February 11, 2020

At the Morning Moon Cafe...

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... talk about anything except the presidential primary, which is up for discussion in the previous post.

60 comments:

Mark said...

I meant to ask this last night, and then I forgot what I was going to ask it.

So who should I vote for in the Virginia Dem primary on Super Tuesday? What's the most strategic vote?

rcocean said...

Looks like DoJ will just leave the stone sentence up to the Judge. They trashed the 7-9 years in a filing which shows that "physical threat" was a phony, no account was taken of Stone's age, and more important that the 7-9 years is way out of line for the crimes committed. They noted scooter Libby and others who lied to Congress got 3 years.

Obvious that the Liberal Democrats from Mueller's team were just trying to go out in a blaze of glory.

Big Mike said...

@Mark, which Congressional District are you in. I'm in the 10th, so I will vote in the GOP primary so I can vote for my choice of candidates for the House of Representatives, Aliscia Andrews. I will also want to have input into who will take on Mark Warner in November.

This was temporarily a blue state until the Democrats started grabbing everybody's guns. Now we will see.

rcocean said...

I saw "The Arrangement" with Kirk Douglas over the weekend. What a time capsule that is! We're supposed to care about Kirk, a millionaire adman and his "mid-life Crisis" and fears that he's "sold out". Kirk does Ok, but he's always Kirk Douglas.

Guildofcannonballs said...

In many ways I've been way more honest than I ever thought I could be.

Does the big G know more about me than me?

Yes.

To their extent.

Fair enough.

Amazing. For good or bad, and they have certainly, per this platform itself, this is not only contained but indeed contained, and then also infinitely not contained.

The latter is the problem.

Hazards are, now, thanks OSHA, easy to identify if you care enough to identify them. This saves lives. This spreads from town to town. Area to area.

Do things the right way. Have help. Talk about it. Think it through. Be kind.

Guildofcannonballs said...

As with a toothache, vital to CK's plot, "warm water" meaning....

Cold's always teach me something.

Every time.

Big Mike said...

@rcocean, I see that all four of the prosecutors have tendered their resignations as of today. One is leaving the DOJ entirely, the other three have only resigned from the case and seem to think that there's still a role for them somewhere else in the Justice Department. The suggested sentence for Mr. Stone may have been in the nature of throwing a stink bomb on the way out the door.

Mark said...

Votes for Republicans don't count in Arlington.

The County regime is pretty brutal about enforcing that rule.

Bay Area Guy said...

LA was totally beautiful today. Balmy 70 degrees. Burbank was nice, downtown LA was even nice and Hancock Park was glorious.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Is this thing on?

I was expecting some Steamboat 'works or something.

D. said...

After having a fabulous peach mint, I think I'll go and drain a swamp.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Justified is the most incredible thing non-Biblical.

Just imagine how justified I've been writing comment after comment year after year at the Althouse blog.

Then, you know, think about how "justified" all those FBI were, and CIA, and etc. etc. etc. ...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Yellowstone in winter is wonderful, especially if you put in a bit of effort to get away from the lodges. You don't have to snowshoe very far before you are on your own.

FullMoon said...

Not really so bad, kind of exhilarating..

Psych Hospitals Still Force Patients to Accept Shock Treatment...


One Zapped 500 Times in Five Years!

Guildofcannonballs said...

I had thought that since the media convicted Trump of Obama's crimes that made me crazy.

Turns out I was right.

There are winners: We and the form of democracy sub-labeled constitutional republic.

traditionalguy said...

Is that full moon over Kentucky? That would be southeast.

Amadeus 48 said...

We have a great big federal government and I think those DOJ people who can't accept their responsibility to the administration should be able to provide service outside Washington. North Dakota is beautiful at this time of year, and I know there are lots of Federal crimes that need sorting out there. I know these guys quit--or were asked to quit--or were required to quit. But I think they really needed to be given an occasion to quit.

Sorry for their loss.

FullMoon said...

Still funny

Pelosi’s Staff Demands Takedown of SOTU Tantrum Video…

…18M+ Views from Trump Socials Alone

narciso said...


Justified was a great show, i think the finale was truncated


https://youtu.be/3_UH4sHzJhY

stephen cooper said...

Guildofcannonballs, please tell us more.

What did Jesus mean when he said he could raise sons of Abraham from the side of the road? (my theory of why I might not be descended from Adam and Eveis this - somewhere 2,000 years ago a grandparent (varon) and a grandparent (embra) were created that way ----this is not my world, this is your world .....

Who can be justified in their own sight ? I rule out myself and everyone I have ever met. Can you be justified in your own sight, my young friend? I know you do not think so, and are too good a person to think so, but how close would you be to being justified in your own sight if you really loved God as God wants you to love God?

Is it possible that this world is NOT a simulation, but that somewhere in the 70s AD God restarted the world, and a 4,400 year old world, where all the partriarchs, like Enoch and Methuselah, lived and died, was put on hold while God easily went back a few billion years to create a secondary world, the world we live in, with all the "scientific" evidence that the IYIs at Cambridge INCESSANTLY talk about, as if they had access to any significant facts beyond their mutual admiration society and their tome after tome of astronomical and physical observations, with no real understanding of the primary world that STILL can be measured straight from Adam to the fall of Jerusalem in the first century ANNO DOMINI? - and which could easily be measured if only our best scientists were not so full of pride, amirite?

How much does God love us? How much does God love those we do not think God loves us?....

God loves me more than I can imagine. I try and evangelize at least 20 people a week. I could spend that time on financial planning, but I don't. Pray for me, my young friend. Pray for those I pray for. Thx

stephen cooper said...

How much does God love those who think God does not love them?
More than God loves those of us who think God loves them, right, the last shall be first and the first shall be last?


Remember, on this thread, don't reference the presidential primaries.

Guildofcannonballs said...

The idea Satan is of any race is absurd.

Only Satan laughs at the repercussions for not understanding so.

narciso said...

I dont think so stephen cooper, and you seem to have misread proverbs 8, our pastor covered the latter half of the last supper, that entails the symbolic nature of the new covenant.

Guildofcannonballs said...

It would be kind of easy to eliminate satanic influence if we all would acknowledge Satan's influence.

Some get paid, some feel it. They don't acknowledge how that helps.

But keeping real Satan as a joke, and highlighting the lighthearted Satan Satan wishes to be highlighted, well, duh then he guesses.

But he don't know. By definition he can't. It's always only how many innocent suffer.

narciso said...

Well we know satan by his works promotion of every violation of gods law and thosr who try to uphold it.

stephen cooper said...

Guildofcannonballs, please try again .....

I have dozens of friends, celibate and kind nuns, who are praying for you ....
I have dozens of friends in Purgatory who pray for everyone I pray for .....
and patron saints in heaven praying for EVERYBODY who ever talks to me, because I love the people who criticize me just as much as I love the people who praise me, maybe I love the critics even more .....

I love you man, and want the best for you.

so try again.


imagine a grandchild who thinks God is a joke but who wonders, if God were real, would God love her?
HOW MUCH DOES GOD LOVE THAT POOR DELUDED CHILD?

(a) more than I think God loves that child
or
(b) less than I think God loves that child.

not a trick question, God loves us all infinitely more than we can imagine.

not " a lot " but "infinitely".

that is why it is so easy to pray for our fellow creatures

narciso said...

So who is telling us to distegards Gods law because its old fashioned, who is watering down false witness by constant accusation, who is tearing down the sacrament of marriage?

narciso said...

I dont think they necessarily think God is a joke, but there is no evidence ofHis influence in their lives.

Rob said...

If Joe Biden identifies any more strongly with African-Americans, Bloomberg is going to stop and frisk him.

stephen cooper said...

God's law is ever new
well, it is good to combat false witness (was that a rare typo from you, narciso)
the sacrament of marriage has been unchanged since the first day of creation

narciso said...

If you call the truth false witness and vice versa. If you continue it for 4 years, if you make a mockery of justice

stephen cooper said...

narciso at 10:25 - I understand now, it was not a typo, it was vice versa rhetoric. I was hoping it was not a typo.

CAN WE AT LEAST AGREE THAT NONE OF US HAVE EVER MET ANYONE WHO LOVES JESUS AS MUCH AS PETER DID
and that it is slander to say he "denied" Christ out of personal fear, rather than out of fear that if the Romans caught on to him too quickly he would not be there the next day to save Jesus from the Romans, if such a thing were possible?
So all that rhetoric about Jesus telling Peter he would "deny him" three times had nothing to do with Peter not being full of love and bravery but simply a difference in tactics ..... with Peter not having learned the lesson that if Jesus hints that we should not be deceitful, well then we should not be deceitful ....
well we can agree with that but as God is my witness I think it unlikely that most of us will make it though the next few months without hearing at least one sermon about the alleged cowardice of Peter on the night before Good Friday from a pastor or a priest with much much less courage in his heart than Peter had on his worst day as a Christian.

Feel free to disagree, I am limiting myself to five comments tonight, so you get the last word.

narciso said...

Yes Jesus spoke of peters denial as a prophetic marker,he had seen the future and he was in control no matter whaf the price. He had taken elaborate countermeasures to make sure the Last supper had to go on. Peter was the foundation of the Church so his life had to be spared

narciso said...

Jesus was comducting a non violent revolution against the roman State and the local clergy, that is as an armed one.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I was disappointed when the poodle took Best in Show at Westminister. I was rooting for the Golden Retriever and the Sheltie.

But the nice thing about Westminister is, that unlike human competitions, the losers don't know they lost.* The dogs all got lots of treats and pets. So they're happy.

*Except for Democrats who lose elections.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Literally not littorally, easiest thing is Mozart.

Different times back then.

Anti-McCain 'day.

Fritz said...

Is it possible that this world is NOT a simulation, but that somewhere in the 70s AD God restarted the world, and a 4,400 year old world, where all the partriarchs, like Enoch and Methuselah, lived and died, was put on hold while God easily went back a few billion years to create a secondary world, the world we live in, with all the "scientific" evidence that the IYIs at Cambridge INCESSANTLY talk about, as if they had access to any significant facts beyond their mutual admiration society and their tome after tome of astronomical and physical observations, with no real understanding of the primary world that STILL can be measured straight from Adam to the fall of Jerusalem in the first century ANNO DOMINI? - and which could easily be measured if only our best scientists were not so full of pride, amirite?

In my religion, God remakes the world every Tuesday. I haven't figured out what time.

JackWayne said...

Anybody else notice how much Brad Stevens - Celtics coach - looks like buttigieg?

Yancey Ward said...

Mark asked:

"So who should I vote for in the Virginia Dem primary on Super Tuesday? What's the most strategic vote?"

Well, my answer would be to vote for Biden- I think he is clearly the least electable Democrat in the race, but you may have a different opinion. I think a vote for Sanders would be a mistake because I think he is the most electable of the Democrats, but I am clearly an outlier in this opinion. I just think people are making a big mistake in thinking that people won't vote for him based on his policy positions- the way I see it is that Sanders is an outsider in a populist revolt, polls well with working class men and will give Trump a run for his money in that important demographic in the general election. I think a lot of people will vote for him with the sure knowledge that Sanders won't be able to implement any of it, so a vote for him isn't that dangerous.

In the TN primary, I intend to vote for Biden.

HistoryDoc said...

Jack Wayne - you nailed it. I texted my son earlier tonight while watching the Celtic game that Brad Stevens is Buttigieg's twin brother.

narciso said...

Will he still be on the ballot by then?

HistoryDoc said...

Is anybody else ready to puke if they hear the word "Firewall" again?

narciso said...

I think its kindling now.

JackWayne said...

Jessie Liu puts herself as a Deep State jerk. Another one bites the dust.

Yancey Ward said...

Narciso,

He could drop out if he finishes outside the top two in South Carolina- he would still be on the ballot since the primary is only a week later. If he dropped out, then I would probably vote for Bloomberg as a way to deny Klobuchar any hope.

reader said...

We will be victorious

25-0

gadfly said...

Bill Barr, at the President's direction, has resubmitted the DOJ recommended guidelines for Roger Stone's sentencing (as if that is a presidential choice). The recommendation includes this piece of logic:

Finally, the Court also should consider the defendant’s advanced age, health, personal circumstances, and lack of criminal history in fashioning an appropriate sentence.

So rat-effer Roger Stone at age 67 is too old to serve luxury jail time until he is 74 - but a demented bozo like Trump is not too old to serve a second term until he is 78? So now Trump is attacking Judge Amy Berman Jackson in advance of her sentencing of a convicted felon - so watch for the "double down" using his pardon pen for Stone, Manafort, Flynn and Papadopoulos.

Seeing Red said...

Via Rantburg:

Government prosecutor Joycelyn Ballantine filed an unexpected motion Sunday in the case against Michael Flynn for the express purpose of seeking to protect Flynn’s former defense team.

Yes, it’s true and in the prosecutor’s own words: Government prosecutors said in their filing they want “to make certain and clear that counsel [Covington & Burling] may take the necessary steps to vindicate their public reputation by addressing and defending against the defendant’s claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, and equally to vindicate the integrity of this Court’s previous proceedings, the government asks this court to issue the attached proposed order.”...


Seeing Red said...

Via Rantburg:

Prosecutors in charge of the federal case against Roger Stone may have lied to the Department of Justice about their lengthy prison sentence recommendation for Stone, according to a new report. Fox News reported earlier today that DOJ was blindsided by the formal recommendation from operatives tapped by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Stone be sentenced to up to nine years in prison. A source told Fox that the sentence recommendation was “extreme, excessive, and grossly disproportionate” to Stone’s crimes.

Crazy World said...

My nose is cold here in Hawaii...global cooling. Go Trump!

Bruce Hayden said...

@Red - just to make things a little more accurate - Mueller didn’t pick his team of Dem operative prosecutors. In reality, it was the opposite. They picked him. They, in turn, were apparently picked by McCabe, Strzok etc. Likely mostly DD McCabe, whose wife took a $750k bribe/campaign contribution from long time Clinton bagman, Terry McAwful. Yes - that means that the Clinton machine bribed the FBI Deputy Director. Not only did his hand picked agents (led by Peter Strzok) exonerate Crooked Hillary, but they then went on to start the Crossfire Hurricane Russian Collusion hoax investigation, predicated by false information fabricated by her opposition research/dirty tricks contractor Fusion GPS. Every Mueller prospector was a rabid Dem operative, and the lead prosecutor, Andrew Weismann was close enough to Crooked Hillary to have been invited to her private election victory party election night.

Most every one of Mueller’s prosecutors should have been already disbarred and imprisoned in a fair world. The sentencing memo sent by the four prosecutors of Roger Stone asking for 9 or so years of prison time mostly for process crimes that they created, was formally refuted today as grossly excessive by the DOJ, which claims that the prosecutors lied to the DOJ about their recommendations. When caught, the four Mueller affiliated prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest, and several, thankfully for them American public, resigned from the DOJ (very likely on their way to joining their pals in the Lawfare Group). Then there are the Flynn prosecutors, who knowingly, for several years now have withheld evidence from the judge and the defense, and repeatedly lied about it. In both cases, the major (or only) charge is Obstruction of Justice (long-standing Lawfare favorite), which essentially meant these Trump affiliated people somehow thwarted the Clinton/Lawfare people, and nothing more. In the Flynn case, part of the withheld evidence were statements by the two FBI agents visiting Flynn in the WH that he didn’t appear to be lying to them. Why isn’t that willful withholding of evidence that they are ethically and legally required to have provided Flynn not Obstruction of Justice? Or their repeated violation of the court order that they provide it to Flynn? Or the lying to Judge Sullivan that they had turned it over? Far, far, more egregious Obstruction of Justice that they committed than anything that either of these two defendants ever thought of committing. Instead of being in prison for the obvious felonies they committed trying to destroy the Trump Presidency, they have moved onto other positions where than they can cause further mischief and damage - such as lead Mueller prosecutor Weismann to run FARA prosecutions - one of the weapons selectively used by the Mueller prosecutors against their political enemies (and indeed, Flynn’s partners who actually did lobby for Turkey were never charged, because they were prominent Democrats closely allied with Obama and the Clintons).

Sorry for the rant, but these crooks with law licenses and badges have repeatedly committed multiple felonies that should have had them in prison, and unethical acts that should have had them disbarred. And, instead, they are still free to fabricate charges and prosecute political enemies with the full weight of the DOJ behind them, and paying their salaries.

Clyde said...

Reading the Jessie Liu backstory at Conservative Treehouse and Zero Hedge was quite educational. Taking her out by putting her up for a promotion and replacing her at the old position with a Barr associate and then Trump pulling the nomination at the last minute was a masterstroke! The stories I read showed Liu as a Deep Stater who was responsible for a lot of bad stuff. Good riddance!

Bruce Hayden said...

As noted above, the Trump Administration today withdrew the nomination of Jessica Liu to be Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes. Last March her nomination to be Assistant Attorney General was withdrawn. She is currently the DC USA, which means that she is in charge of most prosecutions involving government officials, since the federal government is seated in her district. And she has shown herself part of the problem, and not part of the solution when it has come to cleaning up the corruption of the Deep State #Resistance. She has been more than willing to allow her Deep State prosecutors aggressively go after Trump people, while allowing them to offer sweetheart deals to political insiders.

For example, SSCI Vice Chair Warner requested a copy of the Carter Page FISA warrant. A copy with slightly modified dates was delivered to James Wolfe, in charge of SSCI security. Shortly after that, that copy, with the same modified dates, shows up in one of the major national newspapers, by Wolfe’s lover, Ali Watkins. Since the FISA warrants were highly classified, it would have been a slam dunk Espionage Act violation against Wolfe. Instead, he was allowed by USA Liu to resign and plead guilty to lying to the FBI, a significantly less significant crime, and minimal prison time. Why? It appears that Wolfe told the prosecutors (who had him cold on the Espionage Act violation) that he would call much of the SSCI as witnesses, staring with Chairman Burr, and then Vice Chair Warner, and on down through the committee. Senators Burr, Warner, and Feinstein (former Vice Chair) together requested that Liu give Wolfe that sweetheart deal to keep him quiet. And she agreed. The SSCI is probably the most bipartisanly corrupt committee in at least the Senate, and maybe even Congress. They are the committee handling the most sensitive classified information, and those three were currently, or had been, members of the Gang of Eight who were supposed to see ALL the most important classified information (which is why Warner could see the Carter Page FISA applications). But Warner in particular, and Feinstein before him, were notorious leaders of highly classified information, maybe even worse than HPSCI chair Schifty (which is no doubt why the FBI had booby trapped that copy of the FISA application by modifying dates). Wolfe, in charge of security for the SSCI, knew where the bodies were buried, was going to expose them if he didn’t get a deal, and got one by USA Liu.

My thought was that Liu was being pushed to the side by Barr and Trump in order to get someone cleaner and more aggressive than Liu in as DC USA, and that was why she was being pushed over to the Treasury Dept, where she could possibly do less damage, or at least not to the DOJ and AG Barr’s attempt to clean house there. And maybe it was all the sweetheart deals that she had given Deep Staters was why her nominations were pulled. But the story about her nomination to be AAG being withdrawn was that her nomination was being blocked by UT Sen Lee, on the grounds that a group that she belonged to opposed the confirmation of J Alito to SCOTUS on the grounds of abortion. That never really made sense though because Liu clerked for Alito both when he was an appeals judge, then as a Supreme Court Justice. Still, she really didn’t have that McPherson expertise where she was supposed to go at Treasury (essentially in charge of enforcing tariffs). Which is to say I don’t exactly know what is going on there.

stevew said...

There is no such thing as a "strategic vote" in the primary. Vote for whichever candidate makes you feel best, like you are saying something worthwhile. There are 5.5m registered voters in Virginia, strategically and tactically your vote doesn't matter.

Michael K said...

Most every one of Mueller’s prosecutors should have been already disbarred and imprisoned in a fair world.

Certainly Weissmann qualifies for disbarment as he holds the distinction of being reversed 9-0 by the Supremes in the Arthur Anderson case that destroyed the company and cost 5,000 jobs.

Michael K said...

I think a lot of people will vote for him with the sure knowledge that Sanders won't be able to implement any of it,

Based on the Peter Schweizer book, I doubt he wants to do any of it. His life seems to revolve around enriching his family, at least since he got his first job as Mayor of Burlington.

Bruce Hayden said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce Hayden said...

One thing that I worry about with Trump’s re-election is the economy. And my new worry there is international, driven by the Wuhan Crononavirus, and, in particular, its effect on China, but also world wide. My partner has been pushing for years for us to go on a cruise. She had tickets to an Alaskan cruise over two decades ago with her ex husband, and then their marriage blew up. And is still thinking about this fall. Nope. I am not getting on board a cruise ship, as long as the virus is untreatable, people are still getting infected, and entire cruise ships, with the population of aircraft carriers, are getting quarantined. If she still insists, I will send her, and maybe her daughter. But I won’t go near a cruise ship. Instead, I will spend the summer and fall nice and safe in a rural county with a population density off A couple people per square mile. The cruise industry, for one is likely to crash.

But I think that the big economic effect is going to involve China. Thomas Friedman, a decade ago, told us that major party wars are a thing of the past, and esp that we shouldn’t fear China, because manufacturing supply chains are now global, with China taking a bigger and bigger part. He claimed that China wouldn’t go to war with us, because we would just use Vietnamese, Indian, etc suppliers instead. Friedman didn’t consider was that China would blatantly cheat, esp in terms of stealing intellectual property and know how. Of course, with much of Obama’s cabinet worshipping Friedman, a blind eye was turned on the Chinese, further emboldening them. Till Trump imposed tariffs, and then the Chinese stole this new Crononavirus from Canada, then tweaked it, as they do to much of what they steal, and then screwed up and let escape. Then their government lied about it for a couple of critical months, until it was too late to prevent its escape into the general public. But what what happens to the newly empowered Chinese middle class when they get hit with the one-two punch of tariffs and tens f millions or more being quarantined by a government more than willing to use deadly force to try to protect the rest of the country. The middle class jobs that hundreds of millions Chinese moved to the cities to take, to get them out of the subsistence peasantry they lived in, now see those jobs disappearing, but they are stuck quarantined, unable to find a new job, or escape the virus. I saw the other day the question posed whether Xi would survive this. I think so, but not without some bloodshed. The Chinese still matter, a lot, in the world economy, and they do still own a bunch of our debt. I suggested the other day that I thought that Trump could probably survive most economic challenges up through the election, and push the problems behind that, but the one exception may be the Chinese economy blowing up.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Certainly Weissmann qualifies for disbarment as he holds the distinction of being reversed 9-0 by the Supremes in the Arthur Anderson case that destroyed the company and cost 5,000 jobs.”

His top assistant, Van Glick, isn’t any better, and is running the Flynn prosecution.

Narr said...

No American president's prospects can survive a worldwide depression, especially now that the idea of the American president's power over economic matters has become a pillar of modern American politics.

It's ALWAYS the economy, stupid.

Narr
I hope to see some Chinese Reds (and Western symps) swinging from lampposts before too long