Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

Started by kishnevi, November 09, 2016, 06:04:39 PM

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Rinaldo


SimonNZ


amw

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 17, 2019, 01:30:00 AM
Trump vetoes bill to end US military support for Saudi-led war in Yemen

Wow I wonder if any of those right wing pundits who praised Trump as an anti interventionist paleoconservative hero will have anything to say about this. (They won't.)

SimonNZ


SimonNZ

huh...I'm not hearing the crowing from the Trumpist camp that there was a couple of weeks ago

meanwhile:

North Korea rejects Pompeo from nuclear dialogue

"North Korea no longer wants U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo involved in nuclear talks, calling for someone who "is more careful and mature in communicating", state media said on Thursday."

SimonNZ

Kentucky Republicans Worried Inviting AOC to Meet with Coal Miners Might Backfire

"Last month, a clip of New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went predictably viral after she forcefully responded to one of her colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee when he called climate change an "elitist" concern. "Wanting clean air and water is not elitist," she said.

In response, Kentucky Republican congressman Andy Barr invited Ocasio-Cortez to come meet coal miners in his state "who will tell you what the Green New Deal would mean for their families, their paychecks." His concern, he said, is that the Green New Deal would phase out U.S. reliance on coal and fossil fuel, which would wreak havoc on the lives of people who work in those industries. Ocasio-Cortez accepted, saying she'd be "happy" to go, adding that the Green New Deal was written to fund coal-miner pensions. "We want a just transition to make sure we are investing in jobs across those swaths of the country," she said.

All in all, it seemed like an uncharacteristically cordial exchange for two members of Congress. And not even a month later, that cordiality is out the window: Barr attached a rather inhospitable and obnoxious demand to his invitation, writing in a letter posted to Twitter that she should "apologize to [Texas representative Dan Crenshaw] prior to coming to visit Kentucky," for a completely unrelated event before meeting with miners. The public scolding over purported incivility, along with the random call for an apology to a colleague from a completely different state, leaves the impression that the Barr might not want her to come to Kentucky after all.

Crenshaw was one of the first and most vociferous critics to pile on to Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar for out-of-context comments about 9/11. Strangely enough, Barr didn't seem to think that Crenshaw directing an Islamaphobic attack towards Omar, culminating in an increase in death threats, demonstrated "a lack of civility." When Crenshaw shared a tweet that falsely claimed Omar said the 9/11 attacks weren't terrorism, Ocasio-Cortez pointed out: "You refuse to co-sponsor the 9/11 Victim's Compensation Fund, yet have the audacity to drum resentment towards Ilhan w/completely out-of-context quotes. In 2018, right-wing extremists were behind almost ALL US domestic terrorist killings. Why don't you go do something about that?"

So now Barr is demanding that Ocasio-Cortez apologize to Crenshaw if she wants to accept his invitation, writing in a letter to her office that her comments "demonstrate a lack of civility that is becoming far too common in the U.S. House of Representatives." An apology's not likely to happen, though. Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told The Courier-Journal, "Luckily, we still have open borders with Kentucky. We don't need Congressman Barr to meet with coal miners and have a town hall, though we'd love his participation if we do."

Uninviting Ocasio-Cortez is probably a smart move on Barr's part in the long run. For one thing, there aren't any active coal mines in Barr's district. And James Comer, another Republican representative from Kentucky, told local news that he didn't "see any upside" to having her come to Kentucky. "I think a lot of Republicans are making a mistake picking on her. I think we need to be very prepared when we debate her on issues that we're having a hard time with."

BasilValentine

#15926
Quote from: SimonNZ on April 18, 2019, 03:17:37 PM
Meuller Report (with redactions):

https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

Thank you once again Simon for posting this. After reading just the introduction to Volume One it's clear Bill Barr misled the public about the contents and conclusions of the report in his summary. Essential reading.

Rinaldo


SimonNZ

Reply I saw elsewhere to the question of why Mueller didn't "follow the money":

"He referred FOURTEEN cases to other courts, and we only know what two of them are. Don't panic."

SimonNZ

Quote from: Rinaldo on April 19, 2019, 03:46:32 AM
The nothingburger that just keeps on giving.

?? Please explain.

Did you mean "the supposed nothing that keeps on being something"?

BasilValentine

Quote from: Rinaldo on April 19, 2019, 03:46:32 AM
The nothingburger that just keeps on giving.

I'm reading it and taking notes. If and when you ever do, we can perhaps have a productive discussion.

Rinaldo

Quote from: SimonNZ on April 19, 2019, 03:47:52 AMDid you mean "the supposed nothing that keeps on being something"?

Yup. English is not my first language as you might've guessed.

SimonNZ

Quote from: Rinaldo on April 19, 2019, 05:47:09 AM
Yup. English is not my first language as you might've guessed.

No problem, Rinaldo.


The Republicans seem to have now decided on the spin of "glad that's completely done with and out of the way - now we can move on". Meanwhile: today is the 244th day of the Trump "presidency" that he will be spending golfing. That number again: 244.


Elizabeth Warren calls on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump

"Elizabeth Warren became the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump Friday afternoon, citing the "severity" of "misconduct" detailed in the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty. That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States," the Massachusetts senator wrote on Twitter."





Portrait of the President as a Gangster
The Mueller report reads like the indictment of a mob boss, not an investigation of a president.



Democrats Subpoena Nine Banks in Probe of Trump Finances


Whimsical, uninformed': French ambassador's parting verdict on Trump

"The outgoing French ambassador to the US has compared the Trump administration to the court of King Louis XIV, filled with courtiers trying to interpret the caprices of a "whimsical, unpredictable, uninformed" leader."


Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling the actions a 'kidnapping' and a flagrant violation of the law



And another night on the sofa for George:
George Conway calls for Trump's impeachment

JBS

One of the things revealed by the Mueller report (and reinforced by his tweets today) is Trump's disdain for people who take notes at meetings.

Cast your mind back to his meeting with Putin at Helsinki, and how it came out that Trump wouldn't let the translator retain any notes. At the time, everyone assumed it was keep anyone finding out what he and Putin had said to each other, and linked it to his bromance with Vladimir. It seems to me now that it was merely another instance of that phobia of notetaking.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

SimonNZ

^The two aren't mutually exclusive.


White House and Congress Set to Spar Over Kushner Security Clearance

"The White House would like to be in the room when Congressional investigators grill Carl Kline, the official who green-lit Jared Kushner's security clearance, according to a letter from that official's lawyer.

The letter, which The Daily Beast obtained, describes a conflict between Capital Hill and 1600 Pennsylvania. At issue is an investigation of the security clearance process run by Chairman Elijah Cummings' Committee on Oversight and Reform. Cummings has subpoenaed Carl Kline, the former head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office who overturned a subordinate's vetoes of security clearances for multiple White House officials.

Now, Kline is looking to bring an attorney from the White House Counsel's Office into his interview with Cummings' staff because of potential executive privilege issues. And, per the letter, the White House wants to be there as well. But lawyers for the committee, per the letter, do not want a White House presence in the room when they question Kline. So there's an impasse."

Todd

Quote from: Rinaldo on April 19, 2019, 03:46:32 AM
The nothingburger that just keeps on giving.


You're absolutely correct.  It gives mush-brained lefties (ie, lefties) false hope.  There are rumbles about impeachment again.  It's all about obstruction, baby.  A quick look at the calendar indicates that hollow House hearings timed to reinforce the election cycle are how Dems will be able to make best use of the report now.  Even American Pravda (aka, NBC News) relegated the Mueller report aftermath to the third story on Friday night.  The story just ain't what is was.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Todd

Quote from: amw on April 18, 2019, 02:19:14 AM
Wow I wonder if any of those right wing pundits who praised Trump as an anti interventionist paleoconservative hero will have anything to say about this. (They won't.)


It should have been clear after wimping out on withdrawals from Afghanistan and Syria, the latter of which is outright illegal under US law (which matters) and international law (which does not), that Trump is content to follow the lead of his senior military staff on low level conflicts.  At least in the Yemen mess, it's just a small scale proxy thing.  To Trump's credit, relations with Russia have improved and Ukraine has been relegated to the irrelevance that it is, at least from a US security standpoint.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

BasilValentine

#15937
Quote from: Todd on April 20, 2019, 06:05:06 AM

You're absolutely correct.  It gives mush-brained lefties (ie, lefties) false hope.  There are rumbles about impeachment again.  It's all about obstruction, baby.  A quick look at the calendar indicates that hollow House hearings timed to reinforce the election cycle are how Dems will be able to make best use of the report now.  Even American Pravda (aka, NBC News) relegated the Mueller report aftermath to the third story on Friday night.  The story just ain't what is was.

You haven't read the report, have you? I have. The case for obstruction is damning. Mueller has clearly teed this up for future prosecution, presenting detailed analysis of each element of the crime for each potential offense (The three elements are: Obstructive act, Nexus to a proceeding, Intent.) If Trump loses in 2020, he is going to jail.

The summary of Bill Barr you touted turned out to be a cynical misrepresentation of the findings. Mueller did not fail to establish obstruction as Barr claimed, he has in fact laid out an open and shut case for it. Mueller's failure to "reach a conclusion" was based solely on the inability to indict a sitting president. Moreover, after the discussion of the obstructive acts themselves he has addressed any constitutional or legal objections to the applicability of the statutes in Trump's case and has found them without merit.

It should be noted that Barr's summary conclusions with respect to the collusion/coordination investigations were a distortion as well. In claiming no coordination with Russia was established he failed to state that the definition of coordination in play for this report has no relation to the dictionary definition. In fact, if one reads the introduction to Volume I, one learns that coordination in this context was taken to mean the same thing as conspiracy, that is, it requires an overt agreement. By the dictionary definition of coordination, the report presents hitherto unreported findings about ongoing coordination between campaign officials and Russian operatives, for example, that Paul Manafort had continuing contacts over his whole tenure in the campaign for the purpose of sharing RNC polling data with Russians.

Karl Henning

What kind of twit grounds his analysis in the Barr Summary?

Oh....
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

SimonNZ




colour-coded chart of obstruction (click to enlarge):




also:

PBS Trump-Russia Timeline with hyperlinks