In the tradition of Amy Siskind’s (more exhaustive and better) weekly list of subtle authoritarian changes, козырь is a weekly ranking of who in Trump’s circle of corrupt associates has committed the most treason in the past seven days. H/t to Mark Listanti, late of Grantland, whose brilliant format for “Mad Men Power Rankings” I have appropriated. Updated every Tuesday until Mueller saves the Republic.
1. Paul Manafort
Trump’s campaign chairman at the time of Peak Treason, Manafort is in hock to the Russians by at least 3,780,018,000 rubles. That’s $66 million, which buys a lot of borscht. And his spokesman ain’t even denying it:
Wow. Manafort spokesman issued a revised statement that entirely omitted the highlighted sentence denying he is indebted to former clients. pic.twitter.com/7kjrTB6mUi
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 13, 2017
Last week: #2
2. Carter Page
Long the enigma of Trump/Russia, Page is either the key to the whole puzzle or a red Russian herring. Trumpers claim his plan to plead the Fifth before the Senate Subcommittee hearing is to protect himself from government overreach, like Loretta Lynch and the dude in charge of tech support for HRC. We believe it’s a de facto admission of guilt. Certainly it doesn’t make Trump’s “fake news” defense any more plausible.
Last week: not ranked
3. Donald Trump
He’s had such a shit-awful week, even by his lowly standards, but roiling the markets, unilaterally raising the nation’s healthcare premiums, ignoring the servicemen killed in Niger and the Houston-sized fire in northern California, and actively sabotaging the relief effort in Puerto Rico, while genuinely Evil with a capital E, are not treason per se. Generating all this cruel and harmful chaos to deflect from his otherwise-inexplicable delay in issuing new Russia sanctions? That’s treason.
Last week: #7
4. Jared Kushner
Another week, another egregious non-disclosure from Boy Blunder. Also: he worked with Manafort and the Russians to rig the election.
Last week: #7
5. Facebook
You know how you can’t ever fully delete anything from Facebook? You can if you’re Mark Zuckerberg, and the deleted data will help make the case for your treason. Ah, but there’s a catch…or, rather, a cache, and the NSA has it. Mark’s Zucked.
Last week: #5
6. Twitter
See #5. Also, Trump is almost daily in violation of Twitter’s opaque Terms of Service, and his account never gets suspended. Why? First, Trump brings a lot of users to Twitter. Second, @jack fears presidential retribution. Whatever. These dudes can stop the Putinbots, and they choose not to. Plus they gave Julian Assange 240 characters. #treason.
Last week: not ranked
7. Dana Rohrabacher
He’d like Trump to pardon Assange. That’s like a Congressman lobbying Truman to save the Rosenbergs.
Last week: #3
8. Robert Mercer
Billionaire donor, GOP whoremaster, and co-owner, with Putin, of Donald Trump. He stays on this list until his name replaces Benedict Arnold’s in the American lexicon.
Last week: #8
9. Mike Pence
Gays will not be hung. Neither will the jury.
Last week: #11
10. Ivanka Trump
She was the one who brought Flynn into the transition team, we found out this week, and Flynn is one of two active Russian agents who began this mess.
Last week: #10
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Not Ranked: Donald Trump’s greatness, Kim Jong Un, Steve Bannon, Values Voters, Julian Assange, Harvey Weinstein whataboutism, Cambridge Analytica, the fart smell in Julian Assange’s basement room in the Ecuadorian embassy, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes, Devin Nunes recusing himself but then calling backsies, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Tom Price, Steve Mnunchin, Wilbur Ross, Reince Priebus, Reince Priebus talking to Mueller for 10 hours, Sean Spicer, Mike Flynn, Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince, Cyrus Vance, Jeff Sessions, Eric Trump, Ivana Trump’s move to be ambassador to the Czech Republic, Michael Cohen, Rudy Giuliani, Rex Tillerson, Sean Hannity, Felix Sater, “Doctor” Seb Gorka, RU’s list of “Russophobes,” Melania Trump, Brad Parscale, Stephen Miller, Sarah Huckebee S[l]anders, and anyone who thought Trump’s Rose Garden press conference was a net positive.
