May 2018

“I was born in a crossfire hurricane”, (lyrics from a 1968 Rolling Stones song); ‘crossfire hurricane’ adopted as secret code name by FBI agents for the origins of an investigation into possible collusion of the Trump campaign with Russians seeking to influence our 2016 election.  Two FBI agents were sent to London, July 2016 — before Trump won the election — to investigate information Australian ambassador, Alexander Downer, claimed to have on the campaign due to his interaction with George Papadopoulos, who was later indicted and accepted a guilty plea.

If you think there’s bigger wrongdoing than local law enforcement can handle, or they might be involved in, call the Federal Bureau of Investigations.  News Flash — the FBI investigates potential criminal activity.  Some investigations are short, some lengthy, depending on complexity of issues and number of actors.  Some agents actually investigate under-cover; they are NOT spies, they are law enforcement officials under the auspices of the Department of Justice.  They are NOT ‘storm-troopers’ (Nazi foot-soldiers) as Rudolf Giuliani described them!

There are so many parallels between Richard Nixon’s administration and that of Donald Trump.  Nixon would have been impeached, had he not resigned, for obstruction of justice and especially for using the office of the presidency to punish or ruin his political enemies.  Thanks to John Dean we learned of Nixon’s long ‘enemies list’ and his attempted use of the IRS and FBI to attack those on his list.  The American people had no idea, before the Watergate hearings, how corrupt President Nixon was; even his staunch supporters realized that he had to resign or be impeached.  Most Americans aren’t as naïve as we were back in the early seventies.  Nixon would have loved to have had Sinclair Broadcasting, right-wing talk-radio programs, and Fox ‘News’, which did not come into existence until legislation under President Reagan allowed less stringent truth in broadcasting standards.

Trump’s pushing the Postmaster General to double the postage rate on Amazon, with whom they have a contract — to attack Amazon owner, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, gives cause for another article of impeachment; further proved by Trump’s tweets showing himself to be an enemy of Bezos.

Four signs of an autocratic leader:  1. politicizes independent institutions (like FBI & DOJ);  2. uses disinformation to confuse the populace;  3. eliminates checks that would hold the executive accountable;  4. trying to corrupt elections.   Trump has done them all.   DEPLORABLE!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Michael Cohen set up a Delaware shell (or front) company called Essential Consultants, LLC, through which he received very generous “donations” from some American companies like: $600,000 (for “actual work”) from AT&T (who wanted a merger with Time-Warner), $1.2 million from Novartis, pharma-giant (who wanted “insight on the president’s thinking on healthcare policy issues”), $150,000 (for “accounting advise”) from Korea Aerospace Industries,  who partnered with Lockheed Martin (a huge defense contract is pending), and a half million dollars from Columbus Nova, whose CEO is Andrew Intrater, who is “cousin Vinnie” to Victor Vekselberg, one of the richest Russian oligarchs; Columbus Nova is his U.S. affiliate.

All Russian oligarchs operate in cooperation with the Putin government; they live and enrich themselves at the pleasure and grace of Vladimir Putin!  “Robber barons of the former Soviet Union became insanely rich; Putin was a junior oligarch before coming fully into power” in the Kremlin. Victor Vekselberg and his cousin Andrew attended Trump’s Inauguration ceremony and met there with Michael Cohen.  Intrater donated $250,000 to the Trump Inauguration Fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017.   Vikselberg was also present at the infamous 2015 dinner in Russia, which was attended by Putin, Michael Flynn, Jill Stein (and others).  Vekselberg was also present at a dinner with Jared and Ivanka Kushner.  There’s also the connection between Vekselberg and German Khan, Ukrainian-Russian billionaire (export and oil trade), who is the father-in-law of Alex van der Zwaan, Dutch ex-attorney, who is going to prison for perjury.  The above-named companies and characters were all questioned last fall by Special Counsel, Robert Mueller; no wonder search warrants were issued for Michael Cohen’s records.

Remember during Trump’s campaign, when he talked incessantly about “Pay for Play, it’s illegal”, and said, “Why would anyone plead the Fifth?  Only guilty people plead the Fifth!”  Steve Schmidt, my favorite ‘Recovering-Republican’ said, “Cohen is part of the cabal doing real damage to America, involved in unfathomable corruption.  This is fundamental corruption of our American political system!  Cohen is as mobbed-up as Morey, the wig-maker was from Goodfellas!   “Where was anybody — upon the moment of Donald Trump  assuming the awesome privilege and power of the presidency — to say ‘how can we make America better, safer?   How can we keep faith with our obligations?’  See how rancid the swamp really is!   Every one of them are Pigs at the Troughs, enriching themselves financially at our expense!”

Trish Forsyth Voss