US Politics: Loyalty Oaths for Everyone!

[DMC]

This is me now.  Then I'm going to bed.  It's an old southern folk tune performed by hippies.  

[Fragile Bird]

43 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Fair enough.  I'm just tired.  So tired.

Exactly why the Washington Post adopted the words Democracy Dies in Darkness.

The bastards will grind you down.

[Jace, Extat]

26 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I hope it's just clear to you guys that I expect loyalty. 

I hope its clear that I know what team I'm on that you're in charge of...?

[DMC]

26 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I hope it's just clear to you guys that I expect loyalty. 

16 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Exactly why the Washington Post adopted the words Democracy Dies in Darkness.

The bastards will grind you down.

 

 

Quote

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
'Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains.

 

[DMC]

Ugh.

[Larry of the Lawn]

4 hours ago, dmc515 said:

This is me now.  Then I'm going to bed.  It's an old southern folk tune performed by hippies.  

It's not really an old southern folk tune.  And it was written by a Canadian.

[Yukle]

3 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Exactly why the Washington Post adopted the words Democracy Dies in Darkness.

It felt like a warning to the USA.

Now it feels like its epitaph.

[OldGimletEye]

The Republican Party: Taking the side of plutocrats, white nationalist, and the moral majority (or really more like the Moral Majority Minority) and then claiming they don’t do “identity politics”.

In reality, they are its greatest and most prolific practitioners.
https://www.vox.com/2018/1/30/16953910/kennedy-speech-sotu-response

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Because here’s the thing — what liberals do in America, at their best, is not identity politics at all. Identity politics is what Donald Trump does. Identity politics is delivering a speech that offers no solutions for any actual problems in people’s lives, interspersed with dog-whistles about MS-13 and standing for the national anthem.

 

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Abraham Lincoln, writing in 1855 about the anti-immigrant movement of his day, struck a similar tone:

Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ”all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocricy.

..................................................

Today in: Conservative Conspiracy Theories.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/5/16737350/peter-strzok-clinton-emails-fbi-trump-scandal-mueller

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It turns out that the FBI agent who many conservatives believe secretly plotted to take down President Donald Trump may have actually helped get the president elected.

CNN has obtained emails that show that FBI agent Peter Strzok co-wrote the first draft of the letter that then-FBI Director James Comey sent to Congress in October 2016, announcing that the bureau was reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. That letter set off a political firestorm just 11 days before the presidential election and hurt Clinton at the polls — so much so that it may have swung the election in favor of Trump.

................................................................

More on Republican Identity Politics

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/opinion/worse-than-willie-horton.html

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A lot of Trump’s speech — and an even greater share of the emotional energy, since he seemed bored reciting misleading economic numbers — was devoted to lamenting a wave of violent crime by immigrants. Was this racist? Yes, of course. But saying that doesn’t capture the full evil of what he was doing (and I use the term “evil” advisedly).

For he wasn’t exaggerating a problem, or placing the blame on the wrong people. He was inventing a problem that doesn’t exist, and using that imaginary problem to demonize brown people.

 

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This time, by contrast, there is no crime wave — there have been a few recent bobbles, but many of our big cities have seen both a surge in the foreign-born population and a dramatic, indeed almost unbelievable, decline in violent crime:

 

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Most notably of all, New York — once the emblem of the supposed collapse of law and order — is safer than it has ever been, despite being run by a mayor who, strange to say, has tried to rein in racist behavior by the police.

So Trump wants us to be scared of brown people based on nothing at all. That’s really ugly.

.........................................................

It doesn’t look like negative interest rates are a viable option. Interesting enough, negative interest rates seems to be Marvin Goodfriend’s, Trump’s recent pick, preferred option.

https://voxeu.org/article/monetary-policy-negative-nominal-interest-rates

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Record low interest rates have led to concerns about the potency of monetary policy in future recessions. In a recent working paper, Kiley and Roberts (2017) estimate that the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates will bind 30-40% of the time going forward. A key question for macroeconomic policy is therefore whether lowering interest rates below zero can be an effective tool for stimulating aggregate demand.

 

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The main takeaway from our analysis is not that negative interest rates are always non-expansionary. Rather, it is that given the current institutional set-up there appears to be limited pass-through of negative central bank rates through the bank sector, an important part of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. This highlights the need for alternative policies or changes to the current institutional set-up in order to fight the next recession.

 

[Bonnot OG]

Get ready for Gowdy to take a position at the FBI or the DOJ to replace Wray, Sessions, or Rosenstein.

[OldGimletEye]

On 1/31/2018 at 6:32 PM, Martell Spy said:

How the Media Is Abetting the GOP’s War on “Welfare”
Bill Clinton already ended welfare as we knew it. So what, exactly, are Republicans after now?

https://newrepublic.com/article/146859/media-abetting-gops-war-welfare

 

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 “After Push on Taxes, Republicans Line Up Welfare Revamp Next.” At CNN, it’s “GOP will tackle Medicare, Medicaid, welfare in 2018, Ryan says,” with the speaker of the House quoted as saying, “We think it’s important to get people from welfare to work. We have a welfare system that’s basically trapping people in poverty and effectively paying people not to work, and we’ve got to work on that.”

I think it bears repeating that when Paul Ryan, the Republican Party, and Republicans talk about "welfare reform" because they are oh so concerned about unemployment that the proper response is simply to tell them to fuck off.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

12 hours ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

@Fez

A ruling out of Kansas on their Anti-BDS law:

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/01/federal-punishing-supporters/

 

That is bizarre.  The State is telling citizens they must buy Israeli products?  How can the State have the power to force people to buy something that isn’t tied to anything specificly regulated by the  State?  

Could the State legally require it citizens to buy an egg mcmuffin everyday or face legal sanction?  This should be well outside the power of any State.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

11 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

I already said that! What's different between what you said and what I said!?!

So Richard Spencer and his group of Nazi Nancies are requesting a judge throw out the civil suit of a bunch of Charlottsville peeps who got all fucked up on account of Nazis taking over their streets.

See, Spence can't find a lawyer who will take his case and that's UNFAIR!!!! He needs a safe space in court

Yo, law peeps. Are you guaranteed a lawyer in a civil suit? I'm googling that shit but @Tywin et al. says I'm stupid so I need some help here.

No, you are not guaranteed a lawyer in civil cases.

[Martell Spy]

So, let us say Mueller is fired by a Trump loyalist appointed as deputy AG. It would indeed make the case of obstruction of justice against Trump much stronger. However, who could possibly prosecute? Even assuming Mueller leaks to the public, which seems likely in that situation, thus everything is out there. 

One possible scenario that seems likely is that Trump at least temporarily gains immunity to investigation. Only Congress can step in from what I can see and they won't do that before 2019. He could stop there, or he could go on to attack the courts, the voting system, and attempt to use Justice against political enemies such as HRC.

If Trump just stopped there, and Congress never fixed it, then we'd have this gaping hole in our system, with Presidents gaining the ability to shut down investigations, assuming loyalists in Justice go along.

If Sessions resigned, then Congress wouldn't appoint a replacement AG, leaving the Trump loyalist in charge of the investigation as deputy AG. If Sessions didn't resign, the same outcome results.
 

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All this has built steadily toward a crisis for American democracy—a Saturday Night Massacre in slow motion. Press reports suggest the president may be contemplating using the memo to dismiss Rosenstein. That matters: If the president were to use his powers to insert someone lacking independence, that person could throttle the special counsel.

That move would, however, risk deepening the president’s obstruction of justice liability, and that of those around him who are involved in the decision. After all, firing Comey on dubious grounds with the alleged intent to hamper the Russia investigation led to an obstruction investigation. Cashiering Rosenstein would offer a matching bookend. That is particularly so in light of another startling report today: that the president sought details about the Russia investigation from Rosenstein, then asked him, “Are you on my team?” This echoes Trump’s demand for loyalty from Comey that helped kick off the obstruction investigation.

 

Trump’s Saturday Night Massacre Is Happening Right Before Our Eyes
The aim of the campaign against the Mueller investigation and the FBI is clear: Obstructing justice.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/31/trumps-saturday-night-massacre-is-happening-right-before-our-eyes-216560?lo=ap_e1

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

A senior Democratic official familiar with the dispute, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the changes were "not cosmetic" but rather "try to water down some of the Majority's assertions."

"It is clear that the Majority is no longer fully comfortable with what it has represented to House members," the official said.

 

Schiff accuses GOP of secret changes to memo before sending it to Trump

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/31/schiff-classified-memo-nunes-trump-381260?lo=ap_b1

[Martell Spy]

Sounds not so much like a plan, but just a lot of campaigning. Looks more like an excuse to be far away from Donald Trump for a long time.

Quote

Vice President Mike Pence is launching one of the most aggressive campaign strategies in recent White House history: he will hopscotch the country over the next three months, making nearly three dozen stops that could raise tens of millions of dollars for House and Senate Republicans, all while promoting the party's legislative accomplishments.

Behind Pence’s plan to rescue the Republican majority in 2018
In an exclusive interview, the vice president said the GOP could expand its majorities in Congress with his team’s campaign strategy.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/01/mike-pence-republicans-congress-midterms-381261

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

A still more fundamental problem, at least if one hopes that any criminal behavior committed by Trump and uncovered by Mueller might result in the former’s removal from office, is that even a felony conviction would not eject the president. Only impeachment performs that trick. So, if Mueller concludes that Trump did commit a crime and he wants Congress to know about it, he needs a way to present his conclusions to Congress. Unfortunately, he has no independent authority to release the results of an investigation that doesn’t produce an indictment.

However, there are at least two ways Mueller can force the DOJ’s hand, or at least make it easy for Congress to do so. Both approaches would comply fully with Mueller’s limited mandate and the department’s internal rules. First, Mueller could prepare a report and recommendation that Trump be indicted after he leaves office and trust that Congress would find means of obtaining the report. Alternatively, Mueller could recommend immediate indictment, fully expecting rejection of that recommendation, and rely on the technicalities of the Justice Department’s own rules to ensure transmission of his recommendation and reasons to Congress.

 

Mueller’s Endgame
How he can ensure that Congress sees any case against Donald Trump.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/how-robert-mueller-can-ensure-congress-sees-any-case-against-donald-trump.html

[Martell Spy]

Another big shoe dropping it looks like.

Quote

Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to the three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Ms. Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting — in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians — “will never get out.” That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice, the people said.

Quote

According to his account, Ms. Hicks responded that the emails “will never get out” because only a few people had access to them. Mr. Corallo, who worked as a Justice Department spokesman during the George W. Bush administration, told colleagues he was alarmed not only by what Ms. Hicks had said — either she was being naïve or was suggesting that the emails could be withheld from investigators — but also that she had said it in front of the president without a lawyer on the phone and that the conversation could not be protected by attorney-client privilege.

It Appears Yet Another Trump Staffer Is Ready to Sing for Mueller

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/yet-another-trump-staffer-appears-ready-to-sing-for-mueller.html

[LongRider]

8 hours ago, Triskele said:

I hope it's just clear to you guys that I expect loyalty. 

I don't swear on bibles, do you have any copies of On The Origin of Species?  If so, I'll think about it.

 

 

[DMC]

4 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

It's not really an old southern folk tune.  And it was written by a Canadian.

Yeah sorry I...wasn't at my best.  Posting a bunch of youtube videos of dead musicians is always a solid indicator.

1 hour ago, Sword of Doom said:

Get ready for Gowdy to take a position at the FBI or the DOJ to replace Wray, Sessions, or Rosenstein.

This wouldn't be surprising - he's been angling for a DOJ job since Trump was elected.

35 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

So, let us say Mueller is fired by a Trump loyalist appointed as deputy AG. It would indeed make the case of obstruction of justice against Trump much stronger. However, who could possibly prosecute? Even assuming Mueller leaks to the public, which seems likely in that situation, thus everything is out there. 

One possible scenario that seems likely is that Trump at least temporarily gains immunity to investigation. Only Congress can step in from what I can see and they won't do that before 2019. He could stop there, or he could go on to attack the courts, the voting system, and attempt to use Justice against political enemies such as HRC.

If Trump just stopped there, and Congress never fixed it, then we'd have this gaping hole in our system, with Presidents gaining the ability to shut down investigations, assuming loyalists in Justice go along.

If Sessions resigned, then Congress wouldn't appoint a replacement AG, leaving the Trump loyalist in charge of the investigation as deputy AG. If Sessions didn't resign, the same outcome results.
 

Trump’s Saturday Night Massacre Is Happening Right Before Our Eyes
The aim of the campaign against the Mueller investigation and the FBI is clear: Obstructing justice.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/31/trumps-saturday-night-massacre-is-happening-right-before-our-eyes-216560?lo=ap_e1

Yeah I agree that Trump and his administration are attempting a "slow motion" SNM.  I just think they're really dumb to think that's going to work in any way.  

As for your thoughts at the top, I've had similar concerns.  The most likely scenario is we have a Democratic House and GOP Senate after November.  In that case the Dems can't pass an act, but they could fund a "special investigation."  Let alone the House's inherent investigative powers.  In short, it'll be fine - as long as they take back the House.  That's crucial.

12 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Another big shoe dropping it looks like.

Hicks is a very important witness, and her testimony is newsworthy.  But this is verging on dumb gossip, rather than actual journalism.  I don't care if Hope Hicks made an improper statement when reacting to the DTJ story.  Further, pulling on the thread that Trump and his staff brazenly lied to the NYT on Air Force One is entirely pointless.  While it was particularly pathetic, if lying to the press meant you went to jail, they'd have to ensconce the beltway like the Simpsons movie.

[Shryke]

You are missing the story. Hicks doesn't matter, it's Corallo. Who is a witness to obstruction of justice and wants to talk to Mueller. This is likely the biggest reason that Nunes and his memo is going so nuts right now.