RUSSIA HOAX, EPSTEIN—WILL ANYONE PAY A PRICE?

          It is times like this that I start watching the networks and the New York Times and similar outlets, and I can tell you the official story of the Trump-haters or the deep-staters or whatever you want to call them.  The Epstein files buried in the FBI have incriminating evidence (probably videos) of Trump sodomizing 12-year-old girls.  That is why he can’t release the Epstein files, you see.  It is also why he had Tulsi Gabbard come up with the criminal referral of Obama and cronies for hatching the Russia collusion yarn, complete with the whores pissing on Obama’s former bed in Moscow.  The purpose of the Tulsi document-dump was to DISTRACT all of us from the Trump-sodomizing-12-year-olds story.

 

         The real story is nothing like that.  It’s a story of documents.  That’s all Tulsi Gabbard ever did---release a pile of documents (some previously classified), that prove: 1) Putin didn’t really want Trump to win the 2016 election, 2) the Russians didn’t hack the election or affect the results in any significant way, 3) Putin probably wanted Hillary to win, 4) there was never any cooperation between Trump and Putin, and 5) Obama wanted to render Trump’s presidency a failure by spreading the idea that the 2016 election was somehow illegitimate.

 

         It’s all in the documents.  It doesn’t matter what people’s opinions about the documents are, it doesn’t matter what Marco Rubio thought, it doesn’t matter what Putin (that renowned truth-teller), said years later about who he wanted to win the election, and it doesn’t matter how outraged Obama claims to be by these “ridiculous” charges.  The only thing that matters is what the documents say.

 

         That is why it’s revealing that the networks and the NYT do not discuss the documents.  Never.  The real story has been almost completely ignored, but when it has been discussed at all, the commentary has centered on what the Obama camp says about it or what Brennan or Clapper say about it.  Almost nothing has been broadcast or published about the documents.

 

         I’ve read the documents.  You should too.  To those of us who have followed the Russia collusion story since 2016, it has always been an obvious fabrication, but one which was largely believed because the Democrats and their partners in the media pushed it every day for years.  It turned the 2018 mid-term elections and made Trump virtually powerless for the last half of his first term as president.  In 2019, even after Robert Mueller reported that there was no truth to the Russia collusion story, polls reported that half the country (including 78% of Democrats), believed the Trump election was bogus because of Russia’s secret meddling and Trump’s cooperation.

 

         If you read the documents that have been released, you will see that what happened is exactly what Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe have described.  In late 2016, following Trump’s win, the story of the Russians hacking Democratic computers was falling apart, as was the tale of Russian dirty tricks designed to elect Trump.  Also, the Steele Dossier, which Hillary had paid for, was thoroughly discredited.

 

         In early December, 2016, Obama convened the troops (Brennan, Clapper, Loretta Lynch, Susan Rice, and a dozen others).  At this meeting, Obama directed that an Intelligence Community Assessment (an “ICA”) be prepared summarizing Russian activities involving the 2016 election. The result was the ICA dated January 7, 2017, which referenced all the notes and rumors and speculation and the Steele Dossier, that had already been discarded a month before.  This is what would be used to undermine the incoming Trump administration.

 

         All I’ve described thus far is the easy part.  It’s all in the documents.  What comes next, though, is the troubling part.  What must be done, and what every other president would do is pursue the criminals behind this conspiracy and have them indicted and tried.  My concern is that Trump will not allow justice to take its course, and that he will stop the prosecution of Clapper, Brennan, Comey and Obama for their crimes against the United States. If he does not allow these crimes to be pursued, I am concerned his MAGA supporters will desert him and his presidency will, effectively, be over.

 

         Trump has the reputation and image of a raging bull, wreaking havoc with his enemies, devastating the opposition, and then dancing on their remains.  He likes that image, but it’s not true.  His entire history demonstrates that while he thrives on conflict, he hates finality.  He is never happier than when he is in the middle of a lengthy pissing match, but the actual resolution of the battle, even if he prevails, brings him no pleasure.  He likes the “deal” and making the deal, and then reworking the deal and adjusting the terms.  He thinks he is good at that process, and he is, so that’s what he does.

 

         Also, he apparently dislikes direct confrontation.  That is why when he fires someone (other than on a TV show), it generally happens when they are in the middle of a 12-hour flight to Pakistan.

 

         His final quirk is that he is something of an arriviste, a man insecure in his sense of self-worth because his wealth or social status has only recently been acquired.  Trump wants to be liked by the important people and institutions in America.  This desire of his never seems to fade even though it is obvious to the rest of us that many of those people and institutions will never like him.  They hate him, in fact.  Nevertheless, he will not crush them even when they should be crushed, and he has the power to do so.

 

         The prime example is Hillary Clinton.  In his first campaign, he led chants of “Lock her up!” at his rallies, and his supporters fully expected him to have her prosecuted.  And with her destruction of subpoenaed evidence, her responsibility for the fraudulent Steele Dossier, her criminally negligent treatment of classified information, the bribes accepted by The Clinton Foundation when she was Secretary of State, and her almost-certain responsibility for the American deaths at Bengazi, there was no lack of serious criminality to be pursued.

 

         But Trump wouldn’t do it.  His supporters grumbled.  It was a promise broken by Trump.  It was a serious disappointment to the MAGA faithful that Trump wouldn’t follow through on his promise to provide accountability for the crimes that had been committed by Democrats against the American republic, and even against Trump himself.

 

         And now there is a danger he’s making the same mistake again.

 

         Trump’s sudden refusal to produce Epstein-related materials held by the FBI is the latest example.  There are men Trump considers “important” (e.g., Clinton, Gates, Dershowitz, and many others) who would be embarrassed by publication of details about how many times they flew on Epstein’s airplane or went to Pedophile Island, and Trump does not wish to be the cause of any such unpleasantness for men as significant as himself.  A ridiculous attitude, I grant you, but he views himself as being a member of a sort-of imaginary country club that includes all the “big men” in the world who make a difference and change history, etc.  It’s why he won’t let the ayatollah be killed.  It’s why he treats Putin like a rational world leader rather than like the psycho he is.

 

         For Trump-haters, of course, the only possible explanation for Trump’s decision to shut down the release of Epstein materials is that he is protecting himself, but there is virtually zero chance that is his motive.  If there were any photos of Trump with young girls or other materials that would actually incriminate him in some way, they would certainly have been leaked years ago.  The Democrats have always been willing to tell the most outrageous lies about Trump, so why wouldn’t they have published something truthful, especially in the last four years, that would have destroyed his path to the presidency?

 

         I fear he will feel the same way about the criminal referrals to the DOJ about the Russia hoax, even though he personally was the primary victim of the criminal conspiracy launched in the December 2016 meeting and the ICA of January 7, 2017.  He has already spared Hillary once.  He likes the Clintons.  He thinks Obama is his friend.  Possibly the warmth of his feelings do not extend to Comey and Clapper and Brennan, who were underlings, but Trump gets nothing out of putting snakes like them in prison.  Prison is final.  A criminal conviction is final.  And Trump doesn’t like final.  He wants them out there, writing op-eds in the New York Times so Trump can trash them in a press conference the next day.  It’s all the art of the deal, you see.  He just wants the war over the Russia collusion hoax to continue, indefinitely.  It’s like the tariffs.  There will always be another 5% tax on German steel about to be imposed, but then he will delay the effective date for a week so we can discuss it further.  And then he will threaten 10%.  It’s how he thinks.

 

         His attitude about the criminal prosecutions involving Russia collusion and the Epstein files endanger his administration.  He does not see how important criminal accountability is to his MAGA supporters.

 

         There are many reasons the first Trump administration petered out and became ineffective in 2018, but two of them involved Trump’s failure to carry through on promises he had made.  One was his promise to build a border wall, which he actually attempted, then faced enormous (but predictable) pushback, and then abandoned.  The second was his repeated vow to have Hillary prosecuted for the crimes she had committed during the Obama administration.  Trump decided on his own to drop that initiative.

 

         For a reformer and a game-changer like Trump, success only comes by fulfilling your promises or at least pursuing them relentlessly.  For most standard-brand politicians like Obama and the Bushes and Bill Clinton, promises don’t matter that much.  But if you say “I’m different!  I will actually do X and Y and Z,” and people who never voted before come out of the hills and hollows to elect you, you have to do what you promised or they go back into the hills and hollows and you never see them again. 

 

         Trump has been given a second chance, and his first six months in office have been a startling political success story, but the people who put Trump in office believe that bad guys in suits should go to jail.  Trump does not agree, but he will have to bend on this point or his presidency may crumble.

 

Copyright2025MichaelKubacki                    

 

NO KINGS. GO FISH.

          Yesterday, June 14, was Donald Trump’s 79^th birthday and the occasion of a large military parade in D.C. to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Army.  It was also the day of “No Kings” demonstrations, which were called that because the demonstrators believe there is a danger Trump will make himself king of America.  They think that even though everything he tries to do as president gets instantly shut down by an injunction from a federal judge somewhere who voted for Kamala Harris.

 

         I went to the No Kings gathering in downtown Philadelphia for many reasons.  For me, it was easy to get to, and free, and I was curious about the signs, the people, the cops, and the different political cults who would attend.  Also, I knew that the newspapers and TV stations in Philly would never actually perform any journalism on the event so if I wanted to know what was happening, I would have to find out for myself.  This is increasingly a problem in a place like Philadelphia, which has been run entirely by Democrats since 1952.   Newspapers used to report news with a far-left spin to it.  Now you often get only the spin and the propaganda, and you can only guess what the underlying facts are.

 

         Even though the weather was a bit iffy, I knew there would be a huge crowd, which added to the appeal.  Two days before, the Soros-backed District Attorney Larry Krassner and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel held a press conference to say they understood that the protesters in Philly would be just like those who marched for Martin Luther King in the 1960s, so nobody would be arrested.  These assurances were largely unnecessary since we all remember the George Floyd riots in 2020 when the city suffered tens of millions of dollars in damage and looting (and dozens of police injuries), with only a few arrests and no serious prosecutions.  In fact, the city later agreed to pay protesters $9.5 million because the police used tear-gas on people who took over an interstate highway in town and stopped traffic. 

 

         The gathering point was Love Park in the heart of downtown, and my arrival at 11:30 gave me a solid hour to wade through the crowds, photograph signs and tee-shirts and costumes and flags before the march up the Ben Franklin Parkway.  The march would end at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the speeches would happen.  I had no interest in marching or the speeches.

 

         The signs and tee-shirts were predictable but there were a lot of them.  Many dealt with immigration and due process rights and ICE:

 

·       “ICE IS BEST WHEN CRUSHED” 

 

·       “Due Process Is A Right!  Doo-doo Process Is All Wrong!” (with picture of a dog pooping)

 

·       “We Are All Immigrants”

 

·       “On Stolen Land, We are All Illegals.

 

         Probably a majority mocked Trump in some way or echoed the No Kings theme:

 

·       “Only Butterflies Should Be Monarchs!”

 

·       “Trump Is A Cunt.”

 

·       Picture of Trump with a pig nose.

 

·       “ABORT UNWANTED PRESIDENCIES”

 

         Then there were a few oddballs, like the guy in the Alexander Hamilton costume with a Guy Fawkes mask, or the gentleman wearing a FUCK LANDLORDS shirt or the woman carrying an “Obama 2028” sign.

 

         The only group physically separated from the rest of the demonstrators was the crowd in the street at 15^th and Arch and not actually in LOVE PARK.  These were the pro-Hamas people carrying huge Palestinian flags and manufactured signs, along with Jewish Voice For Peace, Code Pink, the AnswerCoaltion, and other miscellaneous Jew-haters.  Almost everyone here was wearing a mask or a keffiyeh to conceal their identity.  Because of Israel’s recent attack on Iran’s leadership and nuclear program, I had wondered whether there would be any pro-Iran signs at the rally, and yes, there were a few in the pro-Palestine squad, which may have numbered a hundred people or so.

 

         The mood elsewhere at NO KINGS was festive and fun, with lots of laughter and people greeting old friends and taking pictures of each other.  But the Jew-haters at 15^th and Arch?  Not so much.  They just chanted and waved their flags in a somber and disciplined fashion.  Nobody was taking photos of them, and I had a sense it might not be wise to do so.   I kept my phone in my pocket. 

 

         At 12:30, the march began.  I positioned myself on the sidewalk at 16^th and Arch streets, at the very beginning of the Parkway, so I could watch the entire crowd walk past me, and I stood there for the next thirty-five minutes.  The police estimate issued later that day was 80,000, which seemed a little high to me but what do I know?  Still, I’d guess at least fifty thousand walked past me.

 

         (There may be some methodology to the estimation of crowd sizes but I doubt it’s a terribly exact science.  Maybe if you spend an hour with an aerial photograph and a magnifying glass, you might get close to a realistic number, but I suspect that doesn’t happen very often.  Usually, you get a police captain looking out at the scene and he says, “40,000” or “200,000” or some other round number.  You never get an official estimate of 73,400, which leads me to believe it’s just some guy picking a number out of the air.)

 

         Anyway, my estimate was 50K+, and I’m sticking with it.

 

         But while I’m uncertain about the total number, I can share some observations about the demographics, because that was my primary interest.  I didn’t care so much about the sheer numbers as I did about who these people were who went to the trouble of going downtown and spending several hours of their Saturday expressing their disdain or dislike or hatred for Trump and his administration.

 

         And the demographics were startling and stark, for me at least.  We basically know who voted for Kamala in 2024, and they were there in downtown Philly on Saturday.  Republicans pondering future elections in 2026 and 2028 would have to be pleased by who was on the streets because there was no hint that the core Trump-haters (who are still legion, of course), are growing in numbers at all.  The people on the streets were extremist segments of increasingly marginalized groups.  What I saw were practically caricatures of the elitist elderly white liberals that Republicans do not fear electorally.

 

         You want cat ladies?  We had cat ladies.  Women were clearly the majority of the group and they tended to be older.  There were certainly young people, of college age and under 30, and they were displaying some of the more radical and obscene sentiments, but those in their 30s, 40s and 50s were much harder to find.  The blue-hairs were everywhere.

 

         As for men, they were quite a bit less numerous.  For one thing, I don’t remember seeing a “bunch of guys” together (except in the pro-Hamas squad), while the women were frequently in groups of 3 or 4 or 5 girlfriends.  The men tended to be accompanied only by a wife or girlfriend, or solo.

 

         By far the most shocking observation for me was the almost-complete absence of black people.  This is the largest ethnic group in the city.  They comprise 40% of the population, and there are estimated to be 615,000 of them living in the city limits.

 

         I counted them.  As I stood on the sidewalk for 35 minutes and watched 50,000 people walk by, I counted 63 black people.  Maybe I missed a few.  Maybe there were 80.  There were NOT a hundred.

 

         There are more black people at Neil Diamond concerts.  There are more black people in Latvia.  There are more black people at Klan rallies.

 

         I counted black faces, of course, because one of the big stories of the 2024 presidential election was the inroads Trump made into the black electorate.  George Bush in 2000 won 10% of the black vote in America, and that was considered a great result for Republicans at the time.  In 2024, Trump secured 20% of that demographic, and his success there is viewed as a big reason for his victory.

 

         It is axiomatic among strategists in both parties that a Democrat cannot be elected president unless he or she brings in at least 90% of the black vote.   It has only been eight months since the 2024 election, but my conclusion from the anti-Trump rally on Saturday is that the Democrats have made ZERO progress in rebuilding the sorts of coalitions they will need to claw their way back into power.

 

         June 14, 2025 was a day of triumph for Republicans.

 

Copyright2025MichaelKubacki