Don't forget that Rosenstein is implicated in the orchestration of Russiagate as a weapon against Trump, a weapon that serves the interests of the Democratic Party and the military/security complex about which President Eisenhower warned us 56 years ago to no avail. Rosenstein's indictment of 12 Russians for allegedly hacking computers is a political indictment aimed at President Trump. The indictment is otherwise pointless as the Russian government will certainly not turn over its military personnel to a Washington kangaroo court. The indictment serves no purpose except to poison the atmosphere of the summit.
Comment: On the contrary, during the post-summit press conference Putin laughed off Rosenstein's and Mueller's bluff, stating that Russia would allow Mueller and his team access to the alleged 'meddlers' in return for investigations into real criminals like Bill Browder.
If you read the indictment, you will see that it consists of nothing but improbable accusations. There is no way on earth that the US Justice (sic) Department would be able to acquire the information in this fictional story that Rosenstein has presented. Moreover, there is no sign whatsoever of any evidence in the indictment. Rosenstein knows that he needs no evidence, because the accused will never be brought to trial.
Rosenstein has thrown red meat to the presstitutes, who are assets of the military/security complex and Democratic Party, and the presstitutes will pressure the Republicans to get behind Rosenstein's call for a united front against Russian interference. You can imagine what would happen if Trump and Putin were to have a successful summit and normalize the relations that Washington ruined between the two countries. If your imagination is not working, consult here.
During the presidential election campaign, I pointed out that Trump was not Washington savvy, did not know who would support his positions, which were antithetical to the interests of powerful interest groups such as the military-security complex and global offshoring corporations, and that Trump ran the risk of being destroyed by his own appointments.
Rod Rosenstein is a Trump appointment. Moreover when Trump's Attorney General ordered Rosenstein's resignation, Trump refused to accept it and kept Rosenstein in office. Trump's miscalculation is so enormously wrong that he deserves the knife in the back that Rosenstein just delivered.
If there were a valid indictment of 12 Russians, for the sake of the summit's success, a normal functioning deputy attorney general would have held the indictment until after the summit results and, if the summit were successful, would have deep-sixed the indictment regardless of whether there is a basis for it. My 25 years in Washington tells me clearly that Rosenstein has knifed Trump in the back. If Rosenstein has caused the summit to fail, Rosenstein has raised the risk of thermo-nuclear warfare.
There is an alternative to the explanation above. The alternative is that Trump, being a bully, was convinced by those in his administration, who most certainly do not want any normalization with Russia, that the indictment would put Putin on the spot and give Trump the advantage in the bullying arena. I can hear the CIA and John Bolton telling Trump that the indictment would put Putin on the defensive and permit Trump to pressure him into a summit outcome favorable to Washington's hegemony.
This is a clever way of setting Trump up for failure in his meeting with Putin that could possibly poison the relations between the countries ever further without the failure being blamed on Rosenstein. Thus, Rosenstein's position as Trump's political assassin would not be threatened. He would still be running Russiagate with a recused Jeff Sessions sitting there useless.
Professor Stephen Cohen is a premier expert on US/Russian elections. His considered view is compatible with mine.
R.C.
P.s., This article is days old, and should be noted as such.*
*Though it's here dated as if it were posted this morning, 7/18/2018 Wed. @ 4.52a, Greenwich Mean/Median Time (as my father used to say), I read it more than 24 hours ago at PCR's site.** Indeed, I see it's there dated 7/13/18. SOTT should preserve the original post dates of their articles collected, and also indicate (as apparently above) when it was posted here.
**(It's now 3.14a, EDT so that's 8.14 a in UK ? ... because you're not so stupid as to have DST***?)
*** (What they should do is just kick on DST all year round. Until then, we have even effectively shorter days in winter and overly long days in summer which is the opposite of the original planned idea, as I recall. For most, assuming that your average American awakes at say 7.45a. it's already wasting daylight then here even in winter (and far worse up North.).
The illogic behind DST has been a proverbial, and lifelong 'pet peeve' of mine; assuming that any of my 'peeves' can be described as 'my' pets rather than me allowing them to 'own' me. (At least I can recognize it, first steps and all that.)
Whatever; it's just another stoopid AmeriKan Idiot Idea gone south, as either typical or planned.
RC