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US Politics: What Price Loyalty?


mormont

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5 hours ago, Paladin of Ice said:

"We're back": Hawkish Neo-Cons see Pompeo and Bolton as a chance to get back into government work, direct the country again, and get a new generation of similar thinkers onto Washington's inside track.Some are unwilling to work for Trump, however, and many more are on a blacklist due to sign on with Never Trump movements or writing anti-Trump op-eds and such during the 2016 campaign.

Hilarious how one of the ways he separated himself from the rest of the field was by bashing the Neo-Con chicken hawks. Now he's surrounding himself with them. A man of great integrity, he is. 

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Some Republicans are pushing a Balanced Budget Amendment again. Considering this is coming on the heels of them hobbling government revenue with their tax scam and right after the CBO projected trillion dollar a year plus budget deficits because of said tax legislation, it's a nice reminder that everything Republicans do on fiscal policy is aimed solely at returning us to the glory days before the New Deal, and everything they say otherwise is a bullshit smokescreen to try to cover that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, a BBA is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Try fighting a prolonged military campaign with one of those, especially when you're always arguing that we need to cut taxes....

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21 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Few things here. First, it's unlikely the report will ever be released to the public, regardless of what happens. Mueller reports it to Rosenstein, and then Rosenstein can report part or all of it to Congress and make a recommendation if he so chooses. Or he can put it in a desk drawer and never look at it again. The only thing he can't do as far as I know is destroy it. There's a mechanism Congress has to get the report from Rosenstein or his replacement, but I forget how it works and it's not a slam dunk process as far as I can tell. 

People have been talking about bringing in someone to end the investigation. That's not the smart play. If it's that bad, you bring in a stooge who dramatically shrinks the scope of what Mueller can investigate and then you bury the report for as long as you can.

Second, what makes you think this will be wrapped up anytime soon? Mueller can't force Trump to do an interview with him, but he can for him to testify in front of a grand jury. And that could honestly be more dangerous for Trump. Furthermore, many of the main actors in this affair still haven't had interviews. I see no reason to believe this is going to be over anytime soon based on the arguments above. There's still a lot to look at and I'm sure there will be a fight in Congress over how much they get to see. 

On an unrelated note, can the president apply retroactive executive privileges? I honestly don't recall ever reading about that.

Regarding the first, you can also limit manpower and resources.

Second, agreed, What of the big things to come out of the recent reveals actually is that Mueller is looking at all sorts of things. This looks to be a very long investigation. 

As to the third, no clue, but I posted something earlier about Bannon putting this forward as an idea to try to get back into Trump's good graces.

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Israel and Iran Are Headed for a Collision in Syria
A new reality is taking shape as one war gives way to new ones.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/syria-israel/557855/

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But meanwhile the Syrian reality has come knocking hard at Israel's door. The Iranians are not showing any signs of curtailing their actions; on the contrary, they are exhibiting signs of escalation. Iran's Revolutionary Guards are establishing permanent bases in Syria, intended for Shiite militias that Iran funds (some of which are built adjacent to Russian positions so as to deter Israeli strikes), along with airbases and seaports.  Tehran is meanwhile spending enormous amounts of resources in order to buy swaths of the Syrian economy (phosphates, mobile network operators etc.). Israeli estimates put Iranian expenditure in Syria and Hezbollah at $30 billion since the Syrian Civil War started. A recent summit in Ankara on the future of Syria, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, only proves, from the Israeli perspective, that Moscow is fueling the Iranian wildfire in Syria. This reality coincides with the recent Syrian decision, as reported by Israeli journalist Amos Harel, to move its own tanks and artillery into the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights, a clear violation of the separation agreement signed between the Israel and Syria in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War.

 

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Well if no one else is going to do it...

Apparently it's widely known in TrumpWorld that Cohen had a habit of recording phonecalls and conversations with people. So well known in fact, that there are senior members of the campaign who would avoid him for this reason (among others, I'm sure).

It also seems to have been widely known that Cohen liked to store these audio files on his computers.

Do you know who has his computers now? I do.

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2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

As you may have heard, the RNC has launched a website called Lyin' Comey to attack him, as his book gets launched on Sunday and he starts his book tour across the US.

It is truly hilarious to see a Republican website quoting HRC and Maxine Waters for support.

https://www.lyincomey.com/

The back cover has some interesting blurbs;

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"Surprised he got it done!"  Low Energy Jeb!

"He says he 6'11' but he's really only six eight, the liar."  Little Marco

Unlike me, he can hold his liquor."  Sloppy Steve

"Nobody lies better 'n me, nobody!"  Lyin' Ted

"Won't launch any rockets with this doorstopper."  Rocket Man Kim Jon Un

"Get off my lawn!"  Crazy Bernie

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Well if no one else is going to do it...

Apparently it's widely known in TrumpWorld that Cohen had a habit of recording phonecalls and conversations with people. So well known in fact, that there are senior members of the campaign who would avoid him for this reason (among others, I'm sure).

It also seems to have been widely known that Cohen liked to store these audio files on his computers.

Do you know who has his computers now? I do.

Strange that he didn't use actual tapes, if we are really redoing Watergate here.

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The Race for House Speaker Is Kevin McCarthy’s to Lose\

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/the-race-for-house-speaker-is-kevin-mccarthys-to-lose.html

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While it reflected a position that Steve Scalise has been expressing privately for a while, a formal statement on Fox News from U.S. Representative Steve Scalise made it official today: “I’ve never run against Kevin, and wouldn’t run against Kevin.

 

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1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

Second, what makes you think this will be wrapped up anytime soon? Mueller can't force Trump to do an interview with him, but he can for him to testify in front of a grand jury. And that could honestly be more dangerous for Trump. Furthermore, many of the main actors in this affair still haven't had interviews. I see no reason to believe this is going to be over anytime soon based on the arguments above. There's still a lot to look at and I'm sure there will be a fight in Congress over how much they get to see. 

 

Presumably, if Mueller was ready to interview Trump, then he must have been almost finished with the investigation.  Interviewing Trump would be the final step of the investigation.  It's unlikely to be something Mueller would do in the middle of the investigation.  I am surprised that he hasn't yet interviewed Kushner or Trump Jr. yet.  We'll see if those are done in the next month or so.  My guess is that the investigation is wrapped up before midterms, but we shall see.

I doubt that Mueller is going to try to subpoena Trump.  If Mueller already has the goods on Trump, the grand jury testimony from Trump is unnecessary and would be just for show, which is not Mueller's style.  He gave Trump an opportunity to explain himself and he declined.  Too bad for Trump.  If Mueller doesn't have the goods on Trump, it's hard to justify issuing the subpoena to do a fishing expedition.

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1 hour ago, Martell Spy said:

A recent summit in Ankara on the future of Syria, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, only proves, from the Israeli perspective, that Moscow is fueling the Iranian wildfire in Syria. This reality coincides with the recent Syrian decision, as reported by Israeli journalist Amos Harel, to move its own tanks and artillery into the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights, a clear violation of the separation agreement signed between the Israel and Syria in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War.

This is really fucking bad. Bad as in "less than half-a-dozen crazy people in strategic position are taking us toward WWIII" bad.With Netanyahu in Israel and Trump in the US... With Bolton and Pompeo and Mattis... With Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia... Fuck. This is exactly why Trump was never supposed to be elected.

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Report: Blood Samples Show Nerve Agent, Chlorine Used in Syria Attack

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/report-blood-samples-show-nerve-agent-used-in-syria-attack.html

 

 

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Syria and its allies in Russia have denied that chemical weapons were used in Douma, labeling the attack a hoax. Videos and photos from the site of the attack, along with witness testimony contradicted that, and on Thursday, the U.S. reportedly received physical evidence.

Blood and urine samples from victims of the attack have tested positive for chlorine and an unknown nerve agent, NBC News reports. The Syrian government has been known to use chlorine bombs, along with sarin, a nerve agent developed by Nazi Germany that was used in a 2013 attack that killed nearly 1,500 people outside of Damascus.

 

 

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34 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

This is really fucking bad. Bad as in "less than half-a-dozen crazy people in strategic position are taking us toward WWIII" bad.With Netanyahu in Israel and Trump in the US... With Bolton and Pompeo and Mattis... With Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia... Fuck. This is exactly why Trump was never supposed to be elected.

Well, hopefully Putin/Trump bromance will save the day. This really looks like a Kubrick film though.

And this is all happening because some American billionaires felt they needed more money.

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