That's my theory, as I read — at Politico — "Trump escalates his war with U.S. law enforcement after memo release/The president hinted openly that he might yet fire senior officials over claims of bias against him."
What did Trump say that "hinted openly that he might yet fire senior officials"?
A reporter asked him if he's "likely to fire Rosenstein" and if he still had "confidence in" someone whose name I couldn't catch (maybe Rosenstein). And Trump just said "You figure that one out."
So the press takes that no-comment comment and runs with it, basically reporting on The Future. What might Trump do?
I was laughing about this last night as I tried to watch CNN. The Nunes memo had just come out, and the night before the memo came out, the talk had been about what might be in the memo, i.e., News of The Future. Once the memo was out, it was old news, because we'd already talked about what was in it, back when it was News of the Future. So the subject had to be who Trump will/will not fire in the coming Saturday Night Massacre.
Trump doesn't need to move a muscle. The media throw his weight around for him.
February 3, 2018
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Good point, Professor. Trump seems to have sized up his opposition and is at least one move ahead.
Bret Stephens has an excellent column about the nothing burger memo that shows why Trump will have a difficult time dismissing anyone.
I was laughing about this last night as I tried to watch CNN. The Nunes memo had just come out, and the night before the memo came out, the talk had been about what might be in the memo, i.e., News of The Future.
So I guess CNN now stands for 'Crystal Ball News Network'?
"Bret Stephens has an excellent column "
It's amusing how the left has adopted the NeverTrumper right.
Bret Stephens of the NYT...
Trump just said "You figure that one out."
I laughed when I heard him say that. It just the kind of thing your parents (or myself when a parent) would say to the pestering kids. The non answer to get them to just STFU.
Kids: Dad...dad...dad....dad....!!!can we get some ice cream. Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?......
Dad: We'll see.
I can't wait for the next version of this scenario.
Kids: Dad...dad...dad....dad....!!! Are we there yet? This trip is too boring! Wah. Acosta is pinching me. Oprah is blocking my view. WAH. Rachel is making funny faces at us. OMG Hillary just farted! ARE WE THERE YET
Dad: DON'T make me stop this car and come back there!
If somebody asked me if I hoped that the President will be indicted and then impeached, I know how I would answer; “You figure it out.”
Althouse; for someone who, with good reason and a pretty wonderful record of it, has made a blogging career of pointing out language misuses and other language offenses against clarity, Donald Trump is your blind spot. Big league.
“You figure it out,” is like a line from the Sopranos or Goodfellas or a David Mamet script. It isn’t something that the nation’s Chief Executive says. Not about the second-highest ranking figure in the Justice Department.
God, I just want Trump under oath and in front of a court reporter.
Victor Davis Hanson puts it quite appropriately:
If all this is not a scandal — then the following protocols are now considered permissible in American electoral practice and constitutional jurisprudence: An incumbent administration can freely use the FBI and the DOJ to favor one side in a presidential election, by buying its opposition research against the other candidate, using its own prestige to authenticate such a third-party oppositional dossier, and then using it to obtain court-ordered wiretaps on American citizens employed by a candidate’s campaign — and do so by deliberately misleading the court about the origins and authors of the dossier that was used to obtain the warrants.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/456084/nunes-memo-fbi-doj-corruption-ticking-memo
r/v said: "Bret Stephens has an excellent column about the nothing burger memo that shows why Trump will have a difficult time dismissing anyone."
Comey said: "That's it?" upon release of the memo.
From the very same people who emphatically stated our national security was at risk, that we were giving our intelligence methods ........ with the release of the memo. And yet you want to give these clowns credibility?
Trump doesn't need to move a muscle. The media throw his weight around for him.
But only 239 pounds, right? Not obese. Definitely not obese. Because he’s 6’3”, after all. And only 239.
The current anti Memo talking points seem to be:
1. Old news - nothing new. Nothingburger.
2. Republicans acted partisan
3. Trump is impugning the intregrity of the fbi and doj
4. Trump is out of control
5. Memo is missing key information
Old / obsolete talking points:
1. Memo will hurt national security
2. Memo included classified information
3. Memo is unfair
4. Memo was changed
One thing about LLR, we have him figured out. There is no mystery!!
Trump is a mentalic who appears to the weak-minded as a clown.
Deploying the massive power of our state intelligence capabilities against a U.S citizen, based on false or misleading evidence: What could possibly be wrong with that? If that citizen didn't do anything wrong, what does he or she have to fear?
Inga and Chuck think it is a great idea.
Trump always puts his opponents on the wrong foot, Derb says.
Media judo. And the media is playing checkers.
Interesting that the press is not asking Rosenstein whether he intends to resign (like McCabe, who didn't need to be fired by Trump).
Donald Trump is your blind spot. Big league.
Trump is very bloggable. This is a blog.
I would think that would be obvious to you. After all, you love to comment on him. It's like he's your blind spot!
Really, if this is all ok, then what is to stop the present leadership of the FBI and DoJ from buying unverified opposition research from Senate and House Republicans candidates, and taking it to a Republican FISA judge to get wire taps on the staff of the Democratic candidates? All you really seem to have to do now is to use any ex-British spy as a front man and seed the media, for example The Washington Examiner, beforehand to create the authentication of the oppo research. This is exactly what you are accepting if you think the Nunes Memo is a nothingburger.
And I will again point out- we don't yet know what has been done with the Carter Page surveillance material. What we do know, however is this- it was a Title 1 warrant which basically means the government in its application said the evidence made it more likely than not that Page was an actual Russian Spy. And remember this- this was leaked to the press prior to the election, and that leak had to come from the Obama Administration- no one else was supposed to know this, not even Christopher Steele. As a Title 1 FISA warrant issued in October 21st 2016, it allowed the FBI to legally examine everything the NSA had collected on Carter Page and all of his contacts prior to October 2016, too. We will eventually see the daisy chain created by this warrant, and it will almost certainly show that nearly every single member of the Trump Campaign was surveilled in one manner or another after October 21st 2016.
Chuck,
That's a concrete bird you're courting.
I'm just sayin' ...
Trump escalates his war with U.S. law enforcement after memo release/The president hinted openly that he might yet fire senior officials over claims of bias against him.
The body of the Politico story is a worse non sequitur than the headline.
The move put Trump openly at odds with the whole of the nation’s law enforcement apparatus, including rank-and-file agents. The president did little to downplay the breach, telling pool reporters in the Oval Office who asked on Friday whether he still had confidence in Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, after reading the memo: “You figure that one out.”
Rod Rosenstein = "the whole of the nation's law enforcement apparatus"?
Let me take a guess, Chuck- you are short and fat?
The facts are leaking out and more are coming.
Fred Siegel's book, Revolt Against the Masses, is a good primer on Obama's friends.
I'm never any good about addressing the matter at hand, but I would like to contribute.
What I would do is get the mp3 version of The Daily and run it through speech to text conversion. And I think speech to text conversion would be helpful in general.
It's going to have errors, but if the source is good, like The Daily, it might just be a whole lot easier to edit than to manually transcribe.
Carter Page is a glue of some kind, if I remember right.
The MSM is playing checkers and Trump is playing 52 pickup.
Reason and analysis of what is in the memo and what is missing (so much) is not simply a right or left issue, that Narrow political thinking in terms of either or, dem or republican is a lazy way of thinking instead of reading the column and disputing its claims.
Pro-Democrat hack press uninterested and incurious about anything in the memo.
Period.
Except to say "leftwing cliche" about "Republicans pounce" and "it's just a "nothing-burger".
Hillary showered a bunch of sleazy politico's with $12 million to get opposition research that was given the title of Dossier. One FBI agent involved in wire tapping had his wife on the Fusion GPS team that drafted it. According to the Nunes memo, a Yahoo story that relied on English spy Christopher Steele was corroboration for Steele’s dossier. Steele verified Steele.
Bottom line is that corruption in federal law enforcement has been verified. And as they say, a fish stinks from the head down. The political arming of the FBI and DOJ was not the end of it. Look at the State Department. Samantha Power, who was not a law enforcement officer, unmasked so many people that she had to say that people were forging her name in order to get around FISA protections. The names were fed to the media as proof that Trump was dirty. Obama, the head of the fish, got the ball rolling early in his administration with Lois Learner’s IRS punishing conservative groups.
For the past year, we have been getting rumor and innuendo from the media that the Trump team colluded with the Russians. I don’t even know what colluded means but it sure sounds bad. Yesterday, all I heard from the media was that the Nunes memo was released to discredit the Mueller investigation. The Mueller horse has left the barn and I think Trump learned a lesson after firing Comey, so don’t expect Mueller to be fired. Rosenstein is another matter.
The quote above by Victor Davis Hanson should be reread:
"If all this is not a scandal — then the following protocols are now considered permissible in American electoral practice and constitutional jurisprudence: An incumbent administration can freely use the FBI and the DOJ to favor one side in a presidential election, by buying its opposition research against the other candidate, using its own prestige to authenticate such a third-party oppositional dossier, and then using it to obtain court-ordered wiretaps on American citizens employed by a candidate’s campaign — and do so by deliberately misleading the court about the origins and authors of the dossier that was used to obtain the warrants."
roesch,
Can I put you down for making public the FISA applications? Yes or no?
Yancey Ward is probably right. The FBI was spying on many in the Trump campaign. Admiral Rogers probably told Trump that. We know about all of the unmasking done by Rice and Power.
The whole idea is to impeach Trump.
Roesch, I expect that what is missing (appendices to this summary) will be released shortly. And, hopefully, all the missing documents requested but not so far provided to Congress.
The problem is that the Democrats, and Chuck, are fine with using the power of the government against political enemies.
When Plame was a thing, Democrats were outraged about using the power of government against political enemies.
What was the story on Bush's justice department? Politicized to prosecute only Democrats?
Chuck, how did you feel about the Obama Tea Party targeting? If there was ever an enemy of government, the Tea Party was it.
Chuck is on track to break his own record for the most off topic, pointless comments in a single blog post.
Blogger Yancey Ward said...
roesch,
Can I put you down for making public the FISA applications? Yes or no?
Don't worry, R/V. The rest is coming along like a freight train.
If somebody asked me, do I think that lifelong republican cuck should be thrown to his death from a helicopter and then have his corpse pissed on, I know how I would answer.
You figure that one out.
Comey said: "That's it?" upon release of the memo.
Good point, Humperdinck. Ask any police officer how to interpret it when they arrest a person on suspicion of murder, and he asks “That’s all?”
Jersey Fled: "Chuck is on track to break his own record for the most off topic, pointless comments in a single blog post"
In general, that is very much one of the key tactics being employed by the leftists to deflect from what has obviously occurred here.
And once again, LLR Chuck is completely, perfectly, aligned with the most far left narratives and tactics of the day.
If you want to know what LLR Chuck will say next, catch the Maddow show from the night before or peruse the DNC website.
Unexpectedly.
And they seem personal and mean towards our host, but I admire her ability to tolerate dissent.
What amazes me is that Trump has not fired anyone else yet. It's as if the swamp is doing the job for him and draining itself.
But he does have a friendly Congress right now. If that changes, things will get really bad.
It's not simply the anti-Trump press. It is the anti-Republican party press -- the Pro-Democrat party press.
Our press is an arm to the democrat party.
I think LLR Chuck is still very butthurt that one of his dem heroes, Durbin, was so easily exposed by Trump.
Blumenthal being exposed was the first indication that LLR Chuck was heavily and emotionally invested in supporting specific democrats.
Prior to that I just figured it was a general complete operational alignment with the dems/left, but after those two incidents that it became clear that "Accidental Leftist" Chuck actually had some real lefty dem favorites.
I wonder if he has their pictures on baseball cards? They are just the right size for home shrines.
I wonder if the words Caesar spoke in front of Legio X Equestris were of a sort that would have excited a desire by some lawyer to cross-examine him.
Those who claimed this would endanger national security, should have no credibility going forward.
Trump has had the media in a code red panic state for several months now. They still have to pretend his sure impeachment is eminent for being a Russian Secret Agent, all the while watching him slowly dismantle the Clinton Death Star part by part.
Fortunately, Cuba is open to cruise ships now. The Guantanomo Bay Naval Station excursion tour on Family visiting days are getting booked up fast.
But Professor, Trump is a moronic mastermind minion of Putin!
Once again, I would like to remind everyone that the dossier that the FBI relied on to get a warrant was so unreliable that Mother Jones wouldn't publish it.
We now know that people in leadership positions in the FBI committed perjury in order to get warrants to surveil the Trump campaign. We suspected that before, now we know it. As someone said in a previous thread, that has real world consequences. Or at least is should. If they get away with it then we are no longer citizens. We are subjects. I do not say that lightly. An attempt was made to influence the outcome of an election by the leadership of what is, essentially, the United States' police force using secret courts that citizens cannot monitor. People who try to minimize this are (like Wolf Blitzer) stupid or are fine with political repression as long as its their side doing the repressing.
I would also like to point out that if Hillary Clinton had won the election none of this would have been known. Think about that. People willing to subvert the democratic process to further their own ends, political power and personal enrichment, would have been in charge of the United States government's executive and Judicial branches for an additional eight years. And they would have felt justified in their actions.
ACK! my former avatar is on Drudge. lol. that's freaky.
Bret "America belongs to immigrants" Stephens? Sorry, that man is dead to me.
But only 239 pounds, right? Not obese. Definitely not obese. Because he’s 6’3”, after all. And only 239.
That's some weak sauce, even for you Chuck.
Ron makes a great point. Why didn’t the FBI and DOJ tell the FISC judge that Mother Jones wouldn’t publish the Steele Dossier.
DBH,
One argument I see often is that: no the press is balanced because of the presence of Fox News. I don't have the ratings handy, but IIRC, there are at least 5 liberal networks arrayed against fox for combination audience of about 4 times what Fox draws.
Additionally there is the huge systemic bias when the wire services lean so strongly to the left.
That doesn't even count the outsized influence of NYT/WaPo.
Then add all levels of the educational system, plus TV and Hollywood.
The left controls all the communication channels, and has gained this control over a long, determined march of many years. Look at Google, Facebook, and Twitter as new examples of conquest.
And WikiPedia is a fun one to take in isolation.
This guy:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/13/wikipedia-turbo-revisionism-by-william-connolley-continues/
carefully censored all the climate articles on Wikipedia for years.
Who has the time and money to edit Wikipedia all day? Someone with a good job from which it would be nearly impossible to be fired.
Re: Yancy Ward @9:29 quoting VDH:
If all this is not a scandal — then the following protocols are now considered permissible, ...
The Dems seem unaware that the new rules they set can be applied to them. Trump has renewed the FISA law, and by 2020 he'll have filled the top DOJ and FBI spots with his people. They'll regret this precedent they are setting.
Blogger Dave said...
The problem is that the Democrats, and Chuck, are fine with using the power of the government against political enemies.
When Plame was a thing, Democrats were outraged about using the power of government against political enemies.
What was the story on Bush's justice department? Politicized to prosecute only Democrats?
Chuck, how did you feel about the Obama Tea Party targeting? If there was ever an enemy of government, the Tea Party was it.
I personally thought that Lois Lerner should have been in jail, and Scooter Libby should have been in the White House or a federal judge.
Blogger Ron Winkleheimer said...
But only 239 pounds, right? Not obese. Definitely not obese. Because he’s 6’3”, after all. And only 239.
That's some weak sauce, even for you Chuck.
Not at all!
Unlike Trump’s bogus offer of a big donation to charity if Obama would produce a birth certificate, the offer of a big donation to charity if Trump will get on a certified scale actually has a chance to make a sitting President look (even more) like an asshole.
the FBI relied on to get a warrant
We don't know what all was in the 40-50 page FISA application to get a warrant. Def. don't know if the application only depended on a dossier.
If we assume this, we must assume everyone signing off, including rank and file, thought that was a good idea. We must also assume that the judge was just fine and dandy with that.
Many people are very excited and want to jump to a LOT of conclusions. Trent Gowdy tweeted this yesterday:
As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation.
I think these things:
1) I do not think the FBI and CIA is filled with a bunch of leftist political hacks. They are generally conservative to moderate. Apparently I'm in disagreement with the majority of people on this blog, who have decided the FBI/CIA is filled with a bunch of leftist hippy Bernie Bros who hate church, love gun control, hate the military, dodged the draft, and smoke pot on the weekend. Sirs, I raise my eyebrows at you.
2) The leaps and assumptions being made without access to application or testimony would be fanatic for a game of leapfrog. Not so great for coming to an accurate version of the facts.
3) Althouse, of course the Media plays this up. No, Trump's not playing the Media so much as they are in a mutually symbiotic relationship. The media has never been so popular. The media wants eyeballs and clicks. The media LOVES eyeballs and clicks. That is their foremost goal. Trump has always been a symbiotic relationship with the media -- his entire life. This is how he does his profile, brand, gets his attention, gets free press for his brand and later ran for office. It is his reason for being. The media, in turn, loves the Trump show.
4) It's not, so much, a question of what the media is doing to Trump. Or what Trump is doing to the Media. They are just fine and they'll be just fine 6 years from now when Trump is out of office. Trump's a rich man, and he'll continue to have a great life. The Media will enjoy every second of the Trump era. People will make careers out of it and media corporation profits are up with his coverage. They will all profit quite nicely from this situation.
It's a question of what Trump is doing to you -- you, there, you individual, you right now. How has Trump changed your views and what, to you, is now acceptable in both private and public life that would have been repulsive and unthinkable, to you!, if Romney was President.
Andrew McCarthy pointed to the Michael Isikoff story that was used as a "verification" of the Steele Dossier. He accepted the memo's statement that Steele apparently lied about his shopping of the dossier to the media, so the FBI would have been unaware that their "validation" via the Isikoff story was bogus.
However, this is a string I think the congressional oversight committees should pull on. It is worth noting that Steele didn't lie about this when giving a deposition in a lawsuit in the UK, so is it reasonable to expect that he would lie about it in an FBI interview? It is a question worth trying to answer. It is probably the matter that led to the Grassley/Graham referral to the DoJ. I am guessing that Grassley and Graham are asking the DoJ to resolve whether or not Steele misled the FBI interviewer/s, or did the FBI interviewer/s omit this detail from the 302s at some point so that the Isikoff story could be cited? Remember, they ejected Steele after the Mother Jones contact because that event was public and not anonymous, and thus couldn't be concealed. Also, at least one of the FISA extensions came after it was publicly known that Steele was Isikoff's source- was this information included in the extension application?
I think there is at least an even chance that the people who signed off on the first application knew Steele was Isikoff's source, but lacking any other verification, decided to omit that from the supporting documentation so that they could use Isikoff's article as evidence, circular though it may have been.
@dave, dbh et Al
Balance maybe possible, do audience seek it out? Is the question
Federal judges read the newspapers too. Expect to hear from the Third Branch on this. There may be a new Judge John Sicria.
Rod Rosenstein felt compelled to extend FISA's Title I methods against Carter Page not because Rosenstein was convinced that Page had become an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service.
Rather, Rosenstein feared the political and personal consequences of his attacking the DOJ/FBI's use of the Fusion dossier to convince the FISA judge that Page had become an AGENT and therefore the FBI's authorized methods should be elevated from merely Title VII up to Title I.
Rosenstein was able to justify to himself his endorsement of the FISA extension with the consideration that he better leave the status quo in place and let Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller deal with it.
Rosenstein should keep his own hands off of this particular FISA matter and should leave it to Mueller. Rosenstein kept his own hands off by endorsing routinely the extension of Page's FISA status instead of challenging critically that status.
Of course, Rosentein was counting on Mueller to cover up the DOJ/FBI argument to the FISA court that the Fusion dossier justified an elevation of Page's FISA status from merely Title VII up to Title I.
The very reason why Rosenstein appointed Mueller was that Mueller was the one person in the entire world who was most motivated and able to whitewash the FBI.
By the time Rosenstein appointed Mueller, both men already were well informed about the FBI's cooperation with Fusion GPS.
Rosenstein was counting on Mueller to drag his bogus "investigation" out until the 2018 elections, which might allow the Democrats to take over Congress and subsequently enable a whitewashed conclusion of the "investigation". As long as Mueller dragged out his bogus "investigation", DOJ/FBI would use the "investigation" as an excuse to withhold information from the Republican-controlled Congress.
wwww@10:35. The FBI and DOJ, at the top level, have Trump haters and careerists. They wanted Hillary to win and they worked to that end.
Our President is great at media judo, using their own momentum against them. He could start by responding to a reporter, “yes interesting question. I see from your e mails you’re taking direction from The DNC.” Let them stew on that for a while.
I think audiences are passive for the most part, and watch what is put in front of them. And from cradle to grave, most people are primarily exposed to leftist viewpoints.
How many public school teachers are Democrats?
I got lucky in that a friend of mine, a very logically minded individual, started listening to Rush, and then started trying out some of the arguments he heard on me.
But why was he listening to Rush at all? Because he was driving a lot, and he doesn't like music. So, talk radio was his option.
Most people are passive and consume what is available. The right needs to continue to work to make more available.
PB said:
"Those who claimed this would endanger national security should have no credibility going forward"
But those who made that claim define "national security" as meaning:
The ability to remove a duly elected president they don't like
(I'm only half kidding)
NS: that's a good question btw, and I want to think on it more.
I read Neal Gabler's biography of Walter Winchell. J. Edgar Hoover used to leak damaging information about members of the America First and the German-American Bund organizations to Winchell. Winchell was celebrated in those years. The must read columnist . After the war, Hoover used to leak damaging info on members of the American Communist Party to Winchell. That was when Winchell became a cranky and tyrannical old man.........If Reagan or Bush had employed such tactics against their Democratic opponents such an offense would have been considered greater than Watergate.
More good questions coming now.
What were these FISA judges thinking who allowed for the surveillance? They actually read the Steele dossier, one would assume. Were they imbeciles or as biased as McCabe, Strzok and the rest of that seedy FBI cabal? Whether they were told that document came from the Clinton campaign or not, it read like an outtake from the back pages of the National Enquirer — and not one of the good issues (John Edwards, etc.). The dossier was ludicrous on its face, yet the supposedly great legal minds of the FISA court accepted it as what appears to be the most important evidence for the case.
More is coming. Much more. Also,
Looking good in all this is Senator Rand Paul. He warned us about our fragile privacy. Looking especially bad, the American Civil Liberties Union who are defecating on their charter. Looking even worse: Barack Obama. He led the charge to turn the intelligence agencies against the people. Looking lost — Robert Mueller. How will he get half the country to believe anything he says at this point?
wwww@10:35. The FBI and DOJ, at the top level, have Trump haters and careerists. They wanted Hillary to win and they worked to that end.
Then, explain me this. Why did Trent Gowdy tweet this yesterday? He's seen the evidence to which I do not have access:
"As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation."
“A dossier making explosive — but unverified — allegations that the Russian government has been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” President-elect Donald Trump for years and gained compromising information about him has been circulating among elected officials, intelligence agents, and journalists for weeks.
The dossier, which is a collection of memos written over a period of months, includes specific, unverified, and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians. BuzzFeed News reporters in the US and Europe have been investigating various alleged facts in the dossier but have not verified or falsified them.”
BuzzFeed, January 11, 2017.
Wwww:
You're a little behind the curve. McCabe testified that the warrant would not have been approved without the dossier.
The collective leftwing corruption machine act like Soviet creeps. Oh the irony.
wwww,
Re the alleged DOJ/FBI characterization, you are giving me occasion to use my new favorite term, the "hyperbolic fallacy".
That is, mischaracterizing the opponents arguments by exaggeration. This is, of course, not nice.
The FBI/DOJ do not have to be pot-smoking Maoists (though the Maoists I knew were more proper than an abbey full of nuns). They just have to consider themselves and their institution as an end in itself, more important than its function. This is a very common fault. It happens in the military, which at least has the opportunity to encounter external feedback when it encounters a capable foe. The military is, sometimes, forced to reform.
And being aligned with a political party, which they obviously have been, does not require more than simple matters of power and a caste-affinity. Which is certainly the case in the ranks of the leadership.
The Trey Gowdy tweet is a shove in Mueller’s back, that he still has room to do the right thing, and keep the soon to be private citizen, Gowdy, to use his extensive legal experience to come hunting for him.
Blogger Iowan2 said...
Our President is great at media judo, using their own momentum against them. He could start by responding to a reporter, “yes interesting question. I see from your e mails you’re taking direction from The DNC.” Let them stew on that for a while.
Do you think that would be a good and a fair answer if Chris Wallace or Bret Baier asked Trump, “Mr. President, what did you mean by, ‘You figure it out’...? And Mr. President are you right now aware of any grounds on which to discharge Assistant Attorney General Rosenstein?”
I do not think the FBI and CIA is filled with a bunch of leftist political hacks. They are generally conservative to moderate.
My daughter has been an agent for 20 years and is a lefty politically. That is why I was impressed when she told me in September 2016 that she would NOT vote for Hillary.
She should have been a Hillary voter based on her history. I still laugh about her telling me, as I paid the check for her law school graduation dinner, that I was "a white male and my days were over."
The fact that she had turned on Hillary suggested to me that Comey was facing an agent revolt if he did not do something about the Hillary investigation. She is a lefty but honest about the FBI business.
I haven't asked her about the present flap. I'll see her in two weeks. There may be more to talk about.
One has to know Gowdy's purpose before one can determine his meaning. He is moving quite mysteriously.
These things require one to think like Metternich.
"The FBI and DOJ, at the top level, have Trump haters and careerists. They wanted Hillary to win and they worked to that end."
This was and remains the essence of the story. They worked to that end on the assumption Hill would, in fact, win. After which their dirty tricks would be covered up and rewarded.
After being exposed, their counterattack now consists of two moves: to cover up as much as they still can, and to get Trump somehow before he gets them.
They haven't run out of dirty tricks. But Trump has not yet used all his tools either.
I remind people of this again: James Comey, in June of 2017, a month after he was fired, described the dossier as "salacious and unverified"- this was public testimony under oath, and yet James Comey signed off on the first three applications citing the dossier as the main support for obtaining a warrant on Carter Page. Now, we haven't seen the applications yet, but do you think that the applications call the dossier "salacious and unverified", or do they describe the dossier as being believable intelligence. James Comey is likely to have lied under oath in at least one of those instances- it is hard to believe both instances are true.
Rosenstein should resign. It is clear that he was complicit - at least around the edges - with the misuse of the FISC. Given that he appointed Mueller, anything that Mueller does will ,at least, suffer the Rosenstein taint in addition to the Comey taint. I don't think he will resign and I don't think Trump will fire him because it will be better for Trump to have Rosenstein by the balls- as he does today -than leave him out in public to say whatever he wants. Rosenstein is probably a pretty capable guy, who will now - unless he resigns - be kissing Sessions' ass every time Sessions turns around.
I read the memo and saw nothing that could be construed as endangering national security. I await the Dems rebuttal - and am particularly anxious to see the IG's report. It will be hard for either side to spin that one.
Of course, the whole Get Trump countermove is a bit puzzling politically: no doubt satisfying to Dems and Deep Staters everywhere, but in effect getting rid of Trump only gets you Pence. He picks Nikki as VP, graciously steps aside in the next elections, and she has a clear path to the nomination.
If they had been totally rational, Dems would have impeached Bill and set Al up for an easy run. Progs sometimes miscalculate.
You want to know what Chuck jerks off to? Well, other than twisty titties?
This:
"God, I just want Trump under oath and in front of a court reporter."
I remind people of this again: James Comey, in June of 2017, a month after he was fired, described the dossier as "salacious and unverified"
Bullshit, the "salacious and unverified" quote only refers to the pee hooker tape part of the dossier. He was much more circumspect about the other allegations in the dossier.
What ever happened to CNN's assurances that Wray was going to step down?
LOL - CNN - Clinton News Nuckwork, filled hacks(D) and flunkies(D).
LLR Chuck: "I personally thought that Lois Lerner should have been in jail, and Scooter Libby should have been in the White House or a federal judge."
LOL
That has the same "ring of truth" as all the lefties suddenly very concerned about Bill Clinton.
LLR and #StrongDurbinDefender Chuck attempts to convince some that he is strongly against using the power of govt against conservatives, using examples of events too late to do anything about, while currently cheering on the use and abuse of govt powers to overturn the election of a republican.
You should feel free to draw obvious conclusions.
wwww: We don't know what all was in the 40-50 page FISA application to get a warrant. Def. don't know if the application only depended on a dossier.
This is a lie. The FBI's deputy director, Andrew McCabe, testified on record and under oath that the FISA app depended entirely on the dossier, and that without the Steele dossier, they would not have applied for a FISA warrant.
It's amazing how many bold-faced lies the libs are floating now, hoping we don't notice.
..."Adam Schiff, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, among seemingly dozens of Democrats, not to mention half the mainstream media, had been warning us for days that the release of the memo authored by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee would place our national security at grave risk. "Sources and methods" would be revealed.
Now that we have seen the memo, it's clear that was an absolutely bald-faced lie of the most obvious sort. Nothing in it impacts national security in the slightest. There's no mention whatsoever of any "sources and methods."
Unless they were lobotomized, those Democrats and their dependable PR team (aka the media) must have realized they were blatantly lying to the American public. Evidently, they didn't care. How're we now supposed to trust what these people say about anything? Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
Their latest meme is "cherry picking." The memo was cherry-picked and therefore to be ignored. That's like saying a murderer who has a clean driving record and is a good cook is not a murderer. Whatever else happened, the FBI clearly used a slanderous fictional document to get a FISA ruling to surveil Carter Page without telling the court the document was a pack of lies paid for by the Clinton campaign and written by a creepy spy with old-line Soviet connections. And they did it multiple times."
Roger Simon kills it.
The problem is that the Clinton investigation and the now Trump investigation appears to have the same small group of staff in the FBI and the DoJ, many of which are known donors to Hillary Clinton's campaign. It does appear as if the entire purpose of Mueller's appointment was to give a place ship all these Clinton donors who worked on the Clinton "matter" a place where they could then investigate Trump before Trump got his own leadership in place. It would go a long way to explain why/how Mueller ended up hiring these people with openly obvious political leanings. Really, if Mueller really were interested in getting at th truth, he probably shouldn't have had anyone on his staff who had donated money during prior elections, or he should have taken a roster of people and do a random selection just to ensure he ended up with some ideological balance on his team- that is really the only way to ensure that an investigation doesn't become corrupted.
Blogger Sebastian said...
Of course, the whole Get Trump countermove is a bit puzzling politically: no doubt satisfying to Dems and Deep Staters everywhere, but in effect getting rid of Trump only gets you Pence. He picks Nikki as VP, graciously steps aside in the next elections, and she has a clear path to the nomination.
You say that like it would be a bad thing. Or like I think it would be a bad thing.
When Rosenstein went to the White House to complain about the Nunez memorandum, he managed to convince the White House to remove from the memorandum the information that the FBI already had investigated Carter Page for a long time under the FISA's Title VII. In other words, for many months before October 2016 the FBI had captured Page's communications with the perspective that the Russian Intelligence service was trying to recruit Page to become an agent.
After Rosenstein got that Title VII background removed from the memorandum, the remaining memorandum gave the public the mistaken impression that the Fusion dossier helped the DOJ/FBI justify the start of a FISA investigation.
Rosenstein has managed to dupe the public.
What really happened on October 21, 2016, was that the DOJ/FBI used the Fusion dossier to elevate its classification of Page from merely Title VII up to Title I. In other words, DOJ/FBI used the dossier to convince the FISA judge that Page indeed had become an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service.
Now that the FISA judge elevated Page from merely Title VII up to Title I, the FBI was authorized to capture AGENT Page's communications more aggressively with all other US persons -- in particular, with Trump's associates. Furthermore, those other persons' subsequent communications with yet other US persons could be captured.
By removing from the Nunez memorandum the information that Page already had been investigated by the FBI for a long time under Title VII, Rosenstein has managed to divert the public into discussing only whether Page should have been investigated at all.
Rosenstein has diverted the public from discussing the important question -- whether the Fusion dossier justified Page's elevation from merely Title VII up to Title I -- justified the FISA judge's determination that Page indeed had become an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service.
Now Rosenstein and his ilk continually will fill the public discussion with released or leaked information about the Russian Intelligence service's long-term efforts to develop Page into becoming its agent.
Meanwhile, Rosenstein is counting on Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller to drag his bogus investigation out until the 2018 elections, when the Democrats might take control of Congress and enable a whitewhashed conclusion of Mueller's "investigation".
"James Comey is likely to have lied under oath in at least one of those instances"
That's a defamatory statement if there ever was one, from one of the usual suspects who troll this blog. Why would he lie (under oath)? How would that benefit him? Your deductive skills are seriously wanting, but your ridiculousness isn't, Yancey.
“Hillary showered a bunch of sleazy politico's with $12 million to get opposition research that was given the title of Dossier. One FBI agent involved in wire tapping had his wife on the Fusion GPS team that drafted it”.
Not FBI, but DoJ, and not a peon either, but a direct report to the people (various Deputy Attorney Generals - including DAG Rosenstein) who, by law, certified the FISA warrant applications to the FISC. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr is a Russia expert, who worked for Fusion GPS doing opposition research for the DNC and Clinton campaign. ADAG Ohr was apparently the liaison with Fusion, and knows both Glenn Simpson and his wife, Mary Jacoby, the Fusion owners, personally (logical since his wife worked for them). And ADAG Ohr apparently met with Steele, who voiced his great concerns about a Trump Presidency. Keep in mind that the reporting structure went like this:
President Obama/Trump
AG Lynch/Sessions
DAG Yates/Boente(acting)/Rosenstein (who certified FISA apps under oath)
ADAG Ohr.
but in effect getting rid of Trump only gets you Pence. He picks Nikki as VP, graciously steps aside in the next elections, and she has a clear path to the nomination.
Don't be silly, since Trump was election was illegitimate, so was Pence's elevation to the Vice-Presidency. So he gets impeached too. That leaves Paul Ryan the President who, in order to heal the nation and bind up its wounds, appoints Hillary as his Vice-President and then resigns so that she can take her rightful place as our perpetual ruler and First Woman President. Cue her triumphant entry into the House Chamber walking up the aisle as the assembled congress stands and claps enthusiastically. Cut to huge crowds outside the building celebrating riotously. Cut to credits.
Jason: "It's amazing how many bold-faced lies the libs are floating now, hoping we don't notice."
They are over confident again, fooled by the monolithic media alignment and the cheers from their LLR little pets who bark when directed.
Trump is making a symphony out of discordant media.
Trump tweets that he had his wires tapped by Obama.
Press and Democrats rush to deny and scold, joined by some LLRs and moderates.
Then we discover that Trump Tower was indeed under surveillance, and Trump was effectively correct.
I've got a fairly wide circle. In that circle, there are many more who hated Trump that now like him and admit he's largely correct in what he says and does, than the opposite. In fact, I only know one person personally who said he voted for Trump and then started to hate him.
Funny thing is that this guy was praising Hillary before the election, and began criticizing Trump on November 9th (per Facebook records). He's also never had a single good word to say about Trump (and also called Gorsuch a seat-stealer at one point).
So I called him a liar on Facebook, and presented a screenshot slideshow of his actions and words to back up my case. Many of his other friends called him out too, citing my evidence and anecdotes of their own about the man's statements to them (he's in NY, so I haven't had personal contact with him in a long time, but these others apparently had).
Long story short, he blocked me, unfriended a bunch of others, and still does his level best to convince folks he deems "undecided" that he's a regretful Trump voter. Few believe him, but other mutual friends of a leftist bent use his arguments and share his posts as if they mean something, as if he had any integrity.
This guy claiming he voted for Trump would be like Achilles or Drago claiming they voted for Hillary.
Anecdotally, I think there might be a chance for Trump to turn NY red in 2020. About 2/3ds of my FB friends reside there, and almost all of them have either come to really like Trump, or have softened their opinions of him to the point of tolerability. I know that anecdotal evidence is useless, but I also came to the conclusion that Trump would win in 2016 using similar metrics among my FB friends.
Trumpit: "That's a defamatory statement if there ever was one,..."
LOL
Lefty takes time out from calling all republicans treasonous traitors and mass murdering racist misogynists to complain that someone else may be defaming someone else!
LOL
You and LLR Chuck make a great team!
No, Freder, Comey tried to have both ways in the June testimony. He said, "I didn’t — I didn’t use the term “counterintelligence.” I was speaking to him, and briefing him about some salacious and unverified material." This refers to the January 6th briefing he gave Trump on the entire Steele Dossier. Later in the testimony, it can be construed that Trump objected in a phone call to the "golden showers" part of the dossier- the one part Trump would be able to plausibly know wasn't true- Comey at that point said, "He just wanted to reiterate his rejection of the allegation and talk about — he thought about it more, and why he thought it wasn’t true — the — the — the verified — unverified and salacious parts."
You can probably read Comey's mind, I can't, I have to use the context of his first sentence quoted above- it clearly refers to the Steele Dossier and not just the golden shwowers reference- he doesn't say he only briefed Trump about the golden showers reference- that would ridiculous and can't be inferred from the context either. The second quote, of course, can be inferred that way since it is likely that Trump had the most negative reaction to that particular detail, but it is still just an inference on my part- Trump may well have been objecting in a much broader way to the entire dossier.
How does Ohr still have a job?
And reading that again, it does seem Trump's objection is broader since it states; "he thought about it more, and why he thought it wasn’t true". Why would he quote Trump this way- why would Trump have to think about it more unless they were talking more about information in the dossier that Trump didn't have direct, first-hand knowledge of? It seems to me that the second quote isn't about the golden showers detail alone, at the very least.
Chuck said...
If somebody asked me if I hoped that the President will be indicted and then impeached, I know how I would answer; “You figure it out.”
Althouse; for someone who, with good reason and a pretty wonderful record of it, has made a blogging career of pointing out language misuses and other language offenses against clarity, Donald Trump is your blind spot. Big league.
“You figure it out,” is like a line from the Sopranos or Goodfellas or a David Mamet script. It isn’t something that the nation’s Chief Executive says. Not about the second-highest ranking figure in the Justice Department.
God, I just want Trump under oath and in front of a court reporter"
I say there is a higher probability of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama finding themselves under oath and in front of a court reporter after they have been granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.
Ron: "Don't be silly, since Trump was election was illegitimate, so was Pence's elevation to the Vice-Presidency. So he gets impeached too."
This is the real goal of LLR Chuck and his lefty allies.
They cant just get rid of Trump, they need to bring the entire admin down and restore the dems to the executive offices in order to finalize their Stasi-fication of power so the left will never be threatened politically again.
Remember how giddy LLR Chuck was when he thought Hillary was headed for Landslide-Ville? Why, you never read a more contented soul.
LLR Chucks goal at that time was to get everyone to accept the inevitability republican defeat, embrace it in fact, with a mild salve/lie offered up that then "we" could all get to work building a republican majority large enough to impeach Hillary! LOL
Yep, that dips*** Chuck really thought that was an effective subtle and nuanced approach to keep republican morale liw and drive down turnout.
Oddly enough, that was also the lefts/dems/msm strategy as well!
Gee, who could have guessed LLR Chuck would be completely operationally aligned with Dem strategy?....besides every single living creature in Earth, that is...
LOL
Donald J. Trump
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!
8:40 AM · Feb 3, 2018
I laughed when I read this. He is delusional if he thinks anyone but his sycophants will buy it.
"Lefty takes time out from calling all republicans treasonous traitors and mass murdering racist misogynists..."
Isn't it about time that you face up to those facts instead of living in a fantasy world? Grow up, and stop rationalizing your heavy use of so-called medical marijuana to treat your pronounced mental illness.
Trumpit: "Isn't it about time that you face up to those facts instead of living in a fantasy world?"
Sounds defamatory....LOL
On October 21, 2016, a FISA judge approved the DOJ/FBI motion to elevate the investigation of Carter Page from merely Title VII up to Title I. The essential evidence justifying for this status elevation was provided by the dossier that had been concocted and provided by Fusion GPS.
In other words, DOJ/FBI used the dossier to convince the FISA judge that Page had become an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service and therefore deserved to have all his communications captured under Title I (no longer merely under Title VII).
By demanding a small edit to Nunez's memorandum, Rod Rosenstein managed to divert the public from discussing whether the dossier justified the ELEVATION of Page's status from merely a potential recruit to the new status of being an of the Russian Intelligence service.
-----
However, Rosenstein's diversionary tactic might backfire.
In the coming days and weeks, the Deep State will flood the mass media with information about the Russian Intelligence service's long-term effort to develop Page into becoming an agent.
The heroic DOJ/FBI's wise knowledge of that evil effort justified the FBI's clever investigation of Carter Page, our vulnerable fellow citizen who was endangered by the evil Russians' subversion of our beloved democracy.
However, the Deep State's disinformation campaign against our citizenry might backfire if it leads to the revelation that Page already was being investigated but then in October 2016 his FISA status was elevated from merely Title VII up to Title I because of the Fusion dossier.
It's amazing the amount of material that can be generated by a really determined troll, assuming they are well fed.
“wwww: We don't know what all was in the 40-50 page FISA application to get a warrant. Def. don't know if the application only depended on a dossier. “
—————————————
“This is a lie. The FBI's deputy director, Andrew McCabe, testified on record and under oath that the FISA app depended entirely on the dossier, and that without the Steele dossier, they would not have applied for a FISA warrant.”
—————————————
None of us know what McCabe actually said in his testimony. The transcripts have not been released.
Trumps greatest victory might just be how he has maneuvered LLR Chucks beloved leftist media into a position of zero influence with the voting public most critical for republicans to maintain their political position of strength.
We are seeing quite a few articles and rumblings from previously unsupportive conservatices to this effect as CNN also learned when when they went into "Margaret Mead-mode" and bravely ventured into that strange world that exists west of the Hudson river.
Of course, that is another key reason why LLR Chuck and his leftist allues HAVE to destroy Trump: to send a message that even the most effective republican fighter cannot win long term so its better to just give up.
Trump tweets again, perfectly outlining the game plan of the Democrats and those like Inga. In actions and words, he captures the essence of their strategic shift over the past 2 months or so.
Inga's response: "Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?"
Unexpectedly.
Ann Althouse: Trump doesn't need to move a muscle. The media throw his weight around for him.
And then after the media perform their magic, Pelosi will give another press conference talking about the grave constitutional dangers imposed by Trump's attempt to subvert justice. An objectively ridiculous claim, but the objective fault will be compensated for by subjective emotion. The NYT will repeat all of the Dem cant with a straight face and some ponderous editorializing. Rinse, repeat.
I wish they could crawl out of their intellectual trenches long enough to understand that the electorate is not very receptive to these extremes over the long term. It might work to produce polls that look more favorable in the near term, and it might work for fund-raising (although the Dems don't seem to be doing all that well right now in that arena), but when it comes down to elections, everyone gets the chance to speak directly to the electorate, and then this can rebound badly against the Dems.
I had hoped by now that a little more seriousness would have developed among the Dem leadership.
Also, either WWWW or R/V above claimed that the media is more popular than ever. This would be great for the Democrats, except that the media is also less trusted than ever. These days, people watch CNN to understand what the new lies are going to be, rather than to seek out real verifiable information.
On October 21, 2016, the FISA judge was duped -- on the basis of the Fusion dossier -- into approving the elevation of Carter Page's FISA status from merely Title VII up to Title I. In other words, the FISA judge determined that Page had become an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service.
That duped FISA judge's approval authorized the FBI to capture all of AGENT Page's communications henceforth, but also BACKWARDS in time. Now under FISA's Title I all of Page's communications in the NSA database could be studied -- no matter how long ago his communications had happened.
Page's previous communications with any US persons could be studied, because he now was considered to be an AGENT of the Russian Intelligence service, and so the FBI now had grounds to assume that any such communication was an effort by Page to obtain intelligence and cooperation for the Russian Intelligence service.
@Mike Sylvester I have read any number of times that the Russians recruiting Page thought he was an "idiot". Now that may be fake news as well , but it doesn't say much for the FBI's investigative techniques.
Inga your 11:37 comment is a real stretch. I seriously doubt that the committee memo is going to misrepresent McCabe's testimony. Too easy to check. Of course you started that rear guard action yesterday by claiming McCabe never, ever said such a thing so you are making progress in waiting for substantiation for what you, in your heart, know is true..
“Inga's response: "Who ya gonna believe, me or your lyin' eyes?"”
The transcripts of McCabe’s testimony have not been released. Tell me how you know what McCabe said.
“Inga your 11:37 comment is a real stretch. I seriously doubt that the committee memo is going to misrepresent McCabe's testimony. Too easy to check. Of course you started that rear guard action yesterday by claiming McCabe never, ever said such a thing so you are making progress in waiting for substantiation for what you, in your heart, know is true..”
Oh my how naive. The Nunes Memo is a “stretch” with no documentation provided to substantiate it. Why are you so gullible?
"But only 239 pounds, right? Not obese. Definitely not obese. Because he’s 6’3”, after all. And only 239."
Maybe he could get fitness advice from Hillary, Bill, Taft, or Churchill. The Constitution should specify a BMI range to be eligible for the Presidency, becuase intelligent people only vote for the most fit and beautiful. It would be hard to find a 71 year old who looks much better than Trump anyway.
But please, compare for yourself:
71 year olds
Someone sniffed:
“ 'You figure it out,' is like a line from the Sopranos or Goodfellas or a David Mamet script. It isn’t something that the nation’s Chief Executive says. Not about the second-highest ranking figure in the Justice Department."
You say that like it's a bad thing. The "old way" of pol-speak drives me batty. So refined, so "civilized," so careful that politicians say nothing.
I would watch every speech Trump delivered if it were written by Mamet.
kyzernick: "These days, people watch CNN to understand what the new lies are going to be, rather than to seek out real verifiable information"
Which is precisely what CNN found when they went to Ohio, and they couldn't believe it.
Even though ALL the objective evidence points to it and reinforces it.
But that's the catch isn't it? LLR Chuck's beloved lefty media would have to be able to recognize, interpret and then internalize the objective evidence.
And that, my friends, will always be an impenetrable barrier for #CNNStrongDefender Chuck's pals at CNN.
Brian: "I would watch every speech Trump delivered if it were written by Mamet"
I would watch every dinner order at a restaurant if it were written by Mamet.
In order to elevate Carter Page's FISA status from merely Title VII up to Title I, the DOJ/FBI needed some plausible report from inside the Russian Intelligence service that Page had been recruited successfully to actually become an AGENT.
Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele received a lot of money for providing such a report.
The DOJ/FBI already, for a long time, had enough information about Page to investigate him under Title VII. By telling Fusion what more information it needed to elevate Page from merely Title VII up to Title I, DOJ/FBI got enough extra information to dupe the FISA judge into thinking that Page indeed had become an AGENT who was obtaining intelligence and cooperation from US persons.
“Blogger Iowan2 said...
The Trey Gowdy tweet is a shove in Mueller’s back, that he still has room to do the right thing, and keep the soon to be private citizen, Gowdy, to use his extensive legal experience to come hunting for him.”
Exactly. Mueller was hired as a hit man but now has to figure out how to extricate himself from his contract with some shred of his reputation intact. At this stage I don’t think that’s going to be possible.
Ray said...The current anti Memo talking points seem to be:
--
Don't forget the idea that the rank and file Feds will be butt-hurt.
I mean..what could be worth doing that?
The Dems and their media flunkies clearly warned us that releasing the memo would endanger national security. Now that it has been released and we've all read it I am still waiting for a leftist to explain to me exactly how national security has been endangered. Nevermind, they've skipped along to "it's a big nothing nothingburger!"
A threat to the very survival of the Republic one day, a nothingburger the next.
As Drago says, the world begins anew every day for a Leftist.
Kyzernick: I have no idea whether you are right or not, but I am confounded by the Dem tactics we are seeing. They keep doubling-down on the tactics that are not working. I have been wondering myself whether these geriatric rhetoric-mongers aren't setting Trump up for a landslide in 2020, presuming that he appears to be in decent health at that time.
I'd like an option from the Dems that I could consider in 2020. Trump's going to be too old for my taste. The Democratic party leadership (and we now know enough to understand that the Dem primary process WAS fixed) failed to give me that option in 2016. I'm bitter about that. All my horrible suspicions about Hillary seem to be supported by the post-election revelations, so I can hardly become LESS bitter.
I don't know whether you are old enough to remember the Reagan years, but I still remember the "shock and awe" election of 1984, when Reagan won 49 states. The Dems got Minnesota and DC. The faces of the TV news crews reporting on election night still live in my memory. It was an event - and one they did not see coming, but one that everyone on the ground knew was coming.
I also wonder what this high-level posturing is doing to the Dems downstream who have to make their political case to voters in their local districts! Do some of them feel like they are being beaten to death by their own party?
why do I think that if you asked the average law enforcement officer if s/he felt that Trump was "escalating" the war on them or against them , they'd respond huh? What war?
"The transcripts of McCabe’s testimony have not been released. Tell me how you know what McCabe said."
My response was directed at your mockery of Trump's latest tweet. Apparently you don't reada da Eeenglish so good.
But re: McCabe's testimony, I'm betting against whatever you think he said or didn't say. I'm comfortable in the knowledge that "dead wrong" is your basic default state. Also, I haven't seen any credible objections from reliable sources as to how his testimony was relayed in the recent memo.
BTW, shouldn't Tillerson have resigned by now, according to the sources you deem "reliable"? Hell, according to your sources, Trump should have been a private citizen since last August or so. Because impeachment. Because Russia. LMAO.
McCabe has been let go... tell us all why that would happen if his stated testimony is false.
/It needs to be false because the leftwing machine needs it to be false.
"Also, either WWWW or R/V above claimed that the media is more popular than ever."
oh no, not more popular. The cable channels and certain newspapers are more PROFITABLE then ever. They are getting eyeballs and hits. Certain reporters are becoming stars and making $$$. That's why they love Trump. It is in their self-interest to do so. You all could see Mika's performance art with Wolf the other day. Her horror about Trump is the same thing.
No, I did not say popular for a good reason. I do not believe the Media is popular.
"Anecdotally, I think there might be a chance for Trump to turn NY red in 2020. About 2/3ds of my FB friends reside there, and almost all of them have either come to really like Trump,"
On the other side, I've heard people speak of Bernie's physical attractiveness and that Texas will turn Blue.
Partisanship is a heady drug. For both sides.
MOM I'm not old enough to remember personally, since that election happened the year before I was born. But I've studied political history quite a bit, and fully comprehend just how astounding that election was. I believe that was the last time California went red, which was probably helped by Reagan having been governor there and by all accounts doing pretty well.
This is an unprecedented time in American political history. I'm happy to be living thru it, and I fully expect Trump to defy all the odds and continue pursuing victory in his agenda. I'm betting there will be some compromises I'm not a fan of, but fewer than other presidents have made, and I'm betting it will be a rough road. But the Democrats can't seem to win these days unless Republicans mess up (like the Alabama election, although I also believe the charges against Roy Moore were very overblown and many of them proved to be outright falsehoods). Steve Bannon fucked that one up big time, and I hope he slinks away in defeat rather than continuing his personal crusade.
The hypocrisy of the right wing - earlier today you were wingeing about censorship in Poland, but you're happy when it's your man dismantling the checks & balances of Democracy!!
I'm not surprised.
H
God, I just want Trump under oath and in front of a court reporter.
God, I just want Chuck under restraint and in front of a swarm of Africanized bees. Followed by fire ants.
"I'd like an option from the Dems that I could consider in 2020."
It's too early for a candidate.
Generational change is coming, but I don't know if it'll happen by 2020. I suspect there will be a lot of contenders, including untraditional outside of politics types. Might be interesting. Or we might have to wait for the following 4 years to see new blood.
All this discussion about the memo and Rosenstein and who testified to what and when, and Title I vs Title VII is all interesting and good fun but I'd like to return to the topic of this Althouse post, which is: "Trump leverages the anti-Trump press".
Trump survived and succeeded and came out on top after a lifetime of battling the NYC tabloid press (and the higher class press as well).
I know it is a conceit of lefties and the Washington DC political press (but I repeat myself) that Trump is a fool/idiot/shallow reality star - but given this background plus the last two solid years of him battling the national media to get the Republican nomination, then the Presidency, and then his successes of the past year: The fools are anyone in the press who doesn't yet realize that he's better at it than they are.
Obama: I'm gonna think I'm better at manipulating the press than anyone I might hire.
The Press: You're the ONE, Lightbringer!
Trump: Here's how it really done, son.
The Press: You're an idiot elected by deplorables, and for God's sake will you please stop beating me like a rented mule?
MOM,
Sounds like the Kennedy kid did not impress.
C'mon..dude speaks Spanish!
"Generational change is coming, but I don't know if it'll happen by 2020."
Tim Cotton is interesting but he will need to show national appeal.
He must be interesting because Chuck hates him for criticizing Durbin.
Chuck said...
"If somebody asked me if I hoped that the President will be indicted and then impeached, I know how I would answer; “You figure it out."
Chuck, you have claimed, multiple times, that you voted for Trump, because the alternative was unacceptable. Nothing about the alternative has become any more acceptable, but you now imply, and give evidence, that you hope the President will be indicted and impeached. Is it possible that when you claim to have voted for Trump, you are lying? Why would you do that, Chuck? Why would you spend hours every day, pretending to be something you are not on Althouse blog? Who do you work for, Chuck?
Boy, would I like to have you, under oath, in front of a court reporter.
Will Sad Hugh like to explain how Trump is dismantling checks and balances? I'd really love to hear it. But only to see him get thoroughly smacked down afterwards.
By the way, all this talk of Mamet has me thinking about throwing in my DVD copy of "Heist" and sitting back to watch Gene Hackman make fools out of all his enemies.
Kinda like what Trump is doing.
WWWW blatantly lies about his 10:35AM comment, in which he stated: "The media has never been so popular. "
Yeah dude, you're credible. Any other lies you wanna spin out there for mass consumption (and immediate rejection by thinking men and women)?
I had hoped by now that a little more seriousness would have developed among the Dem leadership.
The Dem leaders are trapped. If they try to move toward the middle or seem conciliatory towards Trump, their pussy-hatted base will turn on them.
The problem for the DNC is that their current platform is hate, which is a turnoff for moderates and centrists. But unfortunately for Dem leaders that are still sane, their base has been fed a steady stream of Trump-hatred for over a year from the news and entertainment media, and is now out for Trump's blood. They will settle for nothing less than his removal. As the left base becomes ever more extreme in their vitriol and violence, the party may end up destroying itself. The Dems hatred is consuming them.
"I just want Trump under oath and in front of a court reporter."
#VichyChuck
Re: McCabe
My bet is that during testimony, he was asked a specific question "Would the FBI have sought surveillance warrant without the Steele dossier information" and McCabe answered "NO".
So. . . .McCabe never said the magic words and that's what the Dems are hanging their crazy hats on. McCabe never said it! McCabe never said it!
And Wolf Blitzer and cronies will crow that this shows that Nunes is a liar. We aren't that stupid Wolf.
This memo showed one thing to me, the abuse of the FISA court is astounding! According to various sources only 1 in 10,000 applications to this court have been turned down. Thus, the first FISA application on "Trump Spying" being turned down is so rare that you would need a PhD in statistics to figure this out - /sarc. But for all of Trump's critics like LLR Chuck and Inga here, etc., this memo release will be the beginning of a "Tsunami" of memo releases, leaks, etc. This is why the Democrats have fought this with a full frontal attack. The dam has broken and information will flood the MSM.
@Inga Naive I am not. I have been cynical about all of government since I majored in the subject in college. I am not cynical enough, however, to believe that the Republican Committee staff would put words in McCabe's mouth just to fit their narrative. Personally I would be more than happy to have the entire transcripts of all the committees investigating the 2016 election released. I also personally feel that it is something you would learn quickly to regret. Grassley has already asked the DOJ to criminally prosecute Steele. I think Steele on the stand would be a disaster for the Dems.
It is quite clear there was a small cadre of people in the DOJ/FBI who "lost their heads" about the 2016 election. They made some serious errors in judgement, assuming /hoping Hillary's election would hide them. If I were you I would be particularly worried that, as Trey Gowdy retires,he becomes a leading candidate to investigate the DOJ/FBI . He already knows where the bodies are buried and he is not in the least intimidated by Comey and his ilk.
You live in WI, I believe. You should just be thinking of the reverberations of the John Doe there and the similarities to what has happened in DC: overzealous partisans making stupid mistakes that are going to bite them on the ass.
From the WSJ:
Can it possibly be true that the evidentiary standards for obtaining a federal warrant allowing the government to spy on the party out of power are significantly lower than in a professional newsroom?
Blogger Khesanh 0802,
One difference, however, is that Walker has chosen to say next to nothing about the Doe fiasco. If he had led more forcefully on this issue, might have helped groom the populace for absorbing the "process as punishment" strategy.
The Dem leaders are trapped. If they try to move toward the middle or seem conciliatory towards Trump, their pussy-hatted base will turn on them. "
And the smaller fry are trapped by the Dem leaders. During the SOTU address, Joe Manchin forgot himself and almost applauded something Trump said. Watching him sit back and drop his hands under the wrathful gaze of Chuck Schumer was like watching a dog who is about to steal a pork chop off the table slink back into the corner after his master yells at him. He's up for reelection. How many times will West Virginians see that clip during the campaign?
Kathryn51: "My bet is that during testimony, he was asked a specific question "Would the FBI have sought surveillance warrant without the Steele dossier information" and McCabe answered "NO".
So. . . .McCabe never said the magic words and that's what the Dems are hanging their crazy hats on. McCabe never said it! McCabe never said it!
LOL! Nicely done.
I guess it all depends on the meaning of the word "said" or perhaps the word "it".
Exiled,
Would make for a fun commercial.
"Joe Manchin..standing up for West Virginia. Oh...right"
Night Owl said...
"...unfortunately for Dem leaders that are still sane, their base has been fed a steady stream of Trump-hatred for over a year from the news and entertainment media, and is now out for Trump's blood. They will settle for nothing less than his removal."
No, it's worse than that. Trump is simply their hate-surrogate for normal Americans. The grievance-mongering Democrats have spent decades nurturing a base that will settle for nothing less than our removal, or utter suppression. And more and more normal Americans are waking up to that fact.
“Trump is simply their hate-surrogate for normal Americans. The grievance-mongering Democrats have spent decades nurturing a base that will settle for nothing less than our removal, or utter suppression.”
Normal Americans don’t wave big swastika flags and chant “Jews will not replace,” us while reinacting a Nazi torchlight parade.
What's the over-under for the time (CST) when this thread devolves into a Ritmo-Exile-Inga S&M threesome? Since it's Saturday and drinking starts early, I got 2:30pm
“What's the over-under for the time (CST) when this thread devolves into a Ritmo-Exile-Inga S&M threesome? Since it's Saturday and drinking starts early, I got 2:30pm.”
Nope, not this afternoon or tonight. Maybe next week. I don’t drink... well I did have an amber beer that my son in law gave me yesterday before dinner.
If all this is not a scandal — then the following protocols are now considered permissible in American electoral practice and constitutional jurisprudence: An incumbent administration can freely use the FBI and the DOJ to favor one side in a presidential election...
Yep. That's my take on it. I hope you enjoy living under your rules, Democrats.
The Jew-haters reside on the left.
"Normal Americans don’t wave big swastika flags and chant “Jews will not replace,” us while reinacting a Nazi torchlight parade."
Nor do 99.999999999% of Trump voters.
Normal Americans don't parade around dressed like giant vags or wear black and break windows and beat people who want to attend a talk by a conservative speaker. Normal Americans don't march and chant "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon." Normal Americans don't burn American flags and call the Anthem racist. Normal Americans don't try to murder GOP congressmen. Normal Americans don't cry and sob because someone chalked Trump's name on a sidewalk. Normal Americans don't make up fake crimes or lie about being raped and drag a mattress around a university campus for years.
There are many, many more vicious loons on your side. You can't wave around a handful of tiki torch marchers and smear us with them while the pathology of the left is more and more apparent everyday.
That Jew-hater Trump would be elected in a landslide if he ran for president of Israel.
I don't know whether you are old enough to remember the Reagan years, but I still remember the "shock and awe" election of 1984, when Reagan won 49 states. The Dems got Minnesota and DC.
I remember David Brinkley's comment about "My God, the country looks like a big, blue, suburban swimming pool". That was back when the Democrats were considered the red party.
Inga said...
"Normal Americans don’t wave big swastika flags and chant “Jews will not replace,” us while reinacting a Nazi torchlight parade."
So true. What normal Americans do is chant, "Hey, hey! Ho ho! Western Civ has gotta go!", wave Mexican flags, and throw eggs in the faces of middle-aged women.
Howard said...
"What's the over-under for the time (CST) when this thread devolves into a Ritmo-Exile-Inga S&M threesome?"
Are there two "Howards"? Or just one, and xhe's a troll?
“Nor do 99.999999999% of Trump voters.”
I was referring to Jupiter specifically. Not you or the majority of Trump voters, don’t get excited. Jupiter never misses an opportunity to tell folks here how leftists are going to “replace them”. He’s even used those exact words in past comments.
Trump is simply their hate-surrogate for normal Americans. The grievance-mongering Democrats have spent decades nurturing a base that will settle for nothing less than our removal, or utter suppression.”
Here's Ann and some of her readers, baffled as usual about what journalists do. First, they write stories about the prospects that the memo will be released and what that means. Then, after the memo comes out, they write stories about what might come next. These stories are sometime called "look-aheads" or "curtain-raisers." Writing such stories is known as "covering your beat." Ann must be continually smacking her forehead in confusion whenever she's reading something other than the Washington Examiner and the Daily Mail.
Here's Ann also praising the subtle and shrewd political genius of Donald Trump. In her view, "you figure it out" is just a no comment, and the prospects that he might fire Rosenstein, in Ann's view, has been cleverly side-stepped: it's the media who are calling for the firing, Ann seems to think.
Why did Steele and elements of the FBI take a personal interest in trying to keep Trump from becoming president? Because they became aware of evidence that showed that there is a chance he is being blackmailed by the Russians. How did Russia obtain material with which to blackmail Trump? Because his finances were in such bad shape that the only people who would lend him money are in Russia.
Ann and some of her readers, standing strong to defend the civil rights of Carter Page and Gen. Michael Flynn, patriots.
Here are some normal Democrats for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOnTPyWuNIo&t=7s
That clip makes me happy every time I watch it.
Normal Americans also don’t run down and kill innocent women at a protest.
"I don't have to speak, she defends me."
Cripple Creek, The Band
Normal Americans don't make jokes about shotguns and semiautomatics.
As I said last night, Pickering, it was not up to a foreign spy and the FBI to decide who should become president.
I take it you're not crazy about the whole "let the people decide" business. Communists always consider that problematic.
"In her view, "you figure it out" is just a no comment, and the prospects that he might fire Rosenstein, in Ann's view, has been cleverly side-stepped: it's the media who are calling for the firing, Ann seems to think."
Seems to you perhaps.
The reporters are asking questions they don't/shouldn't expect an answer to.
They have the constitutional crisis/butt-hurt Feds narrative to build up.
"Normal Americans also don’t run down and kill innocent women at a protest."
No. They don't. It is abhorrent.
Neither do they rape and assault women, only to be defended by Hillary Clinton.
Every chance she gets.
Inga said...
"Normal Americans also don’t run down and kill innocent women at a protest."
Actually, Inga, he didn't run her down. She appears to have had a heart attack. But yeah, I think you're right. Political activity is trending towards violence in this country. And I would say that the reason is, the Democrats allowed themselves to be captured by the Left. They imagined that the Left had a sound demographic strategy for electoral dominance. What they failed to grasp is that to the Left, electoral politics is simply the prelude to armed struggle. Now they find themselves "leading" a disorganized rabble that imagines it is a conquering army.
“Why did Steele and elements of the FBI take a personal interest in trying to keep Trump from becoming president? Because they became aware of evidence that showed that there is a chance he is being blackmailed by the Russians. How did Russia obtain material with which to blackmail Trump? Because his finances were in such bad shape that the only people who would lend him money are in Russia.
Ann and some of her readers, standing strong to defend the civil rights of Carter Page and Gen. Michael Flynn, patriots.”
Hear, hear! Carter Page, Flynn, Manafort, Don Jr., Kushner and Trump himself have proven themselves to be such American patriots, the bigglyest ever.
Somehow I feel this Instapundit post is highly relevant to the discussion here.
“Actually, Inga, he didn't run her down. She appears to have had a heart attack.”
Lie. She died of blunt force trauma to the chest. Let’s see how well your heart beats after being crushed by a speeding car. You give away your white supremacist leanings every time you post a comment.
Normal Americans aren't willfully obtuse and disingenuous.
@John Pickering,
Why did Steele and elements of the FBI take a personal interest in trying to keep Trump from becoming president? Because they became aware of evidence that showed that there is a chance he is being blackmailed by the Russians.
Because, there's like, never, ever in US history ever been a time that the FBI has been used by politicos to target their enemies, nor has the FBI ever used its powers to guard its little kingdom from the prying eyes of its supposed "bosses" in the Executive & Legislative branches, right?
JP, is your knowledge of US political history really that poor? The FBI has throughout its history been rife with abuse & chicanery & stupidity with sometimes murderous results. And now you say "Well, in spite of the fact that major portions of the Republican, all of the Democrats, & the Deep State loathed Trump as an outsider, we just have to trust that the FBI is on the up & up here"?
You gotta be kidding! I tell ya what -- why don't you go read up on the 20th C American political history, & when you're done then come back & take that smarmy tone with our hostess. 'Cause, right now buddy, you just ain't got the chops to pull it off.
Inga - The guy who wanted to shoot and kill congress playing baseball was a Bernie Bro.
A Bernie Bro who succeeded in shooting and almost fatally wounding Steve Scalise.
To your logic, all leftists are murderous pigs.
Inga said...
"You give away your white supremacist leanings every time you post a comment."
Just think of me as a member of the NAAWP. I'm sure you would not hold it against us that we want to "advance". Or maybe you are a member of the NARWP? Does that beer-drinking son-in-law of yours know you want to replace him with a Muslim?
From Roger Simon of PJ Media:
"Adam Schiff, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, among seemingly dozens of Democrats, not to mention half the mainstream media, had been warning us for days that the release of the memo authored by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee would place our national security at grave risk. "Sources and methods" would be revealed.
Now that we have seen the memo, it's clear that was an absolutely bald-faced lie of the most obvious sort. Nothing in it impacts national security in the slightest. There's no mention whatsoever of any "sources and methods."
Unless they were lobotomized, those Democrats and their dependable PR team (aka the media) must have realized they were blatantly lying to the American public. Evidently, they didn't care. How're we now supposed to trust what these people say about anything? Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
We all know opposition research against Hillary Clinton is illegal.
So, once again, the media is screaming about things Trump didn't do.
And stupid leftists lap it up. Pathetic.
Predictable, but pathetic.
“Does that beer-drinking son-in-law of yours know you want to replace him with a Muslim?”
He’s far too intelligent and normal to believe such dreck and he’s a conservative.
"Normal Americans also don’t run down and kill innocent women at a protest."
Normal Americans don't set up kill-zones to capture their prey (and sacrifice the naive for social effect), don't carry out witch (or baby) hunts for political progress, don't support public lynchings (e.g. trial by press), aren't color diversitists (i.e. judge people by the "color of their skin"), aren't politically congruent ("=") or selectively exclusive, don't fleece Americans through monopolies and practices, aren't activists for born unPlanned penalty acts, and don't hold abortion rites for lives deemed unworthy (e.g. selective-child, recycled-child).
Even Bannon said meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower was did was treasonous. Maybe he knows what the quid pro quo was. I wonder if he was interviewed by Mueller yet. Trump’s ex-lawyer Corallo, to be interviewed soon too.
“Normal Americans don't set up kill-zones to capture their prey (and sacrifice the naive for social effect), don't carry out witch (or baby) hunts for political progress, don't support public lynchings (e.g. trial by press), aren't color diversitists (i.e. judge people by the "color of their skin"), aren't politically congruent ("=") or selectively exclusive, don't fleece Americans through monopolies and practices, aren't activists for born unPlanned penalty acts, and don't hold abortion rites for lives deemed unworthy (e.g. selective-child, recycled-child).”
Normal Americans don’t sound like extremist nut cases either.
@Inga,
ie. She died of blunt force trauma to the chest. Let’s see how well your heart beats after being crushed by a speeding car. You give away your white supremacist leanings every time you post a comment.
You really might want to wait until the guy is, you know, actually convicted before finding him guilty.
A lefty has already admitted on his FB page that he threatened the accused with a rifle while the guy was in his car. The tell will be if the lawyers choose self-defense as their defense strategy. If so, he may have felt his life was in danger, & that the protestors were blocking his only way out on a one way street, which, in truth, they were.
Don't be surprised if the guy walks.
The left seems to have awakened.
A fun day at the mineral and gem show.
We bought a fossil stingray to frame and hang on the wall.
Have a nice day.
Mueller will get his process crime, Inga.
All the money spent on this will need a justification.
Dossified list of dupedia titutives:
Defindo
Hillargettle
Netwo
Revolvestifying
Steeleader
Trumploggentionage
Trumpress
Trussikelogy
areership
becommunist
claimilitting
claimining
climagile
contirelayed
covernicand
dossified
dupedia
enservicted
fragine
reination
rospeciliaisleads
startment
surveillaps
titutives
whitimies
whousing
zernment
"He’s far too intelligent and normal to believe such dreck and he’s a conservative."
Funny kind of "conservative". What does he want to conserve, besides his semi-peaceful relationship with his batshit crazy mother-in-law? His pussy hat?
Russian opposition research against Trump is fine. Totally illegal if you talk to someone in Russia who might have some slime on Uranium One Felonia VonPantsuit.
MaxedOutMama said...
"Somehow I feel this Instapundit post is highly relevant to the discussion here."
Yes indeed. What these Obama appointees don't seem to grasp is that the correct response to criticism from your boss is either "Yes Sir. Sorry about that Sir. I'll try to do better, Sir", or a letter of resignation. This "We'll get you, my Pretty, and your little dog too!" stuff is not a look they should have tried on just quite yet.
If they've been there since 1908, they are just too old for those jobs.
Who is the biggest Jew hater of them all: Farrakhan.
You know - the guy next to Obama in the big grin photo.
Jeff Session must go. What on earth is Trump thinking?
Clintons Have Been Using the FBI Against Their Enemies for Years
“...pussy hat?”
Why so afraid of a fuzzy pink pussy hat? Are you worried one the pussy ears will jump out and slap you upside your head? Your repeated references to pussy hats makes me wonder if you have some phobia... or something.
No they're hilarious. And demented.
“No they're hilarious. And demented.”
Kind of like those tea bag hats...
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