The NYT notes that this "contradicted" what Trump has said, but only gives this:
Asked specifically last month by reporters aboard Air Force One whether he knew about the payment, Mr. Trump said, “No,” and referred questions to Mr. Cohen. He was then asked, “Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?”But what if Trump didn't know at the time that a payment was made, and Cohen simply took the initiative, and the reimbursement was arranged after the fact. Then there's no contradiction, is there?
“No,” Mr. Trump responded. “I don’t know.”
The NYT did its own interview with Giuliani, and that seems to support my understanding of why there is no contradiction. Cohen made the payment "on his own authority" and the reimbursement was arranged "some time after the campaign is over" — "$35,000 a month, out of his personal family account."
And Giuliani asserts that the reimbursement "removes the campaign finance violation." I haven't researched the legal question, but isn't that like a thief handing back what he took after he's caught?
ADDED: Trump is tweeting this morning:
Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are.....
...very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,......
...despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.
Posts
283 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 283 of 283“Inga: "That the FISA warrant was obtained by unethical/illegal criteria/ methods."
LOL
We already know it was.”
No, you don’t. The FISA warrant application has not been made public. None of us know what’s in it.
Matthew Sablan: "Inga: That's not a conspiracy theory. We know that the judge was lied to about who funded the dossier, and that the dossier composed much of the reasoning behind the FISA application"
The NSA/FBI/DOJ have been up to quite a bit of shenanigans under LLR Chuck's beloved "magnificent" obama admin and they were pulling if for years (of course, LLR Chuck has no complaints about the illegal spying on Americans....for obvious reasons. It was done by the dems, LLR Chuck's operational allies)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article152948259.html
"Secret court rebukes NSA for 5-year illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens"
What a surprise........not.....
Inga: "No, you don’t. The FISA warrant application has not been made public. None of us know what’s in it"
LOL
There is a reason the dems and their LLR allies do not, under any circumstances, want the FISA applications declassified.
But members of the committees have seen them and that is part of what Trump is threatening to declassify if Bob Mueller's and Jim Comey's bestest pal Rod Rosenstein doesn't give them to congress.
I wonder why the republicans who have seen the FISA applications are demanding they be released for the public and the democrats who have seen the FISA applications do NOT WANT the applications released.
LOL
I wonder why that might be?.........
Inga at 2:26 PM
That the FISA warrant was obtained by unethical/illegal criteria/ methods.
The FBI told the FISA judge that there was compelling reason to suspect that Carter Page was working as a conscious agent of the Russian Intelligence Service.
It seems that the main evidence was that Christopher Steele reported that unidentified insiders of the Russian Intelligence Service told him that Page was working as an agent.
Who were Steele's "insiders"? Does the FBI know? Did the FBI even ask Steele?
President Trump should declassify the dossier and the FISA application and let the public judge whether the FBI really did have any evidence beyond the dossier.
-----
Here's my own conspiracy theory.
The Trump-hating loons at the top of our Intelligence Community (Clapper, Brennan, Comey, etc.) felt certain that Donald Trump must be being blackmailed by Russian Intelligence, because Trump was such a sleazy businessman doing sleazy business with sleazy Russians.
The fact of the blackmailing could be counted on. The evidence surely existed. The only problem was that the evidence still was waiting to be discovered. Eventually the US Intelligence Community would, without any doubt, find the evidence.
In these circumstances, our Intelligence Community had to study communications that involved Trump and Russians.
Carter Page had not done anything wrong at all, but he was the right man in the right place. He had lived and done business in Russia, and he had been included as an adviser into Trump's campaign staff.
The Trump-haters at the top of the US Intelligence Community figured that if they studied all of Page communications -- past, present and future -- then eventually they might find some indications that Trump was being blackmailed by Russians.
That's the essence of why Page was wiretapped.
Trey Gowdy says the FISA application was based only on the Clinton-purchased Steele document.
Birkel: "I would bet Trump declassifies the FISA warrant application soon enough. But only after Huber is done with his investigation."
Exactly. There is little chance that Trump and his team will move to declassify prior to the issuing of Horowitz/Huber's multiple reports.
BTW, it looks as though there are going to be 6 to 10 specific reports on different aspects of the FBI/DOJ behavior, the Clinton investigations, FISA warrant abuse, etc.
Ho hum. Bottom line it for me: is Trump still somewhat less of a statist than Queen Cacklepants or Bolshie Bernie? In other words, will be steal less of my money, let me keep my firearms, let me run a business the way I want to run it? That's pretty much all I care about.
Birkel: "Trey Gowdy says the FISA application was based only on the Clinton-purchased Steele document."
Indeed.
And Trey Gowdy wants the FISA applications (all 4 of them, 1 of which has Rod Rosensteins signature of approval so yes, Rod Rosenstein is actually overseeing an investigation in which he is a party along with his good pal Jim Comey and with his other good pal Mueller acting as investigator!)
You know, just like all good investigations should be.
And, of course, with the Horowitz report on the way, Comey finally admitted publicly that his now personal lawyer Richman (how covenient) that he had given the memo's to was also, get this, an actual FBI consultant employed by Comey to speak to the Press (and at no time in any of those interviews did Richman ever tell the press that he was a paid consultant for Comey!) AND it appears that Richman had access to sensitive 702 FISA information.
Well now, that is rather convenient isn't it that Comey had his buddy as a consultant on board with the FBI, talking to the press on Comey's behalf without disclosing his consultant status, AND had access to all the little secret information that the 702 FISA abusers were gathering.
And on top of that, FUSION GPS (we will find out soon enough), the primary democrat oppo research firm, had full blown access to ALL 702 raw intercept data on every single American citizen (see Rosemary Collyers report).
Yep, not a smidgen of corruption.
At all.
And it is almost certain that the ANOTHER democrat oppo research/tech firm was hired as a contractor by the DOJ/NSA/FBI to pore over all the raw 702 intercept data: CrowdStrike.
Yep, we will finding out soon enough that they probably had their fingers in the intel pie.
You remember CrowdStrike, don't you? They were the ones who would not release the "hacked" (LOL) servers for the FBI to analyze. The FBI asked to see them, the dems said no and the FBI said......uh...gee...ok....well...whaddya gonna do? The dems said no......
CrowdStrike then bleachbitted Hillary's servers and then helped destroy evidence with Hillary's folks that was under subpeona.
And all of obama's FBI/DOJ henchmen immediately (and I mean immediately) gave ALL the Clintonites immunity and even let other witnesses who were improperly immunized sit on the Hillary "interview" which wasn't under oath, wasn't recorded, and the notes were very general!!
Not a smidgen of corruption.
Just ask LLR and #StrongDemDefender Chuck, he'll tell ya!
Chuck said...”Want to bet that Michael Cohen gets indicted?"
What will he be indicted for?
Let me add to why much of America distrusts the political neutrality of the Mueller investigation team (above and beyond what we saw with the Strzok/Page emails). The investigation was supposed to be about Russian interference with the election. Of course, at least some of what it’s prosecutors have filed criminal charges for has nothing to do with Russia or Russian collusion. But more importantly, the known Russian involvement was not on the Republican side, but rather on the Democratic side. At a minimum, British citizen Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to do opposition research for the Clinton campaign and the DNC. He, in turn, supposedly acquired much of his information from Russians, and in particular, some Russian intelligence operatives. That, almost assuredly, would have required top Kremlin approval. So,we essentially have the Crooked Hillary campaign paying Russian govt sources for dirt on her opponent. On the flip side, on the Trump campaign, they, of course, have nothing (excluding, of course, the Obama Admin/Fusion GPS attempted setup of the Russian Atty meeting with Trump, Jr and Kushner in Trump Tower - that they saw through and walked out of). If the Mueller investigation were not a partisan witch hunt, and instead, was serious about Russian election interference, they would be investigating the Fusion GPS ties to Russia, to. They, of course, aren’t.
OM: "What will he be indicted for?"
It will have to be something, and it will need to be timed for maximum electoral impact sometime in Sept or Oct.
That way, as with Ted Stevens and Tom Delay and others, it will serve its purpose to get more of LLR Chuck's lefty allies in the press charged up with headlines and help the democrat cause.
The goal of Mueller, Rosenstein, the dems, LLR Chuck et al is clearly to get the dems back in charge so they can shut down all House oversight.
Grassley will still be working on it but the Senate is much more limited in what it can do re: FBI/DOJ oversight.
This is why I think Trump will declassify the dems lies long before the election.
The counter-intelligence loons studying Carter Page's communications were not content to study them passively.
Rather, they were arranging events that were affecting Page and causing him to react and to communicate. Page was being contacted, invited, prodded, agitated, lured into conversations and situations.
Page was being affected so that he would contact and communicate with people, so that he would propose discussions, meetings and actions.
Page was being manipulated, to make it more likely that his communications would provide evidence that Trump and his associates were doing something wrong with Russians.
Page seems to be merely the first of a series of "Russian agents" who would be likewise identified and likewise wiretapped and likewise manipulated.
-----
The Veselnitskaya meeting in Trump Tower is just one example of the provocations that were being arranged to enable our Intelligence Community to prove that Trump and his associates were colluding with Russian Intelligence.
The wiretapping of Michael Flynn's telephone conversation with the Russian ambassador was another example.
Mere wiretapping was not enough. The wiretapping had to be supplemented by causing communications that would incriminate Trump's associates when they were recorded and then subsequently leaked tendentiously to Trump-hating journalists.
"That the FISA warrant was obtained by unethical/illegal criteria/ methods."
-- That's not a conspiracy.
A major, clever part of the Resistance to the new Presidency happened when President Obama expelled the Russian diplomats.
The obvious purpose was to create a false impression in the public that the US Intelligence Community had secret but convincing evidence that Russian Intelligence had meddled in our presidential election.
Another clear purpose was to cause problems gratuitously for the new President as he would have to expend much effort to restore good relations with Russia.
Another major purpose was less obvious. The expulsion would cause much communication between Russian officials and the new presidency's officials. These communications would be wiretapped and then leaked tendentiously to Trump-hating journalists in order to reveal to the public that Trump and his associates indeed were colluding with evil Russians.
Flynn was the first such example revealed to the public, but he was merely the model for many future such covert actions against the Trump presidency.
Many other Trump associates would communicate with Russian officials about restoring relations, and those communications would be wiretapped and leaked. The public would be informed continually that Trump associates were involved in communicating with Russians for mysterious reasons.
* Psyops against the Trump presidency.
* Psyops against Trump's associates.
* Psyops against the USA's citizenry.
Who would be doing all this leaking? Honorable officials of the Intelligence Community who were above suspicion -- who should not even be asked whether they were leaking.
"That the FISA warrant was obtained by unethical/illegal criteria/ methods."
“-- That's not a conspiracy.”
Yes, it is. Neither you, nor I know what the FISA warrant is based on. Gowdy stated it was based on the Dossier in part. He didn't state that it was based solely on the Dossier, even if it were, so what? No one has proven the dossier is not based on fact. No one has proven the FISA Judge did not know the dossier was initially paid for by Clinton/ Democrats. It does not matter. The judge had to base his decision to provide the FISA warrant on what was in the dossier AND other facts that were provided to him that we are not privy to. Until the FISA warrant application is released to the public, any notion that you or others have to its validity, is nothing more than conjecture...aka conspiracy theory.
”No one has proven the dossier is not based on fact.”
I just love this argument.
I prefer my Royal ass Inga with her fingers in her ears saying "I can't hear you" at the top of her lungs but sometimes interjecting
1) Nuh uh; or
2) I know you are but what am I; or
3) You did not prove that negative.
That is what I prefer.
Inga: "No one has proven the dossier is not based on fact."
LOL
I dont think she even understands what she is saying or its implications.
@ Matthew Sablan: Re-reading my comment above addressed to you (5/3/18, 1:38 PM), focusing on a single phrase you used — "as much of a nothing as they've shown so far" — I think I may owe you an apology. I don't know whether, or to what extent, you are a Trump supporter, but I used your comment as a springboard to vent about what I think is a common sort of misconception and self-deception engaged in by Trump's reflexively Trump-uber-alles, My President Right or Wrong fans. If you aren't one of those, I've been unfair in my assumptions.
@ Birkle, who wrote (5/3/18, 2:06 PM)(paragraph breaks omitted): "I will happily wager (no money or valuables, as per Althouse rules) on my honor that there is nothing substantive in the Russia investigation. Incredibly I would lay a proverbial one dollar against a proverbial two dollars that there are no crimes by Trump or the Trump campaign outside of process-related foolishness. A witch hunt will find a witch, sometimes."
At a bare minimum, Trump throughout his entire career and, I believe, his entire life (going back at least to his military school days), has skated deliberately close to every legal, ethical, or moral border imposed by our society. I am confident that he has many, many closets filled with skeletons of all sorts and sizes, and again, at a bare minimum, some of those would form grist for his opponents to claim that he deserves criminal prosecution on the basis thereof.
Cohen's not even his only fixer. Early in his career he was notorious for changing counsel at the drop of a hat — inevitably leaving the last batch unpaid.
The leak of the topics of interest of the Mueller team thus makes perfect sense coming from Team Trump, as an attempt to define in the public's perception the current scope of Mueller's inquiries for dual purposes — rousing the rabble that are outraged that anyone dare question our Dear Leader, and setting up a future abrupt refusal to cooperate further, probably including an assertion of Trump's Fifth Amendment rights with a desperate accompanying need to rationalize and defend that unprecedented (un-Presidented) step.
When Mueller ran down every lead and email and text message relating to Donnie, Jr's infamous Trump Tower meeting, what did Mueller find? We don't know. It could be a null set. It could be a crate of smoking guns. If it's the latter, and if Mueller is for the present keeping that strictly under wraps, then he's playing it exactly by the book. So the absence from the public arena of any follow-up or consequences or subsequent interactions between Donnie Jr. and the Rooskies is, as a logical matter, equally consistent with there being no such material or there being a ton of it that's still under wraps.
If we do start the dangerous business of trying to read tea leaves and make guesses, which I understand you're doing and inviting me to do along with you, just for fun, then yes, I think you've got it about right, or close enough that I wouldn't quibble with you. The fact that Mueller's team was willing to engage in any sort of topical preview of the interview at all — a luxury wholly inconsistent with every claim that Mueller is already playing the hardest brand of hardball he knows — is a big chunk of tea leaf to me.
@ Mike Sylwester, who asked (5/3/18, 2:12 PM)(paragraph breaks omitted): "Beldar, what's your best guess about who leaked the info about Cohen being wiretapped? As I wrote above, my guess is that this leaker was Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller. What's your guess?"
We don't have to guess about who first disclosed that Cohen was already subject to electronic surveillance well before the search warrants that authorized the April 9th searches and seizures from on his office, home, and hotel suite. That much was disclosed by the SDNY in their initial response, on April 13, 2018, to Cohen's civil suit seeking a TRO against the DoJ (at page 13): "[T]he USAO-SDNY has already obtained search warrants – covert until this point – on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants." This was all part of what that response from SDNY described (at page 4) as "a months-long investigation into Cohen."
So anyone who didn't realize that Cohen's phone lines were also part of that same data-collection effort, with authorizing warrants signed by magistrates based upon probable cause, is pretty dim-witted.
It's previously been reported that the FBI seized at least sixteen cell phones, e.g., by the NY Post on April 26. As for the specific confirmation that yes, phones in addition to emails were being surveilled, I see no reason to assume, much less presume, that that came from Mueller, since SDNY is running the Cohen investigation, not Mueller. I see no tactical or strategic reason for SDNY to leak the specific detail about at least one surveilled phone call involving a White House phone number. On the other hand, if SDNY has disclosed the fact that such a communication was surveilled in private to Cohen's lawyers and Trump's lawyers — in conjunction with their on-going joint work with a special magistrate to catalog seized documents and data for purposes of the assertion and ruling upon privilege claims — then there are excellent reasons for Team Trump to have leaked it: See above, re (a) fanning the flames and keeping the Trumpkins roused and outraged, and (b) laying the predicate for refusing further cooperation and taking the Fifth.
This is all guesswork on my part, something that seems plausible to me and consistent with the information that's in the public arena, including the court filings. But you asked for my best guess, and that's it.
@ Brian, who wrote (5/3/18, 2:07 PM): "Bridal. I agree with you that we don’t know anything. That’s my point. Just because we don’t have exculpatory info doesn’t mean all info kept from us is incriminating. There are possible fact patterns bases on the evidence so far that cover trump as a Ma[f]ia boss as well as federal prosecutors and intelligence operatives (“deep state”) violating all investigating standards to protect their bureaucracies. The further we go down this road the more likely it’s on the extreme of either end of that spectrum and that is truly dangerous for the country. Recognizing that doesn’t make me a Trumpkin."
First, your autocorrect-induced typo gave me a good belly laugh. How can it be that autocorrect programmers don't know the classic SNL skits from the late 1970s!?! Second, and far more important: I try to restrict "Trumpkin" to refer to those who support Trump automatically, reflexively, and uncritically, including those who supported him in the GOP primaries, but also a lot of people who started out as "hold-my-nose/vote-against-Hillary" voters but have been maneuvered into automatic, reflexive, and uncritical support of Trump now. Even I am a "Trump supporter" — in the limited sense that I approve of some of his actions, and I say so when I do, and moreover, I give him full credit every day for not being Hillary or Obama.
Blogger Original Mike said...
Chuck said...”Want to bet that Michael Cohen gets indicted?"
What will he be indicted for?
At least two things, or two categories of things.
First, will be a crime or series of crimes or conspiracies that supplied the basis for the wiretap and the SDNY search warrant. I expect that it is something that will not be a complete surprise, but is not something that is part of the current everyday discussion. I base that prediction on what the DoJ prerequisites are for a warrant application under these circumstances.
And then the second category of offenses will federal reporting crimes (tax, banking, FEC) because it seems plain to me that even if we were to believe the most favorable version(s) of the cockamamie stories being advanced by Trump, Giuliani, Cohen, et al, none of it was properly reported and it was largely hidden in ways that violated reporting laws.
Inga, noted Trump/Russia collusion conspuracy fangirl wants YOU to stop dabbling un conspiracies!
Too funny.
Remember, Inga, who has already pronounced the entire Trump campaign of treason (along with all Trump voters) DEMANDS that you wait for hard evidence before making any judgements!
LOL
See, folks, that is what it is like to read a true, lifelong Republican who sees both the good (policy, so far, on some issues) and bad (personal and stylistic deficiencies) of Trump.
The contrast between Beldar and certain extraordinary fopdoodles is amazing.
Well met, Beldar!
“Inga, noted Trump/Russia collusion conspuracy fangirl wants YOU to stop dabbling un conspiracies!”
Sure Drago, sure. Mueller must be focusing on Russia just for shits and giggles. Caputo seems to be taking the Mueller investigation and their interest in Trump/Russian collusion (criminal conspiracy) very seriously. Caputo was interviewed by Mueller investigators on Wednesday.
————————————————
“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."
Caputo, who advised the Trump campaign on communications in 2016, has long insisted he has no information about collusion between Trump's team and Russia. He spoke with Senate intelligence investigators on Tuesday for their Russia probe and outlined the differences between Congress' inquiries and the special counsel's.
"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.”
And along comes Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire, to prove my point.
I explained weeks ago that Trump had a retainer with Cohen that he topped off as needed. The home mortgage angle never made sense. I can get a second mortgage without saying why I want the money. The bank cares about likelihood of repayment.
Cohen might be guilty of something but there is no evidence of Trump's involvement.
“Well met, Beldar!”
I’m guessing Beldar doesn’t know how many Trump sycophants inhabit this blog’s comments sections. He’s giving you people the benefit of a doubt, I suspect.
Royal ass Inga,
I would like to ask you about your involvement with human-eating space aliens.
Naturally, this proves the existence of human-eating space aliens.
#RoyalassIngaLogic
“And along comes Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire, to prove my point.”
Chuck, also an attorney, hasn’t said anything significantly different for months and months, than Beldar has, lol.
“Cohen might be guilty of something but there is no evidence of Trump's involvement.”
And just HOW do you know this? I bet Beldar doesn’t know it either, or myself, or Drago, or Matthew, etc. etc. Again you seem to “know” things that have not been made public knowledge.
“Cohen might be guilty of something but there is no evidence of Trump's involvement.”
Maybe the space aliens told you this.
Royal ass Inga cannot understand that the way to refute a claim of no evidence (The 'so far' is implied.) is to provide evidence. The inability to provide evidence actually bolsters the claim of no evidence.
Nobody, ever, will prove a negative. But you won't understand that truism.
My general Trumpinion. Not a fan. He's not Clinton but there were lots of not Clintons. He may have done something illegal but it most likely had nothing to do with Russian collusion.
This investigation is an object lesson in why the right should not have let the left get away with abuses like Ted Stevens and others with impunity and shows the underside of the state ability to be corrupted by Clinton.
And he most definitely had an affair with Stormy Daniels. But it was consensual and these payoffs and reimbursements usually are kosher and ignored so if this is an illegal contribution lots of beads need to roll.
Trump is also exactly what I warned would happen if the left didn't dial it back some. He's rude. He's crude. He's everything projected onto Mitt Romney only for real.
Policy wise? Can't knock Gorsuch, a recovering economy and maybe peace in Korea. Wish it had a different standard bearer. But. Eh. The left came to terms with Clinton's rapes, the right'll come to terms with withTrump
“The inability to provide evidence actually bolsters the claim of no evidence.”
You are not privy to that evidence yet, neither am I. Just because YOU haven’t been shown evidence yet, does not mean it does not exist. The investigation is ongoing. Why do you think YOU deserve to be shown evidence or lack of it just because you demand it? Beldar has clearly stated that NO ONE knows what Mueller knows. You seem to be under a misperception that evidence must be made public before anyone gets investigated or indicted.
You didn’t seem to understand what Beldar wrote upthread:
“Are you under the misimpression that in the normal course of law enforcement, police and prosecutors are somehow obliged to regularly show you and me and the public everything they're doing while they're doing it?
Are you remotely aware of how outrageous the would be? The very reason criminal investigations are confidential before a public indictment, the very reason the DoJ (except for James Jesus-Reborn Comey) never confirms or denies or comments upon an ongoing investigation, is to protect the rights of the as-yet-unconvicted defendant, whose presumption of innocence becomes pretty damn meaningless if the FBI is passing along to the press every crackpot report in addition to every genuine smoking gun.
You don't have a bleeping clue about what the Mueller team does or doesn't have yet on Trump, Cohen, or anyone beyond the very limited paperwork that Mueller's team has so far filed in court in connection with the Flynn guilty plea and Manafort & associate indictments (and related bogus civil litigation).
It is, in Rumsfeldian Analysis, at this point a "known unknown."”
I do know that the Deep State has repeatedly violated legal a norms and precedents in an attempt to overturn the election.
They raided and looked his lawyers office. Now we find out they wire tapped his lawyer. They intercepted and perused the communications of his campaign staff and transitition office based on a fraudulently obtained FISA warrants from a pet FISA judge who was so unethical that he to recuse himself when his involvement was revealed. They illegally unmasked the subjects of these FISA warrants to politically damage the President. This is all about politics and not the law.
This so called investigation has been a partisan sham from the beginning of the process. Any fair minded person can see that The fair minded people of the United States can see that. Even if elitists cucks can not.
The fact that scum sucking lawyers like Chuck and Beldar can not is just more evidence that the law is too important to be left to the lawyers.
A famous authoritarian once said "I don't need Congressional approval. I have a pen and a phone."
The American people have things too.
They have torches and pitchforks.
They have ropes and lam posts.
It is time we use them.
Matthew Sablan,
This investigation is an example of the degradation of American institutions. That degradation has been a deliberate program of the Left. The slow march is nearly complete in academia, the non-profits, regulatory agencies, and even corporate management.
Corporate management has been corrupted by regulatory capture. The effects are felt on both sides, as the symbiosis of government protection rackets expand to retard competition.
The only things left to corrupt were law enforcement and the military. All those (Obama) government gun, vests, vehicles, and etc. giveaways were designed to reduce local law enforcement resistance. Obama was constrained by anti-Commandeering laws and tried to buy favor.
The long march is nearly finished. The institutions are corrupted. Leviathan must be reduced or those institutions must fail so average people can see the rot.
And in that environmemt, who but a maniac could stand athwart all of that? Who but a man who is flawed could be that guy?
Q: Who could work from inside the corrupt system to fix it? A: NOBODY!
How could anything but a bull in the china shop effort smash enough to draw enough attention to the utter decay of our current system?
Royal ass Inga,
I said upthread that you would not understand my point. Using more words to convey "I do not understand" does not help your cause.
Blogger Inga said...
“And along comes Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire, to prove my point.”
Chuck, also an attorney, hasn’t said anything significantly different for months and months, than Beldar has, lol.
That is what I was going to write!
Thank you, Inga. And Beldar.
I will say, that my definition of Trumpkin is precisely the same as Beldar’s. However, I have unfortunately been more careless than I should, in my past usage of the term. I’m going to try to be more careful. Kudos again for that clarity.
NBC screwed up. Not a wire tap. Amazing how often this has happened to news stations. They need to start burning sources that lie to them.
Beldar
You seem an intelligent man and are probably a good or even great lawyer. But when you toss around terms like Trumpkin even in the limited way you say you use the term you diminish yourself. Very Chuck-ish frankly and I would advise you to cease using that term or any other meant to scorn those who might have been both more prescient than you and even, possibly, smarter.
Beldar at 4:09 AM
We don't have to guess about who first disclosed that Cohen was already subject to electronic surveillance well before the search warrants that authorized the April 9th searches and seizures from on his office, home, and hotel suite. That much was disclosed by the SDNY ...
Thanks for your informative response.
Beldnar:
Ah, I see that even before my post of 5:23 my case was made by Chuck and Inga. You may belong in their company and they most certainly would like to be included in yours. But I would give it some thought if I were you to the company you decide to keep.
Has any redaction gone from bad to worse for Trump? CNN getting the wrong date with WikiLeaks didn't. Nor did the information about the foreign banks. Why are they consistently wrong in ways that only harm Trump? Their sources are bad and need to be burned if NBC and CNN expect more benefit of the doubt.
Retraction. Not redaction. I thought I caught my phone when I fixed refraction.
LLR Chuck: "However, I have unfortunately been more careless than I should, in my past usage of the term."
Nonsense.
Your usage of that term perfectly, perfectly, mirrors how lunatic lefties use that term.
Everyone shoukd feel free to draw reasonable conclusions.
“Beldnar:
Ah, I see that even before my post of 5:23 my case was made by Chuck and Inga. You may belong in their company and they most certainly would like to be included in yours. But I would give it some thought if I were you to the company you decide to keep.”
LOL! Elitist and pretentious Michael tells Beldar, “I’d advise against any association with the local riff raff”.
I was going to write the same thing as Royal ass Inga, said no Republican ever.
“Beldar
You seem an intelligent man and are probably a good or even great lawyer. But when you toss around terms like Trumpkin even in the limited way you say you use the term you diminish yourself. Very Chuck-ish frankly and I would advise you to cease using that term or any other meant to scorn those who might have been both more prescient than you and even, possibly, smarter.”
Michael warns Beldar to watch his mouth...or else. LOL.
Michael,
Beldar is no Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire.
Notice upthread that Beldar apologized and recognized his own response might have been a bit intemperate than he intended. The relative emotional maturity is a big difference.
Also, note the respect I accord Beldar, if you would. It was earned.
“Also, note the respect I accord Beldar, if you would. It was earned.”
Your “respect” is contrived and disingenuous. It’s only a matter of time that Drago, FullMoon or Birkel let themselves loose.
Royal ass Inga,
I accord you the respect you have earned also.
Inga: "It’s only a matter of time that Drago, FullMoon or Birkel let themselves loose."
Any thoughts on how long it will take for TTR to let himself loose?
LOL
Fens Law, everyday...
Has Inga retracted her Treason accusations against republicans who were never even indicted for treason, much less tried and convicted?.....
.....yeah, I thought not....
“I accord you the respect you have earned also.”
Ditto, you are one of the least respect worthy Trumpists here.
I see the NeverTrumpers and idiots have taken over.
Have a nice day.
“I see the NeverTrumpers and idiots have taken over.”
It must really chap your ass that Beldar is here from Patterico’s blog, lol.
Royal ass Inga,
Have you decided how to prove a negative, yet?
Blogger Matthew Sablan said...
NBC screwed up. Not a wire tap. Amazing how often this has happened to news stations. They need to start burning sources that lie to them.
I don’t know, but the easiest explanation might be that what was done, was a kind of “pen register” monitoring where phone numbers but not conversations are recorded. In the case of an investigative target who was an attorney that could be a good compromise in trying to not violate privileged communications.
You know, Matthew; you’re right that people shouldn’t be talking about “wire taps” or “tapping my wires” if they can't be clear and precise about what they mean.
I wonder when NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers told President-Elect Donald Trump that the Trump Tower was under electronic surveillance, and the Trump transition team moved its operations the next day...
I wonder if that constitutes tapping?
Oh. So Beldar is from that pompous Never Trumper Patterico's blog. That explains it.
Didn't Pattericio get sacked from Red State for being a rabid anti-trump asshole.
There you go.
“I see the NeverTrumpers and idiots have taken over.”
It must really chap your ass that Beldar is here from Patterico’s blog, lol.
No, I have always respected Beldar. He is just a NeverTrumper but he does not seem to have gone off the deep end like Patrick.
I fear for the country when idiots like you would rather see the country go down than see Trump have a success.
Your "collusion" idiocy has pretty much disappeared except in your fever dreams.
I wonder if anyone could get you interested in the Clinton Foundation crime family ?
“I fear for the country when idiots like you would rather see the country go down than see Trump have a success.”
I fear for the country when geezers like you act as enablers to Trump. The reason people don’t want Trump as President is because they are putting the country and decency FIRST. If you think he cares a fig for the welfare and success of this country, I’d say you’re as deluded as the majority here.
”You know, Matthew; you’re right that people shouldn’t be talking about “wire taps” or “tapping my wires” if they can't be clear and precise about what they mean.”
LOL
“I wonder if anyone could get you interested in the Clinton Foundation crime family ?”
The FBI is investigating. You’ll have to wait until the investigation is over.
“The FBI has been investigating the Clinton Foundation for months, reviving a probe that was dialed back during the 2016 campaign amid tensions between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents about the politically charged case, according to people familiar with the matter.
The inquiry resumed about a year ago. Agents are now trying to determine if any donations made to the foundation were linked to official acts when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, these people said. The people did not identify what specific donations or interactions agents are scrutinizing.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-fbi-is-investigating-the-clinton-foundation/2018/01/05/1aca0d4a-f1cf-11e7-97bf-bba379b809ab_story.html?utm_term=.a3af38f1e1c1
The reason people don’t want Trump as President
Inga, that is the left and about 25% of the population. I'm not even sure the share is that high that is willing to burn the country down to reverse the 2016 election.
Hillary is a crook and stole hundreds of millions by selling influence.
I guess that is what you prefer.
I find it hard to believe Beldar, whose blog I used to read, thinks the same.
Beldar (Belgae in autocorrect) : “See above, re (a) fanning the flames and keeping the Trumpkins roused and outraged, and (b) laying the predicate for refusing further cooperation and taking the Fifth”
I agree that it’s just as likely that the leaks are coming from team trump as they are from Mueller. I remember the Starr investigation that supposedly leaked a lot of stuff only to find out much later that in actuality a lot of things were leaked by Clinton’s team to make Starr seem unethical. The current leak might be even more likely it’s from team Trump
My concern is all the prognosticators on TV who take a fig leaf of a fact and build it into a mountain. Why do they take the bait every time? Clicks, I know but it’s a denigration of reasonableness. And reasonableness is going to be needed on both sides if a proper remedy is required.
”The reason people don’t want Trump as President is because they are putting the country and decency FIRST. If you think he cares a fig for the welfare and success of this country, I’d say you’re as deluded as the majority here.” (my emphasis)
Problem is, you got to express your “wants” Nov 8, 2016. You lost. Your behavior subsequent to that is very dangerous for this country.
Trump is on track to be the most successful president since Reagan.
He is ending the Korean War and getting the nukes away from Rocket Man.
He got Saudi Arabia to ally with Israel and abandon the Palestinians and cutting off their funds.
Everyone has more money in their pocket. We are approaching 3% growth. Unemployment is down and more and more good jobs are coming on lie every day.
The Chinese are ready to negotiate to avoid a trade war.
Illegal immigration is down and enforcement is up.
But all the libtards want to do is to reverse the election through a partisan witch hunt aided by the traitorous establishment Republicans.
It's not going to happen. Get over yourselves you clowns.
“Hillary is a crook and stole hundreds of millions by selling influence.
I guess that is what you prefer.”
I didn’t vote for her, so go accuse someone else of supporting a corrupt candidate and now president...that would be you, not I.
Trump is on track to be the most successful president since Reagan.
Nixon was pretty successful. He ended the Vietnam War with all the POWs home. Soth Vietnam had a fighting chance to survive. All the provincial capitals were in SV hands in 1974.
The China gambit.
I disagreed with a lot of his domestic policies, especially EPA, but he was doing what the country seemed to want.
He was taken down by a disgruntled FBI #2 guy plus the hatred by the press.
Chaos followed for years, until Reagan.
\
We still are not over the worst of it with Iran.
Nixon was a terrific big government Republican, like both Bushes.
The three of them did, on net, likely irreparable harm to the country.
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