March 26, 2019

"The Mainstream Media is under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE."

"For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion. They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!"

Trump's morning tweet, 19 minutes ago.

ALSO: From last night:

122 comments:

tim maguire said...

I don't want my president to talk this way, but he's right and he's right to be outraged about it.

rehajm said...

He’s correct of course, though so long as you still treat them as legit media outlets with the press passes and the access there’s a crediblility gap.

In other news, Democrats have no problem alienating FOX simlly because they don’t like them.

John henry said...

Russian Collusion Delusion

I like it. It has a nice ring to it.

Maybe Ru-Co-De for short?

Or perhaps Ru-Code to remind media folks they should learn to code.

John Henry

Expat(ish) said...

I literally can't eat any more popcorn.

I have no idea how I will survive the next election cycle.

-XC

John henry said...

I also like that he is tweeting the WSJ saying investigate Obama.

But linking to Breitbart instead of the WSJ.

As Andrew Breitbart famously said:

"Fuck you. War."

John Henry

David Begley said...

With Barr in charge, this is going to be a complete bloodbath for the Dems. Lower level criminals will rat out their superiors right to the top. Brennan, Comey, Lynch and McCabe are going to get it.

George Papadopolus has a book out today. After the bar meeting with Amb. Downer, he reported the guy to the FBI and CIA. The clear question is who put Downer up to this?

I’m especially looking forward to the indictments of Susan Rice and Samantha Power. Valerie Jarrett would be icing on the cake.

And don’t forget my point shaving theory. The FBI didn’t honestly investigate Hillary. The FBI deviated from SOP.

steve uhr said...

Especially so in Russia.

rehajm said...

Regular government and Obama administration officials should be held accountable. I’d like to see some punishment for attacking voters with the IRS. Talk about interference in elections- On a list of problems that’s problem one or two. Russian Facebook ads are problem 874...

rhhardin said...

That all started with Al Gore contesting the Florida count. Open personal gain over damage to the country became the new Democrat norm.

John henry said...

College scandals people arrested

SPLC looks like it will be going tits up

CNN legal correspondant Geragos arrested.

Brennan saying on tv he may have made a mistake.

And of course total exoneration (or "vindication" as MSNBC puts it)

Perhaps the rope-a-dope phase is over?

exhelodrvr1 said...

He's correct. Question is how many Democrats, and LLRs, are willing to put their country first, party second? Certainly doesn't seem like many of them in the political "leadership" are willing to.

Ace Sullivan said...

I've said it from the beginning... I hope he at least tells us who killed Kennedy and if there are really aliens before They off him.

Mike Sylwester said...

Yesterday I commented about an article that Consortium News editor Joe Lauria published three days before the 2016 presidential election. The more I think about this article, the more it has influenced my thinking.

The FBI leadership's so-called "insurance policy" was a scheme to deal with the possibility that Donald Trump would achieve a narrow victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. If Trump won thus, there still was a possibility to convince the necessary number of Electoral College voters to switch their votes from Trump to Clinton. They might switch if they were convinced that Trump had won only by colluding with Russia.

During October 2016, the leadership of the US Intelligence Community prepared their "insurance policy" for that possibility. The public was informed that Russia was meddling in our election. And the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to collect all communications within Trump's sphere about Russia.

If Trump won by a narrow margin, then the public -- most importantly, the key Electoral College voters -- would be bombarded by leaks from the Intelligence Community insinuating that Trump had won by colluding with Russia.

However, two thing happened:

1) Before the election, Trump complained that the election was "rigged", and so President Obama took the bait and insisted that the election could not be rigged.

2) On Election Day, Trump won by such a large margin in the Electoral College that it would be impossible to convince enough Electoral College voters to switch.

rhhardin said...

The MSM is a business of eyeballs not news. They'll do whatever their audience will click on.

Trump has his own eyeball market.

If he wants to raise a structural issue with the republic and its public debate, he needs to reform soap opera women that drive the enemy narrative.

rhhardin said...

You can't let the imperfect be the enemy of the good.

Danno said...

Trump is dead on! The pendulum is swinging back the other way.

Nichevo said...

I daresay a legitimate LLR who is actually R and not a maniac might, at this time, be taking the message that the NeverTrumper tactics just aren't tactically sound. This is the time for that type to grit their teeth and attempt their end of a graceful climbdown to a modus vivendi. We shall see if that is the case.

Nichevo said...

Oh, and,

Dear Mr. President,

Bring the pain.

Brian said...

"Collusion Delusion" Delusion is a really good word here isn't it? Scott Adams on a recent Periscope was talking about how whatever Trump says next, it will be hard to say the "right" thing, since he's got the high ground now.

Using the word "delusion" is an appeal to the anti-Trump factions who really thought there was Russian collusion going on, and had all their hopes on Mueller, who find out now that they were being lied to. With this tweet he's giving them someone to pin the blame on.

"It's not your fault. It's the media's fault." Interesting choice. And yet another example of how Trump doesn't tweet haphazardly. His LACK of tweeting on Saturday was another example.

It just seems haphazard. Which is what makes it effective.

Laslo Spatula said...

If the Democrats would've grudgingly accepted the results of the Mueller wrap-up I'd probably be amenable to 'moving on'.

However, they seem to be doubling down on the 'Trump is guilty of something' card, meaning more investigations and unsubstantiated charges, which the media will no doubt dutifully support, and the Anti-Trumpers will gladly swallow and regurgitate.

In this context, to them Trump 'moving on' means Trump is hiding something: three months from now Mueller will be a distant memory to be ignored or misrepresented. The average person will assume there still must be something to all of this, because they keep hearing about it, and will consume the meal because they have been carefully sheltered from the unseemly sights that happened back in the kitchen.

As such, if the subject is going to stay in the mouths of the left, then the rotten teeth need to be pulled with heavy pliers.

Trump needs to go for the front teeth first, and work his way to the molars.

I am Laslo.

Temujin said...

There is much there that needs to be investigated. From the start, the facts were blown over by 'wants'. And with the media reaching a point of being nothing more than verbal and written arms of the Democrat Party, the 'wants' rode right over and past the facts. The reality did not matter for now. What mattered was get Trump.

And so they did, until they ran of the the currency of reality.

And now the real investigation will try to begin. If it gets enough oxygen from the communication arm of the Democrat Party. Journalism is long gone and I'm not sure it'll recover in my lifetime. But the Dem Party has a huge advantage over anyone else with their communication arm- so large, so pervasive- running from the podiums in college classrooms to the editorial rooms at the NY Times and WaPo, to the executive suites at the networks, to the censor committees at Facebook and Google.

That Trump won seems even more amazing each day. That the people don't just rise up and burn down these towers of corruption shows an amazing amount of restraint. I'm not sure it'll last another 10 years.

Quaestor said...

Can Obama be trusted to give us the unvarnished veritas? (Attention hysterical feminists: Veritas contains no gametes.)

michaele said...

I am very interested in the results of the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's year long inquiry into possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the DOJ and FBI in their investigation into President Trump and associates of his 2016 campaign. Frankly, that report has the potential to be the "bombshell" that the media kept screaming the Mueller report was going to be. I hope Horowitz's efforts are brutally honest and thorough.

Ralph L said...

This is known as a target rich environment. It's too bad that probably 5% of the American people will notice or care how the government and media were went after one man.

MacMacConnell said...

Trump at the WH on Monday as the AG Barr's letter to congress concerning the Mueller Report being read on MSNBC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=hzXsQzM_h2E

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Upbeat and circumspect!

Bruce Hayden said...

Good morning everyone!!!

I am impressed by Trump here. The left, the MSM, are temporarily in disarray and Trump is pouncing, doing a decent job at setting the discussion.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Russians claim they are exonerated by the Mueller Report.

It never happened! It was all a Democrat plot!

Ralph L said...

Obama had decried the USA Patriot Act in 2004 for using the war against terrorism to violate U.S. citizens’ civil liberties.

All that matters is who's doing it to whom. Heads must roll, even if they're only the minions', because the media will protect one side in the future. It isn't just revenge.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Except that they are not being "scorned all over the world for being corrupt and fake." The thought process is "Shit!! We got greedy. Hillary was a bitch too far. We need to back off a little bit and be more patient."

Eddie said...

Calling the press "the opposition party" makes plenty of sense, but calling them "the enemy of the people" seems like a good way for Trump to keep his approval rating below 50%. Perhaps Trump has trouble seeing beyond the kinds of statements that get a good reaction at his rallies.

David Begley said...

Watching MSNBC and CNN cover the coming indictments of Comey, McCabe et alia should be hilarious.

Prediction. They will assert that the indictments are political payback. Banana Republic stuff. When Lynch and Rice get indicted, it will be racism.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Why did Trump and his cohorts lie repeatedly about Russia whenever they were asked about it? Why lie when you have nothing to hide?

Henry said...

They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!"

Very funny mashup. An Enemy of the People sounds like a collectivist accusation against the individual. And so it is. The town gangs together to destroy Dr. Stockmann.

Ibsen wrote to his publisher: "I am still uncertain as to whether I should call [An Enemy of the People] a comedy or a straight drama. It may [have] many traits of comedy, but it also is based on a serious idea."

This sums up our age pretty well, I think.

* * *

I also enjoy the echo of the phrase "The Real" as it bounces between "The Real Donald Trump" and "The Real Opposition Party."

Trump isn't throwing shade. He's throwing respect.

Glen Filthie said...

First of all, like anyone else I would like to see every second journalist taken out and shot at random as a warning to the rest. If the pen is mightier than the sword then we need pen control more than gun control.

But - I like this level of scrutiny on our leaders. Obutthole, Hillary and their fart catchers in the deep state need to go through the same wringer now. The guys behind this need a taste of their own medicine. Those that don’t pass muster can be marched out to the firing squad with the journalists.

Tommy Duncan said...

FISA, FISA, FISA?

Jersey Fled said...

Mueller confirmed what any person with an open mind knew, including many posters here, about the Russia collusion hoax.

Here is what we also know: that the Obama administration used the surveillance powers of the his intelligence agencies against his political opponents. Just as he used the IRS against the Tea Party movement. A fair and complete investigation will show that contractors including Fusion GPS were given access to raw intelligence data in support of the Clinton campaign.

The editorial in the WSJ is a turning point in that a mainstream news organization printed it in black and white. Trump is not the kind of person who will quietly let it go away. Not after what he went through, unfairly I might add, over the past two years.

We all know. Now let's get to the bottom of this. The next move is Obama's. How he responds will tell us much.

glenn said...

The media guys all know this and knew it two years ago. They were and are cheering Barry on.

tds said...

FISA court actions and its judges should go first under spotlight, before the usual political noise.

Mattman26 said...

Hmmmm. The Real Opposition Party. From GOP to ROP. Sounds like a nifty piece of branding for 2020. Guy is good at what he does.

tim in vermont said...

Great picture, the angelic Obama looks like mommy just caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. I do worry that this whole scandal at the FBI,CIA, FEC, IRS, NSA, ETC... has made me so disgusted with America that the best choice looks like leaving. Can you imagine the kind of East German surveillance state in support of The Party these guys are going to build once they get complete power, pack the courts, with the press cheering them on and blacking out all of the negative news that they will be able to build. It’s more than a little bit sad.

tim in vermont said...

Sherman McCoy punches back.

tim in vermont said...

It never happened! It was all a Democrat plot!

I think that you have some spittle on your chin now. Try breathing into a bag for a few breaths, calm down, and then see if you can muster any fact or even a reason. Even the most flaccid little fact will do for a start. We don’t expect you to marshal a cogent argument.

iowan2 said...

Morning schmoe just lost his shit at the top of the 7:00cdt block. refuses recognize the media pushing lies for 2+ years. One of the guests just said without equivocation That President Trump asked Russia for assistance, received assistance, and rewarded Russia for the assistance.
This is one of the new pushes. Yes there is lots of conspiracy with Russia, but it does not rise to a criminal level.
They are just providing their blog trolls with talking points. All of this narrative lacks any hint of specificity. That's one way to figure out they are lying.

They also will not address the fact that good reporters were out there doing good fact based reporting that proved there was nothing pertinent to launch an investigation, the reporting of abuse of the FBI, DOJ,State Dpt,and CIA. All this reporting existed in real time. A balance to the "President Trump Colluded" story. Reporting they worked hard to keep from reaching people.

Professional lady said...

I agree, there must be consequences if only to deter such abuses in the future.

tim in vermont said...

Owning the press is like having air superiority in conventional combat. Owning the deep state is like having superior artillery. This is going to be a tough row for Mr Trump to hoe.

Humperdink said...

Thr DOJ should start wringing out guilty pleas from the FBI leadership as they work their way to the top (of the previous administration). Should not be hard to do. Just takes some spine.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

So now Trump will be lifting the sanctions in Russia, right?

Wince said...

Does “Abuse of Surveillance Powers” truly encompas the full range of malfeasance that attempted to tip and then thwart the outcome of a US presidential election?

Obama was Nixon’s wet dream. A near perfect corruption of the intelligence and justice bureacracies at the top in service of political ends, followed by abuse of the remaining prosecutorial safeguards in an attempt to cover the whole thing up, while the establishment media turned a blind eye to what should have been for them been the quintessential story of political corruption of the last several generations.

Big Mike said...

I agree with tds (the commenter) that legislation needs to be introduced to prevent the FISA courts from ever being abused again. Tactically I think it should be introduced in the House and moderate Democrats like Conor Lamb pressured into co-sponsoring. Put Pelosi on notice.

tim in vermont said...

Brennan saying on tv he may have made a mistake

Obama’s CIA director shown to be a partisan Democrat hack. Nothing to see here, move on!

Curious George said...

"Why did Trump and his cohorts lie repeatedly about Russia whenever they were asked about it? Why lie when you have nothing to hide?"

Incurable. Sad.

Bob Boyd said...

True believer Democrats' relationship to the MSM reminds me of the old joke about Cinderella sitting on Pinocchio's face screaming, "Lie to me! Lie to me!"

Lincolntf said...

This whole episode exposes the dichotomy of the Modern American Left that I have always recognized. Divided between the Stupid and the Evil, with some fluidity between the two categories. The Evil are the ones who tell the lies (and pretend to believe them) and the Stupid are the ones who actually fall for their bullshit, time and time again. Nothing decent lies on that side of the political spectrum.

JackWayne said...

Anyone who thinks that the perpetrators will be booked needs to take a deep breath. Barr is a Made Man. There will will be no cleanup in aisle DC. A few people will be quietly let go and business as usual will continue.

Big Mike said...

As to the media, Trump did give them the whole weekend and yesterday to apologize. Their universal response was to give the President of the United States the one-fingered saliute.

War.

Bill Crawford said...

*Why did Trump and his cohorts lie repeatedly about Russia whenever they were asked about it? Why lie when you have nothing to hide?*

If they did, and if it was serious, Mueller would have investigated and included it in the report.

He didn't, so it isn't.

Darkisland said...

Another war opportunity:

I am in a hotel this week and was half-watching CNN at breakfast. It seemed like ever minute there was 2 minutes of ads for prescription pharmaceuticals. Nothing new, I've commented about it here before.

The US and New Zealand are the only 2 countries in the world (1st and 2nd world at least. 3rd World too, I think) where it is legal to advertise prescription drugs to the general public.

People, mostly progressives, have been bitching about this for years. I can see pros and cons. Free speech guy that I am, I am generally in favor of letting them.

Something like 50% of all TV ad revenue comes from these ads. Lots of revenue to magazines, too. Something like $100bn/yr spent by pharmcos.

Wouldn't it be cool if the FDA commissioner ruled no prescription ads, other than to doctors and other health professionals are no longer permissible? He could use the left arguments. He could talk about how the US is almost alone and it is time to join the civilized world. yada, yada, yada.

No need for President Trump to talk about it at all. No need, especially, to talk about the real reason: Cut off media funding.

There is another advantage too. Stopping the revenue will stop the media companies from being beholden to the pharmcos. We might actually see some reporting on drug problems. Now the drug companies control what the media can and can't say. They do this even with stories not directly related to health but that the drug cos just don't like.

How much more reporting might we have seen on the eminent domain case a few years ago? Pfizer razed an entire neighborhood for a new HQ then said "Umm, never mind." and what was once a vibrant neighborhood is now a barren field.

If they had not been beholden to Pfizer's billions, we might have gotten better reporting on this outrage.

John Henry

tim in vermont said...

I just don’t understand what the thinking process of the Bulwark types is when they can sweep this under their mental rugs because these tactics were used against someone they didn’t like. They would have used them against any Republican.

I used to say I wouldn’t vote for Ted Cruz on a bet, but he might be the only other Republican out there who looks like he has the stones for the job after Trump’s second term.

Meade said...

"We all know. Now let's get to the bottom of this. The next move is Obama's. How he responds will tell us much."

What did President The-1980s-Called-They-Want-Their-Foreign-Policy-Back know? And when did he know it?

Quaestor said...

The ENTIRE Russia hoax was engineered to allow Hillary Clinton to escape indictment for mishandling classified documents and possible espionage. I do not look forward to Obama's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee because he will either perjure himself or he will truthfully reveal the most heinous case of corruption and subversion ever committed against the People and the Consitution of the United States. In the end, this tragic episode will see Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and Strzok indicted and probably convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Donald Trump, his children, Carter Page, and everyone wiretapped or otherwise surveilled using those fraudulently obtained FISA warrants. If Obama had ANY foreknowledge of their activities he will be named as an unindicted co-conspirator. America does need to be shamed before the world as a banana republic, but that may be the only way, short of a CIA wet operation, to rid the body politic of the lying, thieving, raping, murdering, treacherous, treasonous Clintons.

Quo usque tandem abutere, Clintona, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?

Jeff Brokaw said...

He’s not wrong.

The media ia probably a malevolent force in your life, if you really stop and think about it. Do not let it do that to you.

I adopted a strict policy 3 years ago, after years of observing media malpractice; assume every story is mostly lies with bits of truth sprinkled in.

Dismiss it with prejudice. Refuse to let your thoughts and emotions be manipulated by these liars. Control the information you allow into you world.

If you miss out on a few useful truthful nuggets sometimes, well, life goes on.

It’s very freeing to cut these losers out of your life.

h said...

Nixon, Church commission, unraveling of JEHoover reputation made it clear to a generation or two that it was permissible to use instruments of govt. (fbi, cia, etc) for political advantage. If the worst things are true about Obama and deep state, it is essential that these be investigated and condemned if appropriate. But. Remember Nixon.

traditionalguy said...

The Kenyan Muslim, busyfor 8 years pretending to be a legitmate POTUS, ordered his corrupted FBI to run a baited counter-intelligence operation using foreign spies (given to him by British Crown Nazi scum) against the Republican candidate.

How much foreign interference in our Democratic procedures does that rate. The enemy of the people gleefully ran propaganda for this gas lighting operation orderd by Obama.The real question is how did they expect to get away with it.The answer must be is a bought off and corrupt DC Deep State bribed by Soros and blackmailable by the CIA's carefully collected child trafficking evidence on them.

But the tough guy Trumptook them on and won this. His mightiest men in the battle were Admiral Rogers and Kevin Nunes.

Henry said...

Nobody said...
Sherman McCoy punches back.
LOL. Awesome zinger.

narciso said...

No, the left has always been against security services in opposition (zinoviev, harold wilson) and in favor in power, that's nothing new.

Yancey Ward said...

Matt Taibbi has a new essay up at Rolling Stone this morning. In it he again lambastes the idiots in the media. In the essay, Taibbi critiqued something that should bring a smile to the faces of this site's commentariat- well all those except a certain dullard who wrote exactly the same phrase here nearly every day for almost 2 years:

"If you tried to protest that this had not been proven, that journalists should be more careful about leveling such serious accusations, the first line of response (if it wasn’t accusing you of being in league with Putin) was usually a version of: Be quiet, you don’t know what Mueller knows."

That was fucking hilarious!

Fen said...

"But. Remember Nixon."

Remember Cain, he said, attempting to downplay the murder.

tim in vermont said...

So now Trump will be lifting the sanctions in Russia, right?

You do know that the Mueller report did not let the Russians off the hook. But let’s wait and see. Oh wait, whenever you guys are proven wrong, you shake it off, pretend it didn’t happen, and start with the next unsubstantiated line of attack. It’s utterly transparent, you might not feel any shame, but more and more people can see you for what you are.

iowan2 said...

Why did Trump and his cohorts lie repeatedly about Russia whenever they were asked about it? Why lie when you have nothing to hide?

I see todays talking points are being posted as per orders from their handlers. As usual, posting something that sounds pithy, but just exposes their total lack of understanding to the issue. But facts get in the way of propaganda.

Ralph L said...

The entire Obama White House didn't need to lift a finger to set this in motion.
I might believe him if he says he only read about it in the media.

narciso said...

Nixon was never forgiven for revealing their golden boy hiss as a Soviet agent (gru) as it was. Hoover was defamed by a whispering campaign carried out through ex rivals like John weitz of the oss, which had in itself at least two nkvd penetrations Duncan Lee and at least one other

Crimso said...

As far as the obstruction Hail Mary goes, I understand that it is theoretically possible to "obstruct justice" when there was no crime committed. But in what way could Trump have obstructed justice? By firing Comey? Remember, Trump KNEW he had committed no crime (at least as far as Russian collusion goes), so if the obstruction question Mueller deceitfully left on the table is in play, in what way does the theoretical possibility of obstruction of justice even exist in this case?

That's what the "low-background-hum" people are going to now hear rising up out of the noise that they are dimly aware of: Congressional Democrats taking over the BAMN campaign to get rid of Trump because of obstruction (Senate will never convict). Free advice for the Dems: the very best way (in terms of your interests) to get rid of Trump is to see him reelected in 2020 and wait for his 2nd term to expire. That's the BEST you can now hope for. Because there will now come a release of documents that will be VERY damaging to the anti-Trump forces. We've already seen some of it, and what we HAVE seen is damning. "Worse than Watergate by far" level of damning. The most damning info is, I'm pretty sure, still not released.

stevew said...

"They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!"

Could this characterization of the media also be an olive branch to the Democrats in Washington, or am I seeing something that isn't there?

Phil 314 said...

What’s disturbing for me is:

- some folks on the Left were hoping the President was an agent for a foreign enemy. That IS NOT something to be hoped for.

- some folks on the Right hope the FBI and the CIA will be proven to fight against our democratic institutions (this is the liberal conspiracy story of the ‘60s).

I don’t want either to be true and if either were true I would be heart broken, not gleeful for the “win for our side”

MayBee said...

So is Brennan going to get away with saying, "Oops, my bad"? He had all the power of intelligence at his fingertips when this started. Does this seriously not alarm anyone on the left (besides Aaron Mate and Glenn Greenwald)

Any people on the left here who want to tell me if that alarms them or not?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Why did Trump and his cohorts lie repeatedly about Russia whenever they were asked about it?

Since you provide no example I'll assume you are referring to Cohen and Trump both saying the negotiations with various Russians over a Moscow hotel ended before the 2016 primaries. I don't know of any other DNC-Media hoaxes that are still outstanding, other than this issue. If you have an example, please show it.

Now to address the lie about the lie. I've noticed the dishonest media will say "Cohen was still negotiating" or "Trump was negotiating" and then they play a clip of Trump saying, "We have no ongoing business in Russia" or a very similar statement. Then they label Trump's statement a lie. But Trump never did build a hotel in Moscow and regardless of when they stopped negotiating, it is a stone-cold fact that the Trump organization does NOT have any business in Russia. By blending the two issues ("negotiation" versus "business with") the media tries to paint Trump as lying about "Russian business" when it is actually the DNC-Media perpetuating a lie.

Now if I'm wrong and you're right and there are many countervailing examples, I'd like to see them. Otherwise we just chalk up this chapter to what Trump says in the quote at the top of this page, "Fake news."

narciso said...

As for the company they left my distant relative on the beachhead in 61, the standup people like lynch and Robertson's recommendations were ignored in the Taylor report.

MayBee said...

Friends here who will not call out Brennan-- ok. He accused the president of treason, gave information to the press to allow this debacle for 2 years, and now says, "Oops sorry". I get it you don't like Trump so you don't mind this was done to him.
But let's flip it. Let's say there's someone Brennan really likes for some reason. What do you think he would be willing to do on his behalf, in secret? What might he be willing to hide? How much power are you willing to give Brennan or someone like him to manipulate you one way or another?

gilbar said...

Obama Says "Not Even a Smidgen of Corruption"

Yancey Ward said...

Mike Sylvester wrote discussing the attempts to persuade Electoral College faithless electors:

"On Election Day, Trump won by such a large margin in the Electoral College that it would be impossible to convince enough Electoral College voters to switch."

This fact is underappreciated, in my opinion. Before the election, it was generally thought (by me, too), that Trump, if he won, would win by winning all the states Romney won, and adding OH, Florida, and at least 16 (needed 17 to win outright) electoral votes from somewhere/s else- most of the scenarios considered possible (winning VA and IA, for example) only added up to 18 additional electoral votes maximum. So, it was unlikely that Trump would end up with more than 272 electoral votes in any scenario, though his chances of winning were considerably higher- in short, Trumps expected vote total was very narrow with any win being narrow, too. So, I think Lauria was right- the plan was partly evolved to overcome a narrow loss to Trump in the EC, but Trump foiled that by not only winning IA and WI, but MI and PA, too.

It is interesting to consider the alternative history where Trump only won WI and IA along with the ME district- that would have landed him at 270 exactly. As it turned out, there were two faithless electors in TX- one can wonder about those two- were they approached before the the election itself? I have wondered about that for over 2 years. It is probable that knowing their votes no longer mattered, they decided to vote on a whim, but it is also possible they were bought by someone.

Jeff Brokaw said...

Trump needs to push this issue (Obama Admin conspiracy) and push it hard.

For the good of the nation. The rot is deep. Criminals belong in prison.

We do not want to live in a nation where the last two years becomes normalized.

tim in vermont said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

https://twitter.com/b1ohazard777/status/1110503722516398081

Jeff Brokaw said...

@Althouse, since you love to dig into word usage, this idea came to me yesterday: why did they decide on use of “collusion” to describe this fantasy?

Seems to me that “conspiracy” is the more accepted term for such things - but that word is often used as a pejorative i.e. “conspiracy theorist”.

Oh the irony ... they chose a word to not sound crazy and then here we are, in Crazytown!

Chuck said...

So the "upbeat and circumspect" Trump that Althouse noted in this post lasted about 44 hours before the snarling Trump came back, punching downward as always.

I nearly overlooked the hilarity that Trump's link/retweet of the Wall Street Journal editorial wasn't a Journal link at all. It was Breitbart. Lulz.

narciso said...

Scl analytica was the only pro Brexit contracting outfit re haklyut and orbis for instance so it had to be destroyed.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I am very interested in the results of the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's year long inquiry into possible abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the DOJ and FBI in their investigation into President Trump and associates of his 2016 campaign. Frankly, that report has the potential to be the "bombshell" that the media kept screaming the Mueller report was going to be. I hope Horowitz's efforts are brutally honest and thorough.”

I sure hope so, but one of the problems that we have seen with DoJ OIG reports is that stakeholders are apparently given a chance to review, and maybe tweak the findings, of their reports before publication. The god thing now is that a lot of the central players are no longer in our govt, so are no longer given this power to partially hide their transgressions. The bad news is that only the most visible miscreants have been pushed out or fired. Plenty of others in the periphery are still in place in these agencies.

Another problem is that the defense we have been seeing so far is that it was the system that failed (thank you DAG Sally Yates). The people signing for their agencies were just trusting their subordinates to have done their jobs. All the forms looked correct, so they signed. The OIG isn’t as good at identifying bureaucratic problems as it is at identifying individual miscreants and criminals. Here we have a bunch of bureaucrats gaming the system, with very diffuse responsibility for the entire fraud. About the only two people I really expect to see paying for the illegal wiretapping the Trump campaign, transition, and early Administration, through the fraudulently acquired FISA warrants on Carter Page, are DAG Yates and DD McCade, who both preapproved the original warrant application, causing their subordinates to essentially rubber stamp their parts of the application process. And they both had actual knowledge of the falsity of what they were signing, due to their direct involvement with Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS. Pretty much everyone signing the warrant extensions is probably going to get by with claiming to have depended on the paperwork signed by their subordinates. Of course, we could hope for more accountability, because nothing would cause a bureaucrat to double check the underlying facts in what he is signing for, than high level bureaucrats going to jail for just trusting their subordinates to have done their job right.

tim in vermont said...

I despise this president and always will, for many valid reasons.

However, it's time for the democrats, the left-leaning media, and the public to move on. Frankly, MSNBC has become as bad as Fox News, sorry to say. I won't watch it anymore. It's a total waste of time, just like Fox News.

From now on, please focus on the real issues facing America and the possible solutions that will actually help. Try to ignore this president.


Oh my. This comment was a “Times Pick” on David Brooks semi honest column yesterday.

Trump you magnificent bastard!

tim in vermont said...

it was generally thought (by me, too),...

Only Mick got it right, and he was apparently a troll trying to gaslight us. Ha ha ha! Trump has given us such a coruscating wealth of ironies that it looks like Scrooge McDuck’s cave!

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Entire Corporate Democratic Media Complex filled with democratic Clinton-Obama staffers.

That's how this happens.

Henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Keep hope alive, Inga.

Your leftwing liars in the hack press control you tiny leftwing brain.

Henry said...

@Yancy Ward -- Thanks for that link. Taibbi is on fire.

He has a gift for the shiv:

This manipulative brand of news programming preyed upon the emotional devastation of liberal audiences, particularly the older people who watch cable.... The median age of the CNN viewer is 60 and MSNBC’s is 65, and these people were urged for years to place their trust in Santa BOB.

But how old are the people that read Rolling Stone now?

LakeLevel said...

The President is playing the long game. He is now a sympathetic character, beleaguered by sinister forces. He is now just trying to do the right thing. The media way overplayed their hand. They are like a poker player who lost most of their stake. They should be careful and bide their time. They will not. They can't help themselves. Like Bush 43 with Rathergate, Trump will ride this debacle to crushing victory.

By the way, this new blog moderation is annoying. I don't think Ann understands all the things that make her blog appealing. Be careful Ann, don't kill the golden goose.

William said...

It goes too far to say that the media is the enemy of the people. The media is the enemy of people who vote for real estate developers. And high school kids who wear MAGA hats........How many things does the media have to get wrong before the realization sinks in that they might be doing something wrong. They're a lot like those tobacco executives who swore before Congress that nicotine is not addictive.

Bruce Hayden said...

“As far as the obstruction Hail Mary goes, I understand that it is theoretically possible to "obstruct justice" when there was no crime committed. But in what way could Trump have obstructed justice? By firing Comey? Remember, Trump KNEW he had committed no crime (at least as far as Russian collusion goes), so if the obstruction question Mueller deceitfully left on the table is in play, in what way does the theoretical possibility of obstruction of justice even exist in this case?”

I think that Mueller intentionally left the Obstruction question a little bit open to appease this fanatically partisan prosecutors. As I noted yesterday, there are questions of fact and of law. They weren’t able to keep open the factual questions of Russian collusion because they had just spent millions of dollars, issued hundreds of subpoenas and search warrants, etc and came up empty. But the question of Obstruction is a legal one here. All the relevant facts are known, so the only question is whether they support prosecution for the crime of Obstruction of Justice. And Mueller left the question unresolved, and did so, I think, because he could. AG Barr made fairly clear in his letter that the legal claim of Obstruction against President Trump is borderline frivolous. Under current DoJ rules, a prosecutor would be instructed not to indict because required elements of the crime could not, in good faith, be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. And this was before getting to the required element of intent that is pretty much negated by lack of an underlying crime, and Article II Executive power of the President.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Trump obstructed justice when he beat Hillary. It's illegal, you know. All the hacks (Brennan, Clapper, Comey, et all) were lined up to pocket millions with the Clinton Crime machine/Democratic Stephanopilis money machine at the helm.

The best part of the big Russian lie is the left morphed into the very villain they manufactured.

narciso said...

The left wants to control the media through outlets like Michael straights new republic back in the 50s, through the security organs and prestige publications like the times and the journal, Bezos contract goes a ways toward that.

Mike Sylwester said...

Adding to my own comment at 6:44 AM
The FBI leadership's so-called "insurance policy" was a scheme to deal with the possibility that Donald Trump would achieve a narrow victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. If Trump won thus, there still was a possibility to convince the necessary number of Electoral College voters to switch their votes from Trump to Clinton. They might switch if they were convinced that Trump had won only by colluding with Russia.

-----

The FBI obtained the FISA warrant against Carter Page in late October 2016 (the exact date is redacted in the copy released to the public). Election Day was November 8, 2016, but the Electoral College did not vote until December 19, 2018. The "insurance policy" was oriented toward the later date.

The FISA warrant enabled the FBI's leadership to obtain information to help convince Electoral College voters to switch from Trump to Clinton on December 19.

-----

An important part of the "insurance policy" scheme was to convince the public -- in particular the Electoral College voters -- that all 17 Intelligence agencies concurred that Russia was meddling in the election.

That is why James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, did not correct Clinton when she declared that claim.

Anonymous said...

Looks to me like they are all vying to be known as the Edmund Ruffin of the coming civil war. What an honor!



Livermoron

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Phil wrote:

"some folks on the Right hope the FBI and the CIA will be proven to fight against our democratic institutions (this is the liberal conspiracy story of the ‘60s)."

That is not something we every "hoped for," but it looks to be true. Do you really think Brennan and Comey were honest actors in this national soap opera? It is, in fact, heartbreaking and infuriating that US government agencies were corrupted and weaponized. If that is the case, it must be exposed so those agencies can be reformed (if possible). Do you expect folks on the Right to simply ignore such corruption?

Yancey Ward said...

LakeLevel wrote:

"By the way, this new blog moderation is annoying. I don't think Ann understands all the things that make her blog appealing."

I agree completely. It has destroyed most of the interactive conversation that was actually good, all just to remove that which was bad. As I wrote the other day, a good commenter is going to be smart enough to ignore the chaff- it literally costs me no time at all to scroll past the flame wars, but I now find myself engaging the other good comments less by a significant amount.

Meade said...

Chuck said...
So the "upbeat and circumspect" Trump that Althouse noted in this post lasted about 44 hours before the snarling Trump came back, punching downward as always.

Has anything changed for you, Chuck? I mean, 1 year ago you wrote — in earnest I believe —

"I'd love to see Trump get charged with a crime."

Still feel that way? Do you even recognize the unAmerican anti-conservative unpatriotic sentiment expressed in your comment?

gahrie said...

By the way, this new blog moderation is annoying. I don't think Ann understands all the things that make her blog appealing.

I agree completely. It has destroyed most of the interactive conversation that was actually good


I used to stop by multiple times a day to engage in conversations. Now I come once a day. Althouse probably prefers it this way.

Ralph L said...

Article II Executive power of the President.

Doesn't this trump all the obstruction talk? Firing Comey, like Nixon firing Cox, can be a political crime, but they were well within their legal authority. The fired weren't civil servants. He could legally tell Comey to ignore Flynn.

I was hoping some law professor with no ax to grind would weigh in on this.

tim in vermont said...

lasted about 44 hours before the snarling Trump came back, punching downward as always.

Chuck. What is your argument that there has been no abuse of FISA by Democrats in the Obama Administration to hold onto power?

Drago said...

Admitted Smear Merchant: "I nearly overlooked the hilarity that Trump's link/retweet of the Wall Street Journal editorial wasn't a Journal link at all. It was Breitbart. Lulz."

Keep in mind the above comment was submitted by a devoted MSNBC, "brilliant" Maddow and far far far left LawfareBlog fanboy.

LOL indeed.

Nothing to say about dems weaponizing govt against republicans?

Cat got your tongue?

Double LOL!!

Ray - SoCal said...

It’s nice the Chuck, Inga, and PeePee hijacking / trolling gets stopped. Some of the insulting / personal attack were causing commentators to leave, and hurting the blog.

The lack of immediate response is a negative.

Perhaps a hybrid system. In the old system it took until about 100 comments for the derailment to happen.

And this moderation is not due to Meade and Althouse’s time. Probably why Meade does not comment as much as he did (I find his comments add a lot to the discussion).

tim in vermont said...

Trump is Compromised by Russia. - New York Times

Imagine that Trump dared call the New York Times “fake news.” I meat the gaul of that man, punching down like that!

Anonymous said...


Blogger Ray - SoCal said...
It’s nice the Chuck, Inga, and PeePee hijacking / trolling gets stopped. Some of the insulting / personal attack were causing commentators to leave, and hurting the blog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who would believe that losing Garage Mahal, ARM, and a few other lefties would actually result in even dumber representation from their side of the aisle?
I certainly didn't. But, in retrospect, it was quite predictable.
At least Althouse has this place under control. And it must be having an effect as I stopped commenting here about two years ago ...but here I am again.
No thanks to that lazy Meade guy. You can't spell 'Meade' without starting with 'Me', you know.

- Livermoron

Drago said...

"Still feel that way? Do you even recognize the unAmerican anti-conservative unpatriotic sentiment expressed in your comment?"

Its the pro-leftist-ism of it all that LLR Chuck most enjoys.

The unAmerican part is just gravy on the path to his desired permament leftist control of govt.

stevew said...

'So the "upbeat and circumspect" Trump that Althouse noted in this post lasted about 44 hours before the snarling Trump came back, punching downward as always.'

What would you have him do, behave like the Bush presidents, candidates Romney and McCain, ending up bloodied and neutered? Based on your previous comments I expect that would please you no end.

He must defend himself and, in this case, there is no better time to punch back.

Ralph L said...

Better for Trump to punch down than a few million well-armed Americans punch up. If other elected Republicans are fighting, they're not being seen unless they're against Trump.

Birkel said...

People who have acquitted themselves well during this whole attempted coup:
Political division:
Devin Nunes
John Ratcliffe
Lindsey Graham

Media division:
Maria Bartiromo
Glenn Greenwald
Matt Taibbi

tim in vermont said...

Inga reminds me of a. song:

I pushed my soul into a deep dark hole
and then I followed it in.
I watched myself crawl out, as I was crawling in

I got up so tight that I couldn’t unwind
I saw so much that it broke my mind

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.
-Kenny Rogers and the First Edition

Henry said...

@Birkel -- For list two, add Alan Dershowitz:

In Today's Globe:

...the president is completely off the hook with respect to any illegal conspiracy with Russian influence in the 2016 election. The special counsel found no evidence and has concluded that no crimes were committed by the President. That is total exoneration.

...

Recall that as fair as the Mueller investigation may have been, it was still a one-sided affair conducted only by prosecutors based on testimony that was not cross-examined and evidence that was not subject to adversarial testing. Is it fair therefore, for the special counsel to disclose his one-sided conclusions that are critical of the subject of his investigation? After all, when the decision is made to indict, the defendant has the opportunity to contest that indictment at an adversarial trial in which he can have his defense attorney challenge the prosecutor’s evidence and present their own defense. None of that is available to a person who has not been indicted but who is condemned in a prosecutorial report.


Inga...Allie Oop said...

“It’s nice the Chuck, Inga, and PeePee hijacking / trolling gets stopped. Some of the insulting / personal attack were causing commentators to leave, and hurting the blog.”

It’s nice that abusive trolls no longer can ruin a thread by inserting one unlrelated insult after another directed toward any commenter who inserts an opposing opinion. I like the new system, it’s not perfect, but what is?

Seeing Red said...


Blogger Left Bank of the Charles said...
So now Trump will be lifting the sanctions in Russia, right?

3/26/19, 7:38 AM


Why do you think that?

RobinGoodfellow said...


Blogger Glen Filthie said...
First of all, like anyone else I would like to see every second journalist taken out and shot at random as a warning to the rest. If the pen is mightier than the sword then we need pen control more than gun control.


Please cease with the over the top eliminationist rhetoric.

One in ten should be plenty.

Henry said...

@Seeing Red -- Not speaking for Charles, but I'm guessing sarcasm.

iowan2 said...

Still feel that way? Do you even recognize the unAmerican anti-conservative unpatriotic sentiment expressed in your comment?

This is the nub of the constant battling. Not a disagreement of opinion. Bring it on. disagreement is what make the world go around.
No. It's the lack of core values and no matter what the discussion is, it always proves President Trump is evil. I don't know how many times I have pointed out the opinion offered is divorced from previously stated core beliefs. Too often a position is taken that flies in the face of basic legal training, and basic constitutional under pinnings.
Something that I have never experienced interacting with any person with legal training.

Big Mike said...

And now we learn that the Senate voted down the Green New Deal, by zero to 57. Doug Jones, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema crossed party lines to join the 53 Republicans, as did Angus King of Maine.

Neither Bernie Sanders nor any of the Democrat Senators running for President voted for it.

Thank you Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. You go, "boss."

Trump's week is awe-inspiring great, and it's only Tuesday.