Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
The last time I rebutted our local Trump worshiper, I mentioned how untimely his rant was because it was the second time in a row that his rant appeared on the very same day that even more damming evidence on the Trump/Russia Collusion probe was also announced. Well, today our hero got his Trifecta because today’s breaking news was that Trump Jr. had secret communications with Wikileaks, the same Wikileaks that published Russian hacker information stolen from the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. The same organization that Trump Sr. so publicly declared his love for. (Frank Aquila’s Nov. 13 letter: “No more vodka Baca”).
Aquila mentioned my “. . . premature tailgate party.” Really Frank? Premature? Let’s check the score shall we? No fewer than nine members of the Trump campaign have been proven to have met with Russian agents. One has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about these meetings, two have been charged with 12 felony counts. Aquila only mentions one count, tax fraud. Oh, and not so slyly draws once again from the Trump playbook by attempting to draw the accused as just bit players. Manafort’s “. . . brief stint with the Trump campaign.” and George Papadopoulos was just a “. . . coffee runner”, we have heard that ploy more than a few times and we will probably hear it again and again and again...
Aquila makes it a point to state “collusion” is not a crime, this is true, however conspiracy against the United States is a crime and that was one of the other 12 felony counts against Manafort and his associate Rick Gates. So how do you come to that charge if you do not collude with anyone in the first place? Aquila tries, like the Trump Administration, that Manafort’s crimes took place before he was Campaign Chairman (For all but two months from March 2016 to Aug. 2016). Actually the time frame of Muller’s indictment covers the time before, during and after the Trump campaign.
Aquila claims Trump Jr. did not commit a crime by meeting with Russian operatives to obtain dirt on the Clinton campaign. I wonder why, when confronted, did Trump Jr. claim the meeting was all about Russian orphans? Yeah, I’m sure Trump Jr. was concerned about poor little Russian orphans, so concerned that he invited four or five top campaign officials to the meeting, including Manafort and Kushner. We all know how many times he changed that story and the players involved, please.
Aquila also brings up the infamous Trump dossier, which he claims as unverified, actually he should qualify that statement by saying the dossier has not been “completely” unverified because some of it actually has been verified since it was revealed. Time will tell if the rest is verified, after all the investigation is just in its infancy. One has to wonder why Trump still refuses to utter even one word against Putin and actually said just yesterday that he believes Putin over our own Intelligence Agencies on the Russian intrusion into our elections. (He later tried to walk that back then the very next tweet, went back to Putin’s side), could it be that “Pee Tape” mentioned in the dossier or is it something else?  Aquila also fails to mention that before the Clinton Campaign took over that opposition dirt gathering, it was first started by a Republican opponent to Trump during the Primaries.
Aquila, feeling he has proudly followed the Trump Playbook, tries to throw in the, now silly Clinton/Russian/Uranium fairy tale. I think I covered that silliness in my last dressing down of the last Aquila rant. This time he tries to tie Mueller into it in order to attempt to get Mueller off the Trump/Russian trail. Something Trump tried in one of his early morning tweets, what Aquila hasn’t learned yet, is that one should never take any early morning Trump Tweet seriously. Come to think of it, the entire world knows by now that one should not take any Trump Tweet seriously, now we may have to apply that same logic to Mr. Aquila.

Larry Baca
Manteca