JEWS, ISRAEL AND ANTI - SEMITISM

There is very little argument that anti semitism is on the rise throughout the world. Just in the space of a few weeks 7 members of the Labour Opposition Party in the United Kingdom resigned - a central issue being their leader, Jeremy Corbin’s unashamed and ongoing anti semitism. Corbin’s recent refusal to support the labelling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization is a sign that he has dropped any pretense as to where he stands. This particularly so after the Iran backed Lebanese political party made it quite clear that their hatred was directed to all Jews, not only Israelis.  France was racked with a series of events including desecrations, mobs chanting in streets and threats which resulted in the French Parliament discussing legislation to counter the anti semitic upsurge, a 74 percent increase from last year. The UK is now reporting a 100 anti semitic incidents a month. Most disconcerting is a European poll shows that that a quarter of those questioned maintained that Jews use the holocaust to manipulate their causes. America too has seen a sharp increase in incidents.

THE  GROWTH OF AMERICAN  ANTI - SEMITISM

The American legislature witnessed Congress members for the first time in recent modern history being reprimanded for  anti semitic tropes. This was preceded by the massacre of 13 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue and the release of statistics that Jews, who represent 2 percent of the American population, were subject to nearly 60 percent of the religious based hate crimes, a 37 percent increase from the previous year. (The overall European figures reflect similar increases). Last year following the blatant anti semitic chants from right wing thugs in the Charlottesville riots the President’s failure to outright condemn occasioned a backlash with even one of his Jewish Cabinet members publicly criticizing his failure. 

The anti semitic remarks by 2 American Muslim Democratic Party Legislators occasioned Fareed Zakaria, the renowned political commentator, to warn them that they needed to note that in the Muslim World there was twice the amount of  anti semitism than in other countries, and they needed to be sensitive to this evil. There is in addition a split in the highly successful Women’s March movement devolving around the support of some of its leaders of the Leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. The latter has warned against the “Satanic Jews” whom he claims are responsible for child molestation, police brutality and who are “studying tricks” to be able to dominate all non jews.

This all begs the question why? Before continuing, criticizing Israeli policies and its current leader, Netanyahu, is not anti semitism. If it were over forty percent of Jewish Israelis would be guilty. Jay H. Ell is more than mindful of the need for a two party solution in the Middle East and that the Netanyahu administration has done nothing to further it. (Blog: “ISRAEL’S BIBI IN LEGAL JEOPARDY AS CHANGE LOOMS”). However this is not the subject being addressed. 

CAUSES  OF ANTI - SEMITISM? HAS IT CHANGED THROUGH THE AGES?

All this antipathy, discrimination hatred, persecution and murder is more often than not associated with the denial of the right of the Jews to have a state of their own. The former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Sacks, has said that anti semitism is like a virus which has mutated through the ages. Anti - semites rarely admit that they hate the Jews. Rather they put forward reasons as to why they discriminate. The rationale for their persecution always, "co incidentally" is the alleged characteristics of all jews at that point in time. 

For millennia anti semitism was on the basis of religion so the offending Jews had a choice to survive by converting, escaping or dying as martyrs. Then the basis for the persecution was against races that were inferior and or conspiring to control the world, all of which were described as the features of all Jews - this emergence of this racism foreshadowed the holocaust. Today, Sacks concludes, the rationale is that all Jews, regardless of what they may argue, are responsible for Israel and by extension the current Israeli government. The latter, allegedly. being the world poster child for racism and crimes against humanity.

However not everyone buys Sack’s explanation. Some have argued that there are two forces at work - the right wing and neo Nazi wave that is emerging across the world and the other a hatred originating from the Middle East region which has a political and a religious basis. One of the causes of resurgence of the right is said to be economic and what better scapegoat is there than the traditional bogeyman - the Jews? Large sectors of the Islam world in the Middle East and the Palestinian territories demonize Israel and the Jews. The whole education process starting with children focuses on the evil of Jews and Israel. This thrust will take decades to unlearn. 

Perhaps the French Prime Minister was nearer the mark when speaking in the French Parliament on the recent French spate of anti - Jewish hate, “Anti -Semitism is profoundly rooted in French Society. It takes incredibly varied forms. I don’t think that it is the preserve of a particular group. It is going to be difficult to fight against it in France but we’re going to do it with humility.”

Through the ages and up till 1960's the Christian faith and in particular the Catholic Church fueled anti semitism in that they blamed the Jews collectively for the death of Jesus. The Causa Nostre Aetate in 1965 reversed that dictum. Pope Benedict XVI, 2011 gave a detailed theological and biblical argument as to why this canard was no longer valid. As recently as January 2019 Pope Francis preached that Catholics must continue to ask forgiveness for their anti semitism. There is no doubt that this change of dictum has resulted in a decrease of Christian anti semitism.

The late Amoz Oz, the internationally recognized Israeli author and major proponent for peace and the two state solution looked at all the culture and symbolism that reinforced hatred of the Jews. When discussing his novel Judas he commented that in paintings of the Last Supper, Judas is painted as the archetypical scheming Jew. Shakespeare, as another icon of arts and culture perpetuated the “trickery and venality” of the Jew in The Merchant of Venice, is yet another example of how deeply ingrained in culture this bias was sustained. 

In addition defamatory fictions have been widely circulated, most notorious being the early twentieth century anti semitic booklet, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which allegedly details the secret world wide conspiracy of jews as to how they control the world. This infamy was punted mercilessly by the Nazis. At that time it was believed by many in the West. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem introduced it to the Middle East in the forties and even today it is doing the rounds as well as reemerging in the rest of the world 

Rabbi Sacks, who has been prominent in inter religious initiatives, postulates a unique unconscious etiology of religious violence in his award winning book, Not In God’s Name - Confronting Religious Violence. Briefly he sees Islam and Judaism as two Abrahamic denominations whose progenitors were his two sons Isaac and Ishmael. Islam believes that Ishmael was the patriarch’s real son while Judaism accepts that Isaac was. Sacks thus postulates the overall dynamic is unconscious sibling rivalry as to who are the true chosen, the others being infidels and imposters.    

Ed Hasain, the internationally recognized Islamist commentator, who champions a two state solution, believes that the Middle East States still feel humiliated by the repeated defeats they have suffered, starting from 1948. when a ragbag Israeli army, barely armed, defeated the might of 5 Arab States. Palestinians who were displaced martyr themselves rather than seek peace, believing that will give them dignity and ensure them a place in heaven. 

So whatever the causation of this millennial long racial animus it is still deeply ingrained in society and is destined to continue for the foreseeable future.

THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF JEWS AND NATIONS STATES

There are 6.9 billion inhabitants of the world - 2.2 billion are Christian, 1.9 billion are Muslim and 15 million are Jews. Anti - semites throughout the ages have accused Jews, who represent 0.02% of the population of the earth, of a conspiracy, whether through finance or evil of one or other sort, to control the world at the one end or of being inferior and being akin to vermin on the other. Nor has the fact that some Jews are irreligious or have “opted out” from all aspects of Judaism exempted them from these assaults or the gas chambers. Thus from time immemorial Jews have been persecuted, hounded out of countries and subject to genocide, most notably by the Crusaders and the Inquisition in the Middle Ages and in the last century by the Nazis where 6 million were gassed in the holocaust. Stalin killed over a million and Eastern Europe had a tradition of pogroms  through the ages.

There are a 195 countries in the world with one Jewish State, Israel, which is 149th in size with mainly island states that have a smaller area. There are 16 Muslim States in the Middle East, several Islamic countries in North Africa surrounding Israel and 59 Nations with Muslim majorities. Following the United Nations Resolution in 1947 dividing the British mandate of Palestine between Israel and Palestinians, Israel’s right to existence has been threatened by invasions and terrorism. 

ISRAEL SINGLED OUT AT THE UNITED NATIONS

The ubiquitous charge against the State of Israel is that it is a threat to world peace and guilty of crimes against humanity. The central venue for the orchestrated attacks on Israel, in fact challenging its very right to exist, is the United Nations. This preoccupation lead the outgoing Secretary General, Ban Ki - Moon to claim, “Decades of political maneuvering have created a disproportionate number of resolutions, reports and committees against Israel”. He lectured the Security Council, “That for the last decade we have had a bias against Israel at the UN….this has foiled the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively”. For example at the time of his statement in 2017, over a six year period, the UN had passed 223 resolutions castigating Israel and only 6 against Syria.

Ban Ki - Moon’s plea fell on deaf ears as the General Assembly Resolutions in 2018/2019 show. There were 27 Resolutions criticizing countries of which 21 singled out Israel while the remainder were aimed, one each at 6 other countries, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Crimea, Mynamar and the USA for its embargo on Cuba. Most of the recent resolutions single out Israeli behavior towards the Palestinians and instruct Israel to meet their demands. There has been no condemnation of any terror attacks by HAMAS who now control the GAZA area which was handed over to Palestinian Authorities by Prime Minister Sharon in 2005 with the dismantling of Israeli Settlements. Sharon asked for no concessions in return. 

ISRAEL AND THE JEWS

There have always been Jews in Palestine, even after their expulsion by the Romans in AD 41. They became a distinct minority following the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.  Israel’s twentieth century rebirth was a secular venture so as to be a haven for persecuted Jews. The British Government’s Balfour Declaration in 1917 was motivated by European anti - semitism. From then on and especially in the thirties with the rise of Nazism, pioneers settled in the then Palestine. The flood really followed post World War Two as holocaust survivors sort a home. This was followed by 700,000 forced out Jews who resided in Middle East Arab Muslim countries. About a 125,000 beleaguered Ethiopian and Yemen Jews were airlifted to safety.  A massive influx was from Russia when a million “Refuseniks” were finally let out of the collapsed USSR. Recently, following the anti semitic wave in France a 100,000 French were estimated to have emigrated. These additions were augmented by an uncertain number of Jews who have settled in the "Holy Land" for either religious or “patriotic” reasons. Currently nearly 6.5 million of Israel’s 8 million population are Jews, the rest being Palestinians and other minorities such as Beduins.

From a religious point of view the Jews claim that they have always prayed to return to Israel ever since the fall of the first Temple over 2000 years ago as reflected in Psalm 137 - “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion….. if I forget you Jerusalem may my right hand loose it’s skill… .   Since the Middle Ages the Passover has been celebrated with the statement, “Next year in Jerusalem”. 

THE JEWS IN THE AMERICAN DIASPORA

The most oft quoted argument posited trope against the diaspora Jews is that they have dual loyalty to their country of origin and Israel. This contention has been negated by the extensive involvement of Jews in their societies, where they have been allowed to participate. The USA with about 4 million Jews have the largest Diaspora population. The American Jewish community is well integrated in the society. There are two vying Jewish interest groups who focus on relationships with Israel - the highly influential older American Israel Public Affairs Group, (AIPAC), which accepts whatever policies the political party in power in Israel enunciates and the newer J Street which actively advocates a two party solution to the Palestinian dilemma and is generally more radical in approach. 

Politically, to date most Jews have been Democratic but a significant number, (30 percent), back the Republicans. Up until very recently there has been a bipartisan support for Israel which could be under threat as a result of the current Prime Minister Netanyahu openly backing the Republicans and having been involved in feuds with the last two Democratic Presidents, Clinton and Obama. Also several Jews argue that Trump has been unconditionally supportive of Israel and have used that as one of their arguments to back the Republicans. The largest contributor to the Republican midterm effort was Sheldon Adelson who till recently was Bibi Netanyahu’s most significant Diaspora backer.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Anti - semitism with its multifactorial genesis is still deeply ingrained in society and has manifested in various forms including genocide, for two millennia. The bias and discrimination against the nation state of Israel is a modern day phenomenon which finds its more extreme manifestation in Iran and its surrogates, Hezbollah and Hamas who have vowed to wipe the nation state of the face of the earth. The behavior of the nations at the UNO provide irrefutable data that the tiny state is being discriminated against and being labelled as the world number one rogue nation.

The irrational memes that a people that are widely diverse and represent 0.2 percent of the world population, namely that they are able to secretly control the planet with all their money and deviousness is still widely believed and disseminated. The converse of this fabrication is that the Jews are an inferior species and are often labelled, for example, as dogs, also still has currency. In spite of the fact that this two millennia old aberration is still indelibly ingrained in the psyche of large swaths of societies, meaningful attempts have been made to dispel this evil by individuals, groups and nations. The efforts by the Catholic Church and Muslim groups have made inroads on the religious fronts as well.

Criticism of Israel and its leaders do not constitute anti semitism. Jay H. Ell would go one step further and blame the present Prime Minister of Israel for fracturing the bipartisan support of the American legislature of Israel by his arrogance and megalomania thereby risking, his country’s relationship with its closest and most powerful ally.  His recent disgraceful coalition with a group that is regarded akin to a terrorist organization shows that he is as divisive within Israel as he is with Jews in the diaspora. 

None of what happens in Israel justifies the resurgence in the American House of representatives of the old anti semitic cry that Jews have dual loyalty. That is the crisp point not whether criticism of Israel policy is acceptable or not. 

TRUMP: COHEN ADVANCES THE MUELLER NARRATIVE

While Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America was on the other side of the planet lauding and declaring his love for his newest best friend, Kim Jong Un, who was in fact a cruel brutal dictator guilty of mass murder and public executions, the House Oversight Committee, was recalling that Trump had threatened their witness, Michael Cohen, and his family thereby imperiling their safety. Cohen was interspersing this public hearing between two closed door meetings with the Intelligence Committees of both the Senate and the House.

Trump was left impotent as his former sycophantic ‘fixer’ was now in a position to help bring him down  - a situation that his newest best friend would allegedly resolve simply by killing Cohen - a risk, according to Oversight Chairman Cummings that Cohen now faced, in prison, since Trump had tweeted that he was a "rat which in mob terms is code for a snitch. 

The central message from the House Oversight Committee’s hearing was the fact that Donald Trump’s dire legal jeopardy was increased by his former confidant and lawyer. Cohen’s evidence was yet another nail in the Trump coffin which Mueller is so carefully crafting with the assistance of the Southern New York Attorney General’s Office. Jay H. Ell believes that everything that Cohen revealed in the dramatic hearing can be corroborated by the Federal prosecutors. Cohen was obviously carefully prepped for his public appearance. 

Overhanging the Trump Presidency is still the fact that to this day he has never acknowledged the most fundamental issue of this whole sordid episode, namely that Russia attacked American democracy. The POTUS’S only emphatic statement on the subject is his backing of Putin’s “strong” denial of Russia’s culpability at their joint press conference, following his one on one meeting with the Russian Premier, in Helsinki. 

THE DRAMA SURROUNDING COHEN’S TESTIMONY

The juxtaposition of the Trump and Cohen encounters was not lost on the witness who reported that the POTUS had confessed to him that he had dodged the draft in the Vietnam war and, ironically he had now returned to that country via Airforce One. Nor could the fact that the media was covering Cohen wall to wall and not the President, the world’s most famous reality star, have passed unnoticed by Trump. He will be furious when he learns that every TV in the WhiteHouse was full blast on the Congress hearing where his Administration was learning of the strong case the prosecutors must have on Trump and his close family.  

Cohen’s compelling and convincing character assassination of his former Boss as a racist, conman and a cheat was characterized by his respectful answers, studied understatement and admissions of what he had no knowledge off, thereby lending credibility to his testimony. What underscored Cohen’s reliability was the fact that he had everything to lose if he lied, the consequence being that he could increase his prison sentence. 

What every observer noted was that no GOP legislator questioned that Trump was responsible for any of the alleged criminal and anti social actions rather they simply attacked, sometimes childishly, Cohen as a convicted liar. What the GOP Trump apologists forgot was that several of Cohen’s lies were at Trump’s behest. Their behavior stood in stark contrast to the Republicans in the bipartisan Watergate hearings which was epitomized by Howard Baker, the Senate Republican Minority leader, who summarized Nixon’s possible culpability in a phrase, “What did the President know and when did he know it”. 

The Republican assault was skillfully parried by an ashamed Cohen who accepted his guilt and the resultant punishment. He then offered the Republican Congressmen some gratuitous advice informing them that he did, for ten years, what they were doing, namely blindly defending Trump, and that the outcome if they continued would be that they would land in the same mess that he was now in.

COHEN'S TESTIMONY OF TRUMP'S COLLUSION, THEREBY ADVANCING THE MUELLER MANDATE

As Jay H. Ell argued in his last blog, (TRUMP: THE ANATOMY OF SAVING THE REPUBLIC), that Mueller is slowly but surely leaking his report. The latest release being what he allowed Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer” to relay to Congress. Ostensibly Cohen was not allowed to speak directly about the “Russian Investigation” but in fact he gave tantalizing evidence of Trump’s knowledge of “collusion” with Russia in addition to other crimes. 

Cohen’s public appearance followed his classified evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee, the day before, which obviously included “Russia”. Senator Warner, the ranking Democratic member, commented after the classified Cohen meeting, that two years ago he maintained that the Russian Investigation would be the most important issue he would ever have to deal with and this had now been confirmed. 

It is important to note that Cohen’s testimony followed the bombshell revelations of the former Deputy FBI Director, Andrew McCabe, in interviews and best seller book, The Threat McCabe crucially reported that Trump believed Russia’s Putin over his whole intelligence establishment. For those with short memories McCabe’s divulgements were preceded by the indictments of The Donald's long time associate Roger Stone. Mueller’s prosecutors told the court that they had evidence of Stone’s conspiring with Wikileaks and Julian Assange. 

THE LEGAL JEOPARDY FACING TRUMP FOLLOWING THE COHEN TESTIMONY

Besides providing evidence that Trump Inc was a criminal enterprise similar to a Mob endeavor, there was verifiable evidence, backed by documents submitted by Cohen to the Committee as exhibits, that there was tax, insurance and bank fraud. Cohen also referenced that there were ongoing criminal investigations into Trump and his organization by the Southern District of New York Federal Office. Then there was incontrovertible evidence that Trump was guilty, as alleged, for campaign finance violations as outlined  in Cohen’s guilty plea and that he had instructed his former lawyer. Moreover Cohen provided documentary evidence of a cover up of this crime.

Then there was statements off suborning of perjury, (persuading a witness to lie), with regard to one of the possible motives for Trump’s alleged conspiracy with Russia. Cohen confessed that he had lied to the Senate Committee at Trump’s behest. The lies that he had pled guilty to in an indictment where the Prosecutors had implicated Trump as a "co - conspirator".  

Cohen disclosed that the negotiations with regard to the Moscow Trump Tower had concluded well after the nomination of The Donald as the Republican Presidential candidate, which was the narrative that Trump had publicly punted. Most disconcerting was the fact that Trump lawyers had edited Cohen’s statement to the Senate investigating committee in regard to the Moscow Trump Tower endeavor. This was one of the crimes that Cohen was going to jail for. Cohen alluded to six meetings he had with candidate Trump with regard to the progress of the Moscow Trump Tower project while Trump was ranting at his Nuremberg style rallies that he had no ongoing business with Russia.

Cohen confirmed the extensive relationship of Trump with a Felix Sater, a shady character with links to the Russian mafia. Trump had previously stated, under oath, that he wouldn’t even recognize Mr. Sater if he was sitting in the same room as him. The former Trump lawyer confirmed that Sater had an office next to Trump’s in the New York Trump Tower. It is on the record that Sater partnered Trump in a Trump Tower enterprise in Soho. He was also the go to man in the Moscow endeavor directly negotiating with the Putin administration and Russian banks. Sater was on record that the Moscow deal would get Trump elected President!.  He had business cards which indicated that he was a Senior Advisor to the Trump Organization. He was negotiating up until till the Presidential election. The significance of the Sater references, besides providing more evidence that Mr. Trump was a liar was establishing the Moscow Tower proposal as one of the possible motives for Trump’s alleged Russian “collusion”. 

Then there was the persuasive narrative that if proven would show that Trump was part of the Russian conspiracy against the USA. The former Consiglieri detailed a phone call from Roger Stone, who Trump put on speaker, where his long time confidant informed him that the Wikileaks founder had imparted to him when the dump of damaging Hillary Clinton’s e mails would take place. Trump had acknowledged the message with glee.

Less conclusive was Cohen’s connecting an overheard statement, by Donald Junior to the POTUS, on June 26, prior to the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. Donald Junior had loudly whispered to his father that, the now infamous, meeting would take place. Although the date and circumstances of the confab between father and son were highly suspicious it is more than stretch to claim that was confirmative of a conspiracy with the Russians. The statement by Cohen that nothing happened within Trump’s orbit that Trump didn’t control may well be true but that doesn’t prove that he was fully apprized of the meeting with Russian operatives to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Steve Bannon’s contention that there is no way that Donald Jnr. would not have colluded with his father on the treasonous meeting again is not going to persuade any jury that Trump Snr was implicated. However Jay H. Ell is more than convinced that there is other more substantial corroborative evidence of Cohen’s allegations. He believes that Cohen would have not have alluded to the event if Mueller did not have other ancillary affirmation that that Trump had afore knowledge. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

There are a lot more shoes to drop in the criminal enterprise that represents Donald J. Trump Inc as well as his and his campaign’s involvement in conspiring with Russia against the USA. It still dosen't register with the POTUS what havoc the Democratic controlled Congress can wreek with their oversight hearings.

Watch this space as day by day the noose tightens around the POTUS. Some of the probes will be ongoing and will continue long past Trump is out of office.

Nothing Cohen said in the hearing will convince Trump’s base to abandon him. There needs to be more revelations in public that he and his campaign conspired with Russia. The irresponsible GOP legislators sticking with the POTUS reassure the faithful that these allegations, however well corroborated, are just part of the Dark State conspiracy against the President and that there is “no collusion”.

There will be a big fanfare as Trump hails his abortive summit in North Korea as a victory as he will the ultimate trade deal with China, whatever it turns about to be. 

What will begin to bite into the faithful’s unconditional loyalty will be the realization that his tax breaks to the rich didn’t include them as their refunds from the Internal Revenue Service don’t match last year’s. The Midwest that gave him his narrow victory have already flipped in the midterms when the factories never returned and the mines didn’t reopen. 

Trump is hanging in there in the hope that he cannot be impeached while the Republicans blindly back him and in the belief that he cannot be indicted while in office and that will last through a second term which still could happen if the Democrats put up someone who is totally unelectable. He will argue the principle better the devil you know…….

TRUMP: THE ANATOMY OF SAVING THE REPUBLIC

As more and more of the Russian scandal evolves a number of key factors have emerged: 

Before even the 45th President’s inauguration there was flat panic, fully justified in retrospect, in Obama’s WhiteHouse, the FBI and the Justice Department that sustained attempts would be made to sweep the attack by Russia on American Democracy under the table. Representatives of all the aforementioned constituencies took emergency measures to see that what had been learned thus far would be recorded and available for prosperity; 

From the word go Trump recognized the threat the investigation posed to him and responded on two levels - on the one hand, politically to mercilessly attack the probe as the workings of the “dark state” and on the other to do all in his power to stop it; 

Through a succession of indictments, cooperating witnesses, books by journalists and insiders and most recently former Deputy FBI Director McCabe, fortuitous leaks to the media from insiders all covered extensively with investigation and comment by the media - the Special Counsel Bob Mueller was seen to have painstakingly revealed a pattern that there was a systemized pattern of “collusion” between the Trump Campaign and Russia. In the process there was evidence of Trump's blatant obstruction of justice and felony charges relating to election finance.

With the Court Cases well on their way - with some terminated and investigations into Trump’s Inaugural Committee and Business’s continuing, oversight of the Trump Criminal Enterprise just beginning in the House of Representatives with his Consiglieri Michael Cohen about to give open testimony, all that remains is the final act - to show that Trump knew about all the “collusion” and that there was a quid pro relationship between Russia and him. 

As yet Mueller has not revealed his trump card - Richard Gates, the Deputy Campaign Director of Trump’s campaign, who probably knows even more than Paul Manafort as he remained in the Campaign after the latter had left. Maybe Gates will not be charged and what he has to detail will be in the report. Maybe there will be indictments of the President in the Southern New York Federal Office, who might not feel restrained by “Justice Department Policy” not to indict a sitting President or by the State of New York Attorney General which is totally independent of Trump and the Federal apparatus.

One fact America can take to the bank is that the report and its findings will eventually see the light of day by one means or another. Throughout, these brave public servants, who have born abuse, threats and financial deprivation have sought to uncover the most serious threat to the integrity of the American democracy since the Cold War. If they, from the word go, went to extraordinary lengths to keep a secret record there is little doubt that they have taken contingency plans to protect their subsequent crucial work. 

Finally, there is speculation as to why Mueller is winding up his probe just as a new Attorney General has been ratified by Congress. There are some that posit that Attorney General Barr has terminated the probe. That is highly unlikely given his public assurances, under oath, that he wouldn’t. The danger with Barr is that he wouldn’t guarantee that he would reveal all of Mueller’s findings. Whatever the fears related to Trump’s Attorney General appointee, Mueller, Jay H. Ell believes, was taking no chances and is working at break neck speed to conclude his mission. He knows that it can be subpoenaed by Congress as was Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski’s report was and that it is too late for Trump to put his hand in the dyke .  

THE REVELATIONS CONTINUE AND THE PROBE CONSOLIDATES THE CONSPIRACY

It is obvious that Mueller knows far more than he reveals in public. This is part of his strength. He has informants right front and center to Trump himself - Michael Flynn, Richard Gates, and Michael Cohen. Added to that he has Richard Pecker of the National Enquirer and Alan Wiesellberg, the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Advisor. Manafort cooperated till he realized that he would be corroborating the conclusive proof of a conspiracy and cried “uncle”. With all that and all the intelligence and counter intelligence information including from other countries to help fill in the blanks Mueller and his team must already have all the answers. Nevertheless it does not take a genius to look at the bricks he has laid out already to build a wall that represents “conspiracy”.

The New York Times ran a detailed article on the prima facie case against Trump for Obstruction of Justice once again reminding all of the humiliation, intimidation , massive stress and pressure Trump placed on those who were attempting to investigate the Russian act of war. A new shock allegation was that the POTUS instructed his Acting Attorney General Whitaker to change the prosecutor to his choice in the Cohen case, a former legal partner of his TV lawyer, Rudi Giuliani. 

The Washington Post stated that Mueller had produced three hundred pages of a report in dribs and drabs. This he did with indictments, court documents, plea agreements and sentencing recommendations, letting the country know step by step as he built up the case that Russia hacked and intervened in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton and that members of his campaign had met with Russians. From the get go Mueller, on February 18, 2018 indicted Russian internet agencies and some of their employees for "conspiring to defraud the US". He followed that up on July 18 indicted 12 Russian Agents working for the KGB successor organization GRU for inter alia “Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the USA”. At this stage he had already indicted George Papadopolous, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Richard Pinedo and Alex van Der Swann. Most significantly on July 13, he indicted Constantin Kilimnik, a Russian oligarch as an alleged GRU agent for “Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the USA”.

Then on September 14 Michael Cohen was indicted for false statements to Congress and the same date he indicted Paul Manafort for “Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the USA”.

The latest indictment to close the circle came on January 25, 2019 when Roger Stone, life long confidant and advisor to Trump and former partner of Manafort was charged for making false statements and obstruction of justice. 

So Mueller has vast evidence of the Russian hacking, of at least two major meetings where Trump campaign agents met with the Russians  - The Trump Tower Meeting and a meeting in a cigar club where Manafort, Constantin Kilimnik, (who is in constant communication with oligarch Deripaska who is close to Vladmir Putin), and Rick Gates. Now he brings to public view that Trump’s “Russia are You Listening” may not be so innocent as Trump pretended. 

Trump's long time confidant, Roger Stone, is alleged to be the contact between Russian hackers and Wikileaks, Lest this just be conjecture Stone bragged about this in public while Trump forecast “major revelations” in anticipation, it is alleged, of a Wikileaks dump. The cherry on the top is that corroborated Cohen evidence points to ongoing negotiations of the venture of a Trump Tower in Moscow. Gates has got to be able to provide what is already publicly surmised that the changing of the Republican Platform on Russian sanctions came from Trump himself.

BACKGROUND TO THIS ALL

The Steele Document which was the earliest uncorroborated evidence of Trump’s Russian involvement has thus far not been negated. The media revelations of the meetings of Trump Campaign members with Russians and most damningly Trump’s own actions and sayings himself provide a pretty strong case against his own cry on “no collusion”. 

Scariest to anyone with insight as to how these investigations work is that they don’t bring in “targets”. In that vein none of Trump’s children or his son in law Jared Kushner have been questioned by the Special Counsel. It is no secret that Mueller has conducted his investigation akin to the procedure followed in a mob cleanup - working his way from bottom to top and collecting plea deals. Andrew McCabe on one of his interviews on his devastating revelations in “The Threat - How The FBI Protects America In The Age Of Terror and Trump”, stated that he has never known of a situation where the Mob Boss didn’t have knowledge of the actions of his underlings. 

Lest anyone forget American Intelligence has been investigating the Russian involvement since at least the middle of the Trump campaign. When Trump fired Comey they already had enough information to believe that his decision warranted opening a counter intelligence investigation into whether Trump was a witting or unwitting asset of a major foreign adversary.

What was particularly revealing by Andrew McCabe was the fact that he had briefed the majority and minority leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the heads of Intelligence Committees of both parties as to the investigations taking place. This had to include the counter investigation into whether Trump was a Russian asset. The Intelligence teams including the CIA also gave the politicians all the classified information as to the Russian interference in favor of Trump. In spite of this, the Republican legislators have continued, unabashed, backing up Trump’s assertion that he was a victim of “The Dark State” and the rogue FBI all orchestrated by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.

WHAT NOW?

The Democratic House are going to fill in all the blanks and they need to investigate publicly. The Watergate committees in their hearings in the Senate and the House educated the voters to Nixon’s skulduggery. Most of what has gone on to date has been behind closed doors, in plea deals and redacted court proceedings. 

One way or another the Mueller report will see daylight. The champions of democracy in the Department of Justice have not withstood all this harassment to allow their efforts not to achieve what they set out to do - save the Republic. 

The Republican legislators to date have been a disgrace. They seemed to have buried their consciences at McCain’s funeral. Incidentally, the latter must have known that his former buddy Lindsey Graham was about to sell his soul - what else can explain why he didn’t include him to eulogize their relationship at his funeral. Did Romney really resuscitate his political career to become voting fodder for Trump and his lickspittle Mitch McConnell? The latter’s infamy is already sealed in history. If this sad pathetic lot need reminding the Senate Committee on Watergate unanimously referred the whole matter to the House to investigate the impeachment of Richard Nixon. The bipartisan Senate investigative activities lead to the indictment of 40 members of Nixon’s Administration and those involved in the Watergate burglary and conspiracy. 

The 16 investigations into Trump and his activities continue as Trump's tweets from the bunker inbetween receiving "advice" from Vladmir Putin.

When the history of this sickening episode is written it will be the fearless American institutions that saved the day - the FBI, Intelligence Agencies, the Media and the Judiciary, (with the verdict still out on the Supreme Court).