"Ole, ole. Watch them all fall down. Ole, ole. Domino dancing." Pet Shop Boys, Domino Dancing
November 1, 2017
By: Linda Case Gibbons
I bet Paul Manafort is wishing he never laid eyes on Donald Trump.
Up until then, the 68-year-old lobbyist was happy as a clam, buying nice stuff, cars, condos, parking his money in offshore accounts.
Then, before he knew it, the FBI was doing a pre-dawn search of his Alexandria, Va. home, treating him like he was El Chapo, while he and his wife, Kathleen, stood there in their jammies.
And this is after he met voluntarily with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Was the FBI afraid Manafort would make a run for it? Did they ever see the way the man walks, much less runs?
No. Manafort was targeted because he had ties to the president.
Working off a play book made famous by Lavrentiy Beria, head of Stalin's Secret Police, Special Counsel Mueller is a "Show me a man, and I'll find you a crime," kind of guy.
And he's doing a great job.
It's no secret Mueller wanted to find evidence on Manafort so he could flip him. And he found it, a total of 12 counts, including conspiracy, money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent. Manafort was no angel. But if he wasn't affiliated with Trump, Mueller wouldn't have given him the time of day.
Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz explained it best: Paul Manafort is the "First Domino," then, one by one, the rest will fall, until Mueller gets the Domino in the Oval Office.
At least in North Korea they have the good manners to poison their enemies, or run them over with tanks.
This kind of thing could be one of the reasons a fine legislator like Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called it quits. He has more clout now working for FOX News than he ever had as a member of Congress.
Congressional subpoenas are ignored. Endless hearings end up going nowhere. When a federal judge ordered, then reminded the State Department to release 70,000 of Hillary's e-mails, they just didn't. And this is only after Judicial Watch launched a lawsuit.
Take a hammer and tongs to destroy computers, have attorneys delete subpoenaed evidence, and nothing happens. Nothing ever happens to the Clintons in this Them and Us legal system.
When former FBI Director James Comey exonerated Hillary before she or any witnesses were interviewed, no one cared. Special Counsel Mueller has conflicts of interest up the kazoo, yet no one says a word.
It's the way things are.
In May, 2017, former head of National Intelligence James Clapper said there was no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians, a view that was reflected in the Intelligence Community Assessment Report, a report written about the 2016 presidential election, and filed jointly by the CIA, FBI and NSA.
Even though Clapper testified, to this under oath, to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, the Mueller Russia probe continued.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, there was no evidence of collusion. And still the Mueller Russia probe continued. Although she did add, as a seasoned member of the Senate, "There are all kinds of rumors around, there are newspaper stories, but that's not necessarily evidence."
Not necessarily.
And still Mueller and his Left-Leaning-Mostly-Democratic band of attorneys keep plugging away, pushing the prosecutorial envelope, in the hopes they can take down this president.
Is this any way to treat the law? In this country?
"My entire world fell in because I thought the law was there to protect those who abided by it. I discovered it had nothing to do with right and wrong, and everything to do with money and power."
That's what former Miramax employee, Zelda Perkins had to say, in describing the advice given to her by her lawyers, after being sexually harassed by Hollywood kingpin Harvey Weinstein.
The lawyers told her, "Take a settlement, and sign a non-disclosure agreement. It's the best thing to do," they said, otherwise Weinstein and his attorneys would "destroy" her if she tried to expose his behavior.
It's advice of which Lavrentiy Beria, head of Stalin's Secret Police, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller would have approved.
Because it's the way things have become. In this country.
Hold the line, America.