The agitprop offensive against Donald Trump over the last two days has unmasked the breadth and scope of the anti-Trump opposition. The destroy Trump cadre includes most members of the press (written and electronic), the Democrats, the Socialists and the traditional Republican so-called moderates. It also includes civil servants, many in the intelligence community, who remain loyal to Barack Obama and are nothing more than embedded insurgents committed to forcing Trump from office.
If Trump does not understand or appreciate this reality then he is not intelligent enough to be president and should be removed from office. The onslaught started yesterday with the bogus news that Trump supposedly exposed a sensitive source to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. The dishonesty of the media was apparent to anyone who understood that Trump has full authority to declassify and classify information. He is fully entitled to tell the Russians whatever he wants. In this case, if we are to believe Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, the Washington Post story was not true. But truth is not the issue here. The goal is to paint Trump as an incompetent boob who must be removed from office.
The drumbeat continues last night–BREAKING NEWS was blaring on all the cable channels with the claim that Trump tried to get Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn. There is only one problem with this story–the investigation has continued unabated. So, no matter what Trump may have said, the investigation has not been derailed nor disrupted. But that fact matters little to the media lynch mob eager for some strange fruit. They want a hanging.
This is going to continue until Trump carries out the equivalent of a public execution. Someone involved in the leaking of these stories must be caught and unmasked. Frankly, this will be another test of the competence of Trump and his team. They have allowed moles to remain in place (I've heard this repeated complaint from an friend in the upper realms of the intel community). People who should have been fired or moved when Trump took over have been allowed to stay. Well, if you don't kill the rats, don't be shocked when they eat your food and defecate in your kitchen.
The negative news on Trump is not likely to let up. In fact, it will probably intensify as he heads overseas. Rather than being able to focus on international diplomacy, Trump will be distracted, looking back over his shoulder at the flood of leaks surrounding the White House and his Presidency. He had better learn how to build dams or he will drown.
“There is only one problem with this story–the investigation has continued unabated. So, no matter what Trump may have said, the investigation has not been derailed nor disrupted.”
A failed attempt to rob a bank is still a crime, a failed attempt to murder is attempted murder. A failed attempt to interfere with the investigation is etc.
So if the memo(?s) exist and fairly reflect what Trump did/said then it would seem etc.
Jonathan House
The people outside of the wonk class and Beltway Jerkoff/Blue Checkmark Twitter fail to comprehend that these stories have zero traction among the Deploreable Caste.
They are playing with fire when they tell all the Americans who voted for Trump “We the people who sue Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or shutter their doors have decided that you may not elect a President.”
Buckle in, boys and girls. My body is ready.
Most of Mr. Trump’s problems are self-inflicted and due to his lack of fitness for the office. Being POTUS is not even close to being a TV game show host. This will become even more obvious as he tries to badly play the part. His low expectations are becoming even lower and many of his aides are destroying their reputations by trying to come up with excuses.
I doubt that this will end well.
Jonathan House
The acting director of the FBI testified before the senate that there had been no attempt to impede the Russian investigation. What bank robbery? pl
FWIW, someone said he was not including the Flynn investigation as part of the Russian investigation. If so, it would be careful phrasing but no more careful than McMaster’s.
And, I suppose there would be no crime if it turned out the building wasn’t a bank but an empty building. So IF 45 did ask Comey to drop the investigation that would be troublesome (? a crime) whatever the acting director said (or knew) when he testified.
Lars,
When you get your helicopter ride, just remember: you chose this because you couldn’t leave well enough alone.
jonathan house,
Once again, the FBI is not independent of the Executive Branch chain of command. Flynn was not the subject of a criminal investigation so why should Trump NOT tell them to lay off. He had already fired the man had he not? pl
“This is going to continue until Trump carries out the equivalent of a public execution. ”
Three immediate reactions:
1. This seems to be precisely what the firing of Comey was intended to be.
2. Lots of people have been fired lately. Do the people running the country not know how to do this and to whom?
3. Really? There are people with that kind of fanatical loyalty to Obama? I wouldn’t have guessed it.
Overall this article reads like an argument for the incompetence theory. I learned a long time ago that right and wrong have limited relevance to the presidency or other high level management. What does matter is the ability to control events and get things to come out well for the organization you manage. Trump was very skilled at managing media stampedes as a candidate. Live off uproar, die from uproar?
Russia-gate – one year and nothing.
Flynn – several months and nothing.
It’s time to shut these down because if nothing has been found so far, the chances of anything being found at all in both investigations approximates very closely to zero. And in the Flynn investigation what further evidence can there be? His conversation with Pence was recorded and his influence peddling for the Turks is nothing to do with Russia – the only possibility now is for the FBI to get out the Ouija board and see what comes through from the spirit world.
As head of the Executive it’s Trump’s right to direct the people working for him and he only suggested to Comey that there were better things to be done with the time and resources being wasted on two investigations that are going nowhere. Perhaps he should have given Comey a few more weeks but time’s a wasting.
By the way, I do agree that the media sensations are overblown and unfair. But handling that is part of the job. That’s the job he asked and we gave him.
Just because an action is legal does not make not proper. Nixon was fully within his legal rights to fire Archibald Cox, but at least in that case Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus recognized the impropriety of the action and acted accordingly. Here it appears there is either nobody around to tell Trump it is a dumb thing to do or else he is too stupid and arrogant to realize it.
I am confused. If there was no criminal investigation, what was Comey supposed to ‘lay off’ from? A non-criminal investigation? A criminal investigation that involved Flynn but of which he wasn’t the subject.
In other words, especially if one does not question the President’s authority over the FBI and on the assumption that (1) the memo(s) are as detailed in the press and (2) the memo(s) are fair representations of what 45 said/meant, what might 45 have been asking Comey to ‘let go’?
And a protocol you wrote would be a solid proof?
It might be, had it been sent to confirm matters as understood. Plus ideally, the one you wanted to confirm it, did not simply ignore it, but answered you that, yes, you understood correctly.
lack of fitness for the office
And Clinton was fit for office? By her own admission she would have gone to war with Syria by now and bugger the consequences – war with Russia. Trump was elected on a platform that included decent relations with Russia so how is delivering on an election promise treason? No, it’s the Clintonists who are showing they’re unfit for office and most of the media who are showing they’re Clintonist propagandists.
I don’t believe Catholic hospitals are being sued to perform abortions. It is your body due with it what you will, but please don’t tell women what they can or cannot due with theirs.
The MSM reminds me of the convicted killer professing his innocence until the end. Their lies are increasingly falling on deaf ears and only hardening the resolve of us “deplorables” who have been far too altruistic for far too long.
What helicopter ride would that be? I have maintained that Trump is unfit for the office since the day he announced his candidacy and he has done absolutely nothing to make me change my mind about him.
The question now is how long and how far is he going to be allowed to damage the nation?
At least HRC had high level government experience and Trump has none and it shows.
jonathan house
Yes, you are confused. It was a counter-intelligence investigation into the content of Flynn’s telephone contacts with Kisliak. IMO the president had every right to tell Comey to bring the thing to an end. pl
Lars
How is Trump “damaging the nation?” pl
Respectfully to all: we are now at a point where it matters little whether “The Borg” or “The Media” or the democrats are out to get Trump. If the substance of Comey’s notes are correctly reported, Trump almost certainly was intending to persuade the Director of the FBI to draw back on an investigation of Flynn. This is a textbook case of obstruction of justice, legally speaking, or is at least prima facie evidence of such, imo. It is a question of fact rather than a question of politics or judgment. In contrast, you can quibble about matters of conflict of interest or collusion, neither of which are questions of fact. Impeachment proceedings are now unavoidable, and it is Trump’s own doing, no one else’s.
As POTUS, he is losing credibility both domestically and internationally. That will have far reaching consequences. He has turned the office into a subject of ridicule, of uncertainty and incompetence. None which is good for the country.
I am sure the Republic will survive this too, but the damage is increasing seemingly on a daily basis. At some point, even Republicans will have to act, or their political future will be imperiled.
I see much criticism of Trump for not having his act together yet – including firing moles, etc. I find it hard to understand why it is reasonable to expect that Trump (or any “insurgent” candidate) could “take over” as quickly as a mainstream party candidate who would arrive in office with an extensive “rolodex” of potential staff/candidates. Perhaps this is why the hysteria is so high, as the longer Trump is in office the more likely he will be able to “take over” and effectively fight back.
Also, it is not clear how much traction the media/political hysteria is gaining. While i am sure that tracking MSM has close to 100% penetration in then DC area, I recall that Larry Johnson posted some polling before the election showing that a relatively small portion of then US population gets their “news” form MSM (TV/print). There is also some recent social media “issues” tracking that showed the latest “Russia” meme was not catching fire. I am not hearing any chatter on this in my community, but I also avoid political discussions particularly with friends/colleagues…
I quit watching network TV about four years ago, having previously learned that topics I have deep knowledge about were never reported accurately on TV (NPR, etc.) and deciding watching TV news was a waste of time vs. seeking more reliable info on the web (which always requires some healthy source assessment). I quit reading the NYT about half-way through the presidential election given the obvious biases and lack of accuracy/honesty in their coverage. And I will never buy a copy again..
This stuff about Trump & Co. really IS about Russia, but not about Flynn and others in the WH and possibly the president himself. It is the fact that Trump’s foreign policy deviates from Washington orthodoxy, which has of the last few years, perhaps as far back as the Georgia conflict declared Russia the enemy of our times.
This “establishment” was NOT made up of fans of Barack Obama, who deviated on Iran as well as his attempt to reset relations with Russia early in his presidency. [Bill Clinton and George W both wrecked the Bush I agenda for bringing Russia into the global system.] The former worked but the latter was sabotages. The neocons and others share the goal of regime change in Syria, and are beside themselves over recent developments. For them, the goal was regime change, even breaking up of countries into smaller autonomous entities. After Syria, the next stop is Iran, and in some circles a couple of years ago, the neocons were hyping the ethnic diversity of the country, reasoning that the Azeris, Turkic tribes, Arabs, Kurds, Persians and Baluch along with yet others, not to mention sectarian differences. This plan, of course, defies history, since successive Persian Empires over millennia have ruled over this diverse country.
Should this be accomplished, there will be no real predator states to threaten Israel, which has developed political and intelligence relationships, not to mention commerce with many of the Arab states. Hezbollah, minus support from Iran, can be dealt with. If you recall, it has been part of some right-wing US groups that there would be an exchange of populations in Lebanon, with the Shia forced to move north out of the Israeli border area and the Christians inhabit that area instead.
Remember how the bombing in Syria and Afghanistan temporarily forgave Trump his trespasses, so if he buys the world view of Saudi and Israel and changes course on Syria, the temperature could be lowered.
Even paranoids and the incompetent have enemies and even the best organized and professional machine in the WH, the establishment would have come up with something to counter Trump or try to get him out. But alas, the WH is a chaotic mess. Draining the swamp has meant that the WH has NO significant staff that knows how the USG operates and what the rules are. If he is, as has been rumored, Trump should appoint a chief of staff with long experience in how inter-agency communications and guide him on how to run the country. This does not have to be a former WH person. A respected long-time member of Congress or staff officer that dealt with the executive branch or one of the senior people that populated the cabinet under Bush II would do, as long as he or she understands that THIS assignment is about PROCESS, not policy.
Finally, Trump came into office in awe of our senior military, serving and retired as well he should have. What is problematic, though, is that all these Generals, Mattis, McMaster and Flynn to a certain extent, support the Washington worldview about our ties with Russia, Iran and Syria, not Trump’s pragmatic view. It is interesting that during the campaign, Trump’s Middle East “experts” were a scary lot, including Frank Gaffney and Walid Phares and probably some lesser lights. Many years ago, Phares, wrote a book about Lebanon suggesting this population exchange. At that time, before he reinvented himself as a counter terrorism expert, he had been a member of one of the Lebanese Christian militias during that country’s vicious civil war. Surprisingly, their ideas seem not to be part of the Trump agenda with the exception of the deep-rooted anti-Muslim orientation, shared by the likes of Flynn.
Sure enough Nancy.
And while we are at it, in the spirit of fairness and equality, I’m sure you’ll agree that men should stop paying child support because it’s their life and money and women and the state shouldn’t tell them what they can or cannot due with theirs. Right? I mean a woman’s body is a woman’s body and therefore birth control and whatnot is solely her responsibility and has nothing to do with the man. We just need to get the law in line with this logic. In the name of progress.
Nancy,
Yes your insane sacrifice to Baal is gonna end soon enough.
Lars,
Oh sorry, my Constitution doesn’t say that a Swedish communist who screwed up his country so bad he had to flee to Florida determines suitability for office. Damn.
Congratulations on totally missing the point of Tyler’s post.
Comey supposedly wrote a memo regarding a private conversation with Trump, and we know this not because we have seen the memo, not because Trump has spoken of it, and not because Comey has spoken of it, but because an anonymous source has reported it. That is the state of political discourse today. Basing our charges not on any sort of provable facts, but on unprovable assertions of what “officials” have said.
@Jonathan House MD
A failed attempt at robbing a bank would still involve public display of a weapon in a threatening manner, endangering the public, making threats, mayhem, and several other actual crimes.
A failed attempt at murder involves attempted murder, which is a crime in itself, assault with a deadly weapon, endangerment, threatening with a deadly weapon and a few other actual crimes.
Trying to obstruct justice and failing to do so would involve what actual crime?
These investigations may not be getting any traction, but his failure to carry out his promises will. The longer that he does nothing, or is to perceived to have not done enough with regard to things such as the wall, taxes, clamping down on revolving door in Washington, retrenching from foreign entanglements, etc., then those who these stores don’t resonate with, will simply become disengaged at the same time the Democrats continue their ramp up.
He needs to make a weekly address laying out exactly what he is doing, and name names as to who is holding it up, and for what reason.
Playing nice with Russia while continuing to poke at Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Montenegro, North Korea, the Kurds, etc. is a fool’s errand. They need a new playbook, because Russia and China are too smart to buy what the US is selling when they know how deep the MIC, AIPAC, the Saudis, etc. have buried themselves into our political system.
This witch hunting expedition that just came out of nowhere (Comey Memo) was more of the reason why the SOB had to be fired on day one , a law enforcement office must not be biased to anyone or a part, he clearly was.
DC
I am pretty sure this was not a criminal investigation. How can it therefore be “obstruction of justice” to suggest to Comey that he end it? pl
Experience accomplishing what? The health bill that was so disastrous for the Clinton Administration? Advocating intervention in the wars in Bosnia and Serbia? Influence peddling through the Clinton Foundation? The Iraq war? Boosting Al Qaeda in Libya and Syria? I’d rather take a chance on the turnip truck kid.
HRC came to high level government in the slipstream of her husband’s career. Oh, a woman’s path to the top is so, so very hard.
How is Trump poking the Kurds?
Seeking a better relationship with Russia, there is at least the hope that it might influence how Trump approaches Syria, Iran, the Ukraine, etc.
It is a crime to attempt to obstruct or influence the investigation of a possible violation of a criminal law whether or not the investigation results in a criminal prosecution.
“Basing our charges not on any sort of provable facts, but on unprovable assertions of what “officials” have said.”
Yes. That is why this is all a massive information operation directed at deposing a duly elected POTUS.
Those cheerleading this will regret it in due time. Blowbacks are always a bitch!
Elizabeth Price Foley, a professor of constitutional law at Florida International University College of Law, has an op ed in the NYTimes explaining why even if Trump said what is attributed to him it cannot be deemed obstruction of justice.
Trump’s Statements Are Not an Obstruction of Justice
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/opinion/trumps-fbi-comey-statements-are-not-an-obstruction-of-justice.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region
Just Trump’s rhetoric alone has reduced 3rd world immigration by 70%, Gorsuch is on the supreme court, the Dakota Access and XL pipelines have been approved, unfair trade agreements are under review, and economy killing regulations have been cancelled. As a bonus, he has set the democrat’s, neocon’s, and their media’s hair on fire. Its been fun to watch. Keep it up Trump!
Excellent piece by Philip Giraldi…
Are They Really Out to Get Trump? Sometimes paranoia is justified http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/are-they-really-out-to-get-trump/
What exactly drove the firing at this time remains somewhat of a mystery though the media has been quick to link it directly to Trump’s reported anger at the seemingly endless investigation into his Administration’s possible ties to Russia, an investigation that nominally Comey headed as FBI Director. But that explanation somehow makes no sense as even a white-hot Trump would have realized that getting rid of Comey would only make the Russiagate problem worse as everyone would assume cover-up and would come after the White House with even greater intensity, which is precisely what has happened. Was Trump dumb enough to dig himself into a deeper hole? Possibly, but it seems unlikely.
What is real, however, is that constant innuendo means that anti-Russian hysteria has been mounting, including completely speculative pieces wondering whether the entourage of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had sought to sneak a recording device into the White House during last week’s visit.
And what if there really is a conspiracy against Donald Trump being orchestrated within the various national security agencies that are part of the United States government? The president has been complaining for months about damaging leaks emanating from the intelligence community and the failure of Congress to pay any attention to the illegal dissemination of classified information. It is quite possible that Trump has become aware that there is actually something going on and that something just might be a conspiracy to delegitimize and somehow remove him from office.
… The mainstream media is completely on board of the process, including the outlets that flatter themselves by describing their national stature, most notably the New York Times and Washington Post.
… A soft coup engineered by the national security and intelligence agencies would be far more dangerous to our democracy than anything Donald Trump can do.
—————–
There’s no way he can get anything done in this environment of a not so stealth coup. IMO, POTUS should focus on draining the IC swamp of the coup plotters. Rather than react everyday to this campaign of innuendo, he should lay out a frame similar to Nixon’s Silent Majority.
The group-think lynch mob set up by powerful players in the media and in Washington has been an eye opener for me. It largely confirms my worst fears about how the system works.
Narratives are created and pursued with a vengeance–Israel is beyond reproach, Russia is evil, Saddam had WMDs, Qaddhafi was going to massacre everyone, Assad used chemical weapons, corporate-friendly trade deals are great, Clinton is inevitable…
Dissent is rarely heard, because it is not broadcast or and does not appear in print.
Democracy this is not.
“If Trump does not understand or appreciate this reality then he is not intelligent enough to be president and should be removed from office.”
The day before Trump declared his candidacy a heckuva lot was known about his mental outlook, his habits of personality, his character, his style of management, his insecurities, his minor and major lapses, his track record as a businessman and familyman. Plus, there were all sorts of documentation which supported estimations with respect to the psyche behind the ‘packaging.’.
Scroll ahead. It is almost a shock-a-day–just in evaluating his tweets!
But, there is no constitutional requirement to be fit, to staff the government fully with your own people, or even to be honest or transparent or savvy. The POTUS isn’t required to be well-read, a reader, or even a good listener. He need not know anything about the military either by personal experience or watching TV or by any other source of knowledge. He still gets to fulfill the duties of CIC. A POTUS is allowed to be paranoid, impetuous, impulsive, thin-skinned, and, prone to wild theorizing. The POTUS doesn’t have to be religious, egalitarian, tolerant, or even ethical. He doesn’t have to keep his promises. He doesn’t have to separate his business interests from his administrative and governing interests. He doesn’t have to be loved, popular, effective, or, concerned with how future historians will treat his terms in office. The POTUS, if he chooses to, can be totally self-dealing and corrupt.
Trump was elected through the operations of our system, and his legitimacy is not in question.
Is he fit? Does it matter?
(I had a good chuckle this week when I read Trump’s accountants declared that his tax returns contain no financial connections to Russia, except for some ‘exceptions.’)
I am no fan of Trump, but the glee with which many seem to take in the unelected state security and surveillance agencies’ take-down of an elected president is far more troubling to me than whatever Trump told Lavrov or his firing of Comey.
Combine that with the sheer mindlessness of the media’s hostility to Russia and imho we’re in trouble.
I am still wondering about that helicopter ride. Maybe you can explain?
Since I was only 21 years old when I emigrated to the US, I did not have much time to screw up much of anything since I spent much of the preceding time going to school. Besides, as an US citizen I am allowed to determine suitability for office and vote accordingly, which I have.
This is all very reminiscent of Nixon’s first term. The Borg then opposed him hard and were very displeased with his narrow electoral victory. A concerted effort was made to undermine him and set the stage to depose him. Nixon fought back with the excellent Silent Majority frame. And he came back to win 49 states for his second term.
There can be no doubt as PT has noted above that there is a concerted effort by elements in the federal government colluding with the MSM and the political establishment to depose Trump. The question is will Trump fight back and how will he do it? At this point this information operation is not swaying the Deplorables. Only pissing them off. But it sure is driving the ratings of the MSM, so they’re only gonna escalate.
John Helmer writes:
The CIA and at least one senior staff official of the National Security Council, who briefed the CIA on what Trump had said, are angry at the President for revealing collaboration between IS operatives and their US Government handlers in attacks on Russian targets, including Russian airline travellers.
Trump identified a US tie to Islamic State which is operational against Russian targets. That the Obama Administration and the CIA have been doing this is no secret. Nor is the prospect of Islamic State and CIA plots against Russian and international aviation a secret.
http://johnhelmer.net/washington-post-reveals-isis-was-partner-supplying-trump-intelligence-briefing-for-russian-officials/print/
jonathan house and pl,
Flynn was/is apparently under an FBI counter-intelligence investigation. I don’t know whether that would also constitute a criminal investigation. If Trump just made his desires know to Comey that he would rather see the Flynn investigation dropped, I don’t see any basis for obstruction. Did Trump order Comey to drop the investigation or threaten Comey with consequences if the investigation was not dropped? Unless either one of these conditions was met, I see no obstruction.
A NYT Op-Ed agrees with you Colonel (unless, under s1510 a specific bribe was offered). It also explains that Congress never intended FBI investigations to be within scope of the broader broader federal obstruction statute; s1505.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/opinion/trumps-fbi-comey-statements-are-not-an-obstruction-of-justice.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
It concludes with the following sentiment, which I’d wholeheartedly agree with:
kooshy,
In my day, these memos were called memorandums for record. We often produced them after meetings or conversations that may be referred to in the future. Although it can often be a CYA move, it would not be biased unless the memo writer deliberately distorted the content of the meeting/conversation. I would think it a prudent practice to write and file these memos after conversations at this level.
Col: My thoughts exactly. When I was watching today’s morning news, I realized that I don’t understand “constitutional law.” Apparently, in 2017, any law enforcement official can cloak their actions in an “investigation” and then be immune from executive oversight.
Just because it was legal for President Trump to share information with the Russians does not mean it was smart or the correct way to honor our commitments to our allies. As mentioned in this thread President Trump does not do himself any favors by showing a complete disregard on working with his own staff and not cooperating with them on consistent messaging.
President Trump needs to learn that he cannot run the government like he has run his past businesses. Even his past business experience did not prepare him to run a corporation of any size.
From this article President Trump’s comments to the Russians is not a non-issue in Israel.
Active Israeli government officials are downplaying the issue but I wouldn’t expect anything else.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-israeli-spymasters-rip-into-trump-say-israel-must-reassess-intel-sharing/
Thanks, TTG. Makes a lot of sense, for sure.
The key point here is that these investigations are really not designed to end with a definitive finding. They are investigations per se, engineered to provide a more or less continuous dark cloud over POTUS. This is quite advantageous from the perspective of propaganda / deception, and the propagandists and deceivers are making hay daily. I can understand why Trump’s detractors would desire this. The only problem is: they’re using psychological weapons that do a lot of collateral damage. It is quite a clever play by our nation’s enemies when you think about it, goading the NeverTrumpers into doing the job that several generations of RIS could never do.
So “damaging the credibility” of the United States is what determines fitness for office. How is this determined?
HRC would have had us in a hot war with Russia by now. But the Washington establishment knows and likes her, so that makes it OK.
No, that doesn’t make me a Trump fan.
Agreed. If the memo and its claims are legit, it will lay another straw on the camel’s back, but nothing else.
Cernovich is reporting the leaker is in the DOJ.
https://medium.com/@Cernovich/will-doj-leaker-david-laufman-be-next-to-leave-after-comey-a5f449055d62
If Comey interpreted Trump’s remarks as obstruction of justice, there is a statute which requires it to be immediately reported. Logically, you can use the law of the contrapositive to infer that if no report was made, then no obstruction was observed. Or you can posit that the head of the FBI, and attorney, didn’t know of the law. So let’s see if a report was made? Evidently, since Comey reported to the Justice Dept., reporting would have been trivial. Or did Comey not report the incident at the time, which might imply conspiracy to commit blackmail?
Tyler is right. The ruling elite is a self insulated group of people who don’t interact in any meaningful way with the wider American society. They have formed a parasitic relationship with the general public and they are currently in the process of miscalculating on an epic proportions. We are literally watching the self destruction of a cast group that has controlled America for 70+ years.
This is not going to end well for them which is a good thing for Americans and the people of the world.
But the bigger tragedy is that the average Joe on the street is also not aware of the danger that we are facing and are not prepared to deal with it. Pain is coming. Its in the mail. Believe me, its coming.
He should have fired Comey day 1. He also should have fired anyone and everyone (possible) appointed under Obama. Of course he can’t touch lifetime appointments like judges but everyone else serves at the President’s pleasure. He didn’t do that and is now feeling the heat for waiting too long. Now, he could and should start firing everyone in the SES and possibly down to GS-15 levels as a wakeup call. No one is irreplaceable and the more senior personnel are the more likely to be embedded agents from Obama/Clinton. He had better start acting fast and fire up his Cabinet to start chopping heads.
Thirdeye, right on! Watch Chelsie’s rise following in the same slipstream.
It wasn’t an order just a hope. A minor distinction but an important one. Plus, who is to say what Comey wrote in his memo is actually true?
Lars, don’t you think this is more of the coverage of his actions rather than the actions themselves. Comey should have been fired by both Obama and Trump. Both had plenty of reasons. I recall vaguely over a month ago there was a leak from the Oval office and only 4 people were in the room who knew what was said. One of them was Comey. I suspect that was a trap and the root cause of his termination.
Agree; weeding out coup plotters needs to be DT’s priority. As it happens he’s just hosted a guy with recent experience of doing just that. I hope he asked for some advice.
Yes, Valissa, this is indeed an excellent article.
Mr. Giraldi continues to provide an invaluable service to the Republic through the vehicle of his own well-grounded argumentation, and through directing his readers to the interpretations of other, similarly-qualified observers of the scene.
And all of this, no doubt, at some little reputational risk for going against the wishes and aspirations of the Borg, being rather like Col. Lang in this regard. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I thank both of these estimable gentlemen for their service to the Republic, a service that has not ended with the conclusion of the active, official phase of their service.
TTG, Thank you for the info, my opinion is that Mr. Comey was biased from the beginning, so I do not know what the president asked and how Mr. Comey interpolated it in his Memo thinking he may need it a day like this. IMO Mr. Comey at this time has no credibility, none more than the president. I agree that this president is not fit/ suitable for his job but removing him this way, with lies and innuendos is not in the interests of we the people, for that reason alone, we, all of us for or against this president, have to fight this so it wouldn’t become a normal, and we end up in a banana republic.
Tacitus has left out one group who wants Trump gone; the people:
“More Americans want President Trump impeached than don’t, according to a new survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released Tuesday.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/333589-poll-42-percent-of-voters-support-impeaching-trump
Our host’s chosen poll, Rasmussen, has Trump popularity at -12 (+44 -56). And that was before the lightning bolts of the past 48 hours.
It is a bit of circular logic as Trump can pardon anyone at any time even before charges are made. It was easier to just ask man to man as a favor. This happens all the time in government. Comey was in his chain of command and all decisions would regarding prosecution would lie on Trump’s desk anyway. He could merely circumvent the process by telling the DoJ he will just pardon Flynn for “any and all potential crimes” (as with Nixon) anyway.
As many have said he is inexperienced and was perhaps trying to save wasted time and effort and trying to deal with this on a simpler informal basis (assuming it happened at all). I think everyone has forgotten he is the one in charge of the whole process.
Until an Independent Investigator is appointed by Congress that is how it is. That is why we have Independent Investigators in the first place to act outside the official process. But, no one has even attempted to rally for this. Perhaps, because there is nothing to it? IMHO this is yet another round of fake news to garner increasing support for impeachment. I believe he would survive an impeachment much like Clinton did and they know this. It is their hope he merely resigns first. I think they underestimate his force or personality. At some point soon he is going to get tired of playing nice and start chopping heads indiscriminately. I would have started already. Comey was a warning shot which apparently went unheeded.
mauisurfer,
Corrected link to the article by John Helmer. Your supplied link seems to consistently generate a database error.
http://johnhelmer.org/?p=17265
Helmer’s site is down.
Don’t be absurd. The investigation has not been derailed. If Trump actually ordered Comey to stop, then that would have been a problem and Comey would have resigned. Didn’t happen. Your attempt to draw analogy with a failed robbery as evidence of robbery ignores one important detail–robbery is a crime. Asking a question about the status of an investigation into Michael Flynn is not a crime.
Historically, Presidents under attack always resort to starting a war somewhere. So, this could be very bad.
The helicopter ride is, I believe, a reference to the choppers carrying Americans from the US Embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war.
Thankfully impeachment is not achieved through poll results, or even a plebiscite. I suspect the average presidential term would be measured in months if it was.
Regarding DT’s popularity – I’d direct you to Dr.Puck’s excellent post above.
Self-inflicted.
When your enemy is spending 25 hours a day against you, you DON’T continue stupid tweeting, you hire a competent staff and MANAGE them ……and so on and so on.
Having quite a bit of experience in negotiating, I would LOVE to negotiate with Trump; like negotiating with a child – most of whom can be bought with a little instant gratitude and a few cheap compliments.
bks,
Guess I missed the part of the Constitution that says elected officials, including POTUS, can be removed if opinion polls are unfavorable.
On what grounds, exactly, would you seek to impeach Trump other than the Rasmussen poll? I’d love to hear your case.
The law of the land is so annoying isn’t it? Getting in the way of the great revolution and all.
As a senator, HRC introduced three bills:
S. 1241: A bill to establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in the State of New York. Bush signed the bill Dec. 3, 2004.
S. 3613: A bill to name a post office the “Major George Quamo Post Office Building.” Bush signed the bill Oct. 6, 2006.
S. 3145: A bill to designate a highway in New York as the Timothy J. Russert highway. Bush signed the bill July 23, 2008
Now that is a record to be proud of. /S
Cernovich has good sources. He’s been proven accurate in the past.
You’re on the same page as Scott Adams
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/160770453201/the-slow-motion-assassination-of-president-trump
Yeah, right!
The same polls that were claiming Her Highness had it in the bag.
Remember that Deep Throat was Mark Felt, Associate Director at the FBI.
JohnH.
“Dissent is rarely heard, because it is not broadcast or and does not appear in print”
true, it confirms my analogy between a human body and a “body of a society” in which there is a role for a nervous system in a human body and communication system in a society. Who controls the nerves/communication controls the whole.
You are so full of shit is amazing.
Colonel, if you are correct that Flynn was/is being investigated for nothing, or was under no threat of prosecution for anything (this is a key point that should be acknowledged), then I agree as a matter of law there was nothing to be obstructed. But, if that is the case, then Flynn should not have had any reason to request immunity for his testimony.
DC
Do you not know the difference between a criminal investigation and a counter-intelligence investigation? The first can lead to indictment. the second leads to an information brief. As to seeking immunity before testifying before a hostile body, only a fool would not because Flynn led an active life and who knows what kind of thing from the rest of his life might pop up? You lefties have convinced yourself of a whole raft of media dominated “facts” and now you are embedded in them. pl
raven and tyler
you are both banned. pl
I’m not a lawyer but it looks to me like the impeachment attempts based on comey or Russia are weak at best. The Dems, media and neocon run a high risk of discrediting themselves even more. Revealing Comey’s record as head of the FBI will hurt the Dems.
One thing I’ve noticed in several situations is just how toxic to group dynamics it is when the wife or girlfriend of the Big Cheese gains undue privilege or power strictly through her relationship. Arrogant, entitled, unaccountable, and abusive. That was apparently the situation between HRC and staff in the Clinton White House.
It’s worth it to get his insane shit off your blog.
Publius Tacitus
The reference here was to Pinochet send people for on way trips over the Pacific. pl
Raven:
Tyler may be full of shit, but it’s really good shit.
Which is a death threat, I see what you banned ME again.
Col. Wilkerson on the coming war and the clown inside the White house https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09di2xWG_1s
PT
What is striking is the President’s and his staff’s failure to recognize and counter the soft coup mounted by corporate media and the intelligence community. There are tools to go over their heads to the people plus firing the SOBs. The release of CIA and NSA hacking tools into the wild is utter incompetence.
Let’s be clear, there is an ongoing attempt to negate the 2016 election and end constitutional democracy in the United States. Rule by trans-national treaties and institutions to the benefit of corporations and the wealthy is the goal.
No PB, he means throwing lefties out of helicopters ala the Pinochet regime during the ‘Dirty War’. It’s quite the ‘joke’ in alt-right circles. For some reason they think that’s an appropriate way to defend the republic.
Dr. J,
Has anyone in the Press seen the memo Comey wrote to himself after talking with AG Lynch about why she met with the spouse of a suspect under criminal investigation? No? My, my. I wonder if he used “bleach bit” on that note like Hilary’s staff did with that server which his career professional subordinates did not subpoena. None of that should be construed as interference with an investigation.
I got what he was trying to say, come the revolution, helicopter rides, blah, blah blah. I was addressing the real issue not the bravado.
Nancy,
Technically correct. Those Catholic hospitals, along with all the others in the US, are mandated to require abortion coverage in insurance across all employees even if they are not capable of getting pregnant.
BTW when does life begin? Why should politicians get to decide that?
Eric, obstruction of justice and violation of the Oath of Office are the two current themes. For example:
…Such statutes were broadly drafted. Julie O’Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches white-collar criminal law at Georgetown University, said the power relationship between a president and the F.B.I. director could elevate a request to shut down a case into an act that amounts to impeding an official investigation.
“He really needs a lawyer,” Ms. O’Sullivan said of Mr. Trump. “He is building a beautiful case against himself.”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/obstruction-of-justice-explained-russia-investigation.html
Tyler is either speaking about his approval for Pinochet’s choice of transport for his enemies or he is trying to silence us. I imagine it is both.
The national polls had Clinton +2% and that’s what she won the popular vote by. The electoral college simulations were off in a number of states, for sure.
bks,
Of more immediate relevance is Trump’s popularity with the Republican base, which remains high. 2018 is still a long way away in political terms. Many House Republicans are running in safely gerrymandered districts and there aren’t many GOP senators in immediate danger. However, they do face the likelihood that there are more shoes to drop.
The Democrats can hope to make hay as the Republicans defend Trump’s latest blunder or outrage and hang him around his party’s neck.
If the GOP “act[s] as I think you are suggesting they act, they will get, at a minimum, in the political sense, what Brutus, Mark Anthony et al got.
Lars,
She certainly had years of experience in government. That’s why there was a server in the basement and bleach-bit in the server. What she did not show in the election was judgement in supervision of her staff or running of her campaign. She had name recognition, a rigged (so said Bernie) primary, positive media coverare, $1,000,000,000 in campaign spending and she still manged to lose to Trump.
Don’t forget this beauty “In November 1999, President Bill Clinton publicly declared “the Glass–Steagall law is no longer appropriate”
The Democrats should not try to hard to get rid of the Trumpster. Trump is a gift to the them, capable of discrediting the GOP in the next four years. Also, they should prefer the ineffective Trump to the skilled and far-right Pence. Let’s see if they use the same playbook the Republicans did with Pres. Clinton. Investigate! Investigate! Investigate!
> If Trump just made his desires know to Comey that he would rather see the Flynn investigation dropped, I don’t see any basis for obstruction.
So if the CEO, the boss of the boss of your boss and who has unquestioned authority to fire you for any reason or none, asks for a private conversation and wistfully expresses a desire that you do X, might you not feel some motivation to do X?
Good for you Colonel Lang,
I think the whole country has gone nuts, but we have been able to count on civility on you site.
As I mentioned sometime ago, I met Trump twice in the seventies for meetings with one other person. I did not find him to be very intelligent and then (as now) he appeared to have a problem keeping still and focusing on the discussion My feeling at the time was that he was probably dyslexic.
Nevertheless, the country did elect him according to its rules.
My first choice was Jim Webb and my second choice was Bernie Sanders. I am at least as liberal as Bernie Sanders, but I thought Jim Webb had the best chance of governing.
Maybe at this stage, in our history, this country is simply ungovernable.
Regards,
David
Like it or not, “high crimes and misdemeanors” has been interpreted to mean whatever Congress decides it means. It’s a political proceeding by the legislative branch, not a criminal proceeding, nor a judicial or executive proceeding.
Under the constitution it’s solely a congressional prerogative, and not subject to review by a court or any other body.
Is it your position that we now are at the point that a President, asking an FBI director (‘can’t you let this go..Flynn is a nice guy?”) is deemed an attempt to obstruct justice? Isn’t it just as likely to be a plea to employ some common sense regarding a little used statute? The Foreign Agent stuff? Now, if he went a bit further and said, or even implied, ‘and if you don’t think you can let it go I will…..’ fill in the blanks, then you might have something. Are we all now condemned to have all public servants walking around with teams of lawyers by their side? Sounding like they are College Amin types talking to disgruntled Parents, in that child like, soundbite bureaucratic speak? Is the nuance and calibration Comey SAID he employed not charging Hillary precisely the thing Trump was calling for? The same thing Obama called for on 60 Minutes regarding Hillary? Have we lost all sense of proportion and common sense? And THIS is assuming the damn memo actually exists, AND is relevant and admissible? We’ve lost our minds I think. Or, some of us have. Or else there is a lot of bad faith here.
Colonel, you are thinking too deeply about this issue as a matter of law. The key first question regarding “obstruction” is whether there is any “proceeding” whatsoever. If there is a “proceeding,” then it can be obstructed.
The blog, “Lawfare,” has some instructive lessons from experts on obstruction.
Not a “lefty” BTW.
Hawk,
“the correct way to honor our commitments to our allies”
You are correct. Launching an unprovoked attack on the USS Liberty in international waters, that’s the right way to treat an ally. Transferring secrets that damage American national security to the USSR and making the convicted felon who sold them an Israeli citizen and national hero is the right way to treat an ally.
BTW Which President signed a treaty of alliance with Israel? When did the Senate ratify said treaty? None and never.
bks,
Negative popularity? That’s cute. Is that new left wing math? To quote the linked story “The poll found 40 percent approve of the job the president is doing”
40% is a far cry from negative twelve.
bks,
Interesting.
Now, what evidence do you have that either charge has occurred and why do you think that evidence is sufficient for impeachment?
Thx again.
I am no fan of James Comey, but to fire him in the middle of an investigation seems to be part of a cover up. The question then becomes: What is being covered up?
No doubt there has been a plethora of leaks from the White House and probably at levels never seen before. That begs the question as why? There has to be a reason for that too.
Rather impatient, aren’t we?
Benghazi-gate – 5 years and counting – still nothing.
… Trump has full authority to declassify and classify information
Yes, no one is saying Trump did something illegal. But – if the information was received via some agreement with a foreign agency, then to unilaterally declassify it is to break that agreement.
The fact is that Trump created his own troubles. After his surrogates said that Comey was fired at the recommendation of the Justice Department, Trump went ahead and said he was going to fire Comey any way regardless of the recommendations; and because Comey was not shutting down the Russia investigation.
Dear Colonel,
Despite the sounds escaping from Democrats and Democrat sycophants mouths, they are too knowledgable in the ways of the swamp, IMO, to think there is any there there. IMO, they are simply trying to get the Trump administration to agree to an investigation which will be used to take the daily news attention away from Trump. Having been the subject of an internal audit investigation (for which I know which manager made the anonymous call, and for which nothing ever was found), the endless time spent working on justifications destroys your ability to get anything done and makes one want to quit. That IMO is the democratic goal.
I think that (per Scott Adams) Trump’s masterful control of the media narrative was evidently highly effective during the campaign – it has largely backfired since he took office as it doesnt work with entrenched power centers. IMO either he reaches out to his public directly asap and asks for their help, or he will spend the next two years fighting a damaging rear guard action.
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame thinks the Republic is dead in all but a technical sense. That we are in a cycle of mutually assured destruction from here on for the foreseeable future:
From his blog 5/17/17
Quote
I also think we are seeing with the recent leaks the first phase of Mutually Assured Destruction of our government. The leaks will destroy Trump if they continue. But if that happens, no Democrat and no anti-Trump Republican will ever be able to govern in the future. Payback is guaranteed. The next President to sit in the White House will be leaked to the point of ineffectiveness. And that’s how the Republic dies.
That isn’t necessarily bad news. The Republic form of government doesn’t make sense in the modern world anyway. We already evolved into a form of direct democracy via social media and polling. Our politicians can’t risk going against a big majority – even for noble reasons – because social media will organize to drive that person out of office over the issue. In effect, we are already a direct democracy. The Republic is already history, except in a technical sense.
If you can sit passively while watching the Opposition Media turn “hope” into “asked Comey to end the investigation,” you are part of the slow assassination of President Trump. And you are also part of the slow assassination of the next president, and the next. If Trump goes down from leaks, Mutually Assured Destruction kicks in automatically.
On the plus side, the public has the power and the moral authority to strip the Opposition Media of its power and take control of the government via the weight of public opinion. But that probably won’t happen because of our old friend confirmation bias. Confirmation bias makes the innocent word “hope” look like “Asked him to end the investigation.” Trump’s critics will see it that way. And if they do, your next president might be Elizabeth Warren.
She should last about two years.
CloseQuote
I will weigh in with my respect for Comey and his professional
conduct. Relevant here is TTG’s note above about keeping records of one’s meetings in these situations, and that is standard practice in these situations at this level. I believe Comey’s motivation for this memo was prompted by this practice and his knowledge of the law. I find his background in his confrontation with Andy Card 13 years ago when Attorney General Ashcroft was in the hospital after surgery exemplary: http://tinyurl.com/k74lxnk
I will paste some quotes from that article below, but I recommend interested folks read the entire piece, since it is clear he wants a credible witness with him when he meets people in power and authority:
“COMEY: I was headed home at about 8 o’clock that evening, my security detail was driving me. And I remember exactly where I was — on Constitution Avenue — and got a call from Attorney General Ashcroft’s chief of staff telling me that he had gotten a call…and that as a result of that call Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to see Mr. Ashcroft.[…]
” COMEY: I raced to the hospital room, entered. And Mrs. Ashcroft was standing by the hospital bed, Mr. Ashcroft was lying down in the bed, the room was darkened. And I immediately began speaking to him, trying to orient him as to time and place, and try to see if he could focus on what was happening, and it wasn’t clear to me that he could. He seemed pretty bad off. […]
“I went out in the hallway. Spoke to Director Mueller by phone. He was on his way. I handed the phone to the head of the security detail and Director Mueller instructed the FBI agents present not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances. And I went back in the room. […]
“Comey explained how, shortly afterwards, Card called him ‘very upset’ and demanded that I come to the White House immediately.
“COMEY: I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness present.
“He replied, What conduct? We were just there to wish him well.
“And I said again, After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness. And I intend that witness to be the solicitor general of the United States [Ted Olson]. […] He asked whether I was refusing to come to the White House. I said, No, sir, I’m not. I’ll be there. I need to go back to the Department of Justice first.”
Raven,
Why is a communist like you bitching about free government transportation? You can swim right?
All,
Does this sound like a plausible scenario for the Russian meeting leak?
The intell community, poised perhaps a bit more than it is wise to be in fear of Trump blurting something out, were looking for a teachable moment and either felt that moment had arrived or over reacted to a scrap of information. They know the POTUS has the authority to reveal anything but also know that person should, even must, be consulted and/or notified beforehand.
IMO the media are but sharks, ones to whom outrage is food. Different kinds of sharks specialize on different sources of food…but they all have those same eyes:
“…lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’… until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then… oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin’…”
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/jaws/images/8/86/Robert_Shaw_as_Quint_in_the_movie_Jaws_1976.jpg
I have to agree with Tacitis, if Trump is unfit to swim in that ocean it is best he get out of the water. Haven’t tossed in the towel on his adapting yet myself though. Sharks are by nature easy to manipulate.
Raven,
Whine louder. I can’t hear you over the rotor wash.
Nancy,
It really is the only way to deal with communists.
My (having a career filled w/ negotiation) view almost exactly, with the exception that I’ve found “negotiating” w/ my kids fascinating. I do not enjoy negotiating with such self-referencing, can’t-be-beat people like Trump … it’s game of little creative dynamic, little or nothing to be learned, spending one’s precious time with dim blowhards.
I have to note that there is a pattern to these uproars: “Facts” which at first seem pretty dubious keep getting confirmed. They may not mean what Trump’s antagonists say they mean. In many cases I think they do not. But the administration’s telling of its own story seems remarkably inept.
I just love the German language. “Dolchstoßlegende”. Widely believed by the right wing that the only possible explanation for losing was a conspiracy to stab them in the back.
After Germany surrendered in1945 refused to accept defeat and committed acts of terrorism against Allied forces and their fellow Germans whom they deemed traitors.
Sound like any committee members who seem to thrill about revenge against the left?
#NotOneMoreClinton!
#Never!Ever!
#NotMyResistance
If anyone who is on Twitter wants to Twitter-launch those hashtags and see if they go anywhere, feel free to do so. They are not the least bit copyrighted.
Fred,
There are some Bitter Berners launching at least one law suit against the DNC over this rigged primary process. It is getting zero coverage in the MSM Fake News Media, but there have been a few articles about it over at Naked Capitalism.
Annem,
In line with your comment, every one of the several MSM Fake News Media outlets I have listened to lately unanimously describe Russia with the same exact phrase . . . ” most dangerous Adversary”. As in “our most dangerous Adversary”, “America’s most dangerous Adversary”, etc.
I also note the sudden airing on the Fake News MSM of accusations that the SyriaGov is running a crematorium to dispose of the bodies of mass executions at a prison in Damascus. That is designed to push all our buttons. A CREmaTORium! How very Hitlerian! How very Naziesque!
I felt my own buttons punched for the first few seconds. A mass-execution body-disposal crematorium? Bomb it! Bomb it NOW!
But then I got ahold of myself and remembered the psy-opper nature of the Fake News MSM I heard this on. This is coming from the PermaBorg Deep Establishment with or without Obama holdovers. They want a new high-tension perma-war in place to pre-control the population in advance ahead of time for when the “revolution of falling expectations” drives millions of normals and deplorables into various stages of open revolt.
I am afraid we are going down the road of impeachment or resignation, DOJ just named special counsel on Russia Investigation. God knows what becomes of this.
Trump is a baby boomer and like many other people of his generation he is hopelessly idealistic. I doubt that he fully grasped the depth of the rot that has plagued our country.
He properly identified the problems, but didn’t fully understood the motivation of the people that created these problems. He believed that decades of mismanagement were the results of innocent mistakes that could be corrected by making good deals. He is now facing the people that brought us to this point and realizing that none of this stuff was a mistake, but actually intentional. I think he now realizes that his plan to make America great again is a contradiction of the plan of the globalist to make the World great again.
If this was the meeting Comey had with Trump 3 months ago and Comey took notes and felt justice was being obstructed, should he not then have informed the Attorney General, or – is one allowed to have his cake and eat it too?
Valissa,
Thanks for posting this. The last line is especially important point that we should not lose track of. What I fear is that the nutjobs in the national security cum “democracy promotion” establishment that gave us such monstrosities as “bombs for peace” and “coups for democracy” think no more of democracy in United States than they do for Serbia or Ukraine. In their mindset, since they do not approve of Trump morally, he cannot be democratic. Anything that removes him, by hook or crook, is justified and “democratic.” How such monsters came to be in positions they occupy is astonishing, but, regardless, for the sake of peace and democracy at home and abroad, President Trump must be able to serve out his term. Anyone who suggests otherwise–that he should be forced out of office illegally, in spirit or in letter–is an enemy of this country.
Impeached for what? Being unpopular? Is that what qualifies as “high crimes and misdemeanor” now? I may not like Trump much, but anyone who suggests that he be forced out of office illegally, if not in letter, certainly in spirit, is an enemy to both myself and the Constitution.
I would suggest that both the left and right follow the advice I proffered last night:
“I am not a fan of President Trump (please note I use the title President, which he is regardless of whether I voted for him or not–I did not). However, while the events of the last week are disturbing there is much we do not know. There are many who are jumping straight from zero to impeachment–I believe that is premature. We all, Democrats, Republicans, whatever need to take a breath, step back, and let the system work.
Mr. Madison’s design, while not perfect, provides sufficient checks and balances to prevent President Trump from doing something stupid. I also have faith that responsible adults like Senators Corker, Collins, and Portman will do the right thing when the time comes.
So please everyone sit back have a drink, a toke, or a hit, whatever your preference is, and chill. As for me I am going to bed. As Carol Burnette said pretending to be Scarlett O’Hara “there go the Atlanta Brave and after all tomorrow is another day.”‘
Is Erick Erickson one of the Washington elite?
http://theresurgent.com/i-know-one-of-the-sources/
“What sets this story apart for me, at least, is that I know one of the sources. And the source is solidly supportive of President Trump, or at least has been and was during Campaign 2016. But the President will not take any internal criticism, no matter how politely it is given. He does not want advice, cannot be corrected, and is too insecure to see any constructive feedback as anything other than an attack.”
…
” I am told that what the President did is actually far worse than what is being reported. The President does not seem to realize or appreciate that his bragging can undermine relationships with our allies and with human intelligence sources. He also does not seem to appreciate that his loose lips can get valuable assets in the field killed.
You can call these sources disloyal, traitors, or whatever you want. But please ask yourself a question — if the President, through inexperience and ignorance, is jeopardizing our national security and will not take advice or corrective action, what other means are available to get the President to listen and recognize the error of his ways?
This is a real problem and I treat this story very seriously because I know just how credible, competent, and serious — as well as seriously pro-Trump, at least one of the sources is.”
Tyler-
Your comments of late have grown increasingly ominous.
What exactly do you envision will happen should Trump be removed from office, either through impeachment or resignation?
I amsimply curious as to your perspective.
National polls had Clinton leading by 3-5%, roughly 4% if you average across them. Mere 2% lead would not have produced such confidence as the “important people” exhibited. Trump beat the polls by 2%, and that 2% came from the votes that were not expected–i.e. the voters who were not the “usual” predictable types. THAT should make both the pollsters and Democrats worry.
Alleged popularity with the “Republican base” is irrelevant: in any election, around 45% of the voters will vote Republican, even if the Republican is named Hillary Clinton. The votes that “matter” are the voters who unexpectedly swung to Obama in 2012 and to Trump in 2016, making up just a few % at most but capable of swinging election results in a lot of areas. The aggregate poll numbers are misleading since these voters tend to be disproportionately apolitical and don’t respond to pollsters, and we don’t know what they really think. My hunch is that the Russophobic propaganda may not be working on them all that well, though–it feels like they appeal too much to elite globalist sentiments, not the way more “regular” people think. The more damaging might be seeming displays of policymaking incompetence–lack of a workable alternative to Obamacare, no movement worth speaking of on the domestic infrastructure, no sign of a revived Glass-Steagall. If I were advising Trump, I’d suggest that he forget about the Russia nonsense and try getting things that the real people care about done.
That’s where I am at. The Foreign/Defense Policy Establishment basically wants a Nikki Haley to be President. A figurehead to make canned patriotic speeches and do the insanely destructive things they want.
I wanted to comment on McMaster’s denial. The CNN flying circus is calling it a non-denial / denial but I took it as a very strong denial of the Post’s original article. McMaster said that ‘methods and sources were not discussed’.
Hmm…. so what does the MSM flying circus want McMaster to say, something like, ‘Trump did not tell the Russians about Ahmed, our mole, in Raqqa’, even a more subtle, ‘Trump did not disclose the name of any Syrian city’ would confirm that there was HUMINT rather than SIGINT involved. It would be irresponsible for McMaster to be more specific than he was. At least this is my take on it. Maybe this is Karmic payback for the information war that the Trump Administration is still waging against Syria.
Patrick Buchanan anticipated all this in his column of 2017-01-30:
http://buchanan.org/blog/the-first-firestorm-126483
An excerpt from that column (emphasis added):
T]here are lessons for the Trump White House
in the media-stoked panic and outrage at the end of his first week in office.
…
A third lesson Trump should learn is that
the establishment he routed and the city he humiliated
are out to break him
as they broke LBJ on Vietnam, Nixon on Watergate,
and almost broke Reagan on the Iran-Contra affair.
While the establishment may no longer be capable of
inspiring and leading the nation, so detested is it,
it has not lost its appetite or its ability
to break and bring down presidents.
And Trump is vulnerable,
not only because he is an envied outsider who seized the highest prize politics has on offer, but because
his agenda would cancel out that of the elites.
They believe in open borders, free trade, globalization.
Trump believes in securing the Southern border, bringing U.S. industry home,
economic nationalism, “America First.”
They want endless immigration from the Third World
to remake America into the polyglot “universal nation” of Ben Wattenberg’s utopian vision.
Trump’s followers want back the America they knew.
Our foreign policy elites see democratization as a vocation and an autocratic Russia as an implacable enemy.
Trump instead sees Moscow as a potential ally against real enemies like al-Qaida and ISIS.
There is another reason for the reflexive howl at Trump’s travel ban.
The establishment views it, probably correctly,
as the first move toward a new immigration policy, built on pre-1965 foundations,
and rooted in a preference for Western-Christian immigrants first.
When the Times rages that “American ideals” or “traditional American values” are under attack by Trump,
what they really mean is that their ideology and agenda are threatened by Trump.
negative evidence cannot be turned into positive evidence of a thing. hence the shutting down of a fishing expedition by government that has found no positive evidence of illegal doings by Flynn is by definition, not obstruction of justice.
to do otherwise would be akin to declaring a bank manager guilty of attempted robbery for perhaps making a mistake in his daily accounting.
president obama faced the exact same negative evidence (prove me wrong!) scandal with the birther conspiracy and what a viciously effective distraction tool it is.
As for the negative Trump “fitness for office” arguments, don’t make me laugh. Anyone who has ever spent ime in government, dealing with politicians, knows that they are fallible, imperfect crooked timber, like the rest of us.,,,,,and HRC was an even weaker,knotted, branch than Trump. ‘experience in government’. my ass.
The left and the right back institutions based on the fortunes of the party they support. Comey has given both sides a case of political whiplash in a matter of months. This should reinforce his neutrality, as much as it is possible, instead of reinforcing biases according to party identification tweaked by a 24/7 news cycle that needs constant clicks for revenue. People inevested in their team act as though everything has changed. Aside from power changing hands after the election little has. Sorry Dems but Obama was down with ICE raids on nonviolent illegal aliens too, and there is nothing new about defunding/dismantling liberal projects that received moderate Republican support decades ago.
Clinton’s election wasn’t stolen. She didn’t need help losing. I don’t think there is any collusion with Russians at least when it comes to the election. I question if Israel even paid for that intel with any sweat; they’ve been called out for their reluctance to share information on this blog. The hysteria is ridiculous. If Trump shared intel with Russia, so what? They don’t discriminate when it comes to killing moderate jihadists. We’re too chickenshit to check the regional aspirations of our Middle East “allies”. Russia can do it for us.
I’m sure those of you crowing about Mueller didn’t care for Clinton’s impeachment over a goddamn blowjob just like you were never under the illusion that the CIA slam dunked anything. You reek of hypocrisy. You let them jerk your chain when they lose and forget to raise hell about women and children being deported when they win. If the republic endures the roles will change when power changes hands.
Hmmmm….
why does “command influence” come into my mind at all this?
There are many within the FBI, DoD, and the Intelligence Community who are loyal to both the (duly elected) President and the Nation, and if President Trump will use them, they can and have the ability to attack and destroy the Deep State and their onslaught against the nation’s duly elected President.
I say Mr. President Trump turn the dogs loose for the hunt, as they will find and destroy the Deep State and their Deep State operatives [like Comey] (if you will let them).
The Deep State needs to be afraid, very very afraid. Turn the dogs loose for the hunt Mr. President.
“The key point here is that these investigations are really not designed to end with a definitive finding. They are investigations per se, engineered to provide a more or less continuous dark cloud over POTUS.”
Very much like Whitewater was.
Shoe’s just on the Republican foot this time.
And who was Linda Tripp, other than a holdover from the Bush I administration?
” [Bill Clinton and George W both wrecked the Bush I agenda for bringing Russia into the global system.] ”
Hardly. According to Jeffrey Sachs, Bush I insisted that the new Russian government remain current on payments on the entire Soviet debt until it ran completely out of foreign exchange in February 1992, threatening to have ships carrying critical food aid turn around if the payments were not made. The Bush I administration were determined that the new Russia start her existence totally bankrupt. The Bush I administration proposed that the new Russian government receive no debt relief, no currency stabilization fund, or serious financial assistance. Sachs believed that the new Russian government would need approximately $150b in financial assistance in the form of grants or highly concessionary loans over her first 5 years. Russia actually got about $9b in grants over the entire period from 1992-2003, with more loans from the IMF, but totalling nothing resembling the sum Sachs thought necessary. In his own words:
“I believed that the West should provide large-scale and timely foreign assistance to Russia, as it had to Poland. The United States and the IMF rejected this advice. Russia fell into a deep balance of payments crisis.”
He has concluded that Russia recovered economically due almost entirely by her own efforts. The Bush I administration made no attempt to do anything other than to ensure that Russia’s economic collapse was as rapid and as deep as possible.
Are you saying that counter espionage investigations cannot lead to criminal charges?
Some FBI officials have told the press that the investigation was not likely to lead to criminal charges for Flynn, suggesting that charges were considered as part of the investigation.
I think that’s why the Clintonists felt a need to get Flynn:
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.”
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michael-flynn/
n
Just to clarify, 10 states do not allow any insurance coverage to pay for abortions, meaning if you want it in your insurance coverage you can’t get it. 25 states do not allow insurance purchased on an exchange to cover abortion. There are plenty of cities in the US where you cannot get an elective abortion at a hospital, link goes to just one. To the best of my knowledge, no Catholic hospital has ever been forced to do an abortion.
http://jezebel.com/there-are-no-more-hospitals-in-cincinnati-that-offer-ab-1755692527
Steve
If he has all of those Obama moles hanging around, why doesn’t he replace them? That right there says a lot about his basic incompetence. Less time tweeting and more time actually accomplishing stuff please. (I can tell if the guy is just terminally lazy or disorganized.) Also, I just don’t see a lot of FBI types being pro-Obama. I thought it was claimed that Flynn had accepted money from foreign agents and had failed to report that. Is that not a crime?
Steve
“If Trump does not understand or appreciate this reality then he is not intelligent enough to be president and should be removed from office.”
>> Blindsided TTF? You assume that Trump isn’t in on it. Is Trump the Republican Obama? If he remains in office, will he be “forced” to do what the establishment wants b/c he’s always in a politically weak position?
1. Trump supported Clinton in 2008. And he picked up on Hillary’s ‘birther’ nonsense as a means of keeping the pressure Obama (an ‘enforcer’ role, as I explain at my blog).
2. During the campaign Trump once said that he might resign from office.
3. Some of his mistakes (like allusion to taping) are hard to explain.
“He is fully entitled to tell the Russians whatever he wants.”
>> His “entitlement” ends at what the VP and a majority of the cabinet believe to be reasonable.
Yes ,He has shaken the pillars that hold up the “establishment”.Things will never be quite the same again and maybe not even close………….And THAT is a good thing!
I think Mr. Trump is now trapped in his own making. Contrary to other comments I think the other side is claiming firing of Comey was obstruction of justice and not casually asking Comey let go of Flynn investigation. The other side will prove Mr. Trump asked Comey during a WH dinner in last Feb. ease off on this investigation, nearly 4 months later in May, when Mr. trump gives up all hope that Comey will ease off on this investigation and insist on doing his job he cynically fires him. That is obstruction of justice, he should have fire Comey day one in WH.
Didn’t anyone get a clue when the subject last year was DT’s small hands and penis size? And he actually engaged that conversation! Then we were served “grab em by the pussy”. In his own words! Who says that except rude late night entertainers?
The Tricky Dick Nixon, Atwater, Gingrich playbook plays itself.
Walking Dead Hillary is rolling around destroying what is left of the Democratic Party and Walking Dead Trump is just getting started on the Republicans. It’s something out of an Hieronymus Bosch painting.
There must be something to that 4th Wave stuff. We’re screwed if its a big war because it will probably mean nukes.
I wonder how the Publius Tacitus from May 14th (“Donald Trump Will Not Survive”) feels about this more conspiratorial Publius Tacitus from May 17th? Is this all a plot to undermine the president, or is your hypothetical about his intelligence (and by extension, his competence) spot on? I’ve never thought of a criminal trial as a conspiracy by the prosecutor and the court to deprive the accused of liberty, but you paint such a compelling picture that I may have to change my point of view on the rule of law.
Matt Taibbi’s latest, “How Did Russiagate Start?”, is good. He’s anti-Trump but looks past that to ask probing questions about Clapper, Comey and the deluge of secret and unverifiable leaks that are “quite literally driving the country crazy”. To him, it smells.
“But when it comes to the collusion investigation, there are serious questions. A lot of our civil liberties protections and rules of press ethics are designed to prevent exactly this situation, in which a person lingers for extended periods of time under public suspicion without being aware of the exact nature, or origin, of the accusations.
It’s why liberal thinkers have traditionally abhorred secret courts, secret surveillance and secret evidence, and in the past would have reflexively discouraged the news media from printing the unverified or unverifiable charges emanating from such secret sources. But because it’s Donald Trump, no one seems to care.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-how-did-russiagate-start-w482262
I certainly have written a number of these, none of which have (thankfully) needed to be pulled up into the public spotlight.
But honestly, I think that Comey would have written one as a reflex after any meeting with the President, regardless of whether anything unusual was discussed.
It’s just the way he worked, and it’s a very useful and appropriate approach.
Only an idiot would offer to testify without immunity. And yet, there are apparently some fools who are willing to do that…
Additionally, her only claim as Secretary of State was most miles travelled in history by any US SOS. They had a serious problem trying to come up with a list of accomplishments during the campaign. Other than an awful lot of people dying mysteriously, making a lot of money through real estate fraud and insider trading, selling political favors, she can’t claim anything of actual use to US citizens other than what you listed.
Generally, but I don’t actually like Trump. I just disliked HRC so much anyone would be better. What I hoped was Trump would blow the system apart which hasn’t happened or on a minor level reduce tensions with Russia which is sort of happening. My real hope was he would release the truth about MH-17 and blow completely the neocon game in Ukraine. It is still early and I think the game plan is to keep him from getting his head above water.
Sam Peralta,
Remember what Nixon did and how his predidency ended? Trump presidency will most likely end with worse scandal.
Peterhug
Memoranda for the record are an extremely good idea. pl
freudenschade
It seems that PT has had a change of heart. pl
Boronx
i am not a lawyer but have had several intelligence lawyers work for me in the context of CI investigations. Such an investigation conducted by any competent investigation agemcy normally leads to a finding of facts which may result in dismissal or other punishment or outright dismissal or exoneration. In extreme cases the result of the investigation can be referred to an authority such as DoJ for criminal proceedings but that would be rare and Flynn was not subject to a criminal investigation per se. If he had been the target of a criminal investigation there would have been no discussion of immunity for him. you don’t immunize a suspect unless you are seeking to turn him against a bigger fish. i haven’t heard anyone suggest that the FBI was seeking to investigate the president. pl
nick
Tyler is un-banned for the purpose of answering this question. pl
keith harbaugh
IMO you cannot compare civilian procedures with the concept of “command influence.” pl
“(I had a good chuckle this week when I read Trump’s accountants declared that his tax returns contain no financial connections to Russia, except for some ‘exceptions.’)”
Yesterday our first channel added a sequence from Russia concerning the latest reports from the US. From a press conference by Putin, a response on events in the US. Apparently Putin offered to release whatever protocol/memo/memorandum of the meeting between Lavrov and Trump. I didn’t begrudge Lavrov his “good chuckle”. Not at all.
There may have been something lost in translation concerning the precise term. Maybe Putin was alluding to the recording device Lavrov secretly smuggled into the meeting? 😉
*********
Concerning financial connection to Russia. Russia needed to get a lot of money from up road at some point in time, is there a law that forbids Americans to get money from US banks? Concerning the Russian oligarch angle by association in Trump’s business scandal affairs, I vaguely recall some of those Oligarchs had a red carpet rolled out in the US too. There was a time when Russian money and its purchasing power was all over the place. Just as interest in investing there was considered quite lucrative, I suppose.
To the extend I watched matters over here, not much happened in more significant cases. Pecunia non olet? At what point does it stink? If the wrong people are able to work with it?
raven
I have changed my mind. you are un-banned. I enjoy having you and Tyler scream at each other. pl
Ghostship, as far as I am concerned, he may interpret the memo we discussed here too. That’s the way I read his emphasis on “I think”, anyway.
Admittedly, I cannot help, but another airplane brought down over the Ukraine comes to mind. With its somewhat, at least for some of us, dissatisfying WhoDunnit results.
[clutching her sides with laughter] Me too
kao,
Putin and Russia are very popular amongst the deplorables. A lot of the find Putin more favorable than any other leader on the planet. The more the Borg tries to tar Putin/Russia, the more the deplorables dig their heals in.
Steve,
So ten states have overridden the federal mandate? I’m glad Jezebel is on top of the new there. Oh, wait, that story doesn’t say anything about state laws denying covering for abortions. Where did you get that info?
Let me know when they run a story on the live births at Planned Parenthood maternity clinics.
“forced to do an abortion” Thanks for the projection. I did not state nor imply any had been any abortions in Catholic hospitals.
DC,
Bernie was on CNN with Kasich last night. The establishment “I told you so” move to respectability is on. The gloating on the morning newsies reminded me of Jr. High.
I think the investigation of Flynn was a criminal investigation and that Trump (and Pence, who quarterbacked the transition team) knew about it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/trump-knew-flynn-investigation/527142/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flynn-manafort-are-key-figures-russia-probe-mueller-will-lead-n761256
WRT Tyler as 1. windup artist 2. [mock] bad example:
‘Tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation.
Are you two banned now? Or is this some type of running gag?
Catholic Hospital do not have to perform abortions or provide birth control. Neither are participants of insurance plans forced or encouraged to have an abortion or use birth control. I am not sure why men are so negative about birth control. I can understand finding fault with abortions but why birth control unless men want to control all aspects of a woman’s reproductive rights.
I am not sure when life begins, but I know it doesn’t begin at conception.
I am not a proponent for abortion on demand, but I do feel that all women who are having sex should use birth control, unless they are trying to become pregnant. Abortions have decreased and the main reason is women have access to birth control.
It’s time for Trump to go.
https://youtu.be/ADM6dNQATuk
JHC .. we do it/have been doing it (eg) meddling in foreign elections, wars, whacking the occasional candidate since the Spanish-American War and say “its okay, it’s in the national interest.”
What’s the point with the supposed Russia-US election bashing? Ie, it’s okay and national interest legal for the US to meddle and others not?
“Just because it was legal for President Trump to share information with the Russians does not mean it was smart or the correct way to honor our commitments to our allies.”
How do you know it wasn’t smart or correct for the president to share this information with Russians ? Do you believe in US constitution? if so by virtue of electoral vote according to US constitution the president is the ultimate decider what is in the interest, especially security interest of American people and not Israel’s. Now you may not like this this but if you are an American, for your own interest you better accept and live with fact
that Trump is legally the president and we the people should not allow he be removed in an internal soft coup, if we did this becomes a precedent that makes this country a banana republic.
The appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel does not move the Russian influence investigation back to square one. Although it has a long way to go, it’s moving faster than I thought it would. A MOE (Marshal Order of Execution) began yesterday afternoon is search and seizure in ten physical locations in three jurisdictions. These operations are aimed at seizing documents, servers, computers, hard drives, telephones, etc. This is in support of three grand juries which have been empaneled for several weeks now in New York, New Jersey and the Eastern District of Virginia. Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated), has been reporting these things for several weeks and it was confirmed on NBC today. This is the real stuff, not all the soft coup talk.
Although the twittersphere can best be described as a jungle island overpopulated with hostile gangs of overly agitated howler monkeys frantically flinging feces at each other, there are a few gold coins hidden within those feces piles.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/former-white-house-staffer-claude-taylor-knows-thi.html
HCG
“whacking the occasional candidate” Which were those? pl
LeaNder
I ban and un-ban people on an entirely whimsical and eccentric basis. No rules! Imagine! No clarity! Would you like to be banned? pl
bks
“I think the investigation of Flynn was a criminal investigation” Because you want it to be so? Mueller’s investigation will be a criminal investigation. He will have grand jury empanelled. Oh, I forgot you lefties dislike grand juries. pl
specific article? DC?
https://www.lawfareblog.com/
I scanned some articles, that left this not only legal nitwit with the impression that one or the other constitutional lawyer may be eager to update US law via a specific case beyond the reigning custom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawfare
Full discovery: I am one that has developed mixed feelings about the term, maybe based on some specific efforts:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/about-lawfare-brief-history-term-and-site
I think we are sort of saying the same thing. A bankrupt Russia, it was hoped, would be forced [they assumed] to fall into the clutches of the international financial system and have to sell off its industries the way that others have had to. Instead, Russia took a tougher but safer route and maintained its economic autonomy. Being an oil producer obviously helped. Russia had watched all the desperate 3rd world countries fall into the trap and get into the WB/IMF cycle. Ukraine is another cautious tale, as it was forced to choose a government that preferred economic nationalism or one immersed in the global financial system. When it went the “wrong way” we helped the “democrats” over throw the government.
Actually, Comey is said not to have kept such memos after his meetings with Obama, which were generally straightforward, routine, and not overly frequent. He also had no concerns about Obama misrepresenting their meetings. It is safe to say that his meetings with Trump probably did not answer to that description. Comey reserved the time and effort needed for such extra documentation for knotty situations, which this certainly was.
Can anyone believe this headline by Pravda on Hudson, the paper of record, does this headline suggest the NYT wishes the American president on a foreign trip to a foreign land should not be respected as a head of state by his host.
“Saudi Arabia, Ignoring Trump’s Slights, to Give Him a Royal Welcome”
Shame on this recording rag NYT and it’s editors
No, no. Everyone loves grand juries, just as long as they are pointed at the other team.
Steve
Good data, thank you.
The question always begged is: after one is elected, what role does the quantitative ‘base’ support play as against the elite/monetary support?
(My opinion,) this base doesn’t require a wall, but does require the illegal immigrants to be deported. This base doesn’t require the restoration of the fifties manufacturing economy, but does require a booming economy. This base doesn’t require the privatization of the New Deal, but it does require the welfare carrot to come after the stick.
Crucially, this base doesn’t require the replacement and repeal of Obamacare, it just wants healthcare that is cheaper and better, and, it certainly doesn’t want catastrophic insurance backstopped by the ER.
This base for the most part has no idea what a plutocracy is, and, besides, isn’t the Trump mystique built partially on everyman’s aspirations to have millions, and, a trophy wife?
The problem is that it seems Trump may have real problems delivering bennies to his base and to his billionaires. So far, he hasn’t delivered much, unless one is good at playing the VIX in the options market.
The irony to me is that the so-called Borg might actually support the one event that could smooth much of this over: a vicious war in the vicinity of Tehran or Seoul.
TTG, the appointment of Robert Mueller indicates that this investigation will be heavily biased against Trump.
As Haralambos pointed out above and as b points out is his post today, Mueller is Comey’s good buddy. I would love to here from you how this can possible be a fair investigation given the Mueller-Comey connection.
The Special Council Inquisition – Bad For Trump – And All of Us http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/05/the-special-council-investigation-will-be-bad-for-trump.html
Robert S. Mueller is also a bad choice as a special council as he is a former colleague and friend of former FBI director James Comey who Trump recently fired. From 2013:
Forged Under Fire—Bob Mueller and Jim Comey’s Unusual Friendship*
“Both men were rising stars mentored and guided by Eric Holder in the 1990s during Holder’s time in the Justice Department under the Clinton administration.
…
Mueller, now 68, and Comey, now 52, would become close partners and close allies throughout the years ahead.”
…
Both, Comey and Mueller, were involved in the dramatic hospital scene at the bed of Attorney General Ashcroft to stop Bush’s illegal program of spying on U.S. citizens. The program in question stopped for a moment but the spying simply continued under a different legal justification.
—————-
*https://www.washingtonian.com/2013/05/30/forged-under-firebob-mueller-and-jim-comeys-unusual-friendship/
Nancy,
Can you please stop the projection. “abortion coverage in insurance” That is mandated coverage not a mandate for the location of where that service would be done nor by whom. The mandate itself was one of the major complaints against Obama care.
” I am not sure why men are so negative about birth control.”
Beats me since that doesn’t describe myself nor any of the men I know.
Some just find it difficult to make or respond to a point without being rude. I would like hearing Tyler’s opinions if he weren’t so aggressive.
Stephanie,
So after AG Lynch created that firestorm by meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac in Phoenix Comey, during his time in office, met with Obama after that event and kept no notes because things were straightforward and routine? how convenient.
I for one was getting a laugh outta the helicopters & genitals-centric world view.
and that is one of the many reasons I respect the way you run SST. other blogs could learn from your elements-of-style. it’s almost like the real world, back when it used to be.
on a more specific note, thinking through political crisis in recent decades…
Mueller is authorized to investigate “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” of the “coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump”. Amazing (potentially even huge) things could emerge that reminds one of paths we’ve experienced since Watergate (or Whitewater, or the Birther craze, heck, Teapot Dome for that matter).
That phrase “or may arise…” hmmm.
Blowback of 2nd & 3rd order revelations may resonate, accumulate and even amplify. If I were one who truly lived for anti-Borg nativism, Donald would’ve been my last choice for leading the parade. He’s far too dirty.
Political appointments are often promoted through media “stories”, but this story requires an immediate response–
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-says-he-may-pick-new-fbi-director-friday-n761716?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Former senator Joe Lieberman has apparently been interviewed to be the director of the FBI, and, of course, friendly news networks characterize him as the front-runner.
Regardless of whether this is mere puffery, anyone who has a line into the White House decision-making process should promptly act to try to stop the appointment of Lieberman. There are several reasons. One obvious one is his deception in characterizing the positions of Chas Freeman in a false and misleading way when Mr. Freeman was appointed to head the National Intelligence Council by Dennis Blair, when he was the Director of National Intelligence in 2009–
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM110_dni_response.html
http://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2009/03/blair-defends-freeman-from-lieberman-016678
This is of real importance, and it is in the nation’s interest for those with the knowledge and experience to work an angle to stop it, to make a move.
Fred, I don’t understand you. Obama was not involved with the tarmac fuss (and it was Clinton who created said firestorm, not the unfortunate Lynch).
I don’t doubt, however, that if it was Obama who was involved with such a complication and he asked Comey to go easy on, let it go, etc. Lynch and himself, that Comey would certainly have composed a memo. However, no issue of the sort would ever arise, because 1) Obama was not likely to get into such a scrape; 2)if he had, he would realize the irregularity and impropriety of asking the director of the FBI to take it easy, let it go, whatever, or even bringing the subject up; and 3) Comey would not have the additional concern that Obama would take to social media or the airwaves to attack him.
I agree, the minute AG Sessions was forced to announced he would recuse himself on all Russian matters we knew we are going a SP with unlimited investigative authority, unfortunitly this will not benefit the country and the people. Mr Trump will be lucky if he can finish his first term and I am not sure if he wants too.
You get matters wrong, Richard. The Dolchstoßlegende is the German post WWI myth or widely shared trauma, if you like.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stab-in-the-back_myth
Buchanan has a more recent column specifically talking about
the Comey firing and its significance:
“Comey & The Saturday Night Massacre”
by Patrick Buchanan, 2017-05-15
http://buchanan.org/blog/comey-saturday-night-massacre-127070
Here is the end of his column (emphasis is added):
[I]f President Trump is enraged, he has every right to be.
Since July, the FBI has been investigating
alleged Trump campaign collusion with Putin’s Russia
to hack the DNC and John Podesta’s email accounts —
and produced zilch.
As of January, ex-CIA Director Mike Morell and ex-DNI James Clapper said
no collusion had been found.
Yet every day we hear Democrats and the media bray about
a Putin-Trump connection and Russian “control” of the president.
In the early 1950s, they had a term for this.
It was called McCarthyism, and
its greatest practitioners invariably turned out to be
those who had invented the term.
…
In 1973, NBC’s John Chancellor suggested
the ouster of Richardson, Ruckelshaus and Cox
was the “most serious constitutional crisis” in U.S. history,
passing over the secession of 11 Southern states
and a Civil War that cost 620,000 lives.
One London reporter said that
“the whiff of the Gestapo was in the clear October air.”
We see a similar hysteria rising today.
Yet that was not a constitutional crisis then,
and the mandated early retirement of Jim Comey
is not a constitutional crisis now.
And that the mainstream media
are equating “Russia-gate” and Watergate
tells you what is afoot.
Trump is hated by this city,
which gave him 4 percent of its votes,
as much as Nixon was.
And
the deep-state determination to bring him down
is as great as it was with Nixon.
By 1968,
the liberal establishment had lost the mandate it had held since 1933,
but not lost its ability to wound and kill presidents.
Though Nixon won 49 states, that establishment took him down.
Though Ronald Reagan won 49 states,
that establishment almost took him down in the Iran-Contra affair.
And that is the end they have in mind for President Trump.
Yes, the dung heap piled on Chas was disgusting. To be fair it came from a wide panoply of Republicans and Democrats. Chas was not sufficiently aligned with the Borg.
James,
No I don’t, because I don’t accept that what you think of as “the Borg” and I think of as “the Borg” are the same thing.
For one, you seem to think Bernie supporters are somehow opposed to the Borg, which tells me you’re doing mental gymnastics to square that particular circle or just in denial.
One thing about Trump is that he is a fighter. But every fighter has their limits. Over time we will find out what Trump’s are, and then how far he is willing to capitulate to keep his job and reputation.
From what I’ve read this would be an ongoing background investigation. I think the Borg and related members of the power elite, political and corporate (primarily Democrats but also the establishment statist & Wall Street Republicans) will use this ongoing investigation to attempt to force Trump to submit to their will in those areas where he was elected to go against them. Basically a form of ongoing “blackmail.” And as long as Trump mostly “plays ball” they probably won’t fight him too hard or attempt to impeach them.
Thus the establishment preserves itself from anything other than cosmetic change, and the Borg continues to assimilate (or annihilate) all outsiders and dissenters.
James,
I don’t get around much, and I lead a slow and narrow life but . . . based on what I read and hear . . . I think the Bernie supporters are fighting the Clinton supporters hardest of all at this point. The Clinton supporters are fighting to keep the DemParty clintaminated, and the Bernie supporters are fighting to declintaminate the DemParty.
Nick,
As I said, the cuckservative effete is measuring itself for its own nooses, to say nothing of what is going to be in store for the Marxists who have led the charge to change this country into something unrecognizable to many outside of the Blue Enclaves.
You want to see the level of disingenuous circular logic on display? Look at Ross Douthat, Kevin Williamson, and all the Wonk Effete talking about how removing Trump would be “brave”, and actually believe the people they sneer at are going to accept being told “your vote didn’t matter, try again!” and settle things peaceably with the ballot box.
One only needs to look around here at the level of self delusion and self deception that seethes among the fever swamp the Left has become. They absolutely refuse to accept that there is anything wrong with their hothouse brand of politics, instead insisting that the American Character must change in order to accomodate the Leftist Elite and the new transexual biracial muslim illegal aliens that these same Marxists want to import as a new serf class.
I’m ominous because I know this is going to end badly for many, and you can’t unring this particular bell. However, instead of recognizing that they’re pushing too hard too fast and not everyone wants to live in a dystopia, the Marxist Globalists have decided that everyone who disagrees with them is Literally Hitler and deserves to be unpersoned.
The major gouge for many on here is that those of us on the Right regard them as Literally Stalin, and deserving of a Commissar Order of their very own.
Ah well. Onwards to Hell. Whatever will tomorrow bring?
Nancy,
No, you weren’t. You missed the point.
eakens,
The irony of the nonstop leaks and the breathless reporting by the Propaganda Arm of the DNC only serves to bolster the “knife in the back” theory – that Trump has the best intentions but can’t get anything done because of enemies within and without.
Trump’s twitter is a signal flare to his supporters as well.
Stephanie,
Why is it that Lynch did not deny Clinton access to the Lynch plane? Why is it that Lynch freely chose to grant Clinton the tarmac conference Clinton wanted?
Fred,
Due to reasons which add up to being “a long story”, I have not had working TV in my dwelling unit for some years now. So I am unable to see or know what Sanders and Kasich said on CNN.
I hope that Sanders remains focused on discussing the New Deal Restoration agenda.
bks,
“Which” people? How many? Determined how?
I remember reading somewhere that Rasmussen was an Establishment-Republican connected “conservative” polling operation. I begin to wonder how many Mainstream Establishment Republicans are rubbing their hands in silent glee ( away from the cameras and microphones) at the thought that Trump might be the “delivery vehicle” and that Pence might be the “payload”.
Eric,
That’s really my point. The 45% or so who are reliably Democratic might think Putin and Russia are a big deal, but they are irrelevant. Some of the 45% who are reliably Republican might find Putin and Russia objectionable, but it’s not such big deal that many–if any–will stop supporting the Republican, whoever it might be. Some of the remainder might not care about Putin or Russia that much, one way or another. Some others might really respect both. Either way, the Russophobic propaganda does nothing to change the political calculus.
I do think, however, a lack of tangible and obvious benefits of Trump presidency runs the risk of undermining the support he enjoys among the people who are not “obvious partisans,” regardless of what goes on with regards to Russia.
Dr. Puck,
Exactly. We may not even be talking about huge numbers of people: maybe 10% of the voters who are not “obvious” partisans and many of whom may not be really swinging between Trump or not-Trump. And unless Trump can deliver the goods–actual goods, and not symbolic gestures: not (necessarily) an Obamacare repeal or the Wall (which are just symbolic), but a better and cheaper healthcare and more and better jobs (actual and meaningful benefits), as you have pointed out. 90% of the voters may care about the symbolic matters, but they don’t change votes so easily.
The theory is that the press and the Democrats are preventing Trump from doing what he wants. But the problem with the theory is that the Republicans control the House and Senate, so Trump could ignore the press and the Democrats, and just get stuff done. This didn’t pose a problem for any previous President who had a majority in both houses.
It’s not like we hear any of Trump’s supporters in Congress yelling about how it’s all about the “Deep State” stopping them from getting stuff done. Heck, the Senate Republicans probably hear the leaks before the leakers call the reporters, or else, the reporters (or their editors) call them before publishing the leaks, to triple-check the stories. But you don’t hear the Trump Republicans criticizing the other Republicans either.
So, I think this is all baloney. I think you need a new theory.
Dick,
You can’t even use the term correctly or place it in context, so I’m not surprised that it is about a gorillion times more relevant to a Left that can’t stop autistically screeching REEEEEEEE THE RUSSIANS REEEEEEEE on nightly news and fine blogs like this one.
Bill,
I wish the fan fiction I wrote where I portrayed myself as the Last Honest Man in America was taken as unalloyed gospel by the powers that be.
James,
you do realize that the Chilean left were not saints?
DC,
You are probably better off not having a TV.
There was a time when idiots-useful or otherwise, thought that the izzies and KSA clowns were enemies. The narrative keeps slipping.
Ishmael Zechariah
Arguing with Tyler (a boy raised without any male role models) is like wrestling with a pig. The pig has a great time but all you get is muddy.
He’d love nothing more than to toss those who threaten his world view from helicopters.
If that were not a possibility I’m certain that he’d make an enthusiastic concentration camp guard.
Stephanie,
you mean FBI Director Comey had zero conversations with President Obama after Attorney General Lynch’s meeting created a nationwide firestorm of media coverage because AG’s meeting with the spouse of someone involved in investigations just happen all the time and aren’t improper at all? Right. Never came up. And Loretta and Bill just talked about the grandchildren.
My understanding is that keeping a helicopter in the air costs a fortune.
Raven should be flattered and Tyler should crunch some numbers.
Yes, that’s the odd story with Tyler, ked. He definitively has a certain entertaining quality, and he doesn’t mince his words.
Notice as self-declared “cultural Marxist”–Marx as theorist, versus Lenin and Stalin as practicians, in a nutshell–I am pretty high on his list as political enemy, I guess. 😉
Tyler,
Dammit,he better get to exposing the leakers and that may even include sonny boYmarried to his daughter.
Tyler,
This Bernie support does not accept the actions of the Borg and fight the Borg daily.Trump isn’t. He’s out m
“As I said, the cuckservative effete is measuring itself for its own nooses, to say nothing of what is going to be in store for the Marxists who have led the charge to change this country into something unrecognizable to many outside of the Blue Enclaves.”
Ah, the fantasy of lynching liberals. Its such an old form of insanity.
Fred: There are a lot of folks who are not saints. I dont go around having masturbatory ideas of exterminating them nevertheless. Its kind of weird to see a alt.righ wannabe masskiller allowed to run wild here.
Fred,
Oh, I still have a TV set. It just hasn’t been hooked up to anything for several years. When I listen to radio, I sit facing the cold dormant TV set so I can say I am “watching the TV”.
Your information is in need of an update: this page is that of the US government:
https://www.congress.gov/member/hillary-clinton/C001041
Clinton sponsored 713 pieces of legislation and cosponsored 2,676, per this page.
The final status of all this legislation was:
Introduced [2,366]
Committee Consideration [429]
Floor Consideration [544]
Failed One Chamber [4]
Passed One Chamber [491]
Passed Both Chambers [85]
Resolving Differences [21]
To President [78]
Veto Actions [1]
Became Law [77]
My apologies for lack of clarity. Hillary Clinton introduced many laws, but the 3 above are the ones she sponsored that got passed. I am not including those introduced by others that she got her name attached to.
Richard,
I’m more insulted you think Id be anything less than commandant more so than your amateur psychoanalysis / projection.
Don’t be too thrilled, honey pie.
Mainly because in the larger context it may not be quite about left and right as you suggest. But yes, those no doubt were the latest explicatory models at the time, that’s why the clashed.
I hated the emphasis on Bismarck in my own school days. Mainly since it signalled there would be almost no space left for the Weimar Republic, leave alone the rise of the Nazis in that time.
But yes, a rather good “what if” argument can be made. What if, the Kaiser/emperor hadn’t sacked Bismarck? Would there have been WWI and its ultimate result–no doubt in a larger context–WWII?
“(a boy raised without any male role models)”
Interesting way to put it. Have you read his ….?
Having the facts correctly stated, lets now go into their interpretation.
This is a good start:
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2015/jun/23/jeb-bush/did-hillary-clinton-have-her-name-only-three-laws-/
Quote: “Effectiveness can be a behind-the-scenes role, adding a serious amendment, working inside to get the language exactly right. By any reasonable standard, including the private comments of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle when she was in the Senate, she was very effective.”
Paraphrase of Senator Lindsey Graham from around 2006 is “I don’t want her to be President, but she’s a good Senator”.
Also, what he wrote in the 2006 Time Magazine:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975846_1976531,00.html
Quote:
“In the Senate, a small body of big egos, Senator Clinton, 58, is sought out by her colleagues to form legislative partnerships. Her high-profile status, combined with a reputation as a smart, prepared, serious Senator, creates real influence. In a short time, this blue-state Senator with a blue-state perspective has managed to build unusual political alliances on a variety of issues with Republicans Bill Frist, Sam Brownback, Elizabeth Dole, Rick Santorum and other conservatives.
As a red-state conservative, I have found common ground with her on improving health-care benefits for members of the National Guard and Reserve. We also created a bipartisan Manufacturing Caucus to help promote and address the problems facing America’s manufacturers.”
The Clintons and the Clinton Foundation were pilloried, probably rightly, for this kind of thing: favorable foreign policy and support for charitable foundation tied together.
“The World Bank plans to announce Sunday at an event with Ivanka Trump, the U.S. president’s daughter and senior White House adviser, that Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have pledged $100 million collectively toward a fund for women who own or want to start businesses, according to people familiar with the announcement.”
I recall how Obama was excoriated by the right-wing for studiously avoiding saying “radical Islamic terrorism”.
Trump’s speech:
“https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/05/trump-saudi-speech-islam/527535/
Per the Atlantic, “In an address full of religious references, the American president avoided the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism.”
Somewhat off topic, but I don’t know where else to post this:
Can you imagine how thrilled the Secret Service was about this:https://youtu.be/B_LG-EFd_Bk
(Trump participates in Saudi sword dance!!!!) ?
More (nine minutes worth):
https://youtu.be/li9dGCC2SdU
Pat, did you ever participate in one of those things :-)?