Yesterday the DOJ announced the arrest and charging of 3 insurrectionist leaders who planned and led the attack on the Capitol.  In an extensive 23 page indictment, 3 individuals were named, Thomas Caldwell, Donovan Crowl, and Jessica Watkins, associated with extremist groups including Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, and the Three Percenters.  The charges detailed how they forcibly entered the Capitol, assaulted officers, destroyed property, interfered with Congress, and pursued members of Congress.  One particular chilling part of the indictment describes FB messages Caldwell was receiving from co-conspirators that were actually guiding him down flights of stairs and through tunnels as he pursued fleeing members of Congress.  In messages between other co-conspirators, they even talked about “Paul” who has “the goodies in case things go bad and we need to get heavy.”  And stupidly, they put a lot of this communication and evidence of their lawbreaking up on social media for all to see.  Unbelievable.

It’s becoming very clear that the attack on the Capitol wasn’t just a demonstration that got out of hand.  The attack was planned among conspirators in multiple states in multiple extremist groups.  Their military training, radical rhetoric, and threats made it clear they intended to capture, and even kill members of Congress whom they had decided had somehow committed “treason”.  The evidence is also becoming clear that they had help from the inside of the Capitol.  Who that is, we don’t know yet, but I predict we will.

The feds must continue investigating, arresting, trying and convicting as many of these conspirators.  These extremists are gun nuts who advocate unlicensed and unregulated ownership of all firearms.  Many are convicted felons who are excluded from owning guns, by law.  Even though many of these radicals are not allowed to own guns, they can still get them through private sales and black markets, but the feds must continue pursuing these criminals and enforcing the law.  The Congress in collusion with George W, let the genie out of the bottle in 2004 when they let the Assault Weapons ban expire.  Millions of weapons of war have flooded into the market feeding the violent tendencies of extremists groups that have proliferated all over the country.  The only tool we have remaining is charging, convicting, and jailing thousands of these gun nuts who threaten our democratic republic.

This is at least a start.

Today, Christopher Wray, Trump’s own appointee as FBI Director, warned that the Russians were continuing their efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, even announcing that he’s transferred other agents from their normal duties to counter intelligence to stop the effort to meddle.  Wray said in a statement,

“We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game. So we are very much viewing 2018 as just kind of a dress rehearsal for the big show in 2020.”

Trump has stubbornly and continuously ignored the problem, fearing that acknowledging it would make it obvious that his election in 2016 was illegitimate.  He’s even cut budgets to stop the Russians from interfering.  If anyone has any doubts about Trump’s allegiance to the Russians, one only need listen to and read his words.  He’s not going to do a damn thing to stop the Russians, because he knows that their interference is the only way he has a prayer of winning again in 2020.

It’s hard for me to believe that I’m even typing these words that the Fucking President of the United States is conspiring with a hostile foreign power to cement his own victory to maintain power.  The damage that he has done to our nation (especially our judiciary) will take decades to repair, if we even can.  In the meantime, I have a bottle of champagne set aside that we’re going to crack open when we see this treasonous son of a bitch walked out of the White House, hopefully in handcuffs.

In today’s NYT: The FBI is urgently requesting that everyone reboot their home and small business routers.  Russian malware has been infiltrating small networks causing damage from stolen passwords and personal data to rendering devices unusable.  This is not a joke, this is not The Onion.  Reboot your router.

And, no, Donald, this is not fake news.

FBI agents who raided Cohen’s office were looking for additional evidence of payoffs to other women.

Chaos.  Absolute chaos.  Just this week:

• Trump threatens porn star Stormy Daniels with $20 million in damage claims and petitions to move the local case to federal court.
• Trump fires Tillerson and will replace with loyalist Mike Pompeo, now infesting the CIA.
• Pompeo will be replaced by CIA black site torturer, Gina Haspel.
• McMaster is likely to be fired any day.
• Kelley is still on the chopping block.
• Larry Kudlow, Trump loyalist and CNBC loudmouth, is Trump’s new economic advisor.
• John Bolton, Fox News talker and little angry man with an angrier mustache, is said to be Trump’s new national security advisor.
• Out of the blue, Donald Trump, Jr. announced an uncontested divorce from wife of 12 years, Vanessa.
• Deputy FBI director, Andrew McCabe, is fired two days before his pension is to become vested.

So, in all this chaos, what in the hell is going on?  First, Trump thrives on chaos and loves the drama he stirs up in the press.  He loves to piss people off.  He’s maintaining his trashy reality show personality by continuously firing people or threatening to fire people or demanding someone be fired for something.  That’s clear.  But, what else is going on?  Who knows, but what’s apparent is that the Trumps are prepping for the coming trials.

His Orangeness is sweeping the administration of professionals who may not be absolute loyalists.  He’s installing people who possess the primary qualification of being Trumpist first, and actually qualified for the job second.  He’s preparing to stonewall Mueller’s probe at all costs, and will fill WH vacancies with those (like Kudlow) who won’t cooperate with anyone outside Trump’s inner circle.   He’s also working hard to discredit the FBI generally, Comey and McAbe specifically because they will both be witnesses against him.

Lastly, I believe that the Donald Jr. divorce is nothing but a dodge to help protect some of his assets when he’s charged, and likely convicted of any number of offenses like colluding with the Russians to lying to investigators.  Nothing else makes any sense.

The Reality Television Show administration continues.

Yesterday, the New York Times published a blockbuster article that fingered the guy who triggered the Russia-Trump investigation.  That guy?  He’s George Papadopoulos, a then 28 year old kid who was “advising” the Trump campaign on energy and international issues.  As early as April of 2016, Papadopoulos was aware that the Russians had hacked into Hillary’s and the DNC’s emails due to his contacts with Russian operatives.  In May of that year, during a drinking session with an Australian diplomat, Papadopoulos bragged that the Russians had dirt on Hillary.  Two months later, Australian intelligence alerted US intelligence of the hacking.

This chain of events is what kicked off the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign and its contacts with Russian operative.  Papadopoulos, who planned to ride Mike Flynn’s coattails into the NSA, ended up riding his coattails into a guilty plea of lying to the FBI.  He’s now, along with Flynn, fully cooperating with the investigation.

Tick, Tick, Tick