To review, we noted at the end of August that Trump’s behaviors and frenetic pace had reached an unsustainable phase. Something had happened to the entire “feel” of the administration. We now know that the administration was already aware of the problems it faced with the impending whistleblower complaint, indeed, all of Washington DC seemed to know of the complaint as the worst kept secret in the halls of power. The facts within the complaint broke soon thereafter, resulting in the impeachment inquiry. The end had begun, phase one.

However, even with a rock-solid case against Trump built upon the memo of the phone call, the country would not substantively “move” to support the impeachment itself until the House could somehow pry more evidence loose. For his part, Trump made it clear that he would not be providing any facts, supportive or otherwise, when he issued his “impeach me” letter, sure to go down as one of the most unambiguous and ill-conceived declarations of a constitutional coup ever devised. The players aligned, the House an irresistible force committed to seeing this through, versus the Trump White House’s unmovable object, not allowing a single witness to come forward.

Then Trump made his most inexplicable and – perhaps – most self-defeating decision in his life when he abandoned the Kurds in Northern Syria, suddenly turning his staunchest defenders, those “most loyal” to Trump in all matters, against him. We will eventually come to learn the real reason for Trump’s withdrawal, and it will – fittingly – be linked to Trump’s criminal obligations to international crime, but for now, it’s only important to note that the abandonment of the Kurds changed the entire feel of the political landscape.

We have often noted that if Trump’s political movement is a “cult,” then Trump will likely follow the pattern long-established by cult leaders. A cult leader is impermeable to reason, right up until he is not, and then everything changes. Suddenly, some of the religious right, the most MAGA’d of the MAGAs, including Trump-wanna be Franklin Graham, were stepping up and criticizing the man who has not once faced real criticism from the Republicans as president.

In this context, we saw the first witnesses from within the State Department and within the National Security Agency ignore orders to invoke executive privilege, and walk their spines straight into the capitol’s witness rooms, and talk, and talk, and talk.

Phase two had begun, the point in time when the momentum of truth, the momentum that accompanies people who know they are doing the right thing, feeds on itself in a positive feedback loop. The more truth exposed, the more that come forward, the more than come forward, the less Trump controls the process. Right now, Trump doesn’t control the pace of disclosure, the investigation itself, as a movement, is in control. Whereas only two weeks ago, it was hard to picture a process by which the committee lined-up witnesses who revealed all they knew, now it is hard to imagine someone abiding by the White House’s desperate attempts to muzzle people.

Whereas Trump’s pace had been unsustainable, the investigation is now self-sustaining, and the proof is all around you. How else do you explain a revelation in which John Bolton plays the role of hero?

Breaking: Bolton instructed aide to report Giuliani pressure campaign to White House lawyer. “I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton said, according to testimony to House investigators. @npfandos https://t.co/GO1pnMSyBl — Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 15, 2019

Pay attention to that quote, because that quote will be the “follow the money” quote remembered throughout history as the key to this scandal, one that will likely take down an administration, perhaps an entire political party. “I am not a party of whatever drug deal …”

That quote reveals that those within the White House knew that there was an entire criminal operation being run out of the White House itself, by Trump, by Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mulvaney, and the loose canon, Rudy. It was not a secret, and the players divided themselves up, early. Nor was there any doubt at all as to the legality. A “drug deal” is the near perfect analogy, inherently criminal, dark, and self-interested. They knew, they all knew, that this was the “bridge too far.” Having just “won” the fight against those investigating Russian collusion, Trump jumped into collusion with Ukraine, which, as we’ve also noted before, means “Russia” in this context because it is all the same players, same money, same banks, same goal. Putin.

Today we hear that Ambassador Sondland is going to testify later this week, stating that any meeting between Zelensky and Trump would have to be approved by Rudy Giuliani. Ambassador Sondland has been a Trump supporter, and yet the truth is now driving the process, and Sondland desperately needs to get ahead of it. Reuters is now reporting that Rudy Giuliani had been paid $500,000 by his “associates” – the arrested ones – to fund the work Giuliani was doing for Trump. That is foreign money, funding a black diplomatic effort, a criminal effort, blessed by the president. See how this goes? The truth is driving the process.

Truth will begat truth.

In this environment, we not only see more witnesses unwilling to hold back, the court cases seem far more pre-destined than before. At some point in the next month or two, the SCOTUS will determine whether it will take up the Trump tax case. It is possible that the SCOTUS will determine in the next day or two to not take up the case, at which point the order will go through, and Trump’s financial documents will be disclosed. Either way, with witnesses to heretofore inconceivable criminality run right out of the White House coming forward, there is no possible way the court will risk its legitimacy going forward by not ordering those documents release.

The acceleration of “truth” shoots the process toward the inevitable target, that one fact, the paradigm shift, where the only possible way to view the Trump administration is through a corrupt-criminal prism, nothing escapes. One fact that breaks the camel’s back, that point in time at which near every Republican at once throws his or her hands up and says: “I’m out.”

That is where we are heading, toward Phase Three. But we couldn’t get there without an irrefutable Phase two, that point in time when the process couldn’t be stopped even if powerful people wanted to rein it in. We have arrived.

That’s the review, and I think it is important to view all you have seen this week, and all you’ll see in the weeks to come, through this lens. We will have little warning of Phase Three, but we will all know it when we see it.

QUICK UPDATE: We are not the only ones noticing the phase-shift. Greg Sergeant, WaPo just tweeted about the “collapse.”

The news about John Bolton leaves no doubt: Trump's defense in the Ukraine scandal is collapsing. Trump keeps saying his pressure on the Ukrainian president was totally fine. But we now know that just about *everyone* around him was horrified by it:https://t.co/gvEYzEiqWG — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) October 15, 2019

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Peace, y’all

Jason

jmiciak@yahoo.com