That’s nice that they got around to it, I had no doubt they would.. But at 11 last night there were none on either’s homepage. The MSN has no time on it, and the Yahoo was posted not long AFTER I did.
“Not much more than that is known as of this writing. There’s a lot of speculation and anonymously sourced reporting that it had to do with bank fraud, or the payment to Stormy Daniels, or something else. The seizure of records should have followed applicable procedures for searching an attorney’s office records to protect legitimate attorney-client privilege.
Regardless, seizing the records of the personal attorney to the president is extraordinary, and reflects a number of points I’ve been arguing since the day Robert Mueller was appointed.
The process of investigation is the reverse of what it should be. Mueller has identified the targets, being Trump and those around him, and then set out to find the crimes. Being near Trump means you will be subject to scrutiny to find a crime. In some cases that scrutiny may be minimal, in other cases, such as Paul Manafort, it could mean substantial criminal charges that likely never would have been brought but for Manafort being connected to Trump’s campaign for a relatively short time period.
That’s the context to understand what likely happened with Cohen. Assuming the reports are accurate that this was a referral from Mueller and did not originate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it means that Mueller subjected Cohen to scrutiny and found something. What that something is we don’t yet know. If it had to do with alleged Russian collusion, or even Russia, it’s likely Mueller would have kept the matter in his investigation, just as he did with Manafort’s Ukrainian connections.
That doesn’t mean Mueller wouldn’t find it helpful for his own investigation. It would be completely consistent (1) for Mueller to understand that whatever Cohen did or had, it was too far removed from Mueller’s appointment to justify Mueller’s team executing the warrant, and (2) Mueller finding it useful to have others in DOJ/FBI put the squeeze on Cohen to flip him against Trump.
Mueller is legally twisting Manafort’s arm so hard to flip him against Trump it may fall off, but will have to outsource the torment of Cohen to others. As so much that has preceded it in the Russia collusion inquisition, this has the appearances of friends of James Comey and Andrew McCabe taking out whatever their agenda is on friends of Trump.
This also could represent a line of attack against Trump by Mueller that Mueller didn’t feel he could take himself. Subjecting business dealings of Trump to criminal investigation as part of the Russia investigation would be a stretch. Again, it’s just as convenient for Mueller to have someone else do that, and in the case of Trump’s past business dealings, even more convenient for Mueller.
Unlike Obama, who took control of the DOJ/FBI apparatus, Trump is fighting for his presidency against the bureaucracy, as John Hinderaker observed:
The answer is that Trump and his appointees do not control the departments they ostensibly run. Liberals tell us that at DOJ, it is critically important that political appointees not interfere with the “career professionals” who do all the work. I say, bullshit. The “career professionals” are just Democratic Party lifers who have risen to the top of the bureaucracy, often by avoiding any actual, risky work. I’m not talking about FBI agents on the street, or the majority of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. (U.S. Attorneys, of course, are political appointees.) I’m talking about career bureaucrats like James Comey, Bob Mueller, Andy McCabe, and so on….
We are witnessing, as Scott [Johnson] says, “a political death struggle with the authorities operating under [President Trump’s] nominal control.” President Trump and his loyal appointees need to assert the powers that the voters have given them.””
Tucker Carlson talked about pandas and Laura Ingraham talked about Diamond and Silk, but all legitimate news organizations are reporting about the court-approved search of Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room and Trump’s subsequent meltdown on live TV.
“In a statement to Fox News, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We have communicated directly with Diamond And Silk about this issue. The message they received last week was inaccurate and not reflective of the way we communicate with our community and the people who run Pages on our platform. We have provided them with more information about our policies and the tools that are applicable to their Page and look forward to the opportunity to speak with them.”
“David Hogg, a 17-year-old high school senior who survived February’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, is postponing his first year of college to work on the midterm elections.
Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told TMZ last month that four University of California campuses, including UC Irvine, had rejected his application. TMZ reported on Monday, however, that he received an acceptance letter from UC Irvine last week.
Hogg’s mother, Rebecca Boldrick, told CNN about the acceptance letter, but said that “he will not be going to college this year because he’s decided to take a year off and work on the midterm elections.”
Boldrick added that her son, who has become one of the most vocal student gun-control activists in the wake of the Parkland shooting, hopes to “get people to vote” by registering and educating new voters. Hogg spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. last month calling for stricter gun-control measures.”
—————————-
And who does he want them to vote for? Gun grabbing Democrats, of course.
“Here’s the weird part about this: The Rosenstein “secret” memo revealed in this week’s court filing is dated August 2, 2017. According to media reports, Paul Manfort’s home was raided July 26, 2017. So that means Rosenstein’s laid out the more specified scope and definition of authority for the special counsel investigation six days after Manafort’s home had already been raided.
What does this mean legally? Well, as always, the the legal experts are divided.
“There is something very wrong about that,” said Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz on Fox News Tuesday night, adding that the scope of the investigation should be clearly defined. “This special prosecutor is looking at everything. Where does it stop?””
First Things is one of the few journals I subscribe to, and I am rarely disappointed since it is not shallow or sensational. There is a short article in it today addressing the politicized culture of violence. I was intrigued by the title The Unspeakable Pleasure . It’s worth the read.
“Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the FBI crossed the line with its raid of President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, calling it a “great overstep” Tuesday on “America’s Newsroom.”
“The first question we ought to ask is what does this have to do with Russia,” Paul said. “I thought the special prosecutor was investigating Russian collusion. Going after someone’s personal attorney is a great overstep I think, in the authority of the prosecutor.”
“This is why I have opposed really having special prosecutors for almost anything,” Paul continued. “I think they abuse their authority. I think Mueller has abused his authority. They say. well he asked somebody else, another U.S. Attorney to do it. Yes but this is coming at the behest of Mueller.”
Paul said the investigation has spun out of control and warned Americans that this abuse of power may last well after Trump leaves the White House.
“I think this investigation no longer has much to do with Russia. I would warn people around America who say oh, that don’t like the president, oh, this is just fine because it’s against President Trump. This is an enormous power used against anybody,” Paul said.”
So Trump and his lawyer get the bum’s rush for a $150,000 donation to a Trump charity (NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA), but they aren’t even looking at the $13,000,0000 he gave the Clinton Foundation.
“The special counsel’s office is investigating a $150,000 donation a Ukrainian businessman made to President Donald Trump’s charity in 2015, according to a new report.
The donation, from steel magnate Victor Pinchuk, pales in comparison to contributions he gave to the charity Bill and Hillary Clinton set up. The billionaire has contributed $13 million to the Clinton Foundation since 2006 and had access to Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state.
But Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not investigating The Clintons. Instead, he is conducting a broad investigation of Donald Trump, including the flow of foreign money into various Trump-controlled entities.
Mueller began investigating the Pinchuk donation after receiving documents in response to a subpoena issued to the Trump Organization — the real estate company Trump ran before entering politics.
” Investors and China watchers welcomed President Xi Jinping’s pledge Tuesday to open his country’s market wider to foreign competition, hoping it will ease a trade dispute with Washington that has unsettled financial markets and could jeopardize a global economic expansion.
Xi’s vow to cut Chinese auto tariffs, allow more competition in banking and better protect intellectual property calmed investors who have been on edge since the world’s two biggest economies last week announced plans to slap tariffs on $50 billion worth of each other’s products.
Stock markets rallied worldwide on optimism for relief from what has become the most high-stakes trade confrontation since World War II. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 400 points in early afternoon trading.
“This is a promising signal that there can be a path forward to address (America’s) concerns without a full-on trade war emerging,” said Stephen Ezell, vice president of global innovation policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank that has criticized both China’s aggressive trade practices and President Donald Trump’s confrontational response to them.
At the same time, Ezell and other longtime China observers cautioned that Beijing has promised in the past to open its market and curb hardball tactics to acquire foreign technology without following through on those pledges.
“This is positive, but we need to see action,” Ezell said.”
“Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation, ABC News has learned.
Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen’s office because of the recusal, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News
The recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials who report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the sources said. Rosenstein himself was notified of the recusal after the decision was made.”
—————————-
Interesting. Michael Cohen is talking to both NBC and CNN and saying nice things about the FBI
Cohen speaking to the "Fake News" media and complimenting the FBI, when he knows Trump has been attacking them non-stop. Cohen may have said he was faithful to POTUS but now that his own family is involved, maybe not so much? https://t.co/ypVyGsYA4K
I have decided to listen to more Trumpian sources. After watching this just once, I am already starting to belief in the Deep State, the Silent Coup and the Pedophile Pizza Parlor.
Like the old Bible School song, that Deep State is deep and wide:
How many Trump appointees have to hold key DOJ positions before the MAGA folks stop saying “deep state” every time there’s a negative legal development against Team Trump?
… While conservatives are right about media skew, they frequently talk as if it is some sort of conspiracy. It isn’t. I’ve worked in mainstream media my whole career, and the overwhelming majority of my colleagues have been lovely, generous people who are deeply and sincerely concerned with seeking truth.
No, liberal hegemony in media, academia and entertainment works by the same mechanisms that produce systemic bias against other groups: People are more comfortable with other people who are like them. And thus, they reproduce themselves in the institutions they control without ever consciously thinking: “Time to shore up the power structure!”
Moreover, these things are subject to tipping points — a small majority can rapidly turn into total domination. Those homogenous groups inevitably find it difficult to imagine ways different from their own, much less take them seriously. And this cozy consensus naturally alienates many members of the minority. …
Wandering Views 
From last night. AJ, This is from MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/‘a-bomb-on-trump’s-front-porch’-fbi’s-cohen-raids-hit-home-for-the-president/ar-AAvHeTw?li=BBnb7Kz
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From last night. AJ, This is from Yahoo:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-fumes-mueller-probe-raid-attorney-040756965–politics.html
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That’s nice that they got around to it, I had no doubt they would.. But at 11 last night there were none on either’s homepage. The MSN has no time on it, and the Yahoo was posted not long AFTER I did.
So your point is?……
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What was your point?
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Meanwhile……
Trump’s right. It’s a witch hunt.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/04/cohen-fbi-raid-mueller-outsources-the-legal-torment-of-michael-cohen/#more-246704
“Not much more than that is known as of this writing. There’s a lot of speculation and anonymously sourced reporting that it had to do with bank fraud, or the payment to Stormy Daniels, or something else. The seizure of records should have followed applicable procedures for searching an attorney’s office records to protect legitimate attorney-client privilege.
Regardless, seizing the records of the personal attorney to the president is extraordinary, and reflects a number of points I’ve been arguing since the day Robert Mueller was appointed.
The process of investigation is the reverse of what it should be. Mueller has identified the targets, being Trump and those around him, and then set out to find the crimes. Being near Trump means you will be subject to scrutiny to find a crime. In some cases that scrutiny may be minimal, in other cases, such as Paul Manafort, it could mean substantial criminal charges that likely never would have been brought but for Manafort being connected to Trump’s campaign for a relatively short time period.
That’s the context to understand what likely happened with Cohen. Assuming the reports are accurate that this was a referral from Mueller and did not originate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it means that Mueller subjected Cohen to scrutiny and found something. What that something is we don’t yet know. If it had to do with alleged Russian collusion, or even Russia, it’s likely Mueller would have kept the matter in his investigation, just as he did with Manafort’s Ukrainian connections.
That doesn’t mean Mueller wouldn’t find it helpful for his own investigation. It would be completely consistent (1) for Mueller to understand that whatever Cohen did or had, it was too far removed from Mueller’s appointment to justify Mueller’s team executing the warrant, and (2) Mueller finding it useful to have others in DOJ/FBI put the squeeze on Cohen to flip him against Trump.
Mueller is legally twisting Manafort’s arm so hard to flip him against Trump it may fall off, but will have to outsource the torment of Cohen to others. As so much that has preceded it in the Russia collusion inquisition, this has the appearances of friends of James Comey and Andrew McCabe taking out whatever their agenda is on friends of Trump.
This also could represent a line of attack against Trump by Mueller that Mueller didn’t feel he could take himself. Subjecting business dealings of Trump to criminal investigation as part of the Russia investigation would be a stretch. Again, it’s just as convenient for Mueller to have someone else do that, and in the case of Trump’s past business dealings, even more convenient for Mueller.
Unlike Obama, who took control of the DOJ/FBI apparatus, Trump is fighting for his presidency against the bureaucracy, as John Hinderaker observed:
The answer is that Trump and his appointees do not control the departments they ostensibly run. Liberals tell us that at DOJ, it is critically important that political appointees not interfere with the “career professionals” who do all the work. I say, bullshit. The “career professionals” are just Democratic Party lifers who have risen to the top of the bureaucracy, often by avoiding any actual, risky work. I’m not talking about FBI agents on the street, or the majority of Assistant U.S. Attorneys. (U.S. Attorneys, of course, are political appointees.) I’m talking about career bureaucrats like James Comey, Bob Mueller, Andy McCabe, and so on….
We are witnessing, as Scott [Johnson] says, “a political death struggle with the authorities operating under [President Trump’s] nominal control.” President Trump and his loyal appointees need to assert the powers that the voters have given them.””
LikeLike
Tucker Carlson talked about pandas and Laura Ingraham talked about Diamond and Silk, but all legitimate news organizations are reporting about the court-approved search of Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room and Trump’s subsequent meltdown on live TV.
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Well, since you brought them up….. 🙂
All they needed to do was shame Facebook to make them relent.
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/09/facebook-reconsiders-unsafe-for-community-tag-on-pro-trump-diamond-and-silk-videos-after-fox-friends-appearance.html
“In a statement to Fox News, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We have communicated directly with Diamond And Silk about this issue. The message they received last week was inaccurate and not reflective of the way we communicate with our community and the people who run Pages on our platform. We have provided them with more information about our policies and the tools that are applicable to their Page and look forward to the opportunity to speak with them.”
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For anyone still doubting the Hogg kid was ever anything more than a partisan hack……….
http://freebeacon.com/issues/david-hogg-take-year-off-work-midterm-elections/
“David Hogg, a 17-year-old high school senior who survived February’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, is postponing his first year of college to work on the midterm elections.
Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told TMZ last month that four University of California campuses, including UC Irvine, had rejected his application. TMZ reported on Monday, however, that he received an acceptance letter from UC Irvine last week.
Hogg’s mother, Rebecca Boldrick, told CNN about the acceptance letter, but said that “he will not be going to college this year because he’s decided to take a year off and work on the midterm elections.”
Boldrick added that her son, who has become one of the most vocal student gun-control activists in the wake of the Parkland shooting, hopes to “get people to vote” by registering and educating new voters. Hogg spoke at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. last month calling for stricter gun-control measures.”
—————————-
And who does he want them to vote for? Gun grabbing Democrats, of course.
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Everything about the man is exaggerated.
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Trump should probably put Diamond and Silk in his Cabinet. Perhaps their routines could calm him even as David’s music calmed Saul.
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Careful! Careful! Remember what happened to the last Trump cultist who attacked the skinny 17 year old.
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Send for Diamond and Silk!
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Rush those two ladies to the White House now!
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https://twitter.com/realethanholmes/status/983450740801835008
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Trump’s right.
But that last one is still funny. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
If anyone is interested in the relevant law and procedure, there is this:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/501564002
Otherwise, I am sure Diamond and Silk will have a rhyme about the subject tonight on Hannity right after the panda update and the Hillary segment.
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Rosenstein. Why am I not shocked?
Time to fire him and Sessions.
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Just a reminder on why his judgement should be questioned, since he’s already fudged documents…..
https://lawandcrime.com/legal-analysis/rosensteins-secret-special-counsel-memo-was-written-after-the-feds-already-raided-manaforts-house/
“Here’s the weird part about this: The Rosenstein “secret” memo revealed in this week’s court filing is dated August 2, 2017. According to media reports, Paul Manfort’s home was raided July 26, 2017. So that means Rosenstein’s laid out the more specified scope and definition of authority for the special counsel investigation six days after Manafort’s home had already been raided.
What does this mean legally? Well, as always, the the legal experts are divided.
“There is something very wrong about that,” said Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz on Fox News Tuesday night, adding that the scope of the investigation should be clearly defined. “This special prosecutor is looking at everything. Where does it stop?””
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Can Diamond and Silk find a word to rhyme with Dershowitz?
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First Things is one of the few journals I subscribe to, and I am rarely disappointed since it is not shallow or sensational. There is a short article in it today addressing the politicized culture of violence. I was intrigued by the title The Unspeakable Pleasure . It’s worth the read.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/04/the-unspeakable-pleasure
LikeLiked by 1 person
Paul agrees with Trump.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/10/rand-paul-bob-mueller-cohen-raid/
“Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said the FBI crossed the line with its raid of President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, calling it a “great overstep” Tuesday on “America’s Newsroom.”
“The first question we ought to ask is what does this have to do with Russia,” Paul said. “I thought the special prosecutor was investigating Russian collusion. Going after someone’s personal attorney is a great overstep I think, in the authority of the prosecutor.”
“This is why I have opposed really having special prosecutors for almost anything,” Paul continued. “I think they abuse their authority. I think Mueller has abused his authority. They say. well he asked somebody else, another U.S. Attorney to do it. Yes but this is coming at the behest of Mueller.”
Paul said the investigation has spun out of control and warned Americans that this abuse of power may last well after Trump leaves the White House.
“I think this investigation no longer has much to do with Russia. I would warn people around America who say oh, that don’t like the president, oh, this is just fine because it’s against President Trump. This is an enormous power used against anybody,” Paul said.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
So Trump and his lawyer get the bum’s rush for a $150,000 donation to a Trump charity (NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA), but they aren’t even looking at the $13,000,0000 he gave the Clinton Foundation.
Does that sound like justice?
http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/09/mueller-trump-pinchuk/
“The special counsel’s office is investigating a $150,000 donation a Ukrainian businessman made to President Donald Trump’s charity in 2015, according to a new report.
The donation, from steel magnate Victor Pinchuk, pales in comparison to contributions he gave to the charity Bill and Hillary Clinton set up. The billionaire has contributed $13 million to the Clinton Foundation since 2006 and had access to Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state.
But Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not investigating The Clintons. Instead, he is conducting a broad investigation of Donald Trump, including the flow of foreign money into various Trump-controlled entities.
Mueller began investigating the Pinchuk donation after receiving documents in response to a subpoena issued to the Trump Organization — the real estate company Trump ran before entering politics.
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Well, well, well……..
“China president’s conciliatory trade gesture raises optimism”
https://www.apnews.com/45e28f10baa2460fb17a0b101c366067?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP
” Investors and China watchers welcomed President Xi Jinping’s pledge Tuesday to open his country’s market wider to foreign competition, hoping it will ease a trade dispute with Washington that has unsettled financial markets and could jeopardize a global economic expansion.
Xi’s vow to cut Chinese auto tariffs, allow more competition in banking and better protect intellectual property calmed investors who have been on edge since the world’s two biggest economies last week announced plans to slap tariffs on $50 billion worth of each other’s products.
Stock markets rallied worldwide on optimism for relief from what has become the most high-stakes trade confrontation since World War II. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 400 points in early afternoon trading.
“This is a promising signal that there can be a path forward to address (America’s) concerns without a full-on trade war emerging,” said Stephen Ezell, vice president of global innovation policy at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank that has criticized both China’s aggressive trade practices and President Donald Trump’s confrontational response to them.
At the same time, Ezell and other longtime China observers cautioned that Beijing has promised in the past to open its market and curb hardball tactics to acquire foreign technology without following through on those pledges.
“This is positive, but we need to see action,” Ezell said.”
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And it turns out the media spin that a Trump appointee ordered the warrant has already been proven false. He recused.
—————–
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-attorney-trump-appointee-recused-michael-cohen-investigation/story?id=54365546
“Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is recused from the Michael Cohen investigation, ABC News has learned.
Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen’s office because of the recusal, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News
The recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials who report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the sources said. Rosenstein himself was notified of the recusal after the decision was made.”
—————————-
Fire. Rosenstein.
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Yeah time for Mueller to show his cards. Approaching :00 on the shoot clock there.
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Interesting. Michael Cohen is talking to both NBC and CNN and saying nice things about the FBI
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From Maggie Haberman:
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I have decided to listen to more Trumpian sources. After watching this just once, I am already starting to belief in the Deep State, the Silent Coup and the Pedophile Pizza Parlor.
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Looks like Ricky has added these youtube women to his derangement slash obsession with all things Trump.
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Twitter is pretty good tonight.
https://twitter.com/danaschwartzzz/status/983785878442029056
LikeLiked by 3 people
Mueller is showing up in more places than The Scarlet Pimpernel.
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Like the old Bible School song, that Deep State is deep and wide:
Deep and Wide
Deep and Wide
There’s a Soft Coup
Flowing Deep and Wide.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll let Ricky take care of the Mueller story but for a complete change of topic…..NAFTA. It appears I’m right. There’s nothing there.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-dont-be-fooled-by-the-happy-talk-on-nafta/?click=sf_globefb
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HRW, Tell your negotiators to hang tough. We are doing all we can to get rid of our lunatic, and he is doing all he can to help us.
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Saw the Dana Tweet earlier, hilarious.
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On media bias (yes yes, and yes — thank you Kizzie via FB):
Bias against conservatives works like any other prejudice
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bias-against-conservatives-works-like-any-other-prejudice/2018/04/10/17fa1838-3c40-11e8-974f-aacd97698cef_story.html
____________________
… While conservatives are right about media skew, they frequently talk as if it is some sort of conspiracy. It isn’t. I’ve worked in mainstream media my whole career, and the overwhelming majority of my colleagues have been lovely, generous people who are deeply and sincerely concerned with seeking truth.
No, liberal hegemony in media, academia and entertainment works by the same mechanisms that produce systemic bias against other groups: People are more comfortable with other people who are like them. And thus, they reproduce themselves in the institutions they control without ever consciously thinking: “Time to shore up the power structure!”
Moreover, these things are subject to tipping points — a small majority can rapidly turn into total domination. Those homogenous groups inevitably find it difficult to imagine ways different from their own, much less take them seriously. And this cozy consensus naturally alienates many members of the minority. …
__________________________
LikeLiked by 1 person