Things have not changed here I C

[gowlerk 2,190]

1 hour ago, DJL said:

Out of curiosity, what force within the United States needs stealth technology to bomb except our own military which you said is controlled by Q? 

The Justice Department of course!

Edited May 12, 2020 by gowlerk

[Phil1111 1,149]

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

The Justice Department of course!

For Ron and the right wing. Deep State bad, fifth column and Q  good.

[billvon 2,990]

So Ron and Rush -

Looks like Trump's latest attempt at distraction is bombing - badly.

First it turns out that Barr lied and deceived to try to get a rationale to drop the case.  In writing up the rationale Barr leaned heavily on an FBI report of an interview, quoting it 25 times.  It was the basis of his claim that the case should be dropped.  Unfortunately for Barr, the source of that report (a Trump administration assistant AG) saw his rationale, and she had this to say about it:
=======================

. . .  .the report  . . . is no support for Mr. Barr’s dismissal of the Flynn case. It does not suggest that the F.B.I. had no counterintelligence reason for investigating Mr. Flynn. It does not suggest that the F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn — which led to the false-statements charge — was unlawful or unjustified. It does not support that Mr. Flynn’s false statements were not material. And it does not support the Justice Department’s assertion that the continued prosecution of the case against Mr. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to knowingly making material false statements to the FBI, “would not serve the interests of justice.”

=======================

So strike one - Barr lied about the primary reason he gave for dismissing the charges.

Then he jumped the shark with his overheated claims that this was the "biggest political crime in American history, by far!" and that "OBAMAGATE makes Watergate look small time."  After a slew of attempts to blame Obama from everything from the recent economic downturn to Coronavirus to having the "weakest recovery" ever, he's just looking desperate, mean and overloaded.  And it's getting to him - he stormed out of his own press conference after attacking an Asian reporter, continually telling her to "ask China" rather than answering her question.

Finally, even staunch Republicans are telling Trump he's nuts for going after Obama.  From Politico:

================

President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign to encourage sweeping investigations of his predecessor Barack Obama met a unanimous response from Senate Republicans: No thanks.

Trump’s Senate allies on Monday stopped short of echoing Trump’s claim that Obama acted illegally when the Justice Department began probing incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016. And they indicated that the Senate would pass on investigating the former president.

“I’m not anticipating calling President Obama,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

==================

When even Lindsey Graham is quietly backing away from Trump's claims you know they are bombing.  Strike three.

I know Trump supporters all have stiffies right now, but I expect some wilting pretty soon as people realize that a thousand Americans dying every day is actually more important than Trump's latest reality TV show plot.

[kallend 2,026]

33 minutes ago, billvon said:

So Ron and Rush -

Looks like Trump's latest attempt at distraction is bombing - badly.

First it turns out that Barr lied and deceived to try to get a rationale to drop the case.  In writing up the rationale Barr leaned heavily on an FBI report of an interview, quoting it 25 times.  It was the basis of his claim that the case should be dropped.  Unfortunately for Barr, the source of that report (a Trump administration assistant AG) saw his rationale, and she had this to say about it:
=======================

. . .  .the report  . . . is no support for Mr. Barr’s dismissal of the Flynn case. It does not suggest that the F.B.I. had no counterintelligence reason for investigating Mr. Flynn. It does not suggest that the F.B.I.’s interview of Mr. Flynn — which led to the false-statements charge — was unlawful or unjustified. It does not support that Mr. Flynn’s false statements were not material. And it does not support the Justice Department’s assertion that the continued prosecution of the case against Mr. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to knowingly making material false statements to the FBI, “would not serve the interests of justice.”

=======================

So strike one - Barr lied about the primary reason he gave for dismissing the charges.

Then he jumped the shark with his overheated claims that this was the "biggest political crime in American history, by far!" and that "OBAMAGATE makes Watergate look small time."  After a slew of attempts to blame Obama from everything from the recent economic downturn to Coronavirus to having the "weakest recovery" ever, he's just looking desperate, mean and overloaded.  And it's getting to him - he stormed out of his own press conference after attacking an Asian reporter, continually telling her to "ask China" rather than answering her question.

Finally, even staunch Republicans are telling Trump he's nuts for going after Obama.  From Politico:

================

President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign to encourage sweeping investigations of his predecessor Barack Obama met a unanimous response from Senate Republicans: No thanks.

Trump’s Senate allies on Monday stopped short of echoing Trump’s claim that Obama acted illegally when the Justice Department began probing incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016. And they indicated that the Senate would pass on investigating the former president.

“I’m not anticipating calling President Obama,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

==================

When even Lindsey Graham is quietly backing away from Trump's claims you know they are bombing.  Strike three.

I know Trump supporters all have stiffies right now, but I expect some wilting pretty soon as people realize that a thousand Americans dying every day is actually more important than Trump's latest reality TV show plot.

So things haven't changed:  rushmc posts a load of rubbish once again.

[turtlespeed 220]

3 hours ago, DJL said:

Oh.... we're bombing Bill Barr?   No... Bill Barr is bombing?

The bombshell is that Bill Barr is bombing with BBs, buddy.

[DJL 235]

51 minutes ago, turtlespeed said:

The bombshell is that Bill Barr is bombing with BBs, buddy.

Bill Barr, Bombshells, Battlestar Galactica.

[turtlespeed 220]

4 hours ago, DJL said:

Bill Barr, Bombshells, Battlestar Galactica.

New Headline:

Bummer, Bill Barr Bumbles Bombing of the Biggest Bijou Boardwalk!  

[normiss 798]

Not so fast here Mr. Traitor Flynn

[Phil1111 1,149]

2 minutes ago, normiss said:

Not so fast here Mr. Traitor Flynn

trump, Turtle and Barr soon to learn that the republic has progressed beyond bananas.

[billvon 2,990]

Uh oh - looks like Trump's attempted "turn the tables" trick is definitely backfiring.  Barr looks like he's at risk now.  From The Hill:

==========================================

Nearly 2,000 former Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who served under Republican and Democratic administrations condemned the DOJ and Attorney General William Barr on Monday for moving to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

The former officials said Barr “once again assaulted the rule of law” and accused the attorney general of using the department “as a tool to further President Trump’s personal and political interests.” 

“Make no mistake: The Department’s action is extraordinarily rare, if not unprecedented,” they wrote in a statement published on Medium. “If any of us, or anyone reading this statement who is not a friend of the President, were to lie to federal investigators in the course of a properly predicated counterintelligence investigation, and admit we did so under oath, we would be prosecuted for it.”

==========================================

 

[jakee 1,489]

2 hours ago, billvon said:

Uh oh - looks like Trump's attempted "turn the tables" trick is definitely backfiring.  Barr looks like he's at risk now.  

He should be. From WaPo

Prosecutors must make decisions based on facts and law, not on the defendant’s political connections. When the department takes steps that it would never take in any other case to protect an ally of the president, it betrays this principle.

Indeed, the department chose to assign these matters to a special counsel precisely to avoid the appearance of political influence. For the attorney general now to directly intervene to benefit the president’s associates makes this betrayal of the rule of law even more egregious....

...I say this. If the department truly acted because of good-faith commitments to legal positions, then where is the evidence of those commitments in other cases that do not involve friends of the president? Where are the narcotics cases in which the department has filed a sentencing memorandum overruling career prosecutors? Where are the other false-statements cases dismissed after a guilty plea?

There are none. Is that because the only cases in the United States that warranted intervention by department leadership happened to involve friends of the president? Of course not.

 

This kind of political interference in the criminal justice system is a full blown constitutional crisis. Once you take that genie out of the bottle and get away with it you can't put it back. The US might need to decide whether it wants to elect a president for 4 years or a king for 4 years, because Trump says it's the latter.

[Phil1111 1,149]

7 hours ago, billvon said:

Uh oh - looks like Trump's attempted "turn the tables" trick is definitely backfiring.  Barr looks like he's at risk now.  From The Hill:

==========================================

Nearly 2,000 former Department of Justice (DOJ) officials ...

 

 

4 hours ago, jakee said:

He should be. From WaPo...

This kind of political interference in the criminal justice system is a full blown constitutional crisis. Once you take that genie out of the bottle and get away with it you can't put it back. The US might need to decide whether it wants to elect a president for 4 years or a king for 4 years, because Trump says it's the latter.

IMO the judge will impose a sentence and trump will include Flynn among the over 50 pardons he issues in January, 2021.

[gowlerk 2,190]

8 hours ago, normiss said:

Not so fast here Mr. Traitor Flynn

Here we go with the "activist judges" attacks!

[Phil1111 1,149]

2 minutes ago, gowlerk said:

Here we go with the "activist judges" attacks!

You mean Turtle-attacks? Like  "This is a violation of the judicial oath and applicable ethical rules. We will be filing a complaint against Sullivan. ... [He] is acting as a politician, not a judge."

For certain trump will now be able to focus on the pandemic.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

2 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

You mean Turtle-attacks? Like  "This is a violation of the judicial oath and applicable ethical rules. We will be filing a complaint against Sullivan. ... [He] is acting as a politician, not a judge."

For certain trump will now be able to focus on the pandemic.

Amazing the difference and editorial postion can make.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-flynn-case-takes-unusual-step-allowing-3rd-party-briefs-n1205811

The "Justice" Dept abdicates it's role, so the judge is going to consider outside sources.

I'd bet pretty heavily that 'standing' will be important, as will qualifications as to which briefs are admitted. 

After all, something like 2000 former DOJ officials (from both sides) are opposed to the Justice Dept's actions.

Of course, Rand Paul got on Twitter and accused them of being the 'Deep State'.
You know, people who actually signed their names are part of a vast, anonymous conspiracy.

 

 

 

 

[jakee 1,489]

34 minutes ago, wolfriverjoe said:

Of course, Rand Paul got on Twitter and accused them of being the 'Deep State'.
You know, people who actually signed their names are part of a vast, anonymous conspiracy.

Haha, right. An anonymous conspiracy of such awesome power that they can... write a letter. That deep state sure is scary!

[JerryBaumchen 1,362]

19 minutes ago, jakee said:

Haha, right. An anonymous conspiracy of such awesome power that they can... write a letter. That deep state sure is scary!

Hi Jakee,

People like Rand Paul are scary.

Jerry Baumchen

PS)  Must be something in the water in Kentucky.

[Phil1111 1,149]

2 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Jakee,

People like Rand Paul are scary.

Jerry Baumchen

PS)  Must be something in the water in Kentucky.

Agree, the libertarian trump tea bagger.  He is for the right what AOC is for the left except AOC  is consistent in her views and frames her ideas logically.

Paul sounds like he is on crack. Ideas from every corner of the spectrum. He is trumpish in that regard, no reliable center of ideological thinking.

[ryoder 1,590]

3 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Jakee,

People like Rand Paul are scary.

Jerry Baumchen

PS)  Must be something in the water in Kentucky.

Rand Paul is just another former Republican who discarded all of his principles to become yet another invertebrate performing fellatio on Dear Leader at the holy altar of political power. 

[kallend 2,026]

Ah, Dr. Paul, the guy who knew he was exposed to the virus, got tested, and then WENT TO THE GYM before he got the (positive) test results.

Very smart guy, the sort of person you need pontificating on the nation's health.

[normiss 798]

Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan on Wednesday asked whether President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be held in contempt of court for perjury.

Sullivan also appointed a retired judge to look into Flynn's case and argue against the Department of Justice's request to dismiss it.

Sullivan appointed a retired judge, John Gleeson, to act, in court parlance, as a "friend of the court" or amicus curiae, presenting arguments to the judge "in opposition to the government's Motion to Dismiss" and on "whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury," the judge wrote.

 

Judge Sullivan is playing hardball.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

I hadn't heard anything about him prior to this, but a bit of research seems to show he's an 'old school' kind of judge. No nonsense, applies the law as he sees it to everyone. 

I have a funny feeling he's 'just a bit' pissed off at Barr, Trump & Flynn. His comments to Flynn show how seriously he took this. 

The other 'funny part of this is that I don't think Trump will pardon Flynn. Trump seemed surprised to find out that for a convicted person to accept a pardon means that they also admit guilt. The Arpaio pardon was his lesson on that.

 

Pardoning Flynn means admitting that he did what he did. By Flynn (who already pled guilty), but also by Trump. I simply can't see Trump's denial (and ego) allowing that.

[kallend 2,026]

William Barr recently told CBS News that F.B.I. agents had tried to “lay a perjury trap” in a 2017 interview with Flynn, during which he made the statements that eventually led to his guilty plea. But in a conversation with Justice Department lawyers just two days before they requested to drop the charges, Bill Priestap, the former head of F.B.I. counterintelligence who took notes during that interview, said this wasn’t true. When they moved to drop charges, Justice Department lawyers didn’t reveal that they had spoken to Priestap, or that he had disputed the idea that Flynn was set up. 

I suspect Judge Sullivan will not be amused.

[Phil1111 1,149]

10 hours ago, wolfriverjoe said:

...
The other 'funny part of this is that I don't think Trump will pardon Flynn. Trump seemed surprised to find out that for a convicted person to accept a pardon means that they also admit guilt. The Arpaio pardon was his lesson on that.

Pardoning Flynn means admitting that he did what he did. By Flynn (who already pled guilty), but also by Trump. I simply can't see Trump's denial (and ego) allowing that.

Come January a pardon will be the last real power left to trump. Spinning facts and denial has always superseded any moral compass or sense of wrongdoing.

I'm surprised that you came to this conclusion. Drinking, social isolation, or?

[DJL 235]

34 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

Come January a pardon will be the last real power left to trump. Spinning facts and denial has always superseded any moral compass or sense of wrongdoing.

Can you imagine what the Whitehouse will be like from Nov-Jan if Trump loses?  HE (Edited from "we") will not give a shit about the outcome of anything he does and will be surrounded by people who no longer want to risk their careers just to be replaced in a few months.  I'm going to guess he spends most of the time claiming the vote was illegal and poisoning the well for Biden any way he can.

Edited May 14, 2020 by DJL