Trump, Russia, Comey And Three Possible Explanations
[guest post by Dana]
I like this narrowing down of possible explanations for President Trump’s firing of James Comey :
A The stated rationale was the real one. Trump thought, for example, that Comey’s July press conference about the Clinton-email investigation was improper.
B Trump was angry that Comey had not shut down the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the election because he regards the investigation as part of a Democratic plot to raise baseless questions about his legitimacy as president.
C Trump thought that the FBI’s investigation posed an unacceptably high risk of turning up evidence of serious misconduct on his part.
(But if the president felt so strongly about Comey’s comments back in July, why wait until now to fire him?)
Ponnuru considers Explanation B to be the most reasonable one. It seems consistent with both the President’s public comments about the Democrats from Day One of his presidency, as well as Democrats reaction to his election win, Russia notwithstanding. And while Explanation B is more likely, it is not without complications. President Trump going public with Explanation B compels staffers to fall in line and “forcefully argue in public that there’s nothing to see with respect to Russia and the investigation is a charade put on by his enemies,” and that is problematic for several reasons:
The first is that we have seen enough evidence of Russian interference to warrant investigation. A lot of people who don’t want to condemn Trump as a Putin lackey, including a lot of Republican congressmen, have conceded that point. Taking the shut-it-down line will isolate the administration politically. It will make surrogates choose between saying things they’re not comfortable saying, abandoning ship, and laying low for a while.
The second is that it’s not a proper basis for Comey’s dismissal. The president is not supposed to dismiss a law-enforcement official because he thinks that a line of investigation is a waste of time or because it angers him. This should not need explaining and, obviously, it didn’t need explaining to some people around the president, which is why they originally went with explanation A, as risible and doomed as it was.
Ponnuru then suggest a third, and even more problematic possibility to consider:
The current strategy mimics exactly what an administration would do if explanation C were correct.
–Dana
I think people believe that President Trump is far more complex than he really is.
Dana (023079) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:33 pmGreat post.
I know my bias against Trump is clear and well known, but I have to say Ponnuru seems right. Trump’s conduct is very painful for his administration, just as they were recovering from other mishaps. If they did this for a reason, then it’s a powerful reason. They think letting Comey finish was worse than all this flack… which makes a lot more sense than thinking Comey sucked in July so they got around to firing him.
Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s in open controversy here, even though I agree it’s common sense ethics.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:39 pmAside from being sloppy corrupt and unprofessional, James Comey was super best friends with Meghan’s cowardly brainwashed daddy, which means he’d been compromised by anti-american elements.
President Trump did the right thing.
happyfeet (a037ad) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:41 pm4. Trump wanted Comey to be his “loyal” stooge, like everybody else around him is. An unreasonable demand, but not a hopeless expectation the way Comey had compromised his integrity in the Hillary investigation. Comey, however, refused to sink that low.
5. Comey’s hands are twice the size of Trump’s.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:43 pmWell we can talk about why Trump fired Comey, but I think we all know why he kept him on so long.
Comey’s actions with Hillary really did have a stench thanks to Lynch’s conduct, and that kept Comey very compromised, right where Trump would want him.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:46 pmJames Comey is the FBI director who apparently thought it prudent to not tell the Director of National Intelligence that the FBI had opened a counter-intelligence investigation involving Russia and the 2016 election.
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:47 pm“Every time the Washington political press freaks out and goes into full panic mode against President Trump , the blockbuster, Watergate-volume story always unfolds the same way.
First the news starts leaking or breaking. Newsrooms from the Potomac to the Hudson become seized and fixated on every morsel of the delicious story. News flashes zing around the internet.
Then it hits cable television and the press starts slinging the most salacious and scandalous accusations they can whip up, charging the president with the highest crimes imaginable.
Each time, these reporters sink deeper and deeper into a fantasyland as they dream bigger and bigger. THIS TIME, they keep thinking, we FINALLY got him!
Reporters and Democrats alike — not to repeat myself — are actually now speculating about whether Mr. Trump will survive the certain impeachment hearings to come. But then, as the heavy breathing subsides and the adrenaline rush gives way to factual, concrete reporting, the most damning charges fall away.
Turns out Mr. Trump is a germaphobe and wasn’t in that Russian hotel room. The bust of Martin Luther King is still in the Oval Office.”
— Charles Hurt, Washington Times
Sent from my iPhone
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:57 pmF or 6 – No one knows when or how the inner Yosemite Sam will show up.
Rick Ballard (6f7e69) — 5/12/2017 @ 2:59 pmI thought it was all about the timing?
mg (31009b) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:01 pmoh dopey me
Dana, when the Impeachment does not happen, are you going to sink into conspiracy theory despair, or own up to being over-emotionally invested in never Trump fever?
No matter what Trump did, he was going to be accused of coverup, watergate, Russia, small hands, germophobia.
Don’t participate in the fever.
Don’t drive me into more agreement with happyfeets.
I hate it when I agree with ‘feets.
Steven Malynn (d29fc3) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:06 pmMedia and other Democrat surrogates are more revved up than the general public… https://www.axios.com/americans-cared-less-about-comey-than-other-trump-scandals-2403228957.html
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:20 pmFox’s Herridge, a typically excellent and reliable reporter, has tweeted that Comey was fired due to his refusal to name the unmaskers to DJT.
Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:20 pmB is not true at all, but Trump sometimes talks that way because he doesn’t like where the onvestigation could go – although he has to admit that if Russia planted spies in his campaign and in his adminstration, that’s something he ought to know.
Trump does not want to shut down the investigation – he just wants to keep it away from certain non-legal questions, like why dd he say such very, very, incorrect things about Russia, or why did he make Mike Flynn his most important national security adviser, and the answers are not good, but probably not criminal. It may involve a lot of cynicism and also stupidity and he’d rather this never get asked.
If he believed (because of Russian bought advisers) that saying certain things would be of political benefit to himself, that is both cynical and stupid. If he believed that Russia could help defeat ISIS, that is both stupid and callous with regard to what Russia was doing in Syria. and it’s also a political calculation that Americans would prefer to have Russia do the fighting.
If he believed, in the middle of the campaign, that maybe Russia is helping him and why should he look a gift horse in the mouth, and he said to himself let’s encourage it, maybe they’ll do him some good – that is very cynical.
He also may be fearful of what a partisan investigator could do.
A is true, but it wasn’t a cause for firing James Comey. Trump really does not want to lock illary up, so this is all in the past as far as Trump is concerned.
Trump or some adviser, maybe Jeff Sessions, decided to make this “THE” cause for firing Comey because it would be something Democrats could not argue with, having said it themselves.
By the way, Democrats are pretending now that Comey only helped Trump, but he helped Hillary – Democats started to criticize the July 5 press conference after the October 27 notification – they had to give up criticizg the notification alone because Comey was quite right – one he did the first he had to do the second, especially because he specifically promised some members of Congress he would..
C has some truth to it, but the misconduct isn’t criminal, and there was no urgency. He was also afraid of false charges – now why shouldn’t he be??
Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:21 pmTrump is the rusty strand in the thrumming triple-wound steel cord of the triune American system of government.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:23 pmMr. Malynn wrote (#10):
That’s true.
It’s entirely consistent with the observation, however, that he blew the sequencing and messaging and structuring of this (including elements of the timing of those things) as a completely unforced error, an illustration of spectacularly bad judgment, and probably the most tin-earred thing he’s done since taking office.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:24 pmYou missed one: Rationale 4:
He’s sick.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:24 pmThe Democrats, not a one who says anything in public, aren’t interested in the truth at all, bujut only in painting as bad as possible a picture of Trump, even sometimes when some of the ideas being bruoted about have no possibility of being true.
Trump does not have any investments in Russia!
And they know it.
The Russians did not consult anyone as to what to hack.
Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:25 pm“What must happen now is that [Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] appoints a special prosecutor to oversee this investigation.”
— Sen. Chuckles Schumer on floor of the Senate the morning of 5/10/17
“There are three things that our caucus agreed must happen right away, First, Mr. Rosenstein should not be the one to appoint a special prosecutor. That responsibility should go to the highest-serving career civil servant at the Department of Justice.”
— Sen. Chuckles Schumer on floor of the Senate the afternoon of 5/10/17
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:32 pmOf course that means after the leftists did some homework they found out the “highest-serving career civil servant at the Department of Justice” is also a life-long far left Democrat bundler, personal friend of George Soros, godfather to Sasha and Malia Obama, catered Chelsea’s wedding and vacations with Bill Clinton on Epstein’s Island of magic children. So, of course!
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:44 pmGreetings:
My thinking is different.
One of the things that has amused me about the current hysteria is how disjointed it is historically. Your item 1 fails to address the many inanities involved in the Hillary Clinton investigation. Faulty search warrants, immunity for all, invention of a “criminal intent” stay out of court card, unsworn interview of HC all happened under Mr. Comey’s directorship and yet continue to be unaddressed to date. The problem with the HC investigation wasn’t just Mr. Comey’s public summation.
Oh, did I forget to mention that bit of tarmac love down on the border where the temperature is always hot, hot, hot.
11B40 (6abb5c) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:46 pmOh, c’mon, Comey was a saint!
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/05/how-much-more-black-could-this-be.php
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:51 pmTrump threatens to cancel future press briefings.
Really, Captain?
You really want to go there? “‘Kay”….
“This is the captain speaking. Some misguided sailors on this ship still think they can pull a fast one on me. Well, they’re very much mistaken. Since you’ve taken this course, the innocent will be punished with the guilty. There will be no liberty for any member of this crew for three months. I will not be made a fool of! Do you hear me?!… This was calculated disrespect to your commanding officer. All right. There will be no more movies for 30 days. I kid you not!!” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 3:53 pmSome things Trump gets, some things he doesn’t. But he’s learning.
Trump probably thought firing Comey was a no-brainer. It doesn’t take a Deputy Attorney General to realize Comey had repeatedly crossed the line and needed firing. The entire political spectrum was incensed by Comey’s unprecedented showboating. What Trump didn’t understand was that just because Democrats were screaming bloody murder about Comey’s malfeasance – and rightly so – he wouldn’t be supported by them for firing Comey.
In a rational world, Democrats and Republicans alike would have rallied around President Trump for doing what so clearly needed to be done. But that’s not the world we live in. Trump is still figuring that out. Was it naive of Trump to think that Americans would put principle before politics? Apparently so. Sadly so. The good news is that much like how he learned from the RyanCare fiasco, Trump will learn from the experience and the country will be better off for it. He won’t make that mistake again.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:07 pmWhich is not to say he won’t fire you if you’re a corrupt turd like James Comey.
Cause he will!
(you know who you are)
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:11 pmCaptain, you can’t make this stuff up:
Lawyers who said Trump has no ties to Russia named Russian law firm of 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/12/law-firm-russia-trump-morgan-lewis
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:13 pmNo shortage of willfull idiots these days, Thor. It’s like a plague.
Colonel Haiku (34bcc6) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:14 pmBut he’s learning…
All evidence to the contrary. See #25.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:14 pmA fourth option:
D) Trump was willing to let Comey slide on the Clinton investigation screw up, but Comey’s continuing screw-ups in front of Congress and his new boss Rosenstein’s assessment of Comey gave Trump the impetus to finally fire him.
This whole argument of Trump firing Comey to quash an investigation relies on Comey’s immediate replacement being cowed by Trump. But Comey’s immediate replacement, McCabe, is a guy a 20 year FBI veteran whose wife received election funding from Clinton allies. I mean, if Trump’s plan was to quash anything, he’s jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Xmas (3a75bb) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:16 pmMy mantra is: Don’t worry, be happy.
Those are might big shoes to fill, but I’m trying.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:16 pmIt’s become quite the fever swamp, Haiku.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:24 pmAlmost feels like UC Berkeley, Thor.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:50 pmIn addition to the hens and Lockheed ties that kept comey in check:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/05/12/president-trump-drops-another-moab-media-missing-sally-yates-and-james-comey-timeline/#more-132536
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:51 pmNothing to see here
https://mobile.twitter.com/adamhousley/status/862079265965096961
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:57 pmDefinitely has the rhetoric from the republic of cambridge.
mg (31009b) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:01 pm32… very interesting, narciso.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:05 pmThat is a most interesting timeline narciso.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:11 pmSorry H didn’t see your post
crazy (d3b449) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:12 pmIsn’t it, dates times amounts are left out of the hundreds of thousands of words
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:17 pmToo many facts for the rabid H8ers to even contemplate 🤔
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:20 pmFred Fleitz argues there are “More indications Intel assessment of Russian interference in election was rigged” which certainly wouldn’t set well with any POTUS.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:20 pmTo put it kindly, Trump is a pile of dirt with a thin coating of spray-paint. He cannot afford any kind of professional investigation because even he doesn’t know what it will reveal if the paint is disturbed. Remember that Monica Lewinski began as an investigation into something called Whitewater? The Clintons were exonerated for Whitewater and maybe 10 people in America actually know what it was all about, but Clinton ended up being impeached. Like that.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:20 pmThe odd man out
https://mobile.twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/862037724882116608
Remember flwitz worked under bolton,
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:22 pmReality check time. The law is simply this: President Trump (or any other sitting president) may fire the Director of the FBI for any reason or no reason and – pay close attention since this part seems to have escaped most folks’ attention – is not accountable to anyone for why he does so. Period. End of story. The Constitution requires the commission of “…high crimes and misdemeanors…” to constitute grounds for impeachment, not because anyone disagrees with him on policy grounds. Oh, yes, second item in the reality check: there was and is no conspiracy between the Russian government or anyone in it and President Trump to either cause Clinton to lose the election or to establish that President Trump is an agent of Russia. How do we know this? Well, it is again fairly simple: no evidence has been presented since the accusation was first made. Lots of claims, lots of “I got a classified document and it said…”, lots of other yapping, but no evidence. Stop for a moment and think, reason, use your old noodle. If there was any evidence, whether classified or not, connecting President Trump and Russia don’t you think we would have seen it by now? Don’t you think that the GOP-controlled Congress – whose leaders hate President Trump and have from the start – would have started impeachment and pushed it through with the gleeful help of the Democrats long before now if there was evidence? Vice President Pence is mainline GOP, maybe not a RINO, but establishment. Think about it. I now return you to your regularly scheduled fits of irrational foolishness and delusion. In that safe space for the mentally challenged, Bruce Jenner is pregnant and will give birth to triplets of indeterminate gender sometime in early 2018.
Ike (216bbe) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:24 pmIke wrote (#43):
The reason that part has escaped most folks’ attention is that there is no law which makes the POTUS “unaccountable.”
He’s accountable in exactly the same manner as he is on every other decision that he makes and implements, which is to say: Public opinion will be affected; his political capital will wax or wane; his cooperation with Congress will be affected; his chances for seeking re-election will be affected; and ultimately he may trigger impeachment proceedings.
Up until the moment he resigned, Richard Nixon was still the POTUS and held every power available to the POTUS under the Constitution. Do you mean to suggest that because he was not, in fact, impeached and removed from office, he was never held accountable for Watergate? Because I’m pretty sure I remember that whole Ford Administration thing, not that it lasted very long or went very far.
I find it really off-putting — offensive, in fact — when someone argues that the POTUS “must not be questioned” or “is not accountable.” You are convincing exactly no one with this argument, but you are reinforcing all of Trump’s worst baggage.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:34 pmHaving gone through an unmasking controversy working for Bolton, Fleitz also points to the political operatives like Ben Rhodes rather than Susan Rice as likely culprits in the political unmasking operation Comey appears to have been uninterested in.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:35 pmAll roads lead to the inevitable… being mingled with dirt. Lawyers, bankers and politicians just add more oil upon arrival.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:38 pmAnd we come back to the mutineers who are unaccountable for their malfeasance in the Iran deal
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:38 pmNot all lawyers.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:38 pmFulton Armstrong a Fidel fan from way back was Hilton’s bete noire
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:40 pm=yawn= Take your politics out of it and just look at the individual. If Donald Trump was your daughter’s gym teacher and not POTUS, he’d likely be under arrest by now.
He’s sick.
“Will you look at the man? He’s a Freudian delight; he crawls with clues!” Tom Kiefer [Fred MacMurray] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:42 pmHe was Ted price a decade ago:
https://www.babalublog.com/2014/08/19/after-being-exposed-fulton-armstrong-confessses-to-being-source-behind-discredited-ap-story-on-cuba-democracy-programs/
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:43 pmWell nk, I wish it were as simple as that ( @41 ). I don’t believe the left, formerly the Democratic Party, want to impeach Trump. I believe they want to undo the entire government. Trump is not enough. Just taking out Trump means they could loose another election. They could loose the Supreme Court which they have invested decades and a great deal of propaganda building as not only the final say on what is in the living-breathing-evolving constitution but also as the final makers-of-laws. In fact, if the SC goes conservative it could use all that propaganda and BS against them. That’s unacceptable. Listening to Schumer call for what amounts to a career Democrat leftist to take charge and watching a completely unhinged Obermann call for foreign government spies to help overthrow Trump is a start. There is more to come. The left hasn’t unionized all those government employees for nothing you know. I see a general strike to demand Trump “step down”. I do hope he sends in the troops. Let’s get this thing over with.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:44 pmAlmost feels like UC Berkeley, Thor.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 4:50 pm
That’s hilarious. So because I post something that posits that which you may not agree with and others do, makes this site like Berkeley – the no-free speech for you, but only for me place? That Berkeley? How rich, considering that I am the one posting that which goes against the flow of the commentariat at this website. Further, considering that the majority of commenters here agree with you, it should be a good and healthy sign that there are still some willing to engage in a robust and vigorous debate about this president, his actions toward Comey, and possible reasons therein for the termination of the director. Unless you believe we should all just put away our concerns, our reasoning, our observations and fall in line?
Note: At one time, being open to discussion, vigorous debate, and further consideration of matters – without ridicule or worse from those who disagree – was once the high standard of this blog. It was representative of good community health and mutual respect. Sadly, that it now seems we are expected to walk lockstep with the prevailing view about President Trump is indeed reminiscent of Berkeley. So in that, you are correct.
Dana (023079) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:49 pmExactly hoagie, say trump is forced out, as some want here. You think pence will have an easier time of it, he’s already been painted like some mad mullah, unlike a real one like quradawi, who they have lottle actual problem with.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:49 pmeh…So because I post something that posits that which you may not agree with… makes this site like Berkeley – the no-free speech for you, but only for me place?
Dana (023079) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:51 pmNo the first explanation is more obvious, comey proved himself a corrupt official last July, in ways we hadn’t considered then, crowdstrike and the dodgy dossier
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:52 pmGee, Hoagie, I think that’s what’s is called “The Big Picture”.
Good post.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:53 pmThis is perhaps the silliest thing national review since Chris buckley was on staff. Seriously, now as a Socratic exercise it is instructive as how not to approach facts
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:57 pmCome on, don’t you still have your WIN buttons? 🙂
Chuck Bartowski (211c17) — 5/12/2017 @ 5:59 pm@59. In fact, I do. Framed up in/t den w/a signed pix I took of President Ford in 1976.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:04 pmI’ll start with the strikes, because I remember they did that with Reagan. The air controllers were only the first skirmish. The postal workers were poised to strike if Reagan blinked. That would have shut down the economy of the country in the snail-mail caveman days.
On your broader point, I think the strategy now is to identify Republicans so closely with Trump that they will never recover from the taint, and I don’t know what they can do about it. Trump will remain a tattered banner and they have no other to follow.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:04 pmPence is certainly more in the Christian right wing, which the left have despised long before they ever knew of trump, read rolling stone or gq or any of these nominally apolitical, heh, publications
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:05 pmDemocrat party is the tain’t party.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:08 pm@62. Pence’s people in the WH put the word out he was “rattled” by the events of the week.
Apparently it doesn’t take much to make him go wobbly. Wait ’til The Donald plays his tapes of him telling off-color jokes at the WH Xmas party.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:08 pmBut patco along with thevteamsters had actually endorsed Reagan. Soviets subsequently noted this was the sign he meant business.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:09 pmYes Ford didn’t have the mandate to leverage monetary policy to really crush inflation. Many of his staff were Nixon holdovers
The dems have an army of willing proselytizers in the media, take camelbert who hadn’t informed his audience of the proper minitrue line
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:12 pmThank God most of the country has rejected Democrats in every way, shape, form. The last 8 years has been a precipitous decline in Congress, state legislatures and statehouses for Democrats. And people have had their fill of SJWs, farleft college campus shenanigans, PC, the media, Hollywood and the like.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:14 pmHe was at the center of the cold hot war
http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-cold-civil-war/
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:14 pm64… more fake news.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:15 pmThe republicans imploded before Trump, nk.
mg (31009b) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:15 pmAnd the establishment republicans have failed Americans for years.
But of course,
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:17 pmhttps://mobile.twitter.com/pspoole/status/863156661002919938
Of course man of mystery forgets to consider how long trump has retained thatbfirm.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:20 pmOf course ranking member Mark warner’ s own russia ties nothing to see here.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:23 pmThe firing of comey was not an end in itself:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/11/comey-firing-could-spur-new-review-clinton-case-immunity-deals-ex-agent-says.html
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:30 pmNarciso–at least Pence would not do any own-goal.
OT 1 What hath the NSA wrought?
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/12/technology/ransomware-attack-nsa-microsoft/
OT 2
kishnevi (4490a8) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:33 pmWhat hath Jenner wrought?
https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/beauty/dont-call-caitlyn-baby-name-plunges-popularity-133637678–politics.html
One is reminded of that little remembered film (Except for Mrs Moynihan) the recruit, they were after the key piece of hacking software. It’s the digital version of the arms race.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:37 pmWhat is striking is three years after snowden, they still didn’t have a clue.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:39 pmStop this crazy thing,
http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/05/12/trump-admin-rejects-lgbt-identity-question-2020-census-somehow-health-care/
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:44 pm“I think [Comey] really damaged his own reputation. He came in as kind of a straight shooter. But by the end, nobody trusted him,” Ingraham said. “So in the end, it was about time that Justice Department recommended his removal.”
“… the Left was not happy with him, the Right was not happy with him, and I think most people just think his investigation — if you look at this fairly, and the Russian collusion — there was nothing there,” Ingraham added. “He found nothing there, but he did manage to put a lot of doubt in a lot of people’s minds about the outcome of this election.”
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/ingraham-time-trump-fired-comey/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:51 pmDana, you were the one who played, “and don’t complain about nevertrump here.”
You mean that was just one time grouchiness?
Steven Malynn (d29fc3) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:53 pmStrike two
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2017/05/11/mccabes-political-problems/
The treehouse link suggests one might require a third whack
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:54 pmYes Rhodes and price shouldn’t be watched
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/congressional-testimonies/item/1757-statement-for-the-record-worldwide-threat-assessment-of-the-u-s-intelligence-community-before-the-ssci
Their minions are dug in like boll weevils
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:00 pmNow where I quibble is not having taken the opportunity of pointing out specifically where comey was derelict, but likely holy would still have been clurless.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:03 pm78, if you think about it, Trump should overrule his underlings on that one; his less reviled status wrt LGBTQ it is his namesake card . It tends to be the lgbtq lobby that squirts pant when President Pence” is uttered. I think the question with Dems is are they willing to take 7.5 years (run a stooge in 2020 in exchange for the parlor coup) of Pence?
urbanleftbehind (06ee59) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:06 pmWhy the very question solidifies a constituency based on junk science, which must be catered to.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:13 pmWell better than Rogers but barely:
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/05/12/report-john-cornyn-short-list-fbi-director/amp/
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:21 pmAre they ever held accountable
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:28 pmhttps://mobile.twitter.com/EliLake/status/863022194347171841
in other news
U.N. calls for probe into violence against transgender women in El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR An uptick in deadly violence against transgender women in El Salvador prompted the United Nations on Friday to call for an investigation into crimes against sexual minorities in the conservative Central American country.
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:35 pm@69 Haiku! Gesundheit. Wipe you nose.
WH ADVISER: PENCE ”RATTLED” BY EVENTS THIS WEEK
CNN Breaking News:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAV9-IPlbTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXiWAQ2oBB0
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:35 pm@72. Which makes it all the more hilarious. Guess there’s just not any law firms in Washington ‘goodinov’ for him but that one, comrade.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:40 pmhttps://t.co/Vua3FBJjIl
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:40 pmTwo videos and nothing about a “shaken Pence”. Fake News, DCSCA.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:44 pmA banner on the screen is proof to DCSCA.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:46 pmCNN… The network known for its snarky chyrons… https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/773952952360919041
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:49 pmTrump tells world he ‘invented’ the phrase ‘prime the pump.’
Aye-aye, Captain! Tuck in those shirttails!
“The man is a Freudian delight. He crawls with clues… the rolling balls, the second-hand
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:50 pmphrases, the migraine headaches …” – Tom Kiefer [Fred MacMurray] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
She will not let you be uninvolved:
http://m.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Michelle-Obama-criticizes-Trump-school-lunch-11141949.php
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:50 pmhttps://mobile.twitter.com/EF517_V2/status/773955667493318657/photo/1
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:51 pmJust by odds he should get something, but man of mystery removed all doubt.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:52 pm@92. Don’t lie, Haiku. But then you are Fox viewer, arent you:
Fox News error: banners COMEY RESIGNS.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:54 pmThey should be thankful Trump is President. He only fired Comey, Hillary would have had him killed.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/12/2017 @ 7:57 pmTwo round scoops of vanilla ice cream to lick eating his chocolate cream pie. And inventing the phrase ‘prime the pump.’ That’s making America grate again, this week, Captain.
Strawberries and ice cream on Sunday, sir!
“Salutee!” – Lurcio [Frankie Howerd] “Up Pompeii” BBC TV 1969
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:02 pmDCSCA… Captain Chyron
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:09 pmDCSCA… too clever by half (he isn’t)
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:11 pmFrom 2009… Jeff Zeleny, now with CNN…
“The most memorable question from last night’s news conference came from Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times, who asked President Obama what has most surprised, enchanted, humbled and troubled him while on the job.”
Go get ’em, tiger!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:22 pmOh that was a classic haberman, the keeper of the risotto tray was at politico at that time, probably under the tutelage of journolister Ben Smith (Now east buzzfeed)
narciso (db82a6) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:28 pmThe proof in this pudding was the response from Colbert’s audience upon learning of Comey’s dismissal. They cheered. When the Left’s rank and file’s reflex is to cheer Trump, a Republican President knows he has won and won big. Colbert, other media shills, and the Democratic Party, itself, can try to put this Humpty Dumpty back together again but will fail.
Whine all you want, but Trump won this battle right out of the box. All this psychodrama will only serve to cement Trump’s presidency. As you saw from the link I posted above, the trajectory of TDS is falling dramatically. So keep it up, Dustin and the crew. Keep it up.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:33 pmThe proof in this pudding was the response from Colbert’s audience upon learning of Comey’s dismissal. They cheered. When the Left’s rank and file’s reflex is to cheer Trump, a Republican President knows he has won and won big.
Good gravy! So when Republicans cheered the news that Osama bin Laden was dead, Obama knew he had won and won big? Colbert’s audience were not cheering Trump; they remembered October and were cheering Comey’s demise.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 8:49 pm@nk (#107): Re Colbert’s studio audience, there’s an alternate possibility. I don’t think they’re smart enough to actually absorb, much less process, anything just from listening to Colbert. The crowd has already been fluffed, rev’d up and made to feel like they’re letting down the side if they aren’t all enthusiastic and responsive, like the patrons of a comedy club that makes its best money off selling drinks during the second intermission. They’re basically just laughing, groaning, hooting-and-fist-pumping puppets.
I’m not sure of all their cueing mechanisms — there may be pheromones, or brainwave transmissions, or shock collars involved as well — but they normally use Colbert’s body language, voice tone, and — more than anything — degree/type of smirk as their cue.
Colbert stepped on his own line, though, because he was so confident that he was about to make a clip that would be picked up and widely replayed (salvaging a career hanging on by its fingernails, that would be doomed without “The Resistance” to Trump), he started his “this-is-one-great-moment-for-our-side” smirk.
Like Clever Hans doing sums, they reacted to the cue they’d seen, so they cheered.
What say you?
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:03 pmI’m sorry, that was disrespectful of me. I’m sure that the average Colbert studio audience is capable of absorbing and processing fart jokes and sex jokes.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:06 pmStill conspicuously missing from everyone’s rhetoric on Comey’s firing:
Calls for his reinstatement.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:10 pmI think you’re right, Beldar. Colbert could have said “Cheez Whiz” and they would have cheered. They had been “warmed up” before the show to be receptive, friendly and enthusiastic.
nk (dbc370) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:18 pmSomeone should be defending Jess Sessions against the accusations that by forwarding the Rosenstein memo about Comey to Trump, Sessions was violating the terms of his recusal. That’s ridiculous and demonstrably false.
The specific commitment that Sessions promised to make, and then publicly made, was this, on March 2:
This is not his resignation from office as Attorney General! And it certainly is not a prohibition against his continuing to function in all of the many, many roles committed to the Attorney General — by tradition, regulation, statute, and rule — as the head of a cabinet department. Among those very important roles, with associated responsibilities, is judging the initial and/or continuing fitness in office of everyone subordinate to him.
By engaging in communications with the POTUS regarding this personnel matter, Sessions was not participating in any “existing or future investigation of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States.”
Whatever else you may think of James Comey, neither he, nor his employment status, is an investigation of a matter. That was a carefully chosen and very precise phrase, legally meaningful and full on content in giving both Sessions and his staff, who’re expected to enforce the resulting Chinese wall, a bright-line guideline as to the very, very tiny area of his overall job responsibilities affected by this recusal.
I don’t think this can be debated in good faith. Of course, that won’t stop anyone who’s got an ax to grind.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:30 pm*full of content, I meant to write.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:32 pmAlso, I just watched one of the Fox talking heads, who has a law degree and should know better, fall into this Leftie distortion about Sessions without challenging it. Sessions could have written the memo that Rosenstein actually composed without violating his recusal. But for normal chain-of-command/supervisory responsibility reasons, it was surely more normal to have Rosenstein compose it for Sessions to re-transmit, with Sessions acting in the chief executive role within his own department. That also would have kept a nice bit of insulation that would have been optically useful, but Trump spoiled those optics entirely by making reference in the termination letter (probably written by WH counsel) to the purported assurances that Trump isn’t under investigation.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:40 pmGood visual for those who just know that this latest world-shaking scandal is finally helping the web detectives out there that they are finally turning the corner on bringing down the Trump:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/897c607d9f24b99139b4c3d4bafc75f9/tumblr_o5zwxiHkES1u22sioo1_400.gif
harkin (517285) — 5/12/2017 @ 9:56 pmI have come to think it is possibly explanation D: Trump is trolling the left.
First, that requires me to believe that Trump dumped Comey for another reason. The fact he didn’t indict Hilldog might be one.
But then I could totally see him in the oval office snickering, saying, “okay, and let’s say its because of how Comey handled the Hillary stuff, including making that press conference.” He literally gave Democrats what they wanted and for the stated reasons they wanted it.
And they lost their damn minds the moment he did it. And polls are already showing that the American people aren’t really bothered by this. Colbert had to brow beat his audience into thinking this was a bad, thing, etc. And if you believe the theory that when the democrats act mentally ill, that this helps trump and the republicans, it starts to sound a little smart politically.
I dunno. It could easily be that Trump is a buffoon doing a bad attempt to cover up something or something like that. But I am open to my theory.
I’ll add that it occurs to me that Trump is sort of the Bill Clinton of the republican party. Why is it that Bill Clinton survived? Because he refused to quit, or even show very much shame. He was Teflon because he decided he was Teflon and it became a self-fulfilling prophesy. Now, I don’t know if Trump has the zipper problem that Clinton has, but he certainly has a “don’t give a f-ck” attitude.
Still I’ll also say this. If trump doesn’t make at least serious progress on the wall, he won’t get a second term. Its too big a broken promise. Take that from a guy who said for years Hilldog would not be president so long as she was married to bill (though I admit I was surprised to be right last year).
Aaron "Worthing" Walker (a88db4) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:00 pmOh, my goodness. Great to hear from you, Aaron!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:12 pmThanks for dropping in, Aaron.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:25 pmWell, yes, I was cheering for Obama when he got bin Laden. Credit where credit’s due. To do otherwise would be petty. I try not to be petty.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:32 pmTwo more possible explanations
4) Trump believed that Comey wasn’t doing a good job, due to his public grandstanding, etc.
5) Some combination of (1) – (4)
I personally favor #(5). If you accept (5), then the timing provides little or no information. The decision would have been arrived at gradually.
David in Cal (2b55d5) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:49 pmHrmpf. Jeff Sessions, I meant to write in #112 above. Perhaps Jess is his sister.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/12/2017 @ 10:56 pmThe president is not supposed to dismiss a law-enforcement official because he thinks that a line of investigation is a waste of time or because it angers him.
But he can, and no law can stop him. Congress tried once, and even impeached a president over it, but they have no such power to control the Executive.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/12/2017 @ 11:03 pmOn your broader point, I think the strategy now is to identify Republicans so closely with Trump that they will never recover from the taint, and I don’t know what they can do about it. Trump will remain a tattered banner and they have no other to follow.
There is one way. They could bring a motion to impeach. It would indeed separate Trump and GOP, but the problem is that there are so many true believers that it wouldn’t help.
The GOP’s only way out is for Trump to succeed. Or perhaps die of apoplexy.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/12/2017 @ 11:10 pmAaron, great to see you around
Dustin (ba94b2) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:40 amAaron old buddy. Calls for some “Normisms”. [season one]
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:21 amAs I remember it Obama played the Osama nabbing so shoddy that he didn’t leave room for celebration.
Dumped the carcass at sea prior to the announcement without so much as a picture to prove provenience.
Followed swiftly by an outing of the heroes by loose lips Biden, serving them up as cannon fodder to the Taliban locusts.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:38 amhttp://www.truthandaction.org/michael-savage-seal-team-6-assassinated-executed/
Trump should fire that fraud Tillerson for signing the stupid global warming pact. Republicans are stupid and chickenshit.
mg (31009b) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:29 amTrump needs to fire the fraud Tillerson for signing the global warming pact.
mg (31009b) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:30 amRepublicans are stupid.
And Trump better put bill’s wife behind bars.
mg (31009b) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:31 amIvanka and her boy toy need to be shown the exit door.
mg (31009b) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:33 amAl: If Hearst’s geologist ain’t pursuing remedies and Utter ain’t, that leaves you speaking for the camp.
(He looks to Seth – Seth looks at Charlie, Charlie looks away, Seth looks back to Al and shakes his head “nah.” Al slams his fist on the table.)
Adjourned!
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:42 amdianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3548/Subversion-the-Nuts-and-Bolts.aspx
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:14 amGood to hear from you Aaroni
That last link is apparently where they got for the Americans from, I thought it was the koechers who first operated for Stb and then kgb
The backsliding on the Jerusalem embassy is a problem as well as the mixed signals on Paris accords, much of the rest of this is vaporware.
narciso (db82a6) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:25 amSo is the slow motion Hungary on the Caribbean happening in caracas. It’s notedvbut only in passing
narciso (db82a6) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:33 amThe colectivos is where sjw’ s end up
http://www.babalublog.com/2017/05/12/racism-is-what-leftists-really-celebrate-when-they-celebrate-communism/
narciso (db82a6) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:44 amThe colectivos are maduros militias a la the turbas of 80s nicaragua
narciso (db82a6) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:50 amBeldar (#44) Wrote: …The reason that part has escaped most folks’ attention is that there is no law which makes the POTUS “unaccountable.”
I did not say that there were no consequences and I addressed the impeachment potential later in my comment. All of those things you mention are potential consequences, but none of them – other than impeachment – are legal consequences and he is not required by law or custom to obtain the prior approval of anyone else before firing the FBI Director. We do not have a parliament/prime ministerial form of government. The U.S. President is head of state and head of government and cannot be removed from office only because large number of the chattering class disagree with his actions. There is no provision for a “vote of no confidence” in our Constitution only impeachment. Disagreeing with one’s political opponents on matters of policy is not an impeachable offense, no matter how many there are or how loudly they scream. This reaction to President Trump’s firing of the FBI Director reminds me of the artificial outrage the left produced when Bush(43) fired a number of U.S. Attorneys in the middle of one of his terms. And yes one of the consequences was the resignation of his new Attorney General, but that was entirely political, not required, and Bush and Gonzalez could very well have just told the Democrats to go fly a kite. It is very convenient for the Old Media and the establishment of both political parties that many people both in and out of government seems to believe that presidents and other political officers are constrained by public opinion. President Trump acts as if he doesn’t believe that and until and unless the Democrats can convince enough GOP members of the House and Senate to agree on impeaching him, he will continue to do so. The everyday people of the U.S. got fed up with all the crap and voted him into office, in part in the hope that he would dig out some of the crap infesting our federal government and this is one part of it. He doesn’t play the game by the old rules and I can understand that by doing so he angers and disempowers a large part of the overall Establishment in both parties and across the media, academia and all the other places where people who believe that they and their opinions matter more than those of the rest of us. And as for President Nixon, he resigned after the House voted the Articles of Impeachment … which proves my point rather than disproves it. Nor did I say that presidents ought not to be questioned. By the way, you’re offended? I don’t care, be offended. Nor am I concerned one iota that no one reading what I write will be moved by my post to change their position. By the way, you can do better than “…reinforcing all of Trump’s worst baggage”, can’t you??
Ike (216bbe) — 5/13/2017 @ 6:59 am“Ah don’t worry about it. We record everything in here. We’ll get you a trasncript before you leave.” says Ben Rhodes.
Hmmm…
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:01 amVery nice, Ike, and all besides the point. A leader needs the confidence of everyone who works for and with him. Otherwise, he’ll be typing up his own budget to drive over to Congress himself with the expectation that nobody will vote for it.
Sure the Shrub could have told the Senate to go pound sand over the fired U.S. Attorneys. And afterward he could have used his own money to finance the Iraq occupation?
Just a couple of examples, but you seem like a smart guy and I think you get the point.
nk (dbc370) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:13 am[Edit] Comey. He’s covered up his last crime for Hillary.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:26 amWas that succinct enough for you?
Maybe I should add, Comey better sit down and keep his mouth shut. We got the good on you.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:30 amWe can handle your pisspot and more. You don’t want to end up in a cell next to Hillary.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has asked the U.S. to stop producing so much oil, according to a report Thursday.
dailycaller.com/2017/05/12/saudi-arabia-whines-us-has-too-much-control-over-worlds-oil/
Arabs seem to have mistaken the USA for a member of OPEC.
Something the [Edit] America First and Always media would never do even by accident. Proof readers (as opposed to fact checkers and there is a difference).
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:47 amComey has not said word one since he was fired. It is the the orange-skinned New York pansy who flappeth his gums when no flea pursueth.
nk (dbc370) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:50 amBoth talk nonstop. Only one does behind the protection of a variety of anonymizing descriptions.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:55 amFrom where I stand Kevin M, apoplexy looks about right. God forbid the GOP help Trump succeed. What would America do with a successful Republican President, become Great Again? That wouldn’t do. Trump can fool everybody and become Great if he can overcome the Democrats, who would happily watch the country fall to a third world status if it would insure their victory in the next election. But he also needs to beat the GOP co-conspirators who hate non-insiders like Trump as bad as Democrats do. Plus he has to beat the #neverTrumpers, the communists (who now can openly control California legally), the media who is now calling for the spy agencies of our enemies for help thanks to Herr Kapitan Olbermann and his Bund, I mean cabal of leftist “journalists”, the entire entertainment industry which began touting Hillary For President since the premiere of Madam Secretary in September of 2014, every Middlesex school and college that cancels or won’t allow free speech on campus if not approved by the college communist society/black lives matter/PLO surrogates, the mayors and councils of sanctuary cities that proudly display their “virtue” of protecting illegals from the law while exposing their American constituents to the theft, rape and murder by the same.
And there’s more as you know but I rant. There is a civil war going on and the left is rightfully pissed-off. They spent decades and billions (mostly our tax money but billions nonetheless) to corner the nations Law schools, journalism and teaching schools plus every public school in the nation. At the same time they took over the entertainment industry both TV and movies, the media both print and television, the Arts (hell, they even bastardize poor Hamilton as if his being shot dead for his country wasn’t enough), the courts (in case a just law still exists they can have it declared unconstitutional), and now our health insurance/care. What they haven’t taken over they’ve regulated into mediocrity. They took NASA and turned it from space exploration to moslem mollification with the swipe of a pen. One small step for man became one giant turd for mankind. And after all that Hillary still lost the last election. I mean, what kind of subterfuge do honest quisling seditionists have to do already?
At this point there are two teams. Metaphorically and literally one team burns the flag and one waves it. When I see black lives matter/antifa/any leftist rally-riot/la raza burning flags I know my team. And when I read DISCO, Dustbin and comrade Tillman all converging on one thread I know Patterico has struck a nerve.
It’s been very entertaining reading these few days.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:56 amD: Comey showed no objectivity in investigations will likely continue to muck things up. Better to replace him before any further damage is caused to the FBI. Trump is not worried about the investigation against him for there’s nothing, but having Comey there means a witch hunt and a payback. A new Director solves these problems and may revive the Hillary sellout.
MeHappy (674afb) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:59 amSome people – though they are old enough to know better – choose to learn life’s lessons the hard way, Hoagie. And they will both learn and get it the hard way.
Thanks for standing up for what is right.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:20 amOn a different note: Played like a harpsicord – sounds like an orchestra – After 500 years, Leonardo da Vinci’s music machine is brought to life. There always seems to be another amazing discovery Leonardo left for us to find.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:35 amMaster stroke, if he accelerates the Uber-Shia-Sunni conflict by dangling control of Palestian statehood. If Israel is forced into the Sampson maneuve, perhaps a revisit of the Frozen Chosen (Alaska) plan is in order.
http://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-promote-fight-against-terrorism-first-trip-abroad-180424131.html
urbanleftbehind (6395d8) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:59 ampapertiger, you really need to move to Germany.
In 1933.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:41 amThis old lieutenant commander agrees with the old platoon sergeant @20.
To which I’ll add allowing witnesses/suspects to act as attorneys for other witnesses/suspects and agreeing to destroy evidence.
Combined with the special pleading Comey did for Hillary! at the presser I can easily see DJT looking at this and thinking, “OK, this guy’s gotta go.”
(But if the president felt so strongly about Comey’s comments back in July, why wait until now to fire him?)
This is just a semi-informed WAG but probably because his advisors told him to wait until he had his chain of command in place. The Director of the FBI reports to the Deputy Attorney General. The Deputy Attorney General reports to the Attorney General. And the Attorney General reports to the President. Trump only had a Deputy AG for two weeks.
There’s only been one Director of the FBI who has been fired before. Firing a Director of the FBI is a big deal. So how did Billy Jeff go about it? Same way. He waited until he had his chain of command in place. Janet Reno was confirmed in March 1993. It wasn’t until July 1993 that she finally asserted, and Billy Jeff agreed, that William Sessions needed to be fired.
I find it astounding that the “why wait until now” crowd never looks at the history of the only precedent for this.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:41 am@ Hoagie, who wrote (#144):
Yes, Trump has lots and lots of enemies, and so too does every GOP president.
But my friend, surely you can see that none of those hostile forces had anything to do with Trump firing Comey, and in particular they had nothing to do with the timing, manner, or rationale for his firing.
Trump’s got lots of enemies, but his biggest and most effective enemy, by far and going back well before the election, is a vulgar billionaire from New York named Donald J. Trump.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:45 amWhy would she “admit” to something she has not engaged in? This post is light-years from conspiracy theory despair or over-emotional.
Patterico (115b1f) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:47 amExcept for the lack of tolerance of opposing ideas and violent response to same, your comment is spot on!
I can’t see how you think such a comment would be well received by the people who run this blog. Since you were kind enough to make a comment that reduces to “I generally don’t like what I see here” let me return the favor.
I generally do not like to see comments that reduce to “I generally don’t like what I see here.” That sort of comment contributes nothing to the discussion whatsoever, and has the same effect on the rest of us that might be produced by a visit from Eeyore on one of his bad days. If this place is truly generally depressing for you to be around, on account of your inability to deal with valid criticisms of your cult leader, your options are a) stay and constantly bitch or b) leave. Guess which option would make us non-cultists happier?
I am fond of you because you have been here for quite a while and, before Trump, were generally agreeable to have around. I am also happy to have opposing perspectives aired, when those perspectives are delivered with facts and a basic level of respect for the other side. What does not make me happy is comments that reduce to “I generally don’t like what I see here.” If that’s all you can muster, consider whether you’d be happier at the blogs of mindless Trump cheerleaders. They’re very popular these days, I’m told. There are many to choose from.
Good post, Dana.
Patterico (115b1f) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:48 amNote the comment that prompted Haiku’s Berkeley comment.
They are wrong if they are talking about the posts but they are right about the comment section here, don’t you think?
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:03 amBeldar, I don’t know if you remember me, but who picks your clothes, Ray Charles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=62&v=v-oItsU_l4c
OK, now that I have that out of the way, I don’t think there’s anything particurly mysterious or indeed nefarious about this Comey business. Trump is easily one of the most self-centered guys (falling just short of Barack Obama) to ever be President. It’s all about how “fairly” he’s treated. And Comey didn’t recommend that Hillary! be prosecuted. He should have taken her out, and he didn’t. And that equals unfair in DJT’s eyes.
I can expand on this point if you wish, but that in a nutshell is my analysis of the situation.
What say you?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:14 amBy the way, I was listening to a Trump-supporting radio show yesterday and Andy McCarthy was the guest. They were talking about the Come firing. McCarthy said he was writing an article supporting what Trump did and criticizing the Nixonian-like hysteria from the left and right that he would post today. However, he said Trump’s actions and words made it hard to publish it. I notice he did publish it today, and it is interesting given his initial goal in writing it was to defend Trump.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:21 amAgreed Beldar, but they also at least had the support of the rank and file and they didn’t have members of their own party called #neverBush, did they? What I’m saying goes back to the election. You don’t like Trump but the alternative was Hilary. Nothing has changed really. If Trump goes Hillary, her party and the left celebrate a victory. They gain the momentum in Congress and get to block judges they don’t like and install leftists they do like. They also get the opportunity to change the rules so this never, ever happens to them again.
They get to change the rules in the Senate, the House, about executive orders and importantly the judiciary to maintain political power as long as there is an America. Nothing short of all out war could stop them.
They made a mistake. it will not happen again. We need to support Trump now for the same reason we needed to during the election: the alternative is too scary to contemplate. They will change the electoral college. They will import millions of illegals to stuff the House of Representatives, they will pass laws allowing immigrants and non Americans to vote. They will allow criminals to vote. They will make laws defining what can be said in political ads (like CNN just refusing to run an ad ) and they will use the law, the courts, the IRS and every other bureau and agency in government to harm, coerce, regulate, fine and imprison all perceived enemies. That would be us in case you don’t know. If you think they won’t then you are guilty of the number one mistake in all contests: underestimating your enemy.
You might not like that “vulgar billionaire from New York named Donald J. Trump”, but he’s not your enemy. They are your enemy. So if the enemy of my enemy is my friend surely we all need to support Trump and by extension the GOP. We don’t have to dine with Trump or play golf with him. We don’t need to buy his daughters clothes or stay at his hotels. We just need to support him while he dismantles the Fifth Column the left has spent decades creating. I’d consider that a win regardless who was President and regardless how much I liked or disliked him personally.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:25 amI am not doubt one of the guilty parties. Having grown up on the left coast where the cry bully leftists will tack a cardboard sign listing their grievances onto baseball bat and try to beat you with it.
I’m not making this up.
My impulse is to take that bat away from them and beat them right back.
This may not be the most productive mode of discourse. What are your recommendations, DRJ?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:31 amTry not to follow your impulses. Use your mind, not your emotions.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:33 amThat seems on point, Steve, this was the equivalent of the kobayashi Maru simulation. There’s a whole series of tripwires the previous administration had it in, first using the bogus dossier (which may have actually come from Russian operative akmetchin. Then unmasking names of surveiled persons, apparently lying about the contents of the communications, but using the journolist rizzotto trey grapevine using the dubious crowdstrike report and then stacking the deck of the review basically what the author of the downing street memo charged (He helped topple blair and eventually rose to the uk’ s un envoy) cheney with
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:33 amBut I don’t read enough here anymore to include you in my comment, Steve57. I only read today because P commented.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:34 amThen came the other sally’s fan dance re sessions to get him The way. Having reorganized the doj’ s stay be bond operation, getting that noninvolvement predgr.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:37 amBut let me add something for those who still see this as a binary “hillary or Trump?” Choice.
The average voter is fickle. They don’t vote for parties, they vote for people (as this election proved). They aren’t going to care that Trump is better than Hillary now that he is President. They want Trump to do good things for America. The more he acts like Nixon, the more they may decide Hillary and the Democrats would have been a better choice. Do you really want that to be his legacy, just as Trump was Obama’s legacy?
Hold Trump accountable and he will change, because he’s a chameleon when it comes to public opinion. As long as his base supports him no matter what, he will continue to trust his emotions and act on them.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:42 amEven the intolerance shown by the Trumpers is not Berkeley-level. But it is overly personal.
I guess it’s the Internet. “I disagree with you” is never good enough. It always has to elevate to “you’re a bad person” in some form or fashion.
Patterico (115b1f) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:42 amBehind and pledge, but picking rosenstein foreclosed another scenario like where Ashcroft formally have comey carte Blanche, now the question one might ask is who recommended him
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:44 amhaven’t read all the comments yet, but I will and try to respond where appropriate.
I think its a version of “B”, but not exactly as stated.
IMO Trump is seeing this from his “Corporate World” experience, and not from an angle of law enforcement/counter-espionage.
From Trump’s POV I think his action is not so much for the purpose of trying to shut down or stymie the investigation by removing Comey, but as “punishment” meted out to Comey for not completing the investigation. In the corporate world if you are assigned a task, you get it done — on schedule and on budget preferably. You don’t have a endless timeline with no benchmarks for progress that have to be met.
I think his frustration with Comey and the investigation was “Why is this taking so long? There’s nothing to it, so make your decisions, charge people, or wrap it up.”
Without being fully briefed on the details of the investigation — which Comey apparently refused to do — Trump has no basis to have patience. He’s not famous for patience anyway.
So, like a Corporate project manager who can’t keep his project on track — especially when the project at issue was dogging the CEO constantly in the press, and hindering his other projects that are moving along at the same time — Trump decided that the project needed a new manager. Comey had to go.
Frankly, I disagree with the POV that Trump is not entitled to know everything about the investigation. I think as the duly elected President of the US — the person for whom every official in the Exec. Branch works, Comey had an obligation to sit down with Trump and the AG — or Rosenstein since the AG has recused himself — and go over all the details of the investigation, including the people involved.
There is nothing in the law that does — or even could — suggest that the President isn’t entitled to know that information. He runs the entire Executive Branch. EVERYONE reports to him at some level.
This idea that you can “compartmentalize” FBI investigations and deny the President information because some subjects have a connection to him is dangerous. That’s how you got J. Edgar Hoover. It makes the FBI Director answerable to no one — and I think that was sort of the POV that Comey was exhibiting if not outright stating.
shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:50 amTrump’s got lots of enemies, but his biggest and most effective enemy, by far and going back well before the election, is a vulgar billionaire from New York named Donald J. Trump.
This is what is so infuriating about Trump. The policies that he has proposed (near as anyone can tell) are solid GOP positions. Not necessarily “conservative”, but the GOP isn’t necessarily conservative either. They aren’t fascist-right, they aren’t libertarian, they’re just center-right like the bulk of the GOP.
The only problem is that they have this guy, who keeps pushing the ideas off the stage, who is so thin-skinned and self-centered that his TERRIBLE personality overwhelms everything.
It’s really hard to get excited about Gorsuch and DeVos and Mattis etc, when President Blunderbus keeps showing up to help sell the deal.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:51 amSo clearly the answer, rosenstein had to be put in place, and vetted by sharb, who might as well have been the sloth from zootopia.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:51 am“As long as his base supports him no matter what, he will continue to trust his emotions and act on them.”
DRJ,
The manner of this firing could well just be a Murder on 5th Avenue gambit to measure the conditioned response of those whom he holds in such deep contempt due to their gullibility. It’s not as if he’s shown any capability in enlarging his pool of support so why not generate some peck and drool?
Rick Ballard (6f7e69) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:58 amThe goo leadership seems stacked to prevent any headway. Take this decision on methane that maverick supported, who knows why, he was frightened by a cow when he on break from Episcopal high school even If we still mercurial Kirk and ayotte in office, that would still not solve the problem. Take Richard burr, please we know he represents
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:58 amTrump told the world that he operates on gut instinct (emotion), Rick. I believe him because his actions as President support that conclusion.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:01 amlike sleazy chunky-butt loretta and the wholly corrupt eric holder, james comey believed in a highly selective and transparently politicized enforcement of the law
and now the fbi has to live with its new reputation as the skanky low-class untrustworthy IRS of law enforcement
President Trump’s new director will have a lot of housecleaning to do
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:04 am1) Is there evidence of Trump colluding with Russia? If your answer is along the lines of “we don’t know yet”, you are not paying attention. In my opinion.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:04 am2) was the firing of Comey justified? If your answer is along the lines of “we don’t know yet”, you are not paying attention. Again, in my opinion.
3) Does the timing of Comey’s firing raise valid suspicions? If your answer is along the lines of “we don’t know yet”, you are not paying attention. Again, in my opinion.
4) Have the Democrats, their leadership and their surrogates in the media been conducting themselves in an honorable manner, in good faith since November 8, 2017? If your answer is along the lines of “we don’t know yet”, you are clearly not paying attention. In my opinion.
They made a mistake. it will not happen again. We need to support Trump now for the same reason we needed to during the election: the alternative is too scary to contemplate.
If it were really that important to keep the Democrats out, supporting Trump would be the least viable option. Convincing him to resign would be better. Him having a stroke would be better. Going back in time and nominating Cruz or Walker or, god forgive me, Kasich would have been better. ANYBODY would have beat Hillary by a wider margin, especially in a 3rd-term election.
What is needed is a successful two-term President, and I cannot for the life of me see the American people putting up with President Logorrhea for even 4 years let alone 8.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:05 amSteve57,
I think many view Trump as a larger-than-life conservative hero willing to take on the media, the liberals, the courts, and the bureaucracy. Or we hope he is. But the real and the imaginary heroes — like Eastwood, Willis, and Stallone — used their minds to plot the course and their emotions were only used to get the endurance needed to stay the course. (The Navy also does that, doesn’t it?)
Trump doesn’t use his mind. He told us he acts on gut instinct. That is risky behavior that can pay big dividends, like winning a Presidency, but can also lead to problems. We’ve seen those problems time and time again with Trump’s Presidency and that worries me, because I agree with many here who think we need to make big changes to stop liberalism. It isn’t happening with Trump and it won’t if he keeps flailing around. He wasn’t ready for this task.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:08 amMake that 11/8/16… heh.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:10 amNow deferring on the wall, is a much larger strike against him, so are the mixed signals re the sacramental sky dragon pact. The congress’s sloth like pace in taking up tax reform, let’s not even being ryancare
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:10 amspeaking of corrupt sleazy failmerican law enforcement piggies
why no news about Lee Baca
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:11 amI disagree. In 4 months, Trump has accomplished more to help stop the liberal slide than GWB did in 8 years. As one example.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:12 amMr. narciso he did so good on the regulations
Mr. Trump’s done more for freedom in a few weeks than food stamp did in 8 years
notwithstanding odious petulant brainwashed coward John McCain
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:13 amThe firing and its manner has nothing to do with anything. Trump was WELL within his rights to fire the FBI director. He could have felt them man was disrespectful and that would have been sufficient. Trump doesn’t need cause, and there is not — nor can there be — a restriction on his power to fire executive officers (See Myers v US 1927).
The problem is that he just cannot STFU and let his opponents damage themselves. No, he has to take the bait. I’m pretty sure there is a Democrat war room out there someplace discussing the best ways to bait him.
This is like watching a drunk get in his car and drive every night. You know that someday something terrible will happen, and then it will be too late.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:14 amWhy because the press lies 24/7 looked at how many lies they threw out re rosenstein, spicer, finding requests. Sometimes it feels like he is out of his own, because the leadership is at best nite and often working at cross purposes
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:18 amI disagree. In 4 months, Trump has accomplished more to help stop the liberal slide than GWB did in 8 years. As one example.
It’s ephemeral. One term by another Obama and it’s undone. The ONLY thing he can do long-term is stack the Court, and Pence could do that just as well.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:19 amnonono the CRA says the fascist pension piggies at the EPA can’t re-regulate stuff once it’s been repealed
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:23 amThey can ignore the law, recall the beck decision, if they don’t care to.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:26 amSo what else happened this week, well there was so on cyber security, is that important look around the world, this weekend.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:29 amignore the law like how comey liked to do
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:29 amtrannies in el salvador, they are being disrespected!
donde los cachorros
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:32 amHappy, don’t fall for that ish…theyre gonna remove the tats and get weaves and get back in as “persecuted transexuals”
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:34 amSelective listening, Kevin M. Stacking the court is the MAIN thing he can do but he can also replace leftist career bureaucrats with conservatives
So far he has nominated less that 20% of the political positions, and until he does the holdovers continue their hiring. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/
I agree that impeaching Trump would be a disaster. One of several possible disasters. I doubt it will come to that. But he will NOT be the GOP candidate in 2020. NFW. Either Cruz or Romney will challenge him and win if he’s still in office by then. If he goes, I hope it’s by a graceful resignation before it seems forced.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:42 amI’ve been successfully resisting my impulses for over forty years, DRJ. The way my parents raised me served me well when I went away to UCSB, probably the most hedonistic college on the west coast, and later in the Navy where in many liberty ports I could have done almost anything I wanted.
But my standard was, do I want my grandmother learning about this from the news?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:51 ami can’t help but worry about our central american tranny brothers and sisters
their path, it is so difficult
it really puts things in perspective
when you look at how they’re treated
Mr. Trump looks like nothing less than an angel sent from heaven above in the sky
we are very blessed here
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:55 amDRJ,
The gut instinct may well lead to a Taj Mahal Presidency. His inability to staff the administration is going to be exacerbated by the manner in which the Comey firing was handled and his chiefs left without any Indians are going to be very stretched to maintain any illusion of competence.
OTOH – The damage done by Obama to the Democrat Party appears to be more than superficial and the power vacuum created by the Clinton loss isn’t being filled AFAICT.
Rick Ballard (6f7e69) — 5/13/2017 @ 11:57 amthe propaganda slut media has filled the vacuum left by frilly frilly food stamp and the nasty stinky pig-woman
they’re rollin!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:00 pmOh – I already live in a police state.
[Edit] Nazi Germany. They got their ideas second hand from 1920’s California Democrats anyway.
Gas chambers. Population control. Eugenics. Mass media Propaganda. Freeways.
You name it, they stole it from CSUS.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:17 pm@180. Haiku! Gesundheit!
In fact, the Trump Triumph has been to successfully neuter the modern ideological conservative movement, propel pragmatism back into mainstream government ops and set the stage for a massive Democratic wave election in 2018 thanks to Trump’s incredible incompetence. And, it’s great teevee!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:20 pm“The damage done by Obama to the Democrat Party appears to be more than superficial.”
You don’t say. Who woulda thunk it!?!?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:27 pmstealing from the poor to give to the ultra rich. Sierra Club. John Muir. Ecoterrorism. Copywrites passed down through the ages. State ownership of all property.
You can visit Hearst Castle with a park ranger for $45. Charge you extra to use the gold toilet.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:33 pmMy advice for the rest of the country, if the California legislature starts building a Navy and the like, don’t hesitate. Invade
Before “we” do it to you.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:38 pmHere’s what appears to be a good list of actions Trump has taken over the first 100+ days of his administration: http://www.upi.com/President-Trump-What-the-new-White-House-has-done-so-far/7811485361327/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 12:55 pmWhy would would Russia waste time and money trying to get Trump elected when
joe (debac0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:00 pmA they had already bought Hillary and,
B) she was highly compromised and subject to blackmail for the prior emails and prior times she had been bought
My advice would be let Kali secede and build whatever “dreamer” and trannie and #blacklivesmatter compliant joke navy their legislature can dream up.
But it was actually papertiger’s second comment that drew my interest. It reminded me of the motto of a bar in Anchorage, AK. “We scr*w the other guy and pass the savings on to you.”
Chilkoot Charlie’s. Is it still there? Somewhere I have the T shirt.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:00 pmOf course the California marinelli had such a yen for stroganoff he decided to stay in volodya’s mountain.
If Nixon is trump’s template, he moved things considerably it would be a little as if he had been able to put in strom as
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:06 pmAtty gen. Tom Watson as secretary of state, I guess gen Yarborough as secretary of defense.
@157. DRJ, it’s a mistake to try and lay any deep political thought on Trump because he’s a pretty easy read on that score– it’s an empty volume– especially to NYers who’ve experienced his shtick through the 80s.
Most of the country only knew him from a scripted, faux reality TV show. You know- fakery; smoke and mirrors. Back in the day, three people ran steady Eddie Koch’s NYC: Leona Helmsley, George Steinbrenner and Donald Trump. Those three were front page fodder in the Murdoch tabloid wars for straphangers and metro-NY teevee viewers literally for years. It was quite a show.
Trump’s self-promoting eccentricities were endured in business and entertainment circles as part of the package to draw attention, peddle product and pursue profits. In public service- especially at this level- it’s not so easily dismissed. If Trump was your daughter’s gym teacher and not the CIC, he’d likely be under arrest by now. Ol’Dead Fred didn’t send Trump off to military school for nothing. He’s always been a difficult and unmanageable persona outside his own universe where he’s in control. He’s sick. He suffers a personality disorder we all can see and those close to him who’ve known him for years have begun to openly discuss it in the media. Rome endured Caligula and Nero; America has a Trump. After 241 years, one of the sicker rats was going to make it all the way through the maze. But sooner or later the ship of state is going to steam into that typhoon, with President Queeg at the helm. It’ll be quite the drama. But then in these times, Americans don’t want to be governed, they wish to be entertained. And so far, it’s been a helluva a show.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:09 pm@ Hoagie, who wrote: “You might not like that “vulgar billionaire from New York named Donald J. Trump”, but he’s not your enemy.I don’t like him, but that’s not what I was talking about. And it’s not the problem.
The problem is he is his own worst enemy, and he screwed this pooch entirely on his own. At this point, that’s a lament by me regarding his ineffectiveness, not an attack by me based on the fact that I don’t like him. Whether I like him or not doesn’t get anything passed through Congress. But his self-destructiveness damn well does affect that, and is affecting it.
But there seems to be no appetite in Donald Trump for constructive criticism, is there? Nor, much, in some people who are currently defending him regarding his handling of this debacle.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:11 pmWhoa. I just googled it and it looks like Chilkoot Charlies’s has turned into a gay bar.
http://koots.com/events/men-of-koots
I’m afraid to google on the search terms “Great Alaskan Bush Company” which used to be a respectable heterosexual patriarchal strip club.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:16 pm@207 But there seems to be no appetite in Donald Trump for constructive criticism, is there?
ROFLMAOPIP. Beldar does have a sense of humor!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:19 pmHere’s a snippet from a Charles Hurt Analysis/Opinion piece over at the Washington Times. It is his final point that I think is most apropos.
“But then, as the heavy breathing subsides and the adrenaline rush gives way to factual, concrete reporting, the most damning charges fall away.
Turns out Mr. Trump is a germaphobe and wasn’t in that Russian hotel room.
The bust of Martin Luther King is still in the Oval Office.
He didn’t abandon conservatives by naming his sister to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Trump’s Tower — and people involved in his campaign — were, in fact, surveilled.
Slowly, agonizingly, Truth becomes very inconvenient for all these people predicting Mr. Trump’s certain demise.
In the end, they are all left clinging to the smallest Styrofoam shard of their original story, bobbing in the harsh sea of Donald Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The last remaining wastrels pontificating about the “scandal” formerly larger than Watergate are left with just one flimsy accusation.
“Well, he could have handled it better,” they sniff. “He didn’t follow Washington political protocol.”“
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:24 pmThe problem is he is his own worst enemy, and he screwed this pooch entirely on his own. At this point, that’s a lament by me regarding his ineffectiveness, not an attack by me based on the fact that I don’t like him. Whether I like him or not doesn’t get anything passed through Congress. But his self-destructiveness damn well does affect that, and is affecting it.
This. He repels half his party, doesn’t give a damn, and then expects them to follow. And when they don’t he goes all stompyfoot. I ask you, is 4 years of this tolerable? Suppose something important came up? It’s like playing soccer when your own goalie is kicking the ball into the net. It’s discouraging to the team.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:24 pmStyle is the final redoubt.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:25 pmI actually don’t have any disagreement with DCSCA @206. SHOCKA!
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:31 pm“Whoa. I just googled it and it looks like Chilkoot Charlies’s has turned into a gay bar.”
I guess that will entail a new form of bear hunting?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:38 pmCol. H. asked (#173):
This question is actually why I’m bothering to respond.
Almost no one is discussing this issue with any precision, and your question is typically imprecise of most of the current discussion, Col. H.
The meaning of the term “evidence” varies with context. In its most meaningful sense, is what gets admitted in court in a public criminal proceeding. No such criminal proceeding has even been begun.
In another valid and relevant context, though, evidence includes what law enforcement officials have gathered and secured in anticipation of such a criminal proceeding. Such bodies of information are, appropriately, closely held secret within the law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities, and remain non-public until formally offered and admitted “into evidence” at the trial.
Nobody commenting here knows what “evidence” in this sense the FBI or the DoJ has already gathered on, for example, Gen. Flynn and his financial disclosures, or Paul Manafort and his loans — or any of a hundred or a thousand other topics.
Closely related to this would be the body of information (testimony, documents & tangible things), if any, that the FBI, NSA, CIA, and whoever else has been involved in the intelligence community. This “evidence” isn’t destined to be used in court to convict anyone, but instead is to be used in identifying foreign intelligence threats and devising counterintelligence measures. Lots of evidence that couldn’t ever meet the standards for admissibility in a court of law, either because of how that evidence was gathered or how reliable it may be is nevertheless quite useful for those different, non-law-enforcement purposes. But again, like the evidence being gathered for any criminal investigations, this type of evidence, if it exists, is going to have been very deliberately kept out of the public eye and off the internet.
Then we get to the last, least precise, and least meaningful sort of “evidence” — that which gets leaked or otherwise into the public domain, before any criminal proceeding has begun. And that’s the “evidence” you’re talking about.
You’re correct, then, that in this last, least important, least precise, most general context — “Has there yet been a leak into the public domain of something that might later be admissible evidence to establish that Trump colluded with the Russians?” — I can’t point you to any such information, nor can anyone else commenting here, nor can anyone on the Left.
It’s a fair and important debate point. It’s not the end of the question for all time, or any kind of magic bullet that stops further debate.
But it’s a debate point that has limited weight, less than you’re trying to give it, at best. It certainly would be a better point for Mr. Trump if he’d only stop acting like he knows that the FBI and/or intelligence agencies have, or are on the brink of uncovering, something terribly inculpatory.
Sure it was. Moreover, it’s been obvious since at least July 2016. No one on either side is calling for his reinstatement.
Yes, the timing does raise valid suspicions. He’s behaving like he would if he had something to hide — e.g., inserting the line in the firing letter, which very much implies that he’s thinking of himself rather than of the national interest in having a competent FBI Director with appropriate good judgment.
Nope, but that doesn’t excuse Trump bungling the timing and manner of this personnel decision.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:40 pm210… I fully expect this is the way it plays out, Thor. In my opinion.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:42 pmIn what way is this a debacle? And please remember who I am. I was calling people names like “Trumptard” for supporting this guy. I was a Cruz guy but clearly I was outnumbered.
But now Trump is the President. I don’t see the scandal here. Any outrage is manufactured. He fired Comey, so what? He’s the President. He can fire Comey. Comey admitted that.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:42 pmSomething important like the firing of an out of control director of the FBI?
How many Presidents balked at firing a corrupt J. Edgar Hoover? Every President from FDR to Nixon could have and should have removed him. Not one dared, despite decades of malfeasance. Decades.
Trump is human – maybe too human – but he calls upon qualified experts and gets the job done. The biggest failure of his administration, so far, was the RyanCare fiasco, in which Trump wrongly assumed that Paul Ryan was a qualified expert and up to the task of leading the Republicans in the House. Big mistake. A month later, this time with Mark Meadows, his new expert at the helm, the result was different.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:43 pmI agree with 206, 207, 209, 211, and 213. I used to agree with most comments here so it’s a pleasure to see it can still happen.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:44 pmKevin M, understood by me and I don’t disagree with your initial sentence. But I ask you, would 4 years of the exact opposite i.e. total leftist policies be tolerable? If Trump got 3 more conservative justices appointed to the Supreme Court, an additional 200 to the federal judiciary, built the Wall and had it funded by Martians most of you guys would still be bitchin’ about something. It’s personal with you. We all know the man is a turd, but he’s OUR turd. A conservative turd. Not a leftist commie turd. You guys really don’t understand how absolutely marvelous one thing Trump does is: He drives the left bat$hit crazy and that will make them make mistakes.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:45 pmComey’s summary of the case against Hillary was particularly defective, in the opinion of many who heard it last July, in ignoring all of her many prior inconsistent statements — sworn, public, and private — regarding her knowledge, intention, motivations, and culpability. Such inconsistent statements are among the very most powerful means for prosecutors when they’re trying to prove criminal intent, whether the defendant takes the stand or not, but especially if they do.
Trump has created that same problem for himself with the spectacularly mismanaged roll-out of this personnel decision.
It’s just stunning political and legal malpractice, probably because he’s insisting on being his own political and legal advisor.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:46 pmWould that be “Bear Back” hunting, Colonel?
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:49 pmHoagie, you argue with passion. Ultimately your argument boils down to, “He’s a turd whom I’ve adopted.” That’s honest and reflects well on your courage.
I continue to disclaim parentage, however, even while hoping the turd ends up spoiling more of the punch on the Dems’ side of the punch-bowl. Unfortunately that’s not usually how punch-bowls work.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:50 pmIf the most respected investigative organization in the world is investigating whether there has been illegal or unethical conduct or collusion with any foreign government, let them finish their investigation and let the chips fall where they may. Why the need for a special counsel?… that is unless the FBI is somehow unable do the job it is supposed to do. And then they and the DOJ can turn their attention to Hillary Clinton’s conduct – and the Clinton Foundation for that matter – while she was S of S and during the run up to the election.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:53 pm“The ONLY thing he can do long-term is stack the Court”
– Kevin M
No. There is something else Trump can do and just did. He removed our nation’s top law enforcement offical six years before the expiration of his current term, a move that honest observers from across the political spectrum agree was overdue. Which of the other Republican contenders in 2016 would have been up to this? Few. Maybe, none. Would Pence have made this move? Doubtful.
ThOR (c9324e) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:54 pmBut now Trump is the President. I don’t see the scandal here. Any outrage is manufactured. He fired Comey, so what? He’s the President. He can fire Comey. Comey admitted that.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:42 pm
He gets no style points, Steve. Judges say 3 on a 10 scale. Google it.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:57 pm225… I’ve made the point before. Trump spared the country from another 6.5 years of Comey screw-ups. That’s a win.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 1:59 pmAnd once again, James Comey
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:11 pmiswas the FBI director who apparently thought it prudent to not tell the Director of National Intelligence that the FBI had opened a counter-intelligence investigation involving Russia and the 2016 election. I have no knowledge whether “timing” or civility were considerations.Do we want to look at things as they are,or how they can me mafe to look?
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:38 pmGreat point, Beldar.
Those of us who are very critical of Trump do need to remember we do not know of any direct evidence against him regarding Russia. And as far as I can see, nearly all of us concede this.
Those who wish to support Trump need to realize that any evidence that exists could simply be something the FBI cannot reveal to us for the reasons you explained. but also, with the people surrounding Trump appearing guilty in various ways, and Trump firing the FBI director because of the Russia probe (and not because of the many other issues), does make Trump look awful.
The same people saying ‘case closed’ are also saying ‘please no special counsel, please’ as though they do not think the case is really closed. I think it’s very tricky to defend a guy like Trump who has no morality at all about would sell us out in a heartbeat to Russia for twelve cents.
Dustin (ba94b2) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:47 pmWoah there Beldar. You didn’t read narsico’s link to the treehouse?
Here it is again.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/05/12/president-trump-drops-another-moab-media-missing-sally-yates-and-james-comey-timeline/#more-132536
Sally Yates and Bill Priestap, in league with James Comey, known political operatives all, were setting up a trap for the President to walk into.
The Potus, under guidance from his legal council Don McGahn, fired them in exactly the right order and right time.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:12 pmin other news, nbc renewed timeless, the other time travel series, after canceling it, the premise is there is a secret skull and bones type society, going back to the revolutionary war era, which have been running things secretly
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:24 pmand for unclear reasons they developed a time machine, in the season finale, the female professor who is the heroine, is revealed to have unknowing had parents tied to that secret society that created the time machine
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:26 pmI’ll answer that. I didn’t. I have come to see that place as one of the more unreliable sites in existence.
Patterico (115b1f) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:27 pmthe real atty general of Pennsylvania renders a judgement
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/266695/holder-furious-sessions-fighting-crime-again-daniel-greenfield
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:41 pmCalifornia, oh who knows anymore
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:42 pmNarciso Are you signaling some discrepancy in the treehouse timeline which eluded my notice?
I’ve been known to miss stop signs sometimes.
Please clarify. And please if possible keep the parables at a minimum.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 3:44 pm@ Steve57, re why I refer to this as a “debacle”: For everything else Trump wanted to be doing right now, foreign or domestic, this is a debacle. It’s dominated the news now for a solid week. It heartens the enemies of the agenda the POTUS should be pursuing, and gives them tools to distract, delay, and undercut.
And almost all of it could have been prevented by using the simple prudence that any seasoned employer uses in any personnel decision. Trump apparently is not only not a genius when it comes to firing people, he’s utterly clueless how to go about it.
It’s not a constitutional crisis in the sense the Dems are screaming. But there are lots of kinds of debacles, and this is one.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:07 pmLast night I watched about half of Rosenstein’s Senate confirmation testimony from last March on C-Span. He was questioned by many senators about the special counsel situation. And he made many of the very same points I’ve made in comments here — including a mention of the Agnew conviction obtained by one of his predecessors as U.S. Attorney for Maryland. He’s clearly thoroughly familiar with the current regs and the series of Godzilla-like independent prosecutor controversies that led to them.
And he while he was, appropriately, absolutely insistent in refusing to predict whether or when he’d appoint a special counsel to look into anything relating to the 2016 elections — insisting that he hadn’t yet been privy to the information that would be vital for such a decision, including knowledge of what criminal investigations are pending — he did make the excellent point that the Obama appointees in DoJ who’d had their finger on that button, from Lynch through Sally Yates through her successor as Acting AG, did have access to that information, and none of them has appointed a special counsel while their fingers were on that button.
And if you’re wondering, he pronounces his surname’s last syllable to rhyme with “pine,” not with “green.”
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:15 pmTreehouse is playing connect the dots. Even if the connections are not simply vivid imagination on the part of Treehouse–which seems to adhere to the philosophy that a cigar is never just a cigar–it overplays the effect. If Trump dropped a MOAB, he didn’t get far enough away from the target before detonation to keep himself uninjured.
kishnevi (4a421b) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:17 pmit’s a metaphor, but the timeline of events, and the officials involved which are whispering in the ears of Carlos Slims, Bezos, and Rupert’s reporters are the keys
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:29 pmTrump screwed up the WH communication strategy when he retired to his big screen TV and didn’t like the intensity of the blowback from the dems who wanted Comey’s head for months. Pushing others out to flood the airwaves led to inconsistencies in their explanations. The boss screwed it up when he didn’t let the team do their job and then took control changing the message making it worse.
Bad as it was this will soon pass with an international trip and a solid FBI pick. He does seem to learn from his mistakes there’s just no guarantee the next one won’t be a whopper too.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:32 pmPretty sure MOAB was a term of art meant to get people in the door rather than a descriptor.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:37 pmthis is louise mench with a security clearance, they seem to give them away in cracker jack boxes
https://twitter.com/Susan_Hennessey/status/863498518958407680
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:37 pmHoagie:
If they were voting on the 25th amendment incapacity motion, and you were the tie-breaker, how would you vote?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:40 pmWe don’t need another swamprat
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:40 pmyes, that’s fair, but it’s her spitting pea soup that is instructive,
this was the kobayashi maru, they had set it so comey couldn’t be removed, he was part of the apparat, ‘deep state’ is too tendential,
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:42 pmBut I ask you, would 4 years of the exact opposite i.e. total leftist policies be tolerable?
Those aren’t the choices right now. But it MAY be what hanging on to this albatross leads to.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:44 pmWell that makes my President James T. Kirk. The man who flipped the script and beat the kobayashi maru.
Lovin it.
Not tired of winning.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:46 pm@Beldar, I believe the scandal talk is unsustainable and will blow over in a few days.
But we shall see.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:46 pmNo. There is something else Trump can do and just did. He removed our nation’s top law enforcement offical
And President Warren can put Gloria Allred in there in 2021. I said “long-term”
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:47 pmfwiw:
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/05/david-lat-puts-18-candidates-for-fbi.html
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:47 pmin other news, nbc renewed timeless, the other time travel series, after canceling it, the premise is there is a secret skull and bones type society, going back to the revolutionary war era, which have been running things secretly
Written by Millennials who have no clue about any history before the Clintons. I really wanted to like the show, but when they started off having a black guy going into the past, you just knew they had a bone to pick. And the writing is TERRIBLE. You would think they purposely chose people with 90 IQ to be their time-travelers.
Meh. I guess NBC doesn’t have too many shows that rise to the level of this dreck.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:51 pmhey it’s mildly entertaining for some segments,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-13/north-korea-test-fires-another-ballistic-missile
that would pickering who was on the board of niac, and the Benghazi review board and the Lockheed board,
narciso (d1f714) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:56 pmComey has quite a rogue history, much more than I was aware of… https://amgreatness.com/2017/05/13/fbi-not-need-another-don-quixote-director/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:57 pmComey is like the Zelig of major F-ups, is what it looks like.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:59 pmIf this piece by streiff is true Comey’s got some ‘splaining to do.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:00 pmThat last link doesn’t work coronello, but we’ve known comey’s record for some time, although the railroading of Stephen hatfill was one I had forgotten (This affair showed how irresponsible Nick kristof had been)
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:36 pmso as you can clearly see yet again President Trump has done the good decision
happyfeet (28a91b) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:37 pmThe bogus dossier reminds me of the ‘crimes’ attributed to Howard hunt, he ‘edited’ some cables around the time of the diem assassination to make the Kennedy’s more responsible, it was more indirect, the administration was reacting to haberstams reporting which was influenced by an actual Viet Minh agent, this out pressure on Harriman who has conein* and company to contact the plotters sidelining the actual station chief
* a Kansas born Corsican member of the oss and cia, who saved daniel ellsberg from the wrath of a caid in saigon, whose mistress was sleeping with ellsberg (consider that butterfly effect) subsequently he boasted had he being on chargevof the burglars they would have succeeded.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:52 pmWrong way red squaw:
http://www.weaselzippers.us/338600-liz-warren-shoots-arrow-at-trump-hits-hillary-in-commencement-speech-no-one-is-above-the-law/
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:56 pmA very biased account by one of the culprits moyar pointed out.
https://newrepublic.com/article/79936/carpe-diem
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 5:59 pmnarciso, the headline at the hill changed as I was reading. It now omits the part about the arrow hitting Hillary. Another memory holed headline.
felipe (023cc9) — 5/13/2017 @ 6:05 pmWait, what?
felipe (023cc9) — 5/13/2017 @ 6:08 pmWhich part, imagine if conein had not intervened likely ellsberg might not have made it to write the Pentagon papers hence no need for plumbers no watergate
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 6:17 pmHe was more like Raymond Eddington,
http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/03/08/will-the-real-daniel-ellsberg-please-stand-up/
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 6:27 pmSomeone has had certain insights
http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=10506
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 7:24 pmDoesn’t this violate international law?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:17 pm“Do you think I care about optics? I sit on every chair like it’s a toilet.”- President Donald Trump [Alec Baldwin] SNL, NBC TV 5/13/17.
He does.
“Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:40 pmThe Robert Duvall chAracter in network, the president of ubs I suppose based on William paley
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 8:59 pmAnd on a lighter note
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:19 pmhttp://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/05/the-week-in-pictures-omnibus-edition.php
Considering impeachment as a default option. Might be a sign:
https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2017/05/12/the-existential-roots-of-trump-derangement-syndrome/
narciso (ae786b) — 5/13/2017 @ 9:30 pm@ Steve57 (#250), I hope you’re right that “the scandal talk is unsustainable and will blow over in a few days.”
Realistically, though, it’s bound to be with us continuously at least until a new FBI Director is confirmed, and to rear its head episodically after that, even in a best-case scenario.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:35 pm@ narciso (#267): I’m glad I followed your link to the Streetwise Professor if only for this prose:
I’m going to have to think of some apt Shakespearean metaphors for this — surely between Hamlet, the Scottish Play, Lear, and The Tempest, I can patch together some suitably lurid allusions. (Although I think someone over at NRO referred to this today as more like a Mexican soap opera.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:41 pmMaybe also Othello — there are several potential Iagos skulking around Washington.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 10:42 pmI hope you’re right that “the scandal talk is unsustainable and will blow over in a few days.”
Assuming youknowwho will let it.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:07 amWhat we need then, Beldar, is a good helmsman. We don’t have such in Ryan or McConnel. So what are we, assuming we’re captains of our own fate, going to do about it?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:31 amI like Mark Levin’s answer.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:36 amRead it and weep, no trump uni-party commies. This lady is the best writer in America.
mg (31009b) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:50 amhttp://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/05/russian_hacking_and_collusion_put_the_cards_on_the_table_.html
After reading that American Thinker article, aren’t you glad James Comey is gone? Don’t you wish President Trump would continue the pruning process dumping McCabe, Priestap, and anybody else Comey installed for Clinton’s cover?
A Comey delete is the subtraction of a negative.
papertiger (c8116c) — 5/14/2017 @ 4:21 amMorning all, no it’s as ludicrous as late del castillo’ s unstoppable where she plays a Mexican first lady framed for the
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 5:17 amMurder of her husband by a corrupt general working for wait for it, the , because he wanted to stop the war on drugs
It was her revenge against the persecutionndorected against her by the real first lady a former soap opera queen
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-09/obama-pockets-32-million-speaking-gig-milan
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 5:26 ammg, always remember that “the Democrats/Hillary are worse” is an extremely low bar, which El Tupe barely clears.
kishnevi (d764f4) — 5/14/2017 @ 7:35 am@ Steve57: I only can helm my own kayak, and that just barely. I’ll continue to watch and comment and hope for the best. When I can — as here, with my comments about the special counsel regulations — I’ll try to shed some light on legal topics for the benefit of the righteous but confused. As for the great Ship of State, the captain is determined to be his own helmsman, his own navigator, his own engineer, his own fire-control officer, etc.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 7:47 amO/T, woman, fitness guru, who wouldn’t be seen in public without make up hailed as a hero for natural beauty for not shaving her legs.
http://globalnews.ca/news/3388577/woman-stops-shaving-year/
Great. She has hairy legs now. Let’s get down and dirty with the au naturel cave man sex.
Then I notice her well cultivated eyebrows and call bulls***t. This isn’t a woman embracing her imperfections.
Ladies, am I wrong?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/14/2017 @ 7:57 amAnd to think, she (KdC) kept El Chapo in permanent friend zone.
urbanleftbehind (6974b5) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:14 amHis capture soon after that begging for a date on Twitter is textbook example of the mediums pitfalls, as alluded to in a previous thread.
urbanleftbehind (6974b5) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:16 amkishnevi – very true about President Trump, but no other candidate from team stupid could beat our orange dream sickle.
mg (31009b) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:33 amother than Ted none of them would have nominated Gorsuch, or let his A.G. enforce law.
228. Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/13/2017 @ 2:11 pm
I missed that. Is that something Clapper said recently? What exactly did he say, whenever he said it?
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:38 amother than Ted none of them would have nominated Gorsuch, or let his A.G. enforce law.
i wouldn’t be so sure about the Gorsuch part (or at least, I think most of them would have picked someone of Gorsuch quality). And an authoritarian AG under an authoritarian POTUS is not necessarily a good thing, especially since we’ve just had eight years of that combination in leftist guise.
kishnevi (d764f4) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:46 amRpbert Gates on face the NAtion said if he had found out, while director of the CIA, that the NSA head had lied to the vice preisident, he would have sought a private meeting with the president.
He didn’t seem to think that automatically alled for a firing and he didn’t really see the where the blackmail threat was. “That’s as tretch,” he said. Usually blackmail is about something else, like hiding something in your life, not about lying to someone who works 50 feet away from you in the same building.
Of course it would be people in the U.S. government who might have been in a position to blackmail Mike Flynn in that case, not the Russians. Trump’s White House counsel checked it out, and Flynn, in that conversation wth Kislyak, had not stepped out of bounds, and that was it until the fact that the conversation Flynn had with Russiasn Ambassador Sergey Kislyak did indeed include the subject of the possibility of lifting sanctions (Flynn said that would be more possible if Russia didn’t retaliate for Obama’s explusions) and that the conversation was recorded and a transcript existed!
After the leak, Flynn started floundering. He started to talk about a bad memory. (Trump saw there by the way, how the idea that a conversation was “taped” gets people to tell soemthing closer to the truth.)
Now the real question is if Flynn was giving advice and analysis to Trump that had been bought and paid for by Russia.
If somebody was suspicious of that, or anything approaching that, they didn’t get him with that Dec 28 or 29 conversation with the Russian Ambassador.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:51 amSorry to hear your fine with ms-13, the border patrol not doing their job and serious criminals getting a slap on the wrist, kishnevi. Something your previous obama hoods never accomplished.
mg (31009b) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:55 amApparently the POTUS realized that it’s not helping his agenda to keep focusing on the way Comey was fired. Chris Wallace began today’s Fox News Sunday by saying that they’d lined up several Administration surrogates to appear this morning, but when the WH learned they planned to spend at least half the show discussing the Comey firing, the WH placed them on competing networks instead.
I guess this makes Trump a — what, five-dimensional chess player? Because for the life of me, I cannot understand how heavy-handing your most sympathetic media outlet, trying to muzzle it on a specific topic, is likely to diminish attention to that topic overall. Alas, I can only see things in three spatial and one temporal dimension, and in all of those Trump is digging his own hole deeper by the hour.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 8:56 amTrump didn’t pick the names on that list, mg. My primary gratitude for the Gorsuch nomination is actually to Ted Cruz, who (in exchange for Cruz’ formal endorsement, a promise-keeping act that disgusted our host, Patterico, at the time) secured Donald Trump’s written promise, published on his campaign website, to choose exclusively from that particular publicly-released list in making his SCOTUS selections — and not just hypothetically, but during a campaign that was mostly conducted with a highly visible SCOTUS vacancy caused by the death of a beloved hero of that party.
As I said at the time, no one — surely including Ted Cruz — has any illusions that Trump considers himself bound by any promise or oath, no matter how solemn and no matter how expressed. He would have sworn on his grandmother than the USFL was all about spring football, for example. Nevertheless, Cruz’ gambit did, to an unprecedented degree in all of American history, formally commit a major-party presidential candidate to a list of SCOTUS nominees, and that nominee, when elected, did indeed make his initial pick from it.
So please excuse me if I snort and guffaw at the notion that no one but Trump could have picked Neil Gorsuch. Jeb Bush probably would have picked Neil Gorsuch too.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:03 am@ Colonel Haiku: The American Thinker artcle linked to by mg @279 says that Comey did notify Clapper about a counter-intelligence investigation in July 2016:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/05/russian_hacking_and_collusion_put_the_cards_on_the_table_.html#!
This seems to be a quotation from somewhere else, but I am not sure where.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:10 amWell her problem was in trusting spiccoli, who promptly threw her to the wolves
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:13 am@Sammeh…
“What to make of the Grassley-Feinstein exchange? While nothing is ever completely clear in the Russia affair, it seems that Grassley was saying that Comey had told him, and Feinstein, that some individuals were targets of the FBI Russia probe, and that President Trump was not among them.
That’s not an exoneration; the investigation could be focused on others around Trump, and perhaps on his campaign as an organization, in a way that could eventually lead to the president. And it’s important to remember that James Comey is the FBI director who did not tell the Director of National Intelligence that the FBI had opened a counter-intelligence investigation involving Russia and the 2016 election. Who knows how Comey decided what to tell Congress.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/byron-york-what-grassley-and-feinstein-said-about-trump-the-fbi-and-russia/article/2622899
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:22 am238. Beldar (fa637a) — 5/13/2017 @ 4:07 pm
People are not thinkking this through,
1) Trump was bad at covering up the motive for firing the FBI Director.
2) This, and other things, means that he’s bad at coverups.
3) But if he is bad at coverups, it can’t be difficult to uncover what he does!
4) And if it can’t be difficult to uncover what he does, there can’t be deviously hidden Russian bribery or blackmail here.
QED.
But he could be a fool, or perhaps someone who ignored warning signs, and have hired a corrupt pro-Russian National Security Adviser.
But the Democrats don’t want Mike Flynn to be corrupt – they want Donald Trump to be. You know, somebody people could vote for or not. Mike Flynn is not going to be on any ballot.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:24 am295. 297.
What is Byron York referring to?
Is there maybe a conflicxt in testimony maybe about what Comey told Clapper?? Or dd the author of he other article get it wrong?
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:27 amI notice that nobody in the news seems to be bringing up the idea that Mike Flynn might have been on the takle from Russia (certainly more plausible than Donald Trump being on the take, which is the only idea some Democrats seem to be interested in.)
They know actually there was a quid. Flynn got money.
The question is was there a quo.
In oher words, did Flynn take instructions, or even hints, from anybody as to what he should tell Trump?
I think one reason this is not an issue is that nobody (except Trump himself and maybe a few people close to him) knows exactly what Flynn told Trump, and how it might or might not have deviated from the truth, or from good judgment. It’s not public.
Now a pro-Russian adviser with an imprimatur of integrity ( career U.S. military! ) is not so easy to stumble into. So there’s somebody else involved, too, in getting several Russia connected people into high positions in the Trump campaign.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:45 amThe Democrats would maybe have you believe – I don’t know what they are implying – that Trump himself took instructions from the Russians as to whom to hire. I mean what else? (What well els is they are ignoring that Trump took any advice at all)
But anyway, for anything like that to be true, Donald Trump would have to be very, very, good at coverups.
But the whole James Comey firing incident shows that he’s not super devious at covering things up!
Or even very good.
So how could this be true?
How could Donald Trump have collaborated with Russia and it’s all still secret?
He can’t be both very good and very bad at managing coverups.
In his whole career, has Donald Trump ever successfully implemented high quality coverups?
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:46 amSammeh there is no there, Obama was in the banya when the entire polish cabinet was eliminated, when russia and Iran’s client syria was allowed to run rampant
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:53 amFurthermore it is an open question of comey’s position on the hsbc board compromised any other investigation, I can name one of conseqience.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:58 amQuestion heard on the interwebs:
Let’s assume a special prosecutor was appointed. What crimes does he investigate? Doesn’t “obstruction of justice” require an underlying crime?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:59 amIn his whole career, has Donald Trump ever successfully implemented high quality coverups?
The secret to coverups is having the press on your side. See Clinton or Obama vs any Republican. Does anyone really believe that W could have gotten away with anything?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:02 am293 @ Beldar
If Trump is NOT a five-dimensional chess player, then he’s also not guilty of colluding with Russia, because you would have to have been a five-dimensional chess player to have consciously colluded with Russia, in any consistent way, and yet have maintained the cover-up till this point, and disguised all evidence of it, and left no trace of how they paid him off that hasn’t leaked.
But also if Trump WAS even a three-dimensional chess player, the James Comey firing would not have come off the way it did. Since it didn’t, he’s not.
If Not P then Not Q
If R then Not P
Not R
Therefore Not P
Therefore Not Q.
QED
P = Being a multi-dimensional chess player.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:05 amQ = Colluding with Russia and not yet being exposed.
R = Lying about why Comey was fired without the explanation immediately unraveling..
304. Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 9:59 am
I thought so.
But Haldeman and Ehrlichman were convicted without that. I always felt that was wrong and a step that should not have been skipped.
Well, with Ehrlichman the underlying crime was the break-in into the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, which, well, wasn’t legal. (4th amendment) I don’t think they ever had anything at all on Haldeman, that he knew of any crime to be covered up.
I think also a person can be convicted of bstruction of justice for interfering with an investigation, even if there was no crime to be found.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:12 amPut it another say w had discovered the utter fraud of the case against yes Stevens, a case one might say led to his death, in the skies over Alaska, dismissing them would be considers obstruction by this standard.same for delay walker st al
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:15 am@ Kevin M (#304): First, let’s use the actual term that’s current, because the other terms are obsolete and misleading. It’s “special counsel.” Not all counsel prosecute, some only end up investigating because no prosecution is brought. And special does not mean independent. These aren’t trivial distinctions; they each have important historical, legal, and political significance.
What the Dems are howling for is someone who they think can and will now behave toward Trump like they remember “Independent Counsel” Kenneth Starr behaving with respect to Bill Clinton and Monica’s blue dress. But American law doesn’t permit such independent counsel appointments anymore; the statutory authorization for it was deliberately allowed to lapse in 1999 — a bipartisan decision that no one from either side has since attempted to revisit, even during all the Bush and Obama controversies and calls for impeachment. Independent counsel were Godzillas of the criminal justice system, and after a sufficient number of multi-year multi-million dollar witch-hunts, both sides realized that they needed to stop laying Godzilla eggs.
Regarding the requirement that there be an on-going criminal (not a foreign intelligence) investigation, I refer you to my comments on a post from last week, starting approximately here, as I began to refresh my memory and parse anew the language of 28 C.F.R. part 600, which governs special counsel.
“Obstruction of justice” is one of those criminal offenses like mail and wire fraud — it’s a crime that is all about subjective intentions, and it theoretically can be charged in countless hypothetical situations. It’s not limited to interference directly in an on-going criminal prosecution, and certainly doesn’t require proof of an underlying crime. Harvard Law Prof Alan Dershowitz explains why this dog won’t hunt, at least yet. Serious people on the Dem side aren’t pushing this meme, but of course a lot of unserious Dem politicians, from Schumer on down, love to build air castles which they’ll then besiege with this silly meme.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:25 amExample of presidential obstruction of justice: Bill Clinton coaching witnesses before they testified in the Starr Investigation. That was among the House’s articles of impeachment, but IIRC didn’t make it into the Senate trial.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:28 amnarciso @302. What’s a banya?
The Polish cabinet is of course the airplane crash on April 10, 2010, on which Polish president Lech Kaczynski was on. I didn’t hear about the cabinet being on the plane, so much as military chiefs of staff, high-ranking civil servants, clerics and some politicians.
It’s possible that the Polish president thought the Russian air traffic controllers were lying to him to keep him from attending the memorial to the Katyn massacre. But there really was heavy fog.
When confronted by a determination to land, two rather inexperienced air traffic controllers on duty at a rarely used forest airfield near Smolensk, after consulting their superiors, decided to give the plane permission to land rather than saying they would block the airfield. Russian higher ups probably did not actually want to forbid he plane from landing.
As of a month ago, Russia was still holding on to the flight data recorders but aparently they have voice recordings.
The current Polish government wants to find something more deliberate, like explosives, or luring the plane into landing.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:30 am309… Speciesism! Why Godzilla and not Mothra?!?!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:32 amBeldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:28 am
Didn’t he do that sort of indirectly, by asking them if they remembered something some way?
The trial was abbreviated, consisting basically of closing arguments with some video testimony support – there was nothing else. The stated assumption was all the Senators could look at the evidence on their own time. This method of proceeding was not actually a bad idea, if done right.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:36 amRussia sauna, ask scooter Libby about that notion that special counsels are things of the past. Of course it was comey who turned the mountain on to a , turn Dr. Hatfill’s life upside down, although he had help from Nick kristof (who was channeling meryl nass and Susan hatch Rosenberg, he was of the same Ilk of the procurators who undermined the operation against the Milan Islamic center
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:52 amRather than relying on my memory of the Clinton impeachment, I ought instead to have linked to the source documents, which include the language of the obstruction of justice charges made against Clinton in the articles of his impeachment.
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:55 amComey had a major role in a lot of questionable investigations that resulted in nonsensical prosecutions.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:57 amUnfit for the job.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 10:58 amAnd Happy Mother’s Day to all PP mothers and a tribute to fast women, too: http://bringatrailer.com/2017/05/14/bat-video-inspiration-michele-mouton-the-fastest-mom-in-the-world/
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:01 amCol. H, misguided people (usually villains) often thought that Godzilla was going to be their pet giant lizard, but he always went haywire and ended up leveling Tokyo. Mothra, while impressive, is just a spin-off, and generally she is portrayed as being heroic rather than amok. But the boss lizard himself ain’t nobody’s pet:
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:03 am(Incumbents don’t like anything new or fresh.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:04 amSo when Nick kristof charges obstruction of justice, consider he was a party to travesty of justice, he also played a part in the Plame , both he and Spencer ackerman, provoked the Wilson column that Libby responded to
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:05 amGreat stuff, Beldar! But one mustn’t forget Baby Godzilla and those cute smoke rings in training for the real thing.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:06 amMark Jacobsen before he looked Frank Lucas, wrote a novel, where he painted gojira as a misunderstood lizard
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:07 amMonster island is a metaphor for dc, coronello.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:11 am75. kishnevi (4490a8) — 5/12/2017 @ 6:33 pm
You can thank Obama for the fact
1) That it started.
2) That it came to a sudden stop
3) That it wasn’t killed right way.
And you can blame Microsoft for the fact that it did so much harm.
This was a destructive hacking tool that the United States disovered and one of the few Obama decided to “stockpile”
There were two safeguards:
1) It wasn’t stored with the destcutive program attached.
2) There was a way to shut it off. All you had to do was register a website with a certain name. This was self-deterrence, or maybe deterrebce against a rogue U.S. government employee.
The hackers attached something to the first but had no idea about the second.
When the software was stolen, Microsoft was notified. Microsoft issued a security update, but since it was no longer updating Windows XP, they didn’t do it for Windows XP. This actually amounted to Microsoft itelf engaging in peddling ransomware, also known as Windows 10. I mean, really – what’s the point of not making security patches for Windows XP available? (They have now issued a security patch for this for Windows XP.)
The knowledge about the backdoor method of stopping the whole thing was buried so deep in the U.S. government that nobody did a thing about it. Someone in England had to shut it down by accident. He thought there was going to be some instructions there maybe.
https://www.malwaretech.com/2017/05/how-to-accidentally-stop-a-global-cyber-attacks.html
But the person who stopped it thinks this actually was not a deliberate attempt to enable the whole thing to be killed (or modified?) but, instead, a bug in the malware, caused by an attempt to prevent anyone from analyzing the software through having it run in a sandbox. If it thought it detected a sandbox it would stop.
He says his registering a single hardcoded domain with WannaCrypt caused all infections globally to believe they were inside a sandbox and exit. (I think this also probably means that if a computer could not connect to the Internet at all, the program would do nothing from that point on.)
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:41 amSomeone has this explanation:
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:54 amLet’s say that an AUSA somewhere had been looking whether W had plotted the 9/11 attacks. W, aghast, fires the AUSA for wasting everyone’s time and being effing insane. Is he guilty of obstruction of justice?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:57 am@205.
The Nixon temp-plate: cottage cheese and ketchup.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:58 amThe Trump temp-plate: ice cream -two scoops- and chocolate cream pie.
And you can blame Microsoft for the fact that it did so much harm.
Are they to blame for not updating pirated copies of their OS, too?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 11:59 am(I think this also probably means that if a computer could not connect to the Internet at all, the program would do nothing from that point on.)
No, in a sandbox it would get a “response” from any URL. Disconnected, not in a sandbox, all URLs would fail.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:01 pmI refer to ice 9, the maguffin in the recruit, but stuixnet let the cat out of the bag.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:07 pmJim garrison, allowed himself to be influenced by Soviet desinformatya that mitrokhin and then max Holland pin pointed.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:10 pmYour right, Beldar. Old dopey me should have figured out President Trump had absolutely nothing, zilch, zero to do with picking justice Gorsuch.
mg (31009b) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:29 pmAlthough Jeb can’t even pick his own nose.
I think maybe the real reason the software shut itself down if it detected that a long URL ending with gwea.com was registered, was that originally that was supposed to be a way the software could modify itself. Maybe the NSA also had separate malware that enabled an unregistered URL to be resolved, which they thought nobody else would have.
If it was resolved but turned out to be registered, then it would mean that someone else (Iran or China or whoever) had found out about it and was possibly sending their own instructions.
If that URL turned out just to be invalid maybe then the software just continued on as before.
Re; Microsoft. It had stopped supporting Windows XP in 2014. Windows XP was designed to be difficult to pirate. The British NHS was still using Windows XP, and there are others. Refusing to release security patches for Windows XP mens that Microsoft is selling ransomware. Security updates are still being made for Windows 7 and 8. Microsoft also stopped supporting Windows Vista, but only this April 11, which is after the March 14 date for the security patch for this malware.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:37 pmJeb Bush could very possibly have nominated Neil Gorsuch or somebody like him, but only Donald Trump would have issued a list of names from whom he would pick, because of his insecure conservatve bona fides..
He actually kept this promise, too. It was probably only guaranteed for the first pick, although he’ll probably go back to this list again if it comes up, and he nominated two at least for Court of Appeals judgeships, but this commitment wouldn’t have been maintained in the face of a Senate controlled by a Democratic majority. I mean he might have tried one time, but that’s it. If the nominee was not confirmed, the list would have then gone out the window.
One consequence, by the way, of firing Comey: Justice Anthony Kennedy will probably not retire this year. One big confirmation fight at a time is enough, and the Senate will have the same composition next year, and both Clinton and Obama nominated a second justice their second year without any more trouble than their first year. Also Trump’s status will be clearer next year.
Even if Trump nominated Merrick Garland for FBI DIrector, confirmation as FBI Director probably won’t be quite so easy, or at least it won’t be so obvious that it will be easy, and Kennedy needs to make his decision by the end of June.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 12:49 pmI think the malware needed to try *gwea.com before doing whatever it was supposed to do (in the version created by he hackers, it was encrypting files, but it could be anything. It was a worm that could carry with it anything and the hackers attached the encryption and ransom instructions.)
If the connection to the Internet broke from the network after the malware was downloaded but before it executed on all computers, maybe nothing would happen, maybe everything would.
Anyway if *gwea.com was valid but unregistered, it probably looked for instructions from *gwea.com; if *gwea.com was both valid and registered, the program closed. And maybe even deleted itself? I’m guessing.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:03 pm269. Saturday Night Live yesterday was more travesty than parody (and a fair parody would have also parodoed the Democrats) but they seem to have included in their skits three bits of wrong or unfair premises:
1) That’s there’s some evidence of Trump getting money from Russia.
2) That’s there’s some reason to suspect co-ordination in hacking between Russia and the Trump campaign. (As Rich Lowry wrote why would any coordination with the Trump campaign be necessary?
3) That the hacking cost Hillary Clinton the election.
Also:
4) That Comey’s July 5, 2016 press confirence hurt Hillary Clinton.
Sammy Finkelman (54fd00) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:09 pm@337- The travesty is those neat-o Trump-Russian nesting dolls are only likely going to be available for sale at the NBC Store in 30 Rock.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:13 pm@337/338. Correction, Sammy! They’re available on eBay and Etsy for between $50 and $200!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:16 pmLike the 6 million that Mark warner made from his shAre of the Yandex search engine, the 24 million given to podesta for representing sherbank, things of that nature.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 1:19 pmnarciso @340. I saw that American Thinker article by Clarice Feldman that mg here linked to @270 – there’s all sorts of money from Russia that went to some Democrats.
This seems to quote from some other places and not all of the places are clear. That part seems to come from here:
http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/check-it-out-the-new-york-times-just-exposed-the-hillary-clinton-russia-nexus/
But my opinion has been Clinton Inc. and Putin were allied until February 2014 * (Hillary likes to make the break earlier, in 2011) so all the earlier things don’t contradict Putin favoring Trump.
The only thing later than the Maidan Revolution that they’ve got is John Breaux representing Gazprombank GPB, but his biggest connection with Clinton is from 2008, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak meeting with members of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in secret, but that could have been, directly or indirectly, an attempt to get rid of Russian hostility or argue she’s going to win anyway, maybe by talking about what would happen if she is elected. Both sides would have had a reason to keep in contact. You also have Tony (not John) Podesta, but he did actual lobbying by a Russian bank (Sberbank and VTB Capital) to get off the sanctions. Doesn’t mean Putin didn’t hope Clinton lost.
What’s that thing about Mark Warner? Yandex was in 2012. He’s certainly not close to Russia now.
————
Sammy Finkelman (d7b8a6) — 5/14/2017 @ 2:06 pm* Victoria Nuland had a crucial role in the Maiden Revolution and Vladimir Putin thought she was one of Hillary’s women and was acting on her instructions.
They robbed the identity on the exchanges, took out a civilian airliner,
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 2:22 pmProbably decapitated the entire polish cabinet in 2009, but some phishing and it’sdefcon 3
Robbed the identity?
Sammy Finkelman (d7b8a6) — 5/14/2017 @ 3:56 pmHealth care exchanges sammeh, by hackers operating out of renaissance bank and the fsb’s cybersecurity division
narciso (ae786b) — 5/14/2017 @ 4:40 pm“Nihon wa ore no dai ni furusato.”
Japan is like home to me. If there is such a thing, it’s my second hometown.
One of the frightening developments of recent years has been the rearmament of Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew9BEOoL_V4
I realize it may seem a small matter, but my father spent a big chunk of his life fighting Japan. I wouldn’t want to wish that on my kids. It was a tough roe to hoe.
Japan when fully armed is crazy brave.
The deal we made with Japan post WII was we’d defend their country, and they wouldn’t rearm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij8sE7BmT_4
The junior carrier is the Izumo. The big guy is at it says in the title the Ronarudo Regan.
I love Japan. I value our alliance, especially in the face of Islamic terrorism. Japan is one of the few countries where I can still speak my mind.
But I see the Izumo and I begin to worry.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/15/2017 @ 1:58 amMaybe I’m worried about nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0n0VpmFBc
It isn’t like Japanese aircraft carriers have bit us in the @$$ before.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/15/2017 @ 2:25 amRegarding the Clinton impeachment. The Democratic lawyer who was placed in charge of the House side of the impeachment – the investigative side – was interviewed some time ago. He said that his recommendation was that they had more than enough to support the case for impeachment based on normal criminal grounds without even going to the “it’s only sex” part of the evidence. It was the Republicans that decided to proceed with only the sex parts.
Davod (f3a711) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:30 am“@337/338. Correction, Sammy! They’re available on eBay and Etsy for between $50 and $200!”
Depending upon your political affiliation?
Davod (f3a711) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:34 amI think the better analogy is the AG, not an AUSA, and W should have fired him. BUT carefully, with planning, and by preparing for the inevitable backlash of having someone in his own Administration considering and investigating serious charges against him.
Fair or not, Comey became part of the Trump Administration when Trump let him stay for almost 4 months. IMO Trump did something reasonable in firing Comey, but he did it in a politically clueless way. Apparently he barely considered whether there might be blowback, which strikes me as something Democrats might do but Republicans can never do.
Trump is an interesting blend of cunning and ignorance, and it makes him hard to predict except when something directly involves his ego, power or authority. That’s probably why he fired Comey now and not before — because Comey didn’t pose a threat to Trump until now.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/15/2017 @ 6:55 amAnd we pointed out why fan dancer Sally, made that very difficult, likely it was her lohanesque appearance that was the final straw
narciso (ae786b) — 5/15/2017 @ 7:01 amJames Lewis argues the mass media hysteria is a long-term loser for democrats. Assuming Trump doesn’t alienate too many needed allies along the way.
crazy (d3b449) — 5/15/2017 @ 8:19 am351. crazy (d3b449) — 5/15/2017 @ 8:19 am
Sammy Finkelman (d7b8a6) — 5/15/2017 @ 1:44 pmHas it finally hit the fan?
Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador
Tillman (a95660) — 5/15/2017 @ 2:09 pmhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&pushid=591a17b4fdd5491d0000004b
I doubt it. He can declassify whatever he wants. All this tells us is that he’s an idiot, but everyone already knows that.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:40 pmI agree with DRJ on this. I really don’t like President Trump, and I think the decision to do this was extremely ill-advised, but it’s quite clearly *legal*, and I have a hard time imagining this being the ill-advised decision which causes the House to turn against him.
From what I can tell, we’re stuck with him until 2020 unless the Democrats take the house in 2018 and convince enough Senators to support impeachment.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:46 pmBrown shoe day for President Queeg. He really stepped in it this time.
Bed with no dessert tonight, Captain. No strawberries for you!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:48 pmUm what evidence? I mean what evidence of Russian collusion is there? Because I have seen exactly zero evidence. Near as I can tell the claim was simply made up, then repeated enough to get traction.
Tenn (131b65) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:49 pmFever Dreams, still.
Steven Malynn (4c1400) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:50 pmTenn, at 357: for what particular thing are you asking for evidence?
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:53 pm@353. NYT has it too.
Panic on the bridge– crew scurrying to respond, parsed statements. Ruskie ‘reverse engineering’ will likely get a source snuffed… oy vey!
“Captain, we’ve steamed over our own tow line!” Steve Maryk [Van Johnson] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:54 pm@354. See 360, DRJ. He’s put a ‘source’ at risk.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 3:57 pmRight try again;
https://mobile.twitter.com/JDiamond1
narciso (ae786b) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:02 pmDCSCA – putting a source at risk is a very *dumb* move. But that doesn’t make it illegal, and it doesn’t necessarily create a situation which will move Republican congressmen to come out against the President.
We can *hope*. But eighteen months of hoping Republicans will stand up against Trump have proven fruitless, and I see no reason to expect this to be different.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:05 pmThere isn’t *evidence* of Trump getting money from Russia. But it seems highly likely, and given that Trump won’t release his tax returns (which would allow us to tell), the best we can say is “there’s suspicion and the President is going out of his way not to provide the evidence that would refute the suspicion.”
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:07 pmWe have proved chapter and verse, that there can be no attribution to the dnc hack as to the dossier, it would be funny if it wasn’t a maddening waste of time.
narciso (ae786b) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:15 pm@363- Squirrel. Who said anything about legalities?
Only you.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:28 pm@363. Wrong, he denied the story was right, not the story was true. It didn’t mention sources and methods. Try again.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 4:30 pmA President puts people at risk with almost every foreign policy decision/action. I don’t think that’s illegal.
DRJ (15874d) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:14 pmDSCSA, at 363:
At 354, DRJ said (truthfully) that the President can declassify anything he wants.
I took her statement as being about legalities, even though it didn’t explicitly raise legalities, because it was a statement which was most easily understood as being about legalities: it’s an observation about the law (the President has the legal authority to declassify at his whim, full stop) from someone trained in the law.
Your mileage evidently varies.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:18 pmDSCSA, at 367: I have *not even the faintest idea* how to interpret #367 as a response to #363. Did you mistype?
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:19 pm@370. Yeah, mistype. Meant 362, narciso, not you.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:22 pmDSCSA, at 370: fair enough. I similarly mistyped in 369; I should have said “DSCSA at 366” rather than “DSCSA at 363”. 🙂
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:22 pm@369. Legalities aren’t really in play with this given the CIC stepped in it– although the leaker may be in hot water if he/she is ever discovered.
If only he’d reveal where Elvis is living and how the saucers are flying at Area 51. 😉
DCSCA (797bc0) — 5/15/2017 @ 5:24 pm