Patterico's Pontifications

4/14/2018

Like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, I Dissent on Syrian Air Strikes

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:00 am



Ted Cruz, September 9, 2013 on proposed air strikes by President Obama: Why I’ll vote no on Syria strike.

First, Assad’s actions, however deplorable, are not a direct threat to U.S. national security. Many bad actors on the world stage have, tragically, oppressed and killed their citizens, even using chemical weapons to do so. Unilaterally avenging humanitarian disaster, however, is well outside the traditional scope of U.S. military action.

Second, just because Assad is a murderous thug does not mean that the rebels opposing him are necessarily better. As of May, seven of the nine major rebel groups appeared to have significant ties to Islamists, some of whom may have links to al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Their presence and power have only increased, according to media reports. We should never give weapons to people who hate us, and the United States should not support or arm al-Qaeda terrorists.

Third, the potential for escalation is immense. Syria is in the midst of a sectarian civil war, born of centuries-old animosities. We have no clear ally in this ­Sunni-Shiite conflict, and any “limited” and “proportional” strike could quickly get out of control, imperiling our allies and forcing us into the civil war.

The president and his secretary of state have repeatedly said that Assad’s use of chemical weapons violates an “international norm.” They insist it is critical that we send a “message” to Assad that his behavior is unacceptable. But it is not the job of U.S. troops to police international norms or to send messages. Our men and women in uniform have signed up to defend America.

That was Ted Cruz from 2013. I agreed with his reasoning then and I still agree with it now.

Donald Trump, September 7, 2013:

And August 30, 2013:

Trump was right then, and his reasoning is still true.

The first time Trump did this, Andrew C. McCarthy said:

I was with McCarthy then and I am with them now:

Because nothing is different now.

The Constitution says Congress must declare war. The President may conduct the war that Congress has declared, and can also act in response to sudden attacks.

Syria has not attacked us. Congress has not declared war. Strikes like these are an act of war. If someone did it to us, we would see it that way.

There is no constitutional basis for these attacks. Trump should not be doing this.

[Cross-posted at RedState.]

469 Responses to “Like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, I Dissent on Syrian Air Strikes”

  1. you do a phony chemical gas attack we do phony missile sprinkles

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  2. McCarthyism

    mg (9e54f8)

  3. john mccain loves these cowardly missile sprinkles today’s like christmas morning at his house

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  4. Lots saying the chemical weapons use was staged/false/did not happen…..anybody know a good source dealing with this?

    Am also hearing that the Russians are intentionally bombing hospitals, anybody know if that is true?

    harkin (607a84)

  5. Lots saying the chemical weapons use was staged/false/did not happen

    Never let it be said that Russian propaganda has no effect!

    Patterico (f37571)

  6. Harkin, the only nonRussian source I’ve seen for the false flag report is Happyfeet…but I don’t think he’s a bot. No bot could get his special way of commenting correct…

    Have heard nothing about bombed hospitals.

    Kishnevi (cdf53e)

  7. people can also just puzzle it out

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  8. I think it’s quaint when we refer to the Constitution like it actually matters anymore.

    That said, totally agree with the post. Without the red line drawn by his predecessor, I doubt the strikes would happen.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  9. I also agree with Cruz and McCarthy. This is mainly France wanting regime change in their former colony, likely with the conceit of replacing Russia (ha!); with a dash of Israel not wanting any stable, Westernized, technologically advanced Arab nation, and particularly not one on its border whose territory it is still occupying.

    nk (9651fb)

  10. with a dash of Israel not wanting any stable, Westernized, technologically advanced Arab nation, and particularly not one on its border whose territory it is still occupying.

    Sort of like our occupation of Texas, right nk?

    random viking (6a54c2)

  11. Having read here his reactions to world events since 2003 or so, I judge that I am generally more hawkish, more interventionist, than he. We differ, for example, in our evaluations of the Iraq War and its aftermath.

    I nevertheless agree entirely with this post.

    What the Russians are doing in the Middle East, whether we’re looking at Syria or Iran or Turkey or other countries, is of a piece with what the Russians have done since the Czars. It is the never-ending Great Game. The Russians require constant and firm push-back; they always have and always will.

    There is a great deal more that the American government, and a coalition of the willing along with it, can do to push back against the Russians with more honesty, with more effectiveness, and with more precision than this latest frenzy of firecrackers.

    Shut down Russia’s and Russians’ ability to use the international wire transfer system. Suddenly the oligarchs’ liquidity in the world beyond Russia disappears; suddenly Putin & Co’s offshore assets are uncertain and inconvenient. By a strange coincidence, the Syrian government would, within days, welcome international inspectors to witness the Russian transport planes ferrying chemical weapons out of Syria — for real, this time.

    I would support some genuinely radical military actions in the Middle East. For instance, I’d impose a naval blockade on both North Korea and Iran tomorrow at dawn if it were solely up to me.

    It’s not up to me, though — nor to any POTUS — because, as our host points out in this post, such actions have consistently and rightly throughout history been deemed unequivocal acts of war.

    And thus, under our Constitution, they require assent from Congress. There is no conceivable gossamer tendril of an argument that bombing the Assad government’s troops and installations (much less any Rooskies on the premises) is within the scope of the existing AUMF.

    Trump’s breaking his oath. But so, too, is every Representative and Senator in the U.S. Congress who’s not protecting Congress’ essential constitutional role with respect to war.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  12. And I also agree that the rebels are no better and no more trustworthy than Assad. But who in that part of the world is?

    nk (9651fb)

  13. Sort of like our occupation of Texas, right nk?

    Just a little, like from 1865 to 1870.

    nk (9651fb)

  14. who’s the strong horse now baby

    we’re the strong horse now baby

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  15. I agree with Cruz and Patterico. Trump made a big mistake here. There is absolutely no reason for us to intervene in Syria unless they pose a threat to us or our allies and at this time they do not. The problem is after we attacked them perhaps now they do. Never interrupt moslems when they’re killing each other. It’s as stupid as interrupting commies or Nazis when they’re killing each other. I say mazel tov!

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  16. Because nothing is different now.

    ‘Cept the CIC is a R, not a D…

    Ted Cruz on President Trump’s missile attack in Syria, April, 2017 — just a year ago:

    Senator Ted Cruz speaks on U.S. missile attack -April 6, 2017

    WASHINGTON D.C. (KETK) – Texas senator Ted Cruz released a statement following the United States missile strike against Syria Thursday night.

    In his release, Cruz spoke on the attack that happened earlier in the week by Bashar al-Assad who used chemical warfare against Syrian people.

    “Today, after eight years of Obama foreign policy failures, Syria is a humanitarian disaster,” Cruz said in a release from his office. “Bashar al-Assad is a monster, a puppet of Russia and Iran, and he has once again used chemical weapons against his own citizens, murdering innocent men, women, and children.

    He [Cruz] went on to commend President Donald Trumps actions in launching the attack saying, “Any military action in Syria must be justified as protecting the vital national security interests of America – including decisive action to prevent chemical weapons from falling into the hands of radical Islamic terrorists – and I look forward to our Commander-in-Chief making the case to Congress and the American people how we should do so in the days ahead.”

    http://www.easttexasmatters.com/news/local-news/senator-ted-cruz-speaks-on-us-missile-attack/688331160

    If only it was 2013 and not 2018; we’d all be five years younger…

    _______

    If someone did it to us, we would see it that way.

    “Someone” more or less did: see September 11, 2001 for details. Those bad guys were from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Lebannon- so America attacked… Iraq.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  17. I’m having trouble forming a strong opinion either way, seeing merit on both sides of the argument.

    Thanks to Obama the place is a mess and disengagement from the whole disaster might be the way to go, but that leaves us out of any influence in a pretty important sphere in the world.

    On the other side, allowing the use of chemical weapons could be dangerous in normalizing the practice with bad future ramifications, but retaliation attacks as done seem mostly symbolic and unlikely to change anything on the ground.

    Seems the Arab spring turned into a hot, sticky summer followed by a long, bitter winter. Man made climate change!

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  18. God forgive me for actually engaging with hatefulfeet, but some idiocy can’t be unseen.

    Osama bin Laden’s “strong horse” quote was in a recorded interview from mid-November 2000.

    Two years earlier, Bill Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach [snort-chortle-gag]: In retaliation for al Qaeda bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It consisted of cruise missile strikes in Afghanistan and the Sudan. Bin Laden mocked the strikes as being an attack on a baby aspirin factory. That they were made with stand-off weapons, he told his followers, was a demonstration of what a weak horse the Americans are.

    You are the stupidest person on the internet, hatefulfeet. Congratulations.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  19. You can’t send your children here.
    But we’ll send our missiles there.
    the US, providing aid to Syrian refugees

    TR (2c5752)

  20. looks like President Trump slapped his lil white glove across deputy attorney general jeffy sessions’ idiot face as well

    sleazy pothead Cory Gardner has been the one responsible for keeping obama holdover trash in place at DOJ

    and sleepy jeff has been his usual inert useless self

    this is good news and much more important than missile sprinkles

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  21. @9. A ‘mission accomplished’ tweet from the Twitterer in Chief doesn’t cut it. PM May gave a fine presser overnight w/reasonable rationale, chiefly focusing on smacking down the creeping ‘acceptance’ of chemical weapons use. She’s right.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  22. Never let it be said that Russian propaganda has no effect!

    Is that you or Pelosi?

    You could have just said “no” to my question on a good source dealing w this.

    harkin (607a84)

  23. Hoagie said exactly what I would. It’s strategically unwise to get in the middle of our enemies killing each other.

    Iran vs Iraq was about as much a coup for Reagan as the cold war. I wish it were realistic for American values and power to just solve everything, but it never seems to work that way.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  24. You could have just said “no” to my question on a good source dealing w this.

    art bell had proof the gas attack was fake he was gonna release it later today

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  25. 15.I agree with Cruz…

    See #16; Tedtoo supported Trump’s missile attack on Syria in April, 2017, Hoagie.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  26. amazon washington post headline

    Trump claims success in Syria, but chemical weapons remain

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  27. Cheap enough message to the Norks. “Watch Assad. He’s going to be a good boy. He’s going to be without chemical weapons [and without anything else we don’t want him to have] and he’s going to live.”

    Richard Aubrey (10ef71)

  28. if #20 piqued your curious you can click here and here for more context

    those are posts by Mr. P. Mirengoff, a worldwide famous lawyer attorney

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  29. @28. History is being made, Mr. Feet; you’re watching fossils form before your very eyes.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. and on the 8th day god made 3.5 billion year old fossils the end

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  31. Well, shiver me Trumpkins! The Real Investigation, wherein Andy McCarthy opines that “The one in the Southern District of New York, involving Michael Cohen and apparent hush-money payoffs, is a serious peril for Trump”:

    I believe that the government is investigating whether there was, in connection with Trump’s White House bid, a conspiracy to commit fraud and extortion for the purpose of silencing potentially compromising sources — specifically, people in a position to portray Donald Trump as a womanizer. Clearly, the prosecutors regard Trump and Cohen as potential co-conspirators. That does not mean a conspiracy will be proven, but the possibility is certainly being scrutinized.

    It will be fun to hear the Trumpkins repeat all of the Clintonista arguments from Monicagate about how this is making the proverbial “federal case” out of a little adulterous sex, while anti-Trump forces insist this is all about bribery and extortion and perjury and obstruction of justice.

    I repeat: There’s not a particle’s difference between Donald Trump and the Clintons on anything important. History may not repeat itself, but it damn sure echoes.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  32. When Trump uses the oval office as a shag house, I’ll start caring.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  33. See also Michael Cohen May Learn the Hard Way That There’s No Such Thing As Consigliere-Client Privilege, which is as snarky as you’d expect given that headline and the source (Daily Beast). But it contains reporting from the public hearing on Cohen’s lawyer’s motion for a TRO before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood yesterday that I found to be fairly riveting.

    I worked briefly but intensively with Judge Wood many years ago when she was in private practice. It was in a huge, multi-state multi-defendant civil antitrust prosecution, brought by multiple state attorneys general (including, prominently, Joe Lieberman) against 30+ commercial general liability insurers, during the early stages of inter-defendant coordination. We spent a ton of time negotiating and crafting a joint defense agreement that all those companies (and their respective inside & outside counsel) could and would sign up to. This entire arrangement was structured to preserve and maximize every participant’s individual attorney-client and work-product privileges, while anticipating the possibility of future ruptures in our joint defense (as occurs when one group of defendants settles and potentially flips, being asked as part of that to air all their former co-defendants’ dirty laundry).

    And she was the driving force in the whole thing. She had an utter command of all the relevant ethics considerations, the ways in which these fights play out in real-world litigation, the potential for criminal consequences, the corporate boardroom politics. She was like Eisenhower directing D-Day.

    Shiver me Trumpkins, indeed.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  34. can i borrow your constitution i have to poop

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  35. Sort of like our occupation of Texas, right nk?

    That’s really more of a humanitarian mission.

    Dave (445e97)

  36. There’s not a particle’s difference between Donald Trump and the Clintons on anything important.

    Well, unless you consider the important stuff, like judges, regulations, climate treaties, border enforcement, like that.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  37. Trump claims success in Syria, but chemical weapons remain

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/14/2018 @ 11:32 am

    Wasn’t the “chemical” in question chlorine? Does Amazon News want kids dead from cholera? Can water be iodized on an industrial level (Hello Steve57)? Is there industry or farming in Syria?

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  38. “There’s not a particle’s difference between Donald Trump and the Clintons on anything important.“

    There are 11 kinds of crazy in that 1 contention.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  39. someone should comment on how brilliantly President Trump slapped back at cowardly malingerer John “war hero (lol)” McCain and the smirky panty-pigs at the pentagon with his “Mission Accomplished” tweet

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  40. High time for air strikes on teh Gimpinistas…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  41. Wasn’t the “chemical” in question chlorine?

    it started off as chlorine then they decided nerve gas made a better story

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  42. amazon washington post headline

    Trump claims success in Syria, but chemical weapons remain

    Wait just a minute now… 0bama said they got rid of all of them.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  43. And it was a bad move on Trump’s part to involve the U.S. in this. Let that region and our “allies” in Europe get it sorted out.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  44. For want of a legal nanny, an AG was lost. That was a real shame. I bet old Judge Wood wouldn’t have burned up them kids like the Lesbionic Woman Reno 2.0.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  45. it started off as chlorine then they decided nerve gas made a better story

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/14/2018 @ 12:36 pm

    Good news, Mr Assad, we’re giving you an upgrade to First Class.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  46. did panty-boi mattis let one of his favoritest trannies push the button?

    yes yes he did!

    someone needs to do a journalism on this touching moment of affirmation what happened in midst of a serious international military conflict

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  47. Cohen’s TRO application before Judge Wood has already generated an impressive docket sheet. It’s amazing what you can find on PACER!

    Trump has formally asked Judge Wood’s permission to intervene, and that’s been granted, for instance. Among the other entries for yesterday’s date:

    Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Kimba M. Wood: Show Cause Hearing as to In the Matter of Search Warrants Executed on April 9, 2018 held on April 13, 2018.

    Movant Michael D. Cohen not present but attorneys Todd Harrison, Michael Huttenlocher, and Joseph B. Evans present. AUSAs Thomas A. McKay, Rachel Maimin, and Nicholas Roos present. Counsel for Intervenor President Donald J. Trump, Joanna C. Hendon present. Counsel for intervenor President
    Donald J. Trump shall file a letter on or before Sunday, April 15, 2018 by 9:00pm. Counsel for movant Michael D. Cohen shall file a letter substantiating factual claims in support of his position on unsealing by 10:00am on Monday, April 16, 2018. Today’s hearing on the movant’s motion for an order to show cause and a temporary restraining order shall be continued on Monday, April 16, 2018 in courtroom 21B at which Movant Michael D. Cohen is ordered to be present in person. (Court Reporter Carol Ganley)

    Modified on 4/13/2018 (Mohan, Andrew). (Entered: 04/13/2018)

    Yes, Judge Wood ordered the President of the United States to work over the weekend on this.

    Expect Trump to ask for an extension on grounds that he’s working on his taxes.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  48. I bet old Judge Wood would have snatched Elian Gonzalas out of that closet and adopted him! Do Cubans and Peruvians get along?

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  49. Yes, Judge Wood ordered the President of the United States to work over the weekend on this.

    Expect Trump to ask for an extension on grounds that he’s working on his taxes.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/14/2018 @ 12:43 pm

    Donald Trump/Rod Rosenstein weekend pizza party/cram session. Last one done gets impeached.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  50. “This action will be seen as intervention by a Western country in the internal affairs of a small independent nation, however unattractive its regime.” – PM Margaret Thatcher to President Ronald Reagan, 10/25/83 as U.S. invasion of Grenada began.

    “D’oh!” – Homer Simpson [Dan Castellaneta] ‘The Simpsons’ Fox TV

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  51. @ Pin (#44): Totally agree.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  52. From mr happyfeet’s The Hill link:

    The Court also rules that, because transgender people have long been subjected to systemic oppression and forced to live in silence, they are a protected class. Therefore, any attempt to exclude them from military service will be looked at with the highest level of care, and will be subject to the Court’s ‘strict scrutiny,’ ” Pechman wrote.

    The judge, an appointee of former President Clinton, wrote that the government would have to show the ban was “sincerely motivated by compelling interests, rather than by prejudice or stereotype.”

    She also noted that the federal government had failed in its case “to identify even one General or military expert [Trump] consulted, despite having been ordered to do so repeatedly.”

    Excuse non lawyer me, but isn’t that an issue for The Legislative Branch?

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  53. “There’s not a particle’s difference between Donald Trump and the Clintons on anything important.“

    There are 11 kinds of crazy in that 1 contention.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 4/14/2018 @ 12:34 pm

    They both did do welfare to work all up in it.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  54. Source documents rock. If you want to know what the SDNY actually says about why the Cohen search warrants are righteous, read its response to Cohen’s TRO application. (I’ll continue posting links to the interesting docs to save everyone who’s interested the PACER download fees.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  55. @ Pin (#44): Totally agree.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/14/2018 @ 12:50 pm

    It’s a shame when good people get thrown on the bonfire.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  56. If Cohen wants a federal judge to issue a TRO he needs to tell them it’s Trump’s idea.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  57. From pp. 12-13:

    [T]he USAO-SDNY has specific reason to doubt that the seized materials will include the volume and nature of attorney-client communications that Cohen claims. This is because the USAO-SDNY has already obtained search warrants – covert until this point – on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants. The results of that review, as resported by the USAO’s Filter Team, indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work, and that zero emails were exchanged with President Trump.

    Wow.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  58. “When Trump uses the oval office as a shag house, I’ll start caring.”

    – random Viking

    Sure you will.

    Leviticus (0b0b02)

  59. Her name isn’t mentioned, but Cohen’s lawyers were asking for the kind of set-up that DoJ gave Hillary Clinton whereby her lawyers got to do the initial review of everything on her private server to determine responsiveness — which resulted in the bit-bleaching and similar measures to ensure that the Clintonista-selected “non-responsive” documents would be forever lost. SDNY responds, correctly (and inconsistently with what the Clintonistas got away with) (pp. 19-20):

    Cohen’s novel proposal would set a dangerous precedent. It would permit subjects or targets of an investigation, who have not yet been indicted, to delay government investigations into their criminal conduct by giving them, and not the government, the authority to make a unilateral determination not only of what is privileged, but also of what is “responsive” to the warrant. See Br. at 1 (asking the court to “have all seized items be made available to Mr. Cohen’s counsel to conduct a review of the documents in the first instance and produce to the government all responsive, non-privileged items”). Cohen provides no suggestions how as to how the USAO-SDNY would ever be able to challenge defense counsel’s representation of a document as non-responsive. Given that the crimes being investigated involve acts of concealment by Cohen, the USAO-SDNY sought and obtained a search warrant – rather than using a subpoena – so that it would not have have to rely on Cohen to accurately make such a production. See United States v. Roberts, 852 F.2d 671, 676 (2d Cir. 1988) (“[W]e can deplore but not ignore the possibility that the recipient of a subpoena may falsely claim to have lost or destroyed the documents called for, or may even deliberately conceal or destroy them after service of the subpoena.”).

    And given that the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton also involved — indeed consisted of — “acts of concealment” by Clinton, DoJ (as McCarthy and others have pointed out) should have used a search warrant for the Clinton email server, too, rather than letting David Kendall consign Hillary’s skeletons to digital oblivion.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  60. ‘On at least 125 occasions, the President has acted without prior express military authorization from Congress. These include instances in which the United States fought in the Philippine–American War from 1898–1903, in Nicaragua in 1927, as well as the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the 2017 [and now 2018] missile strikes on Syria.’ – wikipedia.org

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  61. @ Leviticus (#58): Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee when I read that, or I’d be asking you to reimburse me for a keyboard. 😀

    Beldar (fa637a)

  62. 32.When Trump uses the oval office as a shag house, I’ll start caring.

    There’s always Hope.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  63. I was in a small way conflating Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood. Judge Wood did her child care on the up and up and paid her taxes but the optics were bad. I have no reason to say anything bad about Judge Wood but would note that she is married to a so called Wall Street financier so I suppose she likes to walk the high wire. She probably has coffee with Jeff Sessions and trades recusing stories.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  64. “On at least 125 occasions, the President has acted without prior express military authorization from Congress. These include instances in which the United States fought in the Philippine–American War from 1898–1903, in Nicaragua in 1927, as well as the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the 2017 [and now 2018] missile strikes on Syria.’ “

    Yes, having 535 armchair generals reviewing the plans, with numerous leaks (nearly always by Dimocrats) resulting from the review, makes all the sense in the world.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  65. Apparently because it was originally filed under seal and then released after redactions, Cohen’s TRO application is the sixth document on the docket sheet. It consists mostly of conclusory arguments based on conclusory (and often-dubious or obviously overbroad) assertions made in a sworn declaration — not from Cohen (who’s highly motivated to avoid going under oath for any purpose right now), but from his oath-helper lawyer friend who’s representing him in this TRO application, Todd Harrison of McDermott Will & Emory. In my judgment, all of the critical assertions in the Harrison declaration — e.g., that the seized materials contain attorney-client privileged communications of one or more of Cohen’s clients, including Trump — is utterly incompetent as proof of anything, since at no point does Harrison allege personal knowledge or describe a factual basis for him to swear to any of the claimed facts.

    This is the opposite of impressive. This is panicky.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  66. Alas, PACER doesn’t (yet) have the motion to intervene filed on behalf of Trump by Joanna Hendon of Spears & Imes, only Judge Wood’s terse order granting that motion. So we can’t see (yet) exactly what Trump (through Hendon) is claiming about the extent to which his or the Trump Organization’s client confidences may be threatened through the revelation of their communications with Cohen.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  67. yes yes Mr. DCSCA the power of the lickspittle congress to declare war all up in it has surrendered to desuetude

    losers.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  68. 58.“When Trump uses the oval office as a shag house, I’ll start caring.”

    The Playboy Mansion has shag carpeting; ask Karen McDougal.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  69. ooh don’t tell hot and horny Lisa Page

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  70. Text from Trump’s address re Syria:

    Looking around our very troubled world, Americans have no illusions. We cannot purge the world of evil, or act everywhere there is tyranny.

    The actions last night further confirm that ignoring the Constitution has been normalized by our elected officials on both sides of the aisle. There is no daylight left between them. This president, like presidents before him, believes he can pick and choose which evil qualifies for action by the U.S. and which doesn’t. Whether the U.S. has been directly threatened is now moot.

    Dana (023079)

  71. Whether the U.S. has been directly threatened is now moot.

    no not *now*

    it’s been like that for freaking ever

    the constitution is a joke

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  72. This is an interesting thread at Tom Nichols’ twitter feed, with Dan McLaughlin, Nichols and Kevin Kruse on the use of Article II presidential powers to do these quick military strikes.

    Dana (023079)

  73. For Beldar.

    DRJ (15874d)

  74. Perfect day for it… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHqs8SffDo

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  75. And this>>>>> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=slr4cymXaLQ

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  76. Looks like Leviticus got an invite to Beldar’s tupperware party — he says, green with envy.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  77. ray davies will be 74 this year happy birthday Mr. Davies in case i forget

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  78. Thanks for thinking of me & posting when you saw that, DRJ (#73)! But I’d seen it already, and it led me right to PACER, the results of which I’ve been serial-posting about already. 😀

    Beldar (fa637a)

  79. Dana, apologies for hijacking your very good and very timely thread about Syria.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  80. I went down a rabbit burrow for a minute and came across an English Master Bencher and politician named Sir Dingle Foot.

    Sadly, he died in Hong Kong choking on a bone from his chicken sandwich. That’s not a euphemism.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  81. @ Pin (#63): In the same case I worked with Kimba Wood, I also met Zoe Baird, who was the in-house counsel from Aetna participating in the same negotiations. But since she was in-house counsel and worked through outside counsel, I had fewer dealings with her than with Wood (who, like me, was outside counsel for one of the defendants). Sometimes it’s an amazingly small world.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  82. Either of them would have been vastly better than Janet Reno.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  83. i know this one lady who this one time sat next to JFK jr on an airplane she said he was SO handsome then he died pretty soon after that ironically on an airplane

    he fell into the sea and they never recovered his body cause it got eated up by lobsters

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  84. There is no constitutional basis for these attacks. Trump should not be doing this.

    if makes you wonder if the dirty military has already done a coup and is just doing whatever the hell it wants

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  85. The results of that review, as resported by the USAO’s Filter Team, indicate that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work

    He’s been too busy doing illegal work…

    Dave (445e97)

  86. Remember Obama’s Cash for Clunkers? This is the smart bomb version. Blow up our old ones and order new ones at $2 million apiece. A stimulus for the military-industrial complex.

    nk (9651fb)

  87. and then whine and cry about how you don’t got no money

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  88. Ah — sorry, #79 ought have been directed at our host, not his esteemed co-blogger.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  89. Well, this is a relief.

    Apparently, it was Britain, and not the US, who staged the fake chemical attack in Syria.

    Always trust content from the Russian Defense Ministry.

    Dave (445e97)

  90. if there’s chemical weapons then it makes no sense for us to have 2,000+ tatters prancing around

    bring those people home that place isn’t safe

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  91. On the small number of Syrian refugees accepted by the US this year:

    Tommy Vietor
    @TVietor08
    So needlessly cruel.

    — –

    Joshua Yasmeh
    @JoshYaz
    Your boss @BarackObama stood by and watched 500,000 Syrians get slaughtered from barrel bombs, sarin and chlorine gases, starvation. Obama admin alum have no moral authority whatsoever when it comes to Syria. Sit down.

    harkin (607a84)

  92. RT quotes the Russian foreign minister saying that a fancy Swiss lab has taken samples provided by GB and found that the agent was a NATO developed one.

    The substance used on Sergei Skripal was an agent called BZ, according to Swiss state Spiez lab, the Russian foreign minister said. The toxin was never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other NATO states.

    https://www.rt.com/news/424149-skripal-poisoning-bz-lavrov/

    h/t Vox Day.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  93. I think the seizures of cohens files is going all the way to the Supreme Court. By that time, Nunes will have impeached the parties involved for other misdeeds (rumor is they are still withholding documents) and trump has a list of pardons and Manafort apparently is dragging mueller butt through court already.

    EPWJ (37d014)

  94. @83. He’s staying at the Auger Inn, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  95. Blow up our old ones and order new ones at $2 million apiece. A stimulus for the military-industrial complex.

    For 110, probably tallies to at least $250 million-plus. But hey, gotta move last year’s inventory.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  96. I think the seizures of cohens files is going all the way to the Supreme Court.

    the question the court needs to answer for us

    is what’s the difference between Putin rigging an election in Russia and the dirty FBI gestapo undoing one here in America

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  97. LOL. And 71 of the 105 missiles fired at Syria were shot down, too.

    Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had received information from a laboratory in Spiez, Switzerland suggesting the Russian double agent and his daughter were exposed to a non-lethal substance known as BZ.

    He claimed the laboratory had passed Russia confidential information after analysing samples of the agent used in the attack on the Skripals in Salisbury last month.

    So, where did this Swiss lab get their samples, and why were the results confidentially passed to Russia?

    Meanwhile, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – the international watch-dog organization, in tests conducted independently at four separate laboratories around the world, has completely confirmed the UK’s analysis the chemical used of the attack. From the Executive Summary of the official OPCW report:

    The results of analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and severely injured three people.

    Do you enjoy being a credulous shill for Vladimir Putin?

    Dave (445e97)

  98. is what’s the difference between Putin rigging an election in Russia and the dirty FBI gestapo undoing one here in America

    Competence.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  99. what’s missing is why anyone should even care if russia poisoned this douchebag anyway

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  100. @54 Source documents rock…(I’ll continue posting links to the interesting [US adv. Cohen] docs to save everyone who’s interested the PACER download fees.)

    They do indeed. Much obliged, Beldar, for your several postings of source docs, for those to come, and for your comments thereon.

    Q! (86710c)

  101. Thanks for the filing from PACER, Beldar.

    What’s an “anamalous” form of jurisdiction (page 6)?

    Patterico (3f6015)

  102. Dave would prefer to be a credulous shill for the Democrats.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  103. Reading through what otherwise seems like a pretty good brief so far, the appearance of that “word” was jarring and (may I say?) anomalous.

    Patterico (3f6015)

  104. Dave would prefer to be a credulous shill for the Democrats.

    Bzzt!

    The Democrats are not pushing any Novichok-related narrative, but thanks for playing!

    Dave (445e97)

  105. how can any president ever trust any of these fbi nazis ever again

    Comey’s completely destroyed any and all integrity that lawless gangster sluthouse has ever had

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  106. So, where did this Swiss lab get their samples, and why were the results confidentially passed to Russia?

    2nd paragraph of the RT piece.

    Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with an incapacitating toxin known as 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, citing the results of the examination conducted by a Swiss chemical lab that worked with the samples that London handed over to the Organisation for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

    As to the confidentiality aspect, from your link:

    The UK’s delegation to the OPCW requested that the Technical Secretariat share the report with all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to make the Executive Summary of the report publicly available.

    They released the summary (which says nothing specific, not the lab, not the toxin) to the public. The released the full report to the member nations. So, Russia and other member nations have the full confidential report, while the public has a summary that says not much. Now Russia is making claims about what is in the report.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  107. Decline and collapse due to legal wankery is an embarrassing fate. The Romans need carry no shame for being felled by the Goths.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  108. failmerica being eaten alive from the inside by Nazi FBI/DOJ trash is probably the *best* case scenario anymore

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  109. @96. the question the court needs to answer for us

    Mr. Cohen is not really a lawyer, he just plays one on TeeVee, Mr Feet- but the NY Regency is not a Holiday Inn.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  110. ny hotels are too many bedbug

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  111. 110.ny hotels are too many bedbug

    Like in Moscow; the better to hear and see Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  112. @ Patterico (#101): You’re welcome. I was trying to find this on PACER-SDNY yesterday, but it wasn’t up yet. In the process, though — doing all sorts of searches on Cohen’s name, on his lawyer’s name, and so forth — I confirmed that Michael D. Cohen ain’t no regular player in federal court. I’ve worked with the McDermott Will & Emory firm, though, years ago — their Chicago home office, not the NY or DC branches that are involved as Cohen’s lawyers on this — and they were well regarded, and certainly not cheap. So someone’s ensured that Cohen has some lawyers.

    If the report in the Daily Beast is right, though — the quotes from Kimba Wood at the hearing — then her reaction to Cohen’s lawyer’s sworn declaration was exactly the same as mine: What’s the basis for this lawyer to be swearing to this? Why isn’t this much, much, much more specific? You’ve had all week — since Monday — to figure out who the clients are whose alleged privileges are at risk here, and you don’t even have that list ready yet?

    I’m not sure about “anamalous,” I couldn’t find that reference but it strikes me as an anomaly, too. 😉

    I’m going to be checking PACER again tomorrow night to see what Trump’s lawyer files in her capacity as intervenor.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  113. Whenever a judge starts pressing you about your basis, “as an officer of the court,” for saying something, it tends to pucker your nether orifice.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  114. Oh. Found the anamalous quote. Yes, very jarring, but an excusable typo given their time pressures.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  115. i was reading this article today too and there was a word misspelled but i can’t remember what it was but i was like hey that’s no good

    next time i’ll try to remember better

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  116. If they’ve covertly acquired Cohen’s emails from multiple accounts through prior, until-now-covert search warrants —

    (a) The magistrate(s) in the SDNY who authorized all of these warrants may already have been pretty well acquainted with Mr. Cohen before they asked to execute a search warrant on his home & office; and

    (b) They also surely have his text messages along with his emails.

    Does Trump text? I’d heard before that he was email-averse.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  117. Toooooooooo funny: CNN just aired a package on the Tomahawk cruise missile and its sole factory w/t the self-important presumptuous disclaimer ‘we [CNN] have been asked not to reveal where the factory is for security reasons.’ A quick Google search easily reveals its location and impact of the local economy within seconds:

    ‘Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has an estimated $2.1 billion annual impact on the Arizona economy. It plans to hire 2,000 people in five years.’ – source, http://www.azcentral.com

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  118. if the SDNY just executed a search warrant on the 9th of April, by what rational was the SDNY bugging Cohen’s phones email for months prior to the 9th?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  119. In case y’all didn’t snap to the significance of Kimba Wood ordering Cohen to appear in person on Monday morning:

    She’s going to ask him to tell her, under oath, about all the relevant facts to support his lawyer’s sworn declaration.

    Cohen won’t be able to object to answering her questions on grounds of attorney-client privilege. To the contrary, the facts which either establish an attorney-client relationship and a resulting privilege, or which confirm that no such relationship and privilege exist, aren’t themselves privileged. Cohen will effectively be given an oral examination that’s the equivalent of creating a “privilege log,” and he’ll do so under oath, and if he doesn’t answer, he’ll go straight to jail for contempt.

    Unless he pleads the Fifth. Different privilege. That will get him out of answering Judge Wood on Monday morning.

    But the direct consequence might be to waive all of the attorney-client privilege claims that his testimony might otherwise have been used to support.

    Unless Trump shows up too. I suppose his sworn testimony could be used as an alternate basis to establish entitlement to claim privilege on any genuinely privileged materials that have been seized, at least on matters in which he’s the client and an attorney-client relationship existed.

    One thing I thought the SDNY overreached on in its briefing is the argument that the risks to privilege are minimal because Cohen’s not a criminal defense lawyer and doesn’t generally represent clients in the criminal courts. But even lawyers with an exclusively civil practice must, in order to be minimally professionally competent and adequate, know enough about criminal law to be able to render advice to clients about potential criminal law complications. And even if their advice is solely on topics that are civil — “Am I going to lose this suit for breach of contract? Have I defamed somebody?” — it’s still privileged advice that can’t be overridden just because someone says, “Hey, this is a criminal case now, we don’t care about your advice on civil matters.”

    The argument is attractive but, ultimately, an overreach.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  120. Remember Obama’s Cash for Clunkers? This is the smart bomb version. Blow up our old ones and order new ones at $2 million apiece. A stimulus for the military-industrial complex.

    nk (9651fb) — 4/14/2018 @ 2:59 pm

    If the planes don’t drop the ordinance then the lady bois back at the base might hurt their backs pulling it back off and they can’t go down to the drag strip after work and have some beers.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  121. sashay shantay

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  122. For 110, probably tallies to at least $250 million-plus. But hey, gotta move last year’s inventory.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/14/2018 @ 3:55 pm

    I like your face, I give you family rate plus free undercoating.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  123. Russians hiding in England and pregnant women should not take 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate. Check with your barrister before taking 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate.

    Do you think Trump watched Wonder Woman?

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  124. If I were Cohen’s lawyer, I think at this point I’d say:

    You know, I’m sorry Michael, but we’ve miscalculated. This whole idea of seeking a TRO wasn’t such a hot one. The DoJ rules give us a role in reviewing what the initial reviewers are doing and we get to make our specific privilege objections on a document-by-document basis; the ones that are sustained will mean that the prosecution team never sees or has access to those. Instead, we’ve rushed off to court half-cocked, and now we’re about to get hooked on the horns of some nasty dilemmas.

    Let’s just announce Monday morning that we’re voluntarily dismissing this TRO application without prejudice to our rights to participate in the review and to assert our attorney-client objections that way instead.

    Does anyone think they’ll actually do that? You know — make the move that’s smart strategically, even though it means backing down publicly from something that was always very stupid to begin with?

    I don’t.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  125. starbucks is viciously racist we should do wonder woman on them she’d kick their racist asses with her wonder feet

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  126. Does anyone think they’ll actually do that? You know — make the move that’s smart strategically, even though it means backing down publicly from something that was always very stupid to begin with?

    Did Cohen get his law degree from Trump University? That could explain a lot.

    Dave (445e97)

  127. lil bro sent me a picture of all the snowflakes what fell from the sky in minnesota and more of them are falling they just keep falling

    it’s kind of a situation

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  128. ‘Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems has an estimated $2.1 billion annual impact on the Arizona economy. It plans to hire 2,000 people in five years.’ – source, http://www.azcentral.com

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/14/2018 @ 4:51 pm

    You do know David Letterman used to move the Home Office every night, right?

    Still though, Shia, ever the trooper, carried on. This time the HWNDU project featured a livestream of a flag waving in the air. The stream contained only the sky and the flag as not to give away its location to the trolls. ‘Yes,’ Labeouf must have thought, ‘there is no way they’re shutting this one down. I, Big-Daddy Shia, did it.’

    Big-Daddy Shia would be proven wrong once again—instead of vanquishing the trolls, he started the most intense game of capture the flag ever.

    The trolls using only the live stream of the flag, started, I sh[*]t you not, studying the flight patterns and contrails of the airplanes passing overhead. They mapped out what they saw and took their findings to flight radars to try and pinpoint a general area. Using the knowledge gleaned from the flight patterns they found that the location was near Greeneville, Tennessee.

    Vice

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  129. 125, let that be a WWHD situation since its in his bailiwick.

    urbanleftbehind (bb5d4e)

  130. Cohen went to Cooley Law School of MI…the John Marshall for people who didn’t bolt the Mitten for Chicago’s North Side.

    urbanleftbehind (bb5d4e)

  131. @126

    Cohen graduated from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. Here’s an entry from their wiki page:

    Cooley is shown as “Rank Not Published” in the U.S. News & World Report listing of law schools. Cooley is ranked second in the twelfth edition of Judging the Law Schools, which is published by Cooley.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Michigan_University_Cooley_Law_School

    Davethulhu (081885)

  132. Cohen graduated from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

    there’s a Starbucks near there but it’s just for white people

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  133. So being Trump’s lawyer is probable cause to go on a months long fishing expedition, with charges to be named later?

    Right. Got it.

    Ronnie Earl school of jurisprudence.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  134. the FBI/DOJ is dirty Mr. papertiger

    the people who work there are corrupt and evil

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  135. The judge didn’t vote for Trump.

    Hey. I got an idea. Let’s bug his lawyer’s office home and email accounts for months.

    Say isn’t that a breach of client privilege?

    Let’s not get bogged down in minutia.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  136. Andrew McCarthy thinks Trump may be facing serious peril because of how he and his lawyer/fixer do business. It would be ironic if the New York way of business that arguably got Trump into the White House is also what may get him out.

    DRJ (15874d)

  137. the way President Trump does business is sparkle-bunny clean compared to the dirty corrupt FBI and the Nazi DOJ

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  138. It’s also ironic to see so many people who distrust lawyers get so worked up about the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege. The privilege is important but it may not shield attorneys and clients who do unethical or illegal things.

    DRJ (15874d)

  139. Sachs explained: “This [Syrian civil war] happened because of [the United States]. These 600,000 [dead] are not just incidental. [The United States] started a war to overthrow a regime. It was covert. It was Operation: Timber Sycamore, people can look it up, the CIA operation. Together with Saudi Arabia, still shrouded in secrecy… A major war effort shrouded in secrecy, never debated by Congress, never explained to the American people. Signed by President Obama. Never explained.”*

    so the joke US military’s been stepping on its dick in Syria wasting tons of money for years and years before this phony chemical gas attack

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  140. Is it illegal for the National Enquirer to buy a story?

    Does that apply across the board for all media outlets?

    Sounds like a special order.

    Big pile of bull[edit]. DNC party of one. Your order’s ready.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  141. if this is the kind of fascist harvardtrash government ted cruz and his sacky-pig wife wanted to do on us we really dodged a bullet there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  142. LOL. And 71 of the 105 missiles fired at Syria were shot down, too.

    I find it disturbing you find that laugh out loud funny.

    Unless you are a Russian of course…

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  143. The Telegraph’s report implies that Skripal – still tied to Russian intelligence, could have been a source for some of the claims in the “Steele Dossier,” a 35-page document full of salacious and unverified claims about Donald Trump, which was paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC and arranged for by opposition research firm Fusion GPS.*

    so you could easily see the dirty CIA killing this guy if he was gonna discredit John McCain’s urinating hooker dossier

    and since they’re obsessed with Russia and obviously have a very sophisticated toolkit for blaming things on Russia bam

    they made it look like a russian thinger

    but they messed up and he’s not dead yet so now they want to “relocate him to the US” and disappear him

    creepy creepy creepy

    how is that not creepy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  144. RICO?

    “You ain’t a lawyer no more, Dave. You a gangster now. On the other side. A whole new ball game. You can’t learn about it in school, and you can’t have a late start.” — Carlito’s Way (1993)

    nk (9651fb)

  145. i wish Mr. narciso were here

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  146. “LOL. And 71 of the 105 missiles fired at Syria were shot down, too.”

    i think he was scoffing at this idea Mr. Bas

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  147. Boy: Putin? Vladimir Putin is your father? I thought you said your father was a butcher.
    Girl: He is.

    nk (9651fb)

  148. Question: Does the War Powers Resolution allow this?

    I ask, because the US fought several air wars without Congressional OK. Libya (1986). Kosovo. Libya again. The whole no-fly-zone thing wrt Iraq. Not to mention any number of one-off air strikes over the years. We invaded Grenada and Panama.

    Since VietNam, the only military actions the US has undertaken that HAD a declaration of war were the 2 Gulf wars and Afghanistan. And yes, an AUMF is, according to Congress, a declaration of war and I’m gonna bet a court would say they were the sole judge of that.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  149. One can say that any or all of these actions were unwise, or likely to blow up in our faces, but I find it unconvincing that any of them (save Libya 2 and Kosovo) violate the War Powers Resolution.

    And, ironically, the only military adventures since World War Two that have blown up in our faces have bee the ones that Congress DID vote for. Korea, VietNam, Afghanistand, Gulf 2 (and by implication, Gulf 1).

    Kevin M (752a26)

  150. OK, Libya 2 has blown up as well, but I was on a roll.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  151. if you ask for a declaration of war you might get one

    and that would for sure be a fiasco

    lots of wasted money lots of dead tatters

    and nobody wants that except cowardly war hero John McCain and the pentagon pigs-in-panties

    and also Lindsey Graham

    and maybe that French guy who married his grandma

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  152. Many of those missiles were stopped from their flight by striking buildings.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  153. hf, see my list in 149.

    And maybe NOT having a congressional vote makes the president mind his Ps and Qs.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  154. Kosovo was during dotcom boom and i worked right through that whole mess and never understood it except apparently douchebag General Clark was involved and then he wouldn’t go away

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  155. but yes I agree I think there’s a pattern here

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  156. Among my favorites of the running bit parts on “The Sopranos” was Tony’s lawyer, “Neil Mink,” played by the late David Margulies.

    You remember how Mink used to be very, very careful where he would talk to his clients, what he would allow them to tell him, and the things he obliged them to do to distance him from Tony’s business, to keep himself out of any possibility of becoming a material witness?

    Michael Cohen didn’t watch the series, I guess.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  157. Mink would’ve said, “They raided my office, they raided my home. For this I’m supposed to get all worked up? They found bupkis, there’s bupkis to find in my home or my office. Not to worry.”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  158. is 200 million eggs a lot it seems like a lot of eggs to me

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  159. I’ve never watched the Sopranos, but I think I would like Mr. Mink.

    nk (9651fb)

  160. OT but too good not to post:

    Thursday, in his first signed opinion as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett was obliged to consider whether to affirm the conviction of one Victor Maturino, who, in violation of the National Firearms Act, “tried to buy 144 live grenades (plus other firearms) for a Mexican drug cartel, [of which it turned out that] 143 were inert.” On appeal, he complained of the use of the inert grenades to enhance his sentence. Rejecting his interpretation of the statute, holding that “what matters for sentencing is what Maturino actively sought, not what he actually bought,” Judge Willett finished his opinion with:

    Maturino’s plan for live grenades fell short, but close counts in horseshoes and hand-grenade cases.

    Judge Beldar concurs!

    Since confirmation to the Fifth Circuit, however, Judge Willett has gone almost completely dormant on his Twitter account. I approve of that, too! Twitter delenda est.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  161. DRJ

    Trump isnt leaving the whitehouse.

    EPWJ (db4190)

  162. “Maturino’s plan to stockpile live grenades turned out to be a dud”, is good too. And I learned that “hortatory” does not mean “in a garden”. (Chicago’s motto is Urbs In Horto, City In A Garden.)

    nk (9651fb)

  163. this is kinda not very reassuring

    Q: Mr. Secretary, it was just a couple of days ago that you said you were still assessing the intelligence on the chemicals weapons attacks, suspected attack. So at this point do you know what the chemical was used in that attack? Was
    it sarin? Was it chlorine?

    And also, what is your evidence it was actually delivered by the Syrian regime?

    SEC. MATTIS: Say the last part again, Tom?

    Q: What’s your evidence it was delivered by the Syrian regime? Are you quite clear it was?

    SEC. MATTIS: I am confident the Syrian regime conducted a chemical attack on innocent people in this last week, yes. Absolutely confident of it. And we have the intelligence level of confidence that we needed to conduct the attack.

    And as far as the actual chemical used, do you know what it was? Was it nerve agent? Was there chlorine? Do you have a sense of what it was?

    SEC. MATTIS: We are very much aware of one of the agents. There may have been more than one agent used. We are not clear on that yet. We know at least one chemical agent was used.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  164. @128. You do know the senators from Arizona; one’s a flake, the other’s crowned w/snow and lives only to wage war, right?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  165. “War is too important to be left to generals.” — Georges Clemenceau

    Which is why Mr. Trump the President turns on Fox and Friends for advice on what he should do.

    nk (9651fb)

  166. @141. How long can you freeze Canadian bacon and have it hold its flavor, Mr. Feet?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  167. I always thought “hortatory” had to do with a silicon-based deep-boring species that Mr. Spock mind-melded with on the mining planet Janus VI.

    Or else, maybe, with Stormy Daniels.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  168. @137. Sparkle Bunnyclean; did she sign a Cohen-Xerox NDA too, Mr. Feet?

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  169. That’s really Chicago’s motto, nk? Gardens? Nothing about broad shoulders or big lakes or stockyards or something?

    Houston’s motto was obviously written by real estate developers trying to attract business & industry: “The City where Seven Railroads Meet the Sea.”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  170. You’d think after posing for a photo with a “Syrian rebel leader” who was later photographed eating the lungs of an Iraqi soldier (raw), McCain would keep a low profile on Syria.

    nk (9651fb)

  171. @105 Comey’s completely destroyed any and all integrity that lawless gangster sluthouse has ever had

    DeNiro did Mueller on SNL tonight; comedy is not pretty, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  172. And Illinois is “The Prairie State”. I guess agriculture got here before commerce.

    nk (9651fb)

  173. @ Kevin M: I did a long riff (starts weird, gets legal) about the Obama Administration’s kinetic non-war in Libya, and as part of that I run through the whole 60-day window, reporting requirements, constitutionality & non-justiciability issues, etc. I’m too lazy to apply it all to the latest in Syria. Arguably the anti-ISIS uses of force in Iraq and Syria are covered by the 2003 AUMF, in which case arguably there are no War Powers Resolution issues with respect to that. But attacking Syrian government personnel & facilities as pushback for war crimes is outside that. Arguably, yesterday’s strike started a new 60-day window, but the real truth is that nobody knows, that the War Powers Resolution is a hot mess, nobody knows whether or when it really applies, and the courts can’t/won’t tell us.

    The tension between the POTUS’ power to wage war and Congress’ power to declare it is, and has always been, a clumsy, continuous clench between the Executive and Legislative branches, with the Judiciary sitting it out by its own choice, and most of the time it’s static and essentially meaningless, except for during brief periods like this one. If Congress is letting a POTUS get away with waging undeclared wars, Congress is equally complicit with the POTUS in them.

    When and if Congress wants to actually enforce its war-declaring authority, it can do so through the power of the purse: Veto-proof Dem majorities did that with an undeclared war in 1974-1975 by de-funding our military for purposes of providing air, naval & materiel support for our South Vietnamese treaty partner, overriding vetoes by Ford. As a direct result of that, the North Vietnamese army overran the South in a matter of weeks, triggering the last ‘copter out and fall of Saigon, the power vacuum that resulted in Pol Pot, the exodus and slaughter of the Boat People, tens of thousands in reeducation camps, etc. — the most shameful moment in modern American history IMHO, and every last bit of it attributable solely to that damned post-Watergate Democratic Congress of feckless, treacherous fools. We’re not supposed to talk about that in polite American society because it might make liberals uncomfortable.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  174. Cohen went to Cooley Law School of MI…the John Marshall for people who didn’t bolt the Mitten for Chicago’s North Side.

    urbanleftbehind (bb5d4e) — 4/14/2018 @ 6:16 pm

    So they’re lawyers who specialize in labor?

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  175. Is it illegal for the National Enquirer to buy a story?

    Does that apply across the board for all media outlets?

    Sounds like a special order.

    Big pile of bull[edit]. DNC party of one. Your order’s ready.

    papertiger (c8116c) — 4/14/2018 @ 7:17 pm

    Ms McDougal needs to call one of those We Buy Your Settlement places.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  176. Dear Dave Ramsey,

    I’m living Trump pay-off to Trump pay-off. What should I do?

    Signed Karen M.

    Dear Karen M,

    One, get on a written budget. Two, beans and rice, rice and beans. Three, stop sucking d****.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  177. Michael Cohen didn’t watch the series, I guess.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/14/2018 @ 7:49 pm

    At the bottom of the screen for most DVD’s it says stuff like Play All Episodes Set Up and Extras.

    Cohen was like, “HA! You thought you were going to set me up.”

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  178. Maturino’s plan for live grenades fell short, but close counts in horseshoes and hand-grenade cases.
    Judge Beldar concurs!

    Since confirmation to the Fifth Circuit, however, Judge Willett has gone almost completely dormant on his Twitter account. I approve of that, too! Twitter delenda est.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/14/2018 @ 8:24 pm

    Sounds like what guys say when Chris Hansen pops out of the kitchen.

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  179. . (Chicago’s motto is Urbs In Horto, City In A Garden.)

    nk (9651fb) — 4/14/2018 @ 8:51 pm

    I thought Urbs had an ‘H’ in it too.

    Another rabbit burrow:

    Several printed versions of the 18th century have the lyrics:

    Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,
    How does your garden grow?
    With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
    Sing cuckolds all in a row.[1]

    That went sideways

    Pinandpuller (a87e86)

  180. CNN did a nice check on the Russian claim that 71 out of the 105 missiles fired at Syria were intercepted.

    They asked two independent satellite imagery companies for before and after pictures of the three sites struck:

    Satellite images show craters at alleged Syrian chemical weapons facilities

    There are before/after pictures of the sites, each with a slider that can moved left/right for comparison.

    The first site (a chemical storage facility) and the third site (a research center) have been obliterated in surgical fashion. In the research facility, one large cluster of buildings in the center (about 20% of the facility) has been completely wiped out, and none of the neighboring buildings show even a scratch.

    In the second site (a chemical equipment storage facility and command post, according to the US), the buildings are small and while there’s clearly damage, it’s harder to assess the extent because the sun angle and shadows are not the same in the before/after.

    Fact check score: I’m giving the Russian Defense Ministry claim Four Trumps.

    (1 Trump = 2 Clintons = 4 Pinocchios)

    Dave (445e97)

  181. Trump comes out in favor of “sanctuary states” for marijuana

    I think, on the whole, that legalizing another recreational drug is a bad idea from a public health perspective (the decline in tobacco smoking is a great thing, and now we are introducing something new for people to trash their lungs with, makes no sense), but I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the feds removed pot from the list of controlled substances or made other statutory allowances for states to set their own possession laws.

    I do have a problem with any president sworn to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed taking the position that states are welcome to break certain federal laws that he decides not to enforce, however.

    People get worked up over states refusing to comply with VOLUNTARY administrative detainers for illegal immigrants, yet are comfortable with letting them profit from what is essentially a protection racket for criminal activity?

    Dave (445e97)

  182. When you’ve lost Alex Jones, you’ve lost Trump’s America. The filter won’t let me link because of the f-word. Google “Alex Jones F**k Trump”.

    nk (9651fb)

  183. 181, agreed on all points. That is a own rope provided by the administration on other matters, but what do you expect when a major motivation is the needling of an AGUSA

    urbanleftbehind (bb5d4e)

  184. When you’ve lost Alex Jones, you’ve lost Trump’s America. The filter won’t let me link because of the f-word. Google “Alex Jones F**k Trump”.

    Allahpundit is on the case:

    I’ll give [Jones] this too: Like Ann Coulter, his politics aren’t defined by Trump’s cult of personality. Coulter wanted her wall, she hasn’t gotten it, and she hasn’t been shy about criticizing Trump for it, whatever that may mean for her standing among Trump diehards. Same goes for Jones. They have political goals beyond “whatever Trump feels like doing today” and they’re willing to hold him accountable for failing to meet those goals. It’s sad and disturbing that you’re more likely to see the president challenged for breaking his campaign promises on Infowars than on “Hannity” but that’s where we are.

    Dave (445e97)

  185. Kid eats his Trumpieos for breakfast…

    In other news, open sourced info follows strikeforce… https://theaviationist.com/?p=53071

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  186. Here’s Trumps newest ad and I can say, it’s about time!
    https://youtu.be/U-nm0vQwO5c

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  187. Syrian chemical attack survivor to Trump: I want to ‘buy you a beer’

    Did anyone have the heart to tell the guy that what Trump wants is to deport him back to Syria?

    Dave (445e97)

  188. Trump should be careful.

    Going forward, every victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant can blame him for failing to get 100% of the money for the wall from Mexico, as he promised to do hundreds of times.

    Dave (445e97)

  189. Two Daves were biking across town when one Dave said, “Where did you get such a great bike?”
    The second Dave replied, “Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, “Take what you want.”

    The first Dave nodded approvingly and said, “Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn’t have fit you anyway.”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  190. Allahpundit can be naive at times. Infowars is a Russian propaganda operation.

    nk (9651fb)

  191. Going forward, every victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant can blame him for failing to get 100% of the money for the wall from Mexico, as he promised to do hundreds of times.
    Dave (445e97) — 4/15/2018 @ 6:01 am


    You did watch the commercial, didn’t you Dave? What part of “the democrats are complicit” do you not understand? The democrats are responsible for us not having a wall regardless of what you say Trump promised. Get it? Are you awake? Do you think Trump doesn’t want to build the wall and the democrats do? Hello? Anybody in there? (tap, tap) is this thing on?

    I understand that since your gal Hillary lost you’ve been involved in all-out war with your leftist and communist colleagues against Trump but Trump can’t keep a promise those same colleagues block at every turn. Tell you friends to fund the wall! Stop killing your fellow Americans. I know you leftists thrive on murdering babies but now you’re helping illegals murder your neighbors? What gives?

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  192. Syria has not attacked us.

    Not openly, at any rate.

    I suppose the counter might be that the US shouldn’t have troops or military advisors of any kind in Syria proper. So be it. But that’s a different argument.

    Moreover there was good reason for the US and its allies to have been more than curious about the implications of the Assad regime’s behaviour and its regional ambitions well before Assad’s air force began gassing civilians in earnest.

    Did anyone have the heart to tell the guy that what Trump wants is to deport him back to Syria?

    Abu Ivanka wouldn’t turn down a free drink – non-alcoholic, presumably.

    JP (699888)

  193. racist starbucks with its naked hatred of black people is one choice for coffee this morning

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  194. The ruling class has conquered commanding heights over every part of American society. Because, as it did so, this class convinced itself unalterably that the rest of us are a lower class of beings, re-conquering those heights could not restore citizenship among us. The prize would be costly and worthless. Best for all is for we Indians to leave the chiefs alone on their hills as we build better villages.

    Mr. Codevilla goes where snotty harvardtrash Ted Cruz and his grimacing harvardtrash sacky-pig can’t follow

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  195. Beldar – is there not a legal case to be made that enforcing a treaty obligation grants a president clear authority to act, in a short term manner militarily, without a congressional imprimatur?

    In this case, the Geneva Conventions were used as, at the least, a talking point in justifying the mission.

    I am unaware that Syria ever assented to the GC, but my point is about the Rule of Law. Does a POTUS have the power to act as I described?

    Ed from SFV (4f3559)

  196. Q: Secretary Mattis, I just wanted to follow up on what you said about the legal basis for this strike. Could you talk a little bit more about that, because in your testimony the other day, it sounded like you were saying that this – a potential strike would somehow be linked to self defense, and that the presence of American forces in Syria. Can you say a little bit more about that?

    And also regarding whether or not there will be future action or additional strikes, you said that would depend on whether or not the Assad government conducts future chemical attacks. But could you explain a little bit more about what would be the threshold for that, because there were repeated chemical attacks between the Apr 2017 attack and today. And would you consider a small-scale chlorine attack sufficient to launch additional strikes?

    SEC. MATTIS: Right now I would just tell you we’re in close consultation with our allies. We review all of the evidence all of the time. It is difficult, as you know, to get evidence out of Syria. But right now we have no additional attacks planned.

    But as far as the legal authority under the Article II of the Constitution, we believe the president has every reason to defend vital American interests, and that is what he did here tonight under that authority.

    it’s important to remember our panty-trash pentagon piggies aren’t neutral on these questions of legality

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  197. One of the most telling bits about the WPR is the Kosovo war, where Congress had a vote on an AUMF, which failed on a tie vote. But then they funded the war anyway. As Beldar says, there is some tension there. Here’s some history on Kosovo:

    Without congressional authorization, President Clinton ordered air strikes to begin in Kosovo on March 24, 1999. Three weeks later, he sought $6 billion to fund the continuation of U.S. actions in Kosovo.

    On April 28, the House of Representatives took four votes related to Kosovo. It voted against a declaration of war. It rejected a concurrent resolution that would have authorized continued military force in Kosovo, and a different concurrent resolution that would have directed the President to remove the Armed Forces from Serbia within 30 days. And it voted to block funding for ground troops in Kosovo without specific congressional authorization.

    After these votes, Congress continued to consider the President’s appropriation request. In May, it enacted a supplemental funding measure for, among other things, “costs resulting from ongoing contingency operations in . . . Kosovo.” In short, and simplifying a bit, Congress declined to formally authorize Clinton’s use of force in Kosovo, but it funded his efforts.

    https://www.lawfareblog.com/potential-relevance-olcs-kosovo-war-powers-resolution-opinion-syria-debate

    Kevin M (752a26)

  198. As far as “declaration of war”, the US has only fought 5 declared wars: 1812, Mexico, Spain, and the two world wars. And the Mexico declaration didn’t actually call itself a declaration.

    This is one of those things where textualists have issues with the obvious precedents.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  199. We have no business in Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Kosovo or Somalia. We did have reason to erase Saudi Arabia and did not. We had reason to erase Iraq and did not. Our leaders are weak and indecisive but when they finally do decide they usually decide wrong. And it matters not which party in in power. We “do” war but not declare war in this post constitutional kakistocracy.

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  200. Thirteen conflicts have been authorized by congress with resolutions that fell short of declaring war, but satisfied Congress’ sense of its power.

    Five conflicts, starting with Korea, have been authorized byt the UN Security Council and funded by Congress, but not authorized by them.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  201. List

    Kevin M (752a26)

  202. Hoagie, I disagree about Afghanistan — we were attacked from there. We may agree about having the wrong goals. Popping a cap on Kandahar on 9/12 might have been the best move after all.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  203. What are those vital American interests the President and Mattis are so anxious to protect, happyfeet? Please list them specifically.

    Also, why do you hate Harvard and its graduates so much? Harvard is far more “Republican” than Yale. Do you hate Yale and its graduates and, if not, why?

    DRJ (15874d)

  204. This country has

    mg (9e54f8)

  205. This is one of those things where textualists have issues with the obvious precedents.


    “Precedents” is lawyer double speak for not following the law but rather following another idiots breaking of the law. Real men don’t buy that sh!t. If we’re going to fight wars on a legal idea like “precedents” then we should send all the lawyers out to fight since they are responsible for the deaths of countless Americans because of precedents. There is a reason Congress is supposed to declare war or have you forgotten?

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  206. Too many anti-Semite blondes.

    mg (9e54f8)

  207. After 9/11, I’m glad we fought the terrorists in those countries instead of here, Hoagie.

    DRJ (15874d)

  208. there are no vital American interests in Syria we decided *that* when we sent hundreds of billions of dollars to Iran

    Do you hate Yale and its graduates and, if not, why?

    yes yes ivy league trash is all the same anymore all the trashies apply to the top 3 as their fallback schools – i think they may actually share an electronic application system

    these people are disgusting because they’re invested in an ideology of mindless credentialism that increasingly embraces naked fascism and totalitarianism

    why isn’t dirty harvardtrash ted a leading voice speaking out against Herr Mueller and his fbi gestapo?

    it’s not just cowardice

    it’s cause it’s something he can think about to get aroused when forced to perform husbandly duties on that pig he married

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  209. how many people are aware you think that harvardtrash ted himself is a slut-creature of the dirty DOJ

    he was an immediate underling to the Rod Rosytwat position in the department

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  210. Then why is Trump attacking Syria, hf?

    DRJ (15874d)

  211. Ted is like the Instapundit. Stop listening to them.

    DRJ (15874d)

  212. That’s right, isn’t it? Don’t listen to anyone you don’t like.

    DRJ (15874d)

  213. Then why is Trump attacking Syria, hf?

    the phony gas attack boxed him in

    it’s not complicated

    food stamp did a red line and pussied out

    last year it was deemed that Syria crossed that line so President Trump sprinkled some missiles on them, which is fine who cares

    but then he said hey we should bring our tatters home

    and bam the next week there was a phony gas attack that forced him to do more missile sprinkles

    but he very very cleverly used that “Mission Accomplished” tag to invoke W’s blood-drenched Iraq fiasco

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  214. That’s right, isn’t it? Don’t listen to anyone you don’t like.

    nonono i listen

    but lately with harvardtrash ted what he doesn’t say is much louder than what he does

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  215. @ Ed from SFV (#195): Generally speaking, the conventions and agreements regulating warfare are negative covenants: We countries all promise each other we will renounce and forego the following (followed by a list). It’s not, “And we promise to go to war against each other if any of us don’t live up to this promise about what we won’t do.”

    Even mutual defense treaties still require Congress to implement, via a declaration of war, our commitments to defend allies (like those in NATO).

    If it were otherwise — if the actions of other countries could compel the U.S. to declare war — we’d enter into even fewer treaties and agreements.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  216. Oh, he got boxed in. I guess he isn’t that smart after all if he can’t figure out how to deal with Obama’s legacy.

    ObamaCare still here ……. Check
    DACA is still here ……… Check
    No Wall ……………….. Check
    TPP may be coming back ….. Check
    And now stuck in Syria ……… Check

    Not that smart, is he?

    DRJ (15874d)

  217. Asked whether he believes Comey is a man of integrity, [Paul] Ryan responded, “as far as I know,” but resisted answering further questions about him.

    that’s actually kind of a ballsy and edgy reply for boy toy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  218. ObamaCare’s vastly mitigated and if you’re upset about that it’s cowardslut John “war hero (lol” McCain you have a beef with not President Trump

    DACA’s kept in place by the fascist filth of America’s laughingstock justice system, not by President Trump

    the Wall hasn’t happened but it remains an issue of prominence in a way it would never have been if Jeb! or pedophile Mitt Romney or harvardtrash ted or the aforementioned cowardslut were in office

    and the TPP thing’s just a rumor started by harvardtrash Ben Sasse – and nobody says we can’t join TPP, just not on the terms food stamp negotiated

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  219. check out the passive aggressive IRS trash

    went to help my sister put a payment plan together for 2017 taxes

    Planned Weekend Maintenance

    This service is unavailable from 10 p.m. on Saturdays through 6 p.m. on Sundays, Eastern time. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please return to the system after 6 p.m. on Sunday to use the Online Payment Agreement application. Otherwise, you may visit irs.gov/payments for other available payment options.

    filthy and fascist and scornful of her people, that’s your American government

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  220. Those people didn’t scare Trump when he was running but they sure have his number now.

    I feel sorry for Trump. It’s hard to be in over your head and not know what to do.

    DRJ (15874d)

  221. oops i forgot the close parens in #218 above cause sis called and i got distractered

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  222. speaking of the wall

    it’s valuable all by itself how President Trump has exposed for us – utterly laid bare – the Republican Party’s open borders mentality – their complete disdain for citizenship

    we know where we stand now, and we owe that all to our president, President Donald Trump

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  223. DRJ, when you get that way put on your pussy hat, step outside and yell at the sky. That’s what your leftist collaborators do and it seems to calm them temporarily.

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  224. What are those vital American interests the President and Mattis are so anxious to protect, happyfeet? Please list them specifically.

    There is only one thing that matters: There is an international treaty against the use of chemical weapons. Syria acceded to the treaty. NOT enforcing that treaty weakens it, and it is in the long-term strategic interests of the US that it not be weakened.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  225. But, Beldar, at various times we have accepted our UN treaty obligations as binding us to act.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  226. ObamaCare still here ……. Check

    I blame the conservatives in the House for this, holding out for something they weren’t going to get. We could be debating part 2 of Ryan’s walkback/entitlement reform as we speak. But we aren’t.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  227. I understand that since your gal Hillary lost you’ve been involved in all-out war with your leftist and communist colleagues against Trump but Trump can’t keep a promise those same colleagues block at every turn.

    How have I, Hillary, or “our” leftist and communist colleagues blocked Trump from getting 100% of the funding for the wall from Mexico? He hasn’t even tried. Hasn’t lifted a finger!

    And if Trump’s promise somehow relied upon cooperation from leftists and communists, it wasn’t a very realistic or responsible promise to make, was it?

    And yet he made it (the promise that Mexico would pay for 100% of the wall) unequivocally, repeatedly and with apparent confidence hundreds of times. I actually looked it up and checked the videos – it was in his first campaign speech the day he declared his candidacy in Trump Tower in June 2015, and in his last campaign speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the early hours of Election Day.

    It sure looks like he was trying con people. and now he wants to shirk responsibility for his failure to deliver on what he promised and stick the American taxpayers with the bill for it.

    Dave (445e97)

  228. It’s hard to be in over your head and not know what to do.

    He’s been riding this tiger since early 2016. If only he’d gotten out then. Maybe citing a threat to his daughter, as is traditional.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  229. There is an international treaty against the use of chemical weapons.

    how is it in the long-term strategic interests of the US to enforce the treaty when no chemical weapons are actually used?

    if it’s just a made-up excuse to do attacks on people it actually incentivizes false flag chemical attacks

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  230. nobody says we can’t join TPP, just not on the terms food stamp negotiated

    And any terms Trump negotiates — even if it means food stamps for everyone — will be the BEST THING EVER if you ask hf.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  231. i think the TPP could be an important soft power step forward for failmerica in a tricksy part of the whirl

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  232. Beldar – The fact tha treaty obligations trump (sorry) any constitutional concerns is a major, major problem for me. The USA is bound to the whims and interpretations of others. Also, a scoundrel within the USA could use the pretext of such an obligation to ignore niceties like powers of war. The Senate always has an opportunity avoid treaty entanglements. But, once enacted, I believe the Executive has a nearly unfettered right to act in any manner he may deem appropriate.

    The GC, among other things, describes crimes against humanity. As such, border considerations are vitiated. It’s all about punishing monsters. And we’re a signatory.

    To me, DJT reached an Article II decision that bombing the means of chemical warfare is in the direct interests of the USA. I further contend that he can legitimately claim a legal basis within the GC to strike out against such.

    ‘Tis a fool’s game and awful policy, but is it extra-constitutional and “illegal?” I am extremely skeptical of that proposition.

    Ed from SFV (4f3559)

  233. Rev.Hoagie (1b0402) — 4/15/2018 @ 10:54 am

    What a vile thing to say to a lady. Look at what you’ve become Hoagie.

    Dave (445e97)

  234. It’s the same in every country
    When you say you’re leaving
    Left behind the loved ones
    Waiting silent in the hall
    Where you’re going lies adventure
    Others only dream of
    Red and green light this is real
    And so you go to war
    For the passion, for the glory
    For the memories for the money
    You’re a soldier, for your country
    What’s the difference, all the same
    Far away from the land of our birth
    We fly a flag in some foreign earth
    We sailed away like our fathers before
    These colors don’t run, from cold bloody war
    There is no one that will save you
    Going down in flames
    No surrender certain death you
    Look it in the eye
    On the shores tyranny you
    Crashed a human wave
    Paying for my freedom with your
    Lonely unmarked graves
    For the passion, for the glory
    For the memories for the money
    You’re a soldier, for your country
    What’s the difference, all the same
    Far away from the land of our birth
    We fly a flag in some foreign earth
    We sailed away like our fathers before
    These colors don’t run, from cold bloody war

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  235. DRJ, when you get that way put on your pussy hat, step outside and yell at the sky. That’s what your leftist collaborators do and it seems to calm them temporarily.

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402) — 4/15/2018 @ 10:54 am

    I have been very sick, too, Hoagie, so I know what it feels like to be very sick and not feel well. I know that is why you think and say things like this. I hope you get your transplant soon.

    DRJ (15874d)

  236. how is it in the long-term strategic interests of the US to enforce the treaty when no chemical weapons are actually used?

    Pick a side, or at least use a sarc tag.

    In the past, the US has had significant chemical warfare stocks and plans to use them. Relying on the treaty, these stocks have since been destroyed.

    We also have equipment for use should chemical weapons be used against us, but it’s a pain to use and our policy is to respond to such use against us with nuclear weapons. Something that Secretary Baker explained to Saddam in 1991. But we don’t want to go there. At all.

    So, we smack that camel’s nose the MOMENT it starts poking under the tent. It’s important.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  237. Similarly, we need to enforce the nuclear non-proliferation treaty against those who sign, get the benefits thereof, then use those benefits to make nuclear weapons. Soon.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  238. Kevin M,

    Re Syria, that is a good point but look how long we waited to act in Iraq and, even with Congressional approval, the will to persevere wasn’t there. I think it means we have to be more limited in how we identify/define our national security interests as opposed to international interests. Otherwise we run the risk of being perceived as the world’s policeman, something the American people don’t support.

    Re ObamaCare, Trump wanted to lead, not just be another Congressman or Senator. The President is the leader of his Party and when his Party controls Congress, he needs to lead there, tol. Trump hasn’t led, he just promises to sign anything anybody passes.

    DRJ (15874d)

  239. We also have equipment for use should chemical weapons be used against us, but it’s a pain to use

    nono it’s gotten much easier

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  240. 215: Yes, but that does not mean that violations of these treaties don’t rise to affect our vital interests. When they DO, we can enforce them unilaterally. The question then, is at what point must Congress authorize force.

    I don’t think the current Syria attack has crossed that threshold, although you are right that the GWoT AUMF does not cover attacking the Syrian state. I look forward to Trump’s report to Congress.

    OTOH, what may be coming down the line in Korea would seem to need prior authorization, preferably before Trump meets with Kim. Given that there is a strong possibility that nuclear weapons might be used (first by NK, second through tenth by us), Congress needs to be on board ahead of time, rather than having it be a posturing opportunity later.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  241. So, we smack that camel’s nose the MOMENT it starts poking under the tent. It’s important.

    I don’t disagree with your reasoning, at least in the abstract.

    On the other hand, I would say it gives us moral justification for using military force, but doesn’t obligate us to do so.

    We presumably aren’t going to be launching a missile strike on Moscow, despite the recent Russian chemical attack against Britain (and despite the fact that our NATO obligations to Britain are much stronger than any we have in relation to Syria).

    In other words, the decision still properly involves a political judgment about the wisdom of initiating hostilities, and the constitution vests congress with that power.

    Dave (445e97)

  242. It is our goal “to see American troops come home, but we are not going to leave until we know we have accomplished those things,” Haley said and listed three aims for the United States: ensuring that chemical weapons are not used in any way that pose a risk to U.S. interests, that Islamic State is defeated and that there is a good vantage point to watch what Iran is doing.

    this woman is a hot and horny joke like Lisa Page

    she just committed our poor hapless tatters to an open-ended deployment in Syria

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  243. DRJ,

    We waited to act in Iraq for several reasons. The first was a change in administrations following the first Gulf War, although there were a number of actions even there. Finding out that Saddam had cheated on the cease-fire and not destroyed his chemical weapons led to some diplomacy, backed by military power that indeed led to the destruction of those arms.

    Then our administration changed again, inheriting the Iraq stand-off, which was getting old. We also began hearing that Saddam still had some chemical weapons. Then 9/11. Then Saddam kicked out the weapons inspectors. And we took that as confirmation that thee were still chemical weapons. What we didn’t know was that it was all Saddam’s internal politics to “stand up to America.”

    Yes, our response in Iraq was chaotic and sometimes delayed, but it could not be considered in any way to be acquiescing to the possession or use of chemical arms. You don’t have to smack the camel’s nose EVERY time, just often enough.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  244. I can’t defend Trump’s leadership skills however. But Ryan’s initial Obamacare amendments were better than what we have now and clearly led to significant entitlement reform. And was killed by those who professed wanting to kill Obamacare but instead ran interference for it.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  245. this is why it’s important not to let your trashy corrupt military stage chemical attacks

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  246. she just committed our poor hapless tatters to an open-ended deployment in Syria

    All 2000 of them!

    Dave (445e97)

  247. On the other hand, I would say it gives us moral justification for using military force, but doesn’t obligate us to do so.

    Obligate? Hmmm.

    I am also not obligated to shoot a burglar. Nor am I obligated to turn the other cheek. I have moral justification for either.

    As a state however, with people to protect, one IS obligated to do what seems most likely to protect them. Those obligations are internal, not forced on us by others, and if that is what you mean I agree with you.

    Probably what is meant by “vital national interests.”

    Kevin M (752a26)

  248. so now that our dirty UN trollop’s gone whole hog on the Syrian occupation will the lickspittle Congress vote on this

    it seems like there’s more pressure to do so, and they should do so before midterms

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  249. this is why it’s important not to let your trashy corrupt military stage chemical attacks

    The Commander-in-Chief of a military who did that would be guilty of war crimes, wouldn’t he, Mr. Feet?

    First for letting it happen, second for covering it up and not punishing the guilty parties, and third for using it as an excuse to attack an innocent country.

    The nazis staged a Polish “attack” on Germany as the excuse to start World War Two, Mr. Feet. Why does President Trump use the same dirty scummy tactics?

    Dave (445e97)

  250. i think President Trump was presented with a fait accompli Mr. Dave

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  251. As far as a treaty obliging us to act in the world, that depends. How closely does that treaty reflect our national interests? Are we going to go to war with Norway over whale hunting? Probably not. We ignore a LOT of terrible things that go on (Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe, Eritrea, Biafra, Chavez/Maduro, etc). If we WERE the world’s policeman we’d be a lot busier.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  252. Wait,

    Is hf actually taking the PUTIN position on this?

    Kevin M (752a26)

  253. nono Mr. M my position is that given as to how there is an active coup in process against our president, what’s most likely is this syria hoax was contrived to have this exact result:

    to force President Trump into an open-ended commitment in Syria precisely because his core supporters will be so displeased

    note the heavy involvement or traitorpig coward John McCain

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  254. the heavy involvement *of* traitorpig coward John McCain i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  255. Is hf actually taking the PUTIN position on this?

    when you see this kind of creeping McCarthyism it means the fascists are winning you know

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  256. As a state however, with people to protect, one IS obligated to do what seems most likely to protect them. Those obligations are internal, not forced on us by others, and if that is what you mean I agree with you.

    What I mean is that, except in cases of self defense where our forces are under ongoing attack and failure to respond in kind would constitute surrender (Pearl Harbor being the most clear-cut example), the decision that initiating hostilities is the right way to deal with a problem (i.e. best protects our interests) is supposed to rest with congress.

    Dave (445e97)

  257. i think President Trump was presented with a fait accompli Mr. Dave

    So instead of telling us the truth, and launching an immediate investigation and court martial of the traitorous scum responsible, he just decided to play along and support them?

    And then decided to double-down by blowing up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fancy toys and putting poor innocent Syrian and Russian lives at risk?

    Remind me why we need him then, if he just lets everybody do whatever the hell they want?

    Dave (445e97)

  258. ok that’s a little overheated

    this chemical gas trick woulda been done on any president that announced he wanted to bring the hapless tatters home Mr. Dave

    and when you’re under siege by a fascist FBI, you have to pick your battles

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  259. @187. Did anyone have the heart to tell the guy that what Trump wants is to deport him back to Syria?

    Beer? Apparently nobody has told the guy our Captain doesn’t drink.

    “Never trust a man who doesn’t drink.” – W.C. Fields

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  260. and when you’re under siege by a fascist FBI, you have to pick your battles

    So because he’s too busy trying to save his own fat, orange butt for another porn star to paddle, the military he’s supposed to be in charge of gets to gas babies, waste hundreds of millions of dollars, endanger poor innocent Syrian and Russian lives and maybe start an even bigger war?

    How can we afford such a useless excuse for a leader, Mr. Feet?

    Dave (445e97)

  261. how can we afford to let a dirty corrupt military and a fascist FBI do a coup all up in it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  262. the military he’s supposed to be in charge of gets to gas babies

    you’re supposing there was an actual gas attack

    there wasn’t.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  263. how can we afford to let a dirty corrupt military and a fascist FBI do a coup all up in it

    I think you should ask the dirty corrupt president who’s letting them get away with it.

    Dave (445e97)

  264. @205. There is a reason Congress is supposed to declare war or have you forgotten?

    Square-riggers, sealing wax and single-shot muskets: sing it, Babs; ‘…misty, water-colored memories, of the way we were…’ — in 1789, Hoagie:

    ‘On at least 125 occasions, the President has acted without prior express military authorization from Congress. These include instances in which the United States fought in the Philippine–American War from 1898–1903, in Nicaragua in 1927, as well as the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the 2017 [and now 2018] missile strikes on Syria.’ – wikipedia.org

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  265. you’re supposing there was an actual gas attack

    President Trump would never tell a lie.

    Dave (445e97)

  266. “If you sit first class, you’re guaranteed to come into contact with everybody else on the plane. If you really want to avoid everybody on the plane, sit in the last seat, not the first seat,” Gowdy told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

    does idiot lickspittle Trey Gowdy really not understand how flying first class works?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  267. Bob Menendez
    Bill Clinton
    Al Gore
    Daniel Inyoue
    Ted Kennedy
    Al Franken
    Christopher Dodd
    Jesse Jackson jr
    Jesse Jackson Sr
    Al Sharpton
    Gary Conditt (who now is being investigated for Chandra levys death)

    All have made substantial payments for rape, murder, harassment, assault, many against congressional staffers

    Mueller didn’t investigate, nor did Freed any of these

    EPWJ (d07d35)

  268. All have made substantial payments

    Who did Franken make a substantial payment to?

    Dave (445e97)

  269. 210.Then why is Trump attacking Syria, hf?

    Don’t expect our Captain to give a coherent answer using twitter saying’mission accomplished,’ DRJ. British PM May gave a fine presser early Saturday morning our time w/reasonable rationale, chiefly focusing on smacking down the creeping ‘acceptance’ of chemical weapons use. She’s right.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  270. Dave

    He and nbc

    EPWJ (061714)

  271. He and nbc

    He made a substantial payment to himself and nbc?

    Who did Al Gore make a substantial payment to?

    Dave (445e97)

  272. @266. does idiot lickspittle Trey Gowdy really not understand how flying first class works?

    A barber college man, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  273. i wish Mr. narciso were here he has a lot of good input on middle east stuff that happens overseas

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  274. Another future (and perhaps current) democrat voter. One of Dave’s boys.

    EDGAR, LA (WDSU) – Denis Amaya-Rodriguez was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for killing three people.

    Rodriguez was driving a bus that crashed into a group of firefighters and multiple vehicles the Interstate 10 bridge in LaPlace on Aug. 28, 2016. St. John District Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin, Jermaine Starr and Vontarous Kelly were all killed. Starr and Kelly were passengers in a car that was crushed by the bus. Chauvin died after being thrown over the bridge, along with two other firefighters who were seriously injured.

    Amaya-Rodriguez was sentenced Monday to five years in prison on each count of negligent homicide, which is the maximum sentence. In an unusual move, the judge ordered the sentences be served consecutively, sending Rodriguez to prison for 15 years, minus credit for time served. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and court costs.

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  275. I stand corrected. HF is actually taking a position crazier than the Putin position.

    Putin claims the evidence of gas attacks was fabricated.

    HF claims it was fabricated in order to get Trump to violate his core principles and thereby alienate his backers.

    This is clearly crazy, Trump has no core principles, and his backers seem unfazed by any violation anyway.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  276. Narciso knows the way back. All he has to do is apologize for lying about Patterico.

    Sounds like he doesn’t want to do so. His choice, sort of like his weird syntax.

    Words can get out of hand, and too often involved with ego without wit nor common sense. Respect for the host seems pretty central, when posting on his site.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  277. “…the decision that initiating hostilities is the right way to deal with a problem (i.e. best protects our interests) is supposed to rest with congress.”

    There is a difference between “declaring war” and “an act of war.” Congress has long since decided to have a standing army. So, it has raised same as discussed in Art I. The Constitution does not limit the commander-in-chief in ANY way save a declaration of war, which is a legality fraught with additional implications (e.g. it alters the application of certain laws).

    Now, were these strikes even acts of war? Arguably not, since they were undertaken to counter a treaty violation and inherent in a treaty is the understanding that violating it can result in a response from your treaty partners.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  278. LOL.

    Shep's Social Circle (c587a1)

  279. HF claims it was fabricated in order to get Trump to violate his core principles and thereby alienate his backers.

    excuse me yes yes i garbled it up

    1. the attack was staged primarily cause President trump aid he wanted to bring the tatters home

    2. this will be used to drive a wedge between President Trump and his base

    my apologize for the confuzzle Mr. M

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  280. ugh

    1. the attack was staged primarily cause *President Trump said* he wanted to bring the tatters home

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  281. Narciso knows the way back. All he has to do is apologize for lying about Patterico.

    he’s such a dear sweet person, erudite and tempered, and does some of the best contribute here

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  282. https://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73208

    The Russian approach to reality can be beneficial.

    If they don’t want “X” to be true, then it isn’t. Period.

    Consider this example:

    “In Syria, a handful of weeks ago, the Russians met their match and a couple
    hundred Russians were killed,”

    Mike Pompeo during a Senate hearing on his nomination to become US secretary
    of state – 12 April 2018

    So the United States was involved in killing a couple of hundred Russians.

    Russia, at the time, claimed that only five of its citizens had died and
    moved on.

    (Note: the Russians were not offfically government soldiers. They moved to attack aposition where some sort of U.S. special forces were based.)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  283. Mr. narciso if you’re reading this the new Lost in Space on netflix is a nicely executed win for them i think

    daughter Penny seems to be the breakout here if you don’t count the re-imagined robot, which is a robot

    Parker Posey has to be redeemed and looks like they might play that out for quite awhile if they’re afforded that luxury

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  284. 277. Kevin M (752a26) — 4/15/2018 @ 1:26 pm

    “…the decision that initiating hostilities is the right way to deal with a problem (i.e. best protects our interests) is supposed to rest with congress.”

    There is a difference between “declaring war” and “an act of war.” Congress has long since decided to have a standing army. So, it has raised same as discussed in Art I. The Constitution does not limit the commander-in-chief in ANY way save a declaration of war, which is a legality fraught with additional implications (e.g. it alters the application of certain laws).

    I am glad at someone else sees this.

    What happened, I think, is that some people deciced to reinterpret the need for Congress to to declare war in lightv of what they thouyght the situation was in 1787.

    It wassn’t even true in 1787. France did not declare war in 1778. Declaring war isa legal act., not a military one. It may cause other acts to go into effect.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  285. what’s happening with the snowflakes in minnesota is absolutely insane

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  286. Big whip, we got snow in Six Flags land.

    urbanleftbehind (bb5d4e)

  287. Now, were these strikes even acts of war?

    If a foreign country launched 105 missiles into the United States, hitting the suburbs of the capital, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that we would treat it as an act of war even if they claimed to be enforcing a treaty.

    Arguably not, since they were undertaken to counter a treaty violation and inherent in a treaty is the understanding that violating it can result in a response from your treaty partners.

    Better not tell Trump that, or he might use alleged NAFTA violations as justification for bombing Mexico and Canada.

    When a treaty contains provisions for military enforcement, that is spelled out explicitly.

    Inherent in a treaty is the understanding that you can withdraw from it if you think the other parties are not abiding by its terms.

    In the case of the chemical weapons convention, it contains three enforcement provisions:

    1) Kicking violators out of the treaty organization
    2) The conference (one vote per member state) can recommend action to member states consistent with international law
    3) The conference can bring the matter to the attention of the UN

    Needless to say, the treaty contains no provision allowing member states to unilaterally attack other states that they claim have committed violations…

    Dave (445e97)

  288. But the serious question, and one that goes to the heart of our confidence in law enforcement in this country, is whether James Comey is guilty of federal crimes.

    There are four specific areas where there are serious grounds to suspect that James Comey broke the law while he was FBI Director:

    1. his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation

    2. the manner in which he closed the Clinton email investigation

    3. Comey has publicly admitted that he gave memos recording his interactions with President Trump to a friend at Columbia Law School with the intention that the contents would be leaked to the media in order to prompt the appointment of a Special Counsel.

    4. the infamous Russia dossier which was used to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign

    and why is Attorney General Rod Rosytwat protecting him

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  289. There is a correlation between atheists telling Christians what to believe when it comes to Jesus, and nevertrumpers approach to Trump supporters.

    The unbelieving Jews were expecting the Christ to give them a kingdom to rule over the earth. Their expectations do not define the followers of Jesus.

    I’m not drawing a comparison between Jesus and Trump, but rather those that don’t support Trump trying to define what his supporters should believe about him. Dave’s continual blathering about Mexico paying for the wall (which I’ve explained doesn’t equate Mexico cutting a check for it at least twice before now) for example.

    Non believers love to point out seeming contradictions in the bible to attack Christians, and nevertrumpers love to point out seeming contradictions in what Trump has said and what he has been able to accomplish to attack Trump supporters. Both are non starters because of differing expectations and the attackers fundamental misunderstanding of the supporters perspective.

    As one of Trumps first supporters, I never thought he was going to save the world, or even bring America back to Reagan era sensibilities. I never believed he would be 100% in line with my beliefs or always do what I wanted. What I believe is America had become corrupt politically, a one party rule of globalist elites unanswerable to the governed. Trump is someone that loves his country, from outside the swamp, putting America first. Through him we are trying to break the chains the elite have put on us, and as such he is more a declaration of intent and a first step than an end. The end is a much larger goal than can be accomplished by one man in one term. It will make all of us, fighting for the goal, not the man, to save the Republic. Trump supporters are not cultists being led by our faith in him, we are patriotic Americans trying to restore our liberty, Trump is the modern day shot heard around the world.

    So you can join the revolution and freeze your a$$ off at Valley Forge, or remain a Tory and throw in with the swamp, but efforts to demoralize us with constant attacks on our general are as fruitless as an atheist telling Christians Jesus is a ‘Drag King’ with ‘Queer Desires’.

    Just thought you’d like to know.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  290. It wassn’t even true in 1787. France did not declare war in 1778. Declaring war isa legal act., not a military one. It may cause other acts to go into effect.

    France signed a treaty of assistance that implied recognition of the United States as an independent, sovereign country. If one took the position that this was in fact the state of things, then there was no reason to declare war on Britain.

    Britain (who obviously did not accept that this was the state of things) then declared war on them, triggering the defensive treaty of alliance which was signed at the same time, in anticipation of Britain’s response.

    Regardless, unfettered power to undertake military action is de facto power to declare war. If abused, it would leave Congress with only two unrealistic and unpalatable alternatives: either refuse funding and support for troops already committed to combat, or impeach the president in the midst of ongoing hostilities.

    Dave (445e97)

  291. I actually haven’t used, and wouldn’t use, the phrase “illegal” in describing a war undertaken without Congressional authorization. That implies or suggests that someone, anyone, has standing to go to court seeking judicial relief against the Executive Branch to stop the war. That’s been tried, by activist groups, by congresscritters, and others, without success, because the federal courts take the position that the respective war powers of the Executive and Legislative Branches is not a “justiciable” subject, that is, not a subject that the federal courts will ever undertake to weigh in upon. I strongly support that entire line of precedent.

    Treaty obligations have indeed been used as a claimed basis by the Executive Branch to permit the waging of war without a congressional declaration, most spectacularly when Harry Truman committed U.S. forces to the United Nations’ “police action,” the product of a brief and ill-considered decision by the Soviet Union to boycott the Security Council. I believe Truman acted beyond his constitutional powers, but nobody can sue him or the government for it, the soldiers who died in Korea are still dead, the war still hasn’t been concluded by a formal peace treaty, and we’ve still got U.S. troops there in harm’s way more than half a century later. Congress effectively ceded its war-declaring power without objection, and indeed through dozens of incidental statutes and hundreds of funding authorizations, Congress has blessed it. I’m not marching in the streets calling for Truman’s posthumous impeachment.

    But I still think that George H.W. Bush, in the Gulf War, and George W. Bush, in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, very properly got Congress’ affirmative assent in an on-the-record, heavily and fully debated bicameral institutional decision. They were honoring their oaths, and deserve considerable credit for that which history will give, but most of the American public (including many Republicans with whom I disagree) still deny them, precisely for honoring the Constitution’s allocation of responsibility for declaring and making war.

    (Poppy Bush does have to do a bit of a constitutional tap-dance to cover Panama, as Reagan did to cover Grenada. Again, for both, I’d have preferred to see congressional authorization.)

    Trump’s actions, by contrast, like Obama’s in Libya, like Clinton’s in Kosovo, seem to me to be unquestionably extra-constitutional. But Congress has ample power to push back, and hasn’t. So, again, I don’t intend to take the streets to protest. Unless and until Congress has the appetite to push back, it won’t, and until it does, the POTUS will continue to enjoy more practical power than the Constitution confers upon him.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  292. I think the narciso flap was an over reaction by our host. Narciso said he “recalled” something, that is, relying on memory something said. Pat freaked out and said narciso lied, and demanded an apology for lying, when narciso did not believe he was lying. I mean, recalling a faulty memory isn’t lying.

    Pat could have just said he remembered wrong, corrected him, and moved on. But he didn’t. I think the comments section are the poorer for it.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  293. Funny how OIG report, a small sample of it, comes out and starts documenting the criminality at the FBI and Justice yet …. near silence here.

    Anyway, worst form of FakeNews is in the form of editorial discretion.

    Shep's Social Circle (c587a1)

  294. I’m not drawing a comparison between Jesus and Trump …

    — followed by 331 words doing exactly and explicitly that. Too funny!

    Re the entirely personal, entirely ad hominem, entirely vile attack that a former friend of mine here has made on DRJ: If that is the within the allowed standards of conduct on this blog, I will be very disappointed. I hope our host or his co-bloggers will take note; and I hope any further commenting privileges would be contingent upon a public apology.

    (I’d describe it as “unforgivable” too, for I wouldn’t forgive it, but I don’t have DRJ’s compassion; my vast respect for her continues to grow.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  295. @ Shep’s (#293): I think the reason there’s been not very much discussion in this blog’s comments about the IG’s report on McCabe is that no one here is in any doubt about McCabe’s overwhelming guilt. On recent threads, though, several people have indeed mentioned, linked, and/or quoted from the IG report. I, for one, described it as “crucif[ying] McCabe,” and I think there is little doubt he’s going to end up being prosecuted, and he should be.

    So whatever you’re trying to suggest about the commenting audience here, I think you are mistaken in it.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  296. Wrong Beldar. I didn’t compare Trump to Jesus, I was comparing atheists trying to define what Christians believe and nevertrumpers trying to define what Trump supporters believe.

    Then I went on with a comparison of American revolutions.

    Poor reading comprehension is not funny.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  297. @292. Anything you say, George…

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

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  298. President Trump and Jesus both had a really hard time cause there were lots of haters on both of them, but what they both did is they kept a Positive Attitude.

    This is why they’re good role models cause they demonstrate how much you can accomplish if you just keep smiling and whoops there goes another rubber tree plant!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  299. 193.racist starbucks with its naked hatred of black people is one choice for coffee this morning

    Don’t take your coffee black, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  300. i’m a heavy whip man

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  301. Further @ Shep’s: Among the other comments you apparently missed on other threads, Dave & I agreed that there is substantial reason for public confidence in the FBI and the DoJ to be restored, at least in part, by the extraordinarily professional and thorough investigation into this single unauthorized leak orchestrated by McCabe and then, repeatedly, lied about (including under oath) by McCabe. And you missed my comment to the effect that Trump’s ridiculous tweets about the report — in which the POTUS bizarrely wrote “McCabe was totally controlled by Comey – McCabe is Comey!!” — means that Trump gets an F- in both reading comprehension and impulse control, since in fact the report shows that in a swearing match between Comey and McCabe about whether McCabe ever told Comey that McCabe had authorized the leak, the IG report, after methodical and comprehensive analysis of the direct and circumstantial evidence, credited Comey (on this issue) as being truthful and accused McCabe of lying.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  302. @262. you’re supposing there was an actual gas attack… there wasn’t.

    Sassin’ Trump trash, it’s a gas, gas, gas, eh, Mr.Feet; takes some stones.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  303. All that your comparison is missing, The Bas, is a line about Nero and lions.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  304. @300. i’m a heavy whip man

    Foaming at the mouth, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  305. That comment was unworthy of Hoagie, I agree… a bad day probably and DRJ should get an apology l.

    But you should put into practice what you preach, Beldar. Just because you take a shotgun approach shouldn’t give you a pass. IMHO.

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  306. if you foam your whip it goes further

    i try to get it on sale but even then it’s a pricey little product

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  307. What Beldar said, except that both Grenada and Panama fell under the WPR.

    In the first case Americans were being held hostage and NO ONE will speak against a successful rescue operation, and it would have been ratified after the fact 432-3.

    In the second case, the Panama Canal is of utmost national interest. MAYBE there could have been negotiations and a reserve AUMF like in Iraq (and I hope in Korea later this year). Maybe not — it might just have got them dug in and wasted a lot of lives.

    Where do you draw the line? How about the Mayaguez?

    Kevin M (752a26)

  308. I’m not drawing a comparison between Jesus and Trump, but rather those that don’t support Trump trying to define what his supporters should believe about him. Dave’s continual blathering about Mexico paying for the wall (which I’ve explained doesn’t equate Mexico cutting a check for it at least twice before now) for example.

    Non believers love to point out seeming contradictions in the bible to attack Christians, and nevertrumpers love to point out seeming contradictions in what Trump has said and what he has been able to accomplish to attack Trump supporters. Both are non starters because of differing expectations and the attackers fundamental misunderstanding of the supporters perspective.

    I voted for Trump. I expect him to build a Wall, not to make excuses for not building a Wall. I’m sure Trump is glad you and other first supporters have such low expectations for his abilities and/or assumed from the beginning that he was lying. It took me longer to realize it was all a con.

    DRJ (15874d)

  309. Oddly, if Jimmy Carter hadn’t given back the canal, Bush might not have been willing, or able, to take out Noriega if the canal was not threatened.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  310. I don’t need an apology from Hoagie. I know what it feels like to have a terminal disease and how crummy some days are. Reading and commenting can be a big part of staying connected to life when you are too tired to get out of the house or even to get out of bed.

    There are things that can kill me but words won’t, and I pray Hoagie can find a way to feel better and find peace.

    DRJ (15874d)

  311. As for supporting Trump. I do, for moderate values of support. I want to see him change the things he said he would change. So far he hasn’t done squat, but he has also been confronted with a full court press and what appears to be an attempt to deny him meaningful executive power. I have called this a refusal to transfer power; that might be overstating it, but not by much.

    But Trump today, at age 71, is a pretty awful leader. I don’t know shy quite — the man you see in discussions from twenty years ago seems like a reasonable, thinking individual. But the guy today is intemperate in manner, reactive in action, and often thoughtless in detail. He lies about what happened yesterday on film. He is a man with no civility or class.

    It is hard to support such a person. I don’t know if his seeming incompetence and boorish behavior is just how he is, or whether he is suffering from some disease. Alzheimer’s can produce this kind of change, along with short-term memory loss. One would hope that his cabinet would act if this was true, but who knows.

    I did not vote for either Trump or Hillary. To me the election was, on a scale of 1 to 10, a fight between a “1” and a “2”. I doubt I’ll ever see two political “10s” fight it out (e.g. Clancy’s Jack Ryan versus the West Wing’s Josiah Bartlett), but I can hope for better than this.

    So, yes, I support Trump’s announced agenda. I wish he did, too.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  312. @308- I did not assume he was lying. My expectations were not low with regard to his efforts, which he has been trying, but tempered by the fact he is president, not dictator, and has to deal with the treacherous GOP congress (not to mention the dems). He has not given up on the wall, and neither have I. Do you give him credit for placing nation guard at the border until the wall can be done?

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  313. what about Mr. narciso if we gonna do forgive on people (like Jesus says) why can’t we forgive Mr. narciso too

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  314. 305.That comment was unworthy of Hoagie, I agree… a bad day probably and DRJ should get an apology l.

    But you should put into practice what you preach, Beldar. Just because you take a shotgun approach shouldn’t give you a pass. IMHO.
    Colonel Haiku (b63958) — 4/15/2018 @ 3:13 pm

    310.I don’t need an apology from Hoagie. I know what it feels like to have a terminal disease and how crummy some days are. Reading and commenting can be a big part of staying connected to life when you are too tired to get out of the house or even to get out of bed.

    There are things that can kill me but words won’t, and I pray Hoagie can find a way to feel better and find peace.
    DRJ (15874d) — 4/15/2018 @ 3:26 pm


    What comment did I make so horrible I need to apologize? BTW, I feel fine, I just need lungs and I am quite at peace. What the hell are you nudniks talking about?

    Rev.Hoagie (1b0402)

  315. Kevin, I don’t know how you can say he has done squat. That just isn’t true.

    As for his temperament, I’m sure you are familiar with the Kurt Schlichter approach of making the left play by their own rules, I believe that is what Trump is doing. Romney as called a Nazi too, playing the W. Bush blue blood painfully polite statesman roll was only getting the right rolled. As a famous man said , punch back twice as hard.

    But you know all this.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  316. It was teh one about the funny hat, Hoagie. But since she said she doesn’t need an apology…

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  317. Rev, I believe they are taking exception to your 223.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  318. Do you give him credit for placing nation guard at the border until the wall can be done?

    Of course, but it’s nothing new. Obama and Bush both did it, especially Bush. Texas National Guard troops have been assisting in the Valley almost continuously since 9/11. Texas has a border problem. That’s why I want a Wall, not just political promises or excuses.

    DRJ (15874d)

  319. Beldar@119

    In case y’all didn’t snap to the significance of Kimba Wood ordering Cohen to appear in person on Monday morning:

    She’s going to ask him to tell her, under oath, about all the relevant facts to support his lawyer’s sworn declaration.

    And in case you had any lingering doubts about whether Trump has turned America into a bad reality TV show or not, guess who’s going to be there in court to watch?

    Dave (445e97)

  320. I’m glad you are doing well, Hoagie. Sometimes your comments suggest a hostility or anger that says otherwise.

    DRJ (15874d)

  321. Beldar @294: If that is the within the allowed standards of conduct on this blog, I will be very disappointed.

    Beldar must hate the sort of personal attack seen @18. Actually, @18 is his comment. Typical Beldar.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  322. What the Bas said about Trump and Trumpkins is true about any idol and its idolaters. Including the comparison with Jesus and Christians — to an idolater his idol is what Jesus is to Christians. And it should not be a surprise to anyone that Trumpkins worship Trump, he is their god, and nothing he does or anything anyone says is going to shake their faith.

    Om Mani Trumpdme Hum
    Hum Trumpdne Mani Om

    nk (dbc370)

  323. Just need lungs, like it’s a minor concern…

    I hope and pray that happens soon, Hoagie!

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  324. My suspicion is that the raid on Cohen’s office is more related to his suit against GPS Fusion than it is against anything else. A correspondent shares my belief:

    This is an old story that’s been completely debunked. The claim that Cohen traveled to Prague was part of the Steele “dossier” that was put out by Fusion GPS = The Hillary Campaign. It turns out that there is more than one Michael Cohen in the world — yes, imagine that! A different Michael Cohen went to Prague. And that’s where things get interesting.

    Have you ever tried to access the travel records of another person? Yeah, good luck with that, right?​ Well, then, how did Fusion GPS manage to do that? It turns out, via a FISA Court report, that the FBI employed “private contractors” who weren’t cleared and gave them extensive access to government records. Yep. Fusion GPS was a “private contractor,” meaning the FBI had given them access to just about everything in order to do oppo research for Hillary. Are you comfortable with that? Fusion GPS’s big mistake in keeping this from coming out is that they didn’t check to make sure they had the right Michael Cohen and went with the attempted smear.

    So, what does Michael Cohen do? In very early January of this year he filed a defamation law suit against Fusion GPS! Uh oh! Imagine the stuff he’s gonna be asking for in discovery! What happens next? Mueller’s jackbooted FBI break down the doors to every place associated with Cohen, seize all his records, and start leaking accusations against him.

    Does this sound like the whole Mueller operation is really just a coverup for Hillary and the Deep State? It does to me.

    this is interesting, how corrupt the FBI has become

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  325. I mean when a douchebag like David Crosby is on his 11th liver, seems reasonable that a productive, job creating citizen could catch a break.

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  326. “And it should not be a surprise to anyone that Trumpkins worship Trump, he is their god, and nothing he does or anything anyone says is going to shake their faith.”

    I call bullschiff on this strident nonsense.

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  327. Whatever nk, I “worship” Trump exactly like you were worshipping Bush when you (I presume) defended him against leftist attacks in 2003.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  328. President Trump isn’t like Jesus where you can worship him at a church

    he’s more like Madonna where you watch them on youtube and just kinda keep a warm spot for them in your heart

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  329. I’m with you, Colonel. There is a long, long list of people who deserve health problems more than Hoagie.

    Hoagie, I hope you get the transplant soon. Truly.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  330. This is when narciso was moderated. Narciso asserted “I recall it was a series of posts including one that turned to be false about hope hicks,” The problem was not a faulty recollection but a specific assertion that Patterico said something false.

    DRJ (15874d)

  331. There is a long, long list of people who deserve health problems more than Hoagie.

    That’s sick.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  332. Whatever nk, I “worship” Trump exactly like you were worshipping Bush when you (I presume) defended him against leftist attacks in 2003.

    The difference is that Bush deserved to be defended and Trump does not.

    Bush is a good man. Trump is an evil man.

    Trump’s cultists are willfully blind to that crucial distinction.

    Dave (445e97)

  333. does idiot lickspittle Trey Gowdy really not understand how flying first class works?

    You don’t understand, at least. First class boards first, and then everyone else files past them to get to their own seat in coach/economy class.
    But I suspect Gowdy also flies first class, since last row of the plane is worse: that’s where everyone stands waiting for their turn in the loo.

    Kishnevi (37d538)

  334. Reasonable disagreement with what Trump has done/ is doing is one thing, but when it is liberally – pun intended – peppered with juvenile insults, half truths, droning hypocrisy, etc., it’s easy to tune it out.

    Colonel Haiku (b63958)

  335. i just don’t see any meanspiritedness there on the part of Mr. narciso DRJ

    he’s a gentle soul

    like a, wise and ancient turtle

    he stays mostly in his shell,

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  336. @310. Well played, DRJ. Grumpy anger is a sign of fight in life. Here’s to Hoagie getting what he deserves ASAP. He’s on a list and he’s had a rough spring.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  337. DRJ, so was he lying, or mistaken in his recollection. There is a difference.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  338. @ Dave (#319): Thanks for that link. I’d be there myself if I were within two hours of New York, I expect the entertainment value to be top-notch.

    One of Cohen’s lawyers, by the way — Stephen M. Ryan of the Washington office of Chicago-based McDermott, Will & Emery — is one of those people who actually signs his own letters with “Esq.” in the signature block.

    I routinely use “Esq.” on inside addresses of correspondence to other lawyers (male or female) as a mark of respect to them. I’ve never met a lawyer who uses that abbreviation for him- or herself, however, who’s not a complete and insufferable jerk. Perhaps he’s really a swell fellow who’s not at all self-impressed; I suppose that’s another reason I wish I could attend the hearing.

    As of 7pm Eastern, there’s nothing new up on PACER. I’ll be checking later tonight, though, to see if President Trump’s lawyer turns in her during-the-weekend homework assignment on time.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  339. First class boards first

    first class has the privilege of boarding first but you can also hang out in a vip lounge and board after economy gets done (that’s what Madonna does)

    and then at the end you can be first off the plane and the economy never knew you were there

    if you sit at the back like idiot Gowdy suggests, you’re trapped like a hamster in a habitrail and it’s no good cause there’s only one exit and now you have like a hundred people between you anrd the door

    this isn’t even a hard problem where you need the RAND Corp to do a study

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  340. between you *and* the door i mean

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  341. Bush is a good man. Trump is an evil man.

    That may well be, but it has nothing to do with the shallow need to disparage and label those who disagree with you as “cultists” or caricature them as Trumpkins/Deplorables.

    Labels and epithets are the specialty of the Left, because they have no rational argument — just like you.

    random viking (6a54c2)

  342. As far as I recall, all Patrick asked was that narciso say he was sorry for falsely accusing him.

    I’m surprised he didn’t do it, but on the other hand, if he isn’t sorry, he shouldn’t say he is.

    Dave (445e97)

  343. nk, the Trumpnik parallel is more precisely
    trump mani padme hum
    hum padme mani trump

    Trump jewel in the lotus of enlightenment

    Kishnevi (37d538)

  344. And it’s more euphonious as well. Thank you, Kishnevi.

    nk (dbc370)

  345. 342.As far as I recall, all Patrick asked was that narciso say he was sorry for falsely accusing him. I’m surprised he didn’t do it, but on the other hand, if he isn’t sorry, he shouldn’t say he is.

    Perhaps N did and P simply couldn’t decode what he wrote– hence P quilled a sentence for him in ‘Earth English.’ N may not be able to understand it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  346. The difference is that Bush deserved to be defended and Trump does not.

    Bush is a good man. Trump is an evil man.

    Substitute Bush for Obama and Trump for Bush, and that’s the position of the left.

    It’s a worthless argument as far as I’m concerned. I’m supporting an agenda. MAGA.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  347. If I were Cohen’s lawyer, my advice to him for tomorrow would be: “Claim the Fifth and bring a toothbrush.”

    Although I don’t think they really let you keep your own toothbrush anymore, even in the holding cells in a federal courthouse.

    I’ve heard that “You’d better bring a toothbrush to that hearing”-type warning among Texas trial lawyers for more than 40 years now. I don’t know if it’s as common a short-hand elsewhere. I don’t recall hearing any of my NY litigation partners using it during the four years I was in the Houston office of a NY firm, but that could be because they almost never went to trial, or even really serious hearings, anyway. Do trial lawyers talk about bringing a toothbrush in Chicago, nk?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  348. @335. like a, wise and ancient turtle he stays mostly in his shell

    In the soup of late, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  349. Oops, Bush for Trump I meant.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  350. @319. And in case you had any lingering doubts about whether Trump has turned America into a bad reality TV show or not, guess who’s going to be there in court to watch?

    Throwing some curves his way, eh Dave. Do hope she wears a push-up bra; every inch the lady in waiting.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  351. @ kish (#343): I agree with nk, that’s very euphonious! I’m not enough of a student of comparative religion/philosophy to categorize it with any confidence, but it made me think of the Buddha, which made me think of the big statues of the Buddha that passers-by rub on the belly for luck, which made me think of Trump and people rubbing his belly as they file past, at which point I decided that the best way to banish that image was to write about it here.

    I apologize, though, for inflicting it on Kish & everyone else here as the price for banishing it from my own thoughts.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  352. Strike 349, I had it right the first time!

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  353. Okay, that didn’t work. I may have to add “Beldar” to my blocker-script.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  354. Labels and epithets are the specialty of the Left, because they have no rational argument — just like you.

    Except that I had just made a rational argument, which you conceded.

    Cultism and cultish behavior is a real thing, and Trump’s most devoted followers demonstrate clear signs of it, as nk observed.

    That’s why I use the term instead of “Trumpkin” or “Trumpalo” – it is an accurate, if perhaps unflattering description.

    I also avoid calling individual commenters names and lying about them, as you did.

    Are you truly claiming that “the Left” has a monopoly on “labels and epithets”?

    Dave (445e97)

  355. Do trial lawyers talk about bringing a toothbrush in Chicago, nk?

    Your quote does not strike me as unfamiliar, Beldar, but that’s the extent of my awareness of it.

    nk (dbc370)

  356. stormy could use the toothbrush on her funguses

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  357. RIP – R Lee Ermey

    harkin (379712)

  358. @339. First class boards first

    Before handicapped and disabled, Mr Feet? On Aeroflot, perhaps.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  359. i was quoting Mr. kish

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  360. @359. Believe he’s a Floridian, Mr. Feet; he should know better ’bout how those snow birds fly.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  361. Internet researcher @tracybeanz reports something very interesting she dug up in the OIG report on Andrew McCabe.

    Then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was apparently using the threat of indictments in the Eric Garner case to strongarm the NYPD over the contents of Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

    As @tracybeanz details, there were contemporaneous reports of this, which now in the light of the OIG report on McCabe have taken on new significance, corroborating the OIG report and providing details about the laptop’s contents.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  362. What’s your major malfunction, harkin!?! I was gonna post that. I enjoyed him in so many roles. RIP, indeed.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  363. I have brought a motion for a protective order very similar to Cohen’s TRO application in response to a subpoena duces tecum for a client file. It was three pages long (not 27); affirmatively worded with everything in the indicative; signed only by me as an attorney; and my only “weaseling” was writing “alternatively we request an in camera inspection by the court” instead of “if you don’t believe me, let’s have an in camera inspection”. The party withdrew the subpoena.

    nk (dbc370)

  364. @339. First class boards first

    Before handicapped and disabled, Mr Feet? On Aeroflot, perhaps.

    “First class passengers can board at any time”. Literal quote. In-between the guy in the wheelchair and the baby in the carrier or after the last standby.

    nk (dbc370)

  365. Sacre bleu!

    Macron says he ‘convinced’ Trump to stay in Syria ahead of strikes

    “Ten days ago, President Trump said the USA’s will is to disengage from Syria. We convinced him that it was necessary to stay,” Macron said during a two-hour televised interview with several French media outlets.

    Macron said France also convinced Trump that the strikes had to be limited to suspected chemical weapons sites.

    Monsieur le President is likely to learn that telling the truth about Monsieur le Flocon de Neige has negative repercussions.

    More evidence that Donald Trump is not the President of the United States. The last person Donald Trump spoke to or saw on teevee is the President of the United States.

    Dave (445e97)

  366. Dave: Cultism and cultish behavior is a real thing, and Trump’s most devoted followers demonstrate clear signs of it, as nk observed.

    Except that you don’t confine it his “most devoted followers”.

    Are you truly claiming that “the Left” has a monopoly on “labels and epithets”?

    No, as I never stated that. Stop lying.

    random viking (35f753)

  367. *to his

    random viking (35f753)

  368. and now the snowflakes are here in chicago

    pretty anemic though

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  369. Anything can become a label or epithet. I discussed it recently with my daughter about the r-word. It used to be imbecile. Then around 1890 someone thought the Greek word for baby, moron, would be kinder and gentler. Then that became an epithet and the r-word was the new kinder and gentler one. Now, she tells me, kids at her school tell each other “You’re mentally challenged”. Facepalm.

    nk (dbc370)

  370. nk linked the CNN satellite pics of before and after battle damage assessments.

    Syria and Russia claimed our forces launched 100 or more missles and yet there is very discrete and specific results. Three targets, a lab, and two weapons bunkers, obliterated. The one complex is in a cul – de – sac, with dense residential areas on three sides.

    No collateral damage is apparent.

    It’s obvious someone is lying. And that someone eats borshe and or has no chin.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  371. Except that you don’t confine it his “most devoted followers”.

    By definition, it applies to who it applies to. I’ve rarely, if ever, attached the description to any specific person here.

    No, as I never stated that. Stop lying.

    So you didn’t write:

    Labels and epithets are the specialty of the Left

    Dave (445e97)

  372. @364. Let’s run it by Scotty Pruitt. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  373. 369.Anything can become a label or epithet.

    Like ‘Yankee fan,’ ‘hockey puck’ or ‘happyfeet.’ 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  374. Yes, Dave I wrote A and not B. Your claim that I wrote B is a lie.

    Your lying is becoming some kind of cult.

    random viking (35f753)

  375. Then that became an epithet and the r-word was the new kinder and gentler one. Now, she tells me, kids at her school tell each other “You’re mentally challenged”.

    I once heard somebody lambasted for being homophobic because they used “gay” (as in “that’s gay”) as a pejorative.

    A few minutes later, the lambaster used “lame” (as in “that’s lame”) in the same way, and I asked them why they hated the handicapped.

    After they insisted “that’s dumb” I was forced to point out their insensitivity to the speech-impaired…

    Dave (445e97)

  376. Yes, Dave I wrote A and not B. Your claim that I wrote B is a lie.

    No, random viking, you did say B (“B” being “labels and epithets are the specialty of the Left”), at comment #341.

    Chuck Bartowski (211c17)

  377. 372… let’s not and say we did. Check with Eric Holder, DCSCA… http://www.nydailynews.com/amp/news/national/holder-cost-taxpayers-millions-travel-expenses-article-1.1418455

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  378. Chuck, get a clue before chiming in.

    Dave @354:Are you truly claiming that “the Left” has a monopoly on “labels and epithets”?

    That is the B I refer to.

    random viking (35f753)

  379. Just who gets buried in Comey’s Tome? Jimbo comes off less a Joe Friday and more a Frank Drebin.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  380. Yes, Dave I wrote A and not B. Your claim that I wrote B is a lie.

    I claimed nothing. I asked a question about what you were claiming, and you got extremely defensive.

    Your lying is becoming some kind of cult.

    Stop projecting. I haven’t made any false statements. I wanted you to acknowledge that both Left and Right use labels and epithets, and you did so.

    Dave (445e97)

  381. nk linked the CNN satellite pics of before and after battle damage assessments.

    ‘Twarnt me.

    nk (dbc370)

  382. RIP Gunny Hartmann

    Hand salute, ……….. Ready two.

    E.Lee Emrey so embodied the roll that I’m sure when new recruits arrive at MCRD San Diego or Paris Island they feel like they’ve been cheated when they get picked up by their actual drill instructor.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  383. ‘Twarnt you, nk?

    My bad. It was Dave. (You all look the same)

    Here’s the naked battle damage assessment CNN link.

    So Ivan is a big fat liar. Not above playing fast and loose in order to muddy Trump’s America.

    If there were actually a case to be made with regard to collusion and all Putin would have to do is tell inconvenient truth, that would have been done already.

    Cut back on government waste. Fire Mueller.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  384. But you know all this.

    If by “know” you mean “disagree with”, then yes.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  385. I did say a couple of days ago that it’s France’s war, and that Hollande sucked in Obama and it looks like Macaroon has sucked in Trump now. You know that it was France who sucked JFK into Vietnam as well, right?

    nk (dbc370)

  386. @377. =Haiku= Gesundheit!

    “Angry. Helpless.” – Jimmy Porter [Richard Burton] ‘Look Back In Anger’ 1959

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  387. tempered by the fact he is president, not dictator, and has to deal with the treacherous GOP congress

    Ronald Reagan fought and won the Cold War, turned 15% inflation into stable money, started the economy on a 20 year boom, transformed America from a statist bureaucracy to an entrepreneurial powerhouse, and opened up the world’s markets to capitalism without firing a shot.

    All this with the Democrats controlling the House and Bob Dole fighting every step of the way in the Senate.

    Stop the whining. Trump hasn’t the wit to play in this league, which is why I say he’s a terrible leader. If he COULD lead, instead of trying to ride a horse sideways, he’d have started his Wall, been filling the courts, have gotten the Senate to confirm his appointees or nuke the rules until the Dems stopped their games, and been on his way to identifying and sending home the recently-arrived illegals at the very least.

    But he has done none of these things. ALl he has done is screamed and yelled. IF you think he’s getting re-elected, or even re-nominated for this performance, you’re smoking that stuff now legal in 12 states.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  388. As directed, President Trump’s lawyer timely filed a letter regarding the Intervenor’s position on Michael Cohen’s application for a TRO. And as promised, here it is for you, readers of Patterico’s Pontifications, hot off of PACER for SDNY. Eight pages; I’m reading them now, and I know everyone will be very surprised, but I might have comments.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  389. I did say a couple of days ago that it’s France’s war, and that Hollande sucked in Obama and it looks like Macaroon has sucked in Trump now. You know that it was France who sucked JFK into Vietnam as well, right?

    That makes sense. But it suits Trump to go along for domestic reasons.

    There’s no collusion with the Russians – still – in vivid graphic bang bang – so obvious even a democrat can’t lie about it without BLM boycotting their business.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  390. Beldar must hate the sort of personal attack seen @18. Actually, @18 is his comment. Typical Beldar.

    I’ve said worse about (that pedophile) hf, because he’s deserved worse for his trademark asshattery.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  391. You know that it was France who sucked JFK into Vietnam as well, right?

    It’s getting a little out of date, but I still highly recommend

    Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America’s Disastrous Relationship with France
    (Patterico-friendly Amazon link!)

    (The title refers to the French-led massacre of 56 Americans in the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704)

    Dave (445e97)

  392. @385. … it looks like Macaroon has sucked in Trump now.

    “I, love a parade…”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOfYnVLu9uQ

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  393. we should have a special be nice to happyfeet day

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  394. Bush is a good man. Trump is an evil man.

    Trump evil? It’s always a comfort to assign malice to people we don’t like — it makes our hate virtuous. If I were assigning a D&D character to Trump it would be chaotic good or maybe chaotic neutral. Chaotic evil is like Stalin or Idi Amin. I think people suffer from extreme perspective loss when discussing Trump. TDS affects both sides badly.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  395. Doing squat

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  396. That filing is compelling. Unless there is some obvious urgency, formal and careful judicial review of any potential disputed evidence is the paramount consideration. The proposed order is reasonable.

    Ed from SFV (4f3559)

  397. Thank you for the link, Beldar.

    I haven’t researched this myself but assuming counsel’s arguments and citations are accurate, I find it persuasive. I think the first review of copies of the seized documents should be done by the client.

    Do you know if there are any other clients who have come forward to assert privilege, or is Trump the only one?

    DRJ (15874d)

  398. You did call it, nk. Who knew the French could be so persuasive? Did they bring wine?

    DRJ (15874d)

  399. Bad enough we have to put up with psychotic demands of the American democrat mobs, do we really have to import French mob rule?

    How does one say [edit] off in French?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  400. @398. Did they bring wine?

    Our Captain doesn’t drink, DRJ. It’s the cheese; anything cheesy catches out Captain’s eye.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  401. WND. InfoWars. Gateway Pundit. Conservative Nuthouse.

    Four places not to source “information” from if you want it taken as fact.

    Kevin M (752a26)

  402. I imagine reminding the Frenchman that Spanish speakers outnumber French speakers in the Americas 10,000,000 to one would do the trick.

    Los hispanohablantes superan a los francófonos 10 millones a uno en las Américas.

    or if you prefer,

    Les locuteurs espagnols sont plus nombreux que les locuteurs Français 10 millions à 1 dans les Amériques.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  403. some french people are really nice

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  404. I don’t know about you, Beldar, but I find that letter most impressive. Better than I could have written on such short notice. Now if Judge Wood is the kind of judge who reads more than the first two lines of a pleading ….

    nk (dbc370)

  405. Better than I could have written on such short notice.

    Better than I could have written with all the time in the world.

    nk (dbc370)

  406. it is a superlatively impressive letter

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  407. Graphic presented by Chris Wallace during his interview of Nikki Haley .

    Syrian refugees to America by year

    2016….. 125,000

    2018….. 11

    That’s in part because of spottily applied travel bans, but mostly, in fact overwhelmingly due to Assad’s troops winning the war against the islamist terrorists.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  408. here’s an article about it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  409. 403.some french people are really nice

    Comme ci, comme ça, Mr. Feet; they loved Louis Armstrong, but then there’s that Jerry Lewis thing.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  410. Okay, first impressions of Trump’s lawyer’s homework assignment:

    (1) Not included, yet, on PACER is whatever document, if there was one, that lawyer Hendon filed with the Clerk to effectuate her client’s intervention. There is a very short order from Judge Wood reciting that “[t]he Court grants the application of President Trump to intervene in this proceeding” and there’s a corresponding listing for Ms. Hendon and her firm as counsel for “Intervenor President Donald J. Trump” on the docket sheet. This leaves me wondering whether there is a written motion or application on file but still under seal.

    The reason I raise this again is that Ms. Hendon’s letter-brief, as e-filed within the last couple of hours, simply assumes without explanation or comment that Trump does indeed have a legitimate interest in intervening.

    And he does — if but only if he is indeed at risk of a compelled disclosure in violation of attorney-client privilege he has with Cohen. But the extent of that interest, justifying Trump’s intervention, depends very much on what matters, if any, Trump has had confidential attorney-client communications with Cohen. It must be spelled out to evaluate any privilege claims, as a threshold matter. Cohen has publicly suggested, for example, that with respect to his $130k hush-money payoff to the porn star, he wasn’t acting as an attorney for Trump with Trump’s actual and knowing authority; it’s an assertion that he’s almost surely going to backtrack upon, but it may matter a whole lot.

    What should have been either in an initial application to intervene or else attached to this letter-brief was something specific and factual indicating the nature and duration of the claimed attorney-client relationship. There are ridiculously vague and almost certainly overbroad assertions about such a relationship between Cohen and Trump in the TRO application that Cohen’s lawyers filed, but again, there are no specifics, and — as Judge Wood apparently noticed — the sworn declaration of one of Cohen’s lawyers doesn’t purport to be based on personal knowledge.

    This letter briefly completely ignores these issues. If they haven’t been addressed separately already, perhaps in an intervention application that’s still under complete seal and therefore not on PACER, expect Judge Wood to press very hard for more clarity and precision on these issues immediately, under oath, from a witness with personal knowledge, i.e., either Cohen himself or Trump himself, at least by affidavit if not live testimony.

    (2) The letter-brief is well-polished and includes lots of research and citations. But I don’t think it’s intellectually honest, and I don’t think it’s persuasive. In particular, I believe it affirmatively mis-describes the role of the “filter team” (aka “taint team”) in the set-up prescribed by the US Attorneys’ Manual and already set up by SDNY in compliance therewith. In particular, the entire letter-brief is premised on the assertion that Cohen and his clients (including Trump) will have no opportunity to timely object before the regular prosecutors get to see something that the filter team has decided to be both response and non-privileged. To the contrary, here’s what SDNY has already said (on page 6) in its response to Cohen’s application:

    To be clear, under no circumstances will a potentially privileged document or a document potentially subject to the crime-fraud exception be provided to or described to the Investigative Team without the consent of the privilege holder or his/her counsel, or the court’s approval. If the Filter Team is unable to clarify a document’s category, or if there is an exception to the privilege that applies to particular material, such as the crime-fraud exception, or any waiver of the privilege – the Filter Team will (1) confer with counsel for the privilege holder at the appropriate time and before any such material is shared with the Investigative Team and, if no agreement can be reached, submit the material under seal to an appropriate court for a determination as to whether the material is privileged; (2) bring the document to a court for resolution, including by seeking an ex parte determination if appropriate; or (3) if the document is of obviously minimal probative value, place the document into the “Privileged” category as a means of efficiently completing the review.

    In other words, most of Ms. Herndon’s letter brief is devoted to demanding an effective preservation of its right to be heard by the court before anyone on the Investigative Team actually has access to a document that’s arguably subject to attorney-client privilege, but the SDNY says it’s already ensured that they will indeed have that opportunity.

    One way or another, I’m confident Judge Wood will preserve such an opportunity through one means or another; she may tweak what SDNY has set up, or formally re-affirm in an order some safeguard mechanisms that SDNY is already willing to agree to.

    (3) Which gets to the most important observation, the relief sought through this letter-brief, in the Conclusion section on page 8: Trump’s lawyers are not asking Judge Wood to force SDNY to immediately disgorge all copies of the seized materials and return them to Cohen, for Cohen’s lawyers to review. That’s what Cohen’s lawyers originally sought in their correspondence to SDNY before filing the TRO application. But apparently, no one tomorrow is going to be asking for the immediate disgorgement and return of all copies.

    Accordingly, although I still expect there to be some uncomfortable moments for Cohen, his lawyers, and Trump’s lawyers, I expect that Judge Wood is going to end up agreeing to the use of the “filter team” to make an initial pass, as SDNY wants. I expect she’ll order that the filter team make a complete set of the materials for Cohen’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers to begin reviewing simultaneously, for purposes of constructing a privilege log. And I expect that she’ll designate either a magistrate judge or a special master to supervise a very rigorous process by which Trump’s lawyers will have to establish the very specific bases of their privilege objections on a document-by-document basis, for initial resolution by the magistrate subject to immediate and plenary review by Judge Wood.

    There is no universe in which she orders SDNY to give all the documents and all copies back before the end of that process.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  411. I expect she’ll order that the filter team make a complete set of the materials for Cohen’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers to begin reviewing simultaneously

    that’s gonna cost like a million dollars

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  412. Not facts you are interested in hearing anyway…

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  413. One of the things the letter-brief gets exactly bass-ackwards, for example, is that it asks that SDNY have to object to Trump’s privilege designations. No, no, no — the burden of objecting is on the party asserting the privilege. The burden of establishing entitlement to claim the privilege is on the party asserting it. This is very basic and fundamental; it is the kind of detail about privilege law that I recall personally discussing with Kimba Wood in the joint defense agreement we both worked on back in the 1980s, so I know she is attuned to this kind of thing. She’s going to shake her head and sigh with disappointment when she reads it from the lawyer for the POTUS.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  414. Trump evil? It’s always a comfort to assign malice to people we don’t like — it makes our hate virtuous.

    Bragging about sexual assault and peeping at naked little girls, cruelly mocking the handicapped, insulting PoWs, advocating severe forms of torture and summary executions, serial lying. Yeah, nothing evil there.

    If I were assigning a D&D character to Trump it would be chaotic good or maybe chaotic neutral.

    The key facet of Good in D&D (and arguably in life) is placing the welfare of others above one’s own.

    Chaotic evil is like Stalin or Idi Amin.

    Stalin, leader of a murderous police state, is the very definition of lawful evil.

    Trump is (fortunately) limited by the institutional safeguards against people like him. Until he and his followers succeed in their quest to destroy those, he will necessarily have less freedom of action than a Stalin or an Amin.

    Nevertheless, he argued passionately for adopting extreme forms of physical torture (“a helluva lot worse than waterboarding”) as standard operating procedure, and for murdering the wives, mothers and children of suspected terrorists in cold blood. There’s every reason to believe that in a world where he had unfettered power to order such things, he would.

    I think people suffer from extreme perspective loss when discussing Trump.

    Where I come from, a man who boasts of sexually abusing women, dreams of mutilating helpless prisoners and advocates murdering innocent children is evil. Might want to check your own perspective.

    Dave (445e97)

  415. How does one say [edit] off in French?

    Va te faire foutre. (literally: go get yourself done)

    But for nk:

    Va te faire enculer chez les Grecs.

    Dave (445e97)

  416. Here’s a hypothetical, for purposes of illustration. Assume for purposes of argument that among the data seized from Cohen’s office was a digital recording of him and Donald J. Trump on the phone together back in 2016 in which Trump says to Cohen, “I want you to make it clear to Stormy Daniels that we expect her to lie under oath as a condition for getting this money, whether it’s written in the NDA or not, and I want you to make sure she knows that I know people who could make her just disappear if she ever tells the truth on the witness stand.”

    This would be a communication between lawyer and client intended to facilitate a crime, hence subject to the crime-fraud exception.

    Suppose instead in the recording, Trump says to Cohen, “What do you think the odds are that we could ever get a money judgment against Stormy Daniels for $1M for each separate occasion on which she speaks in public in violation of the NDA she signed back in 2016? Isn’t a court likely to hold that that’s too unrelated to my real, if difficult to quantify, reputational damage, and that it’s a badly disguised punishment, and hence it’s unconscionable and unenforceable as a liquidated damages clause?” (I know, he could never construct a sentence that complicated, but we’re pretending, so bear with me.)

    This would be a communication between lawyer and client intended to facilitate the seeking and receiving of legal advice. Doesn’t matter that it’s about something that’s entirely a civil-law matter; attorney-client privilege isn’t limited to advice about criminal jeopardy (or my job would be a whole lot different on a daily basis, I assure you).

    The SDNY proposes that the Filter Team be the first to listen to either of those hypothetical digital recordings. Presumably the Filter Team would say, as to the first one: “We think this isn’t privileged, because even though it’s between lawyer and client and connected with a legal matter on which the lawyer is rendering legal advice and services, it’s being used to facilitate and complete a crime and a fraud.” Trump could then challenge the Filter Team’s categorization of that document, and assert a privilege claim specific as to it, along with whatever arguments they might have to try to avoid the crime-fraud exception. The magistrate or a special master would review that, also listen to the recording, and rule accordingly; the loser could ask Judge Wood to reconsider that ruling. Only if the rulings all go against Trump first will the Investigatory Team get to hear that recording.

    But as to the second recording, the Filter Team should say to themselves, “Hmm, yeah, this is clearly privileged, let’s agree that it should be included on the list of things we’re not fighting over and that we’ll never, therefore, even ask permission to show to the Investigatory Team.” And if the Filter Team doesn’t do that — if Mueller is mind-controlling them, or relaying Rosenstein’s mind-control, or however that’s supposed to work — Trump’s lawyers will still have opportunity to object and prove up privilege before the Investigatory Team ever hears that recording.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  417. Bragging about sexual assault and peeping at naked little girls, cruelly mocking the handicapped, insulting PoWs, advocating severe forms of torture and summary executions, serial lying. Yeah, nothing evil there.

    Evil assertions born of severe political bias all. Not supported by evidence.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  418. Nice of them to recognize us as the superior lovers.

    Μα δεν δινω φραγκο.

    nk (dbc370)

  419. a man who boasts of sexually abusing women, dreams of mutilating helpless prisoners and advocates murdering innocent children is evil

    Or, alternatively, a man who accurately characterizes groupies in a private conversation, is willing to do what it takes to prevent mass murder by a terrorist, and acknowledges the realities of war is not evil unless you hate him.

    I bet if all your words spoken in private were played back, people that hate you would find reason to call you evil too.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  420. I’m also a little surprised (and, again, professionally disappointed) that the letter-brief from Ms. Herndon didn’t even mention the possibility that there might be additional privileges – besides attorney-client — that Trump might have grounds to assert. Attorney work-product is an obvious one. Executive privilege, in a conversation with Cohen, is hard to imagine being applicable, but not hard to imagine Trump trying to assert anyway. If Trump’s lawyers already have any kind of joint defense/mutual interest agreement with, say, Manafort’s lawyers, that conceivably might be triggered (although there’s no suggestion that Cohen has given criminal defense advice to Trump; he’s more likely, it seems, to be involved as a co-conspirator than a lawyer on anything involving the Rooskies or Ukraine). Regardless, as a matter of form, they should be stressing that there may be multiple privileges at risk of being violated by compelled disclosure.

    DRJ, you asked about other clients, and as I mentioned, the POTUS’ letter-brief doesn’t mention them. If I were Trump’s lawyers, though, I would have called a Come-to-Jesus meeting Friday night in which I told Cohen’s lawyers to get on the stick and make sure every single other arguable client of Michael Cohen had a cooperative (meaning: paid by Trump, or the Trump Foundation, or someone on Team Trump) lawyer willing to file #metoo joinders in everything Trump’s lawyers file on behalf of Trump.

    The problem with that, of course, as the just resigned RNC guy can tell us all, is that being known to have had Michael Cohen as your lawyer may be the kiss of death for any public figure.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  421. Bragging about sexual assault and peeping at naked little girls,

    I find the evidence scant about that, but the rest
    cruelly mocking the handicapped, insulting PoWs, advocating severe forms of torture and summary executions, serial lying
    I’ve heard with my own ears.

    And no, I don’t think Trump was confessing that he grabs Hollywood floozies by the pussy. I think he was making an accurate assessment of what kind of women they are. Which begs the question: What’s a person who wants to be President doing hanging around people like that for most of his life?

    nk (dbc370)

  422. I’ll bet that Trump himself, and an overwhelming majority of the folks he’s trying to rile up, think his lawyers are still asking to force all the materials seized under the search warrant to be immediately returned to Cohen.

    I’ll bet they don’t grasp that both Cohen’s lawyers and Trump’s lawyers have already folded their tents on that.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  423. 415.How does one say [edit] off in French?

    De Gaulle.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  424. What’s a person who wants to be President doing hanging around people like that for most of his life?

    see this is another thing him and Jesus have in common

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  425. Shouldn’t POW’s be singular, as in one John McCain? Which, I’m sorry, he needs insulting.

    the Bas (99ba6b)

  426. Excellent points, Beldar. You’ve clearly done this before.

    My feeling is that the Court may be inclined to follow the procedure used in In re Stewart (Martha!), which the letter brief suggests is the only controlling authority from the SDNY. It appears that case involved copies to both the taint team and Stewart’s attorneys, a letter agreement outlining how they would proceed, and the special master or the judge resolving any conflicts. (They still had problems.)

    DRJ (15874d)

  427. Thank you for the kind words, DRJ. I discuss with every new client, in my regular engagement letter and verbally when going over it, our respective obligations to maintain privacy of our communications. I warn them not to do what Martha Stewart did (send a copy of something privileged to a close and wise family member; she was lucky to get away with that). If they’re communicating with me on a work email or other email account that they don’t own, I make them set up a special-purpose email address just for me. I warn them all never to write down, even in a secret communication to me, anything negative about the judge (because even if it’s privileged, guess who rules on privilege claims?). I’m really a pain in the ass about all this stuff all the time, actually, and people pay good money for that! 😀

    Beldar (fa637a)

  428. Further to #416, just to round out the scenario:

    Suppose the digital audio recording instead contains Trump saying to Cohen, “Last night I made a phone call to Stormy Daniels, and I told her that the money you’ve already paid her and the NDA you’ve already gotten her to sign, Michael, is based on my expectation that she lie under oath, and I also told her that if she ever tells the truth about this on any witness stand anywhere, she’s going to acquire a close and deep acquaintance with the East River and a pair of concrete overshoes. Oh, and by the way, the money you gave her actually came from my campaign committee through a few Netherlands Antilles cut-out companies, which I did using both the U.S. mails and interstate and international telecommunications facilities, as part of my agreement with Putin’s brother-in-law. None of that’s going to cause me any future legal problems, will it?”

    (That last bit is just to make sure we have not just a crime, but some federal crimes.)

    That’s a client communicating about crimes with his attorney, at least arguably for purposes of getting legal advice. Since it’s not an on-going or future crime, though, Cohen’s just another lawyer to whom his client has privately confessed guilt.

    Yes, of course, the Investigation Team would love to have that recording. But the Filter Team has no basis to assert crime-fraud when it’s past, completed conduct. Again, if they’re doing their jobs, they never even attempt to turn that over to the Investigation Team. But if the propose doing so, before they have the chance to follow through, Trump’s lawyers will have an opportunity to object.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  429. Quite thorough, Beldar, and I’m glad I wasn’t a litigator.

    Stewart was indeed lucky in winning that battle. I’m not sure I would have ruled that way. But it was a fleeting victory, wasn’t it?

    DRJ (15874d)

  430. It was indeed fleeting. She also made a contribution to the caselaw, though, establishing that the attorney-client privilege group can include the defendants’ public relations consultants without thereby waiving privilege. Not surprising, actually, and there’s similiar caselaw regarding other sorts of consultants. Still best to have the lawyers hire & direct them, rather than the client doing that directly, for purposes of avoiding waivers.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  431. Did you know that in Illinois telling your attorney’s investigator where you have concealed the body of your murder victim is privileged and does not come under the crime-fraud exception? But it can come under the inevitable discovery rule when he goes and tells the police? Actual case in the office where I was working more than thirty years ago, and I sat in on the oral arguments. It has always stuck with me.

    nk (dbc370)

  432. @ nk (#431): That would have been a memorable case for all involved, I suppose. I don’t suppose the attorney’s investigator was named Comey, was he? I have a low opinion of agents who deliberately disclose a client’s confidences, even if the body wasn’t very well hidden.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  433. On the subject, too, of federal vs. state crimes:

    The POTUS can only pardon federal crimes. But a lot — most, in fact — of the kinds of crimes one can get caught up in as part of a cover-up/bribery/extortion scheme arising out of garden-variety adultery are state crimes. And Trump can’t pardon those no matter how big his pardon pen is, for himself or anyone else.

    Gowdy said on one of the morning shows that if the Libby pardon was intended to be reassurance for Trump associates who might otherwise be tempted to flip on him, that can of reassurance is only needed by the very dim-witted who don’t already understand that the POTUS can grant pardons. But I think, in fact, a bunch of people actually overestimate what a POTUS can do with that power. It’s very situational.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  434. Did I just write “can of reassurance”?

    I did. I believe I meant to write “kind of reassurance.”

    Cassandra, given that I’ve just preened about my punctiliousness when it comes to privilege, you may now justifiably mock me (a little) for my error.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  435. Yes, it was a big deal. The State’s Attorney himself represented the State in oral argument, not one of his assistants.

    nk (dbc370)

  436. Just thought you’d like to know.

    the Bas (99ba6b) — 4/15/2018 @ 2:25 pm

    Breaking into Trump rallies and throwing condoms is probably a waste of time.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  437. As Dave reported earlier, Stormy Daniels will be at the hearing. If I were the judge, I’d have her thrown out. But she may be doing Trump and Cohen a big favor. All the media’s attention will be on her (sex sells toilet paper and dog food) and not the alleged criminal case.

    nk (dbc370)

  438. I’d rather see someone open up a can o’whupass…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  439. and jail all teh counselors and hang teh judge.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  440. Rest In Peace, R. Lee Ermey

    Icy (49d2f9)

  441. Don’t take your coffee black, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/15/2018 @ 2:59 pm

    You don’t know about the one teaspoon rule?

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  442. Rev, I believe they are taking exception to your 223.

    the Bas (99ba6b) — 4/15/2018 @ 3:47 pm

    That seems so long ago now…

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  443. Of course, but it’s nothing new. Obama and Bush both did it, especially Bush. Texas National Guard troops have been assisting in the Valley almost continuously since 9/11. Texas has a border problem. That’s why I want a Wall, not just political promises or excuses.

    DRJ (15874d) — 4/15/2018 @ 3:49 pm

    And Bush cut brush down in Crawford but I don’t know how far that is from the border. Cindy Sheehan probably drove away all the illegals from the immediate area.

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  444. I mean when a douchebag like David Crosby is on his 11th liver, seems reasonable that a productive, job creating citizen could catch a break.

    Colonel Haiku (b63958) — 4/15/2018 @ 3:55 pm

    He and Melissa Etheridge already reproduced. Sorry for the image. Warren Zevon made a record on the way out, he didn’t malinger.

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  445. i just don’t see any meanspiritedness there on the part of Mr. narciso DRJ

    he’s a gentle soul

    like a, wise and ancient turtle

    he stays mostly in his shell,

    happyfeet (28a91b) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:09 pm

    Canadian turtle hearts keep beating after you cut them oot IE

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  446. nk, the Trumpnik parallel is more precisely
    trump mani padme hum
    hum padme mani trump

    Trump jewel in the lotus of enlightenment

    Kishnevi (37d538) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:18 pm

    And it’s more euphonious as well. Thank you, Kishnevi.

    nk (dbc370) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:22 pm

    What’s Trump got to do

    Got to do with it?

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  447. Perhaps N did and P simply couldn’t decode what he wrote– hence P quilled a sentence for him in ‘Earth English.’ N may not be able to understand it.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:24 pm

    And then N made a huge mound of mash taters at dinner, and then he piled a bunch of mud in his house, and then he drove to WY and got kidnapped by aliens and he can’t apologize from space, ok?

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  448. Okay, that didn’t work. I may have to add “Beldar” to my blocker-script.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:33 pm

    The blocker-script, it’s coming from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  449. His first job after the military was untraditional.
    Ermey was medically retired from the Marine Corps and was at a loss about what to do as a civilian. He told Entertainment Weekly in a 1997 interview that he “bought a run-down bar and wh*rehouse” in Okinawa. He had to leave the business behind when the Japanese FBI caught wind of his black marketing. He escaped to the Philippines, where he met his wife.


    Ermey is the only Marine to be promoted after retiring.
    He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant after spending 14 months in Vietnam and doing two tours in Okinawa. He was medically retired for the injuries he received during his service. But it was in 2002, that Marine Corps Commandant James L. Jones promoted Ermey to E-7, Gunnery Sergeant, the rank he became so well-known for. It was the first and only time the Corps has promoted a retiree
    We Are the Mighty

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  450. You lawyers probably know all about this but I was listening to Dan Carlin and learned about petty treason, which may come up with Michael Cohen:

    Petty treason or petit treason was an offence under the common law of England which involved the betrayal (including murder) of a superior by a subordinate. It differed from the better-known high treason in that high treason can only be committed against the Sovereign.

    The element of betrayal is the reason why this crime was considered worse than an ordinary murder; medieval and post-medieval society rested on a framework in which each person had his or her appointed place and such murders were seen as threatening this framework. Many people had somebody subordinate to them and feared the consequences if the murder of superiors was not punished harshly.

    The common law offence was codified in the Treason Act 1351. Under that Act, petty treason was an aggravated form of murder. It consisted of:

    a wife killing her husband,
    a clergyman killing his prelate
    a servant killing his master or mistress, or his master’s wife.
    The Act abolished three other forms of petty treason which had existed under common law:

    a wife attempting to kill her husband,
    a servant forging his master’s seal, or
    a servant committing adultery with his master’s wife or daughter.

    The punishment for a man convicted of petty treason was to be drawn to the place of execution and hanged, but not quartered as in the case of high treason. The punishment for a woman was to be burned at the stake without being drawn there (the penalty for high treason was drawing and burning). In later years the law offered a modicum of mercy to women who were to be executed in this fashion: the executioner was equipped with a cord passed around the victim’s throat and, standing outside of the fire, would pull it tight, strangling her before the flames could reach her. In a few instances, however, this could go wrong, with the cord burning through and the victim burning alive; the ensuing scandals contributed to the abolition of this punishment and its replacement by hanging in 1790.

    The common law defence of provocation, by which a verdict of murder could be reduced to manslaughter, was also available in petty treason trials.

    The rules of evidence and procedure in petty treason trials were the same as in high treason trials, except that the Treason Act 1695 did not apply to petty treason. Petty treason also differed from high treason in that the legal defence of benefit of clergy was available for petty treason until 1496,whereas it was never available for high treason.

    WIKI

    Pinandpuller (2c7465)

  451. When your scout leader is a lawyer:

    Kid: Sir, I found a snake is it poisonous?

    Scout Leader: No, this snake isn’t poisonous at all.

    Snake bites kid and he goes into convulsion to the horror of the other scouts.

    Scout Leader: However, this snake is venomous. Venom is always injected. Poison is ingested or absorbed through the skin.

    Pinandpuller (af6445)

  452. @447. Press-gangs for Trump’s Space Force are on the prowl, PP.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  453. Pence’s pick for his National Security Advisor, Jon Lerner, was forced to withdraw due to being critical of Trump during the 2016 campaign.

    Apparently he worked at the Club for Growth. He has been Nikki Haley’s deputy since she became UN ambassador.

    Spanky made clear “that he did not want to see Mr. Lerner with a seat at the table in the White House.”

    Dave (445e97)

  454. Here is another story of a lawyer turning down Trump as a client. With the lawyer talking to the media about it. https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/15/politics/white-collar-lawyer-trump-representation/index.html

    I would not do something like that — not unless I was being held out as the person’s lawyer and that mistaken impression could cause harm to me, the would-be client, or the public. Otherwise, it’s nobody’s business, and within the penumbra of the confidences and secrets canon as far as I’m concerned, for people who like penumbras. Too many lawyers just talk too much and Trump seems to pick more than his share of them.

    nk (dbc370)

  455. Okay, that didn’t work. I may have to add “Beldar” to my blocker-script.

    Beldar (fa637a) — 4/15/2018 @ 4:33 pm

    The blocker-script, it’s coming from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!

    “Halloweenie: Teh Reckoning”… from American International Pictures

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  456. Dave has a million morsels socked away in his rathole…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  457. Already, Trump’s deregulation binge has borne fruit. The National Association of Manufacturers quarterly survey found that the small manufacturers’ optimism index reached 94.5% in March, its highest level since the survey began 20 years ago. And the index for sales growth rose to its second-highest reading ever.

    most successful president since poor slobbering Reagan hands down

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  458. Tequila Gimpinista Sunrise

    It’s another Gimpinista sunrise
    Starin’ slowly into space, it goes apace
    They were called by most the Taint Team
    Workin’ on a dream they planned to try
    The Prez must die
    Ev’ry night when the sun goes down
    Their smiles are turned into frowns
    And they just get beclowned
    He wasn’t just another coward
    And he couldn’t stop from writin’ tweets
    It’s on teh street
    Oh and it’s a funny feelin’
    when the polls show an upward trend
    They get the bends
    Make another strange contention
    Wonder why the peeps all shake their heads
    It’s all been said
    It’s another Gimpinista sunrise, this old game
    Still looks the same,
    Another frame, mmm

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  459. Trump is the Slumlord of Dave’s Head.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  460. The blocker-script, it’s coming from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!

    William Boyett to Carol Kane,When A Stranger Calls (1979); also Julianne Moore to Giancarlo Giannini, Hannibal (2001).

    I feel old all of a sudden.

    nk (dbc370)

  461. The Trump administration is facing bipartisan pushback as it proceeds with cuts to the federal prison system, despite Congress recently awarding the agency that oversees it a funding boost and instructing it to increase hiring.

    The Bureau of Prisons is facing increasing pressure from Capitol Hill as it seeks to eliminate thousands of positions, with lawmakers ramping up pressure on the agency to follow its instructions by adding to its workforce. The federal prisons overseers have so far not backed down from the scheduled elimination of around 6,000 vacant positions, as well as additional vacancies that have arisen during an extended hiring freeze at the agency. The bureau has increasingly depended on a process known as “augmentation,” in which non-correction officers are reassigned from their normal work into guard duties.

    the pension piggies at the American Federation of Government Employees?

    piggies are 🙁

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  462. That could be good and it could be bad. It’s good if it foreshadows a shrinkage of the prison racket with a concurrent reduction of prisoners’ sentences. It could be bad if the funds are shifted to fund prisons for profit, with the profit factor (sic) lobbying for more prisons, more prisoners, and longer sentences.

    nk (dbc370)

  463. i guess we don’t know how much of the 6,000 can be managed through “augmentation”

    they’re not very clear and they act like it’s a bad thing to run your prison more efficiently

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  464. There is one final Russian operation that we need to talk about: their campaign to meddle in America’s 2016 election. You see, according to Mueller’s own indictment, Russia began taking concrete actions to implement their plan in July of 2013. That, of course, was when Mueller was in charge of anticipating and stopping these threats.

    Properly understood, the Mueller Special Counsel is a Mueller investigation into Mueller’s failure as the FBI director.

    properly understood this is a coup by a deeply corrupt and even more deeply butthurt pussyhat FBI

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  465. The security level of prisons and cellblocks, i.e. maximum/medium/minimum, A-grade/B-grade/C-grade, is primarily defined by the ratio of prisoners to guards; and the security classifications of prisoners is based primarily on their flight risk which is largely based on the length of their sentences. Lower sentences => lower flight risk => lower security => fewer guards. Prison guard unions hate that. Prison contractors and provisioners too.

    nk (dbc370)

  466. so there’s an empirical formula, more or less

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  467. The governor received criticism when he said Kentucky students can experience harm from being left with no one to watch them during the teachers’ strikes — in which hundreds of educators called for more pay and greater school resources.

    “I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” Bevin answered Friday.

    “I guarantee you somewhere today, a child was physically harmed or ingested poison because they were home alone because a single parent didn’t have any money to take care of them,” he added, saying “some were introduced to drugs for the first time because they were vulnerable and left alone.”

    i like how this guy thinks outside the box he needn’t have done the apologize

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  468. More or less. Let’s say rational and objective criteria. The other factor, besides flight risk, is how big a danger a prisoner is to guards and other prisoners.

    nk (dbc370)

  469. Lower sentences => lower flight risk => lower security => fewer guards. Prison guard unions hate that. Prison contractors and provisioners too.

    nk (dbc370) — 4/16/2018 @ 8:35 am

    Prison guard unions hate this doctor’s weird trick…

    Pinandpuller (ac3c29)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.2914 secs.