What "constitutional crisis"? It seems to me the Constitution is in place, working as usual. There are some legal issues in play, but what's constitutional other than that some of the various actors in the drama have positions defined in the Constitution and obtained by normal constitutional procedures? It was assumed that I would excitedly spring into action because of this assumed "constitutional crisis," but my response was that I felt distanced from all the ugly divisions, though I thought some good might ultimately come from the crumbling of the 2 political parties. They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are." That brought the conversation in for a landing, and as I walked on, I thought, What constitutional crisis? It isn't a constitutional crisis. It's emotional politics, a national nervous breakdown.
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241 comments:
1 – 200 of 241 Newer› Newest»It's not a national nervous breakdown either. It's happening mostly in the minds of lefties and TDSers. I am amazed how few people I encounter are engaged in the day to day of it all...
Maybe I've chosen my friends and colleagues wisely.
They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are."
Bingo! The extraordinary (though it doesn't seem so out of the ordinary as it used to) choice of candidates in the 2016 election was a reflection upon us as a nation and a people.
We've come a long way downhill from 1974, the events of the time well summarized in a cartoon depicting the founding fathers rejoicing over a newspaper headline, "NIXON RESIGNS" with the caption, "It works!"
The Constitutional crisis is that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election.
Certainly, Madison's system of checks and balances has ceased to function, to the extent it ever did, and we no longer have the government of defined and limited powers that the Founders envisioned. But if that is a "crisis", it has been unfolding since the election of FDR, and shows no sign of being resolved any time soon, except perhaps by the absolute demise of Constitutional government. I think we are nearing the point where electing a Democrat President would seal the tomb of constitutional government, but that's still a ways off.
Some people in the country are freaking out because they liked the old normal. People who didn't like the old normal aren't concerned about whatever it is that happened the past two days. It's this weird half-freakout where they're screaming and I'm just eatin' my pizza.
To my the only constitutional crisis is a blatant ignoring of the Rule of Law by the swamp dwellers in DC.
So it turns out the FBI only made a cursory glanced at around 3000 of the almost 700,000 emails on the Weiner laptop over a short 12 hour period.
In fact, a technical glitch prevented FBI technicians from accurately comparing the new emails with the old emails. Only 3,077 of the 694,000 emails were directly reviewed for classified or incriminating information. Three FBI officials completed that work in a single 12-hour spurt the day before Comey again cleared Clinton of criminal charges.
As much as I can stand to listen to MSNBC and CNN, they are absolutely giddy. For them, it's a sure thing Trump will be impeached.
For what, I ask?
Bill Clinton had sex with a young woman intern in the WH and then lied about it under oath in a federal court depo and he wasn't impeached. That's the political standard. At worse, Trump used his own money to shut up some women. And then they breached the agreement. How come we never hear about that? Big deal I say.
If the Dems take the House and impeach Trump, I predict the American people will occupy DC for the Senate trial. And there will be hell to pay if the likes of Mitt Romney or Susan Collins vote to remove Trump on this nothing case.
I fully blame Jeff Sessions for this. He got played by Comey, Mueller and Rosenstein. He recused himself for a non-reason and now the AG job is held by Rosenstein.
When are McCabe, Comey, Mueller and Strozk going to be indicted for their crimes? When do we get a real Special Counsel on how the FBI and DOJ obstructed justice by point shaving the Hillary Clinton email investigation? If college basketball players can rat out gamblers who paid them to shave points, then why can't McCabe and Strozk get indicted for their rigged investigation.
This whole affair is a complete disgrace. Hillary paid the Russians with campaign money to spread fake dirt on Trump. This is 100 times worse than Watergate.
The Constitution clearly states Hillary should've won.
That's the crisis.
Does your lawyer friend imagine that Constitutional issues are involved in the Manafort show trial? It definitely represents prosecutorial overreach, and highly selective prosecution. But the prosecutors, while summoned by the legislative branch, are nominally under the control of the Executive. And both sides are still at least partially restrained by the thought of the effects their actions might have on future elections. I call that politics as usual, in 2018.
The first, second, and third estates, and the fourth estate, too. The bureaucracy, not numbered. Yes, even demos does not escape unscathed. The good, the bad, and the diverse.
An actual impeachment season, with its central cast of funerary finger pointers, its bottomless ensemble of blowhards and martyrs, its dueling Greek choruses screaming from parallel stages, will be the worst of all theater.
I fully blame Jeff Sessions for this. He got played by Comey, Mueller and Rosenstein. He recused himself for a non-reason and now the AG job is held by Rosenstein.
I have been trying to figure out a reason that does not make Sessions look like an idiot. The best I can come up with now is that he was a Senator too long.
The amazing thing is that so many people buy this new equivalent of the "Recovered Memories" hysteria.
It definitely represents prosecutorial overreach, and highly selective prosecution.
LA Times readers are ecstatic that only one juror hung the jury.
My comment that only one juror was brave enough to ignore the attempted doxxing by CNN et al, will probably not make it through moderation. She was quoted as saying it was just an attempt to get Trump.
The truth is rare in this world right now.
God damn blogger.
The constitutional crisis is manifest in peoples’ belief that there are sub-branches in the executive branch that are independent.
The constitutional crisis is manifest in congresse’s willingness to transfer power to the administration and the courts, and the peoples’ willingness to allow them to do it.
I also believe that plea bargaining in criminal cases is suspect and should probably be prohibited.
It is also disconcerting, but not a crises, to see how half of the country has zero respect for the votes of the other half, and suggests that this president has less authority or validity than previous ones.
That’s where my focus is.
Ann,
"I felt distanced from all the ugly divisions, though I thought some good might ultimately come from the crumbling of the 2 political parties. They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are." That brought the conversation in for a landing, and as I walked on, I thought, What constitutional crisis? It isn't a constitutional crisis. It's emotional politics, a national nervous breakdown."
Nailed it. A Big "Thumbs Up" for that one. If that's how you feel, you really ought to read "Fantasyland" then, because it's the only book I've read, about our time, that offers a clear picture - that I have remarked upon, here and on TMR, for years - about how we got into this situation. He even devotes a chapter to NewAge. I have some quibbles (He hates Trump, and is a "big sweater" guy who works for the NYT, etc.) and some major disagreements with it (No cult chapter) but check it out. It's the shit for reality-based readers.
The US Constitution says that people should not be subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures.
However, if the FBI thinks you might have some information that might help prove that Donald Trump is being blackmailed by Russia, then the FBI feel entitled to use all its resources to mess with you.
* The FBI studies all your own communications and then also all the communications of the people you have communicated with.
* The FBI sends secret agents to "befriend" you and to entrap you.
* The FBI seizes all the documents of your lawyer.
* The FBI leaks to journalists that you are being investigated for treason.
How does the FBI justify such actions?
Well, for example, if some British dude says that he knows some unnamed insiders in the Russian intelligence service and they told the British dude that you are a secret agent of Russian Intelligence, then the FBI considers that to be reasonable cause.
"This whole affair is a complete disgrace. Hillary paid the Russians with campaign money to spread fake dirt on Trump. This is 100 times worse than Watergate."
If that was all that had happened, I would say that it amounted to about 3 micro-WGs. But while Hillary's crimes as Secretary of State are egregious, I can't see that a candidate paying a Russian to help with her campaign would be any big deal. It is the utter corruption of the FBI and CIA in the service of her campaign, and the subsequent attempted coup against an elected President, that is 100 times worse than WG. I give it a kWG.
Jupiter nails it. Most all of the conflict is based on the very real problem of the federal govt exercising power it was never granted by the constitution. Most of the problem rests with federal judges that have ruled on things that are not federal jurisdiction. Of course congress has to power to overrule the courts, but are very content to absolve themselves of any responsibility and controversy, in essence hiding behind the robes of un-elected oracles.
Jupiter at 1:56 PM
I think we are nearing the point where electing a Democrat President would seal the tomb of constitutional government, but that's still a ways off.
As long as Democrats refuse to enforce immigration laws, we will not have another Democratic President.
The Constitutional crisis is that Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election.
Yes, but, more importantly, the levers of power and associated privileges shifted. The cats in hat, and little boys, too, grabbers were exposed. The anthropogenic crisis in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, etc. came under scrutiny. Trial by press and public lynching is questioned. The collateral damage labor and environmental arbitrage (e.g. implicit tariffs) and "immigration reform" (e.g. emigration reform avoidance) make a difference NOW. We have yet to fully realize the catastrophic change on a forward basis of all the first-order forcings.
The DNC paid the British, Ukrainians, and Soviets (i.e. Russian dissidents) millions of dollars to influence the American election... and Obama spied, Clinton colluded, DNC denied, and the Press followed merrily after. The Deep State, not numbered.
How are the Tenney Park locks holding up? My mother sent me a WSJ article about how a catastrophic flood could over top the locks and send the whole Yahara down to the Rock River.
I'll take Donald Trump (and hope Republicans wise up and chase Dr. Oz away) over Hillary and Bill "Higher State of Consciousness" Clinton's crazy crew of cultists (with John "Captain UFO" Podesta running things) any day.
19th Nervous Breakdown, and I'm "perfecting ways of making sealing wax."
The Constitution is a quaint document, that case law and Executive Orders have made irrelevant for most Americans.
Continuing my comment at 2:07 PM
.... if the FBI thinks you might have some information that might help prove that Donald Trump is being blackmailed by Russia, then the FBI feel entitled to use all its resources to mess with you.
* Concoct prosecutions of all your relatives and associates and then offer them plea bargains if they will slander and testify against you.
Trump beating Hillary IS A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, because her Podesta Deep State 4th Estate crime syndicate are cut off from power and money.
Mostly. They are working hand and glove with the media to get that power back + open borders and punitive tax hikes and free stuff for the hivemind.
Our entire intelligence apparatus was (and sadly probably mostly still is) fully politicized and weaponized against the enemies of the Deep State while simultaneously covering up its own crimes. That's the crisis. It's sad and appalling that more people can't seem to see this, or refuse to acknowledge this, or believe that it's no big deal despite all the evidence.
Instead we're focused on nonsense about small ball hush money payouts to a couple bimbos, and vague allusions to sinister collusions with Russians absent any proof despite absurd efforts to scrounge or manufacture it for 18 months at least now.
And now people are grousing about impeachment? It seems like the Deep State is winning.
The constitutional crisis I am watching is Mueller and Rosenstein becoming the fourth and most powerful branch of government. We put up with Obama weaponizing the IRS. We will not put up with this coup.
"What "constitutional crisis"?"
The constitutional crisis of progs not getting what they want.
"It seems to me the Constitution is in place, working as usual."
Well, as it has since the 20s and 30s. Of course, we conservatives think the usual inventions and fabrications, of state power and newly found "rights," are a "crisis" of sorts.
"some good might ultimately come from the crumbling of the 2 political parties. They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are.""
But some will get it more than others. As a vehicle for presidential elections, they have to some extent crumbled. In 2016 Dems got what they deserved, and we conservatives unexpectedly got more than we deserved.
But otherwise, the two parties are it and expectations of crumbling are an illusion. Third party fever invariably benefits the Dems, who have been a coalition of special interests for years now and can live with a fair amount of "crumbling"--unless they go full socialist.
"It's emotional politics"
Sure, it's all progs have at the moment. We conservatives are stoically enduring the outbursts, supporting Trump where we can, treating emotional politics with our usual cynicism, appreciating efforts on our side to fight back with emotion.
"a national nervous breakdown"
National? Who dat nation? We are standing on the sideline, enjoying the prog nervous breakdown while we can. The tides will shift soon enough.
If Comey, Strzok, etc. AND HILLARY are not indicted and facing trial by the end of this weekend based on the evidence in the RCI article linked to by Nonapod, it's not an upcoming constitutional crisis, it's a eulogy for the death of the Republic.
I'm so thankful the FBI did surveillance on the Trump campaign to protect them from the Russians. And Trump didn't even say "thank you" to the FBI.
"Crisis" is kinda close to "chaos"!
Yawn.
No matter how freaked out the Left is, they won't freak me out.
I was too young to understand Watergate at the time. The hearings bored the crap out of me. 45 years later, I see the flaws in Nixon's character and public policies, but I see a lotta good, too. The good got him reelected in a 49- state landslide in '72.
I kinda sorta feel now what I kinda sorta think Nixon's supporters felt back then. But it's much LESS intense, because we have no Vietnam War now and no Soviets to battle.
So, to me, it's pretty comical.
"I have been trying to figure out a reason that does not make Sessions look like an idiot."
-- He trusted his subordinates.
On the email fiasco: Well. Time to re-open the case.
The constitutional crisis might be that the Legislative Branch is threatening impeachment against the Executive Branch if the elected Executive exercises the power specifically authorized to the Executive Branch.
That's a very odd check-and-balance to maintain.
There is no constitutional crisis.
Hysteria gets ginned up in politics to justify actions that people would not otherwise support, such as bailing out the banks after the financial calamity of 2008.
It's a game played to dupe people.
Stay calm.
Matthew Sabian:
Might be difficult, since according to the article, Strzok and company recommended that the laptops be returned to Huma and Wiener when the FBI was "done" with it. "Done" obviously meaning not investigating it at all.
Yes. Seriously.
... Oh. I missed that. I assumed since they had, you know, secret documents on them, that they'd be held by the government.
Isn't it crazy how evidence always gets returned, lost or never claimed for Democrats no matter how little they cooperate, but they'll kick in the door to Republicans' houses (be they Manafort or Wisconsin Republicans) despite complete cooperation? You'd almost think that this pattern means something.
Bill Clinton had sex with a young woman intern in the WH and then lied about it under oath in a federal court depo and he wasn't impeached.
He wasn't? I was sure he was.
Sessions says Trump’s agenda is being carried out lawfully. And I trust that is true. Which is why this offensive is the last gasp of the Deep State to annul our elections and prevent being tried for Treason themselves. So it seems like a crisis to them. And Trump’s team stands like a stone wall.
I've never understood the "It's what we all deserve" cliche. It's not what we all deserve. How do we all deserve it?
I'm not entirely pessimistic, however. The federal government is in the process of diminishing their own power, even though they may think they're increasing it. Their power is dependent upon the people's faith in them. If they destroy the people's faith in the system by which we elect them and in the justice system that preserves them in office, they will lose power. People will invest their faith more locally. The power the federal government loses will devolve back to the States, which is good.
"It's not what we all deserve. How do we all deserve it?"
We don't, and if you aren't besotted by the meme-bots of dead tyrants it's obvious to you that we can't, but in the minds of those who cannot conceive of people as individuals but instead divides everyone into little identity groups that must be treated collectively, then it's not just possible, it's mandatory.
It's what you expect if women are allowed to vote. No constitution can survive women.
The crisis is that the trials and tweets continue to remind us that we are no longer a nation of "rule of law." Not only does Trump abuse all the rules of English grammar, but also rules of honesty, forthrightness, treatment of women, and civil rights of refugees, immigrants and citizens.
We dumb Amerikans, who generally have no clue about history, geography and science have become the laughingstock and bête noire of well educated citizens of Europe and elsewhere who have enjoyed an enlightenment that has apparently never touched Trump or left a mark in our country.
As an Amerikan traveling in a foreign country, I will be called upon to apologize for the United States for being so stupid and evil--akin to what the Germans have undergone since Hitler, the Russians since Stalin and the Catholics since the start, before the Reformation, of their covered-up sexual abuse of children.
Vietnam War type apologies due all over again.
Blogger rhhardin said...
It's what you expect if women are allowed to vote. No constitution can survive women.
I'm coming around to that conclusion. Maybe state and local elections are OK.
Meanwhile, it's becoming clearer that Obama started the whole Mueller thing.
One point I'd like to make, Anderson, that I don't think has come up very much before, and I'm alluding now to the President's criticism of President Obama for all that he did or didn't do before he left office with respect to the Russian meddling. If it weren't for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably, special counsel Mueller's investigation.
President Obama is responsible for that, and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place. I think it's an important point when it comes to critiquing President Obama.
Nice to clear that up.
civil rights of refugees, immigrants and citizens.
Could you give us a short list fo the civil rights of illegal immigrants ?
The Commies agreed to the creation of the UN, because they want to use it as a tool for their "decolonization" projects.
Colonization =>Chaos=>Communism was their plan for 3rd World countries.
Creating "chaos" was part of the strategic plan.
Sound familiar?
Maybe its me, but anti-constitutional coups by rabid radicals who reject the rule of law and democratic process, as if this were some third-world country, are what I would consider a constitutional crisis.
Thanks, Crack. The book is $1.99 on Kindle now
Except for the idea that somehow, my family and I DESERVE the rule of law being bent once again by Dems, Althouse has it true: there is hysteria but no crisis except that Liberal Oxen are Gored.
Fortunately, we're not up against rabid radicals motivated by ideology. We're up against ordinary, decent criminals motivated by greed and a desire not to get caught.
Dennis Prager: "The left lurches from one hysteria to the next." It's not all of us.
As an Amerikan traveling in a foreign country, I will be called upon to apologize for the United States for being so stupid and evil - Jimbino
Well, if you're the example of what America looks like to foreigners, then yes, you should apologize.
I have been trying to figure out a reason that does not make Sessions look like an idiot. The best I can come up with now is that he was a Senator too long.
Hah, I was thinking about that this morning and came to the same conclusion. Stepping outside the Senate must be like working in a quiet office, heading outside to discover there is a big storm going on. Happened to me once when a tornado went over my apartment building and I didn't know until I headed home and found all the trees blown over.
The folowing is pretty close to a constitutional crisis. From news article today:
President Trump said Thursday that he puts the word "justice" in quotes when he refers to the Department of Justice because he believes it is corrupt.
"There’s such corruption. Before I got here, it’s from before I got here. It’s from the Obama administration," Trump said on "Fox & Friends," renewing his claim that his campaign was spied on by the Obama administration's Justice Department.
"When everybody sees what’s going on in the Justice Department, I always put 'justice' now with quotes, it’s a very, very sad day," Trump added.
So much for the old conspiracy rule--that conspiracies are unlikely because once you get more than two people on board it's impossible to keep a secret.
The "news" business reports on the Department of "Justice." It's all about the "Law" and "Science."
Those comments about women? You don't have to express your every thought.
I'm seriously hoping Trump tweets, a LOT, about the Real Clear Investigations story on the complete coverup of Hillary's emails.
I'm kind of nauseous that it isn't the lead story on every blog and network. If that story isn't 'newsworthy', we've degraded beyond the point of Soviet Pravda.
They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are."
I never voted for Barack Obama; I don’t deserve anything bad happening to me or my family.
The press could have covered the Obama administration honestly. Now they write and talk to an increasingly empty echo chamber. They helped get Trump and Hillary Clinton nominated. Certainly they deserve anything that happens to them.
Barack Obama could have displayed a modicum of leadership and ordered Hillary Clinton to use her dot-gov account to conduct State Department or sign a letter of resignation, but he didn't. He deserves to have his alleged legacy dismantled.
Democrats are reverting to type and resorting to violence, instigating violence at Trump rallies in 2016, and leveraging Antifa last year and this in an attempt to shut down free speech. They deserve to have decent people desert that party.
As for me, I don’t deserve any of this ration of shit.
Choices were made. A Twilight Amendment passed. The tell-tale hearts beat ever louder.
@Michael K
Could you give us a short list fo the civil rights of illegal immigrants ?
Though I said nothing about "illegal immigrants," what must be news to you is that there is no such thing as an "illegal" person, only a person who is here illegally.
A short list would begin with "life, liberty and property" that no person (not "citizen" or "legal resident") may be deprived of without due process of law. Also, you can't be here "illegally" unless you are deemed so by a jury of your peers in a fair trial. A Trump tweet is insufficient.
I haven't seen the last three or four reported Constitutional Crisis. However, considering Reynolds normal quip, I believe there may be one based on how they are behaving. For example, I have no problem with the current electoral system. It worked just fine. But some are wanting to change it.
Incidentally, the only blog I know that is making a big deal of the RCI story is Ace of Spades. He gave it a flaming skull, which it truly deserves.
Drudge apparently doesn't think it's even worth a link of any kind. Add the recent ridiculous "Trump in Hell" headlines and it looks like he may have decided to throw his lot in with the swamp. A serious shame.
Justice Brennan’s living constitution EXPLICITLY STATES that it is a constitutional crisis for Any non democrat to attempt to alter the existing balance of power where All the power is with the democrats.
Trump is guilty of this; thus, Trump must be eliminated
jimbino thinks we have a peerage system in the US.
Here you get a fair and impartial jury.
The US Department of Just Us
"It seems to me the Constitution is in place, working as usual."
Under this way of thinking Watergate was not a Constitutional crisis because Richard Nixon ultimately resigned from office under threat of impeachment.
Would you at least count the Civil War as a Constitutional crisis, even though it was ultimately resolved by electoral victories, force of arms, and Constitutional amendments?
Could you give us a short list fo the civil rights of illegal immigrants?
The correct legal expression is illegal aliens.
Imagine the disappointment on the left if they succeed in driving Trump out of office and discover the position doesn't go to Hillary.
They told us what they'd do
Thank God for Admiral Rogers and a whole host of diligent fighters in the background. Those other dim witted apook-fucks got caught. A special shout out to Hillary... such a fuck up modern history hasn't known.
readering:
Are you saying that Trump's *tweet* is the constitutional crisis, or that DOJ corruption represents the crisis?
If you mean the tweet, I can only laugh at you.
If you mean the DOJ corruption, considering what we've learned about the Hillary email "investigation" coverup today, I totally agree it's a crisis, but I don't think it's a Constitutional one. The Constitution has remedies for this - Trump can (and should) literally purge the entire intelligence agencies that were complicit in the coverup. Lock, stock, and barrel. He is the head of the executive branch, they are executive agencies, he has utter and complete control. No, the crisis is political, in that we have a party that has engineered the corruption and will lie to the people that Trump *isn't* granted such power by the Constitution, and will try to impeach him for the only solution the Constitution provides. Which, I guess, maybe does mean that it's a Constitutional crisis after all.
Yeah, there’s no new Constitutional Crisis. However there is one that is 157 years old. The 13, 14 and 15th amendments ended slavery, gave rights to the freed slaves and then had to grant voting rights to them. Just a small example of the type of constitutional clowns our Congress can be. BUT, they failed to also do something about the constitutional failure to provide some other path to resolution when Congress can’t agree on an amendment and the States can’t agree on a Convention. We still have only one path to resolution and it’s Civil War. Seems kind of important to me.
Instead of recusing himself, Jeff Sessions should have announced that he had spent a week reviewing the situation and had discovered that the FBI apparently was using "Russian meddling in US elections" as a bogus excuse to wiretap political leaders.
Sessions should have reminded the population that during the 1960s top FBI officials had used the same bogus excuse as a method to try to remove Martin Luther King from his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement.
Now top FBI officials were using the same bogus excuse in order to wiretap Donald Trump and to remove him from the leadership of the Republican Party.
Sessions should have concluded by ordering:
* the FBI to cease its wiretapping of Republican politicians
* an investigation of the FBI
* the quick declassification and release to the public of all relevant documents.
"as I walked on, I thought, What constitutional crisis?"
So..you didn't ask him/her to explain?
Someone's laughing at me? Waah!
Though I said nothing about "illegal immigrants," what must be news to you is that there is no such thing as an "illegal" person, only a person who is here illegally.
I did not request an example of leftist bullshit.
Perhaps you are confused. Illegal aliens (Thank you Mike S) are here illegally. They snuck across the border, mostly using criminals called "Coyotes."
They need to be returned to where they belong with all haste and dispatch.
Many are drug mules and others are criminals looking for new places to rob and kill.
@Michael K
Even a burglar or cattle rustler who enters your property illegally has rights. If you mount a "spring-gun" to kill such a trespasser, you might get a lesson in the rights guaranteed in our constitution and laws.
"jimbino said...
@Michael K
Could you give us a short list fo the civil rights of illegal immigrants ?
Though I said nothing about "illegal immigrants," what must be news to you is that there is no such thing as an "illegal" person, only a person who is here illegally.
A short list would begin with "life, liberty and property" that no person (not "citizen" or "legal resident") may be deprived of without due process of law. Also, you can't be here "illegally" unless you are deemed so by a jury of your peers in a fair trial. A Trump tweet is insufficient."
Where does it spell out this in the Constitution there Jimtard?
"never let an imaginary constitutional crisis go to waste"
"Constitutional crisis"
Fish food.
It's not a constitutional crisis until you can hear the rounds snapping overhead.
I will be called upon to apologize for the United States
Stupid ckickenshit cuck!
American liberals think sooo much of themselves when they dump on their country while abroad.
"I'm not like those rubes back home..."
Considering jimbino's multiple years of obsessively hating on all of humanity with every breath, despising even the notion of people bearing children (speaking of 'breeders' as if they nauseate him, for example), and constantly advocating for mass reductions in population, it's comforting to see that he's finally found any kind of human being worth a damn in his view. Orrrrr... he really still just hates everybody and is just advocating a policy he knows is more likely to get more people killed.
At any rate, based on his opinions of society and humanity, I'm not inclined to take policy prescriptions from him on any level.
Both sides are having a "nervous breakdown". They go about it in very different ways.
The "right", whatever that means in the local case, does so relatively undemonstratively, indeed usually quite secretly. This is the typical manifestation of an anxious right throughout history. Its not exclusively so but most often is.
The gun sales figures, ammo shortages, and extreme popularity of, for instance, home manufacture of untraceable weapons are between them decade+ long symptoms of deep anxiety, ignored by most analysts. Its cited by the right in a very superficial way as a response to left-wing tactics (ha ha, you cant ban guns!). I think it runs much deeper than that.
There is a good argument that people align with political ideologies according to their personalities. Conservatives will, usually, behave conservatively.
As for daily normality - it has been, in all previous cases of pre-revolutionary situations, exactly so. Out among the peasantry one day seemed much like the last, until something happened in the capital. These things that kill millions are the work of remarkably few people, as proportions of the total population, even when you have huge mobs somewhere. Elsewhere the plowman and his wife, in their stolid millions, work away the same as ever.
As for a constitutional crisis - thats a very narrow view. A constitutional crisis is generally just a visible cause for a conflict that already exists for entirely different reasons. It is a casus belli, an overt "reason" in which the contending sides latch on to according to pre-existing disagreements.
I overuse Spanish examples I guess, but its a tic I can't avoid. The 19th century Carlist wars were not really caused by a dynastic conflict within the House of Bourbon, but because a centralizing state was squashing ancient local rights and cultures. They were ethno-ideological wars with a dynastic conflict as a handy pretext, and the pretender to the throne was astute enough to conform to the broader interests of his partisans. Like any good politician he saw a parade and ran to the front of it. These revolts would not have raised such large and motivated armies had it not been that the regions caught up in them already felt a collective threat.
And here there is no monarchy but a constitution. I think that your underlying conflicts will break into the open, if they do, in the form of a constitutional crisis.
Blogger readering said...
The folowing is pretty close to a constitutional crisis. From news article today:
President Trump said Thursday that he puts the word "justice" in quotes when he refers to the Department of Justice because he believes it is corrupt.
I took a look at Article II and saw no mention of a Justice Department.
No wonder. It did not exist until 1870.
The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration.
The Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The department is responsible for investigating instances of financial fraud, representing the United States government in legal matters (such as in cases before the Supreme Court), and running the federal prison system.[3][4] The department is also responsible for reviewing the conduct of local law enforcement as directed by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.[5]
The department is headed by the United States Attorney General, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is a member of the Cabinet. The current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions.
Why is Trump using parentheses around "Justice" a Constitutional Crisis ?
According to Jimbino "you can't be here 'illegally' unless you are deemed so by a jury of your peers in a fair trial." That's the best argument for Trump's wall that I've ever heard. If the Wall prevents them from getting across the border, then they don't have the right to a US trial.
And they won't be "illegal" either (at least not according to the US; probably Mexico would regard them as "ilegal".
Why is Trump using parentheses around "Justice" a Constitutional Crisis ?
Especially from those who coined the term "social justice" when they didn't like the outcomes from the Legislature and the Legal System.
Especially from those who coined the term "social justice" when they didn't like the outcomes from the Legislature and the Legal System.
Now these same people are coining the term "constitutional crisis" when they don't like the outcomes from the Electoral College.
I'm more interested in how anyone can even pretend it *isn't* corrupt to the core after what we've learned today.
But the answer is obvious. Because they are pretending, they know it's completely and utterly corrupt, and they're okay with that because the corruption is on their side.
The way of the right, anywhere at any time, is to go quietly hysterical.
This is masked by a cool, laconic affect. It is masked by pseudo-purposeful activity.
But that does not prevent extremes of behavior when the dam breaks.
It is usually rationalized later.
Dershowitz has this right:
“Cohen is pleading guilty to a crime that doesn’t exist. The only reason they put it in there [is because] they had him dead to rights on other crime. The only reason they put it in there is to connect Trump because Trump isn’t connected to any of the other crimes to which he pleaded guilty. Those are real crimes.”
What constitutional crisis?
Robert B. Reich, schhhh, sha (as Rush calls him) is hearing that if Trump fires Mueller we’ll face a constitutional crisis.
Or if Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify and Trump defies the subpoena, it’s a constitutional crisis.
Or if Mueller comes up with substantial evidence that Trump is guilty of colluding with Russia or of obstructing justice but the House doesn’t move to impeach him, we’ll have a constitutional crisis.
I have news for you. We’re already in a constitutional crisis. For a year and a half the president of the United States has been carrying out a systemic attack on the institutions of our democracy.
A constitutional crisis does not occur suddenly like a coup that causes a government to collapse. It occurs gradually, as a system of government is slowly weakened.A constitutional crisis becomes especially dangerous when a president of the United States tells the public it cannot trust the government of the United States.
First he accused the FBI of sending a spy to secretly infiltrate his 2016 campaign “for political purposes.” Then he issued a “demand” that the FBI investigate the spying—resulting in the Justice Department sharing portions of the FBI investigation with Trump’s allies in Congress.
Trump blamed the entire Mueller investigation on a conspiratorial “deep state” intent on removing him from office. He used pardons to demonstrate to those already being investigated that they shouldn’t cooperate because he can pardon them, too, and then bragged to reporters that he is considering 3,000 more pardons—thereby anointing himself the judge of what is fair, rather than the judicial branch.
He claimed he has the absolute right to pardon himself and can thereby immunize himself from any outcome, and asserted he has the power under the Constitution to end the investigation whenever he wants.
The crux of America’s current constitutional crisis is this: Our system of government was designed to constrain power, but Trump doesn’t want to be constrained.
Our system was conceived as a means of promoting the public interest, but Trump wants to promote only his own interest.
Our system was organized to bind presidents to the Constitution, but Trump doesn’t want to be bound by anything.
The crisis will therefore worsen as long as Trump can get away with it. An unconstrained megalomaniac becomes only more maniacal. He will fill whatever political void exists with his unbridled ego.
buwaya:
I can rationalize it now. When half the country has effectively organized itself as a criminal conspiracy, and are no longer participating members of the citizenry acting in good faith but instead are, well, literally treasonous, and have seemingly become incapable of making *any* argument in anything but bad faith... yeah, when extreme measures become inevitable, I for one won't need to have it rationalized for me.
We are living with a failed Aristocracy in this country.
Instapundit has been writing for years that we have the worst ruling class in our history.
I grew up in a lower middle class family so neer had the pretensions that some here, like jimbino, have.
An interesting essay says something about this.
an aristocracy is a group of people who believe that they rule because they’re better than everyone else. The sense in which they consider themselves better is subject to all the usual historical and cultural vagaries, of course, but as an aristocracy ripens, those vagaries give way to an interesting uniformity.
Consider the meanings of the words “noble” and “gentle” in today’s English. Originally, those words meant simply “belonging to the upper class.” Similarly, consider the meanings of the words “churl” and “villain” in today’s English. Originally those words meant nothing more than “belonging to the lower classes.” Those details of linguistic history express the standard pattern just mentioned. Every aristocracy comes to believe that it’s morally superior to the people it rules. Aristocrats inevitably think of themselves as the good people, the morally virtuous people, and they just as inevitably work out an ornate code of virtue signaling that’s used to communicate their notional goodness to others of their class, and to exclude the rabble.
This matter of exclusion is of high importance. Every aristocracy is defined by who it excludes, but tries to excuse that definition in terms of what it excludes. Exactly what criteria are used as a basis for exclusion varies from culture to culture and from age to age. Not much more than a century ago, the US aristocracy was defined strictly by gender and ethnic markers—the highest circles of power were restricted to heterosexual men whose ancestors all came from northwestern Europe, whose cultural background was overwhelmingly Anglo-American, and who went on Sundays to the Episcopalian (or, more rarely, Methodist) church.
As times changed and the American aristocracy caught onto the dangers of excluding too many of the talented, the criteria of exclusion changed. Over the course of the twentieth century, political and cultural markers replaced ethnic and gender markers to a certain extent; while most of the people in the highest circles of power still bear a close resemblance to their equivalents in 1900—look at a group photo of the US Senate sometime—a modest trickle of women and ethnic minorities have been permitted to rise into those same ranks, so long as they embraced all the right opinions and shed all but the thinnest cosmetic veneer of whatever ethnic culture they or their immediate ancestors might have had.
The self hatred of those who think of themselves as "The Aristocracy" is a prominent feature of the current culture war.
"He used pardons to demonstrate to those already being investigated that they shouldn’t cooperate because he can pardon them, too, and then bragged to reporters that he is considering 3,000 more pardons—thereby anointing himself the judge of what is fair, rather than the judicial branch."
Mueller threw immunity around like confetti on everyone even remotely connected to Hillary Clinton. How exactly did *he* get anointed the judge of what is fair rather than the judicial branch? And how does Mueller get this power when his ultimate boss - Trump - doesn't have it according to you?
Yeah, I know. There's no point in trying to reason. This is not an argument in good faith. To those who've informed me of that lately - I was aware of this long before you. I have never ever been "on the left" a day in my life. I am a child of Cuban exiles. I saw these scum for what they are from when I was a child. When I bother to argue, it's for the sake of the reading lurkers who might otherwise buy the bullshit.
Michael K to jimbino: "Though I said nothing about "illegal immigrants," what must be news to you is that there is no such thing as an "illegal" person, only a person who is here illegally."
I did not request an example of leftist bullshit.
I was reading the second page of comments bottom to top, and as Dr. K did not identify the person he was responding to, I played a little game with myself trying to identify him without looking. I guessed John Pickering, based on characteristic sniffy, flouncing SJW style. Thought of a few more possibilities, but none of the other purveryors of leftist bullshit around here come near to that self-parodying "educate yourself, bigot!" tone.
Never crossed my mind it was jimbino. He can usually be relied on to spout the stalest, stupidest lefty bullshit, but this tone is new. What gives? I'm really starting to take that "estrogens in the water" theory seriously.
What is rationalized in these cases are extremes of violence and cruelty.
The left engages in these atrocities at the moment when things break down with, usually, a sort of screaming fervor, a Saint-Justian holiday of blood, heads on pikes and public massacres.
The right does the same with midnight burials.
Both sides usually stick to orderly midnight burials when it becomes a regularized, bureaucratized conflict.
If the Trumpsteria is non-stop, how does the Independent and the LIV distinguish the validity of one day's hysteria from another day's? Quite simply, they don't. They go with what they know and what the circumstances of their own lives inform them.
gadfly, the Poor Man's LLR Chuck, is referencing Robert Reich!!!
LOL
It doesn't get any funnier than that.
So the FBI never actually reviewed any of Hillary's "suddenly discovered" emails on the Weiner laptop....and they still haven't....but she is totally in the clear because they claimed to have reviewed the emails and thus cleared her...
......
.....
.....huh?
"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"
John Ball
Copied by the writers of the Florian Geyer Lied, a 19th century rearrangement of a fragment of song of the German Peasants war (as Orff did for student songs in the Carmina Burana).
Als Adam grub und Eva spann,
Kyrieleis!
Wo war denn da der Edelmann?
Kyrieleis!
Florian Geyer
An interesting case, btw, of a song used by Nazis, Social Democrats and Communists, each in their time.
"The right does the same with midnight burials."
That one stumped me. The right continues to follow Bourgeois Culture long after the left has gone to the pikes and axes.
The few "white supremacists" are boys confused about what is going on. The leader of this is a creature of no ideology other than self promotion and desire for publicity. The boys are outnumbered 10 to 1 by the reporters and photographers.
I still wonder what happened to that kid who drove the car in Charlottesville?
As usual, British papers had more details of the incident .
But what has happened since ?
It sounds like they are considering the death penalty, which is ridiculous.
The mob must have its victims.
“What "constitutional crisis"?”
The left is losing its collective mind.
Apparently the "wizardry" Comey alluded to was of the "Poof!", disappearing sort.
But yeah..no surprise really..it sounded like bullshit at the time.
"That one stumped me. The right continues to follow Bourgeois Culture long after the left has gone to the pikes and axes."
Not so. The usual rightist reaction is a military coup, or an overt revolution.
Think Pinochet, Spanish Nationalists, Carlists, Vendeens. And these all had inconvenient people to dispose of.
"Would you at least count the Civil War as a Constitutional crisis, even though it was ultimately resolved by electoral victories, force of arms, and Constitutional amendments?"
I would count the Civil War as an existential crisis that far surpassed what people call a constitutional crisis. Lincoln usurped the constitution (reasonable in my mind) by suspending habeas corpus as part of an effort to survive a greater crisis.
I do wonder what constitutional crisis Althouse’s friend was referring to.
Drago, you lying sack of crap! They did TOO review the emails! Like 3000 of them! And sure, they found classified emails in them they never found before, and lied about it, but that doesn't matter! You said they didn't review ANY of them! They reviewed almost 0.5% of them! That makes you a lying douchebag, and the only person who's wrong in all this!
Sorry, just figured I'd help Chuck out on his day off.
>>you can't be here 'illegally' unless you are deemed so by a jury of your peers
Is it your position that if ICE catches someone who cannot establish citizenship swimming across the Rio Grande, they cannot return them to Mexico without a trial?
Or are you saying that they are in fact in the country legally? If they aren't here illegally, then they can't be arrested. So what jury would they appear before?
I know several ICE agents who will be surprised to learn they are arresting innocent people, since they send folks back every day for entering the country illegally.
The constitutional crisis runs deep because it's not followed to the letter even though every single federal officer takes the Article VI oath to follow it to the letter. And if done fedgov would be 10% (to choose some low percentage) of its present size.
James Taylor can go and suck a trailer hitch ball.
Chuck is in court suing a 95-year-old neighbor because two leaves from that neighbor's tree fell on his property. The biggest case he's had in years.
Great post, Althouse. *Thumbs Up Emoji.*
gadfly said; " For a year and a half the president of the United States has been carrying out a systemic attack on the institutions of our democracy."
And a wonderful attack it has been. By the way, the USA is not a democracy.
@chicklit: http://www.cityofmadison.com/news
We wish your mother well and hope she is on high dry land.
The Department of Justice doesn't have much of a good reputation. I think Watergate raised the issue to most of the public that the DOJ and FBI were very political actors and not by-the-book public servants or bureaucrats. Of course, everyone eventually learned what J Edgar Hoover was. Perhaps the day to day G men still had a decent reputation. Maybe they still do.
But I think a lot of that changed with Waco in 1993. That was a disaster by the DOJ. Janet Reno, at best, was utterly incompetent and reckless. Clinton should have fired her on the spot. Williams Sessions, the head of the FBI at the time, was corrupt. Clinton rightly fired him.
Then you have the failure of the FBI leading up to 9/11. Of course, the CIA shares a lot of blame as well. But the FBI apprehended the "20th hijacker" before the attack. And the DOJ and FBI were either lazy, incompetent, and/or hand tied by bureaucratic regulations to do anything.
And the Dems absolutely loathed and lambasted John Ashcroft. Guy was a bit of a douchebag, but unlike Reno his actions and omissions didn't lead to the death of so many people. Then Alberto Gonzales gets pilloried.
Then the financial meltdown happens. And Obama, and Mueller and Holder do fucking nothing against the jagoffs on Wall Street. No prison time for any individuals. Just fines for banks who hired Holder's former and soon to be current law partners to weasel out of any justice.
And when Jon Corzine, former Dem Senator and Governor, former head of Goldman Sachs, steals $1.6 billion in funds held in trust for customers to try and keep his dogshit company afloat, nothing happens. Obama and Holder have the CFTC institute a civil proceeding against him. Say what you will about W., but when Enron went down he didn't stop the FBI and DOJ from descending on Ken Lay. Un-fucking believable.
Then to top it off, Loretta Lynch meets with Bill Clinton a week before the Hillary investigation is publicly concluded. For those still left who had any trust in DOJ/FBI, this was a kick in the nuts.
Donald Trump didn't just show up. He didn't turn anyone against the Department of Justice who didn't already harbor some serious doubts about that department's integrity (and competence). All the Democrats harbored those doubts, and then some, when Ashcroft was in charge. And all the Republicans harbored those doubts when Reno, Holder, and Lynch were in charge.
And now these same politicians are aghast that a great swath of Americans who are mostly apolitical have no or very little trust in these institutions.
The same politicians who get rich in office (and their families) are now lecturing about "constitutional crisis" and the hack corporate media is now worrying about the lack of trust in our institutions.
These fucks chopped away at the institutions over a long period of time for their self interests. Trump showed up and is kicking a few holes in the few walls that haven't been raised.
Fuck all these people.
"That one stumped me. The right continues to follow Bourgeois Culture long after the left has gone to the pikes and axes."
Not so. The usual rightist reaction is a military coup, or an overt revolution.
I doubt that will happen here unless the Democrats get control of the government. Allende had no intention of holding another election.
The Venezuelan poor were dumb enough to elect Chavez more than once.
It may be a south American thing. Argentina was mostly Europeans and their descendants.
Blogger Michael K said...”I have been trying to figure out a reason that does not make Sessions look like an idiot. The best I can come up with now is that he was a Senator too long.”
This may be the situation:
Many who understand Main Justice politics openly say AG Jeff Sessions is actually scared of the apparatus under his authority.
I was dismayed when Sessions was picked, but he’s turned out to be even more disappointing than I expected.
I believe that any Civil War or Constitutional Crisis in America will end in a modified Constitution. I don’t see a military dictatorship at all. The only question is, will we see our way to avert war by modifying the Constitution first, or are we politically pathetic and we will have a War before a new Constitution? The current Left-Right imbroglio doesn’t impress me as a root cause. I expect the unraveling of the finances in the States and the federal government will precipitate the crisis. By then, it will be too late to fix things at the federal level. It will be a new Constitution or War.
It was assumed that I would excitedly spring into action because of this assumed "constitutional crisis,"
That's all it takes for them out out you as the "other," failure to join in the craziness.
gadfly said; " For a year and a half the president of the United States has been carrying out a systemic attack on the institutions of our democracy."
LOL, even for you gadfly, that's pretty rich.
but she is totally in the clear because they claimed to have reviewed the emails and thus cleared her...
Just like Trump is guilty of what Mueller and Cohen have called a "crime" without the imprimatur of any court.
Jimbino said....A short list would begin with "life, liberty and property" that no person (not "citizen" or "legal resident") may be deprived of without due process of law. Also, you can't be here "illegally" unless you are deemed so by a jury of your peers in a fair trial. A Trump tweet is insufficient.
Snort. Apparently jimbino thinks illegals sneaking into the country have the same "process" *due* them as citizens.
Not so. They can be immediately sent back to where they came from. Happens all the time to people who arrive here on an airplane w/o a valid passport or visa. Been happening for years and years, including under the Bringer of Light Obama.
But no, genius jimbino think all those millions of illegals sneaking in are "due" a fricking JURY TRIAL.
Millions of jury trials...millions....Yeah, that's it...says so in the 14th. Oh wait...
Snort.
p.s. jimbino, if any European demands you apologize for evil and stupid America, I suggest you:
*remind them of the 100,000,000-odd people they killed during their two world wars. Cultcha!
* punch them in the chops for being ungrateful shits for not recognizing that WE yanks helped our allies win those wars
Then remind them of the second 100,000,000 the Marxists (practicing a European-born ideology) killed in a very Unscientific attempt to alter human nature , using the principles of "scientific socialism". "Science!"
* punch them a second time for not recognizing that WE yanks protected them against Russian communism for almost fifty years after their last war.
As for Cultcha: it's YOUR cohort who buys the dreck music, watches the brain-dead comic book hero movies, and blisters their thumbs on video games. Not us, YOUR cohort.
@ DRago @ Dersh
Dershowitz has this right:
“Cohen is pleading guilty to a crime that doesn’t exist. The only reason they put it in there [is because] they had him dead to rights on other crime. The only reason they put it in there is to connect Trump because Trump isn’t connected to any of the other crimes to which he pleaded guilty. Those are real crimes.”
Bingo.
I think he puts it clearly
https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/22/a-not-so-fine-madness/
Greg Gutfeld had a pretty good point on The Five. If the Dems successfully impeach Trump, not only do they get Pence, but they get Trump as media-present as he is now, towering above Pence and the Dems as a folk hero. Trump might not be POTUS, but he's not going away.
Shirley they can't be serious:
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-federal-court-orders-hearing-on-august-21-for-lawsuit-seeking-dojs-fusion-gps-records/
No kidding a nervous breakdown. I have friends who are convinced that we're headed for an American Auschwitz. Whatever they're imagining is so far out there that it's hard to know how to reel them back into reality.
Cohen is pleading guilty to a crime that doesn’t exist.
According to the WSJ it's a great thing that Mueller avoided a "complicated trial." How conveenient!
I have friends who are convinced that we're headed for an American Auschwitz.
Yeah. That's what the Democrats do to their followers to get them to vote.
"By then, it will be too late to fix things at the federal level. It will be a new Constitution or War."
Then it'll be War. Because conservatives don't have a problem with the Constitution as written. There's nothing needed that the Amendment process doesn't suffice for. What conservatives have a problem with is leftist judges "interpreting" and rewriting it at will until it's completely unrecognizable. And they show no intention of stopping. Why would any "new" Constitution not be rewritten by them in the same way?
I was dismayed when Sessions was picked, but he’s turned out to be even more disappointing than I expected.
Sessions was Trump throwing a bone to the National Review crowd. It didn't help him with them and was a disaster otherwise.
He won't be doing that again..
In the Australian show Rake which just started a fifth season, President Trump wants to start a first-strike nuclear war and the US Defense Sec says that they give Trump false nuclear codes because they know he's insane. The worldwide Lefty machine keeps spinning.
I don't consider what the "Deep State" has been exposed doing is a "Constitutional crisis". It's just corruption. Corruption so immense had not Trump won I would have never had known. I am aghast at it.
To me, a Constitutional crisis would be if the president order the military to "arrest" and imprison the whole of the SCOTUS for a decision he disapproved of.
Or, ignoring an amendment or two.
Perhaps imagining an amendment, such as the right to privacy that allows abortion on demand, but that might be stretching things a bit.
@ Freeman Hunt: The irony is that everything the FBI, DOJ, Dems, and all of their black-masked supporters are doing is textbook means to that end.
If the people who support Trump turn out and vote in this election so that the Republicans hold the House, then there will be no "Constitutional issue." The problem is the do-nothing RINOs and GOPers don't inspire Trump voters. But if Trump supporters don't turn out, the Dem majority will bring articles of impeachment against Trump, not caring whether they tear the country apart for TDS is destroying their brains and they can't see what will happen. They also hope to have every House committee functioning as a little Mueller investigation - same illegal tactics, same pressuring into confessions.
Stand By Your Man. Turn out the vote.
"I should be criticizing Trump on every level because he does certain things that call for criticism," he [Jim Brown] said Tuesday on the JT The Brick Show on Fox Sports Radio (h/t TMZ Sports). "But when I look at television I see all these announcers become experts and they're pointing the fingers and they're not doing a doggone thing but pointing their fingers, I find myself really pulling for the president."
You are not alone sir.
Freeman Hunt,
Did you tell your friends about slippery slopes?
Did you tell them they’re sliding uncontrollably?
"@ Freeman Hunt: The irony is that everything the FBI, DOJ, Dems, and all of their black-masked supporters are doing is textbook means to that end."
It's not irony so much as projection.
The problem with projection as a tactic employed by those with no ethics or morals but infinite capacity for hypocrisy is that it always, always, always works. The best outcome in the minds of the public that the victims of the projection game (conservatives) can hope for is "see, both sides are just as bad". Meanwhile, the Left will get away with everything they do.
It's why Hillary is getting away with Uranium One. She herself colluded with Russia, but by accusing Trump of it first, she became effectively immune. It ALWAYS works.
Doesn't anyone remember John Edwards?
Unknown said...
"I was dismayed when Sessions was picked, but he’s turned out to be even more disappointing than I expected."
Sessions was Trump throwing a bone to the National Review crowd. It didn't help him with them and was a disaster otherwise.
He won't be doing that again..
Well, I HOPE it was Trump throwing a bone to the National Review crowd. It would be small comfort to me. It's nice, but I agree with you that it didn't change my opinion of Trump.
I don't agree with you, that Sessions has been a disaster. When the Current Occupant took office, I wrote on these pages that Sessions, and DeVos, and Gorsuch, and a couple of others were 100% great picks. I still think so.
Trump, it he wants, can go ahead and piss off folks like me if that is what he wants to do. But he can hardly do without my vote. I was part of the razor-thin Trump plurality in Michigan, which was critical to Trump's razor-thin electoral majority. And without voters like me, he's politically dead. It would not take much at all, for me to withhold my vote from Trump if there is ever another time that I'd have that opportunity.
Trump, it he wants, can go ahead and piss off folks like me if that is what he wants to do.
Effortless, of course. The hard work would be to somehow convince you that he was properly elected.
Ann,
Dershowitz says Trump did not violate campaign election laws and it is not even a close question.
Do you disagree?
If you disagree, do you believe Trump's violations of the campaign election laws are a high crime and misdemeanor?
The constitutional crisis would have been for Trump to ignore judges who've written Obama executive orders into law, and it's one that should be had.
Sessions is done after the midterms.
It is our party now. Even the GOP senators agree.
Trump is going to clean out the DOJ. I am sure we will hear about the constitutional crisis then too.
Trump, it he wants, can go ahead and piss off folks like me if that is what he wants to do. But he can hardly do without my vote. I was part of the razor-thin Trump plurality in Michigan, which was critical to Trump's razor-thin electoral majority. And without voters like me, he's politically dead. It would not take much at all, for me to withhold my vote from Trump if there is ever another time that I'd have that opportunity.
Are you pretending you voted for Trump? If he didn't need your vote last time around, why would next time be any different?
Chuck said...
Trump, it he wants, can go ahead and piss off folks like me if that is what he wants to do. But he can hardly do without my vote. I was part of the razor-thin Trump plurality in Michigan, which was critical to Trump's razor-thin electoral majority. And without voters like me, he's politically dead. It would not take much at all, for me to withhold my vote from Trump if there is ever another time that I'd have that opportunity.
Even if you did vote for Trump he is going to replace you with a few hundred thousand black voters in Michigan who are experiencing record unemployment and the first wage gains they have seen in decades.
Every single person who actually voted for Trump is ecstatic about his performance. He has performed better than anyone guessed.
Nobody cares about you or your cuck democrat friends Will Kristol Boot et al. The democrats will give you some treats for being good little traitors but they think you are worms too.
Nobody cares what you have to say or what you want.
Bye Felicia.
p.s. jimbino, if any European demands you apologize for evil and stupid America, I suggest you:
He's just boasting about his travels.
I travel too and have yet to see anyone comment on US policy although my friends in England don't understand about guns.
They don't live in London or in the Midlands where a gun might be helpful.
do you believe Trump's violations of the campaign election laws are a high crime and misdemeanor?
Cohen and Mueller have agreed, without the benefit of any judge, that Trump committed a crime based on what was in Trump's heart at the time.
And the republican party is going to thrive precisely because we are kicking out the neocons and the racists like Chuck.
Althouse has this exactly right:
I want Trump to be removed from office, and he is not removed from office. The constitution has failed to reach my desired result. So "constitutional crisis".
The constitutional crisis will be ended, or averted, when Trump is removed from office.
I want the Supreme court to be more liberal than it is, and the Kavanaugh nomination promises to make the Supreme court more conservative than it is. The constitutional process has failed to reach my desired result. So "constituional crisis".
The constitutional crisis will be ended, or averted, when Kavanaugh's nomination is voted down and another much more liberal nominee is approved.
So, repeating Althouse original opinion: " It's emotional politics, a national nervous breakdown."
"Trump, it he wants, can go ahead and piss off folks like me if that is what he wants to do. But he can hardly do without my vote. "
Chuckles,
Maybe I was mistaken about you. I thought you were simply a deceptive, pompous windbag with a drinking problem.
Now I see you are grandiose as well. I guess you learned something about counting from your days as a Detroit Republican election judge, er ... mole. Your vote gets counted how many times?
If Trump directed Cohen to pay off the porn slut and he didn't do so, as was completely possible, within the letter of the law, is that Trump's fault?
I have never seen a mass hysteria like this. And it's not just the talking heads on TV, I see it all around me in people that I had thought were normal.
I have never seen a mass hysteria like this. And it's not just the talking heads on TV, I see it all around me in people that I had thought were normal.
I thought I had seen it all with Bush Derangement Syndrome.
BDS sufferers were pikers..
Less than lighthearted Ann here doesn't seem to be having as much fun with the comedy drama her beloved President has put on stage, but surely, we're only in a middle act. Exit Paul Manafort, ten years minimum guidelines federal pen.
But cheer up! There's lots more comedy to come from the master humorist and disruptor whose rapport with and support from some of Ann's readers is complete, up to and including his being a serial pervert and adulterer, a tax cheat and fraud expert, a money launderer, a procurer, and the blackmailed and humiliated agent of the Russian president and intelligence services. None of that would stop their support.
But Ann's friend is different. He looks at the President with genuine alarm at how he manages his office, and he's curious at Ann's view. He might have been thinking that the president's campaign chairman and deputy, NSA chief, personal lawyer, now the Enquirer chief, are all admitted or convicted criminals, and thinking Ann might be inclined to converse about whether it's a crisis, constitution-wise. She just think's it's a drama.
Trump will be the first President to be deposed in a comedy.
Tim in Vermont - My understanding is that Cohen said HE made the payments with the intent of influencing the election, but he did not say Trump authorized them for this purpose, nor is that a necessary inference from the Cohen statement.
Dershowitz says even if so = no violation of campaign finance laws.
I do not know if we have reached a "constitutional crisis" yet, but I sure think we are heading that way with the number of state executives not only talking about "nullification" and "interposition," but actually engaging in such actions and getting away with it, meeting only nominal, lip serving protests.
Can you imagine the hysteria if all this social media/internet was around in the days of Ronald Reagan?
I was in the midst of getting a degree in social work when Regan was elected - surrounded by 1980's style liberals. Amazingly, the day after Carter's loss, I went to class and the campus was quiet - a normal day. No emotional meltdowns. No protests. Professors never even mentioned it - as if transitioning from a Democrat President to a Republican President was no big deal. Utterly quiet - a normal day.
Can you imagine???
Inspired by John Pickering's comment:
I am especially concerned that a newspaper like the national enquirer can publish articles (or refuse to publish articles) motivated by a desire to help one particular candidate without reporting the dollar value of those decisions as an in-kind campaign contribution to the candidate who is helped.
Of course, this line of reasoning should not be applied to "respectable" publications, such as the ones that agree with me (NYT, WaPo). That would be a violation of the first amendment freedom of the press. It should only apply to publications who support candidates that I oppose.
The ends justify the means.
"But he can hardly do without my vote."
He assumes you are a "Life-Long Republican" and can count on you to support the Republican candidate who will promote the more Republican agenda. And he assumes that especially now any Republican will stand up against the slow-motion coup and against the Alexandria Occasio-Cortez/Keith Ellison Democratic Party. And he assumes Republicans are rational adults.
Of course, he may be wrong.
The Cohen/Manafort business will be replaced in the headlines over the next few days as the media blames Trump for hurricane damage and suffering in Hawaii.
I do not know if the quarrel between Trump and Sessions is real or theater.
My understanding is that Cohen said HE made the payments with the intent of influencing the election, but he did not say Trump authorized them for this purpose, nor is that a necessary inference from the Cohen statement.
Well, we won't get to the truth of this until Lanny Davis issues a new statement. I see he has walked back a lot of his most inflammatory stuff.
I stumble into town just like a sacred cow
Visions of impeachments in my head, plans for everyone
It's in the way of high crimes
My little constitution, you shouldn't mess with me
I'll taint everything you are.
You know:
I'll give you hysterics
I'll give you double standards
I'll be the one who decides who will rule the world
And when I get excited
My constitutional lawyer says
Oh baby just you shut your mouth
She says, sh-sh-shhhhhhhhhhhh
I understood Bowie never liked it, but I thought it had a good beat, back when. Not much radio play anymore obv.
John Pickering - maybe you are right, and maybe the people who hated Obama with a passion, and considered Obama and Clinton to be obvious thugs and felons were right too.
Not much you or me can do about it. I am not going to spend any time criticizing you for hating Trump. I get it , you hate him. Would you mind sending a hefty check to the ASPCA? They protect animals, or how about a nice check to Human Life International, who protect, no surprise, human life!.
including his being a serial pervert and adulterer, a tax cheat and fraud expert, a money launderer, a procurer, and the blackmailed
You are too negative about Clinton. Yes he did fool around with underage girls but he used the Arkansas state police as procurer.
I don't know that he set Hillary up with Huma. Do you know something about that ?
None of that would stop their support.
A good start would be to prove any of it that your heroes Bill and Hillary Clinton weren't guilty of. I will see your payoff to a consensual affair and raise it by being forced to pay of a victim of sexual assault. I will raise your "accepting a thing of value" from the Russians to accepting many scores of millions of dollars from Putin and his cronies...
And none of that has affected your support for Bill and Hillary.
My absolute favorite LLR Chuck as Dick Durbin Cuckholster of the Week moment was when LLR Chuck moronically attempted to resurrect the hoax Cohen-to-Prague trip component of the hoax dossier by using innuendo at the very moment Li'l Lanny was putting the big kibosh on that idiocy!!
LOL
Truly a wonderfully perfect "LLR Chuck Moment"!
Bill Clinton flew on that Lolita Express, BTW. What was he doing there? Surely not partaking of the underage sex that was on offer! Our man Bill has far too high a character for that!
A lawyer here pointed out that Lanny had claimed this his client was committing another crime by withholding information from the FBI that he might spill if goaded.. I see that Davis has walked that back. Must maintain the fiction that his purpose is to act in Cohen's best interests!
Interesting though that Mueller is leaving the prosecution of Cohen for other crimes in place as a possibility just in case Cohen wanders off the reservation. If they are crimes, prosecute them now.
Of course the question is why Prague, well it's the heart of the bratva overseas, now firtash lannys client operates out of Vienna, but there was a certain hacker who operated out of that capital as je dyer points out.
ALP said: "Amazingly, the day after Carter's loss, I went to class and the campus was quiet - a normal day. No emotional meltdowns. No protests. Professors never even mentioned it - as if transitioning from a Democrat President to a Republican President was no big deal. Utterly quiet - a normal day."
At the U. of Pennsylvania, my history professor Jack Reece noted the (even then) snarky remarks about leaving the country and told his students that such attitudes had no place in a constitutional democracy.
“They were "getting what they deserve," I said darkly, adding, "We all are."”
Yes they are. No we’re not.
Why didn’t you people know that this was bound to happen with a fraudster, scammer and despicable crook like Trump? You deserve what you’re getting, not us who didn’t vote for him or continue to support him.
Why didn’t you people know that this was bound to happen with a fraudster, scammer and despicable crook like Trump?
Because the alternative, an alternative even you couldn't vote for, was a fraudster, scammer, and a despicable crook named Hillary. That was the choice.
“But Ann's friend is different. He looks at the President with genuine alarm at how he manages his office, and he's curious at Ann's view.
“Curious” is probably an understatement.
What I found interesting was this whole charade of a special master, that was going to review all of Cohen's papers, she was appointed after they made the plea, withheld for four months.
The chickens are coming home to roost, one by one, by one...
I'm pretty happy with "getting what we deserve" in this case.
Virtual full employment economy, DOW nearing record high, backing away from stupid foreign commitments, the threat of deportation limiting illegal immigration.
And, on top of the that, Prez Trump has found the time to fight against PC and ridicule the Democratic propaganda press.
Give me more of what I deserve.
Inga...Allie Oop said...
The chickens are coming home to roost, one by one, by one...
....
And when they do, Inga....YOU will be on the broiler...
“It's emotional politics, a national nervous breakdown."
It’s you Trumpists that are having a nervous breakdown, as I predicted. We anti Trumpists are celebrating, our country will survive.
Mike and tim are so upset about Bill Clinton and his crimes. Hey guys, Bill Clinton hasn't been president for 16 years. He seems pretty doddering for being the sinister chief of a worldwide criminal conspiracy.
What do you think about Bill, G.W., and Trump all being the same age? Course, trump is a brilliant intellect, and Bill from Hope was only a Rhodes scholar because of the deep state.
You know what the J in Donald J Trump stands for?
Jenius
"that this was bound to happen "
What it "this"?
The constitutional crisis was Hillary not winning, it has created paroxyms of crazy among the counterpart to the remain element here, despite 1.5 billion spent, the near borg unanimity of the major press, the thuggee like allegiance of the entertainment and educational guilds she lost.
@Inga
Trump will be president for the next 6 years.
We're not all as stupid and duplicitious as you.
Inga is her usual fool.
It's not a constitutional crisis until I'm done buying arms, and ammo!!
Inga,
Do you understand what the term "projection" means?
You should because that is a very strong element in your posts.
Google it.
Mike and tim are so upset about Bill Clinton and his crimes. Hey guys, Bill Clinton hasn't been president for 16 years. He seems pretty doddering for being the sinister chief of a worldwide criminal conspiracy.
Hillary was part of it, with her involvement in everything from Bimbo eruption suppression, what kinds of payments were made there? To Uranium One and her use of her position as Secretary of State to shake down countries with business before the state department, and her massive destruction of records from the time she was taking hundreds of millions of dollars from them, and to John Pickering, this is ancient history. \
Why are we bringing up the person the Democrats offered as an alternative to Trump????
Yes by all means possible, let's have madasHell and tim from Vermont and Mike load up on ammo and get ready to make their move on Washington and fight it out with the US Army, unfortunately under the control of the deep state. Get your ammo, men! Hope you got lots of guns! Get your kids ready to fire the extras.
Yes you brave men and patriots, standing strong to defend the Russian puppet in the White House. How thrilling it is. To arms!
Hey Inga- you get what you pay for
Despite Comey Assurances, Vast Bulk of Weiner Laptop Emails Were Never Examined
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