Rancid Interference

 Posted by at 2:02 pm  Politics
Feb 242017
 

By rule, the White House may not interfere with DOJ investigations, including those conducted by the FBI.  This is especially true if the investigation involves the Resident, given the absence of a President, or any of his staff or associates.  Therefore, it’s most inappropriate that Trump’s Chief of Staff, Rancid Reince Priebus, tried to interfere with the FBI’s investigation of the many documented contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian Intelligence.

republican-liesLast week the New York Times reported that members of Donald Trump’s campaign staff "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. The White House vigorously denies this, and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus went on TV to knock down the story. That’s fine. But it turns out Priebus did more than that. According to CNN, Priebus asked the FBI to tell reporters that there was nothing to the story:

The discussions between the White House and the bureau began with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe1 and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on the sidelines of a separate White House meeting the day after the stories were published, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.

….[A] White House official said that Priebus later reached out again to McCabe and to FBI Director James Comey asking for the FBI to at least talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories.2 A law enforcement official says McCabe didn’t discuss aspects of the case but wouldn’t say exactly what McCabe told Priebus.

Comey rejected the request for the FBI to comment on the stories, according to sources, because the alleged communications between Trump associates and Russians known to US intelligence are the subject of an ongoing investigation.

I wonder if anyone in the Trump White House even understands how inappropriate this is?… [emphasis added]

from <Mother Jones>

Mother has much more.  Click through.  to answer the author’s last question, I have no doubt that Priebus knows how inappropriate it is. Unlike many in the Republican Reich, he is no newcomer to Washington.  Rancid Reince was head of the RNC from 2011 until he graduated to wiping Bannon’s butt, as the Fuhrer’s chief of staff, this year.

Chris Hayes covered the story well.

I agree.  Rancid Reince must be fired.

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 2/24/2017

 Posted by at 2:01 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 242017
 

I’m struggling through another very busy day.  It’s not so much that I have more to do than I did a year ago, as it is that my vision makes everything I do take much longer.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:53 (average 4:58).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): Donald Trump Must Go | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

I’ve never seen anyone present evidence so much like a machine gun.  I’ll summarize in two words. Amen!! RESIST!!

From Politico: House Republicans next week plan to derail a Democratic resolution that would have forced disclosure of President Donald Trump’s potential ties with Russia and any possible business conflicts of interest, according to multiple House sources.

Seeking to avoid a full House vote on the so-called “resolution of inquiry” — a roll call that would be particularly embarrassing and divisive for the right — Republicans will send proposal by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) to the House Judiciary Committee for a panel vote on Tuesday, two Democratic sources said. The GOP-controlled committee is expected to kill the resolution.

Without committee action, obscure parliamentary procedures would allow Democrats to call the resolution to the floor for a vote by the full House. But rejection by the Judiciary panel all but assures the measure will never see a floor vote.

Here is a list of House Judiciary Committee members. If one is from your state, please demand approval. RESIST!!

From NY Times: Reduced to their weakest state in a generation, Democratic Party leaders will gather in two cities this weekend to plot strategy and select a new national chairman with the daunting task of rebuilding the party’s depleted organization. But senior Democratic officials concede that the blueprint has already been chosen for them — by an incensed army of liberals demanding no less than total war against President Trump.

Immediately after the November election, Democrats were divided over how to handle Mr. Trump, with one camp favoring all-out confrontation and another backing a seemingly less risky approach of coaxing him to the center with offers of compromise.

Now, spurred by explosive protests and a torrent of angry phone calls and emails from constituents — and outraged themselves by Mr. Trump’s swift moves to enact a hard-line agenda — Democrats have all but cast aside any notion of conciliation with the White House. Instead, they are mimicking the Republican approach of the last eight years — the “party of no” — and wagering that brash obstruction will pay similar dividends.

To do otherwise would be suicidal. RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0224Cartoon

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Voter Suppression

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Politics
Feb 232017
 

Most Republicans know that, whether through Russian intervention or laws to prevent qualified voters from voting, that they lose honest elections and therefore, must resort to dishonest tactics to win.  Usually they make up lies about things like voter fraud to excuse their voter suppression, but once in a while they goof and admit the truth.

GOPvotingMontana’s Republican Party chairman has sounded the alarm against efforts to the conduct an all-mail ballot election to replace Congressman Ryan Zinke.

In an email to party members, Jeff Essmann warned Republicans the mail-in election would “give the Democrats an inherent advantage in close elections due to their ability to organize large numbers of unpaid college students and members of public employee unions to gather ballots by going door to door.”

At issue is state Senate Bill 503, which would require a mail ballot election this spring when Montanans are likely to vote to replace U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican nominated by President Donald Trump to be Interior secretary. The Senate is expected to vote on Zinke’s confirmation next week. A special election would follow within 85 to 100 days.

The warning evoked responses that Essmann, who is also a state House representative from Billings, is trying to suppress the vote…

From <The Billings Gazette>

Rachel Maddow covered he issue in two segments.  In the first she provides background and introduces the issue.

In the second she discusses it with Democratic Governor Steve Bullock.

I have experienced Oregon’s vote by mail.  I have nothing but praise for it.  As long as Republicans fear honest elections, we may still reap benefits, when we

RESIST!!

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Open Thread – 2/23/2017

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 232017
 

It’s another day, and I’m so busy, that I’m putting twos pounds of kitty crunches in a one pound box, as usual!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:23 (average 5:27).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel): The Intel Community and the Slow Death of Trump’s Presidency | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

If Keith is accurate, and it appears that he is, may the IC bring the Fuhrer down quickly, with more leaks than a Russian hooker.  RESIST!!

From All In: Michael Moore explains how to stop Donald Trump

Activist and Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore joins Chris Hayes to talk about his ten point plan on how to stop Donald Trump.

 

Moore makes a crucial point. No Republican should ever get the opportunity to run unopposed. We have never had a greater opportunity to sweep Republicans from power.  RESIST!!

From The New Yorker: An overwhelming majority of Americans say that their lives have improved since Kellyanne Conway went away, a new poll finds.

According to the poll, Americans have been sleeping more, eating better, and enjoying a markedly greater sense of well-being following Conway’s sudden departure.

“I had lost my zest for life,” Carol Foyler, a poll respondent, said. “Now that Kellyanne Conway is gone, I greet every day with a smile, I feel my energy coming back, and I want to have sex again.”

Across the nation, medical professionals have reported striking improvements in patients’ mental health since the White House counsellor vanished, a phenomenon some doctors are calling the Conway Effect.

It is less like Faux Noise, since was banned from doing press interviews, Andy. I suspect that the Fuhrer has Kellyanne Consensual performing …um… other duties.  RESIST!!

Cartoon:

0223Cartoon

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The Price of Integrity

 Posted by at 1:46 pm  Politics
Feb 222017
 

Few situations are more difficult than the dilemma faced by career nonpartisan employees in federal service, as Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten and the incompetents and extremists in his Republican Reich are ripping to shreds everything those employees have spent their careers building.  What can one do?  The price of integrity is high.  Just ask Ned Price.

0222NedPrice

A longtime Central Intelligence Agency analyst is speaking out on his decision to resign, after more than a decade of service, because of the Trump administration.

"Despite working proudly for Republican and Democratic presidents, I reluctantly concluded that I cannot in good faith serve this administration as an intelligence professional,” Ned Price, a former intelligence analyst and National Security Council spokesman, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday.

Price, who worked in the agency under President George W. Bush and President Obama, said he did not make the decision lightly.

"There was no greater reward than having my analysis presented to the president and seeing it shape events. Intelligence informing policy — this is how the system is supposed to work,”… [emphasis added]

From <The Hill>

I encourage you to click through to Price’s op-ed and read his entire statement.

Ned appeared with Rachel Maddow to discuss his decision.

He escaped with his integrity.  Since he is expressing a desire for public service, he might consider running for public office.

There must be many thousand more federal workers facing the same dilemma.  I hope they have the integrity to quit as well.  If liberals ever force Republicans out, I believe people like Price would be welcomed back.

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Open Thread – 2/22/2017

 Posted by at 1:46 pm  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Feb 222017
 

I’m feeling a bit better today.  I’m waiting for Store to Door to arrive.  Depending on which driver comes, they  will either get here soon or in about 2 1/2 hours.  Wendy is coming this evening to fleece and degrease the sweaty TomCat and to dine on chili dogs… That was sooner than I thought.  Store to Door has come and gone, and I have my groceries stowed.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:49 (average 5:10).  To do it, click here.  How did you do?

Short Takes:

From YouTube (GQ Channel):  The Mistake Trump Can’t Ever Walk Back | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann

 

Trump is already attacking all the other freedoms listed in the First Amendment. Keith’s questions must be thrown in Republican politicians’ and pundits’ faces at least hourly. RESIST!

From Daily Kos: All those everyday working stiffs who think they have a friend in Trump need to spend a minute listening to him talk to the $200k a seat members of his club.

“So, this is my real group,” Trump said at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, on November 18, according to the audiotape. “These are the people that came here in the beginning, when nobody knew what this monster was gonna turn out to be, right?”

And for his “real group” Trump makes some special invitations that he wasn’t handing out to the small crowd he gathered at a Florida airport.

"We’re doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything,” Trump told the crowd, according to an audiotape of his closed-to-the-press remarks, obtained by POLITICO from a source in the room. “You may wanna come around. It’ll be fun. We’re really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government."

Come on down! Watch us play National Security Advisor Apprentice! It’ll be fun!

These billionaires and Alt-Right Nazis are who the Fuhrer represents. RESIST!!

From AL.com: The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee will begin preparing for a possible impeachment trial of Gov. Robert Bentley in the Senate, Chairman Cam Ward said today.

Ward said he planned to appoint two Democrats and two Republicans to a subcommittee on Wednesday to write a draft set of rules for how the Senate would conduct an impeachment trial.

Ward said he does not expect the House to impeach Bentley.

"We need to make sure we’re organized and prepared to deal with whatever happens," he said.

The subcommittee’s draft would be subject to approval by the Judiciary Committee, and then would go to the full Senate for approval.

If they impeach the corrupt Love Gov., Luther Strange, the criminal AG that traded favoritism to Bentley for his Senate seat, will probably lose his post too. RESIST!!

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Reich v. Reich on Tax Plan

 Posted by at 1:24 pm  Politics
Feb 202017
 

The Republican Reich has a new "populist" tax plan, which they claim is designed to keep and create more jobs in the US.  To someone, who has not dug down and considered the actual effects, it even looks fairly good.  But once I considered what the plan will really do, I felt amazed at just how sneaky-evil  Republicans can be.  Fortunately, you don't have to trust me.  Robert Reich takes on the Republican Reich for us.

reich

Watch your wallets. Republicans are pushing a new corporate tax plan that will end up costing most of you a bundle. Here’s what you should know about the so-called “border adjustment tax."

The U.S. imports about $2.7 trillion worth of goods a year. Many imports are cheap because labor costs are much lower in places like Southeast Asia.

Our current tax code taxes corporations on their profits. So, for example, when Wal-Mart buys t-shirts from Vietnam for $10 and sells them for $13, Wal-Mart is only taxed on that $3 of profit.

But under the new Republican tax plan, Wal-Mart would be taxed on the full price of imported items, so in this case the full $13 sale price of that t-shirt. As a result of this tax, Wall Street analysts expect retail prices in the U.S. to rise as much as 15 percent…

From <Robert Reich>

 

In short, poor and middle class shoppers pay more for their goods, and the tax is distributed to billionaires, who use it to increase automation for exports, increasing their own wealth, but creating few, if any jobs.  Republicans plan to tax YOU for welfare for billionaires.

RESIST!!

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