I’m away for 3 days, and nada, no new news did I see, not a headline, I was oblivious. However, come Tuesday, and wham-bam-thank-you mam, all in one day. So, I think I’ll sprinkle this post with a goodly amount of completely unrelated photos from my weekend away, a different cast of characters from my usual fare, to soften the whole blitzkrieg of news over the last 24 hours.

At this point, I imagine that anyone still by his side is certainly seeing $$$$ in their eyes, book deals, speaking engagements, regardless of what in the end happens to the ol’rumpTus, they will no doubt be able to reap some kind of rewards, long as they can manage to sidestep all the steaming piles of bull poop that surround him, like Pig-pen from the Peanuts with his clouds of filth trailing after him.

Beginning of the end? Merely the end of the beginning? As Cohen pleads guilty to 8 federal crimes, and Manafort is found guilty of 8 himself, the cast of crooks involved with this nothin’ burger is becoming lengthier, and the sort of characters that the rumpTus surrounds himself with becomes more apparent, as no honest person would ever work for him, they should know by now that the stain of him will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

All the ‘yes’ people, the apologizers, all the characters that surround him and talk in lockstep are in question.

In very rapid succession, the day saw two major associates of President Donald Trump — Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen — found guilty of serious crimes carrying years-long prison sentences in federal court. It saw another Trump aide — Larry Kudlow — facing accusations that he palled around with a prominent white nationalist. It saw a major Trump ally in Congress indicted for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign money on personal expenses. And it ended with Trump giving a speech in Charleston, West Virginia that turned into an orgy of pointless digressions and threats to unravel NATO.
[ VOX ]

So Gates worked with Manafort, that’s 2, then we have Flynn, 3, add Cohen, 4, Papadopoulos, that’s 5, and this other dude, van der Zwaan, that’s 6;

“Mueller’s team charged Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan for lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe in federal court on Feb. 16. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in prison and given a $20,000 fine on April 3.”
{…}
The charge against van der Zwaan did not involve election meddling or the Trump campaign’s operations. It stemmed from the special counsel’s investigation into a covert Washington lobbying campaign Manafort and Gates are accused of directing on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests.
[FOXNEWS ]

Oh, and it doesn’t stop there…no,no…Pinedo, a California man who sold bank accounts to Russians meddling in the election, pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up the bank accounts in February. [ibid]

And of course we should not forget the 13 Russian Nationals and 12 Russian Intelligence Officers, for hacking, interfering, in the election, information warfare, and, well well well, dem nothin’ burgers are stacking up, maybe got ourselves a little party happening, invite only the “best” people, maybe throw in some hotdogs?

What did the moron-in-chief say? Well, not much.

“Manafort was a “good man” whose conviction was “very sad.” The closest to a reference in the speech was Trump’s mockery of his opponents for not yet, in his view, proving “collusion.”
[ VOX ]

Badda-boom-badda-bing, are we about to see another caged bird sing? Manafort faces a possible 240 years in jail, give or take a decade, and another trial in September still, what does Manafort know? And will he use it? Is he holding out for a possible pardon? So the potty POTUS is still caught all up in collusion, kinda missing the point.

Wait and see, wait and see, every day, week, month, a new cliffhanger, a new question, a new spin, a new reality, a new layer of chaos, new lies made up to hide the other lies, that covered up still other lies, to mask the involvement of the liar-in-chief that now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I wonder, at what point, do you think it safe to begin to wonder if the whole election was a sham? Because at this point, it is difficult not to stop and wonder if, well not for the first time, but in a more serious vein, if this man who holds the office of POTUS was actually legitimately elected at all? Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.

Oh, Calgon, take me back to that garden, to the river, the corn fields, to the oblivion of bliss and happiness of merely days ago.