Althouse: At the Flower Tree Café...

May 20, 2018

At the Flower Tree Café...

... you can talk about anything.

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36 comments:

David Begley said...: “The former First Lady, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for president will be awarded Friday in Cambridge with the Radcliffe Medal, which the university says honors individuals whose life and work have had a "transformative impact on society."

Organizers say Clinton was chosen because she's a "champion for human rights," a "skilled legislator" and "an advocate of American leadership" on the world stage.”

Transformative impact is right. She gave us Trump.; 5/20/18, 4:58 PM
YoungHegelian said...: The great Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis has died, at the ripe old age of 102.; 5/20/18, 4:59 PM
David Begley said...: “As per guidance from our security team, I also had to assume that every phone call I made, every email I sent (on the unclassified system), every website I visited, every conversation I had, and even every movement I made inside Spaso House was being monitored by the Russian government.”

Above is from Obama’s ambassador to Russia. He should have told Hillary about the danger in using email outside the government system.; 5/20/18, 5:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Bee porn. Them fruit trees want pollenating bad.; 5/20/18, 5:19 PM
campy said...: My daughter on the left coast delivered grandchild #3 today. We're still waiting on xer name. Maybe San Francisco has some new rule against Assuming Gender until the kid decides?; 5/20/18, 5:38 PM
Ralph L said...: Congratulations, campy. Inie or outie?; 5/20/18, 6:00 PM
Kathryn51 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/20/18, 6:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Prof:

Just here to remind everyone that I did predict these a while ago:

- 2018 - Dems take over House and Senate. Pelosi back as Speaker and Schemer the Maj. Leader.
- 2020 -Dems take over the White House.

Next POTUS: Sanders/Amy Klobuchar/Warren
Next V-POTUS: Klobuchar/Gillibrand/Booker/Harris

My prediction has not changed. As you all know, I really am very good at my political consultancy. I predicted that Clinton would get more votes, and she did. I have so many clients that I am just too busy. Since I had some time, I wanted to make sure you all remember my predictions.

Cheers,
AP; 5/20/18, 6:30 PM
chickelit said...: @AP: You got a bunch of election calls dead wrong in the past, especially midterms.

Love your schtick, but up your game.; 5/20/18, 6:34 PM
chickelit said...: I can hardly wait for election season to start in earnest here at Althouse. This is usually heralded by the appearance Shiloh.; 5/20/18, 6:36 PM
Michael K said...: This is going to be an amazing few months, beginning about two weeks from now when the OIG report comes out.

The furious leaking in the NY Times is a preview of the frenzy coming.

I just hope that Trump has his own security around him.

I don't trust the USSS.; 5/20/18, 6:41 PM
FullMoon said...: Brennan has tweeted a veiled threat to Ryan and McConnell.

"Senator McConnell & Speaker Ryan: If Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy. You do a great disservice to our Nation & the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump’s self-serving actions."; 5/20/18, 6:52 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Well, demand and ye shall receive. Rosenstein is requesting DOJ IG to begin investigating.

“If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a statement."

I've tried and failed to provide the hyperlink correctly, but here is url:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/388548-rosenstein-asks-doj-watchdog-to-probe-trump-campaign-surveillance

I'm running out of popcorn.; 5/20/18, 7:04 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: The good thing about Brennan's veiled threats is that it reveals who these Leftwing jerks really are. Brennan wants to run things, enact policy. Of course, that would entail running for office and actually winning votes, but these assholes like to burrow into intelligence agencies, or the DOJ or the federal courts to implement their agendas.

The next 2 IG Reports are gonna drain some FBI swampers who willingly served as tools for Brennan and Obama.

Payback's a bitch. Don't try to commit regicide with a rubber knife. Or, as Omar in The Wire said, if you strike at the King, you'd best kill him. These fools struck at Trump and missed. And now he's king.; 5/20/18, 7:08 PM
Tank said...: As Vox Day says, note who Ben Shapiro is supporting. Stuff is happening. People are outing themselves.; 5/20/18, 7:09 PM
Ralph L said...: for inappropriate purposes
Should be for any purposes. Imagine if the Bush FBI had done this to Obama's campaign, which really needed it.

The DOJ OIG needs more people to get this done quickly.; 5/20/18, 7:26 PM
Ken B said...: Doesn’t the Harvard award show the Blue Tribe simply do not care about corruption? Or destruction?; 5/20/18, 7:30 PM
Ralph L said...: Apple or cherry trees?; 5/20/18, 7:32 PM
tcrosse said...: Organizers say Clinton was chosen because she's a "champion for human rights," a "skilled legislator" and "an advocate of American leadership" on the world stage.”

No Nobel Prize ?; 5/20/18, 7:36 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/20/18, 7:40 PM
buwaya said...: Bernard Lewis was important, oddly enough very late in life.
He sold a pile of books after 9/11 - I bought a couple of them.

He certainly had the Muslims down, at least as far as "The Roots of Muslim Rage" go, which came out a decade before, back when the "Atlantic" was always interesting and useful.

It was an odd thing, a great truth that could not be useful. Very influential yet irrelevant. He got the reason why, but the fact of the matter is that the "root" could not be fixed, as it was in fact the functional incapacity of the populations involved. His explanation could be read, but not publicly acknowledged.; 5/20/18, 7:54 PM
buwaya said...: The Blue Tribe, at that level, depends on corruption for their wealth, or at least the manipulation of the levers of government.; 5/20/18, 7:57 PM
Ken B said...: Michael K
Are you giving odds on the IG report coming out before the election? Not what it says, but whether it is issued.; 5/20/18, 9:15 PM
StephenFearby said...: Aspirational expectation very quickly goes wrong:

Washington Examiner May 20, 2018 04:54 PM, Updated 07:29 PM

Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare and friend to ex-FBI Director James Comey, said Sunday he expects both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to resign before they comply with President Trump's push for a Justice Department investigation into whether there was FBI "infiltration" into his 2016 campaign for political purposes.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/comey-friend-predicts-rosenstein-wray-will-resign-before-complying-with-trumps-infiltration-investigation

Washington Examiner May 20, 2018 05:48 PM, Updated 06:27 PM

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein asked the Justice Department's inspector general Sunday to review whether there was improper politically motivated surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/rod-rosenstein-asks-doj-inspector-general-to-review-possible-trump-campaign-infiltration; 5/20/18, 9:21 PM
Michael K said...: Blogger Ken B said...
Michael K
Are you giving odds on the IG report coming out before the election? Not what it says, but whether it is issued.

Oh, I think so. Otherwise what is it all about ?

If Rosenstein resigns he may anticipate that he is in trouble.

This is a very deep conspiracy and the theory that it goes back to Obama's Iran deal might just be a key insight.

Can we still have elections and peaceful transitions ?

I guess we will find out.; 5/20/18, 9:49 PM
Michael K said...: His explanation could be read, but not publicly acknowledged.

Pryce-Jones also had a lot of insight into Arab society.; 5/20/18, 9:51 PM
narciso said...: I mention the less than armslength
Connection that comey had with beslnitskaya

https://bigleaguepolitics.com; 5/21/18, 12:46 AM
narciso said...: Where does morAlity lie in a real dictatorship not the ergot filled delusions of the handmaids tale

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9025756/Philip-Kerr-Interview.html; 5/21/18, 12:49 AM
narciso said...: Wolfe, pipes and now Bernard Lewis, a terrible week for wise chroniclers,of the age; 5/21/18, 12:51 AM
Ken B said...: Michael K
I am wondering/suspecting if Rosenstein has just changed the mandate of the IG, so as to preclude the report's release any time soon. Perhaps later he might add Israeli or Icelandic interferences as well, causing more delay. So if you are giving odds, like 10 to 1 or something there might be a wager here.; 5/21/18, 12:52 AM
narciso said...: I read his memoir one of the best ones of an academic specially in that dry field.; 5/21/18, 12:52 AM
narciso said...: Icelandic, lol, it's always a prospect nowadays.; 5/21/18, 12:54 AM
Ken B said...: http://kenblogic.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-which-i-pat-myself-on-back.html; 5/21/18, 1:12 AM
narciso said...: This might have been discusssd:
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/05/20/shortest-constitutional-crisis-ever-deputy-ag-rosenstein-orders-ig-to-investigate-if-fbidoj-infiltrated-or-surveilled-the-trump-campaign/; 5/21/18, 1:21 AM
Ralph L said...: Wolfe, pipes and now Bernard Lewis, a terrible week for wise chroniclers of the age

Don't forget Margot Kidder and someone else I've forgotten.; 5/21/18, 7:12 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Ardor in the arbor.; 5/21/18, 10:16 AM