High Crimes and Misdemeanors
Just before 10 PM last night, CNN national security reporter Josh Campbell asked a question:
How long until the intelligence community whistleblower is labeled a “deep state” operative?
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) September 19, 2019
Even though Trump didn’t use the words “deep state” in this morning’s tweet-screams, the answer to Mr. Campbell’s question is approximately 10.5 hours:
The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again! They think I may have had a “dicey” conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers..
….statement. Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!
There’s nothing strange at all about “so many other people” not coming forward; the aberration in the context of Trump’s open lawlessness and gleeful subversion of institutional norms is that anyone still tries to follow the law, as the whistleblower and intelligence community inspector have done.
But the overarching message of the Trump era is that people who follow the rules are suckers, so now that person is being smeared by the POTUS, and the White House is allegedly limiting access to Trump’s “pitch perfect” calls to ensure that the only witnesses are accessories when the next crime is committed.
I’m not a fan of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s strategy of inviting shameless liars on TV to confront them to generate clicks, but kudos to him for producing a “Code Red” admission from Giuliani in the first 30 seconds of last night’s interview:
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are walking a tight-rope over pools of molten lava, trying to get the assistance they need to counter an evil authoritarian who threatens their existence as a nation without pissing off Putin’s scammy, demented fanboy in the White House. I don’t envy them that task:
“This is a very special stage in Ukraine’s development: We have completely changed this year, our mentality has changed, we realize that the entire world is watching us right now,” Roman Truba, head of the State Bureau of Investigations, said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast.
Truba’s agency neither investigated Biden’s son nor Burisma Holding. There were no signs of illegality in Biden’s work in Ukraine, he said. “The State Bureau of Investigations should be an independent institution. I wish we would become as highly qualified, equipped with all modern technologies, and professional as the FBI.”
Oh baby, no.
Geraldo Rivera mentioned deep state on Fox & Fiends this morning.
I’m so old, I can remember when various persons said that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell would rein in Trump if he went too far. As the saying goes, “Good times.”
So am I the only person in North America who hasn’t made a bushel of money in Ukraine?
As I think about it, American conservatives are learning from Putin’s handling of Navalny – fire up broad investigations of all political opposition. Even though there’s nothing there, create the impression of something there and send out investigators with briefs to perform trap queries.
Biden will be weak about things involving his son.
Bernie Sanders on, well, everything, plus Jane’s behavior.
Neither Harris, Klobuchar nor Warren are likely to be financially problematic, so you cook up some FEC crap and maybe a tax audit. Booker will draw SEC attention.
Obama himself will get audited. This is likely to happen to Jeff Bezos and Fred Hiatt as well. Bill Browder could easily find himself handed over to Putin, as would Michale McFaul.
I think you could see this by February, as Barr weaponizes the DOJ even further.
If he wins, he will be the last President of the United States as currently constituted.
We should remember that Donnie’s been carrying Putin’s water on Ukraine since before the GOP Convention.: (From December 2017)
Ukraine has always been the elephant in the room with Donnie. And the only reason why Donnie would care about Ukraine is because of Putin.
Cheers,
Scott.
never mind.
never mind.
It’s the number one way you can tell that you’re dealing with a narcissist and not a sociopath. A sociopath carefully learns the rules so they can appear to abide by them to better conceal their violations. A narcissist doesn’t think that the rules apply to them and will break them all the time, counting on most people’s sense of social embarrassment to get away with it. Breaking the rules enhances the narcissist’s sense of being special and better than everyone else.
Sociopathy and narcissism are related disorders (both on Cluster B in the DSM) but that’s one of the ways to distinguish between them.
Queue the chorus of ‘If Only Nancy Pelosi Was A Good Speaker Of The House’ routine. I have to say I feel really bad for Nancy. She’s caught in a place she shouldn’t be and it isn’t her people or House causing it. MoscowMitch is the real problem. Covering Trump’s slimy ass is MoscowMitch’s #3 job right now (behind shoving more inept Republican walking dead into judges posts & getting re-elected).
All I ask is to blame the right people and stop firing at our own.
@Mnemosyne:
The intellectually curious side of me is glad to learn something new regarding the distinction.
On the other hand, the citizen-of-the-Unites-States side of me is somewhat depressed that the explanation is necessary in the context of who sits in the Oval Office.
@kindness:
And now we have his “wife” Cocaine Elaine helping out, too. [Not that I’ve heard anything about her nasal ingestion of various “medications” — I mostly did it for the rhyming — but it would be irresponsible not to speculate.]
@kindness:
She was elected to make the hard decisions.
And bear the responsibility if she fucks up.
Please correct me if I’m wrong. I mean it. Please! I hope I’m profoundly, absolutely wrong. But I think we’re done. The republic is over. The constitution it’s not worth the parchments it’s on, institutions and norms are failing and falling by the wayside, many voters remain indifferent, and those who do care are flailing to do something but there’s nothing to do.
The election will solve nothing because what has already happened, has been accepted and has almost been normalized — I thought torturing people was an unimaginable thing, until it happened and nobody was punished and people don’t care and even justify it. But we need to also realize that an election may not even take place — at least not a fair election. Unimaginable? Right now it is but one unprecedented, unimaginable thing after another keeps happening, some in the media and in power are aghast for a week, but then…nothing happens until the next unimaginable thing subsumes the previous unimaginable thing.
@Ule: The fight isn’t over yet, and I’ll be doing my bit during the campaign. The problems and issues you’ve pointed out are real, but Trump is activating a lot of folks, and the pushback is starting. Granted, it’s not coming from the top, but it’s real. No slacking off, damnit!
@Ule:
I actually don’t think we’re done as a country. I think this is an extinction burst by racists and conservatives. They just don’t have the numbers to get their way anymore, and they’re throwing a huge, destructive tantrum about it.
But I do think that people underestimated just how bad it was going to be when they thought that W was as bad as it could get.
@TenguPhule: Dude you go out of your way to be an asshole to your own way too often. MoscowMitch is the problem. Nancy isn’t. But I get you feel much better about shooting your own. Have at it.
@kindness:
Ah, Nancy! I cheered when she was elected Speaker. The feminist in me and the progressive in me were both elated. But right now?
Let’s assume she’s a genius at politics and recognizes that impeachment will make things far worse and let’s also assume she really does not have any power beyond impeachment and thus can do nothing but compose terse letters.
OK. Why is she attacking members of her own caucus? Why is she going on CNBC to dismiss Medicare for All and other progressive proposals? Why is she still trying to work with the White House? I just read she been talking about working with Trump (against Republicons!) on drug pricing! A worthwhile goal, but if we are in a freakin’ constitutional crisis, with an aspiring autocrat having destroyed checks and balances by thumping his nose at Congress and rendering it impotent, what in blazes is she thinking? How is it going to look sitting with him, treating him like a legitimate president and potentially giving him a victory? I don’t get it. I hope she so much smarter than me that she understands “self-impeachment” to be more than mere oxymoronic nonsense but I’m not convinced.
It’s not enough to tells us to lay off Nancy because MoscowMitch is worse (yes, he is). You need to provide some reasons why she’s doing the right thing.
@kindness: If you folks are right and this strategy of hers works, then she’ll be feted as a hero.
If it doesn’t, we are all in deep shit. And she will bear full responsibility for it because that’s what the burden of leadership is supposed to be about. Accepting the consequences of your decisions good and bad.
I think this past week is when Trump has finally “jumped the shark” and the world went utterly cuckoo! What kind of world is it when the President of the United States goes on an electronic communications tool and essentially admits to 60+ million people that he may have had a “dicey” conversation with a foreign leader about a political opponent? Seriously, WTF?? He admits to bribery or extortion, whatever you want to call it and the political opposition basically says “we are going to sue you”. Huh?? They do absolutely nothing? Really? Things are getting real weird here folks…