The New York Times and other papers are reporting that Attorney General William Barr refused a request from President Donald Trump to hold a news conference to declare that Trump did not violate any laws in his telephone call with Ukraine’s president. I have known Barr for years and I am not surprised by the report. If such a call to Barr was made, it was inappropriate and shows that the President is still acting incautiously and impetuously in managing these scandals. With various investigations going forward on the Ukrainian matter, it would have been deeply troubling for Barr to make such a statement. While no crime has been identified, there could be potential criminal conduct related to the call as well as questions of the abuse of power. Trump has denied the report.
What concerns me is that Trump is continuing to trip wires on such issues. The Russian investigation led to the appointment of a Special Counsel entirely because Trump took the clearly unwise move of firing James Comey in the middle of the investigation. He could have fired Comey at the start of his term or after the investigation. With the exception of Jared Kushner, virtually the entire staff of the White House reportedly told Trump that the firing would cause a huge mess.
Trump has continued to trip wires in other calls to officials, including his reported demand to fire key players like Robert Mueller. He routinely crosses lines of separation with the Justice Department. This is yet another such example. It is deeply disturbing to reach out to the Attorney General to ask for such a press conference. It is the equivalent of asking for a preemptive advisory opinion from a court. Such a press conference would have been unwarranted and unwise for any Attorney General.
I have defended Barr from critics not because of our long friendship but because I believe that he has carried out his promises from his confirmation (I testified in favor of his confirmation). I have not hesitated to criticize him when I disagree with his decisions. However, Barr has protected all of the investigations into the 2016 election — Mueller, Horowitz, and Durham — from interference or pressure. If you look at his record objectively, it has been successful in protecting the Justice Department. This is not always easy and requires maintaining a sometimes difficult relationship with a president who does not respect traditional limits or lines. However, this report highlights how he maintains that relationship while maintaining the integrity of his department.
This does not mean that Barr will not stumble or err in this difficult position with the President. When he does, I will be the first to call him out. However, if true, this was again the right call by Bill Barr.
Concerning news from the CDC regarding Americans in “flyover states”. These are Americans who support Trump and whom the liberals loathe. These are the same people who would have their votes erased by liberals with eliminating the Electoral College. No wonder Trump won in 2016 and probably 2020 because Trump acknowledges them much like Tulsi Gabbard recently did
Alarming news for these forgotten and maligned Americans.
Potentially Excess Deaths from the Five Leading Causes of Death in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Counties — United States, 2010–2017
Surveillance Summaries / November 8, 2019 / 68(10);1–11
Approximately one fifth of the U.S. population (60 million persons) lives in nonmetropolitan (rural) areas, which comprise 97% of the U.S. land area (1). The demographic, environmental, economic, and social characteristics of nonmetropolitan and metropolitan counties differ, which influences the prevalence of adverse health outcomes and associated risk factors. Nonmetropolitan areas have a higher prevalence of cigarette smoking, hypertension, obesity, and physical inactivity during leisure time (2). Approximately 17% of the U.S. population who lives at or below the poverty threshold, which was $24,600 for a family with two adults and two children in 2017 (3), lives in nonmetropolitan areas; however, 31% of nonmetropolitan counties have concentrated poverty, where at least one fifth of the population is poor, compared with 15%–19% of metropolitan counties (4). Availability of resources for preventive services and access to health care also is more limited in nonmetropolitan areas. Residents of nonmetropolitan counties are more likely to report less access to health care and lower quality of health care (2). Metropolitan areas generally have a greater density and diversity of health care providers than nonmetropolitan areas (5,6).
Interpretation: Nonmetropolitan counties had higher percentages of potentially excess deaths from the five leading causes than metropolitan counties during 2010–2017 nationwide, across public health regions, and in the majority of states.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/ss/ss6810a1.htm
Wow
……
America is held hostage by flyover states
Dec 2016
https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/310054-america-is-held-hostage-by-flyover-states
The predominant narrative coming out of the 2016 presidential post-election analysis is: The flyover states have spoken.
A flyover state is the huge region between the coasts. As opposed to the eastern seaboard, northern post-industrial states and Pacific Ocean states. They’re overwhelmingly Republican, stanchly conservative, regressive right wing, evangelical Christian and working class, well, the loudest, most ill-informed of them are. The term wasn’t commonly used in a political manner until recently with the emergence of the Tea Party and the election of Obama.
A visit to Wichita, Kan., isn’t on the bucket list of many Americans. Whereas most travelers fly over Fayetteville, Ark., and Springfield, Mo. They’re not destination spots. The flyover state gripe has nothing to do with the tourist industry of Oklahoma or Nebraska or Iowa. This is about their perceived feelings of abandonment and disrespect from their government. Never mind they’ve elected local, state and national representatives that should reflect their values and interests.
Democrats out here on the street level, in many cases, are basically as conservative as Republicans.
The big divide is between managerial stratum and workers outside of government, NGOs, MNCs, and “educational system.” They are the lordships and their vassals and we are just the peasants.
That’s your socalled blue wave, it’s basically the Global Empire of bureaucracy strikes back.
Men and women are divided too, For example, gun control is basically a woman’s bad idea that won’t work, which most men don’t like. I find non-white men are generally against it too, not just crackers. Women, other than those involved in shooting sports at the family level, are usually for gun control. Seems like so at least.
These are broad generalizations of course.
Women are more responsive to group cues such as come from tv, mass media, social media, etc. they are more inherently programmed to dislike social conflict and so they respond to perceived leadership, good or bad, instinctively. This dynamic is the one that works hardest against Trump, more so than anything else. If he was a media darling, they’d line up behind him in droves. Generally speaking of course. Any given woman may be as smart and independent minded, but, valid generalizations at the group level, do exist.
all americans hesitate to think in groups, the cult of individualism, a cultural inheritance of protestantism perhaps, .but we better start getting used to thinking smart about groups, like the rest of humanity always did and mostly still does. at least outside the vaunted “West”
but we better start getting used to thinking smart about groups
It starts with the nuclear family. Husband and wife, then children, in-laws (mine live in Dixie and they are very much in regular contact with their local relatives and neighbors), extended family, neighbors, church members, coworkers, etc
America is on the way to extinction with a precipitous drop in birth rates and evaporation of the nuclear family thanks to government welfare.
LBJ vs. the Nuclear Family
The consequences of his Great Society have been profound.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/lbj-vs-the-nuclear-family/
Medicare had about 20 million people enrolled by 1966; there are 60 million today; there will be 80 million within two decades. Medicaid began with 4 million beneficiaries; today, that number is 70 million.
Medicare had about 20 million people enrolled by 1966; there are 60 million today; there will be 80 million within two decades. Medicaid began with 4 million beneficiaries; today, that number is 70 million.
i’ve had numerous friends croak out from ODs and heart attacks, way ahead of my dad’s generation. Yeah flyover is in trouble and its the evil white man who’s got the worst problems.
the good news is, nothing like adversity to force people off the couch. they just need to understand that imminent disaster is on its way and pull their faces out of their phones, first
they either get off the couch for nov 2020 or its done. if it all doesnt blow up first.
oh, and suicides too., seems like a lot of ODs were just slow moving suicides, anyhow, when you’re a friend and not a forensic
Yeah, Estovir, those deep red rural areas need Obamacare more than anyone. And that’s why Bevin lost in Kentucky this week; he rolled back Obamacare in a state where it was popularly known as ‘Kentucky-Care’.
I’ll say this much. the “healthcare exchange” component of Obamacare was a no brainer. It does help people who are self employed or in small business or jobs with no health insurance to get coverage.
and yes in flyover, hollowed out by globalism, free trade, outsourcing, and other schemes of the billionaire financiers, and not home to the delicious jobs offered by financial services, silicon valley, and other Democrat darlings, people often don’t get health insurance even if they have jobs
Bevins was at best, annoying, just as Trump flatly stated when stumping for him, so, he’s gone, this is no surprise. Republicans need to find some decent candidates if they’re going to win. Unfortunately the party has been infested with stuffed shirts and silkstockings for too long. The foot draggers and phonies are still infesting the party and holding it back from fulfilling Trump’s populist redesign.
The sorts of long time Republicans who were all hesitant and half hearted about Trump need to wake up and get moving, or they’re going to regret it in the long run, badly
This ever was a problem in America however. Individualism is always at odds with any sort of populism or nationalism. Hooray for me, f u attitudes persist and proliferate.
some admiral named Phil McCraken or something like that said:
” “If President Trump doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office” ”
this was in the NYT apparently., sorry his name is Bill McRaven.
Hey Bill. You try a kinetic coup, you’ll get fragged for sure. Step on up and give it a try! I bet there’s tons of enlisted who dont care about how big you are in the chattering circles of NYC.
________________
is this some kind of banana republic now with the Intel Capos and the top brass calling for coups, literally?
________________
they may not have a grip on reality. The top brass often don’t survive those kinds of “transitions.”
Or putting it differently: at 60 and years riding a desk at Texas U, you aint really ready for this “Bill”
“Worst political scandal in history.” … “There will be indictments.”
I’d like to think a great many people will be held accountable. Not holding my breath.
TIA:
As history shows of any invading army, inflict about 10% casualties and the rest cave, flee or say the hell with it.
It will be interesting to see how many people do not want them held accountable.
Had to speed it up…can’t listen to anyone on lower speeds than 2x. Nonetheless, this is an interesting clip.
What concerns me is that Trump is continuing to trip wires on such issues.
When you say trip wires, I assume you’re talking about actions, that if carried out, would be impeachable. How many trip wires were offensive in nature? And by offensive, I mean actions taken that were policy, ideology or agenda driven? How many were defensive in nature? And by defensive, I mean actions taken in response to a trap that was laid.
It’s worth noting that Trump is inclined to act as any private citizen would when under attack. He’s not a professional politician, but he has surrounded himself with the right people, at the right time, to prevent the wires he’s tripped from blowing his presidency up.
Turley,
I’m going to go out on a limb and bet you could not recall a similar concern during the entire 8 years of the Obama presidency. Is it because it was scandal free? Or is it because the party that has weaponized the agencies laying the traps was the one in power? So of course there was never going to be tripwires for defensive actions. Nor was there ever going to be tripwires for offensive actions. That would require an AG, Justice Department and FBI committed to the rule of law.
Your concerns Mr. Constitutional Scholar ring as hollow as Shill’s head.
Olly, Trump was using Giuliani, his personal lawyer, as a foreign envoy to by-pass State Department professionals. That was totally uncool! Yes, Trump is unprofessional, and that’s why he keeps tripping wires.
Trump utilized Guiliani but it is not so uncommon for a President to send a special liaison to another country to discuss important things with that countries leadership. Nixon sent Kissinger secretly bypassing everyone when Kissinger went to China. What you are complaining about is that Trump thinks out of the box. That type of thinking is to America’s benefit. The bureaucrats don’t like it because that bypasses them and they have a stake in the deep state even if it isn’t effective.
Trump’s major problem is that he has had an extremely successful Presidency. If he were a poor President that did everything in the usual fashion the left and deep staters would have left him alone because he would be relying upon them rather than utiliizing new ideas. They would then wait for the election to beat a poor President.
Has any other US President used envoys to further our foreign policy?
Olly, Alan, envoys have to register with the State Department. A personal lawyer is a personal lawyer.
Peter, You are assigning him the status of an envoy, perhaps because it is convenient for you. He has no power to make foreign policy. Americans are permitted to speak to people abroad.
Alan, that’s a glaring conflict of interest. Presidents cant send their personal lawyers on State Department business. That’s one of the big problems with this entire Ukraine matter.
Giuliani I believe went as a private attorney. There is no law against that.
Alan, it’s highly inappropriate.
Peter, you move from one false argument to another. What is highly inappropriate? That he is a lawyer and spoke to people in Ukraine. What makes that inappropriate?
What is highly inappropriate?
I believe he meant inconvenient. You see, the DNC worked very hard to develop foreign election interference from Ukraine, as well as others trying to undermine the duly elected president. It would be highly inconvenient for evidence to be discovered in an election year.
There is a common practice known as brainstorming sessions. You shoot out ideas for discussion. Most get shot down. And it might be noted that some ideas would lead to illegalities.
But it is hilarious to suggest that someone in management, government or any other venue is engaging in illegalities or unethical behavior because of every ad hoc sentence he or she blurts out where many issues and ideas within those issues are discussed.
You’d have to follow up the remark, even after having been warned, with any number of steps before it would even be considered as some sort of ethical or legal abuse — at least in the sane world.
But when it comes to Trump, some people just can’t think straight.
“But when it comes to Trump, some people just can’t think straight.”
– SteveJ
_______
“Some people…” are opposed to “conservatives” (i.e. constitutionalists) who threaten their welfare state privileges. The dependent and parasitic masses, the “poor,” voraciously scour the political landscape for candidates who will provide entitlements, benefits, public assistance, abortion and perversion. They know not the American thesis of freedom and self-reliance. The slaves said they wanted freedom; what they really wanted was “free stuff.” The American Founders excluded the “poor” from voting as did the Greeks who created republican “democracy” and the Romans who perpetuated it. One man, one vote democracy is terminal as revealed by Tytler. Liberals have deluged America with illegal voters never intended by the Founders.
_______________________________________________________________________
“The true reason (says Blackstone) of requiring any qualification, with regard to property in voters, is to exclude such persons, as are in so mean a situation, that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.”
“If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely, and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member of the community, however poor, should have a vote… But since that can hardly be expected, in persons of indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate dominion of others, all popular states have been obliged to establish certain qualifications, whereby, some who are suspected to have no will of their own, are excluded from voting; in order to set other individuals, whose wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly upon a level with each other.”
– Alexander Hamilton – The Farmer Refuted, 1775
_______________________________________
“the people are nothing but a great beast…I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
-Alexander Hamilton
________________
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
– Thomas Jefferson
________________
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
– Alexander Fraser Tytler
____________________
“The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities. In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.”
– Alexander Hamilton
Legal scholar. U expect AG to answer questions on an ongoing witch hunt . The deranged wouldn’t be be satisfied with any answer. Please explain how a leaker/ whistleblower has second and heresay evidence . Change whistleblower rules before pajama boy comes forward . Leakers attorney appeared and tweeted his intentions and CNN would provide a cover to impeach . Leaker met with Shiff or staff before filing complaint. One witness against our President got information from NYT .
Please be a real legal scholar.
Max, there’s no law that would have prohibited the whistle blower from meeting with Schiff.
Perhaps not, but you’re okay with him lying under perjury about it?
FFS, perjury isn’t an issue; Schiff wasn’t being interrogated.
Thank you Manny.
“Trump Ordered to Pay $2 Million to Charities”
“The payments to nonprofits are part of a settlement in a lawsuit that accused the Donald J. Trump Foundation of financial mismanagement.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/nyregion/trump-charities-new-york.html
By Alan Feuer
Nov. 7, 2019, 2:12 p.m. ET
A state judge ordered President Trump to pay $2 million in damages to a collection of nonprofit groups on Wednesday as part of a settlement of a lawsuit that accused his charity, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, of financial mismanagement.
Once billed as the charitable arm of the president’s financial empire, the Trump Foundation closed its doors in December, six months after the New York attorney general’s office sued it for acting “as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests.” The suit said the foundation engaged in “a shocking pattern of illegality” that included improperly coordinating with Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
In the ruling on Wednesday, Justice Saliann Scarpulla found that Mr. Trump had “breached his fiduciary duty” by using the foundation to further his political career.
The attorney general’s office had asked Justice Scarpulla to ban Mr. Trump from ever running a charity again. Though she did not impose the ban, she did place numerous restrictions on Mr. Trump should he seek to open another charitable organization.
— “Alan Feuer covers courts and criminal justice for the Metro desk. He has written about mobsters, jails, police misconduct, wrongful convictions, government corruption and El Chapo, the jailed chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel. He joined The Times in 1999.”
Well Barr isn’t refusing to hold a press conference out of concern there were possible crimes here.
Even if Barr has heard about this, and knows its absurd, he wouldn’t hold a press conference. I would guess given his position he hasn’t looked into the matter at all. There is no Justice Department investigation going on.
Rather this is a political stunt. And an incompetent one at that.
I agree. And moreover, the good professor is not in a position to “call him [Barr] out.” That was an unexpectedly pompous statement. “Reasonable minds can disagree.” Especially legal minds. Look at the Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court is the singular American failure. The SCOTUS is totally corrupt and subjective in its edicts, which they call decisions. No form of communism is constitutional and yet America is fully communist.
If one understands the English language, no “interpretation” is necessary and “interpretation” becomes a weapon of corruption which the Supreme Court wields with frequency and facility.
The “manifest tenor” of the Constitution in the 5th Amendment and in Article 1, Section 8 is that Americans enjoy the absolute right to private property, precluding any and all interference in the possession and disposition of private property by government, that Congress has the power to tax only for “…general Welfare…” not individual welfare and that Congress has the power to regulate only “…money…” and “…commerce among the several States…,” all of which make the entire American welfare state illegitimate and unconstitutional.
To wit,
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
Good information on previous US presidents
eg FDR on Jefferson Davis “sacred spot”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/parallel-lives-of-donald-trump-11573084662
Parallel Lives of Donald Trump
If Plutarch studied American presidents, to which would he compare and contrast the 45th?
By Lance Morrow
Harry S. Truman kept a set of Plutarch’s writings at hand in the White House. He said that in Plutarch’s “Parallel Lives,” he could find everything worth knowing about leaders—how they behave, what makes them tick.
In the “Lives,” Plutarch (A.D. 47-120) would compare a famous Greek to a famous Roman—setting Alexander the Great, for example, next to Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes beside Cicero. It was moral portraiture; Plutarch had a genius for details. He believed that a trivial detail can reveal a man more profoundly than a great event. Cicero, for example, became alert to an unexpected subtlety of Julius Caesar’s character after noticing, one day in the Senate, the way he adjusted his forelock with one finger.
Suppose Plutarch undertook to write one of his “Parallel Lives” on the subject of Donald Trump. If Plutarch were to study the biographies of the previous American presidents, to which of them would he compare the 45th?
Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mr. Trump is an illusionist. Like FDR, Mr. Trump has boundless confidence in himself. Like FDR, Mr. Trump has been known to lie. Unlike Roosevelt, Mr. Trump is a businessman. (FDR failed in his minor efforts at business investment during the 1920s.) Roosevelt undertook to make America great again by mobilizing the federal government against the “economic royalists” in a great depression; Mr. Trump wants to accomplish the same goal by demobilizing the regulators and resisting the cultural autocracy of the left.
Mr. Trump is best understood as a businessman and a performer. If you analyze him at the intersection of those two identities, you begin to understand him. As an actor on the world stage, his favorite role is a version of Stanley Kowalski.
Like Calvin Coolidge, Mr. Trump believes that the primary business of America is business. Like Truman, Mr. Trump has presided over businesses that failed. Unlike Coolidge, who was famously laconic, Mr. Trump is noisy.
Unlike Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Trump does not read books. In that he resembles Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt, both of whom preferred to gather information in conversation, face-to-face or on the telephone. Dwight D. Eisenhower read Zane Gray westerns to help him fall asleep.
LBJ liked to have three television sets going so that he could monitor the major networks simultaneously; Mr. Trump watches Fox News.
Plutarch, in a pairing of opposites, might have explored the contrast between Mr. Trump and Jimmy Carter —Mr. Carter hammering away for Habitat for Humanity, Mr. Trump putting up Trump Towers.
Mr. Trump’s enemies consider him a monster of racism. He claims to be “the least racist man who ever lived.” Twelve American presidents, starting with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves. Wilson was assuredly a racist. In early 1933, President-elect Roosevelt visited the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., where Jefferson Davis had taken the oath of office as president of the Confederacy; FDR referred to it as “this sacred spot.” Truman and LBJ routinely used the N-word before they got to the White House. Yet Truman racially integrated the armed forces and Johnson told Congress “we shall overcome” as he pushed through the greatest civil rights acts in American history.
Like Julius Caesar, Mr. Trump is fussy about his hair. Unlike any other president, Mr. Trump has been married three times. ( Ronald Reagan was divorced once, and five other presidents remarried after their first wives died.) Like John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, Mr. Trump has a history of womanizing and marital infidelity.
In a famous remark, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. described FDR as a man with “a second-class intellect but a first-class temperament.” (The story was told secondhand, and some thought that the aged Justice Holmes was referring to the earlier Roosevelt, Teddy, whom he had also known). In fact, FDR had a first-class intellect. So, notably, did Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Wilson and (as a manager if not as a philosopher) Eisenhower. Mr. Trump has described himself as a “very stable genius.” On that, the jury is deadlocked. Intellectuals tend to despise Mr. Trump. They also dismissed Eisenhower and Reagan as dunces.
Edward Gibbon, author of “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” summarized a half-dozen early emperors as follows: “the dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the stupid Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid inhuman Domitian. ”
Think of how one might compile a similar list of modern presidents: “the glamorous, amoral Kennedy; the Machiavellian, self-destructive Johnson; the saturnine Nixon; the touchingly decent Ford; the fussy weakling Carter.”
Plutarch or Gibbon would likely have loved to write about Donald Trump and his headlong, unfiltered singularity. Would they have entertained (before rejecting it) the theory that Mr. Trump’s apparently fantastic ego is mere performance, mere misdirection? That all of the Trumpian ego is an act that has served to get and keep the world’s attention, that has gotten him elected president, and allowed him to disarm his enemies, in part by reducing them to incoherent rage and hatred?
Whether he has deployed it consciously or simply cannot help himself, his personality has taken him far in an unhappy, disrupted land. It is also about to get him impeached.
Mr. Morrow is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
“The coup has started. First of many steps, rebellion, impeachment will follow ultimately.”
– Mark S. Zaid, Attorney for the “Whistleblower”
___________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious scandal in American political history.
The co-conspirators are:
Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann, Comey, Christopher Wray,
McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Yates, Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan,
Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove, Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer,
Stefan “The Walrus” Halper, Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel,
Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power, Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy),
Nadler, Schiff, Obama et al.
“POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing.”
– Lisa Page to Peter Strzok
And your point is your stupid, we know.
…you are…
The end is here. The FISA REPORT WILL DEVASTATE THE SWAMP.
dont get your hopes up. the Republicans have been busy bungling elections that they should have won out here in flyover. I can think of a few other I have seen besides those mentioned yesterday in the press. It’s an amazing show of local incompetence in certain places.
Whatever leadership the great Donald Trump has shown the Republicans, the pencil necked geeks that have infested its eschelons for decades are busy squandering the opportunities that only he was bold enough to bring. Fail now geeks, and you will never regain those of us whom Trump reactivated. that’s a promise.
Truth.
Don’t forget over 50% of those who voted in ‘16.
Next week will be busy with open public televised hearings & something else.
A response to the Mexican massacre:
President Donald Trump offered on November 5 to help Mexico “wage war” on its cartels after three women and six children from an American Mormon community were murdered in an area notorious for drug traffickers.
“I must be missing something. What in the whistleblower’s “testimony” has not already been confirmed by multiple witnesses under oath?”
The person who wrote that has risen to the level of Anon1 idiocy. The vast majority of under oath testimony has been second, third and fourth hand hearsay and/or someone’s “understanding” of what happened.
One way to begin unwinding this would be to stop calling the person a whistle blower because he/she does not meet the definition of a whistle blower under the statute.
And Turley……if you were in court and someone tried to enter anonymously sourced evidence your objection would register on the Richter scale. Stop turning your blog posts into supermarket tabloid material.
Stop turning your blog posts into supermarket tabloid material.
Too late. His web traffic has sunk 100,000 points in the past 90 days
The paid left wing trolls on these pages (e.g. Anon1, Peter Shill, Natacha, YNOT, et al) have erased the academic contributions the blog once offered.
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/jonathanturley.org
Alexa Rank Estimate
This site ranks: 600,204
In global internet traffic and engagement over the past 90 days
90 days ago 506,624
Today 600,204
Estovir – ranking can be manipulated, just ask Disney.
Anyone who is paying YNOT, FishWings, and the other juveniles is paying too much. Natacha (and the unlamented Diane) practice a mode of trolling I’ve seen called ‘jamming’. The gay lobby used to show up at a Catholic forum in which I was a participant. Same MO.
About 30 years ago someone stated that the American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a perversion/mental disorder. The radical homosexual lobby rioted at APA meetings till their riots caused the APA to drop the mental disorder classification.
The rate of suicide and drug/alcohol abuse is much higher among homosexuals, even in today’s world where the West has long considered it a “protected class” with all the rights that entails. For years now the West has elevated homosexuals above their lower class heterosexual friends and neighbors. The late hetero Gloria Vanderbilt actually states in her book, “I wish I was gay,” an homage to her rich, white, powerful, homosexual progressive son. (Her son was apparently so enamored with Gloria’s praise that he omitted telling Gloria that if Gloria was gay, he would not exist.)
Pro-homosexual science lobbies have searched for decades for a homosexual gene, and still won’t give up and admit defeat.
It seems the princess has been kissing too many frogs and the DMT has her projecting her desires as rantings or she is ignorant. I’m guessing the latter.
“t seems the princess has been kissing too many frogs ”
It seems we have a very jealous frog who feels left out.
So sweet for an idiot.
I guess I was right about the jealousy. Frogs are your thing. Croak away.
I di ott, I di ott, I di ott
Thanks it felt good.
YNOT, don’t thank me. Thank your defective brain.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/massive-study-finds-no-single-genetic-cause-of-same-sex-sexual-behavior/
apparently so
however a genetic linkage is certainly possible. i used to think not, but, due to the phenomenon of “kin selection,” it’s possible. look that one up if you’re interested
seems to me that human sexuality is very plastic and impressionable and responsive to environmental factors. but this is in a limited time frame. so for example, if a blonde person is one of a person’s first sexual contacts during puberty, there may be a lifelong attraction to blondes. likewise…. it may be that some young people are improperly influenced in an abnormal direction by same sex molestation,. this was one of the older theories, but here is a little empirical support that may suggest it is worth study.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11501300
I’m not very interested in the subject except as as it relates to biology and evolution. they can do what they like for all i care. it’s a small number of the population by any measure and i think they generally get way too much attention.
Estovir, if indeed traffic is down, it’s because Trump defenders aren’t comfortable with developments. Turley has been trying to ‘avoid’ the impeachment drive by emphasizing free speech issues. But Trump defenders want good news that isnt there.
Actually, it’s down because Darren banned Diane.
Tabby, it’s funny you should mention that. I dont know what Diane did but we have seen more offensive posts than anything Diane attempted.
TIA is obsessed with this person he calls “Diane.” It’s ridiculous.
Diane basically tried to use Turley’s platform for her own blog, rent free.
Foxtrot, everyone here wants to use this bbn log as their own platform.
“This is absurd x XIV says:November 7, 2019 at 1:38 PM
Actually, it’s down because Darren banned Diane.”
Too funny.
Peter – I just watched an ABC (the studio that spike the Epstein report for 3 years) mischaracterize the testimony of Amb Taylor. I could not believe it. BIG FAT LIE. They are part of the Resistance.
Paul, ABC was leery of upsetting Buckingham Palace. But that has nothing to do with traffic here.
The English Monarchy went mostly downhill since Edward I. Mel Gibson didn’t like him and neither did various other factions, some of whom have been much involved in writing history, but I see some signs of genius, that his successors have generally lacked.
Peter – Buckingham Palace isn’t in the US. Bill Clinton is.
Paul, Trump was also Epstein’s friend.
creepy epstein had a lot of friends. trump is one of the few if not the only one who cooperated with process investigating him. i brought this fact out before and you guys ignored it. i wont waste my time sourcing it again.
Mr Kurtz – Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-o-lago. Some friend.
Eventually, but they were “friends” at one time.
Anonymous – oddly enough, Trump was friends with the Clintons, too.
buckingham palace trying to hide the mischief of “randy prince andrew” obviously is who exerted the most pressure to kill the story, followed closely by Dershowitz, but for my part, I can excuse the Dersh for doing his job as a lawyer.
they can smear Dersh by association with this guy, but lawyers represent difficult people for a living. it goes with the territory they embarass you from time to time.
as for Dersh cavorting with Epstein’s trafficked women, i have yet to hear the same level of mischief about him as alleged against prince andrew, specifically. for now i will give him the benefit of the doubt.
mostly the details about other Epstein “associates” and their precise actions or misdeeds are still unclear. and may stay that way in light of the demise of the primary subject by whatever cause.
but i say, let them all come out! its not me killing the story. lol. pardon the pun.
Peter, Is Paul your friend? How about DSS or Estovir?
Now can you explain how Epstein is a friend of Trump?
Well they attended same parties and can be seen enjoying each other company so it is no doubt they were friends. Status at time of Epstein’s jailing, who knows. But why do you have to lie all the time? Because you are stupid.
YNOT, what parties did they attend? How do you know they enjoyed each other’s company? They were polite people in private. You are a coarse and impolite fellow so perhaps you assume politeness is the same as friendship.It isn’t. In fact Trump through Epstein out of his club.
” But why do you have to lie all the time? Because you are stupid.”
List the lies. Why? Because you can’t. You don’t have the intellect to do so if there were any. I don’t lie but you are sure stupid.
Start with this:
“Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Partied Together…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html
Start with this:
Trump and Epstein” partied together…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html
well it’s boring for you guys to reflect about how we have the lowest unemployment in 50 years or so, huh?
There are too many people employed who have wages, labor practices and/or HR benefits that are criminal
Most big box retail chains employ millions of Americans who have demeaning hourly wages, staggered hours of employment and their health benefits are punitive.
e.g. Lowes Home Improvement, Home Depot, Walmart, etc offer full time employees under 40 hrs / week and employees can not have a second job because their shifts change week to week. Their health benefits have decreased over the past 5 years where copays and deductibles are excessive while their Pharmacy Benefits Manager (e.g. Caremark) strangle the patient and the physicians with ominous administrative authorizations. Wages at these places of employment are unAmerican and not a few of these employees have college and graduate degrees. Some of my neighbors work at these places and I worry about their health
IOW, the unemployment rate is an unreliable metric.
“IOW, the unemployment rate is an unreliable metric.”
In other words are you thinking that the country and they would be better off if they weren’t employed?
He is thinking, someday maybe you can too.
Obviously YNOT you weren’t intelligent enough to understand what was said.
Except that, there’s a statute that provides for someone to come forward and to report transgressions, which this person did, AND that same statute protects his/her anonymity. THAT is the law. Trump and Republicans only want the name so they can skewer and smear this person solely to intimidate others from coming forward. Nevertheless, everything he/she reported has been confirmed by first-hand witnesses. His/her name is irrelevant at this point.
Court proceedings and the whistleblower statute are different animals. Trump did intentionally withhold military aid appropriated by Congress to try to coerce the Ukrainians into ginning up fake evidence against the Bidens. That has been proven by first-hand witnesses, so stop harping about the whistleblower.
the law protects disclosure by certain agencies
doesn’t protect them from disclosure by just anybody
and the name has indeed been disclosed in full compliance with law
I heave a gob of phlegm upon the name of the Deep State spy:
Eric Ciaramella — he has earned the contempt that will follow him his entire miserable life
“Earned contempt”? Whomever the whistleblower is, he/she is an American hero. What you Trumpsters are claiming is: “how dare anyone report Trump for violating the law”? They will be smeared and attacked for standing up for the American rule of law and American values. Well the rest of us say: how dare Trump violate the law? Where does he get the authority to withhold military aid appropriated by Congress by a bipartisan vote for Ukraine? There is no such authority. Only Congress can decide how our tax dollars are spent. Trump’s crimes are in full view, and have been proven by his own admissions as well as the admissions of Mick Mulvaney, the non-transcript and first-hand witness testimony. Even Turley has opined that if Trump did delay military aid to leverage the Ukrainians into making a public announcement that the Bidens were going to be investigated, that is impeachable conduct. It’s over. Kellyanne pivoting to scream about the whistleblower and the “deep state” is childish and pathetic.
Then, there’s the question of whether he was also motivated by Putin. Russia has always wanted a foothold in the Middle East, ad the Ukrainians, because Trump plays games with military aid and the sale of weapons, were forced to enter into an agreement giving Russia a foothold. Trump refuses to sanction Russia for invading the Crimea, too.
“Deep state”? Who’s in charge of the “state” now? You Trumpsters are not patriots, any more than your hero is.
Natacha – you claim to be a lawyer. Now I know that federal law is not your area, but you probably have Lexis/Nexis in your office. Exactly what federal statute has Trump violated that this supposed “whistleblower” blew the whistle on?
$100 says she doesnt have any such access but you can find it using google anyways. i seriously doubt it’s a money maker for her, just a title, so she can boss people, kind of like a lot of the 2/3 of my whole law school class decades ago who were girls
a lot of small firms, solos, forego the expense of these services now, and for those who don’t, i think they like westlaw better.
Keep on talking Natch. A banging gong and a clashing cymbal.
Eric “Marshmellow” Eric Ciaramella is part of former CIA boss Brennan’s coup- camarilla. HE is a low level nobody in the right place and time, trying to become a somebody. We will see whether his efforts get him in the long run.
These “DEEP STATE” stay-behind teams are scum. They are traitors to the constitutional order attempting a soft coup against a lawful CIC. You are in delusion about that, we know. There is still time left on the clock for us all to find out who’s actually in charge here. Is it Brennan and the slimy backstabbing functionaries of the “IC” playing guerilla for their masters like Geo Soros & Jeff Bezos, or is it Trump?
Heroes. Heroes are heroes mostly for their own side. Hector is a remember as a hero by the Greeks, but we’re not as noble as they were back then.
Eric Marshmallow is no hero. He is not on my side, not on our side, even if he’s on your side. See, this does not unite, it divides. There is precious little “We” in this. Across the divisions spawned by cretins like this pencil necked geek Eric whatever, this wispy bearded Yale – CIA loser, there are two “wes” not one. For my part, I am totally ok with that dynamic; i completely welcome it. This is the birth pain of a new order emerging.
For once Twitter saves the day
https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/826261939235979265
The comments by users today to Mark Zaid’s Tweet in 2017 regarding impeaching President Trump: priceless
e.g.
@MACKtheESF13
13h13 hours ago
Replying to @MarkSZaidEsq @POTUS
This aged well.
@BigThoughtsBigE
17h17 hours ago
This is definitely one of those times you’d love to have @HillaryClinton come over and clean your twitter…
@ChatByCC
17h17 hours ago
Replying to @MarkSZaidEsq @POTUS
Don’t bother deleting this incriminating tweet. We’ve archived your tweets and taken screen shots. Good luck buddy.
We have seen impeachment up close, and it’s clear that it is used primarily to destroy political appointments. I’m not saying that what Trump did was not a “high crime”, only that it should not withstand scrutiny as harmful to the American people. You may be “disturbed” by it, as it disturbs you that Trump “requested” Barr to hold the conference. But I’m sick and tired of being challenged to find crimes in the “disturbing” secret activities that Trump’s opponents say violate the “Oath of Office”. Yesterday, a prosecutor on cable actually said she’d “love” to prosecute the Senate trial because Trump’s “crime” was to plan the quid pro quo, and even to “conceive” of it. She was frothing at the mouth over it. Give me a break!
Frothing at the mouth could be a few things which can be difficult to differentiate but what you saw may be consistent with any of these
Rabies
Epilepsy
Drug Overdose
Budget Cuts at CNN
Trump Derangement Syndrome
Good points but some disloyalties to the constitutional Oath of Office are also violate federal criminal statutes and federal “pattern & practice” statutes. For example: these federal statutes define and clarify what a constitutional violation is – what is a violation and what is the subsequent range fines and/or jail time? For example: the “Carpenter v. US” Supreme Court ruling now makes long term warrantless surveillance a violation of the 4th Amendment and a crime under Title 18 US Code 245 – for any local, state or federal official. The courts are still defining what “long term” means but a police officer or FBI agent could be subject to lawsuit or indictment following the “Carpenter” ruling. Qualified Immunity only applies to constitutional activities (based on a decades old case against the US Secret Service), in other words government officials could be liable for violating their Oath of Office if it violates someone’s constitutional rights. Remember, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is a “wartime governing charter” with wartime clauses already designed into the charter, so even wartime is not an excuse to violate one’s Oath of Office either. The Bill of Rights are designed to “restrain” government authority, to set the legal out-of-bounds for police and other officials.
Too dumb to comment, please refrain.
What if we are also determining whether it is OK for political party to impeach president of opposition party to help with its election? (Byron York)
THE END IS HERE. THE FISA REPORT WILL DESTROY THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.
It’s only a matter of time before even Barr can’t help him. If Barr can’t deliver, then he will turn on him too. Individual #1 has a long history of turning on his own.
Fish Wings that’s guaranteed. But by then Barr’s own reputation will be in tatters.
Anyone under Trump’s control that doesn’t positively advance American prospects is in danger of being removed. Trump is pro America and the Democrats have become the Hate America Party.
And you are still stupid.
That sums up about everything you are able to say to all the members on the list. That is why you have proven yourself to be stupid.
Yep.
This NYT story is “according to two people with knowledge of the matter”.
Hmmmmm…. Let me guess: Dick Durbin and Adam Schiff.
Orange Man Bad, right, Turley?
Foxtrot, there’s an old Chinese saying: “The man who’s always in trouble ‘is’ trouble”.
John Burgoyne said…Old Chinese saying…”the man who’s always in trouble ‘is’ trouble”.
‘Ya mean like a Hong Kong protester?
yesterday they stabbed a lawmaker perceived as being pro PRC. the protesters are engaging in open arson, vandalism, assault and battery of police officers, blocking roads, and generally making a big mess out of what initially was a legitimate beef. i wonder how they could have started out so well and yet come to such a sorry state lately.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3036492/hong-kong-lawmaker-junius-ho-injured-along-two-others-knife
one wonders if the same alphabet soup agencies that supported the coup in Maidan are now stirring up these excesses in Hong Kong. if so then they should pack their carpet-bags and go home and quit destabilizing other countries. if it was not enough to have Russia incensed with the US now they want to bite off and chew a morsel that they will never be able to digest. poor “strategy” if in fact that’s what’s afoot, brought to you courtesy of the geniuses at Foggy Bottom and the Christians in Action.
now this is a Chinese website which says so– maybe so or maybe not; but just because a communist says something does not mean that it is per se, false
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201908/17/WS5d578b28a310cf3e355664f1_2.html
And that means what? Your handlers don’t appreciate ad libs, stick to the script.
Peter Shill gets his information from Chinese fortune cookies.
Still stupid.
Tony – still so retarded you cannot spell your name.
Symbiotic relationship, 2 idiots trying to find their way in the world. Both of you need to step away from the keyboard and walk out of the basement for some fresh air.
Nailed it.
That is your word of the day. The problem is that it will be you word tomorrow and the next day. Your dictionary must be 1 page long and mostly unfilled.
You are kind of the Cher of posters, one word is enough.
I think you may have added a second line to your dictionary.
Turley Identifies Trump’s Main Problem
Trump keeps ‘tripping wires’. It’s because he’s a ‘bull in a china shop’. As an anti-intellectual who never held public office, Trump doesnt recognize trip wires. That’s how Trump drew a Special Counsel probe in record time. And that’s how Trump bungled into impeachment immediately after the Mueller Probe ran its course.
He drew a special counsel investigation consequent to scamming around by Sally Yates, Andrew Weissman, Rod Rosenstein, and James Comey. Sessions didn’t realize he’d been had until it was too late. And, of course, we learned while it was ongoing that the investigation was fake and we learned after it was over that Mueller wasn’t running it.
Thank you. Good reminder for everyone. Speaking for myself, I would rather have a bungling bull than a conniving, machiavellian “intellectual.” (But bulls do need to be penned in sometimes…)
lin – every so often it is good for the bull to be let loose in the china shop.
In other words Trump is not following in the footsteps of leaders that have failed miserably. Instead he has created his own path that has led to an economic boom, lowest unemployment rates for a long time, lowest black unemployment, lowest hispanic unemployment, factories returning, the US more respected though in some cases that is not overtly demonstrated, protected VA benefits, executive order protecting Medicare, reduced poor regulations that handicapped our industries, signed law reducing overcharges to patients on Medicare, moved our embassy to jerusalem, crime bill, shrinks the size of government by 16,000, His HUD appoingtment found over 500 Billion in accounting errors for HUD, increased availability of fuel inulating the US from cutoffs in the Middle Eastt, reduced Welfare participation and food stamps, returned our military to strength, increased the middle class income to the highest on record, reduced the cost of pharmaceuticals, improved economic growth, liberated all ISIS controlled territory, and countless of more good things that have been discussed over and over on this blog and elsewhere. He did all that with a Democratic Party that had one thing in mind, the destruction of Trump where Impeachment started within days of him taking office.
Trump 2020
Didn’t you get the memo? Orange Man bad. I read this blog every day because it is always well reasoned. One of the few people who have not completely lost their minds. While POTUS is sometimes cringeworthy, no one with any real integrity can argue with your points.