Do Not Ignore the Men Behind the Curtain

     So, while Trump was addressing the nation during the State of the Union, this was happening or was about to happen behind the curtains:
     Robert Mueller had literally sealed in a vault a secret report that apparently is so explosive that he's taking no chances that his famously hermetic special counsel's office will leak it, something so Chernobyl elephant foot radioactive that it compelled House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff to postpone Michael Cohen's closed door testimony that was supposed to be today. Of course, Robert Mueller had a very good reason to put a paper copy of the filing in a vault. That's the only way to ensure Russian hackers wouldn't gain access to it and offer it to news outlets.
     Federal prosecutors jumped to when the world's richest man, Jeff fucking Bezos, publicly carped yesterday about possibly being the victim of a blackmail scheme that he strongly hinted was orchestrated by Trump and his revenge porn-loving pal, David Pecker. Bezos, you might remember, announced with his wife that they were getting a divorce so he could complete his mid-life crisis and enjoy porking a younger woman.
     If this is true (and it would be so typical of Donald Trump to do so, considering his pattern of misbehavior), then Pecker and AMI threatening to blackmail Bezos over some nude selfies taken during his extramarital affair would violate the terms of his plea deal with the SDNY (Southern District of New York). However, I think Pecker should get some leniency just for not revealing those nude pictures of Bezos' little Amazon.
     Meanwhile, that very same SDNY was also investigating the Trump Inaugural Committee, that (ha ha) nonprofit that raised a record $107,000,000 for a poorly-attended inauguration that was plainly designed to enrich cronies with access to Trump. Here's part of what they're investigating:

A spokesman confirmed that the nonprofit 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee paid the Trump International Hotel a rate of $175,000 per day for event space — in spite of internal objections at the time that the rate was far too high.

      Those "internal objections" came from Stephanie Wolkoff, one of Melania's former aides, who was in charge of arranging the entire inauguration. And we know this through the "good" offices of Michael Cohen and his secret tape recordings that were seized last April by federal agents. Typical of furtive scumbags, neither Melania's office, the White House, Stephanie Wolkoff or Michael Cohen are talking about it to the press.
     And, more importantly, last December, the NY Times had reported that federal prosecutors were investigating whether foreign entities such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar had illegally funneled money into the inaugural committee to influence the administration's policies.
     Meanwhile, in the House... After some tense give and take between House Judiciary Chairman Nadler and the DOJ, they finally got Matthew Whitaker to testify (if the word actually applies after his evasive non-answers today). When questioned directly by Nadler, Whitaker claimed he hadn't spoken with Trump or any of his top aides about the Mueller probe. But when asked if he'd spoken with any third parties with access to the Oval Office about the probe, that's when Whitaker dug in and refused to answer. Then there was a contentious exchange between the Acting AG and the Committee Chair. This is C-SPAN's live footage of the exchange:


     These are just some of the things that were brewing in the background in the runup to the State of the Union. Just the very fact there are so many investigations on both a state and federal level, testimonies before Congress  and revelations shows this administration is nothing like it presents itself. Indeed, the only thing that may save this nation is the stupidity of Donald Trump and his inner circle.