Another Trump convert. He also seems to get a point I’ve been trying to make. No matter your personal opinion of Trump, he’s getting the job done, has made our govt. better than the alternative would have, and the American people are better off with him leading our govt. than the alternative and their perverted, immoral, and deviant agenda. Where I’m from, that’s called winning. 🙂
“Here is a funny thing about the human mind: when we didn’t see something coming, we often can’t see it came. There’s a good reason for this. Wrong predictions are an indication that there is something off or unrealistic about your worldview. When your predictions are vastly incorrect, you have to choose: will I paper over my mistakes and pretend to myself I was actually right in some way, or will I admit the error and adjust the way I look at life?
People almost never adjust the way they look at life. It would mean risking their sense of their own wisdom and virtue.
This is why so many pundits both on the left and right are completely blind to what happened this year in politics.
Donald Trump — a political neophyte, a New York loudmouth who plays fast and loose with the truth, a massive egotist and a not altogether pleasant human being — has delivered conservatives one of the greatest years in living memory and has made our government more moral in the process. The left and many on the right didn’t see it coming because they hate the man. And because they didn’t see it coming, they won’t see that it’s come.”
The first assertion is easily proven. After a year of Trump, the economy is in high gear, stocks are up, unemployment is down, energy production is up, business expansion is up and so on; ISIS — which took more than 23,000 square miles of territory after Obama left Iraq and refused to intervene in Syria — is now in control of a Port-o-San and a book of matches; 19 constitutionalist judges have been appointed and 40 more nominated; the biggest regulatory rollback in American history has been launched (boring but yugely important); the rule of law has been re-established at the border; we’re out of the absurd and costly Paris Accord; net neutrality, the most cleverly named government power grab ever, is gone; our foreign policy is righted and revitalized; and a mainstream news media that had become little more than the information arm of the Democratic Party is in self-destructive disarray. If the tax bill passes before Christmas, it will cap an unbelievable string of conservative successes.
Now you can tie yourself in knots explaining why none of this is Trump’s doing or how it’s all just a big accident or the result of cynical motives or whatever. Knock yourself out, cutes. For me, I’ll say this. I hated Trump. I thought he’d be a disaster or, at best, a mediocrity. I was wrong. He’s done an unbelievably great job so far.”
————————–
“Trump has made our government more moral by making less of it: fewer regulations, fewer judges who will write law instead of obeying the law, fewer bureaucrats seeking to expand the power of their agencies, less money for the government to spend on itself. He has made government treat us more fairly and equally by ceasing to use the IRS and Justice Department for political ends like silencing enemies and skewing elections.
This is what moral government looks like. And if every male senator in America is grabbing the buttocks of some unsuspecting female while, at the same time, voting for more limited and less corrupt government, the senators are immoral, yes, but the government is more moral. That is why we should never let the leftist press game us with scandal hysteria, but should keep focused on voting in those who will help fulfill government’s moral ends.
Trump has delivered conservatives an astoundingly successful year and made the government more moral in the process. You don’t have to like him, to salute him. I salute him. Well done.”
Dreher: "This Politico piece is a classic example of why you really can’t trust the mainstream media to report knowledgeably about religion": https://t.co/PMOfDtiveL
Like the former Rhodesia, America has been misgoverned for decades. Fortunately, Madison and Reagan had us at a higher starting point than did poor Ian Smith in Salisbury.
“It’s time to revise Andy Warhol’s famous quote and say that in the future, everyone will be investigated for colluding with Russia for fifteen minutes.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will now examine the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein because someone must have colluded with Russia, right?
Karoun Demirjian reports at the Washington Post:
Senate intel committee investigating Jill Stein campaign for possible collusion with the Russians
The Senate Intelligence Committee is looking at the presidential campaign of the Green Party’s Jill Stein for potential “collusion with the Russians,” a sign that the panel’s probe is far from over, even as allegations swirl that the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation is racing to a close.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday that the Senate Intelligence Committee has “two other campaigns that we’re just starting on,” in addition to the panel’s ongoing probe of alleged ties between the Trump administration and Kremlin officials. One of those he identified as Stein’s; Burr has indicated previously that the committee is also looking into reports that the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for research that went into a dossier detailing allegations of Donald Trump’s 2013 exploits in Moscow.
Stein was present at a 2015 dinner in Moscow that was also attended by Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose contacts with Russian officials have been a chief focus of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe. Flynn and Stein were photographed at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sat next to Flynn and across the table from Stein.
Emma Loop of BuzzFeed has more details on how this took shape:
The Senate’s Russia Investigation Is Now Looking Into Jill Stein
The top congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has set its sights on the Green Party and its nominee, Jill Stein.
Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked for the Stein campaign from January to August of 2015, says Stein contacted him on Friday saying the Senate Intelligence Committee had requested that the campaign comply with a document search.
Trainor, who served as the campaign’s communications director and acting manager during that time, told BuzzFeed News that he was informed of the committee’s request because during his time on the campaign, his personal cell phone was “a primary point of contact” for those looking to reach Stein or the campaign. That included producers from RT News, the Russian state-funded media company, who booked Stein for several appearances, Trainor said.
“Then I was told by Jill just to wait for further instructions,” Trainor said, adding that he was told the campaign would contact him in the next week with instructions, presumably from the Senate Intelligence Committee, for executing the document search, including precise search terms. That has not happened yet, Trainor said.”
“Mainstream media silence on Politico report that Obama allowed Hezbollah drug running to appease Iran
Meanwhile, Trump is vigorously going after Hezbollah’s criminal networks, particularly in Latin America.”
—————————-
“So far there is near silence from the mainstream media about the blockbuster Politico Magazine investigative report on how the Obama administration from the top down interfered with U.S. law enforcement efforts to take down Hezbollah’s drug running of cocaine into the U.S. in order to facilitate the Iran nuclear deal.
I summarized the Politico findings in my post, Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal.
I cannot find any mentions of the Politico story in any of the major newspapers or networks (except for Fox News). The same people who endlessly repeat shoddy reporting by other mainstream outlets when it comes to anti-Trump conspiracy theories, don’t feel the need to report on the Politico story. My hunch is that they are devoting resources to try to question the Politico story.
They don’t know what to do because this reflects so badly on the person they spent 8 years defending and covering for. Obama sacrificed Americans addicted to and dying from cocaine in order to appease Iran. That should be on the front page of every major newspaper and on every major newscast, but it’s not.”
“The Mueller search runs afoul of many of these established court precedents and Fourth Amendment privacy and privilege principles. First, it appears Mueller searched and seized every email, without any kind of categorical or keyword search. This is exactly the kind of search the Supreme Court made clear was not allowed under the Fourth Amendment. This means Mueller can only prevail if he didn’t seize a single email of a single individual that the individual could have any expectation of either personal privacy or attorney client privilege in.
The primary excuses proffered so far for the broad seizure is the faulty assumption the use of a government server waived all privacy and all privilege of every email ever made over that server. As identified above, that has never been the law. The security and efficacy of government-owned servers for transition employees are not intended as a trap for the unwary to forever forfeit their privacy and privilege rights in their communications. Indeed, doing so would undermine use of such communications, and invite Hillary Clinton type bathroom closet email servers for everybody.
Mueller’s problem here is these were not even government employee emails; they were the emails of private individuals stored temporarily on a government server, and publicly declared to be “private materials” as a matter of custom, practice and the public policy of the National Archives. As Professor Jonathan Turley identifies, the National Archives recognize transition email records “are not federal or presidential records, but considered private materials.”
The only “notice” evidence otherwise given publicly is that an agreement between the GSA and the transition team identified the possibility of technical and maintenance audits, with some claiming this as a “waiver” of all privacy and privilege rights in the emails forever. Here again, the law does not support such a claim; even cases with much more specific notices and much less invasive searches, found privacy and privilege objections persisted. So far, a striking lack of arguments and evidence has been mounted for claiming every single email lacked any privacy or privilege.
It appears to me, Mueller deliberately skipped the court, the grand jury, and the government-imposed limits on investigative inquiries into worker conduct under Supreme Court precedent; he might have done so because he wanted a tactical edge, and was walling to ignore the Fourth Amendment restrictions on him to do so. Mueller may come to regret his choice.”
———————
Disney unveiled it’s new Trump animatronic today at Disney’s Hall of Presidents. Reviews are mixed. 🙂
To me, it looks like Disney had already built the 'President Hillary' bot…and saved money by simply sticking a different wig on top… pic.twitter.com/DqTGDBDO1C
Maybe Democrats get more college degrees. It’s expensive, and Conservatives at least are not encouraged to borrow money to go to school. Or maybe college is primarily a Democrat’s game. I wonder how many Republicans send their kids to school and they come back registered as a Democrat. People are certainly indoctrinated there.
Debra, White college graduates don’t tend to be Democrats. They have favored the Republican in every Presidential election since 1964. They favored Reagan by margins over 20%. They even favored Trump in 2016 by a margin of 4%.
However, they tend to read widely and have a low tolerance for idiocy and dishonesty. Trump has run and is running them out of the Republican Party.
It looks like Whites prefer the Republican party overall—except for Clinton’s first term which looks mostly flat for Whites. That indicates they would almost rather elect a Democrat than give Bush a second term. So I guess it’s not a great surprise that Whites with a college degree also prefer Republicans, including Trump—though by only 4pts. I don’t think that drop from Bush 2 is as significant as it’s made to appear.
It seems likely that the college degrees will be moving in a more liberal direction in the future. That’s not too surprising either.
Debra @3:39 The drop from Little Bush to Trump or from Romney to Trump (8 points) was not that great. On that point I agree with you.
My fear has always been that Trump as a dishonest and imbecilic President, as opposed to Trump the dishonest and imbecilic candidate, would ruin the Republican brand.
That is exactly what has happened. Republican Congressmen (Nunes and Jordan) have joined their corrupt master in attacking the FBI. Most Republicans in Congress have defended or excused lying or stupidity. As a result, support for Republicans among white college educated folks has dropped by 23% SINCE the election.
They investigated me in 1963. My dad said that they were in the neighborhood asking everyone about me. Also, I suspect, checking my military records.
I got a clearance for Top Secret code word material. Nobody cared about me since then. But if I run for Congress, somebody will find something.
Debra @ 3:39. It wasn’t Clinton that defeated Bush is 1992, it was Ross Perot.
And Perot didn’t want to be president. It was a personal thing.
Perot gave us Clinton, and Hillary and all the corruption that goes with it.
People slamming Trump should know what we would have with Hillary.
Yes, Hillary would have been worse than Trump – bad judges, bad regulations and no tax cut/tax reform.
However, the Republican brand would not have been destroyed. In fact, it is highly likely that the corrupt and unpleasant Hillary would have done even more damage to the Democrat brand and 2018 and 2020 would have been good elections for the Republicans. We will never know for sure.
‘That is why, if a prosecutor and investigators want to review presidential transition files, they should make the request directly to counsel for the presidential transition. That is the way to sort out any knotty legal issues, with court intervention if necessary, so that they do not become public controversies. But that is not the Mueller way, as we saw with the utterly unnecessary pre-dawn raid on the home of Paul Manafort — busting in with a search warrant and guns drawn, at the very time Manafort was cooperating with congressional committees, and when he was represented by well-respected lawyers through whom Mueller could have requested production of whatever materials he was seeking.
Mueller’s investigation is examining whether Trump campaign officials “colluded” in Russia’s espionage operations to interfere in the election, and whether contacts between Trump associates and Russian operatives amounted to actionable corruption. That being the case, the relevance of at least some transition materials is obvious.
Mind you, I do not believe Mueller’s investigation is appropriately conceived. As I’ve been arguing since before Mueller was appointed, our American tradition is that there must first be strong reason to believe a specific crime was committed before a prosecutor should be assigned to investigate. Here, Mueller has been commissioned by Trump’s own appointed deputy attorney general to conduct a fishing expedition in the absence of cause to believe Trump committed a criminal offense. In effect, nothing is off limits, so why should transition files be off limits?
But let’s put aside complaints about what, in effect, is Mueller’s “general warrant” (the kind of broad, non-particularized, abusive investigative license the Fourth Amendment was adopted to guard against). After all, there is a criminal investigation of “Trump collusion with Russia,” regardless of whether I think there should be. That being the case, it would be foolish to discount the likelihood — the certainty — that there is information in the Trump transition files about the incoming administration’s contacts with Russia and other foreign countries. Indeed, it is well known that Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner, transition officials, had multiple contacts with Russian officials.
Based on the letter one of the lawyers for Trump’s transition team has sent to Congress, there is abundant reason to believe that Mueller’s investigators were well aware that Trump’s transition organization, Trump for America (TFA), claimed ownership and control of the presidential transition team (PTT) records. The repository for those records was a government agency, the General Services Administration, but GSA was basically a filing cabinet, not a transition operative, much less the decision-maker about the disposition of the files.
The main issue here is not whether Mueller had the legal power to request that GSA, the third-party custodian, voluntarily turn over all the PTT records to the special-counsel investigation. It is also not whether GSA had the authority to comply with the request. The real question is why did Mueller choose to proceed in this sneaky manner?”
“Grassley’s been singling out McCabe for months (as has Trump). In July, Grassley cited McCabe for potential Hatch Act violations, and also noted — before #MeToo — that McCabe has been named in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the FBI, with additional accusations of retaliation. Grassley requested that the Inspector General take a closer look at McCabe at that time:
Has the IG concluded that review? It’s not clear where that stands, but Grassley raised the Hatch Act issue again earlier this month:
In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday, Grassley suggested that McCabe may have used his government email account to advocate for his wife Jill McCabe’s 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign.
Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that could constitute a violation of the Hatch Act, pointing to Justice Department guidance forbidding employees from using “any e-mail account or social media to distribute, send or forward content that advocates for or against a partisan political party.”
“However, the e-mail communications released by the FBI show that Mr. McCabe did precisely that during his wife’s Virginia Senate campaign,” Grassley wrote.
“For instance, in an August 19, 2015, e-mail from his FBI e-mail account to an undisclosed recipient, he wrote: ‘Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.’”
McCabe already had problems before the release of the Peter Strzok texts, in other words, and it’s not getting any better. But will Wray take the hint? He demoted and reassigned Bruce Ohr, another top-ranked FBI official with apparent conflicts of interest in the Russia-collusion probe, after finding out that Ohr’s wife worked for Fusion GPS and may have been involved in the development of the Steele dossier. He’s walking a fine line, though, between the political demands from Capitol Hill and the White House on one hand and keeping good working order among the rank and file in the other. Perhaps Wray is also waiting for an IG report, not because it will tell him anything not already known, but to ensure that the appearance of independence and fair play are maintained before making any other moves.”
Ricky@ 4:00 Ha, ‘corrupt master’? Save the melodrama till we see the practical effect of the tax package they’re passing. Then I may be persuaded to howl with you.
The Republican brand is the least of their problems. Since Republicans have apparently learned nothing from the election and are determined to continue failed policies, the future leans toward the Democrats. It’s theirs to lose—but I wouldn’t be too concerned because Democrats also have a knack for not seeing the forest for the trees. I have no idea where this will all lead, but it’s definitely going somewhere. Should be interesting.
1. Molests women;
2. Brags about molestation;
3. Lies about moleststion;
4. Admits to essentially bribing politicians;
5. Treats lenders so badly, no American lender will deal with him;
6. Defrauds gullible people with fake university;
7. Attacks judge in fake university case;
8. Bribes Florida AG in fake university fraud case using his fake charity;
9. Routinely cheats suppliers and workers as is evidenced by 3,000 plus lawsuits.
10. Asks FBI Director for loyalty pledge;
11. Fires FBI Director when pledge of loyalty is not forthcoming.
Rather amused at AJ’s opening post. It appears Trump supporters have discovered the Obama economy. Other than a stock market bubble, Trump can’t take credit for the economy til a fiscal year passes from his first budget. I’m also amused they now accept the unemployment rate as valid — previously they discounted it as doesnt measure people not looking for work.
As for ISIS it was bound to decay and fall apart. A non state actor can only hold territory if it adopts the tools of the modern state. Obviously not possible for a group who followed a 1000 yr old book literally. More directly the Russian air force and the Kurdish militia deserve most of the credit.
I’m also struggling with the notion a limited govt is automatically more moral. That’s a strange definition of moral and even stranger basis for a moral system.
Trump is the epitome of corruption. He is the end product of the cesspool of the Washington swamp. Prior to the presidency, he was bankrupt developer who didnt pay his bills and then he became a tv huckster only one grade above the Shamwow guy. Even now he can’t resist the smallest form of corruption. By going to his own resorts and golf courses he forces the secret service to spend money on his properties. Its as if Jimmy Carter ordered peanuts exclusively from his farm. Of course Carter avoided this conflict of interest by selling the farm.
HRW, I am ready to concede the 2020 election to the Democrats, so is Sanders still your preferred candidate? I think he is undervalued in the English betting houses.
Chas – A while back, I read an article that said that it is a myth that Perot cost Bush the election. It turns out that polling showed that Perot voters were pretty much evenly split between Republicans & Democrats.
“A new fight over abortion has thrown a late obstacle into negotiations on the year-end stopgap spending deal days before a possible government shutdown.
House Republicans say two ObamaCare measures that Senate GOP leaders are expected to attach to the stopgap as part of a deal with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) must include Hyde Amendment language prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion.
It would be a “stone cold non-starter” for many House Republicans to vote for the stopgap that does not include the ObamaCare measures without the abortion restrictions, said one House GOP appropriations aide.
“It won’t pass the House if you don’t have Hyde protections,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.)
But Democrats oppose including the language, which they see as an expansion of the existing Hyde Amendment. They argue including the language could discourage private insurers from covering abortions, and insist they won’t back the stopgap if it is added.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said Tuesday that adding Hyde language would “kill it altogether.”
Senate Republicans need at least eight Democrats to back the stopgap to overcome a filibuster. The government will shut down on Saturday unless a new funding measure is approved.
The two ObamaCare measures are a part of a deal between Senate GOP leaders and Collins that won her support for the tax-cut bill.”
Two of the top experts in the country trade thoughts on the 2018 House of Representatives elections. The election is still over ten months away, but most observers seem to conclude that we have settled into a new normal. The polls have really not been very volatile for some time now.
GOP gerrymanders are built to withstand a lot, but if there’s a giant wave, those maps could crumble and scores of seats could go blue in places like MI-NC-OH-PA https://t.co/7jXRuxczf2
Citing abortion to support the current regime misses a few points. The current abortion rate is now at pre Roe vs Wade levels. The pro life won the moral argument and succeeded without govt intervention. And to now support this amoral regime in hopes of a few favours they risk losing the moral argument. They have jumped head first into the swamp.
When the pro life community supports a voyeuristic three time married man who admits to sexual assault, what credibility do they have left? Then to support a man who preyed on teenage girls? Yes one must make compromises in the political arena but one must also know when to drawn the line.
Ricky, I would love to see Sanders as president but i don’t see it. Many Democrats are still upset with him and he may not have the energy to repair the damage Trump will inflict. Although some see Warren as his leftist successor, I dont think she has his political charm. Gillibrand and Harris are the possible contenders instead. Of course, my sentiment is with Sanders and despite what the democratic party elite think he could win and would have beat Trump. Michigan, Ohio, Penn, and Wisconsin would have gone his way.
Wandering Views 
Another Trump convert. He also seems to get a point I’ve been trying to make. No matter your personal opinion of Trump, he’s getting the job done, has made our govt. better than the alternative would have, and the American people are better off with him leading our govt. than the alternative and their perverted, immoral, and deviant agenda. Where I’m from, that’s called winning. 🙂
https://pjmedia.com/andrewklavan/trump-has-made-our-government-more-moral/
“Here is a funny thing about the human mind: when we didn’t see something coming, we often can’t see it came. There’s a good reason for this. Wrong predictions are an indication that there is something off or unrealistic about your worldview. When your predictions are vastly incorrect, you have to choose: will I paper over my mistakes and pretend to myself I was actually right in some way, or will I admit the error and adjust the way I look at life?
People almost never adjust the way they look at life. It would mean risking their sense of their own wisdom and virtue.
This is why so many pundits both on the left and right are completely blind to what happened this year in politics.
Donald Trump — a political neophyte, a New York loudmouth who plays fast and loose with the truth, a massive egotist and a not altogether pleasant human being — has delivered conservatives one of the greatest years in living memory and has made our government more moral in the process. The left and many on the right didn’t see it coming because they hate the man. And because they didn’t see it coming, they won’t see that it’s come.”
The first assertion is easily proven. After a year of Trump, the economy is in high gear, stocks are up, unemployment is down, energy production is up, business expansion is up and so on; ISIS — which took more than 23,000 square miles of territory after Obama left Iraq and refused to intervene in Syria — is now in control of a Port-o-San and a book of matches; 19 constitutionalist judges have been appointed and 40 more nominated; the biggest regulatory rollback in American history has been launched (boring but yugely important); the rule of law has been re-established at the border; we’re out of the absurd and costly Paris Accord; net neutrality, the most cleverly named government power grab ever, is gone; our foreign policy is righted and revitalized; and a mainstream news media that had become little more than the information arm of the Democratic Party is in self-destructive disarray. If the tax bill passes before Christmas, it will cap an unbelievable string of conservative successes.
Now you can tie yourself in knots explaining why none of this is Trump’s doing or how it’s all just a big accident or the result of cynical motives or whatever. Knock yourself out, cutes. For me, I’ll say this. I hated Trump. I thought he’d be a disaster or, at best, a mediocrity. I was wrong. He’s done an unbelievably great job so far.”
————————–
“Trump has made our government more moral by making less of it: fewer regulations, fewer judges who will write law instead of obeying the law, fewer bureaucrats seeking to expand the power of their agencies, less money for the government to spend on itself. He has made government treat us more fairly and equally by ceasing to use the IRS and Justice Department for political ends like silencing enemies and skewing elections.
This is what moral government looks like. And if every male senator in America is grabbing the buttocks of some unsuspecting female while, at the same time, voting for more limited and less corrupt government, the senators are immoral, yes, but the government is more moral. That is why we should never let the leftist press game us with scandal hysteria, but should keep focused on voting in those who will help fulfill government’s moral ends.
Trump has delivered conservatives an astoundingly successful year and made the government more moral in the process. You don’t have to like him, to salute him. I salute him. Well done.”
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A variety of views on Mueller:
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Dreher recognizes when the media is biased:
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An article on Zimbabwe and “the right to misgovern oneselves”.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454674/robert-mugabe-zimbabwe-descent-crisis
Like the former Rhodesia, America has been misgoverned for decades. Fortunately, Madison and Reagan had us at a higher starting point than did poor Ian Smith in Salisbury.
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I haven’t ready any of those books and I’m not the slightest interested.
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Huh.
Well, it’s not like she hid her communist sympathizing……
https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/12/jill-steins-2016-campaign-now-being-investigated-for-russia-collusion/
“It’s time to revise Andy Warhol’s famous quote and say that in the future, everyone will be investigated for colluding with Russia for fifteen minutes.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will now examine the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein because someone must have colluded with Russia, right?
Karoun Demirjian reports at the Washington Post:
Senate intel committee investigating Jill Stein campaign for possible collusion with the Russians
The Senate Intelligence Committee is looking at the presidential campaign of the Green Party’s Jill Stein for potential “collusion with the Russians,” a sign that the panel’s probe is far from over, even as allegations swirl that the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation is racing to a close.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told reporters Monday that the Senate Intelligence Committee has “two other campaigns that we’re just starting on,” in addition to the panel’s ongoing probe of alleged ties between the Trump administration and Kremlin officials. One of those he identified as Stein’s; Burr has indicated previously that the committee is also looking into reports that the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for research that went into a dossier detailing allegations of Donald Trump’s 2013 exploits in Moscow.
Stein was present at a 2015 dinner in Moscow that was also attended by Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, whose contacts with Russian officials have been a chief focus of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe. Flynn and Stein were photographed at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sat next to Flynn and across the table from Stein.
Emma Loop of BuzzFeed has more details on how this took shape:
The Senate’s Russia Investigation Is Now Looking Into Jill Stein
The top congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has set its sights on the Green Party and its nominee, Jill Stein.
Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked for the Stein campaign from January to August of 2015, says Stein contacted him on Friday saying the Senate Intelligence Committee had requested that the campaign comply with a document search.
Trainor, who served as the campaign’s communications director and acting manager during that time, told BuzzFeed News that he was informed of the committee’s request because during his time on the campaign, his personal cell phone was “a primary point of contact” for those looking to reach Stein or the campaign. That included producers from RT News, the Russian state-funded media company, who booked Stein for several appearances, Trainor said.
“Then I was told by Jill just to wait for further instructions,” Trainor said, adding that he was told the campaign would contact him in the next week with instructions, presumably from the Senate Intelligence Committee, for executing the document search, including precise search terms. That has not happened yet, Trainor said.”
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Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….
It’s a secret.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/12/mainstream-media-silence-on-politico-report-that-obama-allowed-hezbollah-drug-running-to-appease-iran/
“Mainstream media silence on Politico report that Obama allowed Hezbollah drug running to appease Iran
Meanwhile, Trump is vigorously going after Hezbollah’s criminal networks, particularly in Latin America.”
—————————-
“So far there is near silence from the mainstream media about the blockbuster Politico Magazine investigative report on how the Obama administration from the top down interfered with U.S. law enforcement efforts to take down Hezbollah’s drug running of cocaine into the U.S. in order to facilitate the Iran nuclear deal.
I summarized the Politico findings in my post, Obama allowed Hezbollah cocaine running into U.S. in quest for Iran nuke deal.
I cannot find any mentions of the Politico story in any of the major newspapers or networks (except for Fox News). The same people who endlessly repeat shoddy reporting by other mainstream outlets when it comes to anti-Trump conspiracy theories, don’t feel the need to report on the Politico story. My hunch is that they are devoting resources to try to question the Politico story.
They don’t know what to do because this reflects so badly on the person they spent 8 years defending and covering for. Obama sacrificed Americans addicted to and dying from cocaine in order to appease Iran. That should be on the front page of every major newspaper and on every major newscast, but it’s not.”
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It matters. Yuuugely.
https://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/legal-analysis-heres-why-muellers-seizure-of-transition-emails-likely-violated-the-law/
“The Mueller search runs afoul of many of these established court precedents and Fourth Amendment privacy and privilege principles. First, it appears Mueller searched and seized every email, without any kind of categorical or keyword search. This is exactly the kind of search the Supreme Court made clear was not allowed under the Fourth Amendment. This means Mueller can only prevail if he didn’t seize a single email of a single individual that the individual could have any expectation of either personal privacy or attorney client privilege in.
The primary excuses proffered so far for the broad seizure is the faulty assumption the use of a government server waived all privacy and all privilege of every email ever made over that server. As identified above, that has never been the law. The security and efficacy of government-owned servers for transition employees are not intended as a trap for the unwary to forever forfeit their privacy and privilege rights in their communications. Indeed, doing so would undermine use of such communications, and invite Hillary Clinton type bathroom closet email servers for everybody.
Mueller’s problem here is these were not even government employee emails; they were the emails of private individuals stored temporarily on a government server, and publicly declared to be “private materials” as a matter of custom, practice and the public policy of the National Archives. As Professor Jonathan Turley identifies, the National Archives recognize transition email records “are not federal or presidential records, but considered private materials.”
The only “notice” evidence otherwise given publicly is that an agreement between the GSA and the transition team identified the possibility of technical and maintenance audits, with some claiming this as a “waiver” of all privacy and privilege rights in the emails forever. Here again, the law does not support such a claim; even cases with much more specific notices and much less invasive searches, found privacy and privilege objections persisted. So far, a striking lack of arguments and evidence has been mounted for claiming every single email lacked any privacy or privilege.
It appears to me, Mueller deliberately skipped the court, the grand jury, and the government-imposed limits on investigative inquiries into worker conduct under Supreme Court precedent; he might have done so because he wanted a tactical edge, and was walling to ignore the Fourth Amendment restrictions on him to do so. Mueller may come to regret his choice.”
———————
Let’s hope so.
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Disney unveiled it’s new Trump animatronic today at Disney’s Hall of Presidents. Reviews are mixed. 🙂
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Allah Pundit focused on the gender gap, but something else caught my eye. Republicans now trail Democrats by 19% among whites with college degrees.
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Maybe Democrats get more college degrees. It’s expensive, and Conservatives at least are not encouraged to borrow money to go to school. Or maybe college is primarily a Democrat’s game. I wonder how many Republicans send their kids to school and they come back registered as a Democrat. People are certainly indoctrinated there.
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Debra, White college graduates don’t tend to be Democrats. They have favored the Republican in every Presidential election since 1964. They favored Reagan by margins over 20%. They even favored Trump in 2016 by a margin of 4%.
However, they tend to read widely and have a low tolerance for idiocy and dishonesty. Trump has run and is running them out of the Republican Party.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/behind-trumps-victory-divisions-by-race-gender-education/%3famp=1
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Is there anyone not being investigated? 😦
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It looks like Whites prefer the Republican party overall—except for Clinton’s first term which looks mostly flat for Whites. That indicates they would almost rather elect a Democrat than give Bush a second term. So I guess it’s not a great surprise that Whites with a college degree also prefer Republicans, including Trump—though by only 4pts. I don’t think that drop from Bush 2 is as significant as it’s made to appear.
It seems likely that the college degrees will be moving in a more liberal direction in the future. That’s not too surprising either.
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I’m not being investigated, Michelle. I guess I’ll have to wait for my obit to get my 15 minutes of fame. ;–)
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Debra @3:39 The drop from Little Bush to Trump or from Romney to Trump (8 points) was not that great. On that point I agree with you.
My fear has always been that Trump as a dishonest and imbecilic President, as opposed to Trump the dishonest and imbecilic candidate, would ruin the Republican brand.
That is exactly what has happened. Republican Congressmen (Nunes and Jordan) have joined their corrupt master in attacking the FBI. Most Republicans in Congress have defended or excused lying or stupidity. As a result, support for Republicans among white college educated folks has dropped by 23% SINCE the election.
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They investigated me in 1963. My dad said that they were in the neighborhood asking everyone about me. Also, I suspect, checking my military records.
I got a clearance for Top Secret code word material. Nobody cared about me since then. But if I run for Congress, somebody will find something.
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Debra @ 3:39. It wasn’t Clinton that defeated Bush is 1992, it was Ross Perot.
And Perot didn’t want to be president. It was a personal thing.
Perot gave us Clinton, and Hillary and all the corruption that goes with it.
People slamming Trump should know what we would have with Hillary.
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Yes, Hillary would have been worse than Trump – bad judges, bad regulations and no tax cut/tax reform.
However, the Republican brand would not have been destroyed. In fact, it is highly likely that the corrupt and unpleasant Hillary would have done even more damage to the Democrat brand and 2018 and 2020 would have been good elections for the Republicans. We will never know for sure.
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Face.
Palm.
Head.
Desk.
The Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight strikes again.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-tax-bill-house-passes-tax-reform-bill-live-updates/
“The House will re-vote on the bill it passed to much fanfare Tuesday afternoon, fearing procedural violations in the version it already passed.
The vote will likely take place Wednesday. The Senate has been expected to take up the bill later Tuesday evening. “
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I notice you’re calling Trump corrupt now in your rants. Now do you have any proof of that, or are you just slandering the guy yet again?
———————–
Meanwhile……
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/454742/mueller-investigation-trump-team-files-using-bullying-tactics
“Mueller’s Scorched-Earth Tactics . . . Again”
‘That is why, if a prosecutor and investigators want to review presidential transition files, they should make the request directly to counsel for the presidential transition. That is the way to sort out any knotty legal issues, with court intervention if necessary, so that they do not become public controversies. But that is not the Mueller way, as we saw with the utterly unnecessary pre-dawn raid on the home of Paul Manafort — busting in with a search warrant and guns drawn, at the very time Manafort was cooperating with congressional committees, and when he was represented by well-respected lawyers through whom Mueller could have requested production of whatever materials he was seeking.
Mueller’s investigation is examining whether Trump campaign officials “colluded” in Russia’s espionage operations to interfere in the election, and whether contacts between Trump associates and Russian operatives amounted to actionable corruption. That being the case, the relevance of at least some transition materials is obvious.
Mind you, I do not believe Mueller’s investigation is appropriately conceived. As I’ve been arguing since before Mueller was appointed, our American tradition is that there must first be strong reason to believe a specific crime was committed before a prosecutor should be assigned to investigate. Here, Mueller has been commissioned by Trump’s own appointed deputy attorney general to conduct a fishing expedition in the absence of cause to believe Trump committed a criminal offense. In effect, nothing is off limits, so why should transition files be off limits?
But let’s put aside complaints about what, in effect, is Mueller’s “general warrant” (the kind of broad, non-particularized, abusive investigative license the Fourth Amendment was adopted to guard against). After all, there is a criminal investigation of “Trump collusion with Russia,” regardless of whether I think there should be. That being the case, it would be foolish to discount the likelihood — the certainty — that there is information in the Trump transition files about the incoming administration’s contacts with Russia and other foreign countries. Indeed, it is well known that Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner, transition officials, had multiple contacts with Russian officials.
Based on the letter one of the lawyers for Trump’s transition team has sent to Congress, there is abundant reason to believe that Mueller’s investigators were well aware that Trump’s transition organization, Trump for America (TFA), claimed ownership and control of the presidential transition team (PTT) records. The repository for those records was a government agency, the General Services Administration, but GSA was basically a filing cabinet, not a transition operative, much less the decision-maker about the disposition of the files.
The main issue here is not whether Mueller had the legal power to request that GSA, the third-party custodian, voluntarily turn over all the PTT records to the special-counsel investigation. It is also not whether GSA had the authority to comply with the request. The real question is why did Mueller choose to proceed in this sneaky manner?”
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Huh. It almost seems like the FBI are the ones with corruption issues Ricky.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/12/19/grassley-mccabe-get/
“Grassley’s been singling out McCabe for months (as has Trump). In July, Grassley cited McCabe for potential Hatch Act violations, and also noted — before #MeToo — that McCabe has been named in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the FBI, with additional accusations of retaliation. Grassley requested that the Inspector General take a closer look at McCabe at that time:
Has the IG concluded that review? It’s not clear where that stands, but Grassley raised the Hatch Act issue again earlier this month:
In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday, Grassley suggested that McCabe may have used his government email account to advocate for his wife Jill McCabe’s 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign.
Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that could constitute a violation of the Hatch Act, pointing to Justice Department guidance forbidding employees from using “any e-mail account or social media to distribute, send or forward content that advocates for or against a partisan political party.”
“However, the e-mail communications released by the FBI show that Mr. McCabe did precisely that during his wife’s Virginia Senate campaign,” Grassley wrote.
“For instance, in an August 19, 2015, e-mail from his FBI e-mail account to an undisclosed recipient, he wrote: ‘Jill has been busy as hell since she decided to run for VA state senate (long story). Check her out on Facebook as Dr. Jill McCabe for Senate.’”
McCabe already had problems before the release of the Peter Strzok texts, in other words, and it’s not getting any better. But will Wray take the hint? He demoted and reassigned Bruce Ohr, another top-ranked FBI official with apparent conflicts of interest in the Russia-collusion probe, after finding out that Ohr’s wife worked for Fusion GPS and may have been involved in the development of the Steele dossier. He’s walking a fine line, though, between the political demands from Capitol Hill and the White House on one hand and keeping good working order among the rank and file in the other. Perhaps Wray is also waiting for an IG report, not because it will tell him anything not already known, but to ensure that the appearance of independence and fair play are maintained before making any other moves.”
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Ricky@ 4:00 Ha, ‘corrupt master’? Save the melodrama till we see the practical effect of the tax package they’re passing. Then I may be persuaded to howl with you.
The Republican brand is the least of their problems. Since Republicans have apparently learned nothing from the election and are determined to continue failed policies, the future leans toward the Democrats. It’s theirs to lose—but I wouldn’t be too concerned because Democrats also have a knack for not seeing the forest for the trees. I have no idea where this will all lead, but it’s definitely going somewhere. Should be interesting.
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1. Molests women;
2. Brags about molestation;
3. Lies about moleststion;
4. Admits to essentially bribing politicians;
5. Treats lenders so badly, no American lender will deal with him;
6. Defrauds gullible people with fake university;
7. Attacks judge in fake university case;
8. Bribes Florida AG in fake university fraud case using his fake charity;
9. Routinely cheats suppliers and workers as is evidenced by 3,000 plus lawsuits.
10. Asks FBI Director for loyalty pledge;
11. Fires FBI Director when pledge of loyalty is not forthcoming.
Even The Cult needs to acknowledge he is corrupt.
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Rather amused at AJ’s opening post. It appears Trump supporters have discovered the Obama economy. Other than a stock market bubble, Trump can’t take credit for the economy til a fiscal year passes from his first budget. I’m also amused they now accept the unemployment rate as valid — previously they discounted it as doesnt measure people not looking for work.
As for ISIS it was bound to decay and fall apart. A non state actor can only hold territory if it adopts the tools of the modern state. Obviously not possible for a group who followed a 1000 yr old book literally. More directly the Russian air force and the Kurdish militia deserve most of the credit.
I’m also struggling with the notion a limited govt is automatically more moral. That’s a strange definition of moral and even stranger basis for a moral system.
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Now for some good news:
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Trump is the epitome of corruption. He is the end product of the cesspool of the Washington swamp. Prior to the presidency, he was bankrupt developer who didnt pay his bills and then he became a tv huckster only one grade above the Shamwow guy. Even now he can’t resist the smallest form of corruption. By going to his own resorts and golf courses he forces the secret service to spend money on his properties. Its as if Jimmy Carter ordered peanuts exclusively from his farm. Of course Carter avoided this conflict of interest by selling the farm.
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We were discussing how Hillary would have been an unpopular president who would have done damage to the Democrat brand.
HRW, I am ready to concede the 2020 election to the Democrats, so is Sanders still your preferred candidate? I think he is undervalued in the English betting houses.
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The Obama economy…..
That’s precious.
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Chas – A while back, I read an article that said that it is a myth that Perot cost Bush the election. It turns out that polling showed that Perot voters were pretty much evenly split between Republicans & Democrats.
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For those of you who may think it doesn’t matter who you elect and what their personal views are when it comes to abortion, I give you Exhibit A.
Reps and Senators can have an effect on the abortion issue. This is the difference one vote could make.
Also, this will be telling as well. Will the Republicans sell out pro-life values and voters yet again, to get their tax deal done? We shall see.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/abortion-fight-threatens-collins-deal-risks-shutdown/ar-BBH2DEX?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
“A new fight over abortion has thrown a late obstacle into negotiations on the year-end stopgap spending deal days before a possible government shutdown.
House Republicans say two ObamaCare measures that Senate GOP leaders are expected to attach to the stopgap as part of a deal with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) must include Hyde Amendment language prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion.
It would be a “stone cold non-starter” for many House Republicans to vote for the stopgap that does not include the ObamaCare measures without the abortion restrictions, said one House GOP appropriations aide.
“It won’t pass the House if you don’t have Hyde protections,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.)
But Democrats oppose including the language, which they see as an expansion of the existing Hyde Amendment. They argue including the language could discourage private insurers from covering abortions, and insist they won’t back the stopgap if it is added.
Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said Tuesday that adding Hyde language would “kill it altogether.”
Senate Republicans need at least eight Democrats to back the stopgap to overcome a filibuster. The government will shut down on Saturday unless a new funding measure is approved.
The two ObamaCare measures are a part of a deal between Senate GOP leaders and Collins that won her support for the tax-cut bill.”
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Two of the top experts in the country trade thoughts on the 2018 House of Representatives elections. The election is still over ten months away, but most observers seem to conclude that we have settled into a new normal. The polls have really not been very volatile for some time now.
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Kizzie, You are correct. There have been a number of articles and this video produced on the subject.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ross-perot-myth/
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Citing abortion to support the current regime misses a few points. The current abortion rate is now at pre Roe vs Wade levels. The pro life won the moral argument and succeeded without govt intervention. And to now support this amoral regime in hopes of a few favours they risk losing the moral argument. They have jumped head first into the swamp.
When the pro life community supports a voyeuristic three time married man who admits to sexual assault, what credibility do they have left? Then to support a man who preyed on teenage girls? Yes one must make compromises in the political arena but one must also know when to drawn the line.
Ricky, I would love to see Sanders as president but i don’t see it. Many Democrats are still upset with him and he may not have the energy to repair the damage Trump will inflict. Although some see Warren as his leftist successor, I dont think she has his political charm. Gillibrand and Harris are the possible contenders instead. Of course, my sentiment is with Sanders and despite what the democratic party elite think he could win and would have beat Trump. Michigan, Ohio, Penn, and Wisconsin would have gone his way.
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