Patterico's Pontifications

12/17/2019

Slow News Day

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:18 pm



Poking around there is hardly anything to talk about.

Tomorrow, Donald Trump will probably become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. I guess there’s that. He wrote a whiny substance-free screed to Nancy Pelosi. A sample:

You are the ones interfering in America’s elections. You are the ones subverting America’s democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.

Enjoy, big fella. Impeachment is a bad thing to have on your resume. Tomorrow, it will be on yours.

Meanwhile, the FBI’s reputation continues to take body blows in the wake of the IG report, with the head of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Rosemary M. Collyer, issuing an eye-opening order to the FBI to propose changes to their process by January 10. Judge Collyer wrote:

The frequency with which representations made by F.B.I. personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other F.B.I. applications is reliable.

Of course, the infant in the Oval Office takes this deplorable state of affairs and uses it to pretend he is innocent:

If anyone knows about SCAMS it’s Donald Trump.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Rick Gates to 45 days today, and had some choice comments, including pointed remarks that seemed directed at the SCAM artist in the White House and his surrogates, including the broomstick driver working for Trump with the last name of Conway:

In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort laundered more than $18 million, which was used by him to buy property goods and services in the United States, income that he concealed from the United States Treasury, the Department of Justice and others. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts to other accounts that he controlled.

Those are facts. Those are not alleged facts, those are not alternative facts, or a narrative created by the media.

. . . .

One of the letter writers said that he got caught up in D.C. political drama. But I reject that. It’s perfectly possible to conduct yourself with ethics, integrity, and no hint of scandal, even in politics, even in D.C., even in Ukraine. Politics don’t corrupt people, people corrupt politics.

Berman noted that Gates’s information

included firsthand information about confidential campaign polling data being transmitted at the direction of the head of the campaign to one of those individuals to be shared with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.

It included firsthand information about a meeting within the campaign concerning attending a meeting with Russians for the sole stated purpose of providing information that could be used against Hillary Clinton. And it included firsthand information about claims made by an individual close to the campaign to be in contact with WikiLeaks concerning the release of emails obtained when the DNC computers were hacked.

Yup. Can’t really find a genuine news story to comment on. It’s a snoozefest out there.

Gear up for tomorrow. I’ll likely be popping open a bottle of bourbon to celebrate.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

30 Responses to “Slow News Day”

  1. Yo.

    Patterico (115b1f) — 12/17/2019 @ 8:19 pm

  2. Trump is yellow. As a daffodil. Even though McConnell and Graham tell him the fix is in, he’s sh!tt!ing bricks.

    Sigh! 20 votes. Just 20 little votes.

    nk (dbc370) — 12/17/2019 @ 8:24 pm

  3. And it’s not much news that Chinese agents are trying to breach US military bases. When it comes to buying goods for Christmas or whatever, it’s time to check the tags and not buy “Made in China”.
    http://www.theforvm*dot*org/holiday-season-and-beyond-check-tags

    Paul Montagu (af70d6) — 12/17/2019 @ 8:25 pm

  4. ‘impeachment on the resume’…

    Don’t know about Johnson, but hasn’t really hurt Bubba’s popularity w/t public. Mere articles were passed on The Big Dick and he quit so their 5 o’clock shadow hounded him to the grave. Attitude has a lot to do w/it. Trump will simply wear it as a badge of outrageous honor– and ride it to reelection.

    And it’s a cinch none of them did– or will, read it in their obituaries when it won’t matter.

    JR was shot in his third year, too – survived and lived on for 11 more seasons.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/17/2019 @ 8:40 pm

  5. Gates gets 45 days in the pokie— news said he’d serve them– on weekends.

    Ah, the sweet smell of justice.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/17/2019 @ 8:45 pm

  6. Nunes’ letter was pretty good too.

    https://theconservativeopinion.com/nunes-blasts-schiff-in-brutal-letter-suggesting-he-needs-rehabilitation/

    So far, no apologies for all the smears and fake news against Nunes’ or water-carrying for Schiff.
    _

    harkin (15bd84) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:17 pm

  7. However Gates spends his time in prison, it remains that he’s a convicted felon who committed his felonies in the service of Donald J. Trump.
    It didn’t take long to fact-check Trump’s letter to Pelosi, mostly because he resorted to the same old lies that he used before, only instead of a series of tweets it was in a 5-page letter.
    Chait is right. Trump’s letter only reverses his situation. I don’t like linking to MSM and a liberal columnist, but the facts are on their side, not Trump’s.

    Paul Montagu (af70d6) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:36 pm

  8. Will they fight a duel like Burr and Hamilton? That involved mutual revilement in the press and at least one letter, too.

    And will the rap opera be called “Schiff” or “Nunes”?

    nk (dbc370) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:37 pm

  9. After three years of this nonsense, impeachment is like scoring a TD in garbage time when you’re down by 45 points. Spike it — really hard.

    Munroe (dd6b64) — 12/17/2019 @ 9:51 pm

  10. So sad that california washes its citizens schiff into the ocean.

    mg (8cbc69) — 12/17/2019 @ 10:03 pm

  11. An impeached president will find it far more difficult to put someone on the supreme court.

    asset (158ba5) — 12/18/2019 @ 12:08 am

  12. @7. Weekend prison is ‘Club Med justice’ which is why Americans know the score when it comes to the justice system in the U.S.–

    Felicity Huffman did more time– and so will Gates but only on weekends for convenience– than Donald Trump ever will. Or Richard Nixon ever did.

    DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/18/2019 @ 1:14 am

  13. Well, Patterico, don’t open that bottle of bourbon to celebrate the impeachment of Trump, but rather to mourn the complete embarrassment the Republican party has now become.

    It is shameful how cultist they have become.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 12/18/2019 @ 1:41 am

  14. 11.How exactly does impeachment make SCOTUS appointments more difficult? More difficult than Kavanaugh? Yeh, your going to have to explain how Democrats are going to lie more than they did during the Kavanaugh hearings?

    iowan2 (9c8856) — 12/18/2019 @ 3:46 am

  15. Dear Billionaires,

    I have revised the idea of offering $100,000 to every Republican US Senator to take an objectively administered polygraph on impeachment and Trump’s fitness for office. Any billionaire with an interest could extend that to ALL Senators. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to refuse the test? And what if nearly all Democrats took it and virtually no Republicans agreed? Who knows what could happen?

    He/she could make it $200,000 if they think it’s inadequate. And if the law prohibits the payment directly to the Senators then offer it to their favorite charity. Most billionaire’s have good lawyers. They’d figure it out.

    Aren’t you tired of just watching their mouths move. The truth! I want the truth!

    noel (f22371) — 12/18/2019 @ 4:03 am

  16. You can’t handle the truth, noel. Well, maybe so, but I want it anyway.

    noel (f22371) — 12/18/2019 @ 4:09 am

  17. Surprised you did not include this in the Slow News Day.

    The FISA court issued an order to the FBI, in which it raked it over the coals for what it did in the Carter Page applications, and ordered it to provide a sworn affidavit about how it would change things in the future. You can review the whole order here: https://www.fisc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/MIsc%2019%2002%20191217.pdf

    I found these particular two paragraphs devastating:

    The FBI’s handling of the Carter Page applications, as portrayed in the OIG report, was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above. The frequency with which
    representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by
    information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their
    case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.

    The FISC expects the government to provide complete and accurate information in every filing with the Court. Without it, the FISC cannot properly ensure that the government conducts electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes only when there is a sufficient factual basis.

    Yep. As I predicted. They pissed off some federal judges. The FISA system is now in jeopardy.

    Bored Lawyer (56c962) — 12/18/2019 @ 5:45 am

  18. ? Starting at the 8th line in Patterico’s post:

    Meanwhile, the FBI’s reputation continues to take body blows in the wake of the IG report, with the head of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Rosemary M. Collyer, issuing an eye-opening order ….

    Err, read the whole thing, meaning the post that Patterico wrote and posted?

    nk (dbc370) — 12/18/2019 @ 6:21 am

  19. Will they fight a duel like Burr and Hamilton? That involved mutual revilement in the press and at least one letter, too.

    The best would have been for Trump to borrow a page from Game of Thrones and demand trial by combat.

    Bonus points for citing a non-existent article of the Constitution as the relevant legal authority.

    Dave (1bb933) — 12/18/2019 @ 6:46 am

  20. Cadet Bonespurs demanding trial by combat is a situation which can only speculatively exist beyond the blue event horizon. He’s as yellow as a daffodil. All verbal bullies are.

    nk (dbc370) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:12 am

  21. Trump scramble to rack up accomplishments gives conservatives heartburn:

    President Trump’s race to rack up accomplishments heading into an election year is giving conservatives heartburn, with some worried he is striking deals that include giveaways to Democrats.

    Several Senate Republicans this week vented their frustration with Trump’s trade deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during meetings with the administration’s top trade official, Robert Lighthizer.

    There’s also grumbling among conservative lawmakers over an agreement to expand benefits for federal workers in exchange for a costly Space Force military branch and a spending deal that is projected to add nearly $2 trillion to the deficit.

    The year-end deal-making isn’t necessarily over. Negotiators are circling around a tax deal that would include an extension of earned income tax credits for low-income families who don’t pay federal taxes, a benefit typically unpopular with conservatives.

    Trump loves deals. Any deals.

    DRJ (15874d) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:15 am

  22. Also, the FBI isn’t the only problem agency. The State Department has some explaining to do, too:

    State Department limited release of Pompeo contacts with Giuliani. A judge wants more

    A federal judge ordered the State Department on Friday to expand its search for records of communication between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, regarding Ukraine policy.

    The State Department released a number of records last month documenting contact between the two men. But Judge Christopher Cooper, on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled on Friday that the department arbitrarily limited its search for documents with a cut-off date of August 2.

    The State Department was given a January 8 deadline to release all records documenting emails, text messages, call logs and scheduled meetings on Ukraine policy that were dated until October 18. The court ruled that the department had “not adequately justified why its Executive Secretariat used a cut-off date.”

    Short answer: Because it helped Trump.

    DRJ (15874d) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:20 am

  23. This guy took himself off a big list, especially if bagpiper Barr has any final say:
    http://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/don-willetts-deray-mckesson-free-speech/603772/?yptr=yahoo

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:22 am

  24. Cadet Bonespurs demanding trial by combat is a situation which can only speculatively exist beyond the blue event horizon. He’s as yellow as a daffodil. All verbal bullies are.

    Ah, but that’s the beauty of it. The accused can name a champion to fight in their place.

    That’s how the Imp in GoT survived not one, but two such trials.

    Dave (1bb933) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:24 am

  25. @18.

    Yup, my bad. Missed it.

    But the order is still devastating. Basically says, we don’t trust you anymore unless you convince us that major cleanup is instituted.

    Bored Lawyer (998177) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:30 am

  26. 23. Dat ain’t nuffin, urbanleftbehind. Whatabout the Blue GoombaH in Chicago who is suing the estate of the man he killed? For causing him emotional distress?

    nk (dbc370) — 12/18/2019 @ 7:34 am

  27. Yes. Slow news day. Nothing interesting about this story at all:

    https://amgreatness.com/2019/12/17/pro-trump-women-verbally-harassed-navy-seal-assaulted-by-unhinged-dems-at-swanky-dc-hotel/

    Hum-de-dum-dum-dum…

    PTw (894877) — 12/18/2019 @ 8:09 am

  28. Good for the wedding recipients – the Quincy Maddoxes of the world aint gonna change their tune unless you got some real hands to fight with.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 12/18/2019 @ 8:39 am

  29. -reception guests/Best Man, I mean. Hell, that SEAL was lucky it wasnt this wedding: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-groom-killed-wedding-crashers-n1103111

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 12/18/2019 @ 8:41 am

  30. I think both the following are true:

    “Mueller concluded Russian military intelligence meddled in the 2016 presidential election in a systematic way through cyberattacks and social media disinformation campaigns but did not establish any criminal conspiracy nor coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Neither Manafort, Stone, Gates, nor any other American was charged with crimes tied to Russian collusion.”

    Berman noted that Gates’s information

    “included firsthand information about confidential campaign polling data being transmitted at the direction of the head of the campaign to one of those individuals to be shared with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.

    It included firsthand information about a meeting within the campaign concerning attending a meeting with Russians for the sole stated purpose of providing information that could be used against Hillary Clinton. And it included firsthand information about claims made by an individual close to the campaign to be in contact with WikiLeaks concerning the release of emails obtained when the DNC computers were hacked.”

    The prosecutor decides not to charge, but the judge seems to disagree?

    1. I don’t believe it is a crime for the Trump campaign to give a foreign national access to Trump campaign polling data… confidentiality is theirs to breach, its their data

    2. There was a meeting about attending a meeting… so? Maybe after the first 30 seconds of the first meeting the idea was scrubbed. If they’d taken the meeting with the Russians Berman would have said so

    3. A person “close to” the campaign “claimed” to be in contact with wikileaks.
    Roger Stone claims a lot of things. So does my 106 year old Aunt. We are close family but I’m not responsible for what she thinks is in her jello

    No wonder broomstick lady likes to talk about alternative facts
    (didn’t hf get bounced for misogynist remarks… granted his remarks were much more original and pointed)

    steveg (354706) — 12/18/2019 @ 2:27 pm


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