I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted. They flaunt their disregard for journalistic standards with front page headlines that state — as if it were verified fact — what's going on in Trump's psyche. These are front page headlines right now:
1. 1. "Trump aims for adulation. Biden goes virtual. The two are running vastly different presidential campaigns." The facts here are that Trump is doing rallies, while Biden is staying out of view. "Trump has been spending heaps of cash staging crowded rallies designed to motivate his most fervent fans...." Where is the evidence that Trump is seeking "adulation" as opposed to simply trying to win the election using a method that has worked in the past and that he's good at? The rallies are shown on TV, and it's free coverage, so, like paid advertising, it's a way to reach people who are holed up at home. WaPo is gratuitously inserting the popular Trump-is-a-narcissist theory into its news headline.
2. "Trump weighs firing FBI chief after election amid frustration with Wray, Barr." Does WaPo know Trump is weighing firing Christopher A. Wray and that he's frustrated with him? The article — based on unnamed "people familiar with the matter" — says there have been repeated discussions. I assume the sources were not present for the discussions but somehow in a position to have heard about them — otherwise WaPo would put it more strongly than "people familiar with the matter." This material is at the top of an article that eventually gets around to material about Hunter Biden's laptop. I'm thinking the trip into Trump's mind — for the weighing and frustration — was developed to distract readers from the real news that had to be put in the paper. If we keep reading, we see this:
In a letter sent Tuesday night to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, an FBI official sought to dodge questions posed by Johnson about the bureau’s knowledge of Hunter Biden’s purported laptop. The FBI has “nothing to add” to a statement made by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who earlier this week dismissed suspicions that the Biden laptop was the product of a Russian disinformation campaign, the letter said. Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network on Monday that the U.S. government has no intelligence to support such claims.
By not disputing accusations leveled by Democrats and some former intelligence officials that the laptop’s late-season reveal could be another form of foreign election interference, the FBI gave tacit support to the idea that the emails in question are genuine. But the bureau’s letter to Johnson was not that explicit, noting the criticism leveled by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz over Comey’s actions in 2016.
That's hard to read! Easy to misread.
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87 comments:
I'd say the WaPoo has not embraced cruel neutrality.
Althouse, Team Trump respects and admires you and would appreciate your vote. Can we let WaPoo get away with this? Shouldn't there be some consequences? How can we ignore this, even tacitly?
I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted.
I understand disgusted, but why embarrassed? They apparently aren't. They chose that profession(?) with their eyes wide open. It is sort of like feeling embarrassed for a person that specifically chose to become a sex worker. It is the path they specifically selected. That emotion is wasted on them. Same with the WaPo. Anything other than disgust is a waste of emotional effort. Even disgust might be too much. They only really deserve to be completely ignored.
That's some paper of record isn't it?
It should scare us greatly how the media and the justice/intelligence agencies have united since 2016 to defeat Trump at all costs, with little to no regard for the truth.
If something is making the rats scurry, I want more of that thing, not less.
"Trump has been spending heaps of cash staging crowded rallies designed to motivate his most fervent fans...."
,
I wont look it up, but one reason for the rallies is collecting analytics.
about 20% are registered Democrats
More than 20% have not voted in eight years.
There are more analytics, but the idea that the crowds are rabid fans, is just a lie. The facts are there. The NYT is aware of these facts. Instead continues to gas light its readers.
The town halls the media packed with leftists, and lied about it? Why would you do that knowing your guy,Biden is ahead by double digits? Ahead by double digits and what little public appearances are made, has more reporters than supporters. Anti Biden hecklers outnumber supporters.
The media tells me Biden is going to win, but ALL of the raw data I see with my own eyes, all of the lies the media is forced to tell, prove Biden is a political dead man walking.
In other words, the laptop was Hunter's, the contents of the hard drive are real, and Look! Trump's got Bad Thought!
Democracy Dies in Darkness!
I'm going to take a stab at getting inside a WaPo Journalist's! head.
How do I write this so that it's as muddy as possible, leaving alive the prospect of Russian disinformation, actually keeping it front and center in people's heads? I really like Aaron Blake. How do I get him to notice me? Wonder what flavor ice cream Biden will choose today? I hate these damned masks.
I've been getting my election coverage from a live stream of La Plata, MO railfan cams. It's a small town, so has small town noises. A new bridge is being constructed in view, so you can watch that (American jobs!). Often a freight train races through, often carrying a couple hundred Amazon trailers (commerce!).
Think of it as a newspaper.
Anything controversial is banned from the accompanying chat, which you can watch or not.
The M Th Sa Amtrak Southwestern Chief arrivals take on and discharge Mennonites (religion!).
Trump should fire him, he has been sitting on that laptop for what, 10 months? This is ludicrous! The MSM is soft on Biden, Biden is soft in the head and will be replaced ASAP after the election, the entire family is a crime syndicate, the FBI is all in on covering for them, and Trump is getting zero support from anyone else in the government with the power to do anything. Post election he needs to clean house! Basically dump everyone that serves at the pleasure of the President and reallocate what budget monies he can to starve the beast!
An executive's skill is in firing, not hiring. Nobody knows what he's getting when hiring, but he does when firing.
“I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted.” – Well yeah. At what point does the embarrassment and disgust extend to the Teachers Unions and our Universities that promote the mainstream media as purveyors of truth. What’s the difference? It’s all part of a monolithic effort. The “journalists” that go along with all this drivel are graduates of American University Journalism Departments, no??
The FBI wouldn’t take questions about their information about election interference, because they didn’t want to face questions about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
As the FBI sees it, we should be less informed about foreign interference so we won’t be more informed about Biden’s corruption.
it is revealing choice / Freudian Gaffe >>> seeking "adulation"
>>> since Trump has been spurned by Media
- who adulated Obama and Hillary and Gore and Bill and JFK
Should Trump Mention His Most Popular Issue? by Ann Coulter
In 2015, Donald J. Trump decided he was going to run for president on popular ideas. This was a stunning, historic breakthrough in American politics. He made his announcement in a speech talking about Mexican rapists, pledging to deport illegal aliens and build a wall. And the rest is history.
I’m thinking he should try it again this Thursday night. ....
Rough estimate of topics in the typical Trump campaign speech, 2020:
40 minutes: Re-living 2016 election night
20 minutes: His experience with COVID — he’s better than ever!
15 minutes: Insults Biden, Kamala, the media
20 minutes: Brags about his crowd size and how his fans LOVE him (they never loved Reagan like this!)
0 minutes: Biden’s massively unpopular promise to amnesty illegal aliens and halt deportations on his “first day in office.” ....
Trump’s genius was that he was pushing policies that were popular. Maybe he should try it again at this Thursday’s debate.
I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted. They flaunt their disregard for journalistic standards with front page headlines that state — as if it were verified fact — what's going on in Trump's psyche.
Then...maybe you should stop reading it? And stop linking to it...?
Just a thought.
The FBI leadership has been corrupt, and politically active, since Hoover used his files of illegal wiretaps to stay in power until he died. Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate source, Deep Throat, wanted to be the 2nd FBI Director but wasn't named to that position, so he destroyed Nixon's presidency. L Patrick Gray III, who succeeded Hoover, resigned in disgrace after destroying Watergate evidence. Since then there have been a succession of scandals from FBI Lab corruption to Ruby Ridge & Waco, up to Crossfire Hurricane. And the FBI is infamous for creating terrorists to arrest, by encouraging crimes by fringe groups via undercover agents or planted informants. Arresting a group of redneck gun nuts who "plan to kidnap the governor" is ever so much easier than finding actual Antifa bomb throwers in Portland.
The point of all the above is that the FBI, an often wonderful agency of crime fighters, is usually run by politically corrupt leadership.
Tonight's emphasis on global warming is timely. Ohio is having Native American summer today, so called because of the tendency of Native Americans to deceive and cheat. It ties into the global warming deal similarly.
That’s why I think it’s immoral to subscribe to teh WaPo and the New York Times. I suppose if Biden wins I will have to again, like Soviets had to read Pravda, between the lines with certain assumptions that they were always hiding something.
The possibility exists that Hunter has been blackmailing his father to cover up the circumstances of the car crash in which Hunter's mother was killed. Hunter was in the car and knows what happened. Why doesn't the press investigate this?
I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted.
Why? They no longer even pretend to be journalists.
Maybe this will ring a bell: “He’s not “perusing his art” he’s living off you so he doesn’t have to get a job.”
Your need to recognize they’re not the people you wanted them to be.
You need to end the relationship and move on.
Where is the evidence that Trump is seeking "adulation" as opposed to simply trying to win the election using a method that has worked in the past and that he's good at?
As one example, he is begging suburban women to like him.
The FBI had Hunters computer since October of 2019, yet they let the Russian Collusion hoax and the fake Impeachment go on. He SHOULD fire him, and everybody else in charge at the corrupt FBI that worked for the Obama administration's failed Coup.
Yes, I regularly drop into MSM on Sirius radio while in my car. It is true. Not only right now, but that ascribing venal motives to President Trump, or reading his mind, is ongoing strategy at MSM. All four years. Professionals at the MSM solemnly intoning the horrible character of Trump’s thoughts and actions. Drives me crazy that it goes on unchallenged by the other plastic beings on those inane shows.
Let's hope Trump fires Wray, and Haspel too!
Chances of Wray not being fired after Mueller were slim. After the Hunter laptop story it's guaranteed.
"I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted."
Well, "disgusted" is progress, I suppose. I appreciate it, seriously. But at this late date, being "embarrassed" by WaPo shows that illusions die hard. Maintaining those illusions--they are journalists! they should be better! there ought to be standards! it's terrible!--is a form of denial.
Your embarrassment is not reciprocated. Progs aim to win the culture war as well as the political war. They despise you as much as us deplorables.
Abstaining in this election may protect your high self-regard, but it will do nothing to protect your actual values.
Bobulinski. WaPo definitely doesn’t want to talk about Bobulinski.
The WaPo and Hunter Biden: instead of Iowahawk's pillow they use a judo mat.
Trump's not going to just fire Wray, but Barr and Haspel as well. I don't know how he gets rid of Fauci, but at a minimum, he will be stripped of any power.
Is there someone who believes Wray has been doing a good job reforming the FBI post-Comey? He hasn’t fired any of the bad actors or helped Congress uncover that rot at all. Wray should have been fired already!
We don’t actually know that Trump is contemplating firing FBI Dir Wray, but a lot of his supporters sure expect him to. The most egregious problem is that he his agency has had Hunter Biden’s laptop for 11 months now, and it would have been very useful to Trump when going through the impeachment process for his call with the Ukrainian President. As egregious, Wray has been slow walking and obstructing the release of SpyGate documents, which his boss, Trump, had specifically ordered. Constitutionally, Wray owes his first duty of loyalty to the Constitution, and secondly to Trump. Instead, he has put his loyalty to the FBI ahead of both. Wray should also taken the lead against the violent rioting by the Marxist AntiFA and BLM, but has concentrated against Inga’s Bugaboo Boys. That lead has instead been taken by DHS, with the Marshals for muscle.
I don’t thing that AG Barr is going anywhere. He has been making progress with unraveling SpyGate, and I think that we can expect indictments in the near future. It’s a sprawling criminal enterprise that extends to the top of the Obama/Biden DOJ, FBI, CIA, and evening to the top of that Administration, with the meetings with both Obama and Biden. These take time to unwind, esp, as here, where the documents are highly classified, and that classification is controlled in many cases by Dir Wray, who has actively been thwarting and undermining the investigation. Barr’s big sin here has to have stuck with long time DOJ rules of not releasing information derogatory to the opposition in the months right before an election. Sure, AG Lynch did it. But we have known since before she was confirmed, that she was crooked. That, her gender, and skin color, were her qualifications for the job. But Barr is honorable, and while Trump gets frustrated with Barr sometimes, I think that he knows that his AG is trying hard, while doing the right thing.
To summarize- Wray is Deep State, and has to go. Barr is not, and is very obviously doing his job.
rhhardin said...An executive's skill is in firing, not hiring. Nobody knows what he's getting when hiring, but he does when firing.
As someone who spent 20 years performing executive assessments, let me say that you are half right. A good executive is not afraid to fire people who do not perform. Trump has that skill.
However, it is just as important to hire good people who not only have the skills, but are attuned to the organizational culture. Trump has problems in that area. He has made many bad hires, probably out of necessity, but it has plagued his administration.
Chris Wray and Gina Haspel were very bad hiring decisions and will be fired after the election, regardless of who wins. WaPo writers know this, so they pretend that they are getting the scoop from inside players.
https://nypost.com/2020/10/22/hunter-biz-partner-confirms-e-mail-details-joe-bidens-push-to-make-millions-from-china/
To summarize- Wray is Deep State, and has to go. Barr is not, and is very obviously doing his job.
I hope Barr is just being methodical. He certainly comes across as solid & serious.
However, the AG is a political appointment, and at some point he needs to consider politics. Just as Lincoln needed some sort of Union victory he could point at going into the election, Barr has to understand that if Trump loses, all of his methodical work will be for naught.
“ Trump's not going to just fire Wray, but Barr and Haspel as well. I don't know how he gets rid of Fauci, but at a minimum, he will be stripped of any power.”
Disagree about Barr, but not the rest. I expect that Trump knows what Barr knows about SpyGate, and is frustrated about how long it is taking to wrap up. But it was a large criminal enterprise, run by the people who should have been investigating it. Trump knows that Barr is on his side, just too honorable to cheat. Not so with Wray and Haskell, who are actively thwarting Trump and the cleanup. Oth have more loyalty to their institutions than to either the Constitution or the President, so must go.
One note is that former AAG Bruce Ohr has finally been allowed to retire. This means that his testimony is no longer necessary. Testimony that presumably shows that the 4 FISA warrants on Carter Page were criminally obtained. Ohr, married to Fusion GPS Russian expert Nellie Ohr, has been in a do nothing position for better than three years now, kept from retirement so that he cannot refuse testifying.
Freder Frederson said...
Where is the evidence that Trump is seeking "adulation" as opposed to simply trying to win the election using a method that has worked in the past and that he's good at?
As one example, he is begging suburban women to like him.
10/22/20, 7:49 AM
Begging? How? By sniffing their young daughters hair?
Now that Hunter Biden's business partner has confirmed the email and confirmed the "big guy" getting 10% is Joe Biden, does Althouse still think the provenance of the emails are too sketchy and need to be suppressed and ignored?
A question not rhetorical. Are you embarrassed or dismayed by the journalistic standards set recently by the U W Madison paper describing how to make and deploy Molotov cocktails?
And if not why not?
Ann Coulter doesn't do subtlety or strategy that well. Everybody who wanted a wall or deportations is already voting for Trump. The president won't win any votes making that his centerpiece in the upcoming debate. He'll lose votes from those who weren't so happy about the immigration talk but have since come to appreciate and approve of the administration. He may even lose votes from some Coulterites who will be reminded that the wall hasn't been completed and mass deportations haven't happened.
WaPo jumps the gun on Trump thinking to protect Wray, a swamprat. It’s one of those weird things where they are able, momentarily, to assess justice from a normal standpoint then using their vaunted anonymous, imaginary sources “predict” Trump’s behavior thinking somehow to discredit him.
Of course, Wray deserved to be fired long age. The FBI is a disgrace. I don’t buy the “ many fine men and women” bullshit! Where are the whistleblowers coming forward to expose the corruption?
"By not disputing accusations leveled by Democrats and some former intelligence officials that the laptop’s late-season reveal could be another form of foreign election interference, the FBI gave tacit support to the idea that the emails in question are genuine." Absolutely incoherent.
I am with Bruce Hayden on Barr. He is far and away Trump's best domestic appointment. His presence gives me great comfort that Trump, who can be quite erratic, won't go far off the rails.
Trump ultimately needs to work the channels to bring the administrative state back under control. He needs to take positions that will stand up in the judiciary as it has been reconstituted. It is clear that SCOTUS is only going to do things gradually. The right gets two wins, the left gets one.
Trump's first term should have taught him the truth of Harry Truman's observation about his successor, Dwight Eisenhower: “He’ll sit here and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army.” Trump has been a quick study, but he needs people like Barr who have total credibility on the historic right and in Washington. Those brickbats thrown at Barr from the left are expected. The ones from the right are counter-productive.
Wray is a different story. He wasn't around when Comey and McCabe and their crew ruined the FBI. Why is he protecting them? I think his attitude is, "We fired and retired all those people. Get off my back. I'm trying to rebuild the bureau's morale. These politicians need to leave us alone. DOJ is watching us." But that is not working, because there needs to be an accounting. Wray should never have sat on Hunter's laptop during the impeachment. But remember: Trump was never going to be convicted. Maybe Giuliani was sitting on it and saving it for this moment.
I will not be surprised if Trump retains Wray so he can yell at him. We don't want the FBI being a political actor. That's why Comey and McCabe were terrible.
It's a super unusual thing for a politician- especially a president- to aim for adulation. We've certainly never seen that before!!!
ann said
"...embarrassed and disgusted. They flaunt their disregard for journalistic standards with front page headlines that state — as if it were verified fact — what's going on in Trump's psyche."
Then...maybe you should stop reading it? And stop linking to it...?
You cant have read much of the content to think you input means anything to anybody. Our hosts does her thing her way. No apologies.
I, for one, feel informed getting a look at what our host finds of interest in WAPO, etal. It is two data points I use to calibrate my reality. Almost all of us live in very tiny bubbles. With a post like this I see what the NYT is upto in setting a narrative. I also see what is important to a retired professional woman. What this demographic finds informative, and their trust about the content of the "news" piece.
Listening closely to what people are saying, that exist outside my small bubble, usually catches me up short, and forces me to acknowledge others are forming their opinions from information I am ignorant of.
To our host, thank for broadening my horizons.
Hmm.
Yesterday Q posted a picture of Wray with an X across it.
Now you get some press to that effect.
None of the others of the FBI and CIA mentioned by Q yesterday are in the MSM yet. But the day is young.
And if Biden wins, the whole media-Democrat love fest will be more deeply rooted (no Toobin jokes, please) than ever. So please explain abstaining.
Odd, that Trump keeps hiring deep state actors that fuck him over every chance they get.
I wonder what it could be-
Maybe he should spend a couple minutes to ponder why he has such "bad luck" in his hiring practices.
How did WaPo find so many powerful telepaths for their writing staff? Did they recruit them from Professor X's School for Gifted Children?
Bobulinski
First hand information. No guessing. If you like second and third hand gossip from a partisan hack like Vindman, this has to seal the deal for you.
I soon expect gadfly to pop up explaining how Bobulinski's second grade teacher once taught a student that worked in an office of 500 people, and one of those peers had a small confederate flag, paper weight on their desk. Nobody can dig deep like gadfly to impeach a witness.
"How do I write this so that it's as muddy as possible, leaving alive the prospect of Russian disinformation, actually keeping it front and center in people's heads?”
Didn’t we cover this with the obscurantism post?
" (no Toobin jokes, please)”
Oh come on, just one more:
My name is Tuggin’ Toobin and my meat needs air
Ain't nohow it’s my fault it give the ladies a scare
Them Zoomy bitches so hot
that like or or not
I’m gonna whack it now right in my underwear
OK, I hate myself now. Tuggin’ Toobin is a guy just like the rest of us.
If it were impeachable for a politician to seek approval...
Browndog; Who would you pick? How would you pick? Trump is not a DC denizen. He does not have any network to lean on and get good candid advice. Also know that pretty much all of DC, including Republicans are scared that President Trump is kicking over their rice bowl. Republicans are perfectly fine being in the minority, as long as the graft is left in place.
The FBI needs a good purging.
This situation requires a model of greater reality. A non-bubble model, which most people are not equipped to consider or create.
The greater reality is that your national government, and much of your society and culture, is decadent and depraved beyond any normal human remedy. What personal actions are called for once this is understood?
There are various ways to deny this, to ignore it (whistling past the graveyard), to attack messengers, to, well, fail to deal. I have seen this often enough among corporate management, where the most popular way to handle an impending disaster is to focus energetically on some minor peripheral detail, usually unconnected to the main issue.
The latest re Biden fits into the greater problem. You have the same re Clinton, re Kerry, Obama, and etc., all of which are evidence of payoffs for value received, often by foreign tycoons or potentates. Its clear that nearly everyone in your government whether elected or employed, had a hand in this, or was eager, or induced, to protect all of them. And this is just one category of corruption, not to mention incompetence.
The entire FBI should be dismantled.
The leadership should be summarily fired, the rank & file can be allowed to re-apply to the new interstate crimes division of the US Marshals.
Blogger Amadeus 48 said...
“I am with Bruce Hayden on Barr. He is far and away Trump's best domestic appointment.”
There was a time when I thought so. However, measuring Barr’s contribution to draining the swamp he occurs as a talkative Sessions and not much more. Perhaps it has been decided that it would be politically disadvantageous to prosecute Democrats during Trump’s first term for their obvious misconduct. If so, that is not an honorable decision. If not, how does the Barr/Durham dillydallying serve the nation, particularly if Trump is defeated and the “investigation” is disappeared.
Have you ever seen a simple positive statement in the any major newspaper about Trump, his policy, his accomplishments, or his supporters that didn't include an accompanying negative statement that tried to completely negate the positive one? That is if they even include the positive part.
People I've seen who switched from supporting Democrats to Trump usually site the unfair and dishonest treatment of Trump by media as the biggest reason. I think that's because it's so obvious and over the top to open-minded people. It's insulting to people regardless of which side you are on, or at least it should be. They are calling you stupid and gullible. I think that is helping Trump a lot, but not as much as fair reporting would. If the facts were well know about both candidates, I think Biden would be toast, and he may be already.
The only real question in this election is how many votes will the Dems get via cheating?
It's going to be at an unprecedented level, and that's what the Dems want and are attempting to facilitate. My house has received more ballots for people who don't live there than who do. If I was dishonest I could vote for 5 times. There are a lot of people who feel justified for such dishonesty. I don't.
Wray should be fired- he was apparently the pick of Ron Rosenstein.
Trump's real mistake, however, was not firing Comey, McCabe, all of the US attorneys, all of the Obama appointees in every agency on January 20, 2017. That is a mistake he has paid for since. I think his instinct was to fire all these people, and he let himself get talked out of it by Republican Party officials and leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Trump's second biggest mistake was appointing Sessions as Attorney General- I think Sessions is a good man, but he was simply too old to fight off the crocodiles.
h said...
The possibility exists that Hunter has been blackmailing his father to cover up the circumstances of the car crash in which Hunter's mother was killed. Hunter was in the car and knows what happened. Why doesn't the press investigate this?
Oh for fuck's sake! Hunter Biden was three years old when that happened! I'm not one to defend the Bidens and there maybe some truth in the allegation that Neilia Biden was intoxicated at the time; but that line of thinking is just ridiculous!
Gina Haspel. Head of the CIA. Last posting? Chief of Station, London.
Were did the Carter Page set up happen? London.
You have to understand that the CIA cannot run operations at US citizens. But foreign nations sure can. Favors were called in, MI6 we involved. Within days of November 8th 2016, the head of MI6 quietly "retires" with no warning.
Republicans with President Trumps ear, recommended Haspel. Knowing only she knew all the underlying communications and why, surrounding the crossfire hurricane operation, and the CIA's involvement...her personal involvement, to carry out the Page setup.
Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $200 million, a tiny fraction of Amazon's net worth. To him, that's like spare change found under the cushions of your couch. The WaPo isn't there to report news, dispense information, or make money. Its purpose is to maintain and increase the wealth and influence of Jeff Bezos and those he regards as his peers.
The same can be said for the rest of the legacy media. They are operational units of an oligarchy, intended to serve the interests of that oligarchy. They're not businesses, they don't have a "calling", and their employees do what the owners want or they're gone.
... the rank & file can be allowed to re-apply to the new interstate crimes division of the US Marshals.
@DavidUW, what do you have against the US Marshals service?
Bar is Beowulf in the Troll’s Nest as far as I am concerned; he and Trump are fighting a battle taking on powerful comers from every direction while the onlookers are constantly grabbing at their shirts or tripping them when they are not looking.
Bar is Beowulf in the Troll’s Nest as far as I am concerned; he and Trump are fighting a battle taking on powerful comers from every direction while the onlookers are constantly grabbing at their shirts or tripping them when they are not looking.
It's important to remember that the WaPoo is the house organ for the swamp. Sometimes there are clues to swamp strategy.
Wray and Haspel must both be fired.
Why just turn off his mike?
Why not wheel him in tied to a dolly with a leather mask.
That's what they think of him.
"The greater reality is that your national government, and much of your society and culture, is decadent and depraved beyond any normal human remedy. What personal actions are called for once this is understood? “
Two years ago I would have said, “There goes buwaya again talking crazy.” I swear I, an atheist since I was old enough to have an opinion on the matter, am ready to move to a Catholic country, find a Catholic wife, and go to mass with her every Sunday and just enjoy my remaining years living simply. I think T.S. Elliot went through the same changes, except he embraced Church of England. That would probably do as well.
I think the Durham angle is under-appreciated. Remember when he was appointed all the chat about how thorough he is and how he takes his time but he gets it right?
I think Durham met an immovable object in the federal bureaucracy protecting its turf and protecting its own. Remember how then-DNI Coates didn't do anything for whatever reason (probably inertia plus Trump-distrust), and then Ric Grennell came in as acting director and declassified a lot of stuff that could have been declassified two years earlier? I think Durham is having to dynamite information out of individuals and agencies hiding behind "national security" but who are really interested in their own professional security. They aren't going to let go, particularly until they see if Trump gets re-elected.
Barr is trying to depoliticize the DOJ. It isn't Barr's job to get Trump re-elected. It isn't Durham's job to get Trump re-elected. It is Trump's job to get Trump re-elected. If Trump can't make a better case for re-election than a rehash of what was done to him in 2016 and 2017, then he wouldn't be doing his job very well. The reason to re-elect Trump is the sparkling economic performance for all Americans that lasted right until the Covid panic. We need that again.
I live in Illinois and Michigan. Those states have the worst governors in the outside CA and NY. I can tell you, neither Pritzker nor Whitmer have any interest in an economic revival until Trump leaves office. That is what Trump needs to campaign against.
If Trump loses, it won't be because of Barr and Durham.
Either you are loyal to Trump or the country--those loyal to the country are usually fired so this makes sense.
I despise, detest, and TOTALLY distrust the WaPoo. The NYT, even more!
"Trump knows that Barr is on his side, just too honorable to cheat."
If Barr was on Trump's side, he would have given Durham a deadline. That's what bosses do.
hombre said, "Perhaps it has been decided that it would be politically disadvantageous to prosecute Democrats during Trump’s first term for their obvious misconduct."
I will play devil's advocate and suggest that maybe it's not as easy to walk "the bad guy" into jail as we would like. This discussion from 2012 over the financial crisis and "truckloads of subpoenas" illustrates that. There's a truckload -- many truckloads most likely -- of details we peasants on popular blogs don't (and can't) know.
Matt Taibbi vs Megan McArdle
So, I wouldn't jump on Barr because it's "obvious" he should outfitting some folks for orange jump suits.
But it was a large criminal enterprise, run by the people who should have been investigating it.
A lot of what they did were high political crimes, not necessarily legal ones. Plus, they can always say, we truly believed Trump was compromised by Russia, and that's good enough for a DC jury.
Sometimes I think Althouse is part of the Trump campaign. She's watched enough Trump rallies to recognize the accuracy of the Post's characterization. By the way, they are no longer being watched at home much.
"The entire FBI should be dismantled."
I'll second that...but let's not stop there. The NSA and CIA and all other extant security agencies need to be dismantled, along with a drastic shrinking/overhaul of the Pentagon and a shutdown of most or all of US military bases around the world. The budget funds thereby saved could be applied to functions that would actually serve the people.
The WaPoop has "journalistic standards"? Who knew?
Freder Frederson said...
As one example, he is begging suburban women to like him.
No, he's begging suburban women to vote for him. And he knows the poor little dears lack the intellectual capacity to vote on issues rather than their emotions (or, rather, that the ones not so lacking ar already voting for him), so he's appealing to their emotions, and asking them to like him, so they will then vote for him
Amadeus 48 said...
Barr is trying to depoliticize the DOJ. It isn't Barr's job to get Trump re-elected. It isn't Durham's job to get Trump re-elected. It is Trump's job to get Trump re-elected. If Trump can't make a better case for re-election than a rehash of what was done to him in 2016 and 2017, then he wouldn't be doing his job very well. The reason to re-elect Trump is the sparkling economic performance for all Americans that lasted right until the Covid panic. We need that again.
If Biden wins, he will fire Barr, fire Durham, and deep six the entire investigation into the corruption of the Obama-Biden Administration.
Which means that the corruption of the Obama-Biden Administration is a legitimate campaign topic that has been denied to Trump because Barr and Durham weren't willing to go full forward against the corrupt and their enablers.
And that is their failure, not Trump's. unless they asked Trump for help, and he refused to give it.
The "Grennell move" should have been deployed years ago. "A is stonewalling me." Fine, A is fired. if A is civil service, then the first non-civil service person above A is fired, and replaced by Ric Grennell, or someone else who can temporarily have the job because of previous Senate confirmation.
RG then goes in, orders that Durham be given everything he requested. Follows up daily, makes it happen. Makes life a living hell for anyone blocking Durham.
Next person blocks Durham, the person who's about to be fired gets told he / she has one week to get things unblocked, or else he / she gets the Grennell treatment.
There needs to be no respect or consideration for anyone who puts "protecting the corrupt" above "rooting out the corrupt." I don't care what it would do to "their institution" to have its abuses revealed.
On that front, Barr and Durham failed. Should Trump fire them if he wins re-election? No. But he should make it clear that play time is over
As one example, he is begging suburban women to like him. - Freder
Gasp. A politician seeking votes? Why, I never!
iowan2 said...
1. The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Still staffed by Obama holdovers.
2. Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, trusted advisors of Trump, essentially run the West Wing, and are pivotal in providing him recommendations to fill key positions. As you say, Trump is an outsider, and relies on them.
3. Gina Haspel. That's all you need to know out of touch Trump is. She ran Crossfire Hurricane out of her London office, then she was recommended and he approved to let her run the entire CIA. How the fuck did he not know who she was?
Defund the police !
Too bad they didn't use the "sources familiar with his thinking" formulation. That one is my favorite line of BS.
Robert Cook said...
"The entire FBI should be dismantled."
I'll second that...but let's not stop there. The NSA and CIA and all other extant security agencies need to be dismantled, along with a drastic shrinking/overhaul of the Pentagon and a shutdown of most or all of US military bases around the world. The budget funds thereby saved could be applied to functions that would actually serve the people.
So, are you voting for Trump? Because the reason why those "X Flag officers and hangers on" are supporting Biden instead of Trump is because Trump IS getting the US military out of some places, and that's cutting the graft available to those flag officers.
Or are you all talk and no action?
Bob wrote: “So, I wouldn't jump on Barr because it's "obvious" he should outfitting some folks for orange jump suits.”
I said their “misconduct” is obvious, not that it will be easy to convict them or that their misconduct warrants incarceration. After 28 years in the business, I am well aware of the vagaries of criminal prosecution and the numerous alternatives to prosecution. Courage figures in there somewhere. If Trump is defeated nothing will happen and the public expectation of justice will be destroyed by Democrats.
Blogger roesch/voltaire said...
"Either you are loyal to Trump or the country--those loyal to the country are usually fired so this makes sense."
Howsabout we're loyal to the Constitution. Howabout we expect the rule of law and not your mob. If there's one thing I've learned these past four years is that you are not to be trusted.
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