Trump and his Monkey

[H2O Man]

Donald Trump incorrectly believes that the pathetic “Nunes memo” – a document that White House aides and others wrote for Nunes, who has not read the underlying material – removes the monkey from his back. Rather, it simply suggests that the monkey wears a fisherman's hat, similar to the sailor's cap he wore while serving in the US Navy. As “retired” Office of Naval Intelligence officer Malcolm Nance noted after the memo's release, there is reason to suspect that Page is a double agent ….which puts the Trump team's efforts to discredit the evidence gathered from the FISA warrants as “the poison fruit from a poison tree.”

It may be that Page isn't actually a double agent, turned by American intelligence agencies in 2014, after Russian intelligence attempted to employ him. I'd put it at about one-in-three that he's not, and simply is as “strange” as he seems. Certainly, not all former ONI people are good people, with Steve Bannon serving as a prime example. But, even if Page isn't a double agent, he is no more likely to put his neck on the line to protect Trump, than is Bannon.

Neither Trump nor Nunes have the intellectual capacity to grasp what is in play in terms of the effort to promote the memo. Yet Trump is convinced that it somehow clears him in the Mueller investigation. It could be that he is equally likely to claim that today's Super Bowl clears him. But it is likely that someone – perhaps John Kelly – who played a role in this curious play has convinced him that it aids his legal team. Whoever it was, they were clearly wrong.

The Nunes memo was, at very best, a re-make of Nunes' classic failure in March of 2017. It is obvious that there is no lie he won't tell, or any humiliation he will not suffer, in order to protect Trump. One might question why this is? I would suggest it is related to his role in the Trump transition, as well as his family business – which involves significant Russian investment. If any republican congressman is implicated by the Mueller investigation, it will be Nunes.

For a few months now, I've mentioned that Page appears to have some characteristics of a double agent. Last week, a day after I commented on this in an essay here, Malcolm Nance said the same thing. I, of course, was speculating. Malcolm Nance is definitely the expert on this topic, and the best source we have. I'm also confident that Michael Isikoff and David Corn will be releasing some explosive information soon, possibly this week. I'd recommend listening to those three closely.

Were I to guess, I'd think that Trump's belief that everybody around him has something to hide, and thus can't testify to his wrong-doings, will take a hit. The Carter Page issues, quite interestingly, lean more to the topic of conspiracies between the Trump campaign and Russia, rather than with the obstruction. That would seem important.

Peace,
H2O Man