March 19, 2019--Two Predictions

For the Democratic presidential nomination I predict it will come down to three finalists--

In third place, Kamala Harris; the runner up will be Bernie Sanders; and the winner--Joe Biden (assuming he cuts out the rapidly wearing-thin coy act and gets in the race).

Biden will select Harris to be his running mate and they will go on to defeat Trump or Mike Pence.

Can we vote now?

Second prediction--

The Mueller report is about to land and, as a courtesy, the special counsel informed Trump's attorneys that he and members of his family are about to be indicted. Trump as an un-indicted co-conspirator.

The FBI will not break into Eric's, Don Junior's, or Jared's homes because as big-game hunters the sons' places are likely armed to the teeth with elephant guns. They will thus be invited to turn themselves in by the end of the month.

So Trump will be faced with pressure to pardon them and perhaps Paul Manafort and others while he's at it. To obviate this, we will learn that Mueller has referred their cases and turned over the evidence he has amassed to the pardon-proof prosecutors of the New-York-City-based Court of the Southern District of New York.

These impending arrests have Trump crazed, off his pins, and thus he has been launching a record number of vitriolic tweets, including two this weekend again about John McCain and five about suspended Fox News personality, Janine Piro. In total, a clinically-concerning 50. 

Further evidence of his desperation is the fact that he and Melania went to church last Sunday.

If there is a just God, that will not help.

March 16, 2019--Rat's Non-Denial-Denial

For the second week in a row Matt Whitaker muscled his way to the top of the gangplank, desperate to abandon the listing SS Trump and in the process hoping to save his own tokhes.

Last Saturday I reported there was much competition among a number of rats but that Whitaker won. He comes in first again this week because he realized that if he doesn't try to clean up the lies he told under oath to the House Judiciary Committee he could find himself in a jumpsuit up the proverbial river.

In spite of his promise to "jump on a grenade" for Trump, for which he was rewarded by being named acting attorney general after poor Jeff Sessions was fired (on Election Day, no less), when he realized the extent of his exposure, including possible disbarment, he disappeared for a couple of weeks to wander in the wilderness to think things over, only to resurface on Wednesday when he agreed to meet with Judiciary Committee chair, Jerry Nadler, ranking member, Georgia Republican congressman, Doug Collins, and a few staff members to go over some of the untruths he told when testifying about Trump's allegedly leaning on him to pull the plug on the Southern District of New York prosecutor who was hot on the Michael Cohen Trail. 

Trump knew that if Cohen continued to flip he might pose a mortal threat to the president. 

The U.S. attorney the president wanted to run the Cohen investigation is a Trump loyalist. In spite of this he is also an ethical jurist and thus recused himself. Trump wanted him un-recused and pressured the acting attorney general to make that happen.

The acting AG subsequently lied under oath to the Nadler committee when he denied he had ever spoken to Trump about this preposterous idea. There is no such thing, even in Trump World, as un-recusals. 

But that lie and a related possible perjury charge hung over Whitaker and thus he sought a follow-up meeting with Nadler on Wednesday.

When they met this time Whitaker offered a classic non-denial-denial, saying he wouldn't deny nor admit that he spoke with Trump about rigging the investigation in Manhattan. 

The next logical step, under relentless pressure, will likely be for Whitaker to tell more of the whole truth. And so, when he comes fully clean, expect him again to be named rat of the week.