Patterico's Pontifications

6/22/2017

The President Tweets Without Discernment Or Discretion, Part 513

Filed under: General — Dana @ 11:21 am



[guest post by Dana]

Words matter. But apparently not if you’re the President of the United States. And not if it concerns matters that are of a rather serious nature.

Then:

Untitled

Now:

Untitled2

Go ahead, tell me he’s playing the media and his enemies like a fiddle.

I can’t even.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

576 Responses to “The President Tweets Without Discernment Or Discretion, Part 513”

  1. Oh please.

    Dana (023079)

  2. Yeah, I geddit, you don’t like Trump.

    Would you have preferred Hillary?

    Fred Z (05d938)

  3. Trump might not be the sharpest tool but he’s the only tool you’ve got, you’ve got nothing else, nothing at all.

    Does a soldier in battle quit fighting while bitching and moaning that his M16 keeps jamming or does he grab it by the barrel and start smashing the enemy with the butt?

    Fred Z (05d938)

  4. Trump bluffed Comey to telling the truth.

    LOL.

    How is that stupid?

    Folks, pay attention, COMEY WAS REFUSING TO TELL THE NATION THE TRUTH — HE GOT FIRED FOR IT.

    The rest is blah blah.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  5. What Blah said. (#4)

    Dana, I suggest you and mein host never play poker with Trump (or get in a twit battle – he is the king of twits, just ask ‘feets).

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  6. Alternative facts, Dana. Like thousands cheering in Jersey City as the WTC fell; like the ‘yugest’ inaugural crowds ever… like the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen.

    After all, he’s a New Yorker:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ

    “It’s not a lie… if you believe it.” – George Costanza [Jason Alexander] ‘Seinfeld’ NBC TV
    ________

    Today’s Beldar The Bitter ‘Watergate, Watergate, Watergate’ Words Of Wonder:

    “No political campaign ever justifies obstructing justice, or harassing individuals, or compromising those great agencies of Government that should and must be above politics.” – Richard Nixon, televised address, August 15, 1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. like a fiddle

    A fiddle is too restrained for The Donald.

    More like
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdd6q0pW4DM

    But only if all the instruments are slightly out of tune.

    kishnevi (2f2588)

  8. Trump might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he certainly is a tool.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  9. Trump might not be the sharpest tool but he’s the only tool you’ve got, you’ve got nothing else, nothing at all.

    We’ll have to remember that next time you guys start bitching about Ryan or McConnell. They’re the only tools we’ve got, we’ve got nothing else, nothing at all. So I guess if you complain about them it means that you must prefer Pelosi and Schumer.

    JVW (42615e)

  10. (1) Trump worded his first tweet in a manner obviously designed to appear as a bluff.

    (2) If you’re suggesting that he was making a strong implication that he actually possessed tapes, you’re either being dishonest or are incredibly stupid.

    (3) In fact, if you’re suggesting that he meant ANYTHING but (1) I do not have the tapes and (2) I’m making a sly reference to the fact that the deep state has been illegally taping me, you are BOTH dishonest and stupid.

    (4) His tweet had the exact desired effect: sending the media and his congress enemies in congress into a bedwetting frenzy of GIVE US THE TAPES NOW, and forcing Comey to confine his perjury to matters outside of his conversations with Trump.

    (5) This post lacks more discrernment, discretion and civility than anything Trump has ever said.

    (6) Can you go back to telling us why Trump’s joke about having the Russians and Chinese find Hillary’s 33,000 deleted e-mails was treason? Prof. Tribe has only explained it a thousand times but it never gets old.

    Proud Prolifer (702f73)

  11. While bringing up the subject of secret tapes in a post-Watergate environment isn’t a terribly clever way for a President to get a point across, the bottom line is that Trump was effectively saying “Comey is lying” with his original Tweet. He’s maintained that position since then.

    M Scott Eiland (1edade)

  12. Trump got what he wanted and outwitted Comey.

    He got Comey to admit the TRUTH.

    Ya’ll just sore he is punking you nitwits.

    Bill was our first black POTUS.

    Obama our first Kenyan POTUS

    Trump is our first TROLL POTUS

    Blah (44eaa0)

  13. Trump got what he wanted and outwitted Comey.

    I don’t think Trump really appreciates who he is playing against.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  14. #NotAFanButWillingToAdmitI’mWrong

    It’s not a thing yet but I’m working on it.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  15. No one I know believes the FBI. 86 the whole enchilada.

    mg (31009b)

  16. No one I know believes the FBI. 86 the whole enchilada.

    mg (31009b) — 6/22/2017 @ 1:42 pm

    You probably wouldn’t believe me. And I wouldn’t blame you.

    But I can tell you this. The problem isn’t the agents.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  17. The self-delusion is strong in these comments.

    To those insisting that Trump is playing three-dimensional chess:

    Please identify for me your role model for a successful POTUS. Our next step will be to assess the volume of impeachment noise about him at this point in his presidency.

    TRUMP MAGNIFICENTLY SHOOTS OFF FOUR OF FIVE TOES, REMAINING TOE PROVES ITSELF GREATEST TOE IN HISTORY OF THE WORLD!!!!1!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  18. MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan just compared President Trump to a suicide bomber
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYqkGgQH_o

    Neo (d1c681)

  19. Oh. Never mind. The answer to the question, “Please identify for me your role model for a successful POTUS” will always be “Trump!!!@!1!” to these folk.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  20. he forced corrupt womanish fbi pervert James Comey to come clean about how he’d told President Trump no less than three times that there was no investigation of him

    he wouldn’t have done this otherwise cause he’s a corrupt slimy piece of lying fbi filth

    not unlike this Robert Mueller p.o.s.

    at the end of the day, if you want justice in this greasy corrupt country, you need to be very bold and creative, and President Trump seems to understand this, and my love for him grows and grows like potted basil

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  21. which i can use in cocktails and sangria and sammiches, and egg dishes and also on top of that thin crust frozen cheese pizza I like

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  22. As opposed to this phantom memos that comedy didn’t actually produce, and the unmasking that he and comedy actually did, but its not like they have a record of actually destroying people threw the use of their office, oh right did.

    narciso (d1f714)

  23. “Please identify for me your role model for a successful POTUS. Our next step will be to assess the volume of impeachment noise about him at this point in his presidency.”

    One who shuts down the impeachment noise as quickly as possible given the irrationality and nastiness of his opposition. Which is exactly what he’s doing by attacking and trolling them. And he’s making impeachment impossible by insuring another GOP wave in 2018. The noise may not die down until then, but that’s the fault of the toddlers in the Democraf party and the establishment GOP.

    Proud Prolifer (702f73)

  24. Proud Prolifer (#25): No, I didn’t say “describe what it takes.” I asked for examples of a past POTUS whom you consider a model. With that clarification, try again.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  25. Let me ask: Do you believe Trump actually exercised intentional forethought and insight to tweet the original tweet as a way to compel Comey to testify honestly? If you do, what in his temperament and behavior that we’ve seen thus far would lead you to conclude that?

    Dana (023079)

  26. Also: #20! I predicted your comment! Now, if you’d like to support your position with something actually responsive, please, name a past POTUS so we can proceed to the next step in the analysis. Thanks.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  27. It’s a multiple choice question, Proud. Here’s the list you can choose from, except (by definition for this question) #45 on the list.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  28. I pointed out how his behavior on march 10, was much more dangerous then a tantrum, add to that the enabling of the fitzhunt and the botching of the anthrax investigation.

    Then lets examine Mueller’s record re that same investigation, or how his field agents soufan clemente clayne, (sic) waged war against the cia’s interrogation program particularly re zubeydah but also slahi the Montreal connection, quahtani, all of those who eventually led to abottabad

    narciso (d1f714)

  29. I’m no admirer of our president. Yet, my first take when he suggested the existence of tapes was that he was playing Comey. It would not be surprising in the least if this was done at the suggestion of an aide or lawyer.

    Parenthetically, one I do admire? Ted Cruz. He enthusiastically took a lead position to get the Senate to repeal Obamacare when the House finished their bill. He did not just sit back and threaten to quash any such efforts. He let leadership do their thing and he kept his powder dry. Today, he stood on principle and will oppose the garbage created.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  30. If I were in Chicago I’d eat frozen thin crust over the alternative.

    mg (31009b)

  31. Im Chicago born/raised, and I’d eat frozen thin over that stuff.

    urbanleftbehind (854ad5)

  32. i get the Gino’s East frozen cause it cooks up thin thin and crispy crispy

    it’s not decadent but it’s tasty

    plus it’s not a national brand, which is always a nice way to keep your monies from ending up with sleazy cable tv networks such as the Comedy Central and the CNN

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  33. TRUMP MAGNIFICENTLY SHOOTS OFF FOUR OF FIVE TOES, REMAINING TOE PROVES ITSELF GREATEST TOE IN HISTORY OF THE WORLD!!!!1!

    You believe he has harmed himself because the usual collection of Democrats, NeverTrumpers, GOPe types and MSM hacks are all fussed over his tweets? How so? What specific harm did he do to himself with these tweets? Lose the Jake Tapper vote?

    The same collection of opposition looks everyday for something to bitch about, no matter how lame their latest complaint happens to be. They will remain his opponents no matter what he does. He is better off doing what he does: mocking them on a regular basis.

    Yawn.

    Anon Y. Mous (0c3f6f)

  34. Still waiting for Trump to actually pass a meaningful piece of legislation through the Republican-held House and Senate.

    Somehow, the bar has been lowered to the point where the simple act of not being impeached within six months of taking office is crowed about by sycophants as “winning!”

    Leviticus (efada1)

  35. Ed from SFV:

    Yet, my first take when he suggested the existence of tapes was that he was playing Comey. It would not be surprising in the least if this was done at the suggestion of an aide or lawyer.

    Two questions:

    First, how was he playing Comey? By trying to get Comey not to testify about some topics or say certain things? If so, what things do you think Comey might have said but decided not to?

    Second, is SFV for San Fernando Valley?

    DRJ (15874d)

  36. They have a grill behind the bar. The home made sausage is excellent. And the pizza – thin crust, crispy – no New York flop. crunch, crunch.
    http://www.santarpiospizza.com/index.html

    mg (31009b)

  37. *fact, not act

    Leviticus (efada1)

  38. By the way, Ed, Arizona said something similar at The Jury. I’m asking him the same thing.

    DRJ (15874d)

  39. Question 1, not 2!

    DRJ (15874d)

  40. I have intense mixed feelings.

    On the one hand he’s not Hooppar7!!!

    On the other hand he ‘s Trump.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  41. Im a very, very happy he is not another boosh.

    mg (31009b)

  42. Dana… OTOH…what if he is lying– and does/did have an incriminating ‘smoking gun’ tape after all?

    Nah. Our Captain would never fib to us. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  43. The one-on-one conversations between Trump and Comey boiled down to a he said, he said scenario. If Trump thought that Comey might not be honest about what was actually said in the meeting, suggesting the possibility that recordings might have been made acted as a check on Comey. If Comey believed there was any possibility at all that the recordings might appear at a later point, it made it a very dangerous game to shade the truth, especially under oath in front of congress.

    Anon Y. Mous (0c3f6f)

  44. “12 years in a war we should have won in much less time”. Just quoting a friend from a few years ago who gave it his best, and then retired.

    mg (31009b)

  45. “12 years in a war we should have won in much less time”. Just quoting a friend from a few years ago who gave it his best, and then retired.
    mg (31009b) — 6/22/2017 @ 3:06 pm

    Your friend sounds like a wise man.

    Run this by him. If it was up to me I wouldn’t have stayed for the nation building.

    Just some idiot sailor, Sailor Steve, back at you.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  46. Nixon created an 18 1/2 minute gap.
    Trump stretched his to 41 days.
    Winning!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjf5pdJJ44Q

    “Is it live? Or is it Memorex?– Memorex TV ad, 1980

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  47. Somehow, the bar has been lowered to the point where the simple act of not being impeached within six months of taking office is crowed about by sycophants as “winning!”

    I really don’t know what you expect anybody to say that would answer that statement. The media and entertainment and Hollywood all wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democrat Propaganda arm of the DNC beat a daily unrelenting drum of hysteria. They show a constant parade of 98% anti Trump pro impeachment crap and you act like that is where Trump, the Congress and Trump supporters (or just supporters of America not the dark state) are the ones to blame. If we owned all the leftist outlets do you think the constant anti Trump crap would be happening.

    BTW, these elites aren’t anti Trump as they are anti YOU and ME. WE are the problem because We allowed a non-player into the Private Club run by elites. We are the phukin’ Deplorables in case you forgot. We are the “bitter clingers” in case you forgot. WE are the bigots and the homophobes and the racists in case you forgot. So enough already with the indignation. They hate you Leviticus, and you DISCO and narciso and Patterico and Steve57 and ME. NOT TRUMP. He’s just a symbol of their deepest loathing of America and Americans. They ust can’t get over the fact we had the balls to throw them out and all the noise is just to occupy the administration so it CAN”T do anything but fight fires. So stop helping them.

    What the hell makes you think if they impeach Trump they will stop there? You guys really don’t know how coups work do you?

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  48. It’s in Trump’s interest to say there are no tapes and since his tweets aren’t under oath, so it’s not an answer we can hold him to. Saying there might be tapes opened the door to having Congress or some court try to subpoena them someday. He needed to squelch that idea.

    DRJ (15874d)

  49. @50.It’s in Trump’s interest to say there are no tapes and since his tweets aren’t under oath, so it’s not an answer we can hold him to.

    Yes, but DRJ, haven’t his ‘tweets’ been deemed ‘official statements’ b/t President per his own WH spokesperson, ‘Spicey Meataball,’ a few weeks ago!?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  50. This is how stooopid we are.

    We enshrined Sharia as the core of the basic law of Afghanistan and Iraq.

    So, come for the terrorism, stay for the female genital mutilation. And now we want to turn the world’s largest collection of mud huts into modern nation.

    How stoooopid is this?

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  51. DRJ – The main benefit of this ploy would be to put the fear of God in Comey that he had to play his testimony straight. At a minimum, it ensured that Comey would confirm that he told DJT that he was not the target of any Comey-led investigation. It served to take away any notion Comey may have had to “embellish” what was said.

    Yes. SFV signifies the valley. I was living there when I first encountered Pat’s blog. I am pretty sure that was within a very few months, perhaps weeks, of its launch. Along with his supersmart offerings generally were local judicial picks which were a great help to me in voting.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  52. Oops. I forgot to mention that I strongly suspect the timing of these latest tweets is related to formal requests from Mueller for access to said tapes. DJT tweeted to get ahead of the inevitable leaks from Mueller’s side that DJT denied their existence.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  53. Well in many cases we were following the advice of Algerian juntas mouthpieces elakdar brahimi, the ones that eradicated the Gia, oddly its a very secular statecfor them, but not so for Iraq and Afghanistan

    narciso (d1f714)

  54. Proud Prolifer (#25): No, I didn’t say “describe what it takes.” I asked for examples of a past POTUS whom you consider a model. With that clarification, try again.

    In that case, Nixon. He knew how to shut up idiots and play rough, although not as well as Trump. And Trump doesn’t have two houses Congress controlled by the opposition, so impeachment isn’t an option, whatever the noise.

    Oh, and Nixon wasn’t 1/10th as corrupt as any of the Democrats who preceded or succeeded him. So don’t even go there.

    Proud Prolifer (702f73)

  55. Steve57 – He was one of the first in Afghanistan. Wooden saddles and all.
    Heart of Gold.

    mg (31009b)

  56. This post again speaks to the problem of having a president who lacks self-discipline and restraint, and can’t keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t seem to grasp that every word he utters, whether in writing or says aloud, will be scrutinized. And given that he is a Republican president, the media and the Dems will be out for blood for the next 4 years. Why does he continually give them so much to work with? And why does he continue to frustrate voters with his Twitter games? While I, along with Leviticus, would love to see real accomplishments of this administration (“…actually pass a meaningful piece of legislation through the Republican-held House and Senate,”) he continually distracts us with this dangerous child’s play. His lack of self-restraint puts him in a dicey spot, and then advisers/lawyers clean up after him. Why make the mess in the first place? Especially when there is a government to run.

    Dana (023079)

  57. What the hell makes you think if they impeach Trump they will stop there? You guys really don’t know how coups work do you?

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/22/2017 @ 3:15 pm

    Any ship, Hoagie, has one Captain. I am not shocked by the fact that Trump asked for Comey’s loyalty.

    I am shocked that Comey didn’t offer it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Jw6gwGawbXA

    Caine Mutiny – Greenwald confronts Keefer – YouTube

    I didn’t walk the miles you walked, Hoagie. But I know what makes a ship work.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  58. @58. “Silence is golden,” eh Dana?! It isn’t just for gilded bathroom fixtures and bold, brassy lettering on the sides of buildings. Given the Trump lifestyle you’d think they’d take to that like a duck to water.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  59. Sadly I haven’t found the reticence of w counseled by Karl rove and Michael person, had any possible benefit.

    narciso (d1f714)

  60. If Trump had concerns about Comey’s honesty, then the tweet about “tapes” was anything but undisciplined. It was a strategy, and depending upon the actual effect it had on Comey, it might have been a successful strategy.

    Some people look at Comey and see an upstanding public servant. Others look at him and see a sleazy political operative.

    Anon Y. Mous (0c3f6f)

  61. That makes sense, Ed, especially that there may have been a request for or inquiry regarding any tapes. Thanks for your response.

    DRJ (15874d)

  62. I was skimming mark Bowden’s rather volumous oral history of hue, which has been keeping with work including black hawk down, but nit his URL book.

    narciso (d1f714)

  63. Given the Trump lifestyle you’d think they’d take to that like a duck to water.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/22/2017 @ 3:50 pm

    But who voted for him?

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  64. He goes a little too much for the narrative spun by halberstam, Roberts safer, how this sudden strike unnerved the home ftont akin to the 2006 lull in the Iraq war

    narciso (d1f714)

  65. There are no easy, yes or no answers.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  66. sleazy fbi turdboy James Comey was definitely rattled by the idea of there being tapes

    and all he could do with that is to push the idea that the tapes would “corroborate” (turdboy really likes that word) his flimsy allegation that President Trump tried to “shut down” the hyper-politicized fbi sluts hounding Mike Flynn… you can see the sleazy fbi turdboy’s goal through this lens: come clean about Trump not having been under investigation (he couldn’t lie like a typical fbi bimbo for fear there might be tapes), and then try to slime President with a phonied-up obstruction charge…

    ***

    And, look, I — I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes. I — I remember saying, “I agree he’s a good guy,” as a way of saying, “I’m not agreeing with what you just asked me to do.” – corrupt womanish fbi turdboy James Comey, 06/08/17

    ***

    Is there way to corroborate this? Our view, at the time, was, look, it’s your word against the president’s. There’s no way to corroborate this. That — my view of that changed when the prospect of tapes was raised, but that’s how we thought about it then. – corrupt womanish fbi turdboy James Comey, 06/08/17

    ***

    I asked — the president tweeted on Friday, after I got fired, that I better hope there’s not tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation. There might be a tape.

    And my judgment was, I needed to get that out into the public square. And so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn’t do it myself, for a variety of reasons. But I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. And so I asked a close friend of mine to do it. – corrupt womanish fbi turdboy James Comey, 06/08/17

    ***

    MANCHIN: Do you believe there were any tapes or recordings of your conversations with the president?

    COMEY: It never occurred to me until the president’s tweet. I — I’m not being facetious, I hope there are, and I’ll consent to the release of them.

    MANCHIN: So both of you — both of you are in the same findings here — you both hope there’s tapes and recordings?

    COMEY: Well, I mean, all I can do is hope. The president surely knows whether he taped me, and if he did, my feelings aren’t hurt. Release the entire — release all the tapes, I’m good with it – corrupt womanish fbi turdboy James Comey, 06/08/17

    ***

    I — I’m not going to sit here and try and interpret the president’s tweets. It — to me, its major impact was — as I said, occurred to me in the middle of the night — holy cow, there might be tapes. And if there tapes, it’s not just my word against his on — on the direction to get rid of the Flynn investigation. – corrupt womanish fbi turdboy James Comey, 06/08/17

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  67. oops and then try to slime President *Trump* with a phonied-up obstruction charge i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  68. OK, I’ll play. Who actually thought Trump meant he had tapes? Pretty much nobody. So who’s actually surprised that he walked back the first tweet nobody believed with another one few believes when facing a congressional deadline to produce them? Trump’s not your typical occupant of the oval office but again who’s actually surprised by that? There’s no 3 dimensional chess strategy just a boy from Queens who talks his way into and out of trouble.

    crazy (d3b449)

  69. I look south at how urine straightened out the country, no good deed goes unpunished furthermore his putative successor enables this

    https://panampost.com/felipe-fernandez/2017/06/22/colombian-farc-guerrillas-
    found-with-suspicious-us-10000-outside-demobilization-zones/

    Similarly the Israeli equivalents of comedy have been hounding netanyahu. Both are the epitome of civility but has that earned him any restraint

    narciso (d1f714)

  70. Good for you, hf. I don’t think Comey changed his testimony because of Trump’s tweet but I do believe Trump might have tweeted today because there have been inquiries about tapes. If so, he will learn that tweets won’t help much.

    DRJ (15874d)

  71. I kind of thought that both Trump and Comey were playing liar’s poker at the time. Now that Mueller has Comey’s “past recollection recorded” and Comey will have difficulties if he tries to re-recollect it, Trump can show his hand too.

    nk (dbc370)

  72. i like President Trump he wants the best stuff for us

    and whether it’s cause of tweeters or just cause he’s by far the most honest occupant we’ve had in that sleazy white house in a good hundred years or so

    he’s done SO much to expose the suppurating pestilent rot at the heart of the fbi

    the doj

    the epa

    the irs

    the fcc

    the fec

    the federal judiciary

    the media

    academia

    even alyssa milano turns out to be nothing but a filthy useless hateful dumb-bunny (i find this to be very disappointing)

    but we’d have never known the glorious sublime feculence of it all, but for President Trump

    now we got our work cut out for us don’t we

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  73. what worries me are the ones who say nothing as failmerica’s sleazy ivy league trash plot the most stunningly fascist and anti-democratic coup this disgusting slut of a country has ever imagined

    the ones who fleeder and ploop about whatever nonsense amazon turdlord jeffy bezos’s propaganda sluts are spoon-feeding the embittered haters who have sads cause of how the president didn’t graduate from harvard or yale

    they profess to see everything with great perspicacity and integrity, these ones, except that which is in front of their eyes

    they are digging freedom’s grave with their apathy and snootyness, and it is no good

    it is no good

    there will be blood

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  74. So has anyone else been following Fargo, thewlis as the brit accented cor is perhaps one of the best villains they conjured up this time around. Has also a player of note in the gadot film

    narciso (d1f714)

  75. i’m still trying to un-see thewlis in Total Eclipse

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  76. Look at the tweets as fireside chats, 2017.

    mg (31009b)

  77. Well no i would go there, and its cor as in bratva. Uribe as a physician diagnisrd the problem of the guerllas and the cartels and excised them bringing a degree of social piece that country hadn’t, had in a quarter century.

    narciso (d1f714)

  78. @65. Steverino, you don’t get it. Those of us who’ve lived and worked in NYC through the 80s and 90s are familiar w/t Trump ‘style’ in business and media. This show is great! It’s old hat (he hasn’t changed and won’t at 71) and fairly easy to read. He’s just not that complicated. But most of the country only knows him from that damned scripted ‘reality’ TV show– and they’ve been getting an education in what he’s really all about: Trump. The brand is everything. Only suckers take the bait and believe the full content of anything he spitballs up front– but it’s a good show– and as we know in today’s culture, Americans don’t want to be governed, they wish to be entertained. And so far, he’s delivered on that score in spades. Which is why we wanted him in over Mawdie– and more importantly to effectively neuter conservative ideologues and the modern conservative movement. Problem is, in his current gig as CIC now, and as Dana noted, word do matter. That’s a discipline he has never exhibited.

    Back in the day, three or four people ran Steady Eddie Koch’s NYC: Leona Helmsley, George Steinbrenner (w/assists from Reggie, Billy & Yogi,) John Gotti and Donald Trump. They were the daily fodder for Murdoch’s tabloids and local TV for a decade or more and the straws that stirred the drink– and The Donald took full advantage of it in Reagan’s go-go ’80s. He’s JR Ewing on steroids; so enjoy he show– as long as he doesn’t get us all blown up.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  79. these tweets are sweet dollops of light in the descending darkness of unfreedom

    they fall upon us like wishing stars

    and if your heart is in your dream

    there’s no tweet that’s too extreme

    america our one-time treasure

    bewareth vile nevertrump!

    like doth yet quit like

    and measure still for measure

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  80. Look at the tweets as fireside chats, 2017.

    “All we have to fear is Mexicans coming over the border to take our jobs.”
    “Bataan? I like soldiers who win, not get captured.”
    “Hitler is really very much of a leader. He has great control over his country.”
    “War against Germany? It’s a distraction. Bad for business.”
    “Embargo oil and other raw material to Japan? Horrible idea. We should think carefully before we disrupt a 200 million dollar business.”

    nk (dbc370)

  81. 18. Beldar (fa637a) — 6/22/2017 @ 1:53 pm

    To those insisting that Trump is playing three-dimensional chess:

    Please identify for me your role model for a successful POTUS.

    maybe LBJ, except they don’t anything about him.

    But what they think Trump is doing, LBJ really did (in terms of negotiating and playing three-dimensional chess, not substance)

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  82. The millions of words pent on relating a gru hack that never happened, a dossier as fake as bajaniv or bellegardes. Infect something resembling dzerzhinskis trust the dhs memo that want with the toilet people jet was written on, the jokes of the decisions from the 9th and 4th circuits

    narciso (d1f714)

  83. @82. ROFLMAO ***** nk. Hilarious. Yeah, was thinking about just that a few nights ago. Try working one up for JFK’s speech about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  84. There is no universe in which pretending or suggesting that he had tapes was a smart move, if he didn’t.

    Ploy me no ploys. If an advisor or lawyer recommended this, it was a damned dishonest and incompetent advisor and lawyer. You do not “win” by implying that you have a winning hand, betting it big, and then folding it.

    nk, I agree with you only in part. The Feb 14 memo always existed, and we still haven’t actually seen it, have we? Mueller has. There are other memos and we haven’t seen any of them yet. Comey has not been “swabbed out,” and he has not been “pinned down.” Yes he’s obliged to keep his story straight if he wants to keep the credibility he has, and he lost a ton of it when he went rogue and leaked and then confessed to that. It was inevitable that he would kew close to the memo — again, he expected to be cross-examined on this memo, and he will be again, with a judge in the room to rule on objections, if this thing plays out as far as he was obviously already planning for. All Trump has done is shoot off another toe.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  85. *hew close to the memo. With or without kewpies, I guess.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  86. So we are told, and we believe it because if his sterling reputation, spare me. Its kite with that of guillermo Santos who was an honorable man in the 80s when new publishers challenged the cartels but since then has removed all doubt.

    narciso (d1f714)

  87. Thank you for playing along, Mr. Finkelman. LBJ was indeed incredibly successful in his legislative program, and absolutely no one was discussing his impeachment at this stage in his presidency. This proves my point, as would 43 other examples that could be given. But you’re not one of the Trumpkins I was trying to bait, I confess.

    Since no Trumpkins have: The answer is: There is no POTUS who has been successful early in his first term who’s done anything remotely like what Trump has done to plunge himself into this kind of controversy.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  88. After the most mendacious campaign till 2008, Johnson committed himself t a war he didn’t believe in ana. Play e he had spent a dozen years since diem been ph trying to ignore. Now we know thanks to moyar much progress had been squandered with his predecessors decapitation strike against a putative ally.there was also the critical battle for the Dominican republic.

    narciso (d1f714)

  89. Matt bay, the media matters stooge, Shirley, if this grishenko or ivanova kerfluffle was about nothing, why have we wasted six months. Now dismissing general Lynn the best military intelligence officer since general Walters ctainly is a mark against trump. Carter page, a hangeton of little consequence unlike Robert mallet for instance that broke bread with hams and then was sent to bargain with the sepal the same folks who had given sanctuary to the lead aq comnandrrs

    narciso (d1f714)

  90. The Feb 14 memo always existed

    And that would be before Trump’s tweet of May 12. I get it.

    But when did we and Trump hear of the memo(s), and do we have more than Comey’s word that he drafted it on February 14 and not when he woke up in the middle of the night the Monday after he got fired? Serious question, I have not given the case the attention happyfeet has.

    nk (dbc370)

  91. She’s still a fave right, she might by angle harmon:

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-america-armed-terrorists-in-syria/

    So as that enclosed memo show, why were we creating g a salafust principality in Syria again, where did 500 million dollars go and to who?

    narciso (d1f714)

  92. @nk: I’m relying on memory entirely without verifying this, but my recollection is:

    Comey testified that he used a government laptop in the car immediately after the meeting on Feb 14, so there is a metadata trail of that at a minimum. IIRC, nobody asked him (the incompetent nincompoops) many of the details of where he stored it electronically, whether it hit print, or when he secreted a copy (probably a digital .pdf rather than a MS Word or other word processing file) and removed it from government possession into his own private possession. I think he mentioned, at least by title or category, some of the senior FBI people he shared it with immediately after writing it. As of today, we the public know only of the Feb 14 memo what Comey’s cutout was directed to read aloud. He’s thus got an automatic “out” for any slight discrepancies, when the memo finally comes out, between his cutout’s description of it and the memo itself, which discrepancies can be blamed on innocent misunderstanding, mis-transcription, or re-transmission errors.

    I’ll be mildly surprised if Comey didn’t hold back some juicy details, though, when he picked what to leak and crafted his statements and slalomed through the senators’ questioning. If so, he’ll hold those for the moment he wants, or else until he’s asked under oath a question he can’t avoid spilling on. Nevertheless, I do agree with you, nk, that it’s also reasonable to infer that there aren’t any other big events associated with that Feb 14 meeting that he could plausibly invent later. I’d say he’s about 70-80% swabbed out and pinned down about that meeting, maybe 35% on anything else he’s made memos about, but that’s a wild guess.

    Overall, he’s likewise partly pinned down (but nowhere near swabbed out) on the contents of the written statement he gave Congress before his latest appearance, which he adopted in his testimony (but actually used very skillfully to steer the questioning he got). If he had any new bombshells (“Trump ordered me to transmit nuclear launch codes to the Russians!”), he’d have a hard time explaining why it wasn’t mentioned in that document.

    In general, Comey doesn’t need to invent facts. He can be scrupulously honest about matters of objective fact while spinning them and sequencing them and telling them in a way that makes Trump look like a schmuck, or, perhaps, more of a schmuck. He’s surely a master of bureaucratic memo-writing/ass-covering. He’s not worried about tapes because he’s been seeing himself as the protagonist of his own epic play, doing what all we trial lawyers do when we speak or are spoken to, which is to run a continuous background transcript so we can continuously assess in real time, “What kind of record am I making?” I believe he was very sincere — not in an admirable way, but in the way of a bitter foe relishing the undoing of an opponent who’s hoisting himself on his own petard — when he said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.” He’s been papering this file since at least Valentine’s Day, and he’d already been on tilt since at least last July, so if I were advising Trump, I’d say: Treat Comey like a cobra who has not been killed, defanged, or milked.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  93. Ptevoously I. The march 10th instant car he had Mueller take the notes, but that bombshell didn’t explode till four years later. When very few examined the dubious timing re his claims. Whitewashing Samuel Berger. Fumbling the anthrax investigation ten disgrace of the quattrone witchunt I put hi. Of apiece with all soufan who .might as well. Have been zubeydab atty burning the trail to library tower.

    narciso (d1f714)

  94. Compete him with Louis freer, who despite the mishandling of the Hanson matter, a d some technical issues, had very few ethical mishaps that I can recall.

    narciso (d1f714)

  95. milk that comey milk it hard milk him like a womanish fbi water moccasin

    hang her on the barb wire by the road come sunday

    drive by in your studebaker

    thank you kindly miss comey thank you kindly for the milk

    yes sir yes sir three bags full

    corroborate!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  96. I completely agree with Beldar 96. Comey has realized for months that he had to be very careful with Trump, and he had to already be cautious with his words, deeds, and documents after last Summer’s Clinton mess. He is like a dangerous cobra waiting to strike, and Trump should have fired him on Day One. The fact Trump didn’t shows he completely underestimated Comey and the peril he presented.

    DRJ (15874d)

  97. comey so smart he is so wise (ben franklin) why is her not president

    aaaaand we’re working BUILDING A MYSTERY

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  98. Well, I mean, all I can do is hope. The president surely knows whether he taped me!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  99. He is a venomous cobra, however the truth has nothing to do with it, of course you still can’t explain how could he have done so with installing sessions and getting his deputy confirmed past sally fan dancer.

    narciso (d1f714)

  100. The only part of the job Trump likes is communicating, especially tweeting. He doesn’t seem to like the responsibility of being President.

    DRJ (15874d)

  101. if luvin trump is wrong

    i don’t wanna be right

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  102. they are digging freedom’s grave with their apathy and snootyness, and it is no good

    it is no good

    there will be blood
    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/22/2017 @ 4:41 pm

    We have a rare moment of agreement.

    And I am remiss for not marking the month of May as the anniversary of the birth of Edwin Price Ramsey.

    Who led the last Cavalry charge of United States Army.

    http://mandirigma.org/?p=3189

    On Bataan, a 26th Cavalry Troop, consisting mostly of Filipino Troopers and led by Lt. Edwin Ramsey performed the last U.S. Cavalry horse mounted charge to engage an enemy in warfare.
    February 1, 2017 By MO1
    U.S. Philippine Cavalry Scouts at the 2017 Pasadena Rose Parade. California, USA.

    26th Cavalry. I don’t think we are finished with this business.

    Which oddly enough is what I said when we left our #%%es squatting in the desert after gulf storm 1. Like 1992.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  103. You could just go to his web site.

    http://www.edwinpriceramsey.com/remem_obit.php

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  104. people don’t listen and they kinda shallow

    but think of all what you abjure when you abjure trump

    you abjure the best of us

    when you abjure trump

    you abjure the people that believe yes we can make america great again

    and you do it so casually

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  105. could he have done so with installing sessions and getting his deputy confirmed past sally fan dancer.

    Did you mean “without”?

    Easy: afternoon of January 20, say
    His actions last year have resulted in no one on either side of the aisle respecting or trusting him. The FBI needs a director who the American people think is credible. Since James Comey is not, I am firing him effective now!

    After all, this is the man whose claim to TV fame is the ability to fire people.

    kishnevi (ec71b1)

  106. As
    As but then Clinton took a hacksaw to the military and then she t them to those critucak areas of the balkans and somalia, the first was then prince salmons air force the second Al qyedas first run in With us forces

    narciso (d1f714)

  107. Thank you, Beldar. I agree with your cobra simile, and it remains to be seen whether Trump is more than a peacock spreading his fan in front of it.

    nk (dbc370)

  108. Sessions couldn’t be confirmed until all the other cabinet members were, because we have idiots like Collins and veruca salt who yell squirrel then he had to get past all the tripwires Obama had left behin

    narciso (d1f714)

  109. attention class welcome to harvard

    just so’s you know

    we actually can’t intimate anything porcine about failmerican law enforcement… really

    yes REALLY – this is ver and also boten, silly pikachu

    but but but, sputtered the pikachu, sputteringly

    did you not watch comey’s testimony???!?

    and we’re working

    BUILDING A MYSTERY

    comey it up

    comey it in

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  110. Not only do I ab-jure Trump, but I also pec-jure him, lat-dure him, and trap-dure him. You can’t just work on the abs, you need to work the whole torso.

    nk (dbc370)

  111. noted

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  112. So in tube big scheme of things I find there is little reason to give the bemrfit of the doubt to I specter dreyfus or Mueller re the ostensibly GOP senate I fond it as reliable as the harkonnen staybehinds in the atrakkeen palace.

    narciso (d1f714)

  113. 31. Ed from SFV @ 2:44 pm:

    Yet, my first take when he suggested the existence of tapes was that he was playing Comey. It would not be surprising in the least if this was done at the suggestion of an aide or lawyer.

    No, Trump is perfectly capable of thinking of ideas like this himself. An aide would not suggest it, because there are no tapes, and he’d be afraid to bluff, even second hand.

    What some aide or lawyer might have done is: 1) Blame Comey for the May 11 New York Times story and 2) Think of claims Comey might make or even report rumors or hearsay that came from reporters as to what’s coming next, and maybe 3) Wish there were tapes or ask about that.

    That was enough for Trump to go ahead the next morning when he woke up (or rather after a start to the day.) Perhaps what stimulated it was something he saw on TV that speculated about what Comey would say and, Trump thought, might be based on first or second hand knowledge of what Comey was actually contemplating saying.

    Trump was careful not to say that he actually had tapes, only that Comey better hope there are not..

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  114. Abjure means to give up a belief or allegiance you already have. Is anybody here who liked Trump before and dislikes him now? I think you’re trying to trick us.

    nk (dbc370)

  115. “There’s been no obstruction. No collusion. Virtually everyone agrees to that.” President Trump to Fox News, teaser, 6/22/17

    Really. Everyone… virtually.

    Priceless.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  116. Its a perfectly cromulent word for him,

    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-defense-contractor-charged-passing-top-secret-info-china

    When you have allies like mercurial may who ma, u till to deal 600 other highrise deathtraps because skydr66agon, along with all other broken mitrirs pens nieto who is looting. The coubtry

    narciso (d1f714)

  117. Then you have earwig trumbull, who presides o Er this back of wallabies:
    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/learn-the-skills-of-slaying-on-stage/news-story/fa2ef878b25fc9fc189a0b9640a62a3b

    Beside bibi, urban kazynski perhaps king abdullah of Jordan

    narciso (d1f714)

  118. “This post again speaks to the problem of having a president who lacks self-discipline and restraint, and can’t keep his mouth shut. He doesn’t seem to grasp that every word he utters, whether in writing or says aloud, will be scrutinized. And given that he is a Republican president, the media and the Dems will be out for blood for the next 4 years.”

    Dana, would it matter even a tiny bit what Trump said as to whether or not “the media and the Dems will be out for blood for the next 4 years.”?

    The question answers itself – they’d be out to murder him and his family no matter what, and the sooner the right understands that the more they’ll understand that Trump is not the moron you morons think him to be.

    Fred Z (05d938)

  119. Dana, would it matter even a tiny bit what Trump said as to whether or not “the media and the Dems will be out for blood for the next 4 years.”?
    It would in the sense that Trump is giving them ammunition. One can not stop enemy attacks, but one can try to make it harder to attack.

    kishnevi (1a00bd)

  120. 96. Beldar (fa637a) — 6/22/2017 @ 6:06 pm

    @nk: I’m relying on memory entirely without verifying this, but my recollection is:

    Comey testified that he used a government laptop in the car immediately after the meeting on Feb 14, so there is a metadata trail of that at a minimum.

    No, that was after the January 6 meeting in Trump Tower, which was the first meeting he had. Comey claims that it was his practice from that date forward to create a written record immediately after one-on-one conversations with Donald Trump.

    IIRC, nobody asked him (the incompetent nincompoops) many of the details of where he stored it electronically, whether it hit print, or when he secreted a copy (probably a digital .pdf rather than a MS Word or other word processing file) and removed it from government possession into his own private possession.

    I think maybe they didn’t want to get into that, maybe because they thought vouching for the authenticity of the memos was Mueller’s job, or they risked getting into classified, or normally non-public, matters. Perhaps also Comey gave them, or promised them, some kind of explanation in the closed hearing. They seemed very wary of asking him specific questions about the nature of the records, except maybe who he shared it with. They edged into who else might have a copy very carefully.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  121. About the January 6 memo Comey says nothing about when and if he shared it. About the January 27 dinner, he says he wrote a detailed memo afterwards and shared it with the senior leadership at the FBI.

    I suspect that actually he did not do that for the January 27 dinner, and what he shared (about staying on, the loyalty question and all that) was based on and actually happened in the January 6 meeting!

    At the time of the tweet Comey was already stuck with a few lies.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  122. Trump has mastered shooting himself in the foot.

    DRJ (15874d)

  123. About the February 14 pull aside meeting, he says he prepared an unclassified memo (unclassified so it could be circulated more widely and easier to discuss and share with an investigative team) which I suspect means he left out everything about the leaks, and particularly the New York Times story that morning…

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html

    …which was the main topic of that conversation.

    That’s the same news story that Comey said was false and so told members of Congress back then, even claiming he’d double checked.

    Comey gave a copy of the memo to Columbia University proessor Dan Richman and he leaked it to the New York Times after the tweet, for the purpose, or in the hope of, getting a special counsel appointed.

    He didn’t explain in his public testimony how it would help, but it might have helped one side in some argument in the Department of Justice. Comey would admit that because there might be some possible testimony that indeed it was used that way with his knowledge and consent.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  124. narciso @120. That is one dumb spy. Trying to come back through customs with his cash payoff and secret agent phone. No cyanide pill?

    nk (dbc370)

  125. I am done with the spelling police businesses.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  126. I know right, its been turtles all the way down since Snowdon, down to the fellow who grabbed the toolbox to taliban loving reality winner.

    narciso (d1f714)

  127. Trump has mastered shooting himself in the foot.

    He’s done it so often, he is in danger of not having a leg to stand on.

    kishnevi (1a00bd)

  128. Fulfilling his promises the the wall innthe medium term, expanding economic development , making progress against Islamic state those are the isdurs he’ll be judged by.

    narciso (d1f714)

  129. About the March 30 telephone call: Comey mentioned nothing about making notes, but said he called Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boenteto report the substance of the call and would await his guidance and he did not hear back him by April 11, when he got another call from the president.

    What was the substance?

    Trump, writes Comey, had wanted to know about why there had been a congressional hearing on Russia the revious week. Comey says he said the leadership of both parties wanted more information and Senator Grassley had held up the confirmation of the seputy Attorney General (that’s Rosenstein) until he was briefed. He said he had confirmed the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, but said that he was directed to do so by the Department of Justice.

    He had also briefed the senior leadership of Congress as to exactly which individuals they were investigating and that he had told them that Donald Trump personally was not one of them. Trump said he hoped they would find a way to get that information out. He adds that ehe did not tell Trump that they had been reluctant to make a public statement that there was not an open case against Trump, the most important of which was that there would then be a duty to correct if it changed. Trump wanted them to lift the cloud.

    Comey also says nothing about notes about the April 11 telephone conversation but says taht again Trump asked to get the word out, and Comey said the proper way to ask was for his people to contact the Acting Deputy Attorney General.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  130. Witty and a nice use of imagery, kish.

    DRJ (15874d)

  131. Beldar:

    I think he mentioned, at least by title or category, some of the senior FBI people he shared it with immediately after writing it.

    That was about the March 30 telephone call, and amybe also the April 11 call, and Comey gave an answer for all of them.

    FEINSTEIN: So I wanted to go into that. Who did you talk with about that – lifting the cloud, stopping the investigation – back at the FBI, and what was their response?

    COMEY: Well, the FBI, during one of the two conversations – I’m not remembering exactly. I think the first – my chief of staff was actually sitting in front of me, and heard my end of the conversation, because the president’s call was a surprise.

    And I discussed the lifting the cloud and the request with the senior leadership team, who in – in – typically, and I think in all these circumstances, was the deputy director, my chief of staff, the general counsel, the deputy director’s chief counsel and, I think, in a numberof circumstances, the number three in the FBI, and a few of the conversations included the head of the national security branch, so that group of us that lead the FBI when it comes to national security.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  132. Actually Trump has mastered the art of getting the people who voted for him not to care about his day to day or hour to hour word puzzles.

    Its sort of like how Charlie Wilson won his part of the Texas Bible Belt term after term

    Looks easy, but very hard to do.

    I thought it was funny that Trump flipped the possible existence of tapes from himself, to the spies and the leakers

    steveg (e8c34d)

  133. srsly?

    fbi perv james comey is so truly goddamn womanish his “wife” never took his name?

    and we’re workin

    BUILDING A MYSTERY

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  134. Comey had to wonder:

    1. Were there tapes? Note that Trump says he doesn’t have tapes, but doesn’t rule out the WH
    2. The deep state is not just Democrats or lifers. The deep state has some conservatives too. Comey knows that somewhere in the great apparatus that spies on us all, that it is possible that he is on record mumbling something untoward.
    3. Throwing Comey under the bus gets easier every day for Democrats. Jeh threw Debbie under the bus, so she ran a bus over him. Jeh’s bus was bigger. Surely Comey(D-DC) knows his party will turn on him

    steveg (e8c34d)

  135. Ever notice how the leather wrapped books in the mahogany cabinets always seem to be in a room you don’t want anything to do with?

    mg (31009b)

  136. and we’re working

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  137. 37. DRJ: 6/22/2017 @ 2:56 pm:

    First, how was he playing Comey? By trying to get Comey not to testify about some topics or say certain things?

    Not to say anything that wasn’t true, at least about what the conversations between them, i.e. what he said to him. Like a claim maybe that he’d asked him to halt the Russian investigation. Trump could have been trying to head that off.

    This suggests that he suspected Comey was about to lie, or had already lied. Or some leak, that he or an aide or lawyer suspected came from Comey, edged close to a lie.

    That leak would probably be the May 11, 2017 New York Times story:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-firing.html

    It might be there was already a lie there. In any case Trump was disputing that account:

    As they ate, the president and Mr. Comey made small talk about the election and the crowd sizes at Mr. Trump’s rallies. The president then turned the conversation to whether Mr. Comey would pledge his loyalty to him.

    Mr. Comey declined to make that pledge. Instead, Mr. Comey has recounted to others, he told Mr. Trump that he would always be honest with him, but that he was not “reliable” in the conventional political sense.

    The White House says this account is not correct. And Mr. Trump, in an interview on Thursday with NBC, described a far different dinner conversation with Mr. Comey in which the director asked to have the meeting and the question of loyalty never came up. It was not clear whether he was talking about the same meal, but they are believed to have had only one dinner together.

    From reading Comey’s prepared statement carefully, I’m inclined to think that an exchange about loyalty did happen, but it happened on January 6 in Trump Tower. For Jan 27 Comey says he told Trump he was not reliable in he way politicians used that word, but doesn’t give more than the vaguest non-explanation as to what prompted that.

    It is interesting that there were no more leks about that January 27 dinner after the tweet.

    Instead there was a leak about Feb 14, and there Comey sounds like he was truthful.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  138. Elaborating on what I noted yesterday:

    https://warontherocks.com/2017/06/abbottabad-revisited/

    narciso (d1f714)

  139. Comey was seen today applying for a job at the New York Times.

    mg (31009b)

  140. Well like Fidel hexalso got his last gig through thevtimes, (a Buckley joke,,one should add the CIA helped with Fidel one of their top sources on whether he was a communist was Raul’s future wife. Villa espin

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4630424/Top-Al-Qaeda-cleric-killed-airstrike-Yemen.html

    narciso (d1f714)

  141. and harvardtrash renfield adam schiff offered to gently cup his scrotum as he applied

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  142. steveg @136. Actually Trump has mastered the art of getting the people who voted for him not to care about his day to day or hour to hour word puzzles.

    If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh!t?

    nk (dbc370)

  143. The horror, re the last Colin kohl ear full of ouvno who knew (raisers hand)

    narciso (d1f714)

  144. Did you guys know that Elvis’s real hair color was light brown/sandy blond? Nobody tells me anything.

    nk (dbc370)

  145. i had no idea

    why am i picturing leif garrett

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  146. Trump is no Republican. Republicans are supposed to shut up and let themselves get steamrolled by the ‘rat machine. Who let that rascally impostor in?

    jcurtis (7e8288)

  147. not me i voted for pancakes

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  148. Remember the process is the punishment:

    https://www.steynonline.com/7937/fifteen-lawyers-in-search-of-a-crime

    Or putcit another way the beatings will continue until the morale imprives

    narciso (d1f714)

  149. q: why does pervy corrupt fbi slut robert mueller look so much like bea arthur?

    a: hello it’s the fbi – they’re all a bunch of pervy corrupt trannies

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  150. All of D.C. and Media pushing lies out but somehow POTUS gets them to say the truth ….. boy Trump is an idiot.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  151. Rosenstein coordinated with Comey. No doubt in my mind.

    Rosenstein needs to be fired.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  152. doj trash gotta be trashy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  153. More often then not, to target the left effectively in their persons or their resources its like landing on Europe,

    narciso (d1f714)

  154. @ Fred Z,

    Dana, would it matter even a tiny bit what Trump said as to whether or not “the media and the Dems will be out for blood for the next 4 years.”?

    Of course they will be out to get him, Fred, but the point is, he sure doesn’t need to keep on giving them so much to work with. He not only shoots himself in the foot fairly regularly, as noted above, but this, as well as his lack of discipline and self-awareness, make me wonder if he is just self-destructive. These aren’t just the flub-ups of a rookie. And it’s all extremely frustrating because I want to see him succeed and want to cheer him on, but when he continues such foolish behavior that requires others to clean up after him, it’s ultimately all just a waste of time. I know you don’t feel that way, and that is fine, of course. I hope your support is well placed and proves me wrong. I would love that.

    Dana (023079)

  155. What do they have to work with, give me one piece of solitary proof, one actual piece of paper, they all get together, Mueller comey and rosrnstein, because that is their club. Their rules, quic custodiem ccustodiem.In a decade mueller let volodya game the country. As apparently they did with ikwan branch of quradawis isb mosques, the people who filferred the insecure ibamacre exchanges (a hipaa violation to transfer confidential info over insecure network) the looting of 20 million retired and active duty profiles by the chinsrs)

    narciso (d1f714)

  156. The things that seem to matter in Washington don’t Moran a tinkers damn anywhere else. You xeveat them at the ballot box and they still linger, until you stake them strigoi. Seriously there should have been a laugh track to Jehs testimony, it was beyond parody. So had this entire grishenko snipehunt

    narciso (d1f714)

  157. So prriety, civility, we’re way past that point, but as a general rule the congress can’t walk and chew gum, the FBI making a hash of the most obvious case

    narciso (d1f714)

  158. Twenty years of European direct investment has done nothing for cuba, just got the regime:
    http://www.babalublog.com/2017/06/22/trump-drops-bomb-on-castro-regime-and-its-u-s-based-agents

    narciso (d1f714)

  159. One of my favorite moments — one of the most illustrative ones — during Obama’s terms was in 2011 when he warned GOP congressional leaders: “Don’t call my bluff!

    Every decent poker player in America instantly thought: “Wow, I want to be at a table with that guy, he has no clue whatsoever about the game of poker and I will end up wearing his wristwatch going home at 2 a.m.”

    That’s what this deal with the Trump and the tapes reminds me of.

    One of the best poker players I know makes a point — I’ve seen him do it a dozen times over years — to get caught bluffing early in the evening, when the stakes are still relatively small. I mean, he will shamelessly but his 2-7 offsuit against a guy who’s representing a high pair, and raise, and raise again, and the get called, and of course annihilated. He won’t just muck, he’ll show his crummy hand and make some wisecrack just to make sure everyone notices.

    The thing is, I know the guy. He only plays good cards. That’s not the same as never bluffing; if you never bluff, you’re leaving money on the table. But he bluffs on hands that have at least a chance of improvement, and he’s very shrewd about when in the evening and against whom he runs those very few bluffs. So why would he do this kamikaze charge and deliberately lose a hand with a crummy bluff that had no chance of turning into a decent hand?

    Action, baby. When he’s playing his good cards, and the people who watched him bluff (and got taken in by the ruse) are playing their kinda-good cards, they’re thinking: “Well, I watched that fish try to bluff and bully his way into stealing a pot, and I’m guessing he’s doing it again.” So they’ll bet into him on his best hands. He rarely leaves a loser.

    That’s the only excuse I can think of, strategically, for why it can be a good thing to have been caught bluffing, as Trump just has been. That’s the only excuse I can think of for embarrassing yourself this obviously. For the life of me, I cannot see how a POTUS could be trying to gin up “action,” or its political equivalent, whatever that might be. But fine, maybe my horizons are limited and he has a plan for how looking stupid, daily, with this kind of nonsense is going to work out in the end.

    Do you know what my shrewd poker-playing friend who deliberately runs a stupid bluff and deliberately gets caught bluffing never does on that hand? He never shoves in his whole stack on that hand!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  160. Beldar, I hope your wife appreciates you.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  161. Seriously now they gave him the sequester that slashed the military to the lowest point since world war one, no one called his bluff, he extorted robertscare out out thin air, he succeeded in ways we couldn’t have imagine eight years ago, he allowed Islamic state a sanctuary to train its cadres,

    narciso (d1f714)

  162. This were teal things. Matters of life and death, if you will first workday problems, why did we think Ryan and mcconnell needed to be replaced. Because they are Luke crooked slot machines.

    narciso (d1f714)

  163. There is Darth humor here:
    https://faustasblog.com/2017/06/el-chapo-vs-netflix/

    narciso (d1f714)

  164. Ryan and Mcconnell have been caught cheating the tax-payer, as in poker, caught cheating means – good-bye.

    mg (31009b)

  165. What irks me about Trump – Obama and his hacks are not being prosecuted. These people need to be jailed. They jailed me on a set-up for a heck of a lot less. Pathetic Trump hired Sessions. Book-em Dan-o.

    mg (31009b)

  166. Where are the republicans backing the voters? These ingrated hacks need to be put down the sewer pipe. They said they would repeal and replace obama care. Lying sacks of bat guano. We need American blood in d.c. Not rino blood. In fact if your a lawyer you should never ba able to hold office. The biggest problem in America is the judicial system rigged for d.c. lawyers. We must stop[ the madness of these lawyers. They are out od control. Lock them up, Trump.

    mg (31009b)

  167. Steve57 – this is why the FBI needs to be put down.
    http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/22/who-does-the-fbi-work-for/

    mg (31009b)

  168. They jailed me on a set-up for a heck of a lot less…

    mg (31009b) — 6/23/2017 @ 2:46 am

    I know enough about jail to know not to ask. As for me, I got locked up when I was in college.

    The h3ll of it all was I had left the party that was pretty obviously gone bad and WAS going to invite police intervention, like, an hour earlier. Because I didn’t want to be involved. The Sheriff’s picked me up close to two miles away, almost by my apartment.

    I spent a night in jail. Where everyone I met was innocent of every charge from the cooling of the earth to date.

    The judge gave me the kind of suspended sentence that said that as long as I had no more run ins with the law everything would disappear from my permanent file.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=jbzjC0O3H9k

    Johnny Law and the 53

    Steve57. Outlaw.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  169. I think part of the equation is that I had a ’68 Dodge Charger with a 440S. Not a 440M, the Magnum. But the 440S, the police pursuit special with the NASCAR bottom end.

    I will tell you this. Even I scared me. To the point where thirty years later if I want to go fast I’ll do it on a track.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  170. It was a set-up Steve57. The cops were stopping every car on that particular sidewalk. Is that where they found out your alias is “Tater Salad”?

    (apologies to Ron White)

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  171. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2010/03/05/navy-captain-demoted-after-warship-drag-race-surfaced.html

    The Navy shows they have their priorities in order.

    A Navy captain was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows.

    Berating and assaulting your crew? Don’t think so. It’s so wrong on so many different levels. As a leader I want a crew that that works together.

    Start from there. Work backward.

    As far as combatants go. Wring ’em out.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  172. Beldar, imho, you, Dana and Patterico have a nevertrump closed loop going here. Trump is my least favorite R President, ever. But he is running rings around the elected D’s, his entire fight is with the entrenched bureaucracy – the deep state is the only competent opposition.

    He is fighting D operatives in every media outlet and form, D operatives in academia, D operatives running “non-profits”, D operatives running unions. Trump is fighting this fight 140 characters at a time, going directly to the voters, unfiltered.

    No one following these tweets, expects great erudition – you are not going to get the Gettysburg Address, 140 characters at a time. Against all expectations, Trump is surviving this fight, and he is achieving “Conservative” goals. If you don’t think the voters now see Trump as an underdog in this fight, while you three are certain he is a bully, I think you are vastly mistaken. If the next 3 & 1/2 years follow this trajectory, Trump walks into re-election, amidst much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  173. It was a set-up Steve57. The cops were stopping every car on that particular sidewalk. Is that where they found out your alias is “Tater Salad”?

    (apologies to Ron White)
    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/23/2017 @ 5:06 am

    It was “Tater Tot.” That’s what gave me away.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  174. You mean like these paragons on left wing media, Steven Malynn?

    https://youtu.be/GKZACRWeDSg

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  175. When it comes to “all things Comey”, the seemingly obvious question that has gone unasked is ..

    What did Comey have on Obama that kept Obama from firing Comey last July ?

    … or simply … had Comey already gone full “J. Edgar Hoover” ?

    Bonus question …

    If Comey broke the law by leaking, why hasn’t the FBI descended on his house with a search warrant looking for other “notes” ?

    Neo (d1c681)

  176. Trump is surviving this fight, and he is achieving “Conservative” goals.

    Other than Gorsuch, what has he achieved?

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  177. “The FBI admits that Hodgkinson:

    •vociferously raged against Republicans in online forums,
    •had a piece of paper bearing the names of six members of Congress,
    •was reported for doing target practice outside his home in recent months before moving to Alexandria,
    •had mapped out a trip to the DC area,
    •took multiple photos of the baseball field he would later shoot up, three days after the New York Times mentioned that Republicans practiced baseball at an Alexandria baseball field with little security,
    •lived out of his van at the YMCA directly next door to the baseball field he shot up,
    •legally purchased a rifle in March 2003 and 9 mm handgun “in November 2016,”
    •modified the rifle at some point to accept a detachable magazine and replaced the original stock with a folding stock,
    •rented a storage facility to hide hundreds of rounds of ammunition and additional rifle components,
    •asked “Is this the Republican or Democrat baseball team?” before firing on the Republicans,
    •ran a Google search for information on the “2017 Republican Convention” hours before the shooting,
    •and took photos at high-profile Washington locations, including the east front plaza of the U.S. Capitol and the Dirksen Senate Office.

    We know from other reporting that the list was of six Republican Freedom Caucus members, including Rep. Mo Brooks, who was present at the practice.

    So what does the FBI decide this information means? Well, the takeaway of the briefing was characterized well by the Associated Press headline about it: “FBI: Gunman who shot congressman had no target in mind.” The Associated Press reported the FBI:
    •believes the gunman “had no concrete plan to inflict violence” against Republicans,
    •“had not yet clarified who, if anyone, he planned to target, or why,”
    •believes he may have just “happened upon” the baseball game the morning of June 14, and that the attack appeared “spontaneous,”

    http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/22/the-fbis-briefing-on-the-gop-baseball-shooting-couldnt-be-more-bizarre/

    The FBI is the resistance folks – the RINOs and Never Trumpers should celebrate.

    harkin (536957)

  178. We are on the road to an entrenchment of ObamaCare. Nothing has been done towards a wall. Limiting immigration of radical Islamists has so far failed, a function of not working with Congress, slipshod execution, and irresponsible and childish rhetoric. Trump’s 12-second attention span and inability to read the written word, combined with his idiotic need to make dumb and ill-informed statements, and to PUSH BACK as the unthinking default response to every slight, has resumed in a scenario where there is no agenda but rather constant drama over personal matters.

    And it was all utterly predictable. He is a garbage human who cares about nothing but himself.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  179. also:

    “Hodgkinson also visited the office of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose campaign he had worked on as a volunteer, and was in email contact with the two Democratic senators from his home state…..

    …..the media’s big problem right now is that everyone in the country knows how they’d be covering the shooting if the parties were reversed. Can you imagine if a shooter had visited the office of Sen. Ted Cruz and corresponded with two Republican senators?

    Indeed.

    harkin (536957)

  180. Who crafted the bill, mcturtle who diesnt want a wall maverick flake Collins veruca salt, who has been furthering the grishenko narrative Richard burrow, jobs poodle. ‘What is the senate good for’ absolutely nothing.

    narciso (d1f714)

  181. Steve Malynn 177 and Haiku 185 say it all. They see Trump as standing up to the bureaucracy and media in DC and, for now, that is enough. It doesn’t matter whether Trump accomplishes anything, only that he resists. How ironic that both sides now find that enough.

    DRJ (15874d)

  182. #182 … Republicans should use that FBI Memo to reform the DOJ and FBI.

    But again, to people like the Blog Owner, the problem is Trump. Reminds me of the Robb Stark’s of this world so filled with transactional righteousness they end up dooming their own cause.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  183. Price can do some of the work, but you need a framework to go on, this is the point of the administrative state.

    narciso (d1f714)

  184. @183 To top it all off, Trump has become the poster-boy for billionaires. The super-rich used to have a mystique, a reputation for being well informed and educated, and having a high bar for morals and respectability. The Billionaire Brand has been eradicated, single handedly, by our Big-Baby-In-Chief.

    Tillman (a95660)

  185. We are on the road to an entrenchment of ObamaCare.

    And whose fault is that? Because to your point, Trump would support anything that looks like a win, so maybe if Republicans would stop acting like Santa Claus – Lite ……. Same goes for the Wall Funding and everything you complain about.

    Cuz again, if Trump will sign anything Republicans give him then why are they not giving hims the most right wing stuff to begin with?

    Answer: Problem is lots of Republicans are not of the right but Big Govt types.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  186. What determines public policy and the perception of same

    http://invisibleserfscollar.com

    narciso (d1f714)

  187. And whose fault is that?

    Big Government Republicans, like the establishment types who drafted this in secret, and like Ttump, who calls for “heart” in the Senate bill, fought for big government in the House version, and praises the current Senate version so as to put his thumb on the scale for big government.

    I condemn them all.

    Blah condemns everybody but Trump because Not A Cult.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  188. Narciso, who is veruca salt?

    urbanleftbehind (4d5492)

  189. Cult members get really upset when other people refuse to join the cult.

    I get it.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  190. Eff the entrenched bureaucracy and all who serve it and elevate its needs above all else.

    Colonel Haiku (1cae03)

  191. 181 – “Other than Gorsuch, what has he achieved?”

    Well, there’s this:

    “While everyone was focused on Comey’s prepared statement, Trump went about his business filling vacancies in the federal judiciary.”

    http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/06/republicans-steamrolling-dems-to-confirm-trump-judicial-nominees/

    Even the Huffington Post is rattled:

    Most days, it seems like President Donald Trump is sabotaging his own agenda, one tweet at a time. But the White House has been quietly plowing ahead in one area that will affect generations of people: the courts.”

    harkin (536957)

  192. Some are too busy barking around the edges to notice, harkin.

    Colonel Haiku (1cae03)

  193. That Tillman is a-ok with Democrat dysfunction, ethics, immorality, violence, “strategy”, decrepitude and asshattery is an amusing statement in and of itself.

    Colonel Haiku (1cae03)

  194. I’m with Rev Hoagie. There are Hillary voters and Never Trumpers. You are on the same side. Then there are the Embarrassed Trumpers who supported him bc they had no choice but now moan and groan and gnash their teeth at every move he makes, every tweet he sends. And that puts you with Hollywood, The Media, The Dems, The Establishment Repubs, the Elite. Yes, you help them when you bash him. You must know this. Don’t you know that the rest of us suck it up and remember that he is what we’ve got and he beat Hillary so we’re trying to dance with the one that brought us.

    peggy (fb6611)

  195. i blame senile cowardly torture victim John McCain and his Republican Main Street soros front group

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  196. 201 – it’s entirely possible to be disappointed in many of Trump’s actions while at the same time realizing that the true “garbage humans” and cultists are the ones seeking to undo a free and fair election through lies, smears, hate and hyperbole.

    harkin (536957)

  197. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/freighter-autopilot-hit-us-destroyer/

    D#mn. Seven lives lost.

    Freighter Was On Autopilot When It Hit U.S. Destroyer
    USS Fitzgerald did not detect container ship

    I am always afraid to accept first reports. But still, my initial reaction is to say it’s due to human error. Because it usually is. That’s just he old NAVOSH officer in me speaking.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  198. 37. DRJ (15874d) — 6/22/2017 @ 2:56 pm

    If so, what things do you think Comey might have said but decided not to?

    Of course, first was the fact that he testified at all.
    The tweet was designed to affect leaks.

    The possibility of tapes, which could ahve reinforced a Trump denial of everything, meant Comey had to testify. His testimony was constrained by the truth, but did have to go under oath, because without that there probably would not be any legal demand for the tapes.

    And I think it occurred to Comey, after three days, that even the truth could be useful to him, especially since it could also be somewhat distorted, and/or dark hints evoked, in the retelling.

    So he arranged for this leak:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  199. No be ausr cool days thotseness, admiral Stockdale and day were always solid, so its about him, of course he was at kizyak’s strigonaff table.

    narciso (d1f714)

  200. Isn’t there an Obamacare thread? I think the bill is bad legislation, and it could easily be improved somewhat. And there are great temptations to square the circle. And I’m nt sure exactly what the objection of the 4 conservative Republican Senators are. They want to get rid of more than the mandate, but what do they want to get rid of?

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  201. Back to the main topic:

    I think Comey’s testimony was affected by teh tweet about possible tapes in this way:

    1) He admitted that most of the conversation Feb. 14 was about leaks. He had to explain why the memo didn’t say anything about that (I think it will prove say little or nothing about that) Comey’s explanation was that he deliberately made his memo unclassified.

    2) He was very careful about just what Trump had said. Trump had spoken only about the Mike Flynn case, and not “the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.” Trump had not demanded that the case against Michael Flynn be dropped, but only said “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go.” Even about Mike Flynn, Trump had very clearly only been talking about possible charges “in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December,” that was what the word “this” (which would be on the tape) was referring to. Comey tried not to make too clear what the charges would have consisted of (lying to the FBI) because most people wouldn’t support making a federal case out of that, given that he had been fired..

    3) Comey also volunteered that when Trump had said Mike Flynn was a good guy, he had agreed, and he defended that statement in his written testimony. He might not have said that without concern about a possible recording.

    4) Comey also acknowledged that in another conversation, on March 30, by telephone, Trump had told him that if some “satellite” associates of his – Comey put the word “satellite” in quotation marks -had done something wrong, it would be good to find it out. Trump also reiterated, and he said this to Comey a number of times, that he hoped Comey would find a way to get out the fact that he hadn’t done anything wrong/wasn’t under investigation.

    5) Comey had to admit that he hadn’t given Trump any good explanation, or maybe not any explanation, as to why he couldn’t make public the fact that he was not under investigation. (Comey was anxious to make public that Trump Tower had not been bugged, but Rosenstein wouldn’t let him.)

    Now there were still problems with Comey’s testimony:

    1) Although in the February 14 connversation Trump had probably focused on one leak, and Comey had probably told him it was wrong (or else he probably wouldn’t have also gone to Senators and other members of Congress telling them it was wrong) he did not mention any particular leak in his testimony. It had to be extracted during his public testimony by several Senators (Risch, Cotton and maybe Lankford, who didn’t want to go into details.)

    2) Comey tried leave an opening for people to say Trump did something much worse than what he testified to, by saying “I could be wrong” about Trump only talking about the controversy around Flynn’s account of his phone calls. Comey actually used “I could be wrong” in a number of different contexts: Trump’s purpose for asking for the dinner (to get something in exchange for keeping his job) that Trump was telling the truth in his interview with Lester Holt when he said he was fired because of the Russia investigation (Comey managed to ignore the other things that had been said, including things he called lies) and that Sessions was not aware f cocerns about Flynn during the 4 days after he was sworn in till Flynn resigned.

    3) Since most of the conversation Feb. 14 was about leaks that seemed to come from the FBI, it was probably connected with that that was mainly resposible for Trump wanting to speak to him in private, and not the issue of Mike Flynn, which Trump basically used as a conversation breaker.

    4) Comey may have been stuck with things he told other people – most notably I think there’s astrong possibility that most of what he said took place on January 27, took place on January 6, and we don’t know what actually was said on January 27.

    5) Comey may very well have lied about some matters that wouldn’t be on audiotape – facial expression, looks, and body language for instance. This may be a habit with him.

    6) Comey may, and probably did, of course, have lied about things outside of his conversations wth Donald trump.

    Most notably that, contray to his tetsimony, he did in fact not press chares against Mike Flynn – that he did exactly the limited thing that he admits the president asked him to:

    Things turned on a dime:

    At 6:25 am February 15, Zero Hedge has this: (that’s Feb 15 in spite of the URL saying Feb 14)

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-14/mike-flynn-may-face-felony-charges-lying-fbi

    But by 10 pm Zero Hedge reports:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-15/fbi-reportedly-will-not-pursue-charges-against-cooperative-and-truthful-mike-flynn

    https://mobile.twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/832013379124486148?p=v

    Jim Sciutto
    @jimsciutto

    Breaking: FBI NOT expected to pursue charges against #MichaelFlynn regarding phone calls w/Russian Ambassador, reports @evanperez

    3:45 PM – 15 Feb 2017

    ———–
    Jim Sciutto
    @jimsciutto

    Replying to @jimsciutto

    More: FBI says Flynn was cooperative and provided truthful answers

    3:47 PM – 15 Feb 2017

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  202. 203-agree Harkin. I’m one of them. But my point is sometimes loyalty requires suffering in silence. Short of constitutional issues, of course. It’s one of the few things I admire about the Dem party-their damn discipline when they stick together.

    peggy (fb6611)

  203. Would it be untoward of me, narciso, to mention the words punctuation and capitalization?

    I mean, I like you and all, but you make it difficult.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  204. There are no accidents at sea. There is only good seamanship and bad seamanship.

    nk (dbc370)

  205. Somebody should tell the U.S. Navy.

    nk (dbc370)

  206. While the first tweet, May 12 was probably done without consulting aides or lawyers, although he may have talked with people about who was responsible for the latest leaks and about what Comey might leak r say in the future, the two tweest yestertday were done with the advice of counsel.

    Sarah Huckabee Sanders adnmitted that they had the text of the tweets before they were tweeted. Maybe that’s why they happened almost as late as noon, eastern time.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  207. Freighter Was On Autopilot When It Hit U.S. Destroyer

    Anyone think that maybe it was hacked by North Korea?

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  208. them cargo ships is bullies

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  209. We are on the road to an entrenchment of ObamaCare.

    which was not coincidentally preceded by the entrenchment of mitch mcconnell and his corrupt pig wife if you axe me

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  210. Somebody should tell the U.S. Navy……

    ……..about RADAR and lookouts.

    I might understand a small pleasure craft somehow being missed (even so, Somali pirates and all that) but a freaking ginormous container ship??????

    Somethin ain’t right.

    harkin (536957)

  211. There are no accidents at sea. There is only good seamanship and bad seamanship.
    nk (dbc370) — 6/23/2017 @ 7:17 am

    Somebody should tell the U.S. Navy.
    nk (dbc370) — 6/23/2017 @ 7:18 am

    Hey, guess what? Somebody already told the Navy. Like, I dunno, G-d. A few hundred years of experience has taught us a thing or two about seamanship.

    I think the Navy made the right call when it didn’t relieve Nimitz for touching bottom in Decatur. But it should have relieved Halsey for crossing the T of Typhoon Cobra.

    The collision of the Fitzgerald reminds us, or should remind us, that these things happen once or twice a decade. Maybe. Because you just don’t make captain by being a screw up. And make no mistake anybody who is culpable will not make Captain.

    It’s not my system. It isn’t how I would fix it in a perfect world. I think it encourages excessive caution. But that’s a discussion for another day. I think it can be improved. But it’s the system.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  212. Neo (d1c681) — 6/23/2017 @ 5:46 am

    What did Comey have on Obama that kept Obama from firing Comey last July ?

    Comey didn’t hurt Hillary Clinton – he helped Hillary Clinton. Why exactly would Obama, or any Democrat who wanted Hillary to win, have fired him?

    Comey couldn’t be fired in October – that would be counterproductive. Comey thought Trump would surely lose, so he could show “impartiality” by doing a little thing against Hillary. Then he corrected it by clearing her againg two days before the election.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  213. Yes but the track of the ship, is very concerning, I don’t know how far coastal radar extends in order to warn the used fitz.

    Boris grishenko (49b187)

  214. 218. harkin (536957) — 6/23/2017 @ 7:40 am

    I might understand a small pleasure craft somehow being missed (even so, Somali pirates and all that) but a freaking ginormous container ship??????

    Somethin ain’t right.

    It made a U-turn.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/06/uss-fitzgerald-collision/530793

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  215. ….The container ship, the ACX Crystal, is about three times the size of the destroyer, and location-tracking data shows it made a sudden U-turn at about 1:30 a.m. This is around the time the Japanese coast guard says the vessel collided with the U.S. destroyer. The ship then made another U-turn an hour later, about the time it reported the collision, and circled back toward the site of the crash.

    A spokeswoman for the container ship’s operator, NYK Line, agreed with this timeline of events, and said the reason for the delay could have come from confusion after the crash. “Because it was in an emergency,” Nanami Meguro told the Associated Press, “the crew members may not have been able to place a call.”

    The Japanese coast guard said it’s still trying to understand what happened during this hour, and investigators have asked for communication records. They have said the case may involve possible professional negligence, but it’s not clear which side this is directed toward. Japan’s Transport Safety Board has started its own investigation, as has the U.S. military, which, because of an agreement signed with Japan, could lead the inquiry.

    What’s quickly added to the confusion is the U.S. Navy has ignored the Japanese coast guard’s latest timeline. Instead , it says the collision occurred at 2:20 a.m., a full hour later. The USS Fitzgerald was damaged on the right side—the starboard side—and maritime law requires ships to give way to the vessel on their starboard side.

    When asked about this Sunday, the Seventh Fleet commander, Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, declined to answer. The Navy could also decide to declare as classified information radar and communications from the destroyer, which would also hamper the investigation.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  216. I might understand a small pleasure craft somehow being missed (even so, Somali pirates and all that) but a freaking ginormous container ship??????

    Somethin ain’t right.
    harkin (536957) — 6/23/2017 @ 7:40 am

    As an intel officer I used to train lookouts and aircrewmen on plane and ship recognition. I didn’t actually come across anybody who didn’t care.

    The first thing I’d look at is, how much sleep did these watch standers have?

    A good meal, Mid Rats considering the collision happened at 1:30A.M. or 2:30A.M. (the crew of the Cyrstal and Fitzgerald dispute the time), and a good rest is almost always the difference between a hero and a sucker.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  217. Considering that the Edmund Fitzgerald has become a legend in the history of shipwrecks, naming another ship Fitzgerald (even if her first name is Charles) might not be the “least jinxy” thing to do. The sea might take it as a dare.

    nk (dbc370)

  218. gitche gumee never gives up her dead

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  219. The Japanese coast guard said it’s still trying to understand what happened during this hour, and investigators have asked for communication records.

    It’s a small point but in English it’s the Japan Coast Guard. Not the Japanese Coast Guard. Or if you prefer the Kaijo Hoan-cho. This was the deliberate choice of a former director of the Japan Coast Guard who decided to model what used to be the Maritime Safety Organization on the United States Coast Guard.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  220. oh for the love of hot honey butter biscuits

    i thought trafficking in fetal tissues was like the worst thing ever

    The legislation also requires abortion clinics to submit fetal tissue samples to a pathologist within five days. The pathologist would then have 72 hours to respond. Currently there are no deadlines.*

    but i guess if you just hack a hunk off for jesus it’s a great way to increase the billings of politically favored pathologists

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  221. 195.Cult members get really upset when other people refuse to join the cult.

    I get it.
    Patterico (3f8f5f) — 6/23/2017 @ 6:49 am

    That’s exactly what Trump supporters say about the cult of neverTrump. Then there are guys like me who just want to keep the leftists out of power and even though the pro Trump cult as you allude to is perhaps blind to his shenanigans, they too are against leftist rule.

    I side with Trump cultists who hate leftists. It seems you’d rather side with leftists who hate Trump. You know Trump won’t be president forever but if the media, deep state, Hollywood cartel has its way a Republican will NEVER be president again. And if they win (with or without the help of neverTrump) with the addition of Puerto Rico and DC as states with voting DEMOCRAT SENATORS for all eternity and they get to purge the Courts of any but the leftist loyal then what? Get used to speech codes, gun bans and forced immigration. Not to “brown” our nation but to destroy our culture.

    When I was 15 my sister and I marched for civil rights in the South. We were useful idiots. It was all a communist conspiracy to allow legalized discrimination under “affirmative action” laws and race based quotas. The left couldn’t wait to install racial preferences since now they were for blacks. Then they added every minority but midgets as if they too were victims of slavery, systemic discrimination and legal bigotry. I, we were used by the left. Never again. Now, just two generations later my adopted grandson wants black racial separatism and hates white people. We’ve been suckered folks. It was all a well laid trap. A plan to disestablish America by her own citizens.

    Now they want to flood us with non English speaking, non assimilating moslems and accuse those of us who oppose as bigots and Islamophobes. Well, I tend to be bigoted against and entire group of people dedicated to either converting, enslaving or killing me. No not all of them ust an estimated 20-25%. If 20-25% of Germans were Nazis do you think FDR would allow ANY in? Do you think he would have allowed ANY already here to stay?

    Diversity is weakness. Unity is strength. E Pluribus Unum.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  222. So hilarious that the most outspoken and combative Trump fans work so hard to tell us they aren’t really Trump fans at all.

    I guess these are the guys who admire Trump’s ‘bluffs’ and other deceptive actions. They think there’s something good in being deceptive, so naturally, they behave that way. They also have contempt for the intelligence of the people they are writing to, which might be why their efforts to fool us seem so weak.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  223. It doesn’t matter, Sammy and Harkin. It’s strict liability. It’s the captain’s and watch officer’s fault unless they can prove that God reached down, picked up the ship, and smashed it against the other one. Their careers are over and they’ll be lucky of they face only a Board of Inquiry and not court martial. They lost seven crewmen.

    nk (dbc370)

  224. Look at what happened during the Clinton years. I mean we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  225. I think Hillary Clinton is going to go down at a minimum as a great senator. I think she is a great wife to a president.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  226. Now you’re just sticking a stick through the bars of the Trumpkin cage, Dustin. 😉

    It’s ok. I was doing it yesterday.

    nk (dbc370)

  227. @Hoagie https://patterico.com/2017/06/22/the-president-tweets-without-discernment-or-discretion-part-513/#comment-2009687

    This (#229) all seems so obvious, Hoagie, that it is a sad commentary that it even has to be repeated once, let alone a thousand times. WTF is with these #NeverTrumpistas?

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  228. I second #229, Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:09 am, Diversity is weakness. Unity is strength. E Pluribus Unum., in reference to:

    195.Cult members get really upset when other people refuse to join the cult.

    I get it.
    Patterico (3f8f5f) — 6/23/2017 @ 6:49 am
    _______________________________________________________

    And suggest one review (again) Rep. Gowdy’s questioning of FBI Director Comey re his anaysis of Hillary Clinton’s INTENT concerning her setting up her private server and sending unsecured emails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxpJvrclIfM

    How about the CULT OF CORRUPTION that our federal government/Washington DC has become?

    But hey, What difference does it make now? GLZ.

    Gary L. Zerman (ab669e)

  229. “great senator” is an oxymoron

    i have links

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  230. It doesn’t matter, Sammy and Harkin. It’s strict liability. It’s the captain’s and watch officer’s fault unless they can prove that God reached down, picked up the ship, and smashed it against the other one. Their careers are over and they’ll be lucky of they face only a Board of Inquiry and not court martial. They lost seven crewmen.

    nk (dbc370) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:21 am

    This is the burden of command. When you put a hole in your boat or kill sailors kill Sailors you will face consequences.

    Even if you aren’t blameworthy.

    I’ve noted the case of CDR Mooney, former skipper of the attack sub USS San Francisco. Absolutely no one thought he was a bad guy. Despite the fact he was using the correct charts, he rammed an under sea mount. The admiral who relieved him, SUBGRU-7, retained him on active duty so he could make 20 and retire.

    Sometimes bad things happen to good people. But it’s still your fault because you accepted command.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  231. Look at what happened during the Clinton years. I mean we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell

    Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:22 am

    What kind of hallucinogens are you taking these days?

    Hello! Operation Desert Fox, the first US military operation named after a Nazi general.

    There’s just so much wrong here. I suppose it’s the syphilis.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  232. Steve57, that was Donald Trump who said that. You’re probably right that he has a sexually transmitted disease, but I’m just not trashy enough to say that about someone. You’re what you are, and I don’t need to say otherwise.

    Feets! Your Dear Leader said that quote too!

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  233. i thought we did some silly clinton war in europe too

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  234. Mr. Trump is a tad germophobic i thought

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  235. Yes al queda was on the prowl, we lived in a tech bubble and the seeds of the property bubble were being down we allowed ourselves the luxury of debating the Simpson case Whole Kim il sung was allowed to proceed into a bomb unimpeded, is it bad chow me in that causesvyour hallucinations.

    Boris grishenko (abfb06)

  236. i thought we did some silly clinton war in europe too

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:48 am

    Unfortunately Trump says a lot of stuff that just plain isn’t true, and his fans get nasty because you don’t defend lies and idiocy with reason. It’s sad, but not surprising.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  237. The French Energy Ministry has prepared a draft law that would terminate the granting oil and gas exploration licenses at home and in overseas territories. In a tweet, Minister Nicolas Hulot said, “There will be no new permits for oil and gas exploration, we will vote a law this fall.”

    i never use the word dhimmi but jesus effing christ there’s a first time for everything

    they’re a defacto opec nation now

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  238. President Trump certainly doesn’t lie as perniciously or with the devastating consequences of how soros buttboy barack obama or the execrable and classless george w. bush did

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  239. Yes but he is properly credentialed never forget that.

    Boris grishenko (62f10b)

  240. By the ena,

    Boris grishenko (62f10b)

  241. Re post #236. I made an error – concerning the youtube video that was linked there (mistakenly Rep. Gowdy questioning Hillary Clinton re Benghazi), which was supposed to Rep. Gowdy questioning Comey
    about Clinton’s private server and unsecured emails. (When I copied the link and pasted it, it had gone to the next video – Hillary/Benghazi.)

    Here is the intended and correct youtube link re Rep. Gowdy questioning Comey about Clinton’s private server and unsecured emails. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC1Mc6-RDyQ

    Again, I would suggest that any concerned citizen should view Rep. Gowdy questioning Comey AGAIN – as it readily exposes the CULT OF CORRUPTION that our federal government/Washington DC – has become and is – aka the SWAMP, and, what a joke the Rule of Law has become in America.

    I apologize for my error. GLZ.

    Gary L. Zerman (ab669e)

  242. President Trump certainly doesn’t lie as perniciously or with the devastating consequences of how soros buttboy barack obama or the execrable and classless george w. bush did

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:58 am

    You and Steve57 were either historically ignorant enough or partisan enough to act as though Trump was a pretty bad liar. Steve even accused me of having syphilis. But then, feewings and partisanship…

    George W Bush is 100 times the man Trump will ever be. Bush never bloviated endlessly about his time in the military. Or really any hardship of his life. Yet Trump would tell you all about his struggles. The mark of a doer versus a talker.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  243. 239.Look at what happened during the Clinton years. I mean we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell

    Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:22 am

    You never heard of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Somalia? Of course the economy was doing great Newt put the Contract with America in play and Slick Willie reformed welfare. Cause he had to. I don’t know anybody of either party who “hated” Slick. I’m a die-hard conservative and I would have loved to have a few Bourbons with the hound dog. He was a hell of a nice guy unless you were one of his female rape victims. Then not so much.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  244. @181 —

    Just off the top of my head: Repeal 2 regs for every new one adopted; Scott Pruitt at EPA; 1200 EPA scientists given termination notices; ending sanctuary city fiasco; withdrawing from Paris Climate accord…

    shipwreckedcrew (475dc9)

  245. 251. Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/23/2017 @ 9:14 am

    Of course the economy was doing great Newt put the Contract with America in play and Slick Willie reformed welfare.

    The economy did well because the money suply was expanding. But Clinton never, never, never told the real reason, and in fact, deliberately underpredicted economic growth because he wanted budget crunches, and contining resolutions and omnobus bills. When the budget looked like it was going into balance, theer was the idea of the social security lockbox. Clinton did not eant the Republicans to realize what caused or helped economic growth because he wanted that to be a secret weapon for the Democrats. He wanted the Republicans to have wrong theories.

    Bill Clinton caused the California brownouts because the California regulators relied on his estimates of economic growth, and thus, electricity demand, which were much lower than what ctranspired..

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  246. Hoagie @251. It was Trump who said that. The other one about Hillary, too.

    nk (dbc370)

  247. 251 – “and Slick Willie reformed welfare”

    Slick Willie co-opted the Republican welfare reform plan after twice opposing it.

    And I’m assuming any president would welcome a business boost equal to the internet boom. That Bill Clinton took credit for something he had nothing to with was exceeded only by his comically inane VP:

    During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” – Al Gore 1999

    harkin (536957)

  248. President Trump certainly doesn’t lie as perniciously or with the devastating consequences of how soros buttboy barack obama or the execrable and classless george w. bush did

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/23/2017 @ 8:58 am

    Another rare moment of agreement. Although, Mr. Feets, you’ll have to clarify what you mean by W’s lies. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he “lied” us into war. There were two places no President could lie us into war in 2002. Iraq and Korea. Because we were already at war.

    But he lied about a lot. Or maybe he was just stupid, what with his “Islam is a religion of peace” Bulls***. I lost track of how many times he’d show up at a mosque or appear on TV with a “moderate Muslim” and later the mosque or “moderate Muslim” would show up on a terrorist watch list.

    I’m going with stupid.

    But no President, especially not Trump, has lied with the life-altering effects of Barack Obama. Did you like your doctor? Did you like your plan? Howzabout that $2500 raise?

    Oh, oh, what about that Iran nuclear “deal.”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/6/l-todd-wood-obama-adviser-admits-lying-media-seal-/

    Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, is highlighted in a recent piece by the New York Times which quotes Rhodes as admitting the Obama administration lied to the American people, Congress, and our allies in how they “spun” the Iran deal.

    The revelations are simply astonishing but not surprising. It seems the goal behind the Iran deal was to extricate the United States from long standing alliances in the Middle East, including Israel. This was done to be able to close the Iran nuclear agreement.

    The Soviet Union would have been proud. This disclosure shows that anything the Obama administration puts out is nothing short of sheer propaganda and cannot be trusted; but, we knew that already didn’t we…

    Hey! I could have told you there are no moderates in Iran. Or, rather, if there are the Mullahs won’t pick them to run for President like Rouhani.

    But nobody asks me. I was on this site like two days after Benghazi telling you the administration was lying, and listing about a dozen ways I knew they were lying.

    I defy you, Dustin, to go back and inform us all when I became a Trump fan. Maybe Hoagie will back me up, but me and him practically came to blows (figuratively, considering it was on a comment thread) over his candidacy. I am man enough to admit Trump isn’t quite the disaster I thought he would be. Neil Gorsuch.

    But, h4ll, I praised Bill Clinton when he changed federal policy and allowed the importation of Canadian polar bear trophies. Do you imagine that made me a Clinton fan?

    Compared to the other felons, Trump reminds me of some guy trying to sell me a time share. When he gets to the body count Obama accumulated, wake me up.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  249. President Trump is courageously battling a corrupt and vicious fifth column of fascists that have corrupted the fbi and much of the federal government

    a fifth column that prospered and metastasized under the auspices of sleazy, filthy bush and wheedling harvardtrash soros-appeaser barack obama

    President Trump I have to celebrate you, baby

    i have to praise you like i should

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  250. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he “lied” us into war.

    he lied that he was remotely conservative

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  251. Yes you use quote marks, to distinguish, if you’re in the Manhattan bubble like maverick is, you say silly things like that.

    narciso (d1f714)

  252. Fantasy fiction, being serialized online (chapter 1 also in thr printed paper) by the New York Daily News starting Monday last week (June 12 – also the first day in the novel/parody) , that involves removing Dobnald Trump as president by the use of the 25th amendment:

    Some of the background facts aren’t really quite right. Some of the other things are indeed jokes.

    http://interactive.nydailynews.com/fiction/coup/

    The whole book is downloadable on Kindle.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  253. 255. harkin (536957) — 6/23/2017 @ 9:43 am

    That Bill Clinton took credit for something he had nothing to with

    No, Bill Clinton probably had alot to do with keeoping ineterst rates low throughout the 1990s (not as low as they got after 2008, but low)

    Then I think he arranged fior interest rates to be raised in the year 2000, with the idea of throwing the country intoa full blown recssion if a Republiucan was elected, and preventing the recession if Gore was.

    But the presidential race remained undecided until December 12, forcing a decision too early. So we had a mild recession. Yes, I think Alan Greenspan was taking orders from Clinton. I don’t know why.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  254. 222-Sammy: “It made a U-turn.”

    No ship makes a u-turn instantly, least of all a 30,000 ton container ship.

    Something’s wrong if the Fitzgerald could not determine they were in collision danger well before the ships collided.

    I have not heard yet if general quarters had been sounded before the accident, which would seem to indicate negligence.

    harkin (536957)

  255. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he “lied” us into war.

    he lied that he was remotely conservative

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/23/2017 @ 9:50 am

    To-shay.

    Also when W said he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul and found it good.

    I am not the biggest bad @$$ who ever served in the military. I am not the biggest bad @$$ who served in the Navy. I was not even the biggest bad @$$ who served in my squadron. I wasn’t even in a paid flight status. Still, I could work the mighty, mighty AWG-9 and I have the NATOPs records to prove I was qualified to ride in the back seat of the F-14. And I could tell you if a Russian TU-95/142 was doing something in area like a functional check flight or going out of area on patrol.

    How I knew I’ll take to my grave.

    And I didn’t spend 20 miserable years to put up with this crap. Bush was talking about a KGB spymaster! There were so many times when the Democrats threatened to impeach Bush and I was like, have at it, I’m done with the guy.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  256. Yes this would be bfennanscpeople, even if he hadn’t been cinfirned at this time:
    Http:/.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/5/muslim-brotherhood-threat-to-us-needs-close-look

    narciso (d1f714)

  257. 262. harkin (536957) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:07 am

    No ship makes a u-turn instantly, least of all a 30,000 ton container ship.

    Something’s wrong if the Fitzgerald could not determine they were in collision danger well before the ships collided.

    Somebody wasn’t watching, or rather, nobody was watching, because:

    Nothing could possibly go wrong.

    All ships within 100 or 200 miles or more were accounted for. They had very good radar.

    And it was time for everyone to sleep.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  258. Comey won. He wanted a special prosecutor and that’s what happened. Any other in-depth analysis about this only amounts footnotes, at best.

    Tillman (a95660)

  259. *amounts to footnotes

    Tillman (a95660)

  260. No icebergs there, you know. Or hostile military. Or terrorists. As far as they knew.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  261. The interest rate spike in 99-00 popped the tech bubble sammeh, not long after that krugman called for a property bubble, but that didn’t happen till greenspans reset rates, reset the arms

    narciso (d1f714)

  262. CBA News said at 7 am that the tweet backfired. That’s maybe taking Comey’s word for it that the idea of the meetings were recorded encouraged him.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  263. Patterico, that your descent to ad hominem attacks does not answer any issue raised here by me, Captain Haiku, Steve57, harkin, or anyone else that disagrees with your knee jerk reaction to any tweet or communication from Trump.

    Calling us cultists is pathetic.

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  264. rockin’ and reelin’
    #NeverTrump buns up kneelin’
    Left’s wheelin’ dealin’

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  265. it’s just that Evil Eye got ’em in its sway

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  266. i’m not a cultist i’m a lutheran cord-cutter with no dietary restrictions

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  267. 266, 267… until the next lame-assed pivot or attempted mass murder.

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  268. 269. narciso (d1f714) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:19 am

    The interest rate spike in 99-00 popped the tech bubble sammeh,

    An interest rate spike is always going to cause some problem.

    not long after that krugman called for a property bubble, but that didn’t happen till greenspans reset rates, reset the arms </blockquote. I don't remember or knoow what Krugman did, but the prob,em was they first lowered mortgage rates, then raised them, nnd too many people had adjustable rate mortgages (without understanding the danger)

    Everybody thought hosuing prices could not drop becasue people could not sell below what it cost then, so they'd just wait. which they did, in 2006 and 2007 till about July. Until forced sales occurred. They hadn't figured on a rise in foreclosures.

    There's still a housing bubble. Just at a lower level. There's a permanent bubble since about the 1930s.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  269. 270 *CBS News.

    The “tapes” tweet did accomplish some things, which I laid out at #208. Trump doesn’t want to entirely give it up, because he thinks it keeps, and kept, Comey honest. Or more honest.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  270. Will someone please give Haiku a clue? He seems to be drifting aimlessly in a know-nothing sea.

    Tillman (a95660)

  271. That was his policy advice to relate the tech bubble, now krugman didn’t know the cra revisions and justice department pressures on lenders, was creating the demand that Fannie and Freddie were feeding off.

    Yes Stephen Montag, like the fireman in Fahrenheit 451, issues another fatwa.

    narciso (d1f714)

  272. you are

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  273. And johnnie deep, well. The founding of his last pirates film made him more incoherent than usual

    narciso (d1f714)

  274. Calling us cultists is pathetic.

    Speaking only for myself, I’m pretty terrified of Trump.

    What’s really amazing though is that compared to Barack T Firefly and Madame Pay-For-Play, he’s clearly preferable.

    One thing I do like is that Trump is mostly picking capable people who obey the law and love this country and the constitution.

    I would prefer Scott Walker or Ted Cruz to the Donald, now add Rex Tillerson too.

    harkin (536957)

  275. I am no sailor, not even the son of a sailor man. But on a ship there’s always a shift of crew on duty. On watch, is what they call it. I think Steve will confirm that.

    kishnevi (d764f4)

  276. http://www.newser.com/story/244725/report-exposes-super-secret-cia-memo-on-putin.html

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking

    Breaking News: According to the Washington Post, the CIA had decided that Putin had decided to try to elect trump, or at least damage Hillary Clinton’s reputation, by early August.

    But we knew that.

    And some of this was leaked by Reality Leigh Winner.

    The intelligence about Putin;s intentions came from instructions issued to lower level people.

    Obama played Hamlet.

    He was afraid this was extraordinarily politically sensitive and he didn’t want to be seen as favoring Hillary by accusing Putin of supporting Trump. Senator Mitch McConnell opposed disclosure.

    And until Election Day Obama thought Hillary was going to win.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  277. Speaking only for myself, I’m pretty terrified of Trump.

    Only goes to prove what pu$$ie$ we have become. No wonder marginal group like ISIS survive and thrive. Main stream thinking has gone full on hysterical pu$$y.

    Terrified of Trump? LOL.

    Here is what I am terrified about — an out of control DOJ and FBI persecuting Conservatives like the IRS, etc…. That is something to worry about.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  278. Remember when they leaked the stuixnet, burned the asset inside aqap and gave up the surveillance equipment we had positioned all through pakustan

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/today-in-leaks-and-liars.php

    narciso (d1f714)

  279. harkin (536957) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:35 am

    He does need to pick up the pace of picking people, not the courts, but the rest of the executive branch.

    I do remember being told that one of the inevitable pluses of a Trump administration would be that he would staff his administration from a relatively deep Republican bench. Given how slowly that process seems to be going, I have to wonder how deep that bench actually is and just what degree of evitability is really involved.

    When he does listen to good people, he does good things. But unfortunately, his ego seems to be getting in the way of listening, he is unable (or maybe just doesn’t care) who the good people are (good in this case being defined as the more conservative the better), he goes off track too quickly, he seems to be picking the wrong battles, he seems to be incapable of delegating to others the job of defending him from whatever the Russia/Comey thing has morphed into now, and there’s a general aura of an man way over his head who is trying to bluster his way out.

    And since he has no principles, he has no motivation to hold the Republicans in Congress in place so they get conservative things done. As long as at the end of the day, he can announce a great deal without bothering how great the deal actually is, he is satisfied.

    kishnevi (d764f4)

  280. 283. kishnevi (d764f4) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:35 am

    .I am no sailor, not even the son of a sailor man. But on a ship there’s always a shift of crew on duty. On watch, is what they call it. I think Steve will confirm that.

    Haven’t you ever heard the expression: Asleep on the watch?

    http://www.duffelblog.com/2012/12/sailor-sentenced-to-30-days-in-okinawa-after-falling-asleep-on-watch/

    USS DECATUR (DDG 73) – Captain Mark Leon, commanding officer of the Destroyer USS Decatur, sentenced Boatswain’s Mate Seaman Rachel Watson to thirty days in Okinawa at a non-judicial punishment earlier this morning.

    BMSN Watson, who pleaded guilty to falling asleep while standing watch, broke down in tears as the sentence was read. “Please!” she shouted, falling to her knees.“Put me on restriction! Bust me down in rank instead!”

    “I needed to send a strong message that this behavior is unacceptable,” Capt. Leon said to Duffel Blog reporters after the hearing. “I could have sent her to the brig but that would be too lenient. There she would have freedom.”

    And whoever is on watch doesn’t even need to be completely asleep to miss this. Just tired, and not checking for the unimaginable.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  281. Calling us cultists is pathetic.

    What else do you call people who refuse to hold Trump accountable when the evidence is everywhere and incontrovertible that he has some serious issues, lacks the basics to be a decent President, or even a decent person, for that matter?

    To be fair, Patterico has repeatedly detailed here why being a Trump sycophant is completely indefensible.

    Tillman (a95660)

  282. Having to deal.with this sludge day in day out, approving the strike on Al riming, trying to get a handle on the onslaught of entries from terrorist countries, trying to fulfill a promise the congress had made eleven years ago: re the wall, reforming the va those ate the things that keep him up.

    But bezos Carlos slim and the journal don’t give a farthing about any of this.

    narciso (d1f714)

  283. #284 More revisionist history. Just make it up as you go along.

    Conspiracy I saw was ABC/CBS/NBC/WaPo/NY Times conspiring to cover up for Hillary to get her elected.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  284. …. and Loretta Lynch with Obama on the NatSec Crimes she committed.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  285. Narciso, Cubano?

    You seem to understand leftism.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  286. The Karate Kid 2 version of Okinawa struck me as a pre-1986 SoCal suburb

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  287. http://www.newser.com/story/244720/trump-suggesting-i-had-comey-tapes-wasnt-stupid.html

    Allies of President Trump have been demanding Robert Mueller recuse himself from the Justice Department investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia and whether Trump tried to obstruct justice, reports Politico. And while Trump himself wouldn’t go that far in an interview with Fox & Friends that aired Friday, he did suggest there was reason for concern. Mueller “is very, very good friends with [James] Comey, which is very bothersome,” the president said. Those hired to work on the investigation “are all Hillary Clinton supporters,” he continued. “I mean the whole thing is ridiculous.” He added, however, that Mueller is “an honorable man and hopefully he’ll come up with an honorable conclusion.” ..

    Typical Trump hedging his position.

    ….In the Fox interview, Trump also touched on his suggestion that he taped his conversations with Comey, noting the move “wasn’t very stupid” because it forced Comey to admit that he had told Trump he wasn’t under investigation. “If you look further back before he heard about [the tapes], maybe he wasn’t admitting that,” Trump said.

    Comey wasn’t going to deny that if he testified, because he’d also told that to members of Congress.

    That’s what firing Comey did, not the tweet. He put that in the letter firing Comey and eventually it was confirmed in public.

    It comes out that Trump doesn’t understand very well what the tweet did, or he just says the easiest thing there is to say. It’s true Comey mentioned taht in the january 6 meeting and in other conversations, but the main thing that the tweet did was to limit Comey’s accusations, and that was clearly the intention of the tweet. To prevent Comey from saying things, not to get him to say things.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  288. Pretending Putin’s Russia or Stalin’s USSR were any less active in spreading propaganda is to show a gross ignorance of history.

    Hillary lost cuz she sucked. She ignored and disparaged the guns and religion crowd. That is what cost her the election.

    All the rest is selective outrage. NeverTrumpers who fall for this should be embarrassed. Democrats, well, I expect them to lie about everything.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  289. #295 — only reason Comey said “No Investigation” publicly is he thought Trump had the goods.

    Otherwise he was going to hide behind the “We Don’t Comment on Active Investigations” …… which is fundamentally a lie used to smear Trump.

    U folks pretend no one is paying attention to the timeline of events and to Comey’s behavior pattern of DECEPTION.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  290. Got you pegged, tillmenz…

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  291. Up until Comey’s testimony (even after he told everyone Trump not under investigation) he was deceiving the American people into thinking Trump was under investigation.

    And given all the leaking, so where the Gang of 8 and other Senior Members of Congress. Telling me that did not leak but all those lies were OK to leak????

    ALL LIARS AND DECEIVERS.

    Trump was morally right to seek the truth be spoken.

    THe rest immoral.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  292. Trump tweets…
    “Patter-EE-koh” belches forth with comments.
    Who wins this time?
    Cheers

    Richard WD (5fe947)

  293. Got you pegged, tillmenz…

    *rolls eyes* Tell someone who cares.

    Tillman (a95660)

  294. You’ve anchored your life to a 3D wasteland of Deceit, Decrepitude and Discredited, tillmenz. Enjoy!

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  295. “Terrified of Trump? LOL

    You either are cognizant of his well-documented track record or you are not, and I’m not talking about DCSCA’s fake quotes.

    He may have had a complete sea change regarding honesty and ethics since the election but you have to judge a man on his body of work.

    You can be terrified at the same time you wish him success in all shared goals.

    harkin (536957)

  296. As when okeege was absolved, the daleiden developments seem crimethink

    narciso (d1f714)

  297. And yes, tillmenz, until the next attempted mass-murder perpetrated by a leftwinger… http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/nebraska-democratic-party-official-caught-on-tape-saying-hes-glad-scalise-got-shot

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  298. And it was time for everyone to sleep.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:16 am

    Except for the Sailors on watch.

    I never sailed in the small boys. What we call the small boys today. Although when you consider it, the Fitzgerald didn’t displace all that much less than a WWII Brooklyn-class light cruiser (light only because of the bore of the guns).

    What I can tell you is that on aircraft carriers and big deck amphibs is that living conditions can be less than pleasant. Eventually I learned to sleep during 24 hour flight ops. Even with the catapult making the entire ship shudder, and the arresting cable draaaggging its way along the deck. And I had it better as an officer than did my Sailors.

    And making sure they ate was a challenge. Especially on the big amphibs, as on those Marines have nothing better to do than stand in line. Seriously; they’ll fall in for sick call just because they’re bored. So, imagine the line for chow. Things were a little better on carriers but only better, as we division officers (shmart, shmart) would all send our troops down to the galley at the same time. Not like we really had a choice.

    When the ship’s store was open I’d stock up on sardines. Not that I’m a nice guy. But my Sailor’s were no good to anyone if they didn’t eat.

    Nobody is any good without sleep or food. I witnessed two officers completely go off their nut. Straight jacket type crazy. And I completely understood both times. One was the flag lieutenant on the DESRON staff. He was in the head doing number 2, and the yeoman came in and started shoving papers under the stall door for him to sign.

    Really? Really? What can possibly be that urgent that it can’t wait for the guy to come out of the head?

    The other was a shooter. The catapult officer. We were drilling holes in the Indian Ocean. During the Summer. He had apparently passed through the dirty shirt wardroom and noticed there was apple juice in the dispenser. Real Apple juice.

    Air temperature was close to if not over 100 degrees. It’s something warmer on a steel flight deck. This guy was dreaming of apple juice. I happened to be in the wardroom when he came down. Right after the mess steward had dumped out the apple juice and filled the dispenser with bug juice.

    OMFG! I’m sure you’ve all heard of the expression, swearing like a Sailor. That guy was in a class by himself. If I recall correctly they medevaced him to Diego Garcia. The guy was dangerous. I thought he was going to kill that poor mess steward, who after all was only doing what he was told. The meal plan called for bug juice for lunch.

    The thing is, I’ve been there. Maybe somebody who has different experience can correct me, but I only thought you use ham hocks to flavor soup. On the Carl Vinson it was a main course. They didn’t even bother to burn off the hair. It was like a joke. They broke it free from the cold, congealed lard and slopped it on my tray. Then there was the time I bit into a piece of chicken that was so raw the chemical they put into meat squirted all over me and a few other guys. What made it memorable, out of the thousands of raw pieces of meat and and brown lettuce salad, was the reaction of the steward who happened to witness it.

    “I’m so sorry sir, would you like another one?”

    No, the last thing I want is another one. I have sardines.

    The bottom line is I’m not complaining. I look back on it and laugh. I had it better than my Sailors. And we all had it better than the groundpounders as we had clean sheets and were never more than 500 feet from a coffee pot.

    The point is, were the officers and chiefs looking after the crew? Another thing is channel fever. The Fitzgerald was returning to home port. Sailors anxious to return home make mistakes. This is something else the officers and chiefs can plan for.

    And then there’s this.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/25/sailors-leaving-navy-over-stress-on-social-issues-/

    A Navy F-18 fighter pilot and former Top Gun instructor is publicly warning admirals that retention is beginning to suffer from the military’s relentless social conditioning programs.

    Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, until recently a Pentagon speech writer for the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, said sailors are becoming fed-up with the constant emphasis on social issues — an apparent reference to gays in the military, women in combat and ending sexual harassment.

    “Sailors continue to cite the over-focus on social issues by senior leadership, above and beyond discussions on war fighting — a fact that demoralizes junior and mid-grade officers alike,” Cmdr. Snodgrass wrote this month on the U.S. Naval Institute website, an independent forum for active and retired sailors and Marines…

    I thought it couldn’t get worse after Tailhook. I was wrong. It’s gotten a lot worse. You an tell it’s bad when a Navy Commander risks his career to talk about it. Normally people wait to speak out after they retire. Like the Senior Chief who wrote the “From the Deckplates” Proceedings article about how the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (yes, there is such a thing; it’s where SJW types who aren’t fit for employment gathering shopping carts at Walmart to to make lives h3ll in the armed services) about how he as his his command’s EO officer had to teach his Sailors about white privilege. Except he wasn’t allowed to say he was teaching them about white privilege. There was a big warning sign at the beginning of the chapter, “Not for use in the classroom.” Yet everything in the chapter made it clear it was to be taught.

    And the instructor was supposed to lie.

    If they’re not waiting to get out, and presumably an F and A 18 driver who’s been to Top Gun and has a tour in Washington under his belt has future career prospects, it’s bad.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  299. What else do you call people who refuse to hold Trump accountable when the evidence is everywhere and incontrovertible that he has some serious issues, lacks the basics to be a decent President, or even a decent person, for that matter?…

    Tillman (a95660) — 6/23/2017 @ 10:50 am

    Yeah, what would that evidence be?

    All I can see that has been confirmed is that Comey is a leaker and a liar. Comey has confirmed that. I can cite the evidence for both of those accusations.

    Regarding Trump, the evidence points to the fact that the guy who wants to sell me a time share in Trump towers Baja California, wants to sell me a time share in Trump towers. Which may be sleazy, but as far as I know isn’t a crime.

    On the other hand the entire Democratic party leadership needs to be locked up for violating the Espionage Act, the Federal Records Act, the RICO Act, the VAWA Act, the Logan Act…

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  300. What is the point of the court, when even alutomdignd on to said tinkering:
    https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/scotus-agreed-to-do-congress-job-again-gorsuch-dissented

    narciso (d1f714)

  301. Gabe Pressman R.I.P. age 93. A man whose last name descrobed him. Old school member of the press. he never was interested in being an anchor just in reporting and Mark Simone (I think is his name) on WOR said, not gotcha stories. He pursued stories and asked tough questions but if there was nothinbg there he went on to something else.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  302. There are bad actors on the far left and far right Haiku. Of course I don’t approve of either. The extremists are ruining it all.

    Politician: “Would you like your steak burnt into leather, or bloody rare?”

    Me: “Um, neither.”

    The boring middle is where we ought to be in my opinion. But it doesn’t get much attention on the teevee.

    Tillman (a95660)

  303. 309. The Supreme Court is getting very strong on the obligation of attorneys in matters of immigration or with immigration consequences. That was the second case.

    The first concerned that lies had to be material.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  304. This is what sparked the revolution in part, the American one

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/268276/#respond

    narciso (d1f714)

  305. Maybe dealing ecstasy is something one shouldn’t do, can we agree on that.

    narciso (d1f714)

  306. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/proof-that-james-comey-misled-the-senate-intelligence-committee.php

    John Hinderaker is too kind. Comey flat out lied.

    In his written testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Comey made a point of saying that he wrote memoranda documenting all of his conversations with Donald Trump, something he didn’t feel compelled to do regarding his (very few) conversations with Barack Obama. In his appearance before the committee, Comey broadened this claim to include President George W. Bush, under whom he served as Deputy Attorney General. The reason, he explained, was that Trump was the only one of the three presidents whom he considered untrustworthy.

    …But Comey’s Senate testimony was untruthful. He told the committee that he didn’t document his important meeting with President Bush, but only “sent a quick email to my staff to let them know there was something going on.” Gellman reproduces that email in Angler. He got it from one of the recipients. Written immediately after the meeting, this is what it said:

    …James Comey says there is a pattern to his dealings with presidents: he is an honest man who only needed to create memos to document his conversations with Donald Trump, because Trump is untruthful. But that isn’t the real pattern. The real pattern is that Comey is a snake in the grass who creates tendentious, self-serving memos that can later be used to cover his own rear end or to discredit presidents, but only if they are Republicans…

    …So that’s it: Comey, who testified under oath that he “didn’t feel, with President Bush, the need to document it in that way,” told Gellman that he “sent time-stamped notes from the hallway outside the Sit Room.” What a liar.

    Now I’m told that Mueller is an honest broker. By the same liars who told me Comey is an honest broker. Including that lying sack of excrement Comey himself.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  307. Maybe keep nutbags under lock and key, would be a good first step:

    http://https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/268286/#respond

    narciso (d1f714)

  308. 311.There are bad actors on the far left and far right Haiku.

    Wash, rinse, dry and use again. All those *far rightists* burning cars, shooting congressmen, beating up the opposition, shooting cops, marching and sitting in all over all the time do pose a problem. Just because on occasion some whack job on the right does something stupid does not in any way make the sides equivalent. You sound like all the media leftists and their paid mouth pieces calling for gun control after the Scalise shooting. No, you don’t get to shoot our guys then call for disarming us. Sorry!

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  309. The post has become the old MAD magazine today has a feature of SPY vs SPY, You know the black and white guys.

    mg (31009b)

  310. Ah MAD Magazine, primer on my youth.

    I still remember the sign at the vandalism theme park:

    “DEFACE A WORK OF ART

    Rembrandt – $100
    Vermeer – $75
    Van Gogh – $80
    Don Martin – we pay you!”

    harkin (536957)

  311. @310. RIP, Gabe Pressman. Age 93. JOURNALIST

    Sad to hear, Sammy. Met him a few times at 30 Rock. Quick footed, ‘Columbo’ natty w/pen and notebook in hand, elfish in stature but a dogged, inquisitive New York City street reporter through and through.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  312. Well this goes far beyond trump, when did common sense become an endangered species.
    http://www.newsweek.com/congress-trump-russia-poll-628682

    narciso (d1f714)

  313. 302 – “Deceit, Decrepitude and Discredited”

    Duplicity and Desolation” said the Needles and Pins. “Dissolution and Despair”. – Edward Gorey – The Inanimate Tragedy

    harkin (536957)

  314. Crediting Gorsuch to Trump is a bit of a stretch. Fearless Leader simply pitched a name off a list handed to him; McConnell carried the ball. Trump doesn’t give a damn about the Court. But he may learn, in time, he should.
    ________

    Today’s Beldar The Bitter ‘Watergate, Watergate, Watergate’ Words Of Wonder:

    “I did not believe the newspaper accounts that suggested a coverup. I was convinced there was no coverup, because I was convinced that no one had anything to cover up.”- Richard Nixon, nationasl televised address, 8/15/73

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  315. Understand everything Trump in 11 seconds:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  316. So, DCSCA, McConnell would have forced Hillary to nominate Gorsuch.

    And I’m a cultist. lol

    Steven Malynn (d29fc3)

  317. @325- ???

    You’re just high. They’d have continued to obfuscate and stall. But if you’re clinging to NG as a singularly Trump Triumph, yes, you’re a cultist.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  318. 315. Yes, that’s true.

    In his original written testimony he had only spoken about Barack Obama and his administration, but in his oral testimony he included President Bush.

    But Comey wasn’t caught that easily. He acknowledged making a record, but claimed it was only a quick e-mail:

    COMEY: ….And I – I – as I said in my written testimony, as FBI director, I interacted with President Obama. I spoke only twice in three years, and didn’t document it. When I was deputy attorney general, I had one one-on-one meeting with President Bush about a very important and difficult national security matter.

    I didn’t write a memo documenting that conversation either – sent a quick e-mail to my staff to let them know there was something going on, but I didn’t feel, with President Bush, the need to document it in that way, again (ph), because of – the combination of those factors just
    wasn’t present with either President Bush or President Obama.

    But at some point somebody presented Barton Gellman, author of Angler, with a very very detailed account of that meeting, and Gellman wrote:

    Quotations from the Bush-Comey conversation are taken verbatim from unclassified notes describing Comey’s report of the meeting shortly afterward.

    More: Gellman tweeted this May:

    In 2004, Comey left a 1-on-1 with Bush and sent time-stamped notes from the hallway outside the Sit Room. There will be more. From ‘Angler’: pic.twitter.com/y76CctRsIZ — Barton Gellman (@bartongellman) May 17, 2017

    Hindricker writes that Gellmans account of the conversation is two pages long and includes many almost trivial details. Now the thing is, the notes could be by somebody else.

    Those notes cannot be described as just a quick email to his staff to let them know something was going on. Either he lied to Gellman (and maybe also forged the notes) or he lied in his Senate Intelligence committee testimony about not documenting his conversations with Bush.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  319. There are bad actors on the far left and far right Haiku. Of course I don’t approve of either. The extremists are ruining it all…

    Tillman (a95660) — 6/23/2017 @ 12:18 pm

    Again, can you point to the “extremism” of the “far right?” I haven’t broken any windows or crapped on a police car lately. Unlike the “occupiers.” Or the Evergreen College student government. And although I’m certainly equipped to do it, and Nancy Pelosi would like nothing more than to disarm me, I’m not inclined to shoot at anybody over politics.

    So I’m wondering where the evidence is for this moral equivalence. This is the kind of thing that prompted the editors to publish a dishonest, completely inadequate retraction for trying to make the case that there are people on the “far right” who are political assassins just like this Hodgkinson dude. And they cited Jared Laughner (don’t ever give your son the middle name “Lee” unless you want to see him go to prison) who they claimed was “triggered” by Sarah Palin’s targeting map. They tried to make the case there was more direct evidence that Sarah Palin set Jared Laughner off than anybody on the left set Hodgkinson off.

    This is a blatant, long-discredited lie.

    Laughner had it out for Gabrielle Giffords for at least a year before anyone outside of Alaska had even heard of Palin. He asked a rambling question at at town hall meeting and didn’t like her answer. Also I’m at a loss to understand how someone who lists the Communist Manifesto as one of his favorite books is a man of the right.

    Yet none of this stopped the editorial staff of saying the stupidest things.

    I’m not even blaming Laughner on Karl Marx. He was a loon. I hear he’s been medicated to correct that. And I’m not even going to blame Hodgkinson on MSNBC. But I think the telling thing is that, unlike Laughner, Hodgkinson’s circle of friends thought he was normal. Until he tried to kill Republicans.

    The whole “moral equivalence” argument is more than a little bit stale. Perhaps you believe CAIR, Tillman, when they tell you that they’re the only people standing between the “extremists” on the “far right” and the Islamic State or al Qaeda.

    Yet as judge Jorge Solis noted in his decision to retain CAIR’s organizational name in the public record of the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, the government had amply demonstrated that CAIR is nothing more than a Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood front group. They may not be on exactly the same side as AQ/IS, but only because they’re in the competition to start the next caliphate. Their latest lie is to claim the Explanatory Memorandum on the Strategic Goals of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America has been discredited.

    Funny. It’s been used to convict two sets of defendants. They didn’t even try to contest it when it counted, when it was submitted as evidence against them. But CAIR can say any damn thing they want on TV and nobody questions them. They wouldn’t get away with their crap in court room, and haven’t so far.

    Is this evidence of my extremism? If the Muslim Brotherhood tells me they’re waging civilizational jihad against Western Civilization, I believe them. I almost feel bad for Muslim terrorists. Former US Army Major Nidal Hassan gave a PowerPoint presentation to his command about why he was going to gun down his fellow soldiers. Michael Adebolajo had a bystander record his soliloquy about why he and his Muslim buds ran down and chopped up Drummer Rigby, citing verses from Surah 9 of the Quran. Omar Mateen spent something like a half hour on the phone with the 911 operator explaining why he was shooting up a gay bar in Florida.

    Yet, when it comes to Islamic terrorism all of a sudden the whole concept of a confession flies right out the window. How many times have we heard the refrain, “We may never know the motive.” Muslim terrorists keep explaining their motive SLOWLY and LOUDLY using SINGLE SYLLABLES. It’s got to be frustrating for them. Allahu Akhbar.

    Meanwhile according to our illustrious last preezy Christians are supposed to apologize for some stupid baptist church and the crusades. We Christians need to get off our “high horse” because of what a dozen or so idiots are doing now, and for what a lot more did a thousand years ago. That reflects badly on all of us, we are collectively guilty. But nothing a Muslim does has anything to do with Islam.

    Of course, no doubt it’s “extremist” of me to go to the Quran and say, it’s right here. And point to the page.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  320. “I did not believe the newspaper accounts that suggested a coverup. I was convinced there was no coverup, because I was convinced that no one had anything to cover up.”- Richard Nixon, nationasl televised address, 8/15/73

    Somebody did. John Dean for one.

    Liddy had a spy in McGovern’s campaign headquarters, and he had wanted him to plant a bug. Each time Tom Gregory was supposed to plant a bug somehow it all failed. so Liddy decided to send in people from outside to plant it. This would not do since John Dean was secretly collaborating with some Democrats (possibly to make Agnew president. That would mean he was looking for a scandal that would burst into full flower after the election.)

    So he arranged for Magruder to tell them to go into the DNC first and maybe get caught. Gregory quit by the way the day of or before the break-in.

    Gregory’s boss in the spy business later became Senator from Utah until he defeated by the Tea Party in 2010.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  321. Take corbyn, the provos BFF. Who cited Jo cox, finchley park and grenfell (which he voted not to install sprinklers in council estates in 2005)

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/06/21/trashing-trump-and-the-im-a-genius-press/

    narciso (d1f714)

  322. …Either he lied to Gellman (and maybe also forged the notes) or he lied in his Senate Intelligence committee testimony about not documenting his conversations with Bush.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675) — 6/23/2017 @ 1:22 pm

    Newsflash, Sammy. Angler was published in 2008. If someone wanted to dispute Comey’s account of the conversation as relayed by Gellman they’ve had nine years to do it.

    Comey lied to the Senate under oath, plain and simple. He is a very Washington D.C. type of critter. Which brings us to Mueller.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  323. i don’t even understand this thread anymore cause of it’s so many convolute

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  324. I’m glad you brought up Nixon. I was sure somebody would, not doubt as an example of extremists on the “far right.”

    Except Nixon as no manner of “right wing” kind of guy.

    Milton Friedman said he was the most socialist President in his lifetime. And that’s saying a lot. Here’s Friedman disparaging the stupidity of wage and price controls. Nixon figures prominently.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGKl1MzOc8k

    Also, I was remiss by not mentioning Floyd Lee Corkins II. He wanted to target “anti-gay hate groups.”

    Now, is there a better website if you’re so inclined than the Southern Poverty Law Center? He went to their site and read up on the Family Research Council. Then he went gunning for them with the plan to not just kill as many of the “h8rs” as possible but to smear Chik-Fil-A sandwiches on the faces of his dying victims.

    Can anyone tell me of a “right wing” counter example?

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  325. We could, but you would just claim they were “leftists” no matter what.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  326. i don’t even understand this thread anymore cause of it’s so many convolute

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/23/2017 @ 1:55 pm

    My bad. I’ll try to shape up and fly right.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  327. We could, but you would just claim they were “leftists” no matter what.

    Leviticus (efada1) — 6/23/2017 @ 2:00 pm

    I’m really stretching things when I point out that Laughner his own self said that the Communist Manifesto was one of his favorite books. But, I’m not even claiming he was a leftist, just a nut job.

    On the other hand Hodgkinson was definitely a leftist. So was Corkins, and so are the crew at the SPLC. And excuse me if I missed the memo but since when have wage and price controls and creating the EPA been “right wing?”

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  328. Leviticus, let’s play “guess the politics.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luq4NTSK50M

    A. Trump fab
    B. Clinton fan
    C. Bernie Bro

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  329. NSFW, BTW.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  330. i might could just have low blood sugar

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  331. The hits keep on coming.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/a-democrat-inspired-by-hodgkinson-threatens-assassination.php

    …The criminal complaint against Hoff, a Democrat, says that he “has left at least five harassing and threatening voice-mail messages with Stivers’ Hilliard office since February.” Capitol police told Hoff to desist, but the threats continued. It appears that the attempted assassination of multiple House Republicans by James Hodgkinson may have caused the authorities to finally move against Hoff.

    Hoff is a registered Democrat who has voted religiously since 2004. He doesn’t seem to have a Facebook page, at least not one that I could discover. But his desire to emulate Hodgkinson and his reference to “the people that you’re screwin’ up their lives” suggest that he may have been inspired by Democratic Party propaganda. Hoff doesn’t live in Rep. Stivers’ district, but his own representative is a Democrat, which also suggests that in threatening Stivers he was motivated by partisan fanaticism rather than a random hostility to authority…

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  332. I went for the Occupy commie pig poop but stayed for the hot comicon chicks. Thanks Steve57!

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  333. Zico coconut water, happyfeet. The only one. 8 % magnesium 26 % potassium.
    Have I ever steered you wrong?

    mg (31009b)

  334. “I’ve done in five months what other people haven’t done in years.” – Donald Trump, 6/23/17 =rim shot=

    Priceless. Now that’s entertainment!

    Appearing five days weekly at Washington’s famed Oval Room.

    No cover/two drink minimum.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  335. Rush Limbaugh about the washington Post scoop about Obama’s handling of attempted Russian medling in the 2016 election (with some secrets kept by the Washington Post)

    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/06/23/hilarious-washington-post-story-documents-barack-obamas-brave-struggle-to-deal-with-russian-hacking/

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  336. Rev. Hoagie, I’m something of a renaissance man.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  337. Saw Kellyanne on CNN rightfully mocking talking head insisting on what’s being done to stop Russian interference.

    I so wanted her to say this:

    “Let’s ask the American people: who would you rather have in charge of preventing hacking, the party that secured their servers and preventing the hacks, to the point of having the FBI review their security procedures, or the party that was hacked, had a candidate with a secret illegal server, and told the FBI to get lost?”

    harkin (536957)

  338. that’s a good idea

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  339. passed that on to NG she got a twitch in her eye that’s bugging her so we decided potassium was the thing for that

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  340. Pull the other one, tillmenz… are conservatives the ones shouting people down on campus, blockading offices, physically attacking speakers, rioting after an election, harassing professors for pointing out racism, stabbing police officers, throwing urine and feces on young women, tillmenz??

    This goes out to aphrael, too, who contended a couple of weeks ago that it’s the same on both sides. Horsesh*t! That’s a lie.

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  341. Understand everything ASPCA in 3 seconds… https://youtu.be/rX7wtNOkuHo

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  342. Congressional Record June 12 = Louis (Louie) Gohmert (1st Congressional district of Texas) speaking about Comey:

    https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2017/6/12/house-section/article/h4848-1?r=89

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  343. Steven Malynn,

    I did not call you a cultist.

    I called Blah one.

    happyfeet is one too.

    That does not mean anyone who supports anything he does is a cultlst. Someone who supports him unthinkingly, ignoring all reason, is a cultist. Like Blah. Or happyfeet.

    Trump has a cult. So did Obama. It does not mean every supporter is a cultist.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  344. Steve Malynn, those are the fats the left doesn’t want to talk about so they are absent from all media.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  345. *facts*

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  346. People misread comments a lot.

    Like harkin, whose attitude towards Trump seems very sensible (extreme concern about what he could become based on his background combined with wishing him well when he does right) misread a comment of mine ages ago as saying he is not welcome at The Jury. I never said that. I said the rules require a high level of respect and several of his comments suggested to me that he was not temperamentally suited for it. That is a different statement rhan it was taken to mean. But people see what they want to see.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  347. Anyone who can read what Trump said about Tiananmen Square and not be concerned about the guy needs to learn some history.

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  348. @351 Haiku! Gesundheit!

    Too long; get shorty:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOoJK_fY7nE

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  349. I’m not a cultist unless playing the hand you’re dealt for to try to preserve some semblance of america is a cult, which it isn’t

    you gotta know when to hold em Mr. P but you also have to know when to fold em

    i thought america’s prosperity and freedoms were what hung in the balance, and I didn’t think twice about standing with Mr. Trump against that criminal diseased pantsuited stinkypig

    but now that we see slimy fbi turd Robert Mueller trying to execute a disgusting elitist ruling class coup, i realize that the ivy league trash set have decided to wipe their poopy ivy league heinies with harvardtrash ted’s fetishized constitution and call it a day for democracy

    and i abjure this

    these trashy corrupt fbi traitors to america are far worse than the kgb and the gru

    and that’s ironic given how the pretense of Mueller’s phony investigation has something vaguely to do with Russia

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  350. Holy Politicians, Batman! I agree with happyfeet and I actually understand what he wrote.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  351. Never Trump d.c. lawyers have a movement against American voters and their judicial rights. Is Sessions alive or will his picture soon be on the 2% milk carton? Better yet do us a favor and retire a shamed boob.

    mg (31009b)

  352. sleazy corrupt jeff sessions would the most amazingly useless and corrupt Attorney General since the last one

    but we all know the real attorney general is Rosenstein

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  353. I think Trump almost doesn’t remember why he made that first “tapes” tweet.

    It was to prevent Comey from making up accusations against him, at least when he had to testify.

    It also may have forced him to agree to testify. Once anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  354. I think we should researdh whether Comey’s account of his meeting with Bush was disputed. It is not like that would be in the headlines.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  355. Veterans deserve wins and they got one this week with the Prez signing the VA Reform legislation.

    Now h8 on h8ers…

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  356. Trump has a cult. So did Obama. It does not mean every supporter is a cultist.

    Patterico (3f8f5f) — 6/23/2017 @ 3:20 pm

    And Ted Cruz does, as well. I’m an unabashed fan.

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  357. Go ahead, tell me he’s playing the media and his enemies like a fiddle

    More like a kazoo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  358. Well, if it means anything I still think Scott Walker would have made the best Pres. But it was worth Trump just to experience the last five months of head splitting leftist hysteria, see the weeping and bask in the knowledge all those a-holes on the left live a daily agony. Ha, Ha.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  359. harvardtrash ted’s a huge drooling fanboi of princeton grad Bobby Mueller

    “I don’t think it was necessary to appoint a special counsel,” Cruz said. “But the Department of Justice made the decision to do that. If they are going to appoint a special counsel, Bob Mueller is an excellent choice.”

    “He has deep respect from both Democrats and Republicans,” Cruz said.

    oh what’s that harvytrash T? You have more wheedling praise to burble for your boi?

    Bob Mueller is a good and honorable man, but I certainly hope that the appointment of a special counsel doesn’t turn into a fishing expedition,” Cruz said during a stop in Arlington, Texas, according to The Dallas Morning News.

    Lies. These are lies what Ted is saying about his traitorous co-conspirator Robert Mueller.

    Ted Cruz has no integrity. Simple as that.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  360. yeah Mr. Walker hired some real losers to overstaff his campaign with

    but he showed a lot more gumption than useless Indiana coward Mitch Daniels

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  361. @371: W/apologies to Tom Lehrer:

    Gather round while I sing you of Canadian Cruz,
    A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience;
    Call him unprincipled for changing his views,
    “Principles, schminzables” coos Canadian Cruz

    Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
    Say rather that he’s quite political;
    “Keep my name in the paper or next week it’s old news!
    Memories are short,” coos Canadian Cruz

    Some have harsh words for his bait-and-switch ruse,
    But some say their attitude should be one of gratitude;
    Like the wife and the father; their honor abused,
    So easily betrayed by Canadian Cruz

    “You become a conservative hero;
    Showing Texans you’ll stand up for zero;
    In Calgary ‘oder’ Houston, I have proved I can lose,
    And I’ll prove it again,” coos Canadian Cruz.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  362. we should have a hootenanny except don’t invite Alyssa Milano she has a tacky attitude

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  363. Dershowitz: Trump Tape Comments ‘In The Interest Of Justice’

    hrm this would seem to undermine the idea that President Trump tweetled without discernment

    Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said on Fox News Friday that not only was President Trump’s tweet about possibly taping Comey “legal,” but it was also done “in the interest of justice.”

    Dershowitz explained that Trump was bluffing so that Comey would not know whether or not he had tapes, and thus would be incredibly careful during his open testimony.

    “He has to think in the back of his head, ‘maybe there was a recording, I have to be very very careful about what I say,’” he said.

    Then Dershowitz told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer that he has used the same tactic himself.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  364. what hasn’t been noted yet though is what a powerful expression of confidence in the truth Mr. Trump showed by tweeting what he tweeted

    he was basically saying fine, sleazy corrupt fbi turdboy comey – tell the truth

    this is the mark of an honest man

    a man of integrity

    a mark of a genuine President

    the kind of man we’ve waited for

    lo all these many decades

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  365. Not a cult!

    Patterico (3f8f5f)

  366. 357 – “misread a comment of mine ages ago as saying he is not welcome at The Jury.”

    IIRC – You said the word “gullible” was not welcome.

    The word strikes me as rather benign, the reaction….

    No matter either way tho P, the Jury Room looks about as crowded as Arby’s.

    harkin (536957)

  367. says the guy with the repetitious mantra

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  368. Why do the no Trumpers not want to discuss Amul Roger Thapar?
    Hate to give President Trump credit for a great pick for a United States Circuit Judge of The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th circuit? Have issues with non 7-11 working people from India? Or did not give a bats guano?

    mg (31009b)

  369. Yeah, a lot on BOTH sides. BS.

    Democratic Party official in Nebraska was caught wishing death upon Republican Rep. Steve Scalise after he was injured in the assassination attempt on GOP congressmen in Virginia last week.

    Phil Montag was co-chairman of the technology committee before being removed on Thursday by party chairwoman Jane Kleeb over audio that surfaced of Montag spouting off about how he was “glad” Scalise was shot, but wished “he was f***ing dead:”

    “This motherf***er, his whole job is to get people, convince Republicans to f***ing kick people off of f***ing health care. I’m glad he got shot. I’m not gonna f***ing say that publicly. I’m glad he got shot. I wish he was f***ing dead.”

    The recording was made by Chelsey Gentry-Tipton and her friend, Destin Madison. Gentry-Tipton is the chairwoman of Nebraska’s Democratic Black Caucus. It appears she was trying to blackmail Montag into giving her public support for making her own offensive comments about the shooting.

    In a Facebook post, Gentry-Tipton had written, “Watching the congressman crying on live tv abt the trauma they experienced. Y is this so funny tho? [sic]”

    Later, she added, “The very people that push pro NRA legislation in efforts to pad their pockets with complete disregard for human life. Yeah, having a hard time feeling bad for them.”****

    The Omaha World-Herald reported that Kleeb called for Gentry-Tipton’s resignation over those comments, but the Black Caucus chair refused, saying her words were taken out of context and that she found the shooting “deeply troubling.”

    ****Like I said, you can’t go around shooting us then tell us WE shouldn’t own guns. The left is pure scum.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  370. Like harkin, whose attitude towards Trump seems very sensible (extreme concern about what he could become based on his background combined with wishing him well when he does right).

    Nothing misread there you describe exactly how I feel

    I did not vote for Trump, (I did not cast a vote for President), I will not cast my vote for someone I deem unfit for office. But gosh sakes after doing that what sort of person would ever be wished to be proven right.

    I’m rooting for the orange skinned salesman to prove me totally wrong.

    harkin (536957)

  371. i’d like to hear at some point a discussion

    of the hazards

    real or potential

    of Mueller’s silly phony investigation

    of the rank politicization and corruption of the DoJ and the FBI

    of the cynicism this will foster

    the wholesale collapse of trust in our justice system

    how are the traitorous fbi turdboys ever gonna recover

    quixotic

    quixotic

    scandal lands all over jim comey

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  372. Strikingly this is very likely true;

    http://freebeacon.com/columns/theyre-wrong-everything

    narciso (d1f714)

  373. At thisvpwww.babalublog.com/2017/06/23/whoops-is-trump-going-for-castros-jugular-the-billions-in-u-s-remittances-to-cubaoint, we don’t know if they had any cybertools, although the toolkit that miller gave to shadowbrokerz

    narciso (d1f714)

  374. We now from analysis of the crowdstrike report, they didn’t track the malware to the fsb that is the key funding.

    narciso (d1f714)

  375. link for #386

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  376. 382 – me:

    But gosh sakes after doing that what sort of person would ever be wished to be proven right.”

    That was the orange curaçao, apricot brandy and 151 shooter talkin.

    You get my drift.

    harkin (536957)

  377. I’m more concerned that Obama thanks to Paul Ryan, tore our military down to world war one levels, that we couldnt confront varius contingencies if needs must.

    narciso (d1f714)

  378. it might help if we stopped confronting so many goofy faux-contingencies

    plus, you know, steering the boats

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  379. Was the fitz handling operations relating to DJ jazzy Kim?

    narciso (d1f714)

  380. wearing that low neck sweater
    you better lawyer up Loretta

    mg (31009b)

  381. 377… Too late!

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  382. So Washington Post buries a story – on page 25 – about the CIA telling 0bama last Summer they have evidence of Putin ordering his lackeys to do what they can to get Trump elected and how anguished Barcky was about it… should he make a big deal about it… should he ignore it… which of these things should he do? wringing his hands about the whole shebang.

    Investigation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  383. Because its Oakland, coronello, in the event we actually have a. Ybercapacity, remem Er the first rule of fight club. Which is nitvto talk about fight club.

    narciso (d1f714)

  384. The Fraudulent Bureau of Investigation is one toxic group of hacks.

    mg (31009b)

  385. Go ahead, tell me he’s playing the media and his enemies like a fiddle
    More like a kazoo.

    Why are they dancing to the kazoo then.

    steveg (e8c34d)

  386. The Fraudulent Bureau of Investigation is one toxic and treasonous group of hacks.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  387. #289
    When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
    He is an excellent prosecutor and frames his arguments and uses statements against others very well.
    His success ratio at work probably is well above 95%. The same cues he uses may or may not serve in the rest of the world.

    Patterico cultist!!!
    Patterico sycophant!!!
    Known Dustin sympathizer!!!

    Back to the Jury (never) Talks Back with you!!!

    steveg (e8c34d)

  388. @ Mr. Malynn, re #177, in which you wrote, in part:

    Against all expectations, Trump is surviving this fight, and he is achieving “Conservative” goals. If you don’t think the voters now see Trump as an underdog in this fight, while you three are certain he is a bully, I think you are vastly mistaken. If the next 3 & 1/2 years follow this trajectory, Trump walks into re-election, amidst much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

    I can’t see how you could possibly set a lower bar than “surviving.” If I had to pick one word for his presidency so far, though, that would be the best I could pick, and frankly it’s the result of the fact that it takes two thirds of the Senate to remove him from office, plus a simple majority in the House, and his own (nominal) party controls both chambers of Congress, rather than anything he’s done to demonstrate actual fitness or competency in office.

    If I were limited to a tweet, I could mention a couple or three things he’s done so far of which I approve, in addition to nominating Gorsuch, but none of them have yet been turned into completed accomplishments. He’s cutting back federal regs, but that’s a task that is far from finished and I’ve yet to be convinced they won’t be replaced by other regs, since he is no small-government conservative but, to the contrary, a crony capitalist who continues to jump as fast from “problem –> FEDERAL SOLUTION” as any Democrat. He’s not leading, but rather he’s a daily distraction from actually getting things accomplished. He has a decent cabinet put together, but he daily sucks the wind out of their sails with his obsessive need to be the center of attention, all attention, including bad attention, all the time.

    This chart shows just what a rare opportunity he is wasting. Since 1933, the GOP has had simultaneous control of the White House and both chambers of Congress for a grand total of six years — 1951-1953 and 2003-2007. Any POTUS who can do no better than survive such a period of spectacular opportunity is, objectively and in the big picture, an utter failure.

    I hope he turns it around, not because I care about him — I do not — but because I care about the country and about the GOP. I’m placing no bets even on him surviving his first term, however. So it’s fair to say I lack your confidence in him.

    As for there being a “nevertrump closed loop going here,” I deny that. When he breaks out of his normal pattern of self-destruction and egotistical bluster to actually do something good in the performance of his office, many of those critical of him in general who post or comment here (certainly including our host, Dana, DRJ, and I) have broken out of any “loop” and have given him credit.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  389. As for him being a bully, he’s a failed bully so far in office — this pathetic “tapes/no tapes” episode being a good example of that, actually. He was a sometimes successful bully in the business world, which is what you can do when you inherit a fortune from your daddy: Whether you’re clever or a dunce, you can use your millions and your position to run all over people like the tradesmen you’ve hired to service your casinos. When up against more formidable competition — like, say, the NFL, or the lenders who loaned money to his casinos — his record of bullying is, let us say, rather less successful.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  390. Re lower court appointments so far: Started too slow, and still hasn’t appointed enough. And there are something like 179 judges on the federal courts of appeals; getting any one, or even ten, confirmed is no big deal, especially given that it can now be done by simple majority vote in the Senate without threat of filibuster. When he’s filled all the open seats on the courts of appeals and district courts, only then can he even begin to think about taking any victory laps for that.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  391. anguish in momjeans
    0bama’s secret struggle
    they can’t help themselves

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/370375.php

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  392. President Trump has single-handedly revealed the extraordinary corruption and fascist debasement permeating the federal government of the United States of America

    we’re already forever in his debt

    he’s given us a chance to fix it

    let’s not waste it you guys

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  393. He’s outsourced (thank goodness) the whole routine of picking judges, and indeed, except for SCOTUS nominees, that’s standard operating procedure for all POTUSes. But I’ve yet to hear anyone offer any reason why he couldn’t and shouldn’t have submitted a list of new judicial nominees for every open seat on the federal bench on the first day of his presidency. If you want to cut the heart out of the “Deep State,” that — not Twitter! — is the way to go about it in a way that will actually last.

    But of course, he isn’t really taking on the Deep State anywhere but Twitter, either. He has not cleaned house within the Executive Branch, nor anything remotely close to that. The fact that he left Comey in office until May by itself shows how profoundly unserious Donald Trump is about taking on the “Deep State.”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  394. @ Hoagie (#370), who wrote:

    Well, if it means anything I still think Scott Walker would have made the best Pres.

    I like him too, but it would have been the return of Calvin Coolidge — dull, very competent, but really-really dull. That was his secret superpower in standing up to the moonbat mobbery in Wisconsin.

    Almost seems like heaven to contemplate, doesn’t it? MSNBC would have been shuttered by now (even Microsoft and Comcast can’t sustain indefinite losses) and ratings at all the other networks would have dropped by 75%. We’d be evaluating the just-passed health care and tax reform bills. Congress would be debating the recommendation from the POTUS regarding whether and how to extend the authorization for use of force in Iraq & Syria. I’d love to be that bored.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  395. President Trump has single-handedly revealed the extraordinary corruption and fascist debasement permeating the federal government of the United States of America

    Gods! Who knew?!

    Kevin M (752a26)

  396. Beldar–

    Here’s the current executive branch nomination list: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/

    Of 560 senior positions, he has 396 yet to nominate.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  397. @ Kevin M (#409): That’s an interesting chart, thank you for linking it.

    I note that in the case of Bush-41, his holdovers — unlike the others shown — were from a prior POTUS of his own party (Reagan). He thus had less urgency about putting his own people in, since he’d served with these holdovers as part of the Reagan Administration.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  398. And yet Trump is behind even Bush-41’s pace.

    Low energy?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  399. President Trump is ahead of Bush that’s for sure and he has so many energy i’d hesitate to even try to do quantify on it

    This is obvious to anyone who is willing to do the analysis

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  400. I have to admit I’ve wanted to do that for a while: just quote Trump praising the left wing and see if his fans reveal they really had no idea who they were supporting as they acted like anyone who said that stuff had a mental illness and was obviously discredited. Of course then they would go back to ignoring that Trump has nothing but love for Hillary, their boogeyman. Partisanship has forced total contradictions on a lot of folks, and it’s going to cause more and more anger.

    Trump’s flip flop on his recording Comey is a great example of his terrible leadership. That folks are actually defending him on this one is nothing more than force of habit. If Hillary had done that, the same guys would be calling for impeachment.

    I’ll have to do that again with the Trump quotes.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  401. You never heard of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Somalia? Of course the economy was doing great Newt put the Contract with America in play and Slick Willie reformed welfare. Cause he had to. I don’t know anybody of either party who “hated” Slick. I’m a die-hard conservative and I would have loved to have a few Bourbons with the hound dog. He was a hell of a nice guy unless you were one of his female rape victims. Then not so much.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/23/2017 @ 9:14 am

    LOL

    Like I explained above, the idiotic comment was Trump’s, not mine.

    He is utterly unqualified to be involved with our military. I actually was serving in the 90s.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  402. Trump’s flip flop on his recording Comey
    — Nah. No “flip flop” there.

    Icy (daf215)

  403. — Nah. No “flip flop” there.

    Icy (daf215) — 6/24/2017 @ 1:36 am

    I do get what you’re saying and it’s a good point. Trump did not explicitly promise he had these recordings. Even in Trump’s denial about the tapes, he simply says ‘I have no idea’ if there are any. Trump probably admired that about the Clintons. The way they deny without actually denying.

    Trump did not say, soberly, “I have tapes of these conversations that will exonerate me.” It was actually Comey who was sober, saying he sure hoped there would be tapes.

    But the meaning of the deception was clear: Trump was telling America not to trust Comey’s claims regarding Trump. when you say someone better hope there’s not a tape of the conversation they are making claims about, you are warning that person that their lies could be exposed. If said in a weasel’s manner, it’s not a provable threat, but we know what Trump meant. He was the con man calling the honest witness a liar by inventing evidence, these tapes, to bolster his credibility.

    Now saying he has no idea is not literally a flip flop. He’s still not making a provable claim. But the meaning is the opposite. The threat to prove Comey’s claims false are eliminated. There’s a 180 there. There’s a flip flop.

    But the real Comey flip flop wasn’t really about recording and I should have been more on point: Trump admitted he fired Comey over “that russia thing.” Trump admitted he’s under investigation and denied the same, in writing.

    I do not give Trump the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to go beyond his Clintonian ‘meaning of is’ crap. We know Trump was attacking the credibility of others in an underhanded manner because that’s simply how this man operates, and these recent tweets only make him look like a real chump.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  404. Were all amazed you go on living everyday.

    mg (31009b)

  405. 413 – “I have to admit I’ve wanted to do that for a while: just quote Trump praising the left wing and see if his fans reveal they really had no idea who they were supporting as they acted like anyone who said that stuff had a mental illness and was obviously discredited.”

    You still don’t get it. Compared to Chairman Zero and Crooked Deville, he’s still preferable by a country mile.

    And most know about his past quotes. But the media has told them for decades that everyone from Reagan to Dubya to Romney was the reincarnation of Mussolini mixed with Jack D Ripper and every time the MSM darling who was the ‘preferred alternative’ was a destructive statist looking to increase power for their big government redistributionist cronies.

    You’re not going to really alarm people about the Donald when they are sick of your BS and realize your true political message distills down to:

    Hey you racist, islamaphobic, gay-hating, Christian rubes, if you’re smart you’ll vote for us and we’ll make your town Chicago, Venezuela!”

    harkin (536957)

  406. LOL

    Like I explained above, the idiotic comment was Trump’s, not mine.

    He is utterly unqualified to be involved with our military. I actually was serving in the 90s.
    Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/24/2017 @ 12:47 am

    LOL

    It doesn’t matter who made the comment, it’s incorrect. I realize that you, like all leftists, are never incorrect so from up there on your lofty perch of Greatness and Infallibility you gaze down at us mere mortals and YOU get to determine Who is qualified to be *involved* with our military. But it boils down to the fact that you leftists have screamed for so long nobody listens any longer. You guys have the uncanny ability to look at places from Detroit and Baltimore to Cuba and Venezuela and never recognize your policies don’t work. Then, as if we’re all as blind and stupid as you, continue to spout the same policies that created Detroit and Cuba.

    Meh, a bunch of idiots.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  407. I realize that you, like all leftists,

    Hoagie, no need to be dishonest. I’ve been a consistent proponent of limited government for over a decade here. Many many conservatives are critical of Trump.

    are never incorrect

    Hoagie, it was a quote of something Trump said. We agree it was absurd, but you didn’t realize Trump said it when you insulted me over it. You thought I said it, when I was quoting Trump to show how evasive his fans are.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  408. You still don’t get it. Compared to Chairman Zero and Crooked Deville, he’s still preferable by a country mile.

    We are not talking about choosing between Trump and Obama, or Trump and Hillary. The election is over and Trump is accountable because he won the election.

    Trump, to me, is very similar to Hillary. Trump has been very clear he admires the Clintons, and in particular, the Clinton presidency. Those saying they abhor Hillary (for example you compared her to Satan in your comment, which is about as hysterical as you can get) must reconcile that Trump governs like her and admires her leadership example. He’s a Hillary follower.

    His Obamacare repeal has morphed wildly from instant repeal all the way to cementing it in place with changes that could have been lifted from Hillary’s campaign. I’m critical of this no matter how many funny names you come up with for democrats. It doesn’t actually offend me when you guys bash the left, because I was there first, criticizing the left for many years before you guys showed up.

    Hoagie realizes he’s being dishonest in his troll about how I’m at fault for Detroit, but in his ranting he recognizes that Trump is wrong. Trump’s policies, his New York values, are wrong. My warnings have been proven quite right about this guy’s inability to be effective.

    Still really amused that Hoagie and the rest got that angry about Trump’s comments, before they knew they were Trump’s.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  409. Were all amazed you go on living everyday.

    mg (31009b) — 6/24/2017 @ 3:18 am

    Bless your heart even though it’s so angry.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  410. This is the president of crowdstrike.

    https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/shawn-henry-named-executive-assistant-director-of-the-criminal-cyber-response-and-services-branch

    Yes Mueller picked him, you think there is a reason this report want vetted

    narciso (d1f714)

  411. If you are a “consistent proponent of limited government” why then are we constantly in disagreement? Perhaps since I have not been here over a decade I don’t have the required groundwork or background to reference your deep American values. Or maybe my not being a lawyer I haven’t the intellect you discern what you mean when you post.

    Hoagie, it was a quote of something Trump said. We agree it was absurd, but you didn’t realize Trump said it when you insulted me over it.

    I didn’t know who said your quote and I wasn’t insulting you, I was correcting the quote. You can play the hide the quote game. It’s fun. Watch: who said “I love people”? If your answer was Genghis Khan you win. I’m sure he said it at one time or another.

    You thought I said it, when I was quoting Trump to show how evasive his fans are.

    Frankly, I didn’t *think* you said it I presumed you did because you represented it that way. So you lied by innuendo then chastised me for being wrong by assuming your misleading lie was the truth? Do you now expect me to believe what you write here? Or is every comment a trick?

    I’m glad to hear you served in the nineties. Is that where you learned the skill to determine who should be involved with our military? It reminds me of all the geniuses in the media determining that Trump isn’t *fit* to be president. I was not aware fitness was one of the Constitutional requirements. I also wasn’t aware a selection committee exists who determines such things for us mere plebes. Nice to know. Aahh, the Invisible Hand of Statism guiding us lowly mortals through the trials of life.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  412. You have to look into their hearts, Hoagie.

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  413. Just like Tom Reagan did in “Miller’s Crossing”…

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  414. It used to be, this place concerned it self with actual facts , not the dross of the dog trainer or its partner on the other coast, its like if I cited the Texas tribune all the time you would get an incomplete picture of gov Abbott.

    narciso (d1f714)

  415. Colluders never understand that the message they send is aimed at the wrong target… https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/2017/06/23/california-mosque-suffers-bacon-hate-crime-perp-gets-stiff-sentence/

    Colonel Haiku (c1f7e8)

  416. It is rather striking how Islam copied the most severe structures of Judaism, and then sought to wipe its presence from the peninsula entirely. When hamas speaks of khaybar that what Muhammad did in the valley were medina stands now

    narciso (d1f714)

  417. Qatar admits they debt millions to prevent the prescription of the ikwan, this is what getting general fLynn, sidelining bannon and Mcfarlane was abiur, personnel is policy.

    narciso (d1f714)

  418. If you are a “consistent proponent of limited government” why then are we constantly in disagreement?

    Dustin’s no leftist. He backed Rick Perry on this very site in 2012, and has taken a consistent conservative position over the years. You’re in disagreement with him because he’s not buying into the Trump hype. And you apparently think that anyone who doesn’t like Trump is a leftist.

    Or maybe my not being a lawyer I haven’t the intellect you discern what you mean when you post.

    That’s funny.

    Frankly, I didn’t *think* you said it I presumed you did because you represented it that way. So you lied by innuendo then chastised me for being wrong by assuming your misleading lie was the truth?

    You “presumed” something but you didn’t “think” it? I’m not sure what the semantic difference is there, unless you’re trying to weasel out of the fact that you have egg on your face. You got played, Hoagie, and it was fun to watch. Now you’re trying to make it look like Dustin’s responsible for your lack of acumen. Dustin didn’t lie, not even by innuendo. He dangled some bait and you were the perfect sucker for it.

    Chuck Bartowski (211c17)

  419. Today’s Beldar The Bitter “Watergate, Watergate, Watergate” Words Of Wonder:

    “President Nixon has tonight discharged Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. The President took this action because of Mr. Cox’s refusal to comply with instructions given Friday night through Attorney General Richardson that he was not to seek to invoke the judicial process further to compel production of recordings, notes or memoranda regarding private Presidential conversations. Further, the office of the Watergate special prosecution force has been abolished as of approximately 8 P.M. tonight. Its function to investigate and prosecute those involved in the Watergate matter will be transferred back into the institutional framework of the Department of Justice, where it will be carried out with thoroughness and vigor.” – President Nixon’s Press Secretary Ron Ziegler, Saturday night, October 20, 1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  420. What Rev. Hogtie said way back at #49. That a thousand times. If I have anything to say on any post here in #NEVERTRUMPFANTASYLAND again it’s that. That. Over and over. But you #NEVERTRUMPers will #NEVER get it. You refuse to understand the world as it is. You think you can fight fire with logic and laws and policies and such. I doubt many of you will ever consider that maybe, just maybe, you might be wrong in your perceptions.

    WTP (094b61)

  421. Ah, and skimming through…this calling people like ‘feet and Blah “cultists” is quite the cop-out. A glaring neon sign that something is happening here and you don’t know what it is, Mr. Jones.

    WTP (094b61)

  422. Trump is President by operation of law and policy and by no other means. The logic that elected him is suspect, but that is allowed as a matter of law and policy. Unfuzz your thinking.

    nk (dbc370)

  423. WTP,

    I think Hoagie 49 made three points:

    1. The media and entertainment are run by Democrats, and they are constantly attacking Trump.

    2. The Democrats hate everyone who opposes them, not just Trump, so pick sides because this is US vs Them.

    3. “What the hell makes you think if they impeach Trump they will stop there? You guys really don’t know how coups work do you?”

    There are media and entertainment sources (Fox News, Breitbart, several online media) that support Trump and/or people who aren’t Democrats, and Trump won the election. People read and watch what they want. We pick sides when we choose to, not when we are threatened.

    DRJ (15874d)

  424. smarmy harvardtrash ted’s having too much fun turning obamacare repeal into “The Ted Show” to pick sides

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  425. I don’t agree it is fun, Ms hf, to see Cruz stand up to the GOP establishment when so few are willing to do it. Cruz heard the voters say (and Trump agree) that we need to immediately repeal ObamaCare. Unfortunately, Trump didn’t mean it when he promised voters the GOP would repeal ObamaCare but Cruz did.

    DRJ (15874d)

  426. Wouldn’t it be fun to see Trump stand up to Congress the way Cruz does?

    DRJ (15874d)

  427. it was george w. bush’s harvardtrash fiasco – the apparently rather-too-easily blackmailed/intimidated John Roberts what failed to stand up

    now we have to move forward

    harvardtrash fiasco john roberts put the kibosh on repeal long ago

    but meanwhile enjoy this episode of “The Ted Show” starring smirky smarmy harvardtrash ted

    you like your obamacare, harvardtrash ted lovers?

    looks like you gonna get to keep it all up in it!

    and when i think about that i touch myself

    i honestly do

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  428. Ah, and skimming through…this calling people like ‘feet and Blah “cultists” is quite the cop-out. A glaring neon sign that something is happening here and you don’t know what it is, Mr. Jones.

    Indeed. Calling cultists “cultists” violates the rules of the cult.

    Not A Cult!

    Patterico (8d3eae)

  429. “Skimming through” might be your problem. It often is.

    Patterico (8d3eae)

  430. Great idea. This is The Trump Show, and you know who would like your idea best?

    Trump!

    DRJ (15874d)

  431. If you are a “consistent proponent of limited government” why then are we constantly in disagreement?

    What are you in disagreement about?

    Just Trump? Or something else?

    If just Trump, then Trump is the reason you are in disagreement.

    Patterico (8d3eae)

  432. oh no you di’int Mr. P

    i don’t do with no cults you see this snakeskin jacket?

    this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom!

    DRJ I’m not even mad at harvardtrash ted

    but President Trump’s our obi wan now, not harvardtrash ted

    it’s not my fault i voted for pancakes

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  433. Wouldn’t it be fun to see Trump stand up to Congress the way Cruz does?

    That might turn out to be undesirable. He’s started to put the screws on Congress once, and the result was Ryancare….

    Perhaps it’s better to simply want other Congresscritters to get grafts from Cruz’s backbone.

    kishnevi (ab2b70)

  434. Trump is President by operation of law and policy and by no other means. The logic that elected him is suspect, but that is allowed as a matter of law and policy. Unfuzz your thinking.

    nk (dbc370) — 6/24/2017 @ 1:34 pm

    Indeed, Trump is truly fortunate for the respect for law and the democratic process in our country. We all know that most of us do not want him to be our president, but we also know he won, more or less fair and square.

    Hoagie, I can recall zero times you’ve ever actually discussed the merits of a principle or policy with me. Your argument that I must be a leftist because you disagree with me kinda skips over the part where you disagree with me on the dumbest possible level. Us Vs Them crap.

    I think most of us realize what you’re doing. Trump fans who shout ‘leftist’ at his critics are trying to force a lie on us: that Trump is a conservative. He is not. If he were you would be able to get into the details of how his leadership is conservative. Your reflexive Trump support is so predictable that I knew you would condemn my comments and call me silly names, even if all I did was quote Trump. Even after you realize you just called Trump’s point of view terrible, and realize I was mocking him, you cannot admit that you were actually supporting my point of view. No, to you, we ‘always disagree’ because ‘us v them’.

    Partisanship over reason.

    Patterico is better spoken than I am, so are Beldar, DRJ, and Simon Jester, but I’m not so bad at this that it’s not clear that I’m criticizing Trump from the right. I want less intrusion into my life. I want government to get out of the way. I do not want protectionism, I want freedom. I want transparency. I want a president who does not shut down investigations ‘into the russian thing’, and I want a Republican party that still believes no man is above the law, because ideological conservatism is defined by John Stuart Mill as equality before the law instead of the socialist idea of equality of results. So many long standing conservatives are critical of Trump, and insisting it’s Trump versus the Left is limiting yourself to being a bumper sticker, which is a waste of this blog’s potential for you.

    That’s what really annoys me about Trump’s trolls. You guys have done all you can to make these discussions name calling and stupid, which to me comes across as a filibuster against the people who want to point out the ways Trump is wrong.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  435. Then, as if we’re all as blind and stupid as you, bla bla bla bla bla

    Meh, a bunch of idiots.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/24/2017 @ 5:19 am

    ————————–

    I wasn’t insulting you

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/24/2017 @ 5:53 am

    Well thanks for being so polite!

    You were preyed upon by a con artist because he played on your hatred of Americans who disagree with you. That was intended as an insult.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  436. President Trump wants the best stuff for us

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  437. President Trump wants the best *of* stuff for us i mean

    why don’t you get that

    what’s wrong with you

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  438. President Trump wants the best stuff for us

    happyfeet

    I agree on some level. Trump probably does have a simplistic wish that everyone is happy with unicorns and golden roads and world peace, so long as Trump gets credit for leading us there. Much like an out of work deadbeat hopes to win the lottery to buy his girl all the stuff she wants but is unwilling to bust his ass in the fast food job he could get today.

    But let’s analyze Happyfeet’s view: the President’s ambition is to provide us with the best stuff. This is why conservatives have a hard time with this style of leader. An egomaniac like Trump is not going to say ‘you’re better off if I just get out of the way, because my interference with your life will be worse than not helping’ He’s instead going to try to get involved with everything he can. Trump doesn’t want out of the healthcare business, for example. He’s stated for years he wants the government to ‘pay for all of it’. He doesn’t want American businesses to beat competitors because they are better. He wants them to win because Trump put penalties in place against the competition.

    I don’t want the government to think its job is to get me the best stuff, because I know better what I want and what I can afford than some politician who doesn’t pay his taxes.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  439. “Skimming through” might be your problem. It often is.

    Exactly this right here. The retreat into the obsession with argumentation as justification for defending the status quo. The house could be burning down all around you people and you’d want to do a study on what fire deparment to call and bitch at the desperate efforts of the guy pissing on the fire. Sure he’s a fool but at least he’s DOING DOING DOING something. Prolly not gonna solve the problem, true. It is rude to piss on the walls, true.

    Living in a bubble world of elitism might be your problem. It often is.

    WTP (094b61)

  440. Oh, yeah…meant to add, Hogie at #49. That’s all you need to know about this thread. Hogie 49. God bless him.

    WTP (094b61)

  441. oh so now unicorns are like a bad thing

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  442. more or less fair and square.

    More or less? Defend that. Trump fans who cry “leftist” at his critics from the right I can see your point. But not the critics who say you are helping the leftists by chiming in with this RUSSIA RUSSIA nonsense. They’re spot on.

    WTP (094b61)

  443. You guys have done all you can to make these discussions name calling and stupid,

    And calling Trump defenders, some not even supporters, cultists and zombie and such…yeah. Everybody grab a stone, there’s sinners in our midst.

    WTP (094b61)

  444. yeah me i for sure don’t care to belong to any cult what would have me as a member

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  445. Joy Behar, host of The View, has claimed that the president’s allegiance to the Kremlin is treasonous.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  446. Also, Hogie 49.

    There were what, 17 Republicans in that race? And how many have run since Reagan? The last man to show any backbone in dealing with the press? If any of those dozens had just stood up to these MSM clowns, you wouldn’t have PDT today and we’d all be better off. But not a one did. Deal with that. Constipate on it fir a while before you go throwing all PDT supporters into one bag.

    Hogie 49. Gid bless him.

    WTP (094b61)

  447. …Gid or God…Freedom of religion is prolly our greatest strength…

    WTP (094b61)

  448. goddess on the mountain top burning like a silver flame

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  449. More or less? Defend that. Trump fans who cry “leftist” at his critics from the right I can see your point. But not the critics who say you are helping the leftists by chiming in with this RUSSIA RUSSIA nonsense. They’re spot on.

    WTP (094b61) — 6/24/2017 @ 3:27 pm

    OK, if I was unclear, I said Trump won the election more or less fair and square, and did not say that Trump stole the election or Russia hacked the election, which is a bizarre and wild misinterpretation of my saying that Trump is president because of the rule of law.

    In fact, I did not type the word “russia” or in any way imply anything about Russia in this thread. You apparently have that in your mind when we talk about the election.

    It’s easy to see how Trump’s conduct in the election was unfair because he attacked the families of his opponents, received an insane degree of free publicity, and violated his promise to release his tax returns in order to hide some aspect of his conduct.

    Lying, to me, is unfair. To Trump’s fans, it’s just another tactic that proves Trump was the best candidate. We’re both entitled to our opinions, and I’ve been pretty generous to say the guy who lost the popular vote by millions ‘won more or less fair and square’.

    I admit I find Trump’s conduct in trying to shut down ‘the Russia thing’ to be very alarming, but it’s Trump’s own conduct that suggests a scandal more than anything else. Time will tell.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  450. Yeah, Dustin. I think one can reasonably read my comment to not be entirely directed at your ONE comment there. But interpret it however it makes the best straw man. And we’re avoiding the point, which is…

    Hogie 49

    WTP (094b61)

  451. Joy Behar, host of The View, has claimed that the president’s allegiance to the Kremlin is treasonous.

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/24/2017 @ 3:33 pm

    Yes, Behar is nutty. But she’s a TV personality and her job is to get attention, much like Trump recently was a TV personality.

    I think we can both agree that it’s nutty to accuse the president of treasonous behavior without evidence.

    The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has also been making bizarre and sinister suggestions that President Obama himself is somehow complicit in the Orlando attack. Trump charged on Mondaythat “we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or he’s got something else in mind.” What exactly does that mean? Additional context helps us gain insight. Trump says of Obama and the attack “He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands.It’s one or the other, and either one is unacceptable.” In other words, either President Obama is incompetent or else he is in league with ISIS.

    You see how easy this is? Virtually anything a Trump fan complains about is easily answered with Trump doing that thing, in this case Trump suggesting Obama actually may have committed treasonous behavior.

    In fact, in that same interview I quoted above, where Trump praises Hillary, he said

    I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States.

    So while Behar certainly is unpresidential, the real story is that the president is unpresidential.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  452. Yeah, Dustin. I think one can reasonably read my comment to not be entirely directed at your ONE comment there.

    WTP

    No it cannot. You quoted me, then you quoted me again, then you said “defend that” while saying “this” (your word) is “RUSSIA RUSSIA nonsense.”

    “the critics who say you are helping the leftists by chiming in with this RUSSIA RUSSIA nonsense. “

    The word “this” after a quote makes it crystal clear what you were defining. English.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  453. i think we have a lot of solid and frightening evidence that the mueller/comey fbi is corrupt and treasonous though Mr, Dustin

    i think it’s likely even that they’re hounding bernie’s wife right now cause

    a. they want to look as it they’re even-handed

    b. they sure as hell aren’t gonna hound bona fide criminal skank hillary

    and

    c. they want to look as it they’re even-handed

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  454. Mr. Dustin i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  455. Dustin has misconstrued my point. Or I failed to enter a return character. Mea culpa.

    Shall we argue that or Hogie 49?

    WTP (094b61)

  456. Ah macho grand electric boogaloo, although o’dinnell had better bonafides than trump, but thecway many on this board, were willing to entertain every crazy claim that thecleft anfvthe top men right had put out about her, rove like a bourbon had learned nothing from his recent trial by ordeal.

    narciso (d1f714)

  457. So the story, as I see is it the use of private contractors like crowdstike who perhaps because of previous connections was allowed to launder a fraudulent document straight to Johnson’s dhs and clappers dni

    narciso (d1f714)

  458. ugh as *if* they’re even-handed

    i got distractered cause sister in law sent her egg bake recipe

    which is about as stripped-down and simple as it gets (cause of her kids are not adventurous eaters)

    the mid-west is so fun

    it’s like i’m catching up for not taking “home economics” in junior high

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  459. Dustin didn’t lie, not even by innuendo. He dangled some bait and you were the perfect sucker for it.
    Chuck Bartowski (211c17) — 6/24/2017 @ 11:00 am

    You are quite mistaken. Dustin lied by omission. His comment gave no indication that it was a quote. Go back to #232, 233. There is no indication that it is a quote, no attribution. nk immediately identified it as a “stick” – so thinly transparent to him was the lie, but a lie none the less.

    I recall a post on this site recounting an exercise in “guess who said that” on some Cable channel. The leftists caught on and refused to comment on any quote until they were told its origin, so partisan were they, that one even said that their response depended on “who said it.”

    In stark contrast, Hoagie, to his credit, made the point that it mattered not “who said it.” this is how we know that Hoagie argues in good faith.

    What you call “egg”, on Hogie’s face, I call “mud.”

    felipe (023cc9)

  460. Is it the messenger or the message that matters?

    DRJ (15874d)

  461. o. He dangled some bait and you were the perfect sucker for it.

    Again, like you people arguing and scoring gotcha points has ANY meaning…smh…you just do not get it. And thus you get burned by a “dummy” like PDT.

    WTP (0a3941)

  462. Happy Saturday, felipe!!!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  463. Re mconnelcare? Fir lack of a term, expect for Cruz and Paul we didn’t see anything resembling an alternate, it parallels what happened in the primaries when Cruz wee basically alone, sasse was off playing his ukelele

    narciso (d1f714)

  464. what?

    the sleazy corrupt fbi trash are stonewalling the investigation into the dossier shopped around by fusion and cowardly ex-navy torture victim john mccain?

    i’m gobbed and also smacked

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  465. Like the ginzu knives commercial, threes even more to thus:
    http://infodio.com/20170114/fusion/gps/derwick/associates/venezuela/corruption

    narciso (d1f714)

  466. Here’s a story with a message and a messenger:

    Three days ago, the (Trump-friendly) media reported that Trump had “given up” on China’s aid in stopping North Korea.

    Today, the State Department announced that the US and China agreed to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula:

    U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said on Thursday that the United States pressed China to ramp up economic and political pressure on North Korea, during his meeting with top Chinese diplomats and defense chiefs.

    China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui met Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis during the talks. Yang later met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House, where they also discussed North Korea, Xinhua reported.

    I think the message — the goal, the result — is what’s important, not the messenger. I hope this is a sign that, at least when it comes to foreign policy, Trump agrees. He can and should take the credit in the long run, but he doesn’t have to be the negotiator.

    DRJ (d35869)

  467. President Trump’s making America safe again for freedom

    except for the FBI, which would prefer fascism and oppression

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  468. 481. It sounds like China really doesn’t want the United States to give up on China helping with North Korea, but this is probably no change in policy because they don’t like what might come next.

    They do now have a little more time.

    Trump lets Tillerson and Mattis negotiate. He’s doing that also with Qatar.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  469. That should be:

    China really doesn’t want the United States to give up on China helping with North Korea, because they don’t like what might come next, but this is probably no change in policy.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  470. 222. Correction the U-turn was made only once, half an hour after the crash. I think. Both the container ship and the USS futzgerald reported the collision approximately an hour after it happened.

    There were supposed to e three sailors on watch, plus radar, and also if any ship got within, say, 4000 yards the captain was supposed to be awakened. As it is, the container ship crashed into his state room, and he was slightly injured and they had a hard time getting him out of there.

    They abandoned the lower compartment and let it flood (sealed it off), and it turned out there were seven sailors left there. At first, the Navy had been told, or assumed, they were washed overboard.

    Sammy Finkelman (f61675)

  471. What a lot of the #NeverTrump drones fail to realize is that for many Americans, Trump was far from a first, second, third, fourth, etc., choice but he is who won the nomination and who won the November election. And, has been pointed out by many, the left, broken down into tribes as they are, don’t just hate Donald Trump… they don’t just disagree with the policies and principles of moderate and conservative Republicans, they also despise them. So given the concerted effort of Democrats, their media colluders and a great many #NeverTrump yahoos to take Trump down like the army of hyenas they are, when we rally to this president’s defense, we are also pushing back against all of them and defending ourselves.

    The lawyers and the Democrat operatives with bylines obsess over Trump being Trump, his less than articulate manner of speaking, his tendency to be all over the map, but the people understand him, think he couldn’t possibly be any more transparent and take great pleasure in his trolling all his detractors. I know I certainly do.

    He has an unmatched gift of making the right people – even a few here – totally lose their sh*t.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  472. Thank you Colonel! That’s what I’ve been saying since the election.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  473. The story is much more interesting than the narrative, but remember what they said in liberty valance.

    narciso (d1f714)

  474. Suhweeeeeeet!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  475. hf 440:

    it was george w. bush’s harvardtrash fiasco – the apparently rather-too-easily blackmailed/intimidated John Roberts what failed to stand up

    Maybe, although I still think Roberts was a good choice. I think the mistake was naming him as Chief Justice instead of as a Justice and elevating someone already on the Court to Chief. It would have doubled the confirmation difficulty but Roberts did not have the experience to be Chief Justice.

    Roberts’ concern has always been consensus. I think he correctly decided that siding with the conservatives on ObamaCare would make it difficult for him to work with the liberal members of the Court in the future, just as Bush vs Gore had made it hard to unify the Court a decade before. If he had more experience, he would have realized consensus is nice but some decisions will always be polarizing.

    DRJ (15874d)

  476. Agreed, I thought that Clarence Thomas would have been nominated Chief Justice at that point in time (Aug./Sep. 2005), as a clumsy mea culpa response to perceived federal mishandling of Katrina in New Orleans. Strategically, I think the resistance needed to have a grudging neutrality with regard to lower rank and file Rs, until they got Trump — they got too greedy and bloodthirsty too fast.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  477. Roberts is a disgrace to every breathing tax-payer.

    mg (31009b)

  478. felipe,

    fair point actually, that i did not explain the quote was Trump. Of course that was my whole point. These are quotes I’ve labeled as Trump’s numerous times, and every informed Trump supporter is aware of them, but the real point is that a lot of Trump support is kneejerk and Us V Them. They see a Trump critic and seek reasons to insult them. All too easy to insult them even more harshly if they say one of Trump’s more left wing comments, because they are currently also claiming the battle line is Trump vs the left.

    My point is that Trump is pretty leftist himself, his supporters will not be consistent to any belief. Besides which, I very quickly pointed out Trump offered the comments. In fact, Felipe, if you look at the thread again you’ll see I did so long before Hoagie insulted me for Trump’s absurd and false claims about the supposed awesome Clinton presidency (while also claiming W’s was the worst).

    I greatly enjoyed the point and I think it shows us how important it is to look at ideas instead of loyalty to politicians.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  479. Dustin has misconstrued my point. Or I failed to enter a return character. Mea culpa.

    Shall we argue that or Hogie 49?

    WTP (094b61) — 6/24/2017 @ 3:58 pm

    I apologize for misunderstanding you (not sarcasm). Though I’m not really clear how I did, we’ll just leave it at that because you’re right it’s not actually important.

    I don’t agree with hogie49. Trump is the most elitist president in our nation’s history. He never served, even kicking vets out of their businesses on Park avenue. He hasn’t worked an honest day in his life. His populism message did win him the presidency, you’re right about that, but he’s a con artist and his message was a con. Those Trump fans who are still seeing things this way are in denial. In fact, they hate Trump’s point of view and don’t even know it. Why, if I were to just say stuff Trump said, they would bash me repeatedly, claim I am suffering with mental illness due to sexually transmitted diseases (i guess that’s the new ‘cuck’ now?)

    Ideas. Not people. Loyalty to a politician, whether it’s a goof like Trump or not, is simply a bad idea.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  480. Hope that surgery works out for you.

    mg (31009b)

  481. Trump is in the no Trumpers brain box, he lets them go down one gopher hole after another. lmao at you and your leather bound books in your mahogany paneled room. Brilliant your not.

    mg (31009b)

  482. Brilliant your not.

    you work here is done

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  483. So what if your tribe is smarter than mine. We aint living in a classroom einstein.

    mg (31009b)

  484. the precedent the depraved and sloppy justice roberts embraced

    that the morally bankrupt federal government of the united states can literally mandate and direct the purchase of goods and services

    is so deeply sick fascist and unamerican that only a nasty perverted piece of harvardtrash like john roberts, mitt romney or barack obama could embrace it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  485. the senate bill undoes that by the way

    but not if harvardtrash puppy-fluffing sacky-slave ted cruz has his way

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  486. You don’t need to be a world-class fiddler to send starving hounds off on a bogus scent. All it takes is an old McDonald’s cheeseburger wrapper stuck in a tree someplace. And then another, and another….
    Eventually, they end up running into others’ butts, to the amusement of the crowd.

    Richard Aubrey (a09608)

  487. corrupt womanish fbi bimbo James Comey colluded with chick schumer in a disinformation campaign that suggested the president was under investigation

    Grassley, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, explained that then-FBI director Comey told him and Dianne Feinstein, the Committee’s ranking member, that President Trump was not under investigation by the Bureau. Grassley said that, in addition, Comey told this to the “Gang of Eight,” a group that includes Schumer.

    Yet, says Grassley, even after Comey informed Schumer of this, the unscrupulous Minority Leader told the media the contrary — namely, that Trump was under investigation. He even urged that Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Neal Gorsuch, be held up because Trump was being investigated.

    “The whole time,” says Grassley, Schumer “knew it wasn’t true.” In other words, Schumer is a liar.

    Grassley also took a shot at Comey for not telling the public that Trump wasn’t under investigation. Grassley urged Comey to disclose this in the name of “transparency and accountability.” But the manipulative, egomaniac Director chose not to inform Americans that the president wasn’t under investigation, even after Schumer public claim Trump was.

    fbi treason has to have consequences

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  488. oopers *chuck* schumer i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  489. this #nevertrump bunch
    you know all their geese are swans
    you read ’em it’s SAD

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  490. one-legged yahoos
    in an ass-kicking contest
    it’s not fair it’s SAD

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  491. they think they’re heroes
    but they’re not they’re just zeroes
    delusion it’s SAD

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  492. they’re just wind in sails
    outrage! they will not be mocked!
    mock mock mock it’s SAD!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  493. this #nevertrump bunch
    read oppo research fakenews
    like kids eat candy 🍭

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  494. this #nevertrump bunch
    you’ll know ’em when you see ’em
    lipstick on a pig 🐷

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  495. like corvette owners
    thick of neck and short of dick
    and gold chains it’s SAD 😭

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  496. I apologize for misunderstanding you (not sarcasm)

    NP. It happens.

    But to the point of H49, what #NEVERTRUMPers fail to understand, and continue to imagine, is that the bulk of support for PDT is coming from the unthinking, great unwashed. THAT is the elitism. Trump may very well be elitist, depending on how we define that loose term, but his message, what resonates with people, is anti-elitist. We haven’t had anyone express that on such a scale, especially coming from the more moderate middle of our political world, since Reagan. And he was pretty much on the right. Sure Trump is no true-blue conservative, but he doesn’t hate them either. Many MOR democrats like him, voted for him, because he’s not of the right in a true sense, but he does fight back against the abuses of the left and the media on issues such as immigration and most especially political correctness.

    Maybe you’re different, but what I see in sooo many #NEVERTRUMPers is a lack of experience in the real world and/or a lack of close contact with many who do real-world work. As mg amusingly, yet so beautifully crudely put it, “We aint living in a classroom einstein.”.

    You political class people need to get out or your bubbles. So much of politics, both left and right, is a personality cult. Saw some of that in a few Reagan supporters, see it in a few Cruz supporters, seen it in JEB supporters, could go on and on. If you want to find cults, they are there. But that doesn’t define the bulk of the support for pretty much any politician outside of the ones the media tells us we must worship. The media and the left dwell on that because they can’t see politics except through the lens of personality cultism. As soon as they get behind a candidate, the bulk of what they write about them is “who this man/woman is” and less about what they stand for. Trump took that, used that, broke that mold (hopefully) with his excesses. Personally I don’t care for much of it, but in times of crisis it’s the results that matter. And in my opinion the impending, predetermined coronation of a HRC following 8 years of BHO was a crisis moment for this country.

    And I notice I have been spelling Hoagie wrong. Apologies to the right Rev. But as I say, ideas more important than the people who espouse them…and being an engineer, lacking the appreciation for excessive vowelage…I shall continue Hogie49.

    WTP (094b61)

  497. Eh…meant to add to my comment about PDT’s dem support in the context of his support not coming from the “great unwashed”, I had the opportunity to be looking for work late last year. I interviewed with a few small companies. Sometimes it was reading between the lines, and I as an interviewee certainly did not volunteer my position on such things except to say that I wanted to find a job outside the big corporations, but the VP’s and owners and CEOs of these small companies in subtle and non-so-subtle ways let me know that their perspectives were more in line with a Trump supporter than the other BS being debated at the time. These were people who worked for their money. They made their way in the world either through venture capital or through engineering expertise. People worth several million dollars. Not tens of millions, I’m guessing…don’t really know for sure, but definitely not the kind of people who follow personality cults. Not poor, desperate, helpme-helpme-helpme types. Not what you political elitist types dismiss as Trumpikins and such.

    WTP (094b61)

  498. battle lines are drawn
    they get squishy act vichy
    give aid and comfort

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  499. principles be damned
    when in mud fight with the pigs
    wreck your manicure 💅

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  500. deluded harvardtrash idge-squidge Mike Pompeo, who genuinely, pathetically thinks he runs the corrupt CIA is gonna crack dat whip on dem leakers boy howdy

    ooh i bet them leakers are super scared now

    “I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden, and those who steal American secrets for the purpose of self-aggrandizement or money or for whatever their motivation may be, does seem to be on the increase.”

    Pompeo said the United States needs to redouble its efforts to stem leaks of classified information.

    just poke your corrupt idiot head outside your office you dumb-ass harvardtrash p.o.s.

    you can start there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  501. hey! #nevertrump bunch
    poot dancin’ pencil neck geeks
    your days are numbered

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  502. No snowden was a Russian dangle like Chris Boyce was 40 years ago, there about but secret info finds its outlet one way or another.

    narciso (8e009a)

  503. snowden exposed extraordinary and criminal malfeasance and corruption at the NSA

    he’s a goddamn hero like Martha Washington and Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  504. buy high sell low

    one of the more gloriously obscene gems in perverted Mitt Romney’s slimy boytoy Paul Ryan’s last fiscally-irresponsible budget

    the EIA projects 2017 [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] sales to total 17.5M barrels

    every goddamn barrel of which failmerica is selling at a loss

    losers

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  505. plus Mr. Snowden gets bonus points for bot being a nasty tranny

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  506. ugh! for *not* being a nasty tranny i mean

    “bot” is a typo that shouldn’t be there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  507. I don’t remember Martha or Sully running to Moscow for asylum.

    Give him all benefits of the doubt, and he is at best one of the most useful idiots the KGB/FSB ever had. The Rosenbergs were executed for less.

    kishnevi (5a7bdb)

  508. it’s a shame NSA corruption and criminality made Mr. Snowden necessary

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  509. I think there is a phenomenon, the worship of Edward Snowden

    is it just a kooky coincidence how Pompeo reaches for the “omg cultists” trope for to slander his political opponents

    i’m a keep my eyes peeled for how tropey this “cultists” trope is getting

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  510. 594. Any informed person, and there are not that many because you won’t get this secondhand, would know that Charles Schumer was a big liar.

    I was in the audience in 1989 at some forum (town hall?) where Schumer appeared (at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, which was then in his district) and he claimed that he had foreseen the savings and loan scandal and that he was the only Congressman on a committee who was for Israel in some manner.

    The whole Democratic Party (at the national level) does nothing but lie. And it’s been that way since Jimmy Carter. In Congress, since 1981. And people know it in many parts of the country, and that’s why they have difficultly winning elections. Even silly Republican lies, don’t make people want to vote for Democrats.

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  511. 401. Dustin (ba94b2) — 6/24/2017 @ 5:33 am

    Trump governs like her and admires her leadership example. He’s a Hillary follower.

    He doesn’t know enought to do that, and if he ddi, there would be no special prosecutor. s Obamacare repeal has morphed wildly from instant repeal all the way to cementing it in place with changes that could have been lifted from Hillary’s campaign. That is not what Hillary Clinton is claiming – yes; she’s active on Twitter, preparing for the next campaign.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/878366918243233792?p=v

    Hillary Clinton
    @HillaryClinton

    Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they’re the death party. twitter.com/topherspiro/st…

    2:39 PM – 23 Jun 2017

    The link goes to this: blockquote> Topher Spiro @TopherSpiro

    NEW: From us and Harvard researchers: the Senate bill could result in 18,000 to 28,000 deaths in 2026. americanprogress.org/issues/healthc…

    12:12 PM – 22 Jun 2017 The Clintons always like citing authorities (whom they dare you to impugn.)

    Sammy Finkelman (20d02d)

  512. So what if your tribe is smarter than mine. We aint living in a classroom einstein.

    mg (31009b) — 6/25/2017 @ 6:14 am

    You’re the guy calling people dumb, remember? Then you say you don’t care about the topic you’re bringing up. Trump’s fans do not even have coherent insults. “cuck” this and “syphilis” that. A whole lot of whining that the Trump quotes were true but you were tricked into admitting how dumb Trump was to say them (because no Trump fan would ever admit that if they knew the words were Trump’s).

    No ideas. No actual ideology. Just loyalty to “us” and hatred of “them”.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  513. Good grief coronello? That sounds like something for Carson’s greatest hits

    narciso (d1f714)

  514. If you like Snowden, that means you hate America and love Putin.
    And if you hate America and love Putin and like Trump, that means that you think Trump will be bad for America and good for Putin.
    Which is what a lot of people believe. That Trump will be bad for America and good for Putin.

    nk (dbc370)

  515. WTP

    You claim you saw a cult of personality for JEB. Do you have a hyperlink to back that up? I think that claim is BS. No one really liked him that much.

    Maybe you’re different, but what I see in sooo many #NEVERTRUMPers is a lack of experience in the real world

    Ugly thing to say, apparently coming from your imagination, WTP. But then, that’s how Trump defense works. Make it personal, keep the talk away from anything on policies, promises, results. All that matters is Us v Them.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  516. Congress and the noTrump clan refuse to help America change for the better. The koch bros and coc grand wizards will most likely attempt getting democrats to join the rinos in screwing the tax-payer. As the f-up GWB said Bring it on.

    mg (31009b)

  517. Well consider someone willing to enlist the ‘October surprise slander against the GOP as a talking point. W did try to uproot the cozy anti American regimes, but he ran afoul of arabist cliques at foggy bottom and Langley, interested parties tied to the kingdom and other countries

    narciso (d1f714)

  518. 532… he rests his case.

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  519. WEIRD, I THOUGHT ALL HE WAS DOING WAS TWEETING ABOUT RUSSIA: President Trump Has Now Signed 40 Pieces Of Legislation As He Moves To Enact His Agenda…

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/268424/

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  520. And the problem with sniwdeb was he allowed access to level 3 material, when he should have been archiving technical manuals in the library. Mrs reality winner the taliban tridelt is proof nothing has changed

    narciso (d1f714)

  521. Ugly thing to say,…But then, that’s how Trump defense works

    Not sure how that was “ugly”, just calling ’em as I see ’em. Seems you’re the one trying to take it personal. If that hurts your feelz, well there’s lots and lots of people on the internet whose feelz I gotta hurt today so I can’t keep coming back to hurt yours. Look, the whole point of this little discussion we are having is Hogie49. My point waaay up above…ok not that far…100 comments ago at 433 is Hogie49. That’s pretty much all I’ve wanted to say. ‘cept the Rev H. said it better.

    WTP (5b282a)

  522. “Months of harping on President Trump’s purported ties to Russia may end up backfiring on Democrats as the White House turns the focus to former President Barack Obama’s failure to address Russian hacking, operatives from both sides said.”

    http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/2017/06/trump_russia_ties_may_work_against_dems

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  523. “Not only has there been zero credible evidence to warrant any of the costly investigations to date — despite a year of digging by anti-Trump forces — we now learn the widely debunked dossier published by BuzzFeed — with an assist by CNN — was commissioned by a pro-Hillary Clinton oppo research group to take down Trump.

    The slanted dossier not only sparked the whole Russiagate investigation, it also provided a bogus excuse for the Obama administration, DOJ and intel agencies to engage in improper surveillance of Trump associates, unmasking of Trump officials as well as the illegal leaking of sensitive information gathered from the sketchy spying to complicit media in a deliberate attempt to smear Trump.

    If this doesn’t scream corruption and collusion at the highest echelons of our government — what does? . . .

    Worse, the FBI reportedly paid the discredited British spy Christopher Steele — whose report full of false rumors about Trump were spread to the media — $50,000 and then may have relied on Steele’s fake dossier to advance its Russian/Trump investigation.

    Forget the fake Russian collusion. Congress and the special counsel should turn their attention to what the Democrats — from the Obama administration to the Clinton campaign — have been doing to undermine democracy in America.

    What we know so far stinks to High Heaven.”

    http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/adriana_cohen/2017/06/adriana_cohen_investigations_into_election_collusion_are_just

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  524. This applies as much to Mueller as to comey

    http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0617/colon062617.php3

    narciso (d1f714)

  525. 532… and “a lot of people” are free to go take a flying fook at a rolling donut.

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  526. Its not about trump, its as I said before, discouraging any would ne insurgent:
    legalinsurrection.com/2017/06/mueller-legal-team-approaching-size-of-entire-us-attys-office-for-rhode-island

    narciso (d1f714)

  527. Maybe you’re different, but what I see in sooo many #NEVERTRUMPers is a lack of experience in the real world

    Ha, ha, ha!

    Yesterday, while stopped at a red light, I watched a lady make right turn from the cross street to the street I was on. She did it perfectly — she had the green, at the correct speed for conditions, looking out for pedestrians in the crosswalk. There was a guy behind her, also making the turn, and he was honking his horn at her. I wondered why, and then I saw that he was some kind of Chinaman. His problem with the lady was that she was not driving like an Asian would.

    nk (dbc370)

  528. Look at what is allowed to happen, general mccrystal who Obama hand picked when he pretended to care about Afghanistan, because that was the ‘good war’ was thrown under the bus thanks to a profile in rolling stone, many of whose details the ig couldn’t subsequently confirm. Petraeus had his faults but he stood in the way of brennan keys to the kingdom, so in all likelihood, jeh leaked the investigation and so went the hockey scrum he was rewarded with dhs where he helped push phil haney out. General flyn revolutionized intelligence in Afghanistan, but he was too keen an observer to see what was going on in Libya and Syria and was let go. They replaced him with Stewart who looks the other way.

    narciso (d1f714)

  529. Jeh whose firm had represented gitmo detainees with strong incentives from certain parties in the gulf states.

    narciso (d1f714)

  530. #544 I have been saying this for months now.

    Someone call me when they get ahead of me on this one story.

    AGAIN, the corruption is in the DOJ and FBI.

    They knowingly accepted propaganda as “EVIDENCE” to politically target a guy they did not like.

    It worked.

    If only Republicans were smart enough, and brave enough to forgo their pocket books for 2 seconds, they would turn this into the opportuniity of a century to turn the (D) into corruption monsters and clean out the Govt of the Obama/Clinton operatives.

    Instead they are going to fight over Health Care Legislation once again putting cart before horse.

    FIRST THING, FIRST, is to remove any and all financial support from the Left and then to prosecute even the smallest of infraction against all for the maximum jail time.

    Left understand fear and deprivation. They don’t understand compromise and reason.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  531. See I don’t go by sentiment i could, but what would be the point, it happens at the local level as well. There was an officer who was the mostexperiencec ethical officer, he had even called abuses at least on one occasion. He wee picked based on his record for a higher post, then he proceeded to try to fulfill what he had been charged to do, the political winds turned and he was thrown under the bus.

    So we promote people like Snowdon, miller and Mrs winner who have no allegiance to this country and we give the Bronx cheer to the ablest among us, anyone see the problem here?

    narciso (d1f714)

  532. Well that is pArt of it, the talosian who is now on full tourettes at the Dec was enabled by holder, to put his own cadre of political officers at justice, Christian Adams has their number,,they were the ones who absolved the new black panthers. The firemen in Sanford, ferguson at Al. The ones who extorted the banks but didn’t put a single subprime player in prison, lord of the flies there was preset bhaara. Yes the one who went after d’souza but couldn’t be bothered with investigating don corzione.

    narciso (d1f714)

  533. In other news the court failed to take up peruta,,the concealed weapons case despite gorsuchs and Thomas dissent

    narciso (d1f714)

  534. There is some truth in this, want this right after albrights deal

    http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/23/why-otto-warmbiers-murder-is-the-biggest-challenge-to-trumps-presidency-yet

    narciso (d1f714)

  535. Majority: More power to court, less deference to administrative agency.
    Gorsuch: Deference to administrative agency.

    nk (dbc370)

  536. Gorsuch: ‘Cause that’s how Congress wanted it.

    nk (dbc370)

  537. Which means they have to jump through hoops like chimps on speed, got it.

    narciso (d1f714)

  538. Haiku 540,

    And Ted Cruz was the sponsor and person responsible for getting 5 of those 40 bills passed, including the NASA and the weather bills the Daily Caller link lists as Trump’s main accomplishments. Trump signed them but Cruz made them happen.

    DRJ (15874d)

  539. Yes what is the rest of the senate doing?

    narciso (d1f714)

  540. 555. There are two different kinds of grounds a dismissed ivil servant can sue.

    One is undere civil service law and goes to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) The other is under more general law, usually federal employment-discrimination statutes like Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans With Disabilities.

    An employee doesn’t have to choose between these tw grounds – he can sue on both grounds and brings is called a “mixed case.”

    Now if the MSPB rejects a case, it can be appealed toe Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuita federal district court but review is limited and deferential. The other kind of case goes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and then can go to the district court and then an appeals court..

    Mixed cases can be brought first either to the Merit Systems Protection Board or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Then it can appealed into the federal court system. The court previously held that when a mixed case was brought to the Merit Systems Protection Board the appeal of the discrimination claims must go to the federal district court and not the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit whether the whether employee’s discrimination claim was rejected on the merits or on the merits or on some procedural ground (such as untimeliness of the claim).

    Here it was rejected on a third ground: lack of jurisdiction.

    Here the MSPB had determined that Anthony Perry had voluntarily agreed to his sanctions (a 30-day suspension and early retirement) – and reviewed whether it was truly voluntary and said it was. And that the board therefore lacked jurisdiction, because voluntary actions are not aappealable to the board.

    The question before the court was where Perry should seek review when the MSPB dismissed his mixed case not on the merits and not on a procedural ground, but for lack of jurisdiction.

    The government argued that jurisdictional dismissals must be reviewed in the Federal Circuit, because jurisdictional dismissals are different from procedural or merits-based dismissals. Consequently, Perry would have to bifurcate his case: pursue his discrimination claim in district court and challenge the jurisdictional CSRA dismissal in the Federal Circuit.

    Gorsuch said the statute did not forbid splittinng the case – if someone wanted to appeal the civil service part of a mxed case, it went to the Federal circuit.

    He was not proposing overruling the previous case, Kloeckner. “Gorusch argued that Kloeckner did not address or answer the question in this case. He read Kloeckner as addressing only where the employee should take the discrimination piece of a mixed case, and the answer was district court. Kloeckner did not require the court to decide, and the court did not decide, that an employee also could challenge the adverse civil-service ruling (what Perry sought to appeal) in district court. Although a footnote in Kloeckner stated that “the suit will come to the district court for a decision on both questions,” that was dicta” and dicta did not bind the court in a different case.”

    The argument that the law made more sense the way the court read it, was not an argument for the court to make.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  541. 556. She’s right i part

    North Korea’s human rights abuse is closely linked to its nuclear ambitions.

    Kim Jong Un thinks that even if now we don’t want to overthrow him, we would if we knew more of his crimes.

    So trying to convince him that we, or South Korea, don’t want to overthrow him is a waste of time or worse becaue he will only think we are liars. And even if it is true now it is not guaranetted to stay true and is only based on us not knowing things. The same goes for China. We won’t like China very much if we find out what they’ve done to help the North Korean regime. North Korea gets along tolerably wuth Chia because iuiut helps North Korea with torture, prisons, murder etc and if we want good relations with North Korea we have to do that too. But in reality he still won’t believe us becasuse these crimes are ot done in the United states.

    But that’s not the reason for his nuclear program. The reason is to conquer South Korea without threat of intervention by the United States. He feels it belongs to him.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  542. Gorsuch held that while a mixed case can be brought in either forum, if someone wants to appeal both parts of a mixed case, the appeals must be brought in different courts because that’s the way to usderstand the statute, and there’s reasons for it also, in order that there should be only one set of definitive court holdings, and all the arguments for the other position are invalid, including precedent. And if this needs to be fixed, Congress should fix it. Most of the court had already accepted the idea of a unified appeal, and the issue here seemed to be whether the unified appeal also applied when the Merit Systems Protection Board had rejected the civil service part of the case because it failed to state a case because a voluntary agreement was being contested (it;s like somebody appealing a sentence after a plea bargain I guess)

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  543. Headlines say Court reinstates much of Travel ban by revising substantially the injunctions granted by 2 appeals courts. Reading the ruling now.

    Would be nice to have a new thread.

    shipwreckedcrew (5d48e9)

  544. The law is not about how one feels otherwise you have Venezuela, which is nib rule nit even then the fatty general is embarrassed by.

    narciso (d1f714)

  545. “Court reinstates much of Travel ban by revising substantially the injunctions granted by 2 appeals courts.”

    9th Circuit and Patterico hardest hit… I keed, I keed!

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  546. 560… Cruz is my hero, DRJ. Yes, I’m a fan.

    Colonel Haiku (f8bfb8)

  547. Ditto. Sass has yet to show any such consideration.

    narciso (d1f714)

  548. I think Patterico supports the travel ban, and that the law is a problem and should be changed.

    DRJ (15874d)

  549. Unlike Patterico, I bet the 9th Circuit likes laws like this to be vague and malleable.

    DRJ (15874d)

  550. 544.“Not only has there been zero credible evidence to warrant any of the costly investigations to date — despite a year of digging by anti-Trump forces — we now learn the widely debunked dossier published by BuzzFeed — with an assist by CNN — was commissioned by a pro-Hillary Clinton oppo research group to take down Trump.

    No, we knew that the day we first heard of the dossier in January.

    But the easiest conclusion I think is wrong – that Christopher Steele made it up.

    I think what the truth is, is that Vladimir Putin made it up, and that does not contradict the notion that he wanted Trump to win, because he ddin’t think this was going to American enemies of Trump, but rather to British officials or politicians, and they would keep it to themselves and it could not affect the election.

    But, he thought, the UK would mistrust Trump and sour relations with the United States if Trump won the election.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  551. Akmetchin put it together, and he is fmt fab, he hired fusion which in turn hiredcsteele

    narciso (d1f714)

  552. circa.com/politics/accountability/did-the-fbi-retaliate-against-michael-flynn-by-launching-russia-probe

    narciso (d1f714)

  553. Some of his tweets make sense, including the tapes tweet; and some shed light on policy and maybe it’s even good; some are just worthlesd boasts or promises – the only thing that counts is what will happen and the promises lower confidence; and then there’s personal animosity type tweets that also don’t make sny sense, and the animosity doesn’t make that much sense either.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)


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