johnzo

Here's a thing that's not about Trump that may be pertinent to Manitobans who are in farming / agriculture. Nebraska and Minnesota and several other states are pushing "right to repair" laws that requires manufacturers to make repair documentation and tools available to their customers. This has been precipitated by John Deere, who purposefully design their equipment so that it can't be repaired in the field. In order to operate John Deere equipment, you are obligated to have it serviced by official John Deere people. This is super lucrative for John Deere, but is a giant pain in the ass for farmers who need to run their gear 24x7 during the busy times of year -- the time of year when everyone needs service and John Deere's service people are spread thin. Lobbyists for John Deere and tech companies like Apple have descended upon Nebraska to try and kill the law. Apple doesn't want people opening up their stuff either. This is the rare case where I'm rooting for Republicans -- the Nebraska government is Republican and is representing the interests of its constituency over the interests of big multinationals. If this happens in Nebraska and survives the inevitable flurry of lawsuits, the entire USA will become more free. So, yay Nebraska Republicans! more at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/industry-and-apple-opposing-right-to-repair-laws/

What do you see as the real agenda? (honest question. there's so much going on right now. I have my own thoughts about the bedrock principles and goals of the Trump administration, but curious to hear if others are on the same wavelength.)

Who did they think they'd find with an open tryout in a Canadian city? Could there be national cfl-level players flying under the radar? Seems unlikely.

The House intelligence committee is going to hold public hearings into Trump/Russia. First one is on March 20th. The directors of the FBI, NSA and the former directors of DNI and the CIA will be testifying under oath. That's interesting that the intelligence committee would hold public hearings, especially with high-powered guys like that testifying. Not sure if it's precedented or not. I wonder how many questions they will decline to answer on account of national security. I've heard that Sally Yeates will also be called to testify -- she was briefly the acting attorney general before getting fired for refusing to enforce the first Muslim ban. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/07/house-intelligence-committee-to-hold-open-public-hearing-on-russia-probe-on-march-20-rep-nunes-says.html

For anyone tempted to take Trump's tweeting seriously: ...then, six weeks later... Jason Chaffetz is a Republican leader in the House, he chairs the Oversight committee, and could investigate this if he wanted to.

Yeah, it's an article of faith in the GOP that being poor (like being gay) is a choice that people freely make.

This is why it's so frustrating to me to hear people say that all the US parties are the same. The Dems are frustrating in tons of ways, but they aren't trying to engineer society into a Hobbesian eighties action movie.

Yes, of course it is okay to have meetings with people. It is not okay to meet with them so you can conspire to break the law. I don't know whether the law was broken, but I think that there is ample grounds for suspicion. I've laid out a bunch of the specific oddities that have raised questions, and they go far beyond "a guy met with a guy." Like, for instance, how did Roger Stone know in September about the Podesta email drops in October? What was up with that? Why did Manafort lie about his Ukranian millions? Why did Sessions immediately deny meeting with the Russians when that wasn't even the question that Franken asked? What in hell is Carter Page's deal and why was he trying so hard to get himself subpoena'd on MSNBC last night? Why are intelligence committee Republicans calling for special prosecutors? Why are Republicans now calling for Trump to open up his tax returns? It's probably not super useful to reiterate all this, because you've got your worldview and your team and your dank talking points, but whatever.

^ photo is fourteen years old ^ As far as I know, Schumer has not exhibited a pattern of Russian collusion since 2003, when this photo was taken.

A fourth string QB jumps to a better situation and you want to change the rules to stop him? C'mon, man, that's just silly -- as is the idea that we would've passed on the Fever if only we'd still had Bennett's rights.

My wife (an attorney) thinks that Page is trying to get himself subpoenaed, with his "I know something that I can't talk about!" game.

Wow. And now CNN is reporting that Trump Campaign national security advisor J.D. Gordon, plus Sessions and several other Trump people, met with the Russian ambassador during the GOP national convention. Shortly afterwards, Gordon and others, acting on Trump's instructions, fought successfully to soften pro-Ukraine anti-Russian language in the Republican platform. These were the only changes that Trump's people requested in the Republican platform. (Compare that to the Democratic platform, which the Clinton and Sanders people wrestled over for weeks.) On top of that -- last year, during the campaign, Paul Manafort expressly denied that the Trump campaign was responsible for the change in the GOP Ukraine policy. And the White House has strenuously denied that the campaign had any Russian contacts. Why can't they keep their story straight? (the Gordon reporting is based on a conversation with Gordon himself, not on a leak from within the government, which is why I find this super noteworthy. This story is moving out of the shadow realm of leaks and into the stage lights of the news networks.)

(oh, and meanwhile, the proposed Trump EPA budget cuts Great Lakes restoration funds from $300MM to $10MM. As someone who grew up in Thunder Bay, this makes me pretty personally mad, though being at the upper end of the watershed, we won't feel it as bad there as they will down east. Anyone old enough to remember what Lake Ontario looked like in the seventies? Remember that scene in Paddle to the Sea where the little canoe guy floats past all the giant outflow pipes? That was when Lake Ontario was North America's septic pond.)

Then why have prominent Republicans resigned from the Trump campaign and the Trump administration in the wake of those meetings? Why did Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lie about receiving $12MM from Putin's Ukrainian stooge? Why did Flynn tell different stories about his Russian meetings all over town, and then why didn't Trump stand by Manafort and Flynn when the mean ol' Democrats (who control precisely zero percent of the US government) called for their heads? Why did Sessions recuse himself when his boss publicly expressed full confidence in him? These are all proud, powerful men operating close to the apex of power in the USA, and they are being bullied about innocuous meetings, which seems odd. And most notably, why are other Republicans calling for investigations and special prosecutors? Alas, a Claire McCaskill twitter boner doesn't magic all that smoke away.

Also, this gem from the recusal press conference: heh.

Me too. It's not outside the realm of possibility that this is some deep weird conspiracy intended to dismantle the Trump administration. There's no public smoking-gun evidence. Everything is a leak. But ... Manafort resigns. Flynn walks the plank. Sessions runs away from the investigation. Trump is a guy who prizes loyalty, why are all his guys being cast aside like that? Why are the Senate, the House, and the FBI all investigating? What's under all that smoke? Is it a burning dumpster full of tires or just a guy who doesn't know how to cook his steak? Where I stand is that these claims need to investigated fully and fairly by someone who isn't a partisan hack, if such a unicorn exists. And in past administrations, the bar for investigating the administration and/or its officials, was not terribly high, so that doesn't seem like a lot to ask. This is the standard partisan hack response to this stuff. "It's just the DNC causing trouble." Respectfully, this is a pretty dumb thing to say. Remember that the DNC are the people who can't keep their email secure and who lost to a complete buffoon ... and yet somehow they are masterminding a giant conspiracy aimed at taking down an entire administration. Even more strangely, that administration is playing along by firing and dismissing their targets, instead of standing by them. Stranger yet: prominent repubs like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Jason Chaffetz, Darrell Issa, Marco Rubio, and the Bush 43 White House counsel have all called for an independent prosecutor to get to the bottom of this Russia stuff. These people are not quite the kind of people who can be relied upon to stand beside the DNC during its troubled times. Chaffetz was the November Surprise email guy, remember? Furthermore, any kind of stress they put on the Trump administration endangers the passage of the GOP tax and healthcare agenda. I suppose it's possible that these republicans have been replaced with convincingly human drone units ... they could be piloted from the DNC helicarrier, or from Harry Reid's secret desert fortress....

Sessions has recused himself from any DoJ Trump campaign / Russia investigations.

There were a couple exchanges re: Russia during Sessions' confirmation hearings. FRANKEN: If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? SESSIONS: Senator Franken, I’m not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it. Note how Sessions doesn't even answer Franken's question, he just straight-out jumps into a denial that he personally had communications with the Russians. There's some bad optics!

The issue isn't whether Russian interference changed the outcome of the election. No one can assert that. The issue is that there is evidence mounting that the Trump campaign conspired to receive aid from the Russian government during the election, and that the Trump government may be compromised in its dealings with Russia due to that. I am not a political science major, so correct me on this, but I do believe that most governments have laws discouraging their leaders from being personally indebted to foreign powers. Note that there's enough fire to the Sessions story for Republican leaders to be calling for Sessions to recuse himself from further investigation. Jason Chaffetz, the chair of the House Oversight committee and a member of the Justice committee .. he's the guy who ringmastered the eight fruitless Benghazi investigations, so you know he's a pretty devout Republican ... he is telling Sessions to step aside. If all the Russia stuff is a big nothingburger then why are GOPers admonishing their own?

Sessions' story is migrating all over the place -- first he didn't meet with the Russians, and then maybe he did, but he didn't remember, and then, yes he did, as an armed services committee member. At first, he didn't remember what he and the Russian ambassador talked about, then he remembered it was only superficial things. First they talked on the phone, then they met at his Senate office. C'mon people. At least get your story straight before you take it public. "Random and evasive" is not the look of innocence.

I suspect the latest leak is gonna blow the "oh but he so presidential!!1" story away, and I suspect it was timed just so it would do that.

Latest WaPo leak: Atty General Sessions had contacts with Russian ambassador during the Trump campaign. (Sessions was a surrogate and insider on that campaign.) This complicates things because under normal circumstances, Sessions' FBI is the bunch that would investigate all the Russia stuff. I would like to learn soon whether this is just spooks ******* with an idiot boss or whether we're gonna get into some real hot scandal action. You know the House really really really really doesn't want to investigate their president. Which is probably just as well, considering how useless their repeated investigations of HRC were.

All you people who are down on Richards, who should we bring to training camp instead? Names, please. heh.

It's definitely a horror movie.

We saw Get Out. It was good!