Donald J. Trump commuted the sentence of Republican political operative and dirty trickster Roger Stone late on Friday. Stone had been convicted on seven counts, including witness tampering and lying to investigators. Stone's record is well-documented, starting with his youthful conversion to the libertarian politics of Barry Goldwater, leading to his hiring by Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President, also known as CREEP. (Yes, really. And that is Stone's tattoo of Nixon on his very back.)
The news here? It's hard not to see Stone's Get Out of Jail Free card as an admission of guilt by Trump. Stone was connected to Julian Assange at Wikileaks, and it's increasingly difficult to deny that Wikileaks was an arm of the Russians during the 2016 campaign.
Trump reportedly offered Assange a pardon if he denied that Russia was involved in leaks about Hillary Clinton's emails during the campaign. In other words, Trump might have gotten the information from Wikileaks through Stone and known that it came from Russia but wanted to cover it up. This came out at Assange's trial in London, followed by a spate of denial, denial, denial.
It's all pretty blatant, really.
We had been planning to write about Kayleigh McEnany's parents' roofing company getting at least $1 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. This program is supposed to help small businesses with up to 10 employees. McEnany's parents' business has more than a hundred employees.
According to the Independent, McEnany has criticized recipients of public funding in the past, stating in 2018 “it was exactly right that welfare recipients should feel enough shame to motivate themselves off of government assistance.”
We just can't keep up!
Stoned Me ::: Van Morrison (Who else?)