos tell this sorry tale:

“The Trump Administration, which has been critical of the W.T.O., sent an official who delivered a speech and departed early. ‘For two days of meetings, there were no Americans,’ a former U.S. official told me. ‘And the Chinese were going into every session and chortling about how they were now guarantors of the trading system.’”

Trump continually boasts about “Making America Great Again”, and “Putting America First.”  The problem is that he simply doesn’t understand what that means and has made idiotic decisions that has diminished our country, and creating opportunities for other countries, especially China and Russia to jump into the breach.  Exiting the TPP was stupid.  Now American beef comes second to other beef producing countries like Australia.  Withdrawing from the Paris climate accords has damaged our reputation and stature throughout the world.  China is also negotiating to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will form a 16 country free trade zone.  The US is NOT one of the 16 countries.

The damage that Trump has inflicted and continues to inflict will be multi-generational.  Some of the damage may never be repaired.  The US’s unilateral surrender of its prominent position as world leader has emboldened other countries to take over that prominence.  Protectionism and isolation never works, especially in the new, interconnected global market.

Trump has ranted and raved about North Korea and “Little Rocketman” this year, has severely criticized China for not being tougher, and for continuing to truck and ship fuel oil into the country.  Visibility to that practice and further sanctions have served to choke off fuel to the Hermit Kingdom.  For a while, North Korean ships were loading in Russia and delivering into the country.  When that was discovered, surely that would choke off Kim Jong Un’s oil and drive him to the negotiating table, right?  Not so fast.  It’s now come to light that Russia has been loading fuel oils in Russia and then…wait for it…transferring those fuels to North Korean ships on the high seas.  That’s a direct violation of the UN sanctions agreed to by all, including Russia, and now they’ve been caught red handed smuggling into North Korea.  Trump’s response?  Dead silence.  Not one tweet or threat has been made since the news hit the wires today.

Now what is his orangeness to do?  Does he criticize Putin for violating international sanctions risking disclosure of the Pee-Pee Tapes, or does he stay silent, confirming his fealty to Russia?  We’ve never, in the history of the US, had such a compromised and ignorant buffoon infesting the White House.

God help us.

NBC News has broken the story that Trump was personally warned by counterintelligence agents of the FBI in JULY of 2016 that the Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign.  He and senior campaign officials were told to communicate to the FBI about ANY attempt by the Russians to contact them.  There is NO evidence that any Trump official did so.  Instead of taking the warning, Trump cronies were actively communicating with the Russians on multiple levels.