US Politics

[24 Hours]

@Desert Fox @Hamartia Antidote @KAL-EL @Ashes

https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/is-robert-mueller-destroying-the-democratic-party/

Is Robert Mueller Destroying the Democratic Party?
By Roger L Simon May 6, 2018


It would probably give Robert Mueller a nervous breakdown, not to mention James Comey, Andrew McCabe and the rest of the FBI cabal, past and present, but at this point the special counsel seems to be actually causing the reelection of Donald Trump. Most of the country, other than the greed heads in the media and extreme Democratic Party operatives, no longer gives a hoot in Hades about the "Russia Probe." They're frustrated and sick of it.

There's a dawning national consensus of "enough already" reflected by Judge Ellis when he demanded to know exactly what Paul Manafort's possible money laundering schemes of years ago had to do with Trump colluding with Russia in the 2016 election. The same might be said of Stormy Daniels, whose Russia connection is even more remote.

But let's skip past the subplots of the moment to the greatest of all unintended consequences of this endless investigation -- the decline and fall of the Democratic Party.

White House Says Trump 'Eventually Learned' of Cohen Reimbursement for Stormy Payoff

Yes, you read that correctly. Like a crackhead addicted to the next puff, Democrats and their media allies have spent most of the last sixteen months fixated on whether Trump somehow, some way, colluded with Putin. Meanwhile, a zillion issues slipped by, some important, others less so, but the Democrats barely weighed in on anything, other than to whine about Trump.

What a dumb mistake. And it was compounded by the assumption that the public agreed with them, which was true for a while, to some extent, but has now worn surpassingly thin. It didn't help that the tedious late-night talk show hosts and SNL comics fixated on Trump as well, creating a perfect (but utterly useless) storm.

Mueller and the FBI were the ringmasters in all this along with their media friends whom we might dub the Leak Squad (not to be confused with the Geek Squad at your local Best Buy). This "righteous circle," if we can call it that, continually convinced themselves of the goodness of their calling, when in reality it wasn't a calling at all, but a complete of waste of time and a distraction from discovering what exactly their party stood for.

Finally, the Democrats are waking up, but I strongly suspect it is too late. They are clearly out of practice at making policy or coming up with ideas. That was evident from an article in The Hill over the weekend -- "Dems face pressure to focus on economy, not Trump."

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi(Calif.) have unveiled a variety of ambitious proposals, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and creating a national system of paid family and sick leave.

Ambitious proposals? They sound more like shopworn boilerplate from a Democratic Party platform circa 1992.

Maybe they are better off banging their shoes about Trump. After all, the way the economy's going, $15 an hour may be in the rear-view mirror all by itself before November and the hoary "paid family leave" proposal made irrelevant in an increasingly competitive job market.

So Mueller may be, in the end, the Democrats' best bet. But he is also their bête noir. He is the man of supposed great moral rectitude who promised to rid them of the obvious injustice of the last election. Unfortunately, Mueller turned out to be an extreme moral narcissist who, consciously or not, led the Democratic Party down a primrose path of impeachment that could never happen and would inflate (slowly, but still...) Trump's poll numbers while assuring him a second term and giving plenty of cannon fodder to Republican congressional candidates once embarrassed by the president. Everything is ironic. Nothing, as Lawrence reminded us, is written.

Devin Nunes Says He's Pressing to Have AG Jeff Sessions Held in Contempt of Congress

Novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon is the co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media. You can find a recent interview with him on BookTV here.

I think it's too early to state whether the Democrats are really destroyed yet. Right now, there's no clear candidate to go against Trump. That being said, if the Korean peace talks keep going smoothly and with the economy in decent shape, Trump's future looks fine. Now, if he can capture Baghdadi, it would be another win, both both for the military and politics.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I think it's too early to state whether the Democrats are really destroyed yet. Right now, there's no clear candidate to go against Trump. That being said, if the Korean peace talks keep going smoothly and with the economy in decent shape, Trump's future looks fine. Now, if he can capture Baghdadi, it would be another win, both both for the military and politics.

I think you are correct. If the Korea thing goes through Trump will have a field day roasting the Democrats as a bunch of Liberal sore losers concentrating on chasing after a peep show of Stormy Daniels, Putin stuff, and handing out free money and immigration visas instead of focusing on real issues.

 

[Nilgiri]

I think you are correct. If the Korea thing goes through Trump will have a field day roasting the Democrats as a bunch of Liberal sore losers concentrating on chasing after a peep show of Stormy Daniels, Putin stuff, and handing out free money and immigration visas instead of focusing on real issues.

About half the staunch anti-trump ppl here in Canada that I know are willing to give Trump another look if he can pull through on North Korea. One of my buds even told me he hates Trump but no other President could really do that kind of stuff and actually bring pressure to bear unconventionally and get results in the end....and that if he succeeds, yes he should get the Peace Prize, heck Obama got one for simply being black.

I think it's too early to state whether the Democrats are really destroyed yet. Right now, there's no clear candidate to go against Trump. That being said, if the Korean peace talks keep going smoothly and with the economy in decent shape, Trump's future looks fine. Now, if he can capture Baghdadi, it would be another win, both both for the military and politics.

Dems missed a real trick in going all in with the remove Trump stuff as their only real talking point. Its catching up with them now, and they seem to be retreating further into that shell. They have pushed away a lot of centrish ppl who have no real love for Trump (or even despise him etc) BUT want actual policy and results on the ground (which needs some level of bipartisanship etc on the hill)....because now the optics is all just stormy and Russian collusion....former is stuff people already knew before the elections (Trump isnt morally or talkingwise 100% sound/moral.... kewl....and?)...and the latter is already what last year was supposed to produce something on if the dems were all right (and clean of things like Uranium one and hillary server bleach etc themselves).

If the dems were smart they would have rode this thing through as more centrists, like they did with Reagan for 8 years (and Reagan friggin threw them a real big bone politically for them in return in the form of the cali amnesty, turning that state full blue from red as a result in no time at all). But nope they have turned into the Trotsky brigade instead....the "deep state" knows best etc etc (when that was exactly what they attacked W. Bush on earlier).

 

[24 Hours]

https://twitter.com/x/status/993926510003277825

Ok so the Iran Deal is out and Paris Climate Agreement is out. Well at least Korean Peace Talks are going nicely.

If the dems were smart they would have rode this thing through as more centrists, like they did with Reagan for 8 years (and Reagan friggin threw them a real big bone politically for them in return in the form of the cali amnesty, turning that state full blue from red as a result in no time at all). But nope they have turned into the Trotsky brigade instead....the "deep state" knows best etc etc (when that was exactly what they attacked W. Bush on earlier).

Eh, I think Dems are already sticking to the center under Trump. Though, depending on the environment of 2020, we can expect the final democratic nomination to be between both a centrist and a more left leaning candidate.

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/x/status/993926510003277825

Ok so the Iran Deal is out and Paris Climate Agreement is out. Well at least Korean Peace Talks are going nicely.


Eh, I think Dems are already sticking to the center under Trump. Though, depending on the environment of 2020, we can expect the final democratic nomination to be between both a centrist and a more left leaning candidate.

LOL:

 

[Nilgiri]

The Trump Land Mine

Explosives require careful handling. Sometimes they blow up in your face.

By VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
May 8, 2018 7:55 AM
nationalreview.com

After the 2016 election, the so-called deep state was confident that it had the power easily to either stop, remove, or delegitimize the outlier Donald Trump and his presidency.

Give it credit, the Washington apparat quite imaginatively pulled out all the stops: implanting Obama holdover appointees all over the Trump executive branch; filing lawsuits and judge shopping; organizing the Resistance; pursuing impeachment writs; warping the FISA courts; weaponizing the DOJ and FBI; attempting to disrupt the Electoral College; angling for enactment of the 25th Amendment or the emoluments clause; and unleashing Hollywood celebrities, Silicon Valley, and many in Wall Street to suffocate the Trump presidency in its infancy.

But now the administrative state’s multifaceted efforts are starting to unwind, and perhaps even boomerang, on the perpetrators. If a federal judge should end up throwing out most of the indictments of Paul Manafort on the rationale that they have nothing much to do with the original mandate of the special counsel’s office, or if Michael Flynn’s confession to giving false statements is withdrawn successfully because the FBI politicized its investigation and FISA courts were misled in approving the surveillance of Flynn, then the Mueller investigation will implode.

Indeed, the Mueller investigation would likely lose so much public support that the Department of Justice could probably dismiss it with impunity. So, in an ironic sense, Mueller’s overreach might well end once and for all the absurdities of the special counsel/prosecutor law that for nearly half a century has plagued the nation.

Until recently, deep-state apparatchiks such as John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe seemed immune from accountability after lying either to Congress or to federal authorities. In a perverse sort of way, the more Robert Mueller plays the role of the obsessed but impotent Inspector Javert, the more he demonstrates that there is no Russian-Trump collusion. Meanwhile, he is establishing precedents that those whom he exempts from his own zeal will inevitably have to account for their own lawbreaking. One cannot justifiably hound Michael Flynn for supposedly misleading FBI agents, when agency investigators were told by Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills that they had known nothing about Hillary Clinton’s private server during her tenure as secretary of state — despite evidence that they themselves had communicated over it (as had the former president of the United States).

In his increasing desperation, Mueller may manage to finish off the declining reputation of FBI’s Washington office to the degree that there is not much left of it after the work of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok. And he may only fuel more criminal complaints against deep-state bureaucrats who worked at the FBI and the DOJ.

In truth, the multiplex world of the establishment is crumbling in a variety of arenas, from entertainment to the workplace. Certainly, the NFL is both bleeding viewers and now seen as an ancillary of the progressive movement. The sports channel ESPN is losing its audience that is tired of being lectured about its supposed ethical shortcomings instead of being enlightened about three-point shots and no-hitters. The century-old White House Correspondents’ Dinner is going the way of the 90-year-old Oscars: It’s an increasingly incestuous night of progressive virtue-signaling, crudity, and mediocrity that permanently turned off millions of former viewers. Americans can forgive a lot of shortcomings in their entertainers; boredom is not one of them.

Between the Me Too movement and the Russian-collusion hysteria, not much remains of the reputations of Hollywood and the media. When, fairly or not, Tom Brokaw is lumped into the ranks of Mark Halpern, Dustin Hoffman, Garrison Keillor, Larry King, Matt Lauer, Ryan Lizza, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, and a host of others, there is really not much left of the old power brokers. Once upon a time, Americans assumed that a Tom Brokaw, Matt Lauer, Dan Rather, or Charlie Rose were their go-tos for ethical and sober journalism. Again, justly or not, that norm no longer holds. NBC and CNN, which have long routinely parodied Fox News, are far less likely than Fox to permit ideological and political diversity on the air.

Silicon Valley likewise has lost its luster. Once upon a time, America loved a hip Steve Jobs, decked out in black, fiddling with a new Apple gadget on stage in front of an entranced televised audience of millions. Jobs appeared as a brilliant and typically American entrepreneur, not a partisan talking down to hoi polloi.

Things have radically changed since then. The reputation of Big Tech is one of hyper-partisan politics, data miners, snoops, Bowdlerizers and censors, monopolists, progressive multibillionaires, and adolescents in arrested development who exempt themselves from the consequences of what their ideologies inflict on others.

In Wizard of Oz fashion, it’s as if the public is no longer frightened of the omnipotent imperial faces on their screens — once it drew apart the high-tech curtains and exposed tiny little nerds with nasal voices furiously working levers and gears to project deceptive all-powerful images. Even a four-trillion-dollar industry can take only so many scandals like those at Theranos, Facebook data mining, deliberately slowed-down iPhones, fatally texting drivers, and Mark Zuckerbergs.

Donald Trump proved to be a catalyst for much of the implosion of the deep state. Land mines require careful handling. Only arrogant naïfs think that they can rush in, grab them, and carelessly and safely toss them away — clueless that they themselves are exposed as reckless moments before they blow themselves up.

If the deep state really wanted to dismantle and disarm Donald Trump, it would have been wise first to carefully learn how he was constructed and wired — and thus why he was especially dangerous to them. Then to disarm him, elites would have had to offer superior agendas to his supporters, while engaging in reasoned debates and alternative visions — working with him when they found common and shared solutions, playing the loyal opposition when there did not.

Instead, the government, the political apparat, the media, tech, and entertainment conglomerates sought to reduce Trump to some monstrous entity deserving of hanging, stabbing, decapitation, incineration, and shooting. It sought to indict, impeach, and remove a sitting president, as the ancien régime rushed to break federal law with assumed ethical exemption — tapping, surveilling, lying, and leaking with impunity, assured that supposedly morally superior ends justified any means necessary to achieve them.

In other words, the custodians of the status quo arrogantly grabbed up the Trump land mine and thought they could easily toss it away — as it has blown them sky-high.


VICTOR DAVIS HANSON — NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. @vdhanson

@Desert Fox @Gomig-21 @Hamartia Antidote @Ashes

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

The Trump Land Mine

Truly they have taken the term "sore loser" to the extreme. The sad thing is they still don't understand Hillary was unelectable. They honestly think they got robbed of an easy win.

 

[Gomig-21]

Trump’s attacks on the FBI have been filled with inaccuracies and innuendo, wrongly claiming on Twitter, for instance, that McCabe was in charge of the Clinton email investigation. Trump makes a point of praising rank-and-file agents, but his punches have landed inside the FBI and out. Some worry the damage may take years to repair. “I fear Trump’s relentless attacks on the institution are having an effect on the public’s confidence in the FBI,” says Matthew S. Axelrod, a senior Justice Department official in the Obama Administration.

And this is really the main issue I have with this clown show of an administration. The credibility is that of a pile of cow dung. The constant lying and perpetual untruthful statements are denigrating this hallowed institution and are the reason for the chaos and the media blitz. I don't give a rat's tail if he cheated on his wife with a **** star way back when, it's how he and his pack of gangsters are dealing with it. This clown show is behaving in an unprecedented way. You ask "well who gives a crap," right? "The economy is doing well and he's getting this and that done etc." Well, many care about that little silly thing called "integrity" because it's essential to the leader of the free world and more importantly to the individual that has been awarded to position of representing the best interests of the American people. We simply cannot put a veil on that aspect and ignore it simply because some might think it doesn't matter. The core values of what represents the US presidency are being bastardize to no end and that's not something that can be ignored.

Mueller may play an outsize role in how his old agency gets through the current crisis. If the special counsel finds that Russia did collude with members of the Trump campaign–the central question in his investigation–and any perpetrators are charged and found guilty in court, it would rebut Trump’s charges of a “witch hunt.” If Mueller finds no evidence of collusion, or declines to make it public, it would open the door for Trump and his campaign to paint the FBI as a band of partisan hacks with a reputation, as he has tweeted, “in tatters.”

And there you go. This is what we want to see. But to sit here ahead of the completion of the investigation and call it a "nothing burger" and a "witch hunt" and all that goes exactly against what the critics of the investigation are perpetrating is the epitome of hypocrisy. We need to get to the bottom of what happened because it is important. Everyone (including the president of the United States) is subject to the laws and must abide by them. And if there was any collusion or not, until then, a self deluded, power hungry Gumba like Julliani is not going to make a difference like he seems to think he will. That was the biggest laughable thought about that entire process and if that was why he was brought in like he said, then he's failing miserably at it since all he's done is contradict what Trump has been saying about all those little insignificant things like Stormy Daniels and creating even more contradictions which have brought even more chaos. This is what happens when these guys who have some history of success in big, historic events start thinking they're all that and start flying off the cuff. He's caused more issues for the presidency than there was before he started flapping his yap. And to think he has any say in wrapping up the special counsel's investigation is laughable beyond belief. He's gonna have to get back in line and wait it out just like the rest of us.

And here's the other thing: if there wasn't any collusion -- FBI history and failing issues not withstanding -- then why not just sit back and let it take its course without any of the stupidity that keeps fueling it? Why keep calling it a witch hunt and whisper in the ear of the former FBI director that you hope to "let it go," a specific and VERY serious criminal investigation of a powerful individual who has been proven to be a criminal? Why even promote a semblance of obstruction of justice when you're supposedly not guilty and this is all nothing but a nothing burger? Maybe that's why we don't really know if it is indeed a nothing burger, since almost all the behavior that we're witnessing, is to the contrary.

Who cares honestly....Obummer never got anything done regarding hostages held (or anything really) by the Norks....zilch...nada. That's what Trump is basically saying, if you want to get hung up on the details like MSM cherrypicking wants...you are welcome to.

I completely disagree. If that was his point, then what's stopping him from articulating the point the way you just did? If you, an outstanding individual and a normal Canadian citizen is capable of outlining the point with such ease but the president of the United States can't even come close and says it in a way that is untruthful is nothing short of ineptitude, compiled with a narcissistic desire to unravel and dismantle and denigrate everything his predecessor has done. Maybe some are ok with his lying, his constant lying, lying and lying and lying and lying again, but some of us find it repulsive and frankly disturbing. That might be ok with some, but not for those who brazenly think that there needs to be some integrity to the position of the president of the United States. How dare we! lol.

Why is there a constant need to lie to the American public or to take us as morons who don't know what's really going on? It's because he's a compulsive liar and the reality is that he constantly brings it on himself. It's his blind, self aggrandizing that is getting the best of him. Most people would say that's a strong sign of insecurity and the lying comes without a single, second thought of the consequence. It's a sad reality of the character of the current president of the United States. Where he's definitely succeeding is with his base, and that doesn't say much about their character either if they're easily manipulated by this constant need for self-promotion at any cost.

And you need to put aside the MSM stuff, my friend. We're not looking at it solely from a one-sided telescope. There's a difference between those who camp exclusively on one side or the other at any cost and those who want to see the entire picture as it stands through an objective lens and want to see the best of both worlds. If you think it's ok to just dismiss the guidelines that keep those who are in power -- including the president of the United States -- accountable for all their actions and accountable to the highest standards of leadership, then you're doing exactly what you're accusing others of doing.

To me it's not about crazy liberals, democrats, republicans or right-wing nut-jobs. It's about integrity, accountability, strong purpose, the best representation of public service to the American people and of course, results. These are essential to the position of president of the United States and this freak is the worst representation of the majority of those values.

One thing I will say about this amazing North Korean turnaround; it's still way to early to be popping the cap of a champagne bottle. North Korean exports fell 91% from 2017 to the start of 2018. That a brutal hit that I'm sure had a lot to do with Trump's tactless way of handling that situation, and the pressure he most definitely put on Xi Jinping. I'm sure that the pressure bore down onto NK by the Trump administration has yielded this amazing result that we're seeing right now. However, I see a lot of obstacles in the way for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and what Kim Jong Un will want in return for whatever he's willing to offer that there is a long way to do. Not to mention the way the Iran deal and JCPOA was handled and the timing of it that suggests that it might backfire since now who would ever trust the US to hold it's end of the bargain to an agreement when it can flip-flop from one administration to the other. We shall see.

 

[Nilgiri]

And this is really the main issue I have with this clown show of an administration. The credibility is that of a pile of cow dung. The constant lying and perpetual untruthful statements are denigrating this hallowed institution and are the reason for the chaos and the media blitz. I don't give a rat's tail if he cheated on his wife with a **** star way back when, it's how he and his pack of gangsters are dealing with it. This clown show is behaving in an unprecedented way. You ask "well who gives a crap," right? "The economy is doing well and he's getting this and that done etc." Well, many care about that little silly thing called "integrity" because it's essential to the leader of the free world and more importantly to the individual that has been awarded to position of representing the best interests of the American people. We simply cannot put a veil on that aspect and ignore it simply because some might think it doesn't matter. The core values of what represents the US presidency are being bastardize to no end and that's not something that can be ignored.



And there you go. This is what we want to see. But to sit here ahead of the completion of the investigation and call it a "nothing burger" and a "witch hunt" and all that goes exactly against what the critics of the investigation are perpetrating is the epitome of hypocrisy. We need to get to the bottom of what happened because it is important. Everyone (including the president of the United States) is subject to the laws and must abide by them. And if there was any collusion or not, until then, a self deluded, power hungry Gumba like Julliani is not going to make a difference like he seems to think he will. That was the biggest laughable thought about that entire process and if that was why he was brought in like he said, then he's failing miserably at it since all he's done is contradict what Trump has been saying about all those little insignificant things like Stormy Daniels and creating even more contradictions which have brought even more chaos. This is what happens when these guys who have some history of success in big, historic events start thinking they're all that and start flying off the cuff. He's caused more issues for the presidency than there was before he started flapping his yap. And to think he has any say in wrapping up the special counsel's investigation is laughable beyond belief. He's gonna have to get back in line and wait it out just like the rest of us.

And here's the other thing: if there wasn't any collusion -- FBI history and failing issues not withstanding -- then why not just sit back and let it take its course without any of the stupidity that keeps fueling it? Why keep calling it a witch hunt and whisper in the ear of the former FBI director that you hope to "let it go," a specific and VERY serious criminal investigation of a powerful individual who has been proven to be a criminal? Why even promote a semblance of obstruction of justice when you're supposedly not guilty and this is all nothing but a nothing burger? Maybe that's why we don't really know if it is indeed a nothing burger, since almost all the behavior that we're witnessing, is to the contrary.



I completely disagree. If that was his point, then what's stopping him from articulating the point the way you just did? If you, an outstanding individual and a normal Canadian citizen is capable of outlining the point with such ease but the president of the United States can't even come close and says it in a way that is untruthful is nothing short of ineptitude, compiled with a narcissistic desire to unravel and dismantle and denigrate everything his predecessor has done. Maybe some are ok with his lying, his constant lying, lying and lying and lying and lying again, but some of us find it repulsive and frankly disturbing. That might be ok with some, but not for those who brazenly think that there needs to be some integrity to the position of the president of the United States. How dare we! lol.

Why is there a constant need to lie to the American public or to take us as morons who don't know what's really going on? It's because he's a compulsive liar and the reality is that he constantly brings it on himself. It's his blind, self aggrandizing that is getting the best of him. Most people would say that's a strong sign of insecurity and the lying comes without a single, second thought of the consequence. It's a sad reality of the character of the current president of the United States. Where he's definitely succeeding is with his base, and that doesn't say much about their character either if they're easily manipulated by this constant need for self-promotion at any cost.

And you need to put aside the MSM stuff, my friend. We're not looking at it solely from a one-sided telescope. There's a difference between those who camp exclusively on one side or the other at any cost and those who want to see the entire picture as it stands through an objective lens and want to see the best of both worlds. If you think it's ok to just dismiss the guidelines that keep those who are in power -- including the president of the United States -- accountable for all their actions and accountable to the highest standards of leadership, then you're doing exactly what you're accusing others of doing.

To me it's not about crazy liberals, democrats, republicans or right-wing nut-jobs. It's about integrity, accountability, strong purpose, the best representation of public service to the American people and of course, results. These are essential to the position of president of the United States and this freak is the worst representation of the majority of those values.

One thing I will say about this amazing North Korean turnaround; it's still way to early to be popping the cap of a champagne bottle. North Korean exports fell 91% from 2017 to the start of 2018. That a brutal hit that I'm sure had a lot to do with Trump's tactless way of handling that situation, and the pressure he most definitely put on Xi Jinping. I'm sure that the pressure bore down onto NK by the Trump administration has yielded this amazing result that we're seeing right now. However, I see a lot of obstacles in the way for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and what Kim Jong Un will want in return for whatever he's willing to offer that there is a long way to do. Not to mention the way the Iran deal and JCPOA was handled and the timing of it that suggests that it might backfire since now who would ever trust the US to hold it's end of the bargain to an agreement when it can flip-flop from one administration to the other. We shall see.

I have to give you thumbs up just for typing all of that

I did go through it buddy, and you bring up many good points....at one point I also was very much sharing your opinion overall. But others things we are going to be going in circles, esp in a forum atmosphere (I do so prefer face to face chat for this kinda stuff).

BTW at the root of the issue, I think todays Sunday special by Ben (featuring Dave Rubin) covers a lot of what I think gave rise to Trump, its well worth watching when you have some time to spare:

 

[Nilgiri]

The constant lying

Ben nicely summarizes the difference in what is being lied about effectively (and the clear double standard in reporting this regarding MSM-friendly obama admin and current trump admin), you should watch at least the first 20 minutes of this or so:

The issue of note that has now come up on how the Obama admin deliberately LIED on a significant policy matter (if much higher actionable significance to the US public and world), not once, not twice but repeatedly and comprehensively...but the MSM (even with this report) used a significant double standard and have clearly failed the "if the shoe were on the other foot" test in both past and present:

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/06/06/us/politics/ap-us-united-states-iran.html

@Hamartia Antidote @KAL-EL @TexasJohn @jhungary

 

[jhungary]

The Trump Land Mine

Explosives require careful handling. Sometimes they blow up in your face.

By VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
May 8, 2018 7:55 AM
nationalreview.com

After the 2016 election, the so-called deep state was confident that it had the power easily to either stop, remove, or delegitimize the outlier Donald Trump and his presidency.

Give it credit, the Washington apparat quite imaginatively pulled out all the stops: implanting Obama holdover appointees all over the Trump executive branch; filing lawsuits and judge shopping; organizing the Resistance; pursuing impeachment writs; warping the FISA courts; weaponizing the DOJ and FBI; attempting to disrupt the Electoral College; angling for enactment of the 25th Amendment or the emoluments clause; and unleashing Hollywood celebrities, Silicon Valley, and many in Wall Street to suffocate the Trump presidency in its infancy.

But now the administrative state’s multifaceted efforts are starting to unwind, and perhaps even boomerang, on the perpetrators. If a federal judge should end up throwing out most of the indictments of Paul Manafort on the rationale that they have nothing much to do with the original mandate of the special counsel’s office, or if Michael Flynn’s confession to giving false statements is withdrawn successfully because the FBI politicized its investigation and FISA courts were misled in approving the surveillance of Flynn, then the Mueller investigation will implode.

Indeed, the Mueller investigation would likely lose so much public support that the Department of Justice could probably dismiss it with impunity. So, in an ironic sense, Mueller’s overreach might well end once and for all the absurdities of the special counsel/prosecutor law that for nearly half a century has plagued the nation.

Until recently, deep-state apparatchiks such as John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe seemed immune from accountability after lying either to Congress or to federal authorities. In a perverse sort of way, the more Robert Mueller plays the role of the obsessed but impotent Inspector Javert, the more he demonstrates that there is no Russian-Trump collusion. Meanwhile, he is establishing precedents that those whom he exempts from his own zeal will inevitably have to account for their own lawbreaking. One cannot justifiably hound Michael Flynn for supposedly misleading FBI agents, when agency investigators were told by Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills that they had known nothing about Hillary Clinton’s private server during her tenure as secretary of state — despite evidence that they themselves had communicated over it (as had the former president of the United States).

In his increasing desperation, Mueller may manage to finish off the declining reputation of FBI’s Washington office to the degree that there is not much left of it after the work of James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok. And he may only fuel more criminal complaints against deep-state bureaucrats who worked at the FBI and the DOJ.

In truth, the multiplex world of the establishment is crumbling in a variety of arenas, from entertainment to the workplace. Certainly, the NFL is both bleeding viewers and now seen as an ancillary of the progressive movement. The sports channel ESPN is losing its audience that is tired of being lectured about its supposed ethical shortcomings instead of being enlightened about three-point shots and no-hitters. The century-old White House Correspondents’ Dinner is going the way of the 90-year-old Oscars: It’s an increasingly incestuous night of progressive virtue-signaling, crudity, and mediocrity that permanently turned off millions of former viewers. Americans can forgive a lot of shortcomings in their entertainers; boredom is not one of them.

Between the Me Too movement and the Russian-collusion hysteria, not much remains of the reputations of Hollywood and the media. When, fairly or not, Tom Brokaw is lumped into the ranks of Mark Halpern, Dustin Hoffman, Garrison Keillor, Larry King, Matt Lauer, Ryan Lizza, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, and a host of others, there is really not much left of the old power brokers. Once upon a time, Americans assumed that a Tom Brokaw, Matt Lauer, Dan Rather, or Charlie Rose were their go-tos for ethical and sober journalism. Again, justly or not, that norm no longer holds. NBC and CNN, which have long routinely parodied Fox News, are far less likely than Fox to permit ideological and political diversity on the air.

Silicon Valley likewise has lost its luster. Once upon a time, America loved a hip Steve Jobs, decked out in black, fiddling with a new Apple gadget on stage in front of an entranced televised audience of millions. Jobs appeared as a brilliant and typically American entrepreneur, not a partisan talking down to hoi polloi.

Things have radically changed since then. The reputation of Big Tech is one of hyper-partisan politics, data miners, snoops, Bowdlerizers and censors, monopolists, progressive multibillionaires, and adolescents in arrested development who exempt themselves from the consequences of what their ideologies inflict on others.

In Wizard of Oz fashion, it’s as if the public is no longer frightened of the omnipotent imperial faces on their screens — once it drew apart the high-tech curtains and exposed tiny little nerds with nasal voices furiously working levers and gears to project deceptive all-powerful images. Even a four-trillion-dollar industry can take only so many scandals like those at Theranos, Facebook data mining, deliberately slowed-down iPhones, fatally texting drivers, and Mark Zuckerbergs.

Donald Trump proved to be a catalyst for much of the implosion of the deep state. Land mines require careful handling. Only arrogant naïfs think that they can rush in, grab them, and carelessly and safely toss them away — clueless that they themselves are exposed as reckless moments before they blow themselves up.

If the deep state really wanted to dismantle and disarm Donald Trump, it would have been wise first to carefully learn how he was constructed and wired — and thus why he was especially dangerous to them. Then to disarm him, elites would have had to offer superior agendas to his supporters, while engaging in reasoned debates and alternative visions — working with him when they found common and shared solutions, playing the loyal opposition when there did not.

Instead, the government, the political apparat, the media, tech, and entertainment conglomerates sought to reduce Trump to some monstrous entity deserving of hanging, stabbing, decapitation, incineration, and shooting. It sought to indict, impeach, and remove a sitting president, as the ancien régime rushed to break federal law with assumed ethical exemption — tapping, surveilling, lying, and leaking with impunity, assured that supposedly morally superior ends justified any means necessary to achieve them.

In other words, the custodians of the status quo arrogantly grabbed up the Trump land mine and thought they could easily toss it away — as it has blown them sky-high.


VICTOR DAVIS HANSON — NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. @vdhanson

@Desert Fox @Gomig-21 @Hamartia Antidote @Ashes

I don't generally talk about US politic nowadays, I see that like a freak show or witch hunt of some sort.

I personally dislike Trump, but what the other guy do is not making things easier for normal people as well, time to think why Trump get elected in the first place, instead of digging his dirt, the Demo should have done something benefit the country, not start a topic on the latest talk show.

 

[Nilgiri]

Just to give an idea about the red guard operating in US right now:

@nang2 @Desert Fox @jhungary @Hamartia Antidote @TexasJohn

Remember Crowder is not really a trump supporter and overall pretty centrish guy.

...and of course he has to leave, not the ones actually making the threats and big commie scene. Cops have to start actually doing their job fairly with these things....rather than do "whoever is in larger number gets to stay, minority leaves".

 

[nang2]

Just to give an idea about the red guard operating in US right now:

@nang2 @Desert Fox @jhungary @Hamartia Antidote @TexasJohn

Remember Crowder is not really a trump supporter and overall pretty centrish guy.

...and of course he has to leave, not the ones actually making the threats and big commie scene. Cops have to start actually doing their job fairly with these things....rather than do "whoever is in larger number gets to stay, minority leaves".

I like this dude.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Long live United States of America! Happy Fourth of July to all Americans!

Cheers!

 

[Gomig-21]

Long live United States of America! Happy Fourth of July to all Americans!

Cheers!


View attachment 484333

lol, the clown in chief.

I'll tell you what, brace up for the backfire his whole imposing tariffs policy is going to do to this economy.
We're in for a real treat that is not going to be pleasant and the after-effects will last for many years.