I'm seeing this billed as a Dershowitz "melt down," but I think Painter is the one who creates the tension by interrupting Dershowitz and introducing the accusation of lying.
Dershowitz wants to speak (with passion) about prosecutorial ethics, and he criticizes Mueller, but Painter insists on policing a don't-impugn-Mueller ethic that's incredibly aggravating. Painter also has a louder, clearer microphone. I don't know if that's by design, but it is MSNBC.
May 6, 2018
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1 – 200 of 444 Newer› Newest»The left have elevated Mueller to god-like deity.
Dershowitz 4, MSNBC flunky tandem 1
Forget it Jake, it’s MSNBC.
Mueller stands above and outside of the law. He is there for corruptocrats.
Looks like there’s some discomfort on the Get Trump side about the direction of Judge Ellis’ questions about Mueller’s fishing expedition. Break out the popcorn. It’s always fun when the head starts eating the tail. Makes me wonder when the east coast Jews will finally figure out that the Republicans may not be their friend but neither are the Democrats.
O.J.'s attorney lost.
Mueller stands above and outside of the law. He is there for corruptocrats
He's a Republican.
You think his job should be a partisan one.
Look who's corrupt.
The Democrats can't get Trump politically, so they are trying to use the courts.
SCOTUS ought to make it clear the Judiciary Branch will resist this.
Leave aside the politics. Painter appears to be a crude animatronic creation. Only his mouth moves.
Looks like O.J.'s lawyer had trouble sticking to the point. And then went on about some Mid-East country.
That's how he got O.J. off the hook. Just blabbing about completely unrelated and irrelevant nonsense.
How embarrassing. Painter may be passionate but at least he believes what he says and cares about the country. Dershowitz finally just now managed to start at least equivocating between "both sides" and admitting how horribly the WH has handled itself legally.
Leave aside the politics. Painter appears to be a crude animatronic creation. Only his mouth moves.
I think it's called "Mitch McConnell Syndrome."
Mueller is a republican. OMG! You leftists are so confident in the Republican. The Republican god, the Deity - who is a republican.
The Republican deity who stands above all laws and will get to the bottom of why Hillary lost.
Peepee said Painter may be passionate but at least he believes what he says and cares about the country.
LOL - the Hogg-interrupter would be an awesome attendee at an Antifa rally.
Mueller won the presidency in 2016. That's pretty awesome, leftists. He's on top.
Geez Althouse. How embarrassing that you even bother to post this, as if there's anything neutral or debatable about it. What kind of a senile dementia case goes on a broadcast about the investigation, inflates some trifle about the special prosecutor from who knows when in Boston as if that's the sum total of his reputation, makes wild accusations about the other interview subject, and then centers them around some obscure and completely trivial claim having to do with how much he knew about some mid-East country? I don't know if these count as "skills" early in some lawyer's career but to anyone normal it sure looked like O.J.'s attorney lapsed into some kind of senile dementia. Israel, Israel, Israel. Me Israel, You Nothing. Just chill out.
Painter is swanning around as a "former Bush Administration official" and running for the Senate in Minnesota as a Democrat.
Powerline has profiled him a couple of times.
In response to my requests for an interview, Professor Painter invited me to submit my questions in writing. I quickly responded with 10 inartful but straightforward questions. I promised Professor Painter that I would post his answers in full. As of this afternoon, I have heard nothing. Here are my 10 questions:
No answers yet,
Ann said
Painter insists on policing a don't-impugn-Mueller ethic that's incredibly aggravating..
Leftwing heads explode. How dare you question the all powerful Republican Mueller! He is a god-deity.
It's all coming apart for the Democrats and anti-Trumpers. Their bigotry has led them down a road of failure and losing. Happy days!
Oh btw - Painter is a FAR LEFTWING EXTREMIST.
This business of talking over others drives me nuts about Fox and, I guess if I watched it, would do the same at MSNBC.
How is NBC doing with all its sex scandals, by the way ?
Those questions are interesting, Michael K.
Questions Painter will not answer:
1. I have to begin on a personal note. My colleague John Hinderaker wrote about you in the Power Line post “A fake Republican runs in Minnesota.” You responded on Twitter: “Far right extremists are getting worried.” On what ground do you disparage John or any of the others who contribute to Power Line as “far right extremists”?
2. You have held yourself out as a Republican during your career and at the time you endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in the fall of 2016. When did you first identify yourself as a Democrat?
3. Your service in the WH Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush (43) administration is frequently used to support your claim to expertise in ethics. What were your job duties? I am told you reviewed ethics disclosure forms and helped incoming officials work out any conflicts.
4. I understand that when you worked in the WH OLC, no one outflanked you on the right. I have been told you were a “Fire breather. Nuke them all, take no prisoners.” Yet as soon as you left, you wrote a book that said if anyone had listened to you, we wouldn’t have been torturing and eavesdropping — things that had nothing to do with your job. Is that fair?
5. You are seeking to wrest the DFL nomination from an appointed incumbent Democrat. Given her track record as an urban liberal who checks all the boxes, what do you offer Democrats that Tina Smith doesn’t?
Looks like someone is having her own meltdown.
Mueller is a republican. OMG! You leftists are so confident in the Republican. The Republican god, the Deity - who is a republican.
Translation: "I'm April Apple and I'm such a partisan purist that even most Republicans serving in a non-partisan capacity aren't pure enough for me."
You go April Apple. Maybe have a putsch. When is your "Night of Long Knives" going to take place?
Not only do zealots like Apple feel that the minority rule her party exerts isn't enough, or that their (supposedly non-partisan) investigation isn't controlled by enough of them, but that they have to be purged even further - to some endpoint nobody except maybe Mr. Schickelgrubber might know.
When a party with as strong a grip on power as Trump's Republicans thinks that even that's not powerful enough, you know it's either completely jumped the shark or ready to go full-throated Nazi totalitarian on the country.
Now the slick thing to do on the left and pretend to be a "republican" and gain instant non-partisan gravitas by the hack press.
Talk about credibility and partisanship. Yeah, if it appeared in "Powerline" then there's no reason why anyone but a hardcore Trumpistanian should believe it.
Now the slick thing to do on the left and pretend to be a "republican" and gain instant non-partisan gravitas by the hack press.
Newsflash: NO one cares about your stupid party, even Trump.
Night of the Long Knives. It's just a far-right putsch. Trump was a lifelong Democrat. Even April Apple doesn't care about the Republican party so to listen to her demand "party loyalty" is as retarded as listening to that other putsch-leader, Schickelgrubber, go on about political principles. Both he and you and your fellow Trumpistanians have one principle: Absolute power. Might makes right. That's it.
Not worth taking seriously, except as a rallying call to anyone who's not as possessed as you and the rest of them are by the demonic.
LOL - pee pee continues to ignore that fact that all the totalitarian Nazi mind crime crap is on the left. all of it.
Do explain to the class why Hillary lost, pee pee. Was it because Putin and Trump tricked American brains? with facebook ads and such?
This whole Mueller charade is about manufacturing Russian collusion. You believe it, pee pee? Did the Russians and Trump trick the stupids in America to vote Trump instead of Hillary? Did the Russians hack the voting machines? We must get to the bottom of it! and Painter, the fake Republican (ooo the best kind!) is the new Adam Schifty-D.
Newsflash pee pee - You are the one who threw the "But Mueller cannot be impugned because he's a Republican" out there. So tired.
If the human scroll button is going to take over this thread, have a nice day everyone,
Why not answer the questions, coward? Painter is a coward, and a far leftwing extremist.
Agreed. Time for a walk. Spring flowers are blooming and the temperature is perfect.
MSNBC - the democrat hack headquarters. credibility? - laughable.
LOL - pee pee continues to ignore that fact that all the totalitarian Nazi mind crime crap is on the left. all of it.
Oh I know - because the Nazis were uber-nationalists who hated commies more than anything and Trump's Republicriminals are totally non-nationalistic and way into economic equality.
Nothing you say makes any sense, just like Orwell predicted it wouldn't.
If the human scroll button is going to take over this thread, have a nice day everyone,
Translation: "My name is Michael K. and I can't defend my case credibly so demand a comment quota on anyone I can't agree with or refute!"
Pussy.
MSNBC - the democrat hack headquarters. credibility? - laughable.
It's a video. If even a video is too partisan for you then maybe you can get Trump-approved special Republican(R) lenses on the cameras. So only the partisan angle you approve of shows through.
Jesus Christ.
Agreed. Time for a walk.
Good for you, April Apple. Less expensive than a rabies shot, at least.
This Trump that you can't defend really riles y'all up. Maybe time to throw in the towel - admit he's not good for your health.
Absolute power really is a lot harder than you'd think, eh? Pretty soon if you're not careful all of you will be tweeting from the toilet at 5 AM.
Our piss poor commenter has been reading about the night of the long knives. LOL. Use it in every post. Boosts the memory.
Dershowitz did lose it, no doubt about it. It’s pretty interesting how it can be seen as anything but Dershowitz having a meltdown. He has been scrambling to defend himself and his carrying water for a Trump the last couple of times I’ve seen him on TV now. When this is all said and done there are going to be some pretty well known Trumpists who will have completely ruined their reputations and who will have a hard time holding up their heads.
April Apple is an interesting case. First she was all over the internet badmouthing Trump, then after the election she became one of his most loyal sycophants. Can you say extremist?
Crazy Jane: google "Clutch Cargo" an old cartoon character to see what Painter looks like.
Patrick Henry meltdown, "Give me liberty, or give me death!".
Michael thinks 1934 is too long ago and irrelevant for anyone to remember. When have economic-social crises ever led to problematic disorders of political legitimacy, he wonders? Especially when accompanied by this much ethnic nationalism.
Oh well. One thing you can say about the Republicans... their only apparent saving grace - is that they're too lazy for absolute power. Tyranny is hard work! There's not much separating Nazis from Trump Republicans, except sufficient motivation. Finally, their laziness is coming in handy.
Dershowitz, McCarthy and others who should know better, will have to work hard to get their reputations back by next year this time.
Deep State (R division) transitioning to Deep State (D division). These sub-species identifications are so difficult to keep straight. Maybe they're just seasonal color variations. In Texas they assume the Republican Red to blend in, but migrating to Minnesota, they turn Democrat Blue to match the local foliage.
Armchair Nazis are better served by just going on walks and forgetting about it all. Much easier to bitch about Mexicans and Muslims and Muellers from the comforts of your own couch while watching FOX than going out and burning down courthouses. The Revolution will not be mobilized. With lumpy Roseanne Barr as its spokesmodel, we can count on demonstrative democracy taking too many calories for the typical Republican to want to burn. Republicans would take to the streets and terrorize other Americans and burn down the Capitol, if only they could see over their waistlines far enough to put their shoes on.
DickinBimbos: Pee Pee is an example of what Voltaire called "Invincible Stupidity," and possibly deranged as well. Arguing religion is a waste of time anyway, but especially so with the Cult of the State. I used to think he was the Toothless State-fellator using a different pseudonym; but in retrospect that may be unfair to Toothless, who could be articulate in ways this bozo isn't. If he is Toothless, he's Toothless off his meds.
Instapundit had a quote recently that made the rounds of the pro-freedom blogosphere, about how the internet unleashed a veritable army of "the Bat-shit Crazy;" and that may be why the Left seems to have gotten both stupider and loonier in recent years. (I'm not thrilled with the Rise of the Dumb Trumpkins either, but that's another story.) When I was in college the Leftists I encountered, except for the hardcore SDS canaille, were mainly intelligent, educated, articulate and civilized. Now we have Pee Pee.
E
Dershowitz was putting forward a factual claim about Mueller that is debunked pretty conclusively here. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/opinion/robert-mueller-smearing-complicit.html
When Painter interrupted him to point out that it was a falsehood, Dershowitz launched into a series of ad hominem attacks on Painter, based on his alleged political ambitions, based on his alleged prior criticisms of Dershowitz's position on Israel, etc.
Is it is meltdown? Who cares. Does it make Dershowitz or the underling claim against Mueller more or less persuasive? Obviously the latter.
What do you think about the Gertner letter, Professor Althouse? Or are you interested only in TV sniping about the claim and not in the actual substance of it?
Inga:
Why would you say that about Dershowitz and McCarthy? As far as I know they have no connections to the FBI which has had 8-10 bigwigs resign or get fired and whose reputation is in the crapper.
Crazy Jane: google "Clutch Cargo" an old cartoon character to see what Painter looks like.
You guys were Alinskyites all along. We knew it. Shoot the messenger, personalize it. etc.
What do you call a Low-Energy Alinskyite?
A Trump Republican.
Painter ought to throw in an occasional "Mmm'kay?"
Arguing religion is a waste of time anyway, but especially so with the Cult of the State. I used to think he was the Toothless State-fellator using a different pseudonym; but in retrospect that may be unfair to Toothless, who could be articulate in ways this bozo isn't. If he is Toothless, he's Toothless off his meds.
The Trump Republican view of the world:
1. The president should have absolute power.
2. Checks-and-balances and institutions of justice are bad things - "Deep State."
3. Same with agencies.
4. Worshiping Trump, as the Head of State, is somehow not "fellating the 'cult of state.'"
Not much more. Those boners just about sum up how ideologically bankrupt they are, though. Just as incoherent as things get. They sure are confused.
I can understand why Painter, and any other Democrat, would react with strong loathing to the word “ethics.”
We watch Painter lie in that clip. 4 innocent men were wrongly convicted and he denied it. Further, Dershowitz referred to past statements by Painter, not what he said in this interview.
Althouse said...
"...but I think Painter is the one who creates the tension by interrupting Dershowitz and introducing the accusation of lying."
Be that as it may, but you have to admit, it's good to see that Clutch Cargo, ahem Painter, found a career in the law after his short lived cartoon adventure series.
Mueller is a registered Republican.
Chuck claims to be a registered Republican.
For all I know arithmetic is a registered Republican.
That doesn’t make any of them a true Republican in their heart of hearts. (That’s assuming Ritmo or Chuck have hearts, which may be a dubious proposition.)
"The left have elevated Mueller to god-like deity."
-- I'd be so much more likely to take their "he's a good guy!" line seriously, if I hadn't watched them about face with Comey, then re-about face with him, not that long ago.
A guy whose only argument is to ceaselessly call "state-fellator" anyone who's not fellating this Trump Head of State, calls others "stupid" and "loony" and "deranged." That's Grade-A prime bullshit self-delusion, but what else do you expect from some dipshit whose only political position is that he's pro-aristocracy, while calling aristocracy the sum total of his "freedom-agenda?"
We get it, Chadwick - you love money and authority and the more of it Trump has the more freedom there is in America. Gotcha.
"Painter's alleged political ambitions"- there's nothing alleged about it Ritmo. Painter has declared his candidacy as a Dem for the US Senate.
Didn't read too many comments, to say this with all sincerity: this thread is fucked.
“We watch Painter lie in that clip. 4 innocent men were wrongly convicted and he denied it.”
In an April 8 interview with John Catsimatidis on his New York radio show, Mr. Dershowitz asserted that Mr. Mueller was “the guy who kept four innocent people in prison for many years in order to protect the cover of Whitey Bulger as an F.B.I. informer.” Mr. Mueller, he said, was “right at the center of it.” Mr. Bulger was a notorious crime boss in Boston, the head of the Winter Hill Gang, and also a secret source for the F.B.I.
There is no evidence that the assertion is true. I was the federal judge who presided over a successful lawsuit brought against the government by two of those men and the families of the other two, who had died in prison. Based on the voluminous evidence submitted in the trial, and having written a 105-page decision awarding them $101.8 million, I can say without equivocation that Mr. Mueller, who worked in the United States attorney’s office in Boston from 1982 to 1988, including a brief stint as the acting head of the office, had no involvement in that case. He was never even mentioned.
NYT, from link provided by Stephen at 11:31AM
It's not a laughing matter that Rachel Maddow's lies about "hands up don't shoot" were never corrected. Even Holder's report was ignored. Her lies provided the angry to seek revenge by executing and assassinating innocent police officers.
yet MSNBC still has cred on the left and she still has employment.
MSNBC - credibility - sick joke.
It is funny how leftists refuse to answer how Russia and Trump stole it all from Hillary - with some actual proof.
"Painter's alleged political ambitions"- there's nothing alleged about it Ritmo. Painter has declared his candidacy as a Dem for the US Senate.
Because Republicans jumped the shark and party loyalty apparently doesn't mean as much to him - as it doesn't to Trump and as it shouldn't to anyone with a spine or eyesight clear enough to see that the two-party system is a facade.
Good for him. I hate the Democrats. I don't care what ticket he runs on.
(Although, TBF, in Minnesota at least there's a long tradition of some offshoot DFL party [which I think he's joining] actually having something decent, less Clintonian and closer to FDR to run on).
Stephen's comment is, to be kind, misleading. The factual claims Dershowitz made were that 4 innocents were convicted (true) and the Mueller's reputation was mixed ( also true). A link about claims Dershowitz did not make is irrelevant and misleading. What Dershowitz said when he was accused of a falsehood was in fact true.
AllenS: you are the right age so at least google Clutch Cargo to see what Painter talks like.
Good for you, April @11:45. Keep fighting your media and political party war. The rest of us have more serious things to care about.
The use of information gathered under Title I in criminal cases is a CLEAR violation of the 4th Amendment.
Anybody who thinks that an acceptable use of the powers of the FOREIGN intelligence apparatus stands firmly against the Constitution of the United States.
The DFL are the the Dems in Minnesota.
It is amazing to me that when people Democrats want to protect are in charge of an obvious failure, they are somehow inoculated against it, while any Republican, anywhere, must be punished for the sins of the Akin.
The fact is Mueller, if he'd been running as tight and ethical a ship as we're lead to believe he always does, forever and ever amen, would never have let that mockery happen. He failed. Sometimes people fail. Accept it, move on.
The Trump-rightists care deeply about the media because, you know, teevee is reality. How sad that only FOX Noise will lie to them as corruptly as they need to hear it.
I could give a flying fuck about the media and don't care about parties, either. Go seek to strengthen your social ties and relationship with the world and reality through more meaningful ways.
Or keep fighting your partisanship war and your anti-media war. Let us know when it gets you the results you so strongly seem to desire.
Inga's comment is again about something Dershowitz didn’t say. Dershowitz didn’t say pink elephants dance on the head of a pin. Perhaps you can link to a refutation of that. He didn’t say it was 2023, why don’t you link to a calendar.
Shorter leftwing machine:
You cannot question Mueller. You cannot fire Mueller. Mueller will find a crime. Mueller can spend billions of tax payer dollars over many years finding that crime.
Do not question King Mueller.
Line
John Henry
I don't have cable, pee pee. So you're Fox News whining is rather lame. Then again, isn't it typical and boring listening to leftists whine about the dreaded Fox News. If only there was some way you could abolish it legally. How can you make that happen? We need 100% pro-democrat hack State run information. We need a giant echo chamber where Painter and Schiffty-D and Mueller and flip-flip leaker Comey are king, and Hillary is installed as our beloved queen.
Commenter piss ant, the drunk, is so thinly educated as to think he is the first to have read of the night of the long knives. Sad. Urine focused lefties like pee pee stay angry. Here is the beautiful USA, on a sunny Sunday, piss ant is angry, steaming fucking mad. I know why. It hasn't quite worked out as hoped.
“Inga's comment is again about something Dershowitz didn’t say.”
“Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz: 'I think Mueller is a zealot. Look, he’s the guy who kept four innocent people in prison for many years in order to protect the cover of Whitey Bulger as an FBI informer. Those of us in Boston don’t have such a high regard for Mueller because we remember this story.’" The statement came from this April 8th segment on The Cats Roundtable Show, a radio show hosted by billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis.”
Shorter leftwing machine:
You cannot question Mueller.
There's nothing to question, Putsch-Leader Kommisar Helga. If you're only position is that he's insufficiently disposed to the brand of Republican partisanship that you favor, you've effectively lost your case.
Pogo would do this to. Bitch about how John Roberts did not get him a Republican result in the Supreme Court.
Like I always seem to have to say: Republicans are basically drop-outs and failures who don't understand simple matters of civics. They never read the Constitution. They think checks-and-balances are "deep state" and that justice should be a partisan pursuit, in search of a partisan agenda.
But talk about aggravating. We know you lack the energy to carry out your ignorant priorities. Just let me know when you're ready to burn down the courthouses, mkay? Until then you can keep parroting the lawless agenda, your Nazi friends can carry the torches (literally - or maybe tiki-torches) and do the actual protesting, and I can get some sleep until there's something worth waking up for. Yawn.
Painter is being financed by billionaires hoping to retain influence on the government. This is going to be a vastly expensive election season, full of distraction-candidates like this, plus every other trick in the book.
It is a rewarding time for everyone in the opposition research business also. And there seem to be loads of entrepreneurs here also. I think anyone with an angle on any non-fake Rep candidate is going to be able to name their price, and get multiple bids from would-be players.
Fortunes are being made.
I also suspect most "Republican" consultants are now fully booked by the other side, that being where the money is.
Its only business after all.
What we need is some sort of State run apparatus that will force us all to watch MSNBC, and agree with it. Lies? Feed me more, please. Thank you.
If only the left could figure out a way to install card check in the voting booth. Clearly we cannot be trusted. Some sort of surveillance State where we all dutifully worship the State, are employed by the State, and we all are Loyal the State.
Here is the beautiful USA, on a sunny Sunday...
Talk about drunk and uneducated. This Gordon Gecko wanna-be actually believes the weather is uniform across the entire United States - all four time zones, 3.8 million square miles and all 15 USDA plant hardiness zone maps.
Michael's is a special kind of stupid - privileged arrogance. He feels he's rich enough to be entitled to his stupidity. His stupidity isn't merely a luxury - he earned it!
Your political system is almost incomprehensibly corrupt, so much money is at stake on the question of who controls your government. There are bought men all over, as the bribes are so rich.
If only the left could figure out a way to install card check in the voting booth. Clearly we cannot be trusted. Some sort of surveillance State where we all dutifully worship the State, are employed by the State, and we all are Loyal the State.
The right already beat everyone to it. They call their answer: Trump-State.
Trump, the Head of State. Who apparently isn't even as much in control of the state as the Trump Republicans demand that he should be.
Well, then maybe he's just not as competent as you keep telling yourself.
Is his political leadership as bankrupted as his own businesses - yet. (Remember, he failed four times).
He's bankrupting us to our Chinese creditors. 1 trillion in deficit spending and rising. Perhaps that's what you were looking for.
Maybe Trump's a failure. All that power and it's still not enough for you. How incompetent does one have to be?
The rest of us have more serious things to care about.
Like Russian collusion! Getting warmer... How many more years? How many deep staters are getting rich?
Is it sunny and beautiful up in Alaska too, Michael?
“Your political system is almost incomprehensibly corrupt, so much money is at stake on the question of who controls your government. There are bought men all over, as the bribes are so rich.”
The US should emulate the Philippines.
Sarc
How many deep staters are getting rich?
Not as many as the shallow staters.
Did Trump give himself and his cronies enough of a tax cut? Or should they go for more?
Remember, theirs is permanent. Yours is temporary. And he already only pays a smaller percentage than you anyway (unless you're in poverty) - since his is investment income with a deduction-loaded capital gains rate.
But for you, it's all about how much you can do for him, right?
Don't ask what Trump can do for your country, ask what you can do for Trump.
April Apple would sell her baby/babies to Trump, if only she had any.
With Trumpers the Cult of Moloch is back up again in full swing. If Trump isn't succeeding enough, the answer is easy.
Just sacrifice your children to Him.
If they're daughters then they can be his sex slaves.
He will pay them off if they threaten to talk so it's not like they won't be getting anything out of it.
Other than a night of boastful non-passion with pasty, plump, 71-year old combover of a man.
Speaking of troll farms....
In regard to being an interrupter, Painter is way up in Tim Kaine's league.
HI Michael K.!
Feeling sensitive, today?
You know, if my words are too numerous for you, you're going to have a hell of a time "reading a book." Most of them run over 100,000 words. How will you get through them all?
I guess by mouthing out the sounds and taking comfort in the repetitive narrative rhythm - and the fact that you don't feel your safe, boring world challenged by what's in the pages.
Dershowitz is careful to say, Mueller "kept" 4 innocent men in Mass. prison, not that he put them there. Mueller wrote letters to Mass. State Prison authorities opposing their release, despite the existence in FBI's own files of evidence of their innocence. His only justification for doing so was to protect the Whitey Bulger informant secrecy.
“However, folks like Inga have pushed past him. They are watching 'loony leftistan' fade away in their rearview mirrors and see Dersh waving at them frantically to slow down.”
I never had an ounce of respect for Dershowitz.
The Left has surged so far leftward that they left Dersh behind, jettisoning the law and rights in their quest for power.
They may win. Everyone else loses.
“Mueller wrote letters to Mass. State Prison authorities opposing their release, despite the existence in FBI's own files of evidence of their innocence. His only justification for doing so was to protect the Whitey Bulger informant secrecy.”
No this is untrue. No such letters were ever found.
“Was Mueller among the prosecutors who wrote letters to the Massachusetts parole board opposing the release of the four before evidence emerged that they had been framed?
No, according to both Gertner and Limone’s attorney, Juliane Balliro, who was given certified copies of the parole board records for Limone, Greco, Tameleo, and Salvati before their 2007 trial.
“His signature never appeared on anything I ever saw or can recall," Balliro said. “[Mueller] just wasn’t on the radar screen.””
It's interesting that I seem not to be the only one who contributed to Mr Caputo's fund to pay his legal expenses for being caught up in the Mueller feeding frenzy.
People began to take note; many, perhaps for the first time. The personal impact upon the life of an ordinary citizen was explained by Mr. Caputo on a few TV shows, where he outlined the jaw-dropping financial costs incurred as a witness in the insufferable investigation. An investigation based on abject nonsense and left-wing conspiracy theory.
Mr. Caputo and his family were on the precipice of financial ruin.
$260,000 were contributed in three days.
There is still a smidgen of justice in the country.
It speaks poorly of you then, Inga. Because even when I disagree with Dersh, I know he has a principle and logical point besides 'I hate Trump.'.
That is the difference between people who have principles and those who have none: one garners respect.
He is likely going to be another martyr on the Lefty Alter of 'insufficient flexibility' like Trotsky, Malcom X and their murdered ilk.
Jacques Brissot is a good figure. He too called for some restraint and hewing to principles.
The other French Revolutionaries murdered him for his lack of fervor.
Where's my cafe post??
The Dude from "The Big Lebowski" was inspired by the one of the Seattle 7 named Jeffrey Alan Dowd. He's the guy near the center facing the camera at the back of the crowd.
“It's interesting that I seem not to be the only one who contributed to Mr Caputo's fund to pay his legal expenses for being caught up in the Mueller feeding frenzy.”
—————————————-
“After being interviewed by special counsel investigators on Wednesday, former aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign Michael Caputo told CNN that Robert Mueller's team is "focused on Russia collusion."
"It's clear they are still really focused on Russia collusion," Caputo said, adding, "They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there."
The Senate and the House are net fishing," Caputo said. "The special counsel is spearfishing. They know what they are aiming at and are deadly accurate."“
—————————————
Very interesting.
Any reasonable person who falls for Painter's monotonous 1000% condemnation of Trump as Mr.Unethical must have been brainwashed for life at age 2. Painter acts out a living imitation of he SNL Church Lady and demands 100% obedience to his version of twisted legalism violations, or else. The man is a psychopath.
I'll see your 'Dick Painter' and raise you a 'Harry Baals'
Inga is usually very very big on tallying up the number of comments made by certain commenters.
I wonder why no such tallys have been
conducted by Inga today?
LOL
Anyone who is contributing to Caputo’s defense fund must either be a dupe or even richer than Caputo himself, who is far from being broke.
“It's interesting that I seem not to be the only one who contributed to Mr Caputo's fund to pay his legal expenses for being caught up in the Mueller feeding frenzy.”
“Caputo lived and worked in Russia in the 1990s and later did business with Russian companies, including Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled energy giant. As a Republican consultant, Caputo worked with Trump adviser Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman. He denies any wrongdoing regarding Russia. Caputo is a longtime ally of Stone's, a close associate of Trump who has come under scrutiny in the Russian investigation because of Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks during the campaign.”
Blogger Birkel said...
“The use of information gathered under Title I in criminal cases is a CLEAR violation of the 4th Amendment.
Anybody who thinks that an acceptable use of the powers of the FOREIGN intelligence apparatus stands firmly against the Constitution of the United States.”
This should be repeated. There are clear 4th Amdt violations going on, both by the FBI before Mueller was appointed, and then by his team, in relation to their use of FISA, and, in particular Title I surveillance warrants. FISA requires that only evidence of criminality by “US Persons” inadvertently discovered during a counterintelligence investigation may be used in court against them. If you are looking for criminality by US Persons (citizens and legally resident aliens), you need to use Wiretap Act warrants for surveillance, which are issued by US District courts based on probable cause, etc, and not FISA warrants issued by the FISC. The FISA warrants that we know of, targeting Carter Page, have been abused from the first, even ignoring that the FBI lied, by omission at least, to the FISC. They pretended to be looking for evidence of Russian collusion, when, in reality, they were looking for criminality, that could be used as leverage to flip people closer and closer to Trump, in order to set him up for impeachment if the Dems retake the House.
Part of the problem is that FISA attempts to bypass Wiretap Act and 4th Amdt criminal probable cause requirements by prohibiting “targeting” of US Persons, except in certain, very limited situations, mostly involving terrorism. The way that they get around that requirement is to ostensibly target foreign government (or terrorist group) activity, and then inadvertently discover illegality by US Persons that they can’t legally target. Except that everyone knows that the US Persons were the actual targets from the first. Oh, and they get to hide their violations of FISA, the Wiretap Act, and the 4th Amdt, through classifying the warrants and the resulting evidence obtained.
Too bad it's not Maler and Painter.
“Inga is usually very very big on tallying up the number of comments made by certain commenters.
I wonder why no such tallys have been
conducted by Inga today?”
Wasn’t the citeria supposed to be that they be interesting?
He's a tool of David Brock, that's what painters neat is really about.
The same msnbc that Chuck Todd is pushing the Prague card, of course operation Cassandra where Ali antar nee fayad operated as an employee of Ukrainian export authority, squirrel.
More about the travismockasha
https://www.americanthinker.com
Child-bearing insults from pro-abortionists. LOL. Really pee pee - so lame.
We note how you make it personal instead of answering the question. Did Poot and Trump conspire to hurt poor innocent Hillary? DPoor Hillary and her secret Russian Uranium One loot.
"Anyone who is contributing to Caputo’s defense fund must either be a dupe"
Inga is a member of the "guilty until proven innocent" brigade that ran the "John Doe"outrage.
The day of reckoning is coming just as it came for the John Doe crew. A second federal judge has demanded that Mueller put up or shut up.
The Politico comments are as nutty as Inga.
Re corruption - its worth looking at this clearly.
There is much less money at stake in the Philippines (or any other country, the US being by far the worlds biggest banana republic), moreover much less of it is dependent on financial shenanigans.
Its cheaper to buy people, except for those at the very top who go for New York rates. So the usual pattern is that out in the third world you get a great deal of petty corruption that you don't see so much of in the US. Crooked cops, etc. Over there they are extremely crooked.
However, at the high end the US system is comprehensive and very sophisticated - in a sense. It is an open secret but the structures of government are so thoroughly compromised that there is ironclad protection.
In the third world at the high end you get competing corruption, especially intra-national plays which leads to constant inter-interest group harrassment, Chinese factions vs local business factions vs other foreign investor factions, each backing different corrupt politicians. This is because the locals aren't very powerful and have fundamentally divergent interests vs the foreigners. Its an interesting game.
In the US at the high end you have much less of this competition in corruption, there is one hegemonic system. Its easy to check out - just look at the Forbes billionaires list and see what side each is on.
There’s no fool like an old fool Michael K. Keep giving your money to Caputo.
As I recall, Dershowitz was OJ's lickspittle, shoeshine boy. I think he was preparing to appeal the conviction for OJ's double homicide if OJ had been properly found guilty. OJ should have defended himself in his murder trial; instead he gave Johnny Cochran brain cancer, and left his children without an inheritance. For what? To end up going to prison anyway for armed robbery in Nevada for nine years. The moderator should not have let the interview turn into an exchange of insults. Dershowitz is know for his ugliness towards his numerous detractors. Trump belongs in Guantanamo for water sports to get to the bottom of his depravity, and his unsavory tax cuts for billionaires like himself. Trump gives greed a bad name. Dershowitz's new goal in life is to wipe the president's behind every time he takes a ... This should tarnish his reputation for good. However, sometimes no amount of spit will make old shoes look like new, so the tattered pair of old shoes with crap on the soles, and the tired old man walking in them should be dumped in the garbage.
It cracks me up how news outlets are almost unable to say Richard Painter’s without adding the title, “Bush ethics lawyer.” It’s obvious why, of course, and the guy has definitely made a name for himself as an unhinged Trump critic. The idea is to influence casual viewers who might think, “even Republicans hate Trump, wow Trump has to be removed from office ASAP.”
Thanks for reminding me
https://www.steynonline.com/8630/the-process-is-the-punishment-as-always
“The day of reckoning is coming just as it came for the John Doe crew. A second federal judge has demanded that Mueller put up or shut up.”
Hahahahaha, Michael K is rooting for the Russian Troll Fram.
Ya can’t make this stuff up folks.
He's not crazy, he's just trying to make his fortune, and he's saying what he needs to say so certain people will make it happen.
Dershowitz is old and rich and is emeritus. He is insulated from ambition or pressure. Probably. Maybe if the Epstein thing breaks open, but a great number of others will fall also.
“The day of reckoning is coming just as it came for the John Doe crew. A second federal judge has demanded that Mueller put up or shut up.”
Hahahahaha, Michael K is rooting for the Russian Troll Fram.
Ya can’t make this stuff up folks.
Commenter Urine breath
The weather is actually quite beautiful from Atlanta to Seattle Wash where I now sit after a very smooth first class ride. Beautiful Sunday morning across this beautiful country. Sorry things have not worked out for you. You had your chances.
You can criticize Dersh over his work on the OJ trial all you want. Whatever. Dersh was one small part of it. As I recall Johnnie Cochran was the big gun.
In any case, the collective left - you are all OJ himself. Please, do tell us when you find the real killer. Do tell us when all that smoke is going to lead the god-Mueller to the holy grail of Russian collusion.
Holder vacated the pleas of the lead 9/11 defendants so now 10 years later we haven't had any justice.
Michael Albano, the former mayor of Springfield, Mass., who served on the Massachusetts Parole Board in the 1980s... has said repeatedly that he saw a letter from Mr. Mueller, written during the period while he was in the United States attorney’s office in Boston, opposing the release of one of the four men.
Mueller was head of the FBI when the FBI/Whitey Bulger scandal broke. I'll bet a lot of internal and external communications disappeared. As Dershowitz says absence of evidence is not evidence of absence especially when it comes to government files that might reflect poorly on government actors.
Fitz never got anywhere near dales inner circle or Obama, despite flipping rezko.
When I was in law school, it was liberal to be very skeptical of prosecutors and eager to call them on overreaching. To me, Dershowitz is that kind of liberal, a staunch defender of the rights of the criminally accused. I remember when that was required of a lefty and you were in danger of getting tarred as right wing if you didn’t do it.
“Mr. Caputo and his family were on the precipice of financial ruin.
$260,000 were contributed in three days.”
In a perfect world, with both sides evenly matched in terms of resources, it is unlikely that the Mueller team would have a single conviction to their names, but rather, several would have been brought before their local bars for ethics violations. But the playing field is far from even. The targets of Mueller’s investigations are grossly overmatched, in terms of financial resources, by the many millions of taxpayer dollars available, and being spent by Mueller and his team. This is almost always the case with criminal prosecutions, but here, it is much more egregious, because Mueller has essentially no budget (and the US govt can, and does, print money, which other domestic jurisdictions and all defendants cannot legally do). Prosecutions don’t need to be prioritized, as is required by prosecutors who do live under budgets. Instead, the Mueller team can “deep pocket” each and every defendant that they try to prosecute.
The solution here is to provide these political defendants with the financial ability to call the Mueller team to task, when they cross the legal and ethical lines, as they inevitably seem to here (and, indeed, some on the team, such as Andrew Weismann, seeem to have been picked for the team precisely because they routinely cross the legal and ethical lines). Which means contributing to these legal defense funds.
“What involvement did Mueller have with Bulger?
None. Mueller served in the US attorney’s office in Boston from 1982 to 1988, serving as chief of the criminal division, then first assistant US attorney, and later as acting US attorney for more than a year. During that time, Bulger ran a sprawling criminal enterprise and got away with murders because he was a longtime FBI informant who corrupted his handlers. The FBI and the New England Organized Crime Strike Force, a prosecutorial unit that worked independently of the US attorney’s office and reported directly to the Justice Department, used Bulger to build cases against the Mafia and gave him a pass on his own crimes. The FBI’s corrupt relationship with Bulger was exposed after he was indicted on federal racketeering charges in 1995 and became a fugitive. He was captured after 16 years on the run, convicted of 11 murders, and is currently serving a life sentence.”
Did Mueller know the four men had been wrongly convicted and look the other way?
There’s nothing linking Mueller to that case, according to several attorneys for the men, voluminous court records, and a former federal judge who presided over their wrongful imprisonment trial. In 2007, then US District Judge Nancy Gertner found that the FBI deliberately withheld evidence that the four men were innocent and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades. She ordered the government to pay the men and their families $101.7 million. Gertner, who heard 22 days of testimony and waded through thousands of documents, found the FBI developed Barboza as a witness and turned him over to the state, without disclosing the agency’s documents that indicated he was lying.
“Absolutely nothing in the record that I saw suggested Mueller’s involvement in any way in either the initial acts that led to the four men’s imprisonment, or the acts that ended in their continued imprisonment and denying them parole or the coverup,” Gertner said Friday. “To suggest otherwise, in my view, is not true.”
Dershovitz most likely is feeling guilty crisis of conscience ... He has been enabling Democrats all his life.
Scary to venture off plantation.
Althouse at 12:58
Exactly. And he has been consistent on this. Always.
Not surprisingly since holder hired seven of the gitmo bar to head his justice department
It speaks poorly of you then, Inga. Because even when I disagree with Dersh, I know he has a principle and logical point besides 'I hate Trump.'.
LOL! Yes, O.J.'s lawyer is good at what he does but the idea that deep, serious thought lies behind a willingness to see something in Trump beyond how abominable he is is like saying how respectable a case the Nuremberg defense attorneys had to make. At some point there's so little left to defend. Trump exists in that office for a reason... for several reasons - and very few of them have to do with the abominable Mr. Trump himself, let alone what you mistakenly see as his leadership style. The reason has to do with the failures of capitalism and the political class to address them, and nothing anyone wants to say in Trump's defense is going to change any of that.
Pee pee-
The Collective Left - you are all OJ himself. Please, do tell us when you find the real killer. Do tell us when all that smoke is going to lead the god-Mueller to the holy grail of Russian collusion.
Just like when it's floated that Mueller would investigate Deutsch bank who is a,client of his firm and that of half his staff. Prince talal owned 3% of that banks share
Child-bearing insults from pro-abortionists. LOL. Really pee pee - so lame.
We note how you make it personal instead of answering the question. Did Poot and Trump conspire to hurt poor innocent Hillary? DPoor Hillary and her secret Russian Uranium One loot.
What am I... on some witness stand? What makes you anarchists think that any one - just because they're not Trump toadies - know more than the investigators? In what universe does a partisan accusation lead to someone having special access to an investigator's materials/potential evidence?
I think people associated with Trump's campaign were in on it as the pleas and indictments show. Trump himself? Who knows, that's what the investigation's for. Maybe not, but that doesn't mean it's come to an end. What are you so jumpy for? And that doesn't mean he's not obstructing it, though, for which he should be able to evade accountability.
Just say you want an unaccountable president. It would make these stupid run-arounds so much less tedious. It's ok to chase your own tail like an excited dog but you can't demand that I watch.
So the men who carried out the deaths of 3,000 Americans have not been judged 10 years since their pleas were voided.
@ Matthew Sablan
I'd be so much more likely to take their "he's a good guy!" line seriously, if I hadn't watched them about face with Comey, then re-about face with him, not that long ago.
I know - the left admired Dersh, now the hate him. The left hate Comey, now they love him.. wait - which is it today? Love hate love hate? How could you say anything bad about poor Hillary, oh Comey - you ideal republican. Oh that's right, on the left ideological loyalty trumps legal principle.
The solution here is to provide these political defendants with the financial ability to call the Mueller team to task,
Yes, suspension of sovereign immunity for those whose cases are dismissed with prejudice, like the Manafort case is about to be, should be liable. My one malpractice case that went to trial was decided in my favor and the plaintiffs were assessed $25,000 in court costs. The problem was that the plaintiffs, who had no visible money, were assessed, not the lawyer.
We never saw a penny.
pee pee - can the McDonald's where you work please infuse the frozen diary desert with some meds, please?
Do tell us when all that smoke is going to lead the god-Mueller to the holy grail of Russian collusion.
Yes, we know you feel no investigation should have ever taken place, like the rest of the collective right. Yes, we know you have partisan paranoia syndrome.
But just calm down, as hard for you as that is. Find a way to relax. Chill out and let your President-god do the sweating. He's better at it than you are, anyway. Or are you going to be on Twitter for him at 5 AM?
Silly girl.
Dershowitz is a national treasure.
It'd be interesting to learn if any of the clowns criticizing him have stepped foot in a federal courtroom or tried a case to verdict.
Just sayin'
President of piss does not believe people like OJ should have quality legal representation. Stupidly Nuremberg is delivered in the rave displaying an ugliness that is in the piss of the president of piss. And a stunning lack of knowledge of Dershowitz.
Look, I would be pissed as you were I you. But then I think I would have made better choices and could thus not be you. An impossibility.
Such an angry little pissant. Sad.
Moderator refers to a problem with Skype.
Maybe a delay was increasing the crosstalk. But that doesn't explain away Painter's feigned ignorance of what Dersh was referring to.
And yes, Althouse..the use of Skype is convenient..and saves networks money (no crew or truck uplink costs), but it does put the person at a disadvantage in image and sound quality. With the compression chain involved in these things, the stronger signal will push down the lower one in a non-linear fashion.
That said, Painter's chiseled looks don't match well with his..voice.
Oh, here comes the meltdown, @1:12 PM.
Do yourself a favor and let Michael K's outbursts speak for themselves. No need to parrot them - he is very sensitive and can't read anything that's less than 50,000 narratively-controlled words at a time.
Unless you want to become as paranoid and hypersensitivity and as incapable of dealing with arguments and challenges as he and Trump are.
You don't do a very good Trump. Can you practice on your combover, first?
Clearer microphone? Well... he is running for Senate as a Democrat, after all. But he's also sitting in a studio. I think Painter's switch of parties is better choice for him though, to be honest, given his pedigree, his inchoate hatred of Trump, his work on CREW, not to mention his really atrocious debating manner, which is to say, 'you disagree so shut up while I shout over you'.
"Do tell us when all that smoke is going to lead the god-Mueller to the holy grail of Russian collusion."
The smoking gun of Russian collusion to effect the 2016 election has been in plain sight all along. A camping funneled millions through a law firm and consulting firm and ex-spy to Russian intel types to concoct a wild story about their opponent. The Steele Dossier then provided the basis for the Obama Administration to wiretap the Trump Tower, and to share its communications and strategy with Clinton Campiagn officials.
The Steele Dossier is the smoking gun evidence that the Clinton campaign colluded with Russians to effect the 2016 election. The Mueller investigation is both the cover-up, and the ongoing attempt to reverse the 2016 election and effect the 2018 election. The Russians who provided the Steele Dossier opposition research should go down as the most effective intelligence officers in history.
They stand a very good chance of ending the American experiment in republican democracy.
“
When I was in law school, it was liberal to be very skeptical of prosecutors and eager to call them on overreaching. To me, Dershowitz is that kind of liberal, a staunch defender of the rights of the criminally accused. I remember when that was required of a lefty and you were in danger of getting tarred as right wing if you didn’t do it.”
I think that the beginning of the end there was maybe the 1968 Dem Convention in Chicago, or maybe the resignation of Nixon. Before that, it was speaking truth to power. But, ultimately, those who were doing so, were speaking truth to power, became the insiders, the ones with the power, and those prosecutors and police becoming their shock troops to maintain their power. I think that the real watershed was the election of, I believe, the 1974 class of Democrats to Congress. These radicals now became the power brokers. Became “the man”. Probably the most momentous class of freshman Congressional Democrats in half a century, and some of them are still wielding power almost a half century later.
When I was in law school, it was liberal to be very skeptical of prosecutors and eager to call them on overreaching.
There was a time when being a Democrat didn't give one virtual immunity from prosecution. Now we've seen everyone from Lois Lerner to Hillary to the whole "Get Trump" team at the FBI thus far escape any prosecution, while the full force of the DoJ goes after anyone remotely related to Trump in order to get them to flip.
Geez Michael @1:14. I knew you wouldn't like hearing what I told you either but that's quite the meltdown even for you.
Now once again tell us about the uniform sunny weather all across America - from Nome Alaska to Naples Florida. One big, huge continuous sunbeam illuminating the nation and the blonde-ish wisps of transplanted hair locks across President Ducktail Comber's coif. Just a massive ray of illumination from coast to coast.
It's funny when you make yourself look like a silly ass. Goes against everything your parents told you about how special and privileged they thought you should be made to feel.
We will see a return of "Prosecutor overreach" the moment a Democrat (or fake Republicans like Comey, Mueller) get indicted. We've already seen the left lash out at Judge Ellis for his "bizarre tirade."
Well Mueller going after Stephen hatfill, that cost the bureau 5.5 million semollions and an apology from Nick kristof why kristof because nass and Rosenberg insisted a fellow who had spent time in Rhodesia was at fault.
Inga said: "I never had an ounce of respect for Dershowitz."
That comment says a lot more about you than it does about Dershowitz.
Child-bearing insults from pro-abortionists.
What's a "pro-abortionist?"
Oh yeah. There goes the collective right once again confusing an individual choice with a mandate.
Does not having kids make it easier for you to throw away the future of the country?
16 years and one suicidal try later we still haven't had accountability for the anthrax attack. We can also consider the hunt for the Israeli mile that went nowhere
President of urine
Alas, you are so fucking right you sad little man!! A cloud has covered the top of Mt Rainier proving your point, you very obvious point.
But otherwise, here in Seattle the sun is shining. The weather in Vancouver where I will be in a few hours is sunny as well. It is not in the beautiful USA but it is a beautiful city nonetheless. You should go. It might cheer you up.
President of piss does not believe people like OJ should have quality legal representation.
Michael Gecko believes that justice should be for sale in America and can't understand why the richest and best attorneys in America such as Mueller's team are would forego a lot of pay to be patriotic and do the right thing and make sure that President "He's Just In It For Himself" is held to account.
Did your ancestors own a lot of slaves, Michael? Why you getting so jumpy? Something at stake for you if President Pee Pee Tape gets in trouble for something?
It is interesting how Inga demands that we do not hold the special agent in charge Mueller who signed off on the prosecution of innocent men to protect Whitey Bulger responsible in any way. He gets a pass. But President Trump is directly responsible for what anyone in his campaign did and should be impeached because of the actions of the coffee boy.
It is part and parcel of the derangement of the Presidents Bitter enemies. They continue to try to overthrow the results of the election. While they bleated and protested that Trump had to respect the results of the election...once he won they refused to do so.
Fen's law in action.
Michael Gecko has reduced himself to five straight posts in a row arguing about how Trump has brightened the weather - literally - all across America. There goes the collective right's whine about how humans cannot affect climate. They seem to believe that Trump can.
How controllable a national thermostat has he installed, Michael Gecko? Where is the control knob located? In your ass?
LOL!
For a wealthy investor you sure seem to have trouble getting a life. What an ass clown. Just like Trump!
President Pee-Pee Tape said...
Shorter leftwing machine:
You cannot question Mueller.
There's nothing to question,...
An example of true stupidity.
Inga: "I never had an ounce of respect for Dershowitz."
Naturally. His principles are consistent.
'nuff said.
The leftists can't even tell us what crime is being investigated.
I think Michael Gecko's next venture should be a network studio production coordinated with the Trump Organization. Instead of "How I Met Your Mother" it would be titled, "How I Became Your Ass Clown - A Wealthy Investor's Memoir of How He Became an Orange-Faced President's Bitch."
LOL!
Michael Gecko - word to the wise: Trump's bitches always get thrown under the bus. No matter how well they did on Wall Street. But if you want to become the next Anthony Scaramucci then that should be fun to watch.
LOL!!!
Ritmo is right to a degree.
These are all problems stemming from the inevitable collapse of late-stage capitalism, very much as predicted by Schumpeter.
Besides this, you also, simultaneously, have the ethnic strife of an empire in its later stages. There are interesting parallels with the Austro-Hungarian Empire pre-1914.
Trump is a reforming reaction, a populist reactionary in fact, which is also an historic inevitability. He is the Gracchi. But like the Gracchi, I doubt he will succeed beyond being an episode in the continuing corruption of your republic, among them as we see the misuse of laws for political battle. Which leads both sides into contempt for the law and its institutions.
And of course, like the Gracchi, he has prompted an extreme bitterness in his critics, which is answered likewise. Tit for tat, rage will build on rage. One day his enemies will bring him down, in what will by then be a completely poisonous political atmosphere. The Roman republic thereby devolved into two mutually irreconcilable sides, massacring each other through proscriptions, installing dictators, and fighting civil wars.
The smoking gun of Russian collusion to effect the 2016 election has been in plain sight all along. A camping funneled millions through a law firm and consulting firm and ex-spy to Russian intel types to concoct a wild story about their opponent.
Yes, and I wonder if that is going to get looked into once the hysteria is over about Trump?
I think that the beginning of the end there was maybe the 1968 Dem Convention in Chicago, or maybe the resignation of Nixon.
I think this is a replay of the Nixon coup. I have thought that for years. That post was in 2008 right after Mark Felt admitted he was "Deep Throat."
We have the FBI trying to overthrow an elected president. This time, I don't think they will be successful because Trump is more street smart than Nixon was and has not surrounded himself with people like Haldeman and Colsen.
Buchanan was asked to run the "Plumbers" and refused. His book on the Watergate scandal is terrific.
I am also reading his book on the two world wars and, while I disagree with most of it, I am reading more on World War I.
I do appreciate Ann conducting this salon, even if a few fools interpose themselves. Most commenters are very worth reading.
It is interesting how Ritmo feels that the Deep State and the federal bureaucracy is entitled to disregard the election and the direction that the democratic elected administration has made to change policy that was voted on by the American people. An unelected elitist bureaucracy is paramount and the elected representatives of the people must be ignored, stymied, discredited and even prosecuted for instituting the policy prescriptions that were voted on by the American people.
To Ritmo the rule of the unelected bureaucracy is supreme. Aided and abetted by unelected partisan progressive judges the will of the people is to be ignored and discredited. Elections do not have consequences when the progressives lose.
You see this in the illegal and treasonous activities of John Kerry. He is currently conspiring and colluding with our enemies in the form of the Foreign Minister of Iran and various socialist Europeans who want Iranian oil to protect the Iranian nuclear program. He is not just violating the Logan Act which was the basis of this whole Russian collusion farce. He is violating the Constitution and the oath that he took when he was elected as a Senator and appointed as Secretary of State.
Of course that is not a problem for Inga or Ritmo or Chuck. They support any measure that will overturn the result of the election by any means necessary.
Ann Althouse said...
When I was in law school, it was liberal to be very skeptical of prosecutors and eager to call them on overreaching. To me, Dershowitz is that kind of liberal, a staunch defender of the rights of the criminally accused. I remember when that was required of a lefty and you were in danger of getting tarred as right wing if you didn’t do it.
That was then. This is now.
The democrats lost an election. They are looking at the real polls right now and they know they have no chance in 2018.
More than that they have noticed how unpopular the Mueller inquisition is.
And the social war occurred 20 some years later, in the aftermath of an uprising by the poison king mithridates.
President of Piss, nee pissant
You might google Dershowitz and pro bono and see what you get. And poor poor Mueller simply works for the love of justice and hopes that his net worth continues to sprout wings from its current paltry 4 million to 15.
Great day today, pisserman. Beautiful. But I understand why you are pissed. Pity. You had your chances.
“The leftists can't even tell us what crime is being investigated.”
Criminal conspiracy
Obstruction of justice
There are interesting parallels with the Austro-Hungarian Empire pre-1914.
I strongly recommend "The Sleepwalkers," which I am reading now. Most of it is about the Austrian Empire and its troubles. The book is more sympathetic to the Kaiser than any I have read before. It is written by a Brit.
If the human scroll button is going to take over this thread, have a nice day everyone,
No. Shit.
When this is all said and done there are going to be some pretty well known Trumpists who will have completely ruined their reputations and who will have a hard time holding up their heads. - Inga
Delusional.
Buwaya
But post Republic the empire steamed along for another couple of hundred years. Way longer than our little Republic has left.
When this is over, Inga will vanish like Garage Mahal did.
President Pee-Pee Tape said...
I think Michael Gecko's next venture should be a network studio production coordinated with the Trump Organization. Instead of "How I Met Your Mother" it would be titled, "How I Became Your Ass Clown - A Wealthy Investor's Memoir of How He Became an Orange-Faced President's Bitch."
LOL!
Funny thing is the comment sections in Politico/TheHill et al are just like this. Albeit there are far more Stalinists on there spouting similar gibberish. But there isn't anything more reasoned than this.
They don't know the FBI never looked at the DNC servers.
They don't know Hillary paid for the Steele Dossier.
They don't seem to understand "collusion" isn't a crime.
Just gibbering morons.
Sorry the jugurthan war happened 20 years
There was no criminal conspiracy as the underlying crime does not exist. There was no collusion with Russia. That was an invention of Hillary and the DNC created by actual collusion with the forces of Russian intelligence.
There was no obstruction of justice because the President was perfectly within his rights to fire Comey for any reason or no reason at all. In fact the demonstrated venality and incompetence of Comey is more than enough to justify his termination.
The actual conspiracy is between Comey, Rothstein, Mueller and the press to hide the systematic corruption and politicization of the FBI.
Inga
Are you really as hopeless as the regulars say you are? Taylor asserted what Dershowitz JUST SAID was false. But it wasn’t. Quoting things Dershowitz said on other occasions is not pertinent. If you say Germany just invaded Poland today film from 1939 won’t bolster your case. See how that works?
Michael K
The Sleepwalkers is indeed excellent. If you have not read "The Great War and Modern Memory" by Paul Fussell it would be good to read alongside. "Pandora's Box" just released in English (1100 pages) got a great review in The Spectator. A history of WW1
Inga said...
“The leftists can't even tell us what crime is being investigated.”
Criminal conspiracy
Obstruction of justice
Obstruction of what justice? What investigation was there? Was it criminal?
Do you know there is a difference between a criminal investigation and a counter intelligence investigation?
If there was no criminal investigation how could Trump obstruct it?
How could he conspire to obstruct an investigation that never existed?
Don't tax yourself too much pondering these questions. I know they are above your feeble capabilities.
“President Donald Trump’s new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is delivering confounding and at times contradictory statements as he tries to lessen the legal burdens on his client from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a $130,000 hush payment to a porn actress.”
AP
——————————————————-
“If you are not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for?" Trump said at a campaign rally in Florida in September.
"The mob takes the Fifth Amendment," Trump said at a campaign event in Iowa later that month. "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"”
"Criminal conspiracy" presumes a crime. What crime, exactly?
"Obstruction of justice" by whom? A President exercising powers granted him by the Constitution (pardons, appointments) cannot thereby be obstructing justice. So what's left? Being snarky on Twitter?
The overwhelming evidence for those offenses points to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Did I miss something? When did President Trump take the Fifth Amendment? Or is this another fiction from a diseased mind ravage by senile dementia?
Mueller can of course summon the President before the Grand Jury. He can even offer him immunity to force him to testify.
Tell me Inga and Ritmo and Chuck. Do you think that is what he should do? Do you think that is appropriate? In the face of the upcoming summit in Korea and the looming desertification of the Iranian nuclear Deal? Summoning the President to the Grand Jury to testify about non existent collusion and payments to a porn star. That is your position?
The Roman Republic became something very different - an autocratic totalitarian system which retained only the trappings of the old republic.
The opposing sides of the days of the Gracchi were burned away in the strife leaving something entirely other, a new people with different ideas of virtue.
Imagine a US variant of Xi's China, but with American symbolism, retained for its value to the new order.
But the collapse and strife don't necessarily have to end that way. A separation into multiple countries is also a possible outcome. There are many other outcomes.
buwaya said...
And of course, like the Gracchi, he has prompted an extreme bitterness in his critics, which is answered likewise. Tit for tat, rage will build on rage. One day his enemies will bring him down, in what will by then be a completely poisonous political atmosphere. The Roman republic thereby devolved into two mutually irreconcilable sides, massacring each other through proscriptions, installing dictators, and fighting civil wars.
On the one hand this is never going to end as you say. The aristocracy will always exist and they will always push leftism. The aristocracy has always been irreconcilable with the nature of our country.
On the other hand the citizens of the united states have 2 things on their side.
One the military is overwhelmingly made up of sons from the citizenry particularly the deploarable citizenry.
Two is we have 300 million firearms and 100ish million people who are proficient in their use. This is unprecedented.
The depth that the deranged progressive opposition has sunk to is almost beyond belief.
The corrupt Reuters news agency has a poll that is so bad that they had to reveal it. It is so bad because it is so good for President Trump. His approval is at 50%. Of course polls are almost every wrong. So I don't put any credence in it. What is interesting is the trend. It is all positive for Trump. The approval of the Democrats is down to the lowest in the past six months in the proposed election cycle. The press has to produce it because it is so bad they can't cover it up or alter it or they will look as stupid as they did during the election. Of course they are terming it an "outlier" and saying it is not valid. Their own poll that I am sure had their thumb on the scale to get the outcome they wanted. Still and all the outcome was favorable to the President and his policies.
It is driving the progressive mad. Stark raving mad.
Inga said...
“President Donald Trump’s new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is delivering confounding and at times contradictory statements as he tries to lessen the legal burdens on his client from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a $130,000 hush payment to a porn actress.”
AP
Trump is about to meet with the leader of North Korea to discuss de-nuclearization.
Inga thinks paying a porn star to not talk about a 10+ year old affair is important.
Inga is a completely amoral piece of shit.
Thanks, Michael. I've got a reading stack that fiddling with this blog is not helping to diminish.
I am getting more and more to use audio books when I commute to Phoenix twice a week. That is a four hour round trip and good for listening to books. Sometimes my wife and I drive to California to see our kids and we get about 15 hours of book listening then.
The social wArs 20 years after that, so we have indictments garnered from dubious attributions by crowdstrike and ridiculous assertions by fusion.
Painter is a full blown SJW freak show who conned a job out of George Bush advising people about paperwork. Not a conservative bone in his body.
“Criminal conspiracy" presumes a crime. What crime, exactly?”
———————————————
Conspiracy against the United States. As an example...the Gates indictment.
“In the October indictment and a subsequent court document from February related to Gates’ plea deal, the special counsel specified that Manafort and Gates defrauded the government by “impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury.”
The statute, rather, is an extension of the ordinary crime of conspiracy. Basically, Gates has admitted to conspiring to commit offenses against, and to defraud the US government.
So what separates “conspiracy against the United States” from conspiracy to commit X, Y, or Z criminal offense? Here’s what the statutory definition says:
If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
There are two parts to the definition. One is “defrauding the United States,” which, Griffin explains, doesn’t require an underlying crime. It just requires showing the defendants conspired to “impair or obstruct the lawful function of any part of the government.”
The second part of the “conspiracy against the United States” definition concerns “commit[ing] any offense against the United States.” Unlike the defrauding clause, charges relating to this part of the statute require an underlying criminal offense against the United States.“
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/30/16570580/rick-gates-guilty-plea-deal-conspiracy-against-the-united-states-paul-manafort
"Inga is a completely amoral piece of shit."
No, I disagree. Ritmo is the material where James Hodgkinson, the shooter of the Congressmen, came from but Inga is just a nice grandmother who is a passionate leftist but has no real knowledge of history.
She has gotten better at cutting and pasting so at least her opinions are not just offered with no proof. Her sources are also leftist but those are easy to find.
She's wrong but usually not obnoxious like the "human scroll bar."
ARM and Inga and R/V are pretty harmless.
Max Hastings reveals the Russian involvement with the Serbian black hand in his last volume.
Buwaya's erudite comments about the similarity to the days of the Roman Republic is always interesting and on point.
However I see a different one. One that dates back to the beginning of our Republic. Where Patriots went to their mantle and took down their muskets and powder horns and assembled to defend their inalienable rights. The difference is that as Achilles states the Red Coats are actually the sons and daughters of these Patriots not the elite aristocracy. When the time comes they will not be marching to Lexington and Concord. Instead they will stand with the grandfathers, fathers and mothers as they stand for their inalienable constitutional rights The flashpoint for this will be the Second Amendment. The left is coming for their guns. It will not stand. As the God Emperor has so aptly said: "Come and take them."
Michael K
You and Althouse are onto audio. I have made it through one but have stalled on a half dozen that sit in my Audible file. I think some fiction works for me and some business books. I am listening now to "When the Wolves bite" about the Herbalife battle between Ichan and Ackman.
buwaya said...
The Roman Republic became something very different - an autocratic totalitarian system which retained only the trappings of the old republic.
The opposing sides of the days of the Gracchi were burned away in the strife leaving something entirely other, a new people with different ideas of virtue.
This is the river of history. It is inexorable. Some differences are Irreconcilable. Free people and the aristocracy will always be in conflict. The aristocracy cannot allow us to be free and we cannot allow them to control us.
Both will always exist. It just is.
Imagine a US variant of Xi's China, but with American symbolism, retained for its value to the new order.
That would have been the US under Hillary. We chose a different path. It was close but freedom won the election.
But the collapse and strife don't necessarily have to end that way. A separation into multiple countries is also a possible outcome. There are many other outcomes.
Peace is only achieved through superior firepower and the will to use it. There will be peace because the forces of freedom in the US are overwhelmingly stronger than the Mueller led swamp.
Michael K said...
ARM and Inga and R/V are pretty harmless.
All 3 would cheer if the FBI kicked in my door and shot me in front of my kids.
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