Tracker

I stand by my speculation that Walters and O'Shea put themselves out there as the bad guys so that LaPolice would not be seen as refusing to go for a head coach interview in that steaming mess in Regina. That would be a class move by Bomber brass to save LaPolice's rep.

Judging based on what has been made public so far, the new book “Team of Vipers” by former communications aide to President Donald Trump Cliff Sims paints a devastating portrait of a vicious, opportunistic White House full of selfish and contemptible people. In a new excerpt printed in Vanity Fair, Sims details a darkly revealing account of one of the administration’s most notorious figures: Kellyanne Conway. His description of her is unrelenting: "Her agenda—which was her survival over all others, including the president—became more and more transparent. Once you figured that out, everything about her seemed so calculated; every statement, even a seemingly innocuous one, seemed poll-tested by a focus group that existed inside her mind. She seemed to be peren­nially cloaked in an invisible fur coat, casting an all-­knowing smile, as if she’d collected 98 Dalmatians with only 3 more to go." But Sims doesn’t just describe her in a negative light. He also accuses her of being one of the White House’s most prolific leakers — in an administration that has been known for its leaks. Sims said he discovered Conway’s leaking through a careless move on her part. While he was working in her office on her laptop — at her direction — she was also texting with multiple reporters, he explained, texts that kept popping up on the computer he was using. Sims wrote: "Over the course of 20 minutes or so, she was having simultaneous conversations with no fewer than a half­-dozen reporters, most of them from outlets the White House frequently trashed for publishing “fake news.” Jour­nalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, and Bloomberg were all popping up on the screen. And these weren’t policy conversations, or attempts to fend off attacks on the president. As I sat there trying to type, she bashed Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer, all by name."

More Turmoil In Trumpland: New reports reveal that Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who has been working pro bono as President Donald Trump's lawyer amidst the Robert Mueller investigation, is losing the faith of the president. The underlying issue seems to be that Giuliani's statements in interviews wind up undermining the president's positions as he faces legal peril and even creates news controversies of their own. The president was livid when Giuliani said over the weekend that Trump had been involved in discussions about building a Trump Tower in Moscow right up until the end of the 2016 presidential election, according to Politico. Although most of the White House shares Trump's frustration with Giuliani and believes that his public misstatements have caused unnecessary headaches, the president still sees value in Giuliani's ability to attack Mueller and congressional Democrats and thereby turn what might otherwise be a strictly legal battle into a political one.

I thought "disgruntled" was what happened when a pig was retired.

What?!?! You mean to say that its too early to panic??? I was all set to start running in circles and crying.

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

Rudy Giuliani can’t keep his story straight as he tries to defend President Donald Trump’s increasingly suspicious entanglement with Russia. Just last week, Giuliani raised red flags when he signaled that members of Trump’s campaign might have, after all, colluded with the Russian government as a part of its efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. He claimed that this wasn’t a change from his previous claims of “no collusion,” but it was. He then tried to backpedal from his new claim, saying he wasn’t aware of any collusion by the campaign. Then, after a bombshell BuzzFeed News report said that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had evidence Trump directed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, Giuliani slammed the report, and Mueller issued a vague response calling parts of the story “not accurate.” This seemed like a major boon for the Trump team — they quickly used it to attack the media and its Russia reporting more generally. But on Sunday, Giuliani ended up bolstering the BuzzFeed report by saying that Trump may have spoken to Cohen about his congressional testimony before it happed — testimony which Cohen later admitted was a criminal lie — and said, “And so what if he talked to him about it?” Of course, the problem is that if the president knew Cohen was going to give intentionally false testimony, he could be complicit in the crime and possibly guilty on a similar charge. In light of these facts, Giuliani changed his story yet again on Monday, telling the New York Daily News, “The president never spoke with Cohen about the congressional testimony.” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, told the Daily News that it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if Trump and Cohen’s lawyers had contact ahead of the testimony, as Giuliani now claims. “But it would be highly unusual for those attorneys to discuss potential false testimony by Cohen and do nothing to stop Cohen or correct the record, given that it would be unethical and potentially criminal,” Mariotti told the outlet. “The question, then, is whether they discussed the false testimony in advance and knew at the time that it was false.” Mariotti added on Twitter: “That didn’t take long. [Giuliani] already walked back his suggestion that Trump discussed Cohen’s false testimony to Congress with him in advance.” And with regard to the actual negotiations with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign to build a Trump Tower Moscow, the narrative is evolving and contradictory as well. On Sunday, we learned this: The Trump Tower Moscow discussions were “going on from the day I announced to the day I won,” Mr. Giuliani quoted Mr. Trump as saying during an interview with The New York Times. But on Monday, Giuliani had completed reversed himself without acknowledging the contradiction: "My recent statements about discussions during the 2016 campaign between Michael Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump about a potential Trump Moscow ‘project’ were hypothetical and not based on conversations I had with the President. My comments did not represent the actual timing or circumstances of any such discussions. The point is that the proposal was in the earliest stage and did not advance beyond a free non-binding letter of intent." Giuliani also raised a new red flag on Monday, telling CNN that Trump’s legal team reached out to Mueller’s office after the BuzzFeed report was published but before the response had been issued — raising questions about whether Trump inappropriately intervened in the investigation’s operations. All of this raises serious questions about the BuzzFeed report that, while it is now being treated with high levels of skepticism due to the special counsel’s statement, is still being defended by the news organization. Why would Giuliani suggest that Trump was indeed in contact with Cohen about the testimony, and then quickly backtrack? Why would he reveal that he was apparently trying to influence that special counsel’s reaction to the story, even when this looks to be on its face inappropriate? Why is Trump still unable to answer basic questions about Trump Tower Moscow? It remains difficult to accept the BuzzFeed article as a whole — but Giuliani’s scattershot reaction and shifting story suggest that it’s still worth taking seriously.

Well, you could be exceptionally mediocre....

And he's only get better!

Well, all the noise around this is good publicity, but I do wonder if LaPolice looked at the steam pile in Regina and decided that wasn't for any sane person. However, the optics of refusing to interview for a head coaching position wouldn't look good, so maybe he asked O'Shea and Walters to pose as the bad guys.

And if you cannot recognize your limitations, just ask your wife.

That is my take.

NBC News reported Ken Dilanian pointed out: “To be clear: Mueller is not disputing that Cohen says Trump told him to lie. He’s disputing the line about corroborating evidence taken from Trump Org emails, texts, etc. Still a huge deal. But not a total refutation. In fact, Cohen’s 11/30 memo says Trump directed him to lie.”

Trump is practicing the gesture of the empty hand- wherein something "big" is promised with great fanfare and then when nothing materializes, it is hoped that the hype will be remembered rather than the lie. Its worked for him with his rabid base so far.

Sex involves other people?

'Cuz peanut butter causes a lot of problems.

I hope that Jones left a case of water-based personal lubricant behind because the Riders are screwed for the upcoming season at least.

Not necessarily. These are the same people who still believe that Obama was born in Kenya and is a secret Muslim, and invaded a hapless pizza parlour armed to the teeth on the belief that Hillary was operating a pedophile ring out of a non-existent basement there. There will be some reasonably sane supporters who have seen or will see the massive scam they bought into and fade away but more than half of those who claim to be Republicans would be quite ok with the imposition of a right-wing/ "Christian)" dictatorship in the US. Both the right wing and fundamentalist "Christians" subscribe to the "trust and obey" dictates and delegate their morality to others. You may want to look into the Stanford Project some time.

I am stunned that Trump has ordered some federal employees to report to work without being paid. Firstly, some of these "essential services workers" are those tasked with issuing petroleum exploration permits- hardly "essential". Secondly, I'm pretty sure that being ordered to work without payment under threat is a classic definition of slavery. How can the American courts countenance this?

Oh, yes he has. Hang in awhile longer.

oh, Lord. Please, no.

It would be interesting to watch both of them with their walkers.

Not a lot of data on Jones, and Briggs is huge but slow. Looks like 300 lbs is now the minimum weight for import O-linemen.

Apart from the legalities, Durant would have been better than anyone else the Riders had behind center this past season. But that's a pretty low bar.

The Riders and Durant deserve each other. Good riddance. If the Bombers can get a cheese Whopper and fries, they should go for it.