Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

This is where I am from Charles Cooke:

David [French] writes:s

The CENTRAL, KEY, DRIVING FORCE, WHATEVER assertions against PDJT were definitively and absolutely destroyed.

The rest is pretty much what we already knew. It is a HUGE win for PDJT. And that certainly says a lot about him that merely being generally despicable is a huge win. But it is. Given the preposterous fucking assertions that have been piling up for 2 years -- it's a HUGE WIN.

[Dr. Strangelove]

If Trump could control his moods and temper there would never have been a Special Counsel investigation and there never would have been a Part II to this Report. The FBI would've found a portion of what's in Part 1 and have been done with it. Folks can argue all they want that he was within his rights to fire Comey, AND HE WAS, but that's a different argument than saying it was a smart move. Even Republicans started calling for a special counsel once he fired Comey. The official explanation of "I fired him for his mishandling of the Clinton investigation", which stressed how Comey had been unfair to Hillary, wasn't believed by anyone with a functional brain.

And as I like to repeat, Kushner was the 'big brain' advising him to make that move. Convinced President Deals that Democrats would applaud the firing of Comey if given the "he was mean to Hillary" excuse.

[iam416]

I don't disagree with that. There are a number of different ways you can come at this. I think the most fundamental way is to highlight by and far and away the central conclusion of the Mueller Report. The rest of it is tangential. On the right, you can cast the whole thing in pejorative terms, as I've done. On the left, you can say he brought it on himself. On the right you can emphasize that he had the authority to do whatever he wanted w/ Comey or SC and, yet, the investigation was exhaustive and thorough and produced a report in kind. On the left you can emphasize his habitual lying and poor judgment.

Everything after the the fundamental conclusion is partisan noise. The fundamental conclusion is the forest, not the trees. No evidence of collusion.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Sure. No collusion. Big win for Trump in a legal sense (though he's probably got different legal problems on the horizon). Politically, there are only a couple dozen people in all of America who can be persuaded to change their minds about Trump at this point, so the Mueller Report will end up largely forgotten in 3-4 weeks time. I'm partisan, sure, so is everyone here. I also happen to think it's realistic. More realistic than the goobers predicting that we'll now launch massive investigations into Comey, McCabe, Hillary (again!), etc. and the public will be so overcome with joy that they'll not only reelect Trump but also sweep the Republicans back into control of the House.

Unrelated funny thought, no matter who the Dem nominee is, is there a good chance Trump will run more against Hillary/Omar than his actual opponent? Because they make for better foils?

[crashcourse]

whomever the dem nominee is will have plenty of baggage for trump to pick apart.

trump and his adolescent presence does do well with debates and subjects that may have been off limits in the past are back on the table. immigration, socialism and the commnts of many of these candidates in regards to jews, jussie, Covington kids, kavanaugh etc will be fodder at the debates. as well trumps stupid comments.
just have to see if the American public likes its economy and fears its borders and trust trumps medical plan enough to relect him. they could give a shit less about the rest

[Dr. Strangelove]

Unless the economy falters between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020, Trump should be considered the favorite to win reelection. Even if 60% of the country says they don't like him.

[Ghengis Jon]

Then bring on the crash. Short term pain for long term gain.

[Kapture1]

Unless the economy falters between Summer 2019 and Summer 2020, Trump should be considered the favorite to win reelection. Even if 60% of the country says they don't like him.

he has to be in the 43-45% fallibility range to win



there are those on the right that don't like him that will vote for him. Shapiro is one that didn't vote for him in 2016 but already stated in between his daily Trump bashing, that he will vote for him in 2020, not that it matters in CA, but you know, muh popular vote.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Talent- Congo is on Amazon Prime.

You're welcome

[Kapture1]

Lake Erie

[Kapture1]

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, first off, "attempt" counts in obstruction. But "attempt" usually involves efforts by someone who has, more or less, done what they could but failed. I'll reiterate -- we're talking about the motherfucking POTUS. He's in charge. He can do whatever he wants. He can appoint someone who will do exactly as they're told. If he REALLY wanted Mueller out, then Mueller would have been out. What we happened was that we ended up with a 400+ report, hundreds of witness interviews, voluminous investigatory facts gathered over 2 years despite the fact that the Most Powerful Man in the Free World wanted it ended -- heh. Right.

That's also setting aside the issue of whether exercising valid powers can be obstruction. Again, we typically think of bribes, threats, etc. This is just a matter of the President exercising his authority. Or not exercising it. I mean, every time he fires someone at DOJ that's interferes with an investigation in some way.

Finally, to answer the question DSL has posed -- IMO, it's ALWAYS permissible for the President to exercise his proper authority. The Constitutional response to the President opting to terminate an investigation of relevance is for Congress to act. Congress has subpoena power. As Mueller's Report said, he's not going to indict a sitting President ever, so the question is a political one -- for Congress (and the voters).

My personal view, as legally competent as it is not, is that Trump most likely hasn't come close to what Nixon did during the Watergate Investigation to obstruct it. If that's the standard then Trump most likely fails to reach it. End of story, except for the point everyone on both sides of this has made ........ now it's political.

I question the value of the House Judiciary Committee's continued evaluation of the Mueller Report as a means of determining if there is a basis for indicting the president (beginning impeachment proceedings) for obstruction of justice ...... forget it, there's not going to be. From what we know, PDJT did not obstruct to the level that Nixon did. I think talent makes the point that firing Comey is within his constitutional authority to do. Same with Sessions. Trying to get rid of Mueller? That's in a gray area as far as I'm concerned but I think going on to determine if Trump might have bribed, directed people in the employ of the federal government and subordinate to him to lie, misuse the FBI, the CIA and the IRS to facilitate his objectives, all of the shit that Nixon actually did do and then some, is a huge waste of time, distracts Congress from legislating and unnecessarily weakens the president.

I'll reiterate, I also think an effort to do that is going to hurt the Democrats in 2020. The R's will turn the Democrat's lemons into lemonade. I agree that if the economy continues to build through November of 2020, if the R's can come up with a decent health care program to replace or modify the ACA, Trump's chances for re-election are going to be pretty good even though a lot of voters don't like him.

Given that I support his ME policy, am willing to see how trade deals that his administration has shit-canned work out, think NK is ultimately going to accede to some sort of verifiable denuclearization, the D's are going to have to come up with a candidate a whole lot different than any of the clowns within the D party that have already announced and actually have a chance to win the D nomination. I'd have to take a close look at Joe Biden, if he runs ..... I mean when he runs. But if he tries to soft sell any of the crazy leftist shit that is creeping it's way into the D party, even paying lip-service to it, I'll hold my nose for the person and go with Trump's policies in the election booth.

[iam416]

Talent- Congo is on Amazon Prime.

5* sass

[Kapture1]

tendered their resignations and will serve their last days on the job in May.

[Dr. Strangelove]

5* sass

Thanks.

After posting that I started thinking: I can remember Ernie Hudson from that. Tim Curry. Hell, I even remember Bruce Campbell dies in the first 3 minutes. Could not remember for the life of me who plays the two leads.