Also, the Jeff Sessions – Russians thing is complete BS. Bernie Sanders honeymooned in the USSR and hung a Soviet flag in his office as Mayor of Burlington. And we’re supposed to believe that Democrats suddenly realized that Russians are the bad guys? And now, they literally — not figuratively — want to start World War III over “Russian hacking.” (But they never gave a damn when the Chinese hacked the OPM.)
The Mike Pence e-mail thing is also complete BS. It was totally legal, and he wasn’t hiding anything like selling influence to foreign government in exchange for donations to his sham charity.
All true that those things are bull, but that’s not the point. The Dems and the media are setting the narrative, as usual, and the Republicans, again as usual, are playing defense. Sessions did nothing wrong, but he sure is acting like he did, and not having the full and total support of the every Republican just makes things look worse. I had some doubts that the GOP could get it together under the Trump leadership and fight back, and those doubts are growing everyday.
It’s been 6-weeks since the Inauguration, and so-far I haven’t seen ANY leadership nor political action on the part of the GOP in either Houses of Congress. Nada**
For all the TV mileage and “fake News” MSM coverage the Dhimmicrats are getting over alleged gaffes and self-inflicted wounds to the Trump Admin., you would think the Dhimmicrats won both Houses in Nov. 2016. Is Nancy Pelosi back as Speaker of the House? Is Sen. Schumer the Leader of the Senate? The GOP needs to stop sitting in the hands waiting, …”for what?” I have no demonstrable clue!
I don’t speak text. What’s tl dr?
@3 Gentle Grizzly it stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read”
People started using it in forums if the wanted to respond to a subject but couldn’t be bothered to actually read the original post because it was too long in their eyes. At least they were nice enough to acknowledge their laziness.
Atlas Shrugged is a great book by the way. A little repetitive at places, like “The Speech” but excellent otherwise.
Hi V the K,
I read Ace’s “takedown” defending Sessions’ statements.
“It was a surprise question, and Sessions offered a hasty “Jeese, I have no idea what you’re talking about here” response. And from that, the Democrat-Media Party is now claiming “conscious, premeditated perjury.””
Three things:
1. Given the fact that this was an hot button ongoing topic, the idea that AG Sessions would be “surprised” by being asked such a question at his hearing is not credible. There are other reasons that make more sense to me–such as wanting to cut off a line of questioning that would have made his confirmation process more of a three ring circus.
2. If he had no idea, he could have answered Franken’s question as asked. No, he decided to not answer that question and tell folks that he didn’t have any contacts himself. Ace is free to surmise Session’s state of mind in as sympathetic manner as possible, but what Sessions said is a flat out contradiction about what came out later about his activities. I will grant that Ace’s interpretation of Session’s black box of a mind (and yours as well) is one possibility of what happened, but to claim that this has to be the answer and that the other side’s genuine concerns are “BS” smacks a lot of desperation to change the topic to anything else. You dismiss the other claim out of hand, and that leads to …
3. Everyone on this site knows that had this been a Democrat AG and given the circumstances surrounding the election, commentators here would be calling for his head for perjury–no ifs or buts. When Clinton lied, the Left argued the talking points of it not being a lie, because it “depended on what the meaning of “is” is.” That was embarrassing then. Why do something similar now?
No matter how much right-wing websites and commentators want to minimize concerns about the Russian contacts, it is an issue of national interest, and pretending otherwise won’t make it go away. It is not going away because there is widespread concern within Departments and Agencies about this issue and they are leaking this information. That is something that–even as it is wrong–it is also understandable, given their responsibilities to keep us safe, not to protect politicians and their staff who may not understand what national security actually warrants. Unfortunately, it leaves open the real danger that the damage they are doing in leaking in their efforts to protect the nation from perceived attacks is actually undermining the nation’s protection. Life is not without irony…
I find it interesting that so many people defending the Fas…democrats still believe that we are as dumb as they are when it comes to blind loyalty. Maybe one day. Just maybe. They’ll figure out why Trump is now The President of the United States. Or not.
Hi V the K,
“American Senator met with a Russian Diplomat. Big Whoop.”
Or, you could try: American Senator Fails to Disclose/Lies about Meeting[S] with Russian Diplomat.
That’s a Big Whoop.
Hi V the K,
I would agree with you IF this was just about meeting Russian diplomats. Totally. But a charitable interpretation is that he went off topic and forgot to mention these things UNDER OATH during his confirmation hearing to become AG. Less charitably (and more likely in my opinion), that he knowingly misled senators at his hearing. If so–that is criminal behaviour (I remember a sitting President and talk/action of impeachment because of lies under oath in a civil case). Not to mention that lying under oath is a big deal for a guy who might have to prosecute other folks who lie under oath. That is why its a Big Whoop. If you want to make the argument that he lied to protect national security, have at it. But I don’t think that works in this case. As for “Trump as Russian mole” who will steal the Purity and Essence of Our Natural Fluids–I agree that is stupid. But there are enough leaking intelligence folks to make it clear that they believe that the Trump administration has folks working for it who are sensitively placed and mole-ish in behaviour or overly fond of borscht… The Press isn’t just pulling this out of their collective arse–they are getting creditable intel from well placed sources inside Departments and Agencies–intel that is deeply embarrasing to the Trump administration for obvious reasons. Stoly anyone?
10. I can remember when our opponents were a lot smarter than you, Cas. But you go ahead and keep trying to win that participation trophy.
Hi Lobogris,
You are probably right. Unfortunately, plenty of Conservatives are worried by the moves made by the elements of the Trump administration; for the same reasons as well. So remember to take it up with them as well…
#4 : TYVM AM. TTYL. ;-{)}}}
Cas, you might want to read this. Cites both WaPo and NRO. Both showing that you, generously, are wrong. Less generously, that you are lying yourself.
http://hotair.com/archives/2017/03/03/wapo-dont-count-on-a-perjury-charge-sticking-against-sessions/
“Even had Sessions been asked more directly — “Did you make contact with Russian officials as part of your duties with the campaign?” — Butler said he thinks Sessions could “make a credible case that the answer is no,” and that the contacts with the Russian ambassador mirrored his contacts with several dozen other ambassadors he contacted in 2016, as a senator and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.”
Re: Cas
For those who don’t know Cas or have forgotten Cas, I suggest that you go back a page or two in the posts to this:
At the end of that thread, I played the Cas game until the taffy got pulled so thin and so distorted that I just lost interest in the whole “what if half the word were pregnant and the other half didn’t know it and Trump ate oysters” sort of rambling silly putty cognitive dissonance diarrhea.
Cas has an overarching need be the leader of the band which plays in the Odyssey of his/her divergence-addicted mind while taking every fork in the road simultaneously and ends up having ridden off in every direction at once.
It is the only way Cas knows to defend the indefensible. But it is also interesting to see how obtuse an ideologue is forced to become when the argument is being lost.
Hi All,
The_Livewire, You are likely right that Sessions will survive it because of all these nuances that your sources raise. But don’t you find even the slightest bit of irony that the same type of arguments being trotted out to defend Sessions were also used to defend Clinton from impeachment? After all, Clinton couldn’t be got rid of, even after it looked like he clearly lied under oath! I remember that “it depends on what the meaning of “is” is.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This all feels so half hearted though. I speculate it is because conservative folks on GP cannot shake the feeling that there is something dreadfully wrong with the country at the moment. The media! The Deep State! The Democrats! Liberuls! Yeah, some of it is just plain stupid and it would be good if people on the left calmed down instead of going for the smelling salts all the time. Some of it is sour grapes from those who used to be in power. But some of it is more than that. Oh, I get it that you are also circling the wagons because no matter how flawed a candidate and now President, Donald Trump is “your guy;” you hope that he will provide you all the roll-backs, etc, of the nanny state you desire. As long as he does that, happiness ensues. But at what cost? A lot of unanswered questions on that one. So, you ride the tiger and hope it doesn’t eat you. I hope it doesn’t eat you or me!
If an incoming Democrat administration had these ties to the Russians; if the AG had made these comments under oath at a confirmation hearing, or if the President had made so many incorrect and/or misleading statements, or been condemned out of his own mouth by any manner of statements, you would have gone ape-crap LONG ago. You don’t and I get it. But the question I ask you (as I asked Heliotrope in the thread) is when does it get to the point when you say–“OK, that is worrisome.”
Hi Heliotrope,
You read the thread to the end! 🙂 My offer still holds. I am sure that all those who take up your suggestion to read the thread that we constructed together will agree with you and have a good laugh, but they might also recognize that there are some serious taffy tensions in your own position as well. They are not that hard to see…
Be well
Cas
The NEW YORK TIMES, March 1, 2017 (by MATTHEW ROSENBERG, ADAM GOLDMAN and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT:
I find this “Deep State” analysis by the NYT to be remarkable in that it clearly shows a White House effort to disseminate classified information as widely as possible. I defer to Robert Barnes at Lawnewz who has put his legal-eagle’s eye square on the “no-no’s” involved if Obama’s administration was involved in illegal surveillance.
It is necessary to click on the link and read Barnes’ opinions to understand what sort of way-beyond-Watergate this stuff could turn out to be.
So far, the Obama Administration and the DemonizingRats have made much of Trump’s ties to Russia. They have collected the scalp of Michael Flynn and they think they have Jeff Session’s scalp in deep jeopardy.
The greatest problem the DemonizingRats have on their hands is that with all of the coordination, this thing could morph into a RICO case for all those who have knowingly played roles in a conspiracy. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act goes after ongoing criminal organizations. A Criminal Organization is three or more persons involved in organized crime. Maybe the DemonizingRats can prove that they are not “organized.” But there are loads of crimes involved in messing with the FISA Court and its rules.
Of course, Bill and Hillary and Chelsea have skated for a long time in their operation of the Clinton Crime Foundation. But the ice is very, very thin and the people with their torches and pitchforks are hot on the heels of the whole barnyard aggregation of professional politicians in the grifter racket.
Hi Heliotrope,
By all means use news analysis from apparently discredited news sources (could you make up your mind about what is fake and what isn’t?) that supports your claims–at least tangentially. This could be troubling. If anyone has evidence of wire tapping (rather than just speculation as to it being bad if it happened and Obama ordered it), please present it. We have plenty of evidence of Russian contacts with the officials in the Trump campaign and now administration. That is the main reason, I think, that there is so much leaking going on–Government Departments and Agencies are defending themselves against perceived threats–number one of which is the possibility of Russian moles in the administration.
As for what I said earlier–it stands unaddressed: “If an incoming Democrat administration had these ties to the Russians; if the AG had made these comments under oath at a confirmation hearing, or if the President had made so many incorrect and/or misleading statements, or been condemned out of his own mouth by any manner of statements, you would have gone ape-crap LONG ago. You don’t and I get it. But the question I ask you (as I asked Heliotrope in the thread) is when does it get to the point when you say–”OK, that is worrisome.””
Be well
Cas
From The Hill, By MAX GREENWOOD – 03/04/17 01:00 PM EST:
Well, that settles it, doesn’t it. Trump lies and Obama does not.
Meanwhile:
Innuendo is not an Italian suppository. What’s good for the DemonizingRat geese is good for the Gander-in-Chief. Sun Tzu, call your office, The Art of War is up and running.
New York Times – January 19th, 2017 (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?_r=1)
Fine and dandy.
But, Lo! and Behold! Just today former Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper, appears on NBC with Chuck Todd and categorically denies there was ever any wire tapping of Donald Trump in Trump Tower as a candidate or as a President Elect.
In another case, Clapper was caught telling Congress the “least possible lie” he could manufacture in a previous bout with the truth, so just how much stock should be placed in his word now is yours to question.
But, if you take Clapper at his word and he is now telling the truth, then that means that ALL MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT THE WIRETAPPING are …. wait for it ….. wait for it …… FAKE NEWS !!!!! (Thanks to The Last Refuge for the constantly excellent research.)
Now Schumer and his merry band of liars can demand that lying to liars is an impeachable offense. And you may rest assured that they will. If you allow a victim to beat himself, you are twice as guilty for allowing him to victimize himself when you caused him to be a victim.
It is no easy trick to try to piece together how Progressives put their special logic to use.
Hi Heliotrope:
You like the NY Times.
I do to; I think it is a creditable news service. So, let me raise you this one:
“The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.”
You have to be worried that the President of the US is acting this way making wild claims without any proof, looking for evidence. And the silence here is deafening. If a Democratic President did this against an outgoing Republican President, you would blow a complete fuse; at the very least, label it a potential “abuse of power.” And you are not. You want an example of an “authoritarian impulse,” Heliotrope? This is one. You wait here, hoping for some evidence, any evidence of wrong doing by Obama, to ABSOLVE you of any responsibility for supporting this mockery. It does not become you, Heliotrope.
Oh, dear. What is a Neanderthal drooler like me to believe? Now the New York Times reports this:
The media has been widely reporting that Trump Tower was tapped.
Now a news report says Comey is using the first hand knowledge of the intelligence community and that Trump Tower was NOT tapped.
Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little
Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more
Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little
Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep…..
It is time for the salacious gossipers and conspiracy coaxers and Never Trumpers to let the investigation(s) commence while the President of the United States moves on with leading America in process of climbing out of the mess it is in.
The DemonizingRats have stirred this mess up and Trump has tossed a cherry bomb into the sewer and now all manner of stuff is hitting the fan. The carbuncle must now be lanced. The likes of Schumer, Pelosi, Franken, etc. are fools if they continue to believe that they control the narrative. Trump came into their lives with no entangling ties to the establishment status quo. He is dangerous to them because he has nothing to lose.
Interesting days are ahead.
An interesting point from John Sexton today:
At 5:36 PM – 31 Oct 2016 Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton tweeted this:
Was this meant to be an “October Surprise” in the Clinton v Trump election race for the Oval Office?
Admiral Michael Rogers was the NSA Director. On Tuesday, November 17th, 2016 met with President-elect Donald Trump in New York.
On Friday, November 18, 2016The Washington Post reported:
Got that? Admiral Mike Rogers of the NSA “went rogue” and met with President-elect Trump on his own and got fired for it by the Obama cabal of Carter, Clapper, Brennan and others.
The speculation is that Sally Yates and Loretta Lynch at the DOJ went through the NSA (Mike Rogers) to get to the FISA court. Further speculation is that Mike Rogers went to President-elect Trump to tell him the details of the NSA surveillance on him. And then (more speculation) President-elect Trump asked NSA Director Michael Rogers keep mum about about what took place in their meeting.
Now, the ball has been tossed into the Congress for investigation. Admiral Rogers will be called and Trump will order him to tell all. That will bring Attorney General Lynch and Sally Yates into the mix as well as “what did President Obama know and when did he know it?” By using the NSA, the Obama team circumvented the FBI. Comey is making it very clear that the FBI is not and was not involved in messing around with the Trump surveillance for Obama. Furthermore, Aston Carter, Clapper and Brennan will be called to validate the reasons they had for firing Admiral Rogers.
Now comes the good part.
The “Gang of Eight” a congressional group which is given oversight on the CIA, the NSA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence: ODNI. The gang of eight is briefed on every covert operation carried out by the various intelligence agencies. They are:
1. The speaker of the House of Representatives. Paul Ryan
2. The Minority leader of the House. Nancy Pelosi
3. The Majority leader of the Senate. Mitch McConnell
4. The Minority leader of the Senate. Chuck Schumer
5. The Chair of the House Perm. Com on Intel. Devin Nunes
6. The Minority ranking men on HR Com Intel Adam Schiff
7. The Senate Intel Com. Chair Richard Burr
8. The Minority leader on Senate Intel. Com. Dianne Feinstein
Four Republican and four Democrats. Supposedly, these eight people actually would know the details about taps, leaks, etc.
And, through Admiral Rogers, Trump may very well know what they know. Trump knows what Ryan and McConnell know and he can use that as leverage against them if they try to obstruct him. Trump knows what Pelosi and Schumer know and he is aware of how far they have gone in encouraging false narratives to stifle the Trump presidency. And the gang of eight knows and the Obama plants know that Admiral Mike Rogers is likely to sing like a canary before congressional committees. Comey has already done a loud CYA denial. Clapper, Brennan, Lynch, Yates and others are leaking through their Depends.
And the MSM hard at the job of saying they didn’t actually know what their “sources” egged them into saying. What a Chinese fire drill.
Oh, and one final observation: Every single intelligence agency is focused on giving information to just one customer: The President of the United States. Trump can know everything by asking. Lying to the President would be suicide. He has no “need to know” limitations.
Trump tweeted a turd in the gossip punchbowl and now everyone is trying to figure out where they stand on his sh*t list. If the intelligence community has been politicized like the Obama DOJ, State Department, IRS, were politicized then Trump and his band of Eagle Scouts have some serious disinfecting jobs to tend to. Time to call in Mike Rowe.
It just keeps getting better and better. Now, at 8:00 PM – 5 Mar 2017 , Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times tweets this:
Nevermind that soliciting a felony is itself a felony. But since Nicholas Kristof is dedicated to truth and justice and has his Lois Lane journalist lapel pin he is entirely willing to go to prison for his efforts.
So…are you worried yet, Heliotrope? LOL!!!!!
Hi Heliotrope,
A lot of speculation. But no actual evidence. You realize that this sounds a lot like the paranoid crap that folks on the Left spouted during the Bush administration, right? You are right–“Lying to the President would be suicide. He has no “need to know” limitations,” and I agree with you.
The President can decide to declassify what ever he wants–so why doesn’t he declassify the FISA warrants if they exist?–or do they not exist–and this is just a conspiracy at the highest level … of what exactly? How do you explain that little lacuna, Heliotrope?
Lobogris,
Just sweating bullets here ……. LOL !!!!