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US Politics: What Price Loyalty?


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Alan Dershowitz and Steve Bannon Offer Trump Advice on Crippling Mueller

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/dershowitz-bannon-offer-trump-advice-on-crippling-mueller.html

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While Dershowitz plays coy about advising Trump, Steve Bannon is hoping to slither his way back into the president’s ear. Trump’s former senior adviser has a plan for kneecapping Mueller that he’s currently pitching to White House aides and congressional Republicans, the Washington Postreports. The plan calls for Trump to fire Rosenstein, end his cooperation with Mueller, and assert retroactive executive privilege in an attempt to invalidate the interviews Mueller’s team has already conducted with White House officials.

That last suggestion drew heckles from some legal experts. On Twitter, University of Texas Steve Vladeck called it “stunningly incoherent.” 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

 

 

 

Probably a good time to revisit John Cleese's finest poetic work:

Ode to Sean Hannity

Aping urbanity

Oozing with vanity

Plump as a manatee

Faking humanity

Journalistic calamity

Intellectual inanity

Fox Noise insanity

You're a profanity

Hannity

 

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And we've got MOAR news!

A teacher from Margary Stoneman Douglas (the Parkland school) who had said he would be interested in carrying a gun at school has been charged with failure to properly store a firearm after he left it in a public bathroom and a drunk homeless man shot the place up to see if it was loaded.

There's so much to unpack there.

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2 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

I asked my Google phone why Rand Paul hates Mike Pompeo and the app crashed.

Rand Paul is a spineless hypocrite on most domestic issues, but he has been consistently isolationist, military spending-skeptical, and anti-torture. Pompeo is none of those things.

53 minutes ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

Oh god. I'm laughing so hard it hurts.

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3 minutes ago, Fez said:

Rand Paul is a spineless hypocrite on most domestic issues, but he has been consistently isolationist, military spending-skeptical, and anti-torture.

This is the man who started his presidential campaign in front of an aircraft carrier suggesting that we up the defense budget by almost two-hundred billion dollars, yes?

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4 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

This is the man who started his presidential campaign in front of an aircraft carrier suggesting that we up the defense budget by almost two-hundred billion dollars, yes?

Eh, I mean legislatively. Everyone loses their principles in speeches when they run for President. Hell, Evan Bayh became downright liberal in 2008. It happens.

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22 minutes ago, Fez said:

Eh, I mean legislatively. Everyone loses their principles in speeches when they run for President. Hell, Evan Bayh became downright liberal in 2008. It happens.

Fair enough. Obama also said he believed marriage was between a man and a woman when he was running in 2008. But it feels different now. The GOP has so thoroughly capitulated to Trumpism that I don't think there is room in the party anymore for people like pre-2015 Rand Paul. The party needs a complete, ground-up rebuild. Remember the last Speaker of the House literally sang Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah as he announced his retirement? I can only imagine Paul Ryan cartwheeling out of the room when it's his time to go.

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5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Aha! Apparently the doorman has spoken!

Trump apparently had a relationship with his housekeeper, and she had a baby!

Oh, think of how Trump mocked Arnold Schwarzenegger! 

The media are now trying to confirm the story is true.

And even if it is?  I mean I see it as further proof that he is a sleazebag if true.  But does it really change anyone's mind about him?

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Trump would love to fire Mueller. But here’s why he’s been afraid to so far.

Things could change, but there are very good reasons the president hasn’t pulled the trigger yet

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/19/17138948/trump-mueller-firing-russia

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The process of getting rid of Mueller is much more complicated and legally fraught than, say, firing FBI Director James Comey or Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Furthermore, dismissing Mueller himself wouldn’t end Mueller’s investigation — an even more controversial intervention would be required for that. Then, even if he pulled it off, Mueller’s firing would likely lead to a flood of leaks. Finally, the ensuing backlash could help Democrats regain control of Congress — which could make Trump’s legal and political situation even worse.

 

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17 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

And even if it is?  I mean I see it as further proof that he is a sleazebag if true.  But does it really change anyone's mind about him?

No, it probably doesn't. But I think it goes a long way, if true, in explaining why Trump was so angry about the raid on Cohen's office, if Cohen was making the support payments.

I don't think the almost identical story hurt Arnie that much either, except it caused a divorce.

ETA: That was a stupid thing to say. It broke up Arnie's marriage, which must have been incredibly painful to his wife and children. I meant that politically speaking it didn't seem to hurt him badly.

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13 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

And even if it is?  I mean I see it as further proof that he is a sleazebag if true.  But does it really change anyone's mind about him?

Depends if the encounter(s) with the housekeeper was rape and assault or coerced or consensual, all will result in distinctly different outcomes with his supporters. 

But not big changes because most of his base will shrug the story off and his support will mostly remain unchanged, the grooming he has done about “fake news” and the ties to national enquirer will help supporters dismiss it.  but overall this will result in some bleeding, no matter the alleged consent.

maybe NBC or CNN can hire Gary Hart to be an expert commentator on how the national enquirer handles these cases?

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30 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Aha! Apparently the doorman has spoken!

Trump apparently had a relationship with his housekeeper, and she had a baby!

Oh, think of how Trump mocked Arnold Schwarzenegger! 

The media are now trying to confirm the story is true.

I gave up on sleep just in time for Jake Tapper to announce that 'coming up next, the Doorman speaks'. So lucky me I guess.

19 minutes ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

His base? Depends... Was the housekeeper white?

I actually would be astounded if Trumpy didn't have a nasty attraction to Latina or Black women.

And I mean nasty in the way he treats the engagements, of course. Because it's his racism that probably turns him on.

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Surprised they will take the chance for Trump may end up having a rally for him.

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Republican state lawmakers in Missouri are asking President Trump to pressure their Republican Gov. Eric Greitens to resign.

Greitens, under investigation for allegations of sexual misconduct as well as misuse of funds, on Wednesday refused to step down.

In a letter to Trump on Thursday, Missouri state GOP Sens. Rob Schaaf, Doug Libla and Gary Romine said it "appears that Gov. Greitens will refuse to resign no matter what damage his refusal is causing," and asked the president to intervene.

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/382907-missouri-gop-state-lawmakers-ask-trump-to-help-in-calling-for-governor

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If the warrant to search Michael Cohen doesn't go beyond the hush payments, I'm not sure it's going to have much effect on Trump.  Maybe Cohen gets punished, but I doubt anything will happen to Trump.  John Edwards was indicted and tried, but found not guilty, of campaign finance charges for money spent to hide his mistress during his 2008 campaign. 

Since Mueller passed this off, the issues with Cohen don't appear to be related to Mueller's case on collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice, which means it's unlikely that they are looking for documents related to money laundering for the Russians.  Russian money laundering would provide a motive for the case on collusion, so Mueller wouldn't have passed it off if they were looking for this.

I'm not sure how much fishing the FBI can do while they are searching Cohen's documents and computer files.  Specifically, I don't know if the FBI can use a search warrant for looking for evidence of hush payments as a pretext to look for evidence of money laundering or other crimes.  If the warrant isn't rock solid, or if the FBI agents overstep the bounds of the warrant or violate attorney-client privilege, it's possible that they could taint any other evidence of crimes that they uncover and render that evidence unusable at trial.  Cohen is likely a vast mine of information, but they have to be very careful with how they go about extracting that information.

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30 minutes ago, TheKitttenGuard said:

Surprised they will take the chance for Trump may end up having a rally for him.

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/382907-missouri-gop-state-lawmakers-ask-trump-to-help-in-calling-for-governor

Considering the way things are going, maybe Trump asks Greitens to resign and then promptly hires him to be a part of his administration. Maybe as, oh, Secretary of the Sleaze or something.

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5 minutes ago, Durckad said:

Considering the way things are going, maybe Trump asks Greitens to resign and then promptly hires him to be a part of his administration. Maybe as, oh, Secretary of the Sleaze or something.

Well the guy is certainly taking a leaf out of Trump's book - deny, deny, deny. It's all lies. Let's see if it works for him the way it's worked for Trump.

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