There are notable and repeating Trump brand methods of answering questions of crimes of which one is in fact guilty, and we need to note and list these so that we will not be dumbfounded when we repeatedly hear them. The fact that the questions are answered in this manner, though, is just as one would expect if Trump were told that the election would be turned for him, so that he would know to reward Russia. One would not expect Russia to leave the realization to Trump himself. This is just what we say occurred in the 2016 election, and if it did occur, in typical mobster fashion, it would be difficult or impossible to “prove.” The trouble, though, is that this is the nuclear age, and Putin may have done this intentionally to weaken our executive branch and assure himself of an opponent he can easily out-maneuver. In a trial of impeachment, Trump may be asked these things directly, and impeached without criminal conviction, even for High crimes and misdemeanors that can be “proven,” such as the 130,000$ payment to silence the prostitute at the time of his campaign. In a trial in the Senate, Trump can be asked: “Did someone tell you the election would be turned for you/” “And the means “undetectable.” “And did you reward Russia for this, even with foreign policy considerations, as by the weakening of NATO or of sanctions?’ The Senate too can decide, for example, whether election fraud must involve campaign finance or has a broader, more common sense meaning.
The Trump responses that do not logically address the question are first, ad hominem: The accuser is a) a liberal, b) a partisan or c) a bad person. Add to this that they are d) the dupe of the media, and e) conspiratorial.
Second, it will be said that the assertion “cannot be proven.” One does not begin an investigation or inquiry with something proven, and it may be that nothing important in politics can be “proven” in this sense. As Cohen explained, gangsters use other people to commit crimes, and proceed by a conspiracy of favors. Conspiracy is the technical name for committing crime with ones thought and associates rather than his hands. An example is Manson, convicted of conspiracy to murder because of the word written by his cult members on the wall. Hence, the Mueller investigation proceeds as does a RICO mob investigation, turning the associates is an attempt to dismantle the criminal organization. Because criminals act from self-interest, and the organization not of friends in truth, for example, it is possibly to demonstrate by dealing with the servants.
A discussion of epistemology would be in order, but has been undertaken elsewhere. Theoretical knowledge with assurance is extremely difficult, since we may often be deceived, accidentally or intentionally. In one sense, we cannot even prove to ourselves that we are awake, etc, though we are not usually deceived when we are awake. Yet when we dream, we believe ourselves to be in some circumstance, and it is not true. Contingent events are known with probability, not certainty, on either side of an issue, though probabilities can be compounded to achieve almost certainty for practical purposes. In any case, given the overwhelming evidence- more than any conspiracy case in history. We have seen a few “conspiracy theories” that are false, and yet there are genuine criminal conspiracies, even in politics. Deduction and induction are different, and both notoriously flawed, which is why reason goes back and forth between empirical data or “facts” and hypotheses, or a general scenario. Some scenario is true, and it is rather important that we get it right regardless of the difficulty. Totalitarian governments use the capacity of man for deception to make a false world, imposed with force, in which their crimes are not crimes, but those who see the true scenario must be “insane,” illmotivated, etc. to account for how a delusion such as the truth could come to be. But those who have abandoned truth rely not on inquiry but the impossibility of knowledge. And interestingly enough, it is possible to know hypothetically, based upon first principles and sound reasoning (that is, given a certain assumption that such must also be true) and to know when a thing is false, or when it is refuted, which truth of course can never be: It is impossible to prove that a thing that is true is false.
Other arguments are third, that one is forbidden to look, as with the bugging of Trump Tower, fourth, that the courts cannot proceed, as the question is out of their provenance (as with the Chaldeans seized and illegally deported). Similar to the OJ trial, it will be argued, fifth, that justice is corrupt or partisan, and this has been done on the issue of McCabe: Indeed, we say, FBI agents do not “like” scam artists, are quite biased against criminals, and some have a nose for such things. Some agents, too, are indeed Democrats, which will soon be remedied if Trump completes his seizure of the law.
As with the Russia investigation, as the lawyer Giulianni has already suggested, sixth, if it were true, it is just fine for a foreign government to help with a campaign, even in such ways as using data collection and targeted interference, and finally, since Trump “won,” it is just fine in any case, and even a crime to suggest that it is not fine, and a matter of national security to hide the means by which election fraud was committed, a national security secret, again as is common in Russia. A circularity of the tyranny argument is here noted, as when Trump contends that the Americans “elected” him knowing he had not released his tax forms. Finally, he will contend that his rewarding Russia for election fraud is a matter of “executive privilege, since his interests are to be identified with that of America.
Seventh, there is the declaration of exoneration of crimes, such as “treason,” of which he has not been accused. “Collusion” in the technical sense is not even a crime. To consort” or associate, but it would be election fraud to knowingly receive internet and other election fraud from Russia. We do not say that Trump, but Putin orchestrated this, but that is the problem with bribery in the Presidency, explicitly listed among the impeachable things. We say, whatever he wants to call the election fraud and the repayment of this with foreign policy favors of unknown value, that is what Trump did. He did not do it for Russia but for himself, which is how Putin uses him. One can guess the sort of self interest by which Trump can be led. He also obstructed and did not aid the effort to inquire, which in addition to intimidating the press is a daily violation of his oath of office to uphold a constitution he had literally never read.
Finally, there is eighth, the intimidation of opponents, and we say this is confirmation of our opposition. I received a Russian apparent threat while commenting on a letter to President Obama the week of the inauguration. I count “death threats of more or less seriousness, at least two of which are ostensibly Russian. One example is when under my page, first Russian looking prostitutes appeared, then a cruel male face with the words “Assassin” and “Assassinate.” When this was reported, the incident was ignored. Another was the appearance of Putin and a big motorcycle guy on a twitter site from Japan with huge machine guns, right after the Parkland shooting. We say of these threats that it was either the Russians, demonstrating collusion, or our own FBI pretending to be the Russians- And they know which. The Parkland shooting is itself quite suspicious, as American white supremacists, who once hated communism, suddenly like and wish to serve Putin, perhaps even in attacks timed to intimidate the Americans- such as Parkland February 14th, Las Vegas when the Supreme Court case 17-857 was rejected, and Christchurch, when the Mueller report was due). Putin likes to exasperate our present vices, such as the epidemic of public shootings. But Roger Stone, too, openly threatened Congress with civil war should they impeach, and Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats seem to have avoided impeachment in part for this reason. Stone was not charged for this, but for other crimes, perhaps because he could say he was simply making a prediction.
Then there is, ninth, the famous Hillary Card,” the answer of Trump supporters that the only alternative is worse, all politics are hopelessly corrupt, that the only alternative is the extreme left, etc, making a straw man or fake opponent to thrash with mere words. We say that the Trump-Russians simply believe that the world works this way, though they are wrong. Our entire American founding is based upon the assumption that there is an alternative to government by accident, force, corruption and tyranny, or that gangsters in fact do not know the best way to live.
Tenth is of course to respond by actually carrying out their threats, which they may do if they are able. They may get some, too, but if we all stand up at once, they cannot get us all, nor nearly as many as will die if we do not stand up- as was true too of the Civil War. And it may be that, like good Trumpsters looking out for their own private interests, they simply fall into faction and go home IF WE STAND UP!!
There are a number of compounded probabilities and coherences which are elements in the quite accurate guess that Trump is guilty of election fraud and obstructs the inquiry for that reason, just as appears. One is his character: to win regardless of ethics or legality. to defraud the seniors enrolled in Trump University (25 million$ settlement). Another: his admiration for tyrants, which is also the reason we might know that what we have to fear here is domestic tyranny). Another is data collection allowed without limit because Congress was paid to ignore it. Another is the suspicion that the 4th Amendment was suspended in order to fight terrorism” as the Snowdon leak informed us. Another is that the US was likely using Russian internet assistance in our vastly successful prevention of further attacks following 9/11. Another is the knowledge of just how wicked the Russian government is, killing some 40-70 million of its own people over 70 years when no civil war was even occurring, not to mention famines (Ukraine, 2 million) and tortures in the Russian Gulag. As Solzhenitsyn informed us, the West was blind, or as if oblivious to this. This is not only the Russian character going back centuries, but is especially made worse by atheism and the Marxist rejection of all ethics.
The polls and the 2016 election present an appearance, like that of the motions of the planets, for which one might attempt to account, as by the Copernican cosmos. The swing states and the comparison of the electoral and popular vote add another compound probability, so that the correct guess could be intuited on November 10th, 2016, from this alone. The Oxy epidemic is worse in the swing states (Go figure, because it indicates too that the Oxy-heroin epidemic was intentional). No one could see this in 1600 who did not think and study the science.
There are yet more elements to compound from psychology and politics, such as the Trump propensity to accuse others of crimes of which he is himself guilty, called “the mirror.” Accusing the Democrats of “election fraud” for unregistered voters- a fake scandal- he got the Democrats to say like “God forbid anyone would call into question our sacred elections.” Putin told Trump that the means of turning the election would be “undetectable, which he repeated in saying famously that we do not know who the interference was coming from, it could have been a 400 lb man…” Trump does not know what the Russians thought, that the means were “undetectable,” because they interfered with the voters themselves, rather than the voting boxes. And the Russian were wrong in any case, a techie error: it is detectable, but not by techies. And it is demonstrable, even in court, by patient detective work- which is why the Mueller report is now being obstructed and buried.
We do not know the purpose of Putin, but do know that it is wise not to underestimate 20th century totalitarianism.
mmcdonald77 