Donald Trump, his family, and his entire merry band of

[MineralMan]

miscreants are beginning to learn what happens when one moves into the public political sector. Once you do that, you expose yourself to a microscopic inspection of every detail of your lives. It starts with the media and can shift into law enforcement territory. Things you have done that would have escaped scrutiny in the business world suddenly become of great interest to one and all.

If the underbelly of your operations is caked with muck and excrement from being dragged through untold swamps and garbage pits, all of that will be fodder for the investigators, who now have unlimited access to your every action and subterfuge. Your illegal doings, fraudulent activities and supposedly hidden communications will now see the light of day.

This is why crooks and blackguards should never seek political office. As long as they avoid public scrutiny, they can often carry on with impunity. But, as soon as they are elected by the people, interest in them increases and investigations begin apace, both official and unofficial. Everything will be turned over and what's underneath will be analyzed.

It was not a good idea, Mr. Trump, to run for President and win. Not a good idea at all. Now, everyone around you is subject to close inspection and examination. Some, who you thought were loyal to you, may not be as stalwart as you believed. Once your carefully knitted story begins to unravel, the truth will eventually emerge. Prepare yourself, Donald, to be fully exposed. Fear is appropriate at this time.

[PearliePoo2]

1. Excellent writing and analysis as usual.

I always look forward to reading your posts.

K&R

[MineralMan]

2. Thank you so much!

[ailsagirl]

61. Ditto here!!

[apcalc]

3. Excellent post.

Also, hope this episode forever puts to rest the idea that businessmen are suited to run the government.

[MineralMan]

4. Thanks.

[Scarsdale]

5. Barf!

tRump "fully exposed" What a ghastly sight THAT will be. One thing he has going for him, is that he ran as (R) they protect their own miscreants. Only democratic pols. are "corrupt" in the gop view. There just may be too much to cover up this time, though.

[Mme. Defarge]

6. Thanks!

I needed that. K&R!!!

[MineralMan]

7. You're more than welcome!

[luvMIdog]

8. Most excellent commentary!

[SHRED]

9. On some level I am glad he did

Now he will be exposed for the fraud he is.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes, but in the process he will cause great harm.

I'm not sure it's worth it, really. I wish we had President Clinton in the White House, very frankly.

[SHRED]

12. agreed

100%

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. They are such amateurs they were clueless about the whole thing.

Including Kushner and his partners in the tRump gang being naive and clueless about contacts with Russians, thinking that the Intell community would not notice (if they even thought that far). Certainly by time the transition started there was enough news around for them to know that the IC had noticed. So then he thought he could outwit them at their own game.

Naive, clueless, amateur, stupid, and arrogant about their ignorance.

[MineralMan]

14. Yes. Politics is a specialized sort of thing.

Really, a person should have spent a good deal of time involved in it and have learned how it all works before seeking high office. It's no place for amateurs.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Yes, we usually don't like most politicians, but we respect the professionalism of many of them. .nt

[MineralMan]

20. Exactly.

[Volaris]

84. Yep. I would grant that I expect most of the politicians I vote for to lie to me

The Low Bar is that at least they're competent at it...and Donald and his Crew can't even manage that. I can't imagine how much MORE pissed at him I would be if I HAD voted for him...

[erronis]

50. But they all felt that the Russki's would tell them how to operate without raising flags

The pute-in-charge (ex USSR KGB agent) knows how to get things done.

His mission was to direct the most unintelligent US citizens, the most unscrupulous politicians, and the most venal consultants into doing his will. A bit of money here, a bit of blackmail there. Having smart internet-savvy operatives available to stick it to the soft underbelly of the western networks really helps.

So the targets were the under-educated and gullible right-wingers, the repuglican party, and the louses (whoops, lice) that infect any warm body.

Kushner was greedy and desperate for more cash. As was his stupid FIL. Maybe the Chinese would have (or have already) coughed up a bit. But pute was friendly, even evoking admiration from the crook-in-chief. The Chinese are probably more open in the quid-pro-quo world.

A totally off-tangent subject: If the trumpian empire comes crashing down and hard, who does it take with it?

[SunSeeker]

13. I hope they all end up in jail. ALL of them.

Miscreants and traitors.

[MineralMan]

15. Well, some may. Not all, though.

Sadly, it's likely that pardons will be issued. That's the sad reality of this sort of thing.

[SunSeeker]

32. They can't be pardoned for state law crimes.

And the NY, OR and CA state AGs are not letting this go.

[MineralMan]

34. We're going to have to wait and see how it all plays out.

All of this is going to take time. Unless, of course, Trump decides to resign, which would be his best move, really.

[SunSeeker]

52. Yes, he should join the Quita from Wasila into ignominy. nt

[packman]

17. Agree 100% - I remember that deer in the headlight look

Donald had on the night he won the election. He had that stunned look on his face. I do believe he thought hecould con, lie, and bully his way through the Presidency.

[MineralMan]

19. I actually think that Donald Trump is incapable of

understanding what he has gotten himself into. It's completely beyond his competence and he won't listen to anyone, so he may flail himself to death trying to wriggle out of the situation.

[heaven05]

18. excellent

[MineralMan]

21. Thanks for your kind words.

[PatSeg]

22. You summed it up nicely

If they had been better informed and educated, they would have realized what they were getting into. Just watching a few seasons of the West Wing alone would have prepared them better or at least deterred them from this folly.

[MineralMan]

25. Thanks. Politics is its own thing, and is unlike

other professions, really. I don't believe that anyone who has not had a career in politics is capable of being an effective President. We're seeing evidence of that right now, for sure.

[PatSeg]

29. And there is the ignorance of people

who voted for him because he wasn't a politician. Evidently they also do not know how government works. The whole idea of running a country like a business is ludicrous, but some people have to learn the hard way.

[MineralMan]

31. Yes. People elected a bunch of teabagger Republicans

to Congress, only to find out that those people don't really like Republicans, either. There's an entire contingent in Congress of people who are not politicians and who have no idea how to be part of a legislative body. The GOP is, as they say, "hoist by its own petard."

The Republicans have been very ineffectual in Congress for some time, due to that influx of "ordinary people" from the teabagger wing.

[PatSeg]

49. Yep, I can picture those "ordinary people"

one day saying, "maybe I should run for congress". Some of them were people who couldn't make a living doing anything else, as there isn't much of a call for carnival barkers these days.

[Initech]

23. The republicans wanted their precious fucking Washington outsider.

They got one, and it has been a complete disaster. May it lead to their demise!

[MineralMan]

26. Interestingly enough, there are many political outsiders

in Congress from the Republican Party, as well. That's one of the reasons the Republicans have been unable to really accomplish anything, despite having majorities in both houses.

Politics is hard. It really is.

[Texin]

44. Unfortunately, it could lead to the demise of civilization as we know it.

[bucolic_frolic]

24. I'm thinking this whole bunch

most resembles the Teapot Dome scandal, another instance of
trying to steal public assets

This bunch casts a wider net though, going after public benefits,
social programs, infrastructure, and anything the federal government
does.

[MineralMan]

27. What is going on now seems like the Republicans trying

to achieve some sort of wet dream they had as teenagers. They don't understand the consequences of what they want to do, and are acting in the belief that some sort of fantasy world actually exists.

[mdbl]

28. They think the real fake news, such as Fux and Limbutt and their minions will carry them through

I hope they are wrong, but I have seen this happen for 35 years now.

[MineralMan]

30. I think it's gone way beyond that now.

Fox News is in real ratings trouble. Limbaugh no longer matters in any way. This has overflowed any possibility of containment.

[mdbl]

33. I hope you're right but

I'm not holding my breath. I never thought it could get as bad as the GW Bush administration, but it has. It seems repugicans escalate their behavior so outrageously that people will accept how it was 10 years ago as normal, which it certainly wasn't.

[Maynar]

68. So glad I lived long eoough to see this.

But alas, what have they wrought? With so many years to preach their hate, the result could be irreversible.

Certainly I hope otherwise.

[Wounded Bear]

35. I hope you are right, MM...

We are undergoing a test or our institutions. I really hope they are strong enough to rip the scab off of Trump and the Repub Party for all to see.

I suspect that Trump and his Repub supporters thought that they had corrupted the system enough to install the permanent Repub "majority" they have been trying to implement for decades. They have gone pretty much full authoritarian IMHO.

No matter the outcome, it is going to suck. I only hope there is no Pres Ford to issue pardons to the miscreants for "the good of the country." This time, we need people doing perpwalks.

[MineralMan]

39. I hope so, too.

I really can't predict how this will go or how it will end, really. Too many variables. We may be in for a big setback. I hope not, though. I hope, instead, that we see the folly of our recent mistakes and change our behavior as a population. I just don't know, though.

I'm wishing us all the best of luck.

[Enoki33]

36. Thanks. You have expressed what the rule of law is and should be about. Maybe the

sun will finally come out today.

[jamesatemple]

37. Thank you, MineralMan, for your comprehensive analysis.

It is for these exact reasons that I have chosen not to become President. Though I have lived a blameless life and acquired a spotless record in the view of all entities that might accumulate personal information, I may have have overlooked one smal...no, two tiny...then, there's the ... Good grief! I couldn't have passed muster!

[MineralMan]

41. Yah, me, too. As a two-joint a day (in the day) aging hippie,

I couldn't qualify, I'm certain. So, I decided not to run.

[SHRED]

38. Which is why I wonder why he did it

[MineralMan]

40. I think his narcissism is just that strong.

It is his fatal flaw, really. He's far from the man he thinks he is, for sure.

[Mountain Mule]

51. Yep, he's profoundly narcissistic

Thanks for a great commentary!

[smirkymonkey]

87. +1000

[redstatebluegirl]

42. Right on the money! Love your posts MineralMan!

[MineralMan]

43. Thanks.

[knightmaar]

45. Just wanted to award 1 Internets ...

... for using the terms "blackguards".

Who says that anymore? Have you playing D&D all day?

[MineralMan]

47. I still say that. I'm a superannuated geezer and an old English major.

I'm also a fan of picturesque vocabulary from the past. So, I season my prose from time to time with verbiage from my memory garden. I figure that someone has to keep those good old words alive and in use.

So, thanks for noticing, good sir Knight.

[MiddleClass]

66. A word from my youth, HS in Ireland late seventies

Blackguard, as in troublemaker, roughean, outlaw.

I assumed Irish/British Isles residency in your past?

Excellent synopsis?

[MineralMan]

74. Nope. Just a lot of reading.

I love words, and always have.

[3catwoman3]

77. Fellow word nerd here (meant in a respectful way).

I knew there was a reason I always enjoy your posts.

Bio and ultimately nursing major, but always have loved words, too. It seems, for the most part, that people have either a math-science bent, or language-social studies leaning, but not me.

I have Dictionary.com on my cell, and always look forward to their Word of the Day. Most of the time, I know them, which is rather gratifying. A week ago, they had one I had never even seen, let alone looked up and forgotten - "ultracrepidarian." It means "one who criticizes outside their area of expertise."

Now, I just need an opportunity to use it. The Republican'ts will probably provide some.

[TeamPooka]

46. Trump still doesn't know that as President every minute and action of his whole life will be examine

examined for the rest of history.
Historians will comb through his entire life, every deal, every action, forever.
That's the legacy of being President.

[Texin]

48. You know, I would like to believe all this.

And, sometimes, corrupt people are exposed for their fraudulent activities and perfidy. Most time, though, I believe the wealthy and powerful are not.

F. Scott Fitzgerald recognized that "the rich are different from you and me", and that was not a simplistic statement as some have maintained. People like the Trumps and Kushners of the world are different. They live in a bubble of pampered opulence with no care or concern for anyone or anything beyond their own selves and the life under the dome their wealth has built around them to shield them from "the rest" of the world and its cares and concerns. Trump and Kushner believed they were immune from things because they were used to that in their gilded cocoons. They're getting a dose of reality now, but that doesn't mean that they'll ever face recompense. I'd like to believe they would and I'll keep hoping fervently that they will, but I am singularly unoptimistic about those chances. Nixon got his comeuppance, but then Nixon was not ever a member of the ruling class such as Trump, Kushner and the rest of the wealthy GOP leaders of the protectorate who will be steadfast in their resolve to preserve their status quo.

[underpants]

53. I have to say this gives me pause about the investigations

So it sure looks like he, aside from collusion bit, involved in something to do with money laundering. No one - not his lawyers or accountants- stopped him before he ran and said "You know they are going to tear into every part of your life including...well you know"?

Maybe the bubble was really that strong.

[MineralMan]

54. That is puzzling for sure.

I wonder, though, whether Trump tends to dump advisers who warn him about things. He may be the type that simply discards anyone who bears bad news or warnings. There are people like that, I know.

I don't know about that, though. I'm really not that familiar with Trump, to tell the truth.

[BigBearJohn]

55. I keep feeling as if I am a kid sitting in the back seat of an old Chevy station wagon

asking every 10 minutes, "Are we there yet?"

Please God, let this nightmare be over soon. Please America, WAKE UP ALREADY. Somebody else is not going to do it for you. If it's gonna be, it's gotta be we. Grab your neighbor's hand and "get 'er done."

[MineralMan]

56. Yes. It's time to get to work in earnest.

Past time, really.

[grantcart]

57. It was a brilliant marketing move to run, winning will prove

catastrophic.

[MineralMan]

58. That's an interesting way to look at it.

Thanks.

[grantcart]

59. It was absolutely disgusting but he co opted the racist third

of our country for pennies.

[MineralMan]

60. Yah. They're easy marks, for sure.

Trump is the worst sort of populist. He has zero respect for those who support him, and they're too damned stupid to recognize that.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

62. K&R nt

[flibbitygiblets]

63. I still wonder whether Trumpy ever thought he'd really win

He was such a longshot, even with the help of the Russians, and the media that gave him millions in free press because they were so bored and lazy, having nothing to actually do during the Obama administration, they gladly ate up the ratings generated by Trump's insane behavior. Remember, during the entire campaingn, Trump was teeing up for what they thought was the inevitable "I only lost because the election is rigged" line of boo-hooing, which was going to be the tagline for the launch of his & Bannon's shiny new network, custom-made for all the dopes who believed their con.

Look at the abysmal transition plan. Look at the complete lack of filled administration jobs. Winning was always "Plan B", and, in the unlikely even they won, they just assumed they'd figure out on the go, being so damn smart and all.

[MineralMan]

64. I truly don't know.

[SonofDonald]

65. And as I said...

I do agree with you on most of your thoughts, this especially, they may try or it's obvious have been trying to change our Country to a monarchy with 45 in charge.

But the IC, those wonderful Patriots have been there to stop them, we may have some more problems to come but the IC will take them down, every last one of them, if only the press had been as vocal and digging at the start we may not have had these problems.

But they are on it now, no letting up, nothing but eyes on the prize, I just wish the dam would break a lot sooner.

But it will break, they've been caught with their pants down far too many times.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

67. I don't get why they didn't realize this - same with his cabinet (DeVos, etc). They are clueless.

If all of us get this concept, why didn't they? Are they that it ignorant or arrogant to think they will escape scrutiny?

[BlueJac]

69. Nicely worded!!

[bora13]

70. I'm Free

Messiah's pointing to the door, no one has the guts to leave the temple

[Hekate]

71. 100th Rec, my friend. Happy Memorial Day.

[MineralMan]

75. Thanks so much!

[Bleacher Creature]

72. I'm pretty sure Melania would have vetoed his run had she been given a say.

And she clearly didn't have a vote as there's no way her pig of a husband could ever contemplate the concept of an egalitarian marriage.

That said, it's had to feel too sorry for her as she knew what she was getting into when she married an attention-seeking narcissist.

[orangecrush]

73. Outstanding!

Thanks, Mineral Man!

[MineralMan]

83. You're welcome.

[Still In Wisconsin]

76. I really appreciate your posts.

In a way, they remind me a bit of my dad's analyses. He was a US Marine in Korea and has seen a lot- and has the same level-headed, clever way of presenting an optimistic outlook during trying times.

Thank you.

PS: "Fear is appropriate at this time." That was my favorite part.

[MineralMan]

82. Thanks for the kind reply!

[kaotikross]

78. Apparently

the Waffen SS flag from his actual German family lineage would be frowned upon. Go Figure.

[calimary]

79. Very nice essay, MM!

Your pen is your machete!

[MineralMan]

81. Wow! You're too kind...

[NewJeffCT]

80. It's even worse for Trump coming from the business world

Trump's company is a private enterprise, so he never has had to answer to shareholders for horrible stock performance or bigly losses. Heck, he has not even had to publish audited financials like the 10K.

With a large public corporation, if you are the CEO and the company produces results as bad as Trump produced with all of his bankruptcies, you'd be out the door on your ass pretty f-ing quick most of the time.

[usaf-vet]

85. Arrogance PURE arrogance... they can't touch me arrogance.

Orange is the new suit of the day before to long.

[niyad]

86. I was thinking that very thing last week. had mango mussolini stayed in nyc, we would

know very little about his shady dealings, and probably would not care a whole lot. a number of people pointed it out during the campaign, but none put it as well as you have.