US Politics

[Tracker]

Putin World Declares ‘Our Agent Trump’ Is Irreversibly Screwed
‘THEY FOUND EVERYTHING’

Concerns are swirling within the Kremlin and splashing onto the screens of Russia’s tightly controlled state media. Moscow’s grueling invasion of Ukraine and Washington’s potential designation of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism are at the top of the list—but the upcoming U.S. elections are likewise causing some heart palpitations.

Having recovered from their initial shock over the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Russian experts and pundits started to dismiss it as much ado about nothing, albeit a convenient tale they could use to smear American democracy. Now they’re singing a different tune. In the most recent broadcast of the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, host Vladimir Solovyov remarked, “I’m very worried for our agent Trump. They found everything at Mar-a-Lago, they got packages of documents. In all seriousness, they say he should be executed as a person that was ready to hand off nuclear secrets to Russia.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-declares-our-agent-donald-trump-is-irreversibly-screwed?ref=home

[HardCoreBlue]

27 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Putin World Declares ‘Our Agent Trump’ Is Irreversibly Screwed
‘THEY FOUND EVERYTHING’

Concerns are swirling within the Kremlin and splashing onto the screens of Russia’s tightly controlled state media. Moscow’s grueling invasion of Ukraine and Washington’s potential designation of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism are at the top of the list—but the upcoming U.S. elections are likewise causing some heart palpitations.

Having recovered from their initial shock over the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Russian experts and pundits started to dismiss it as much ado about nothing, albeit a convenient tale they could use to smear American democracy. Now they’re singing a different tune. In the most recent broadcast of the state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, host Vladimir Solovyov remarked, “I’m very worried for our agent Trump. They found everything at Mar-a-Lago, they got packages of documents. In all seriousness, they say he should be executed as a person that was ready to hand off nuclear secrets to Russia.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-media-declares-our-agent-donald-trump-is-irreversibly-screwed?ref=home

According to Eric Trump, the brains of the outfit, it’s just newspaper clippings of important events he kept.

[JCon]

It's always great day when a Cheney loses, considering how many people their responsible for murdering around the world. Plus the untold hardship they've cause. But, it's tempered by the fact the whack job coming in will be so much worse. 

Good thing about these Trumper morons is that they lack the ability to write coherent legislation, so not much happens. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

The really troubling thing for the GOP is that even though they parroted Trump’s lies, most of the old guard Republicans did not truly believe the election was stolen. But the new generation of Trump-endorsed candidates who are winning these primaries actually do believe it. 

[do or die]

21 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

The really troubling thing for the GOP is that even though they parroted Trump’s lies, most of the old guard Republicans did not truly believe the election was stolen. But the new generation of Trump-endorsed candidates who are winning these primaries actually do believe it. 

A lot of them old guard Republicans have turned out to be moral cowards.....

[Tracker]

As Many As 6 Current Employees Could Be Informing To The FBI On Trump

The New York Times:

Mr. Philbin is among eight people who currently or used to work for Mr. Trump who have been contacted by the F.B.I. since a grand jury was formed this year. Investigators also interviewed Derek Lyons, a former White House staff secretary.

Mr. Lyons’s last day at the White House was Dec. 18, 2020, meaning he did not know how the last boxes were packed as Mr. Trump prepared to leave. But he had information about paper flow in the White House and how the former president handled material.
The F.B.I. has reached out to about a half-dozen people who currently work for Mr. Trump and who might know what documents he may still have in his possession.

Trump and Republicans are desperate to find out who informed on Trump to the FBI, but there may be more than one informant, and people who work for Donald Trump still appear to be talking to law enforcement.

Donald Trump is worried about informants, phones being bugged, and people wearing wires, but the downside of making his post-presidential home at a golf club is that there are lots of people around all of the time. Given the size of Mar-a-Lago,  and Trump’s recklessness with classified info, there are potentially a large number of witnesses for the FBI to speak to.

The fact that law enforcement continues to be concerned that Trump might still be in possession of classified information is an important development, but instead of looking for one informant, there may be as many as half a dozen.

[do or die]

52 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

According to Eric Trump, the brains of the outfit, it’s just newspaper clippings of important events he kept.

The terms "brains" and "Eric Trump" are completely contradictory.....

[johnzo]

1 hour ago, JCon said:

It's always great day when a Cheney loses, considering how many people their responsible for murdering around the world. Plus the untold hardship they've cause. But, it's tempered by the fact the whack job coming in will be so much worse.

I have respect for Cheney's stand, but her dad's war was a huge reason why we are where we are today.  They are reaping what they sowed.

I think Trump made a lot of hay among voters with his consistent stance against dumb foreign wars, and he kept that promise while in the white house.  Zero dumbass wars is a good record for a Republican administration. To me, that is positive progress from Bush Jr, who thought he was a Roosevelt who could bomb the world into a peaceful state.

note that I suspect that Trump was isolationist because an isolationist America benefits Trump's daddy. But to Americans who were pissed off about expensive, tragic, and useless military actions, Trump's record looks pretty good here.

 

26 minutes ago, do or die said:

A lot of them old guard Republicans have turned out to be moral cowards.....

the one good thing about the Trump administration was seeing the worst people be abused by the worst boss.

 

[JCon]

Just now, johnzo said:

I have respect for Cheney's stand, but her dad's war was a huge reason why we are where we are today.  They are reaping what they sowed.

I think Trump made a lot of hay among voters with his consistent stance against dumb foreign wars, and he kept that promise while in the white house.  Zero dumbass wars is a good record for a Republican administration. To me, that is positive progress from Bush Jr, who thought he was a Roosevelt who could bomb the world into a peaceful state.

note that I suspect that Trump was isolationist because an isolationist America benefits Trump's daddy. But to Americans who were pissed off about expensive, tragic, and useless military actions, Trump's record looks pretty good here.

 

Really? That's the takeaway? He makes a deal with Taliban to walk away. He walked away from the Iran deal. He abandoned and attacked his allies. 

He is a coward, incapable of making good decisions. 

The world is far worse off after four years of that monster. 

America wants it their way only. Always. And, the rest of us just have to deal with the messes made. 

And, Liz is just pure garbage, like her dad. She doesn't doesn't believe the election was stolen. 

[HardCoreBlue]

36 minutes ago, do or die said:

A lot of them old guard Republicans have turned out to be moral cowards.....

I agree especially with being morally corrupt in how much money, power and influence they are making off this fool. Most of them aren’t afraid of him, they adore him, he’s their money ticket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[johnzo]

I can't really talk about how Trump ****** up the Iran deal or judge whether we are worse off for how he attacked it.  I don't know enough about the effectiveness of the pre-Trump Iran nuclear supervision / management program.  My uneducated take is that it seems like a very tall order to rein in the nuclear ambitions of a regional power with soft power only, but I know less about international nuclear proliferation strategies than I do about coaching quarterbacks.

and believe me, I think Trump is human garbage and should not be anywhere near the levers of power, and I'm certain that many many many people in the USA have been imprisoned for less than he's done.  but the GOP has always been garbage, from the anti-civil-rights Southern Strategy to "it's legal if the President does it" to "welfare queens" to Willie Horton to  "greed is good" to "deficits don't matter" to "kick their ass, take their gas" to "MAGA"   They deserve to have Trump jammed firmly up their asses.  Unfortunately, the world doesn't.

Edited August 17, 2022 by johnzo

[Goalie]

The old guard Republicans play more to their base tho as most of these guys represent the sort of slower weirder Saskatchewan like states so it's not really difficult to see why they are morally corrupt. I mean ppl keep voting them in right so they just representing those people and there seems to be lots of those people 

[Goalie]

When it comes down to it tho, the whole US voting system is messed up. 

As much as I hate ours I get why Manitoba don't matter as much as Ontario and Quebec cuz that's where the people live but... someone explain to me why Iowa matters more than 95 percent of the other states  

Trump would be hung back in the real olden days but 99 percent of both would be too 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Goalie

[JCon]

5 minutes ago, Goalie said:

When it comes down to it tho, the whole US voting system is messed up. 

As much as I hate ours I get why Manitoba don't matter as much as Ontario and Quebec cuz that's where the people live but... someone explain to me why Iowa matters more than 95 percent of the other states  

Only at the Senate level, where each state gets 2 senators. 

In theory, it's meant to protect smaller states from being overwhelmed by the larger states. 

In practice, it means that a tiny state and their voters, hold farrrrrr more power than the larger, more populated states. 

 

The primary system is just a messed up system of a bygone era that is not relevant or functional any longer. Can't expect them to think beyond Yes or No, Left or Right. Otherwise, their heads would hurt. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by JCon

[johnzo]

when you hear Albertans talk about senate reform what they're after is a situation like the USA where you have lawmakers who regions instead of people. 

do Albertans still talk about senate reform?  I remember Preston Manning going on and on and on about the triple-E senate...

[Tracker]

On 2022-08-15 at 7:53 PM, Tracker said:

Matt Gaetz And Jim Jordan Threaten Merrick Garland For Trump To Try To GetName Of FBI Informant

Reps. Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, and 16 other House Republicans sent a threatening letter to the FBI demanding to know who informed on Trump.

The letter had many implied threats that warned the Justice Department to keep all communications and made it clear that Republicans would launch an investigation if they won back the House

Trump Makes His Most Dangerous Demand Yet:

‘Release the Affidavit!’s up in the middle of the night again, and that is entirely understandable. If federal agents just searched your house and found top secret and special clearance documents pertaining to nuclear weapons, you too would be up at night. But the man who asked Merrick Garland how he could “reduce the heat” around the country made his most dangerous demand yet. He wants the affidavit in support of the warrant released “in the interests of transparency.”

He wants it unredacted. His demand would require the release of the identity of the informant.

Trump wrote:  There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of “Justice” but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN. Also, the Judge on this case should recuse!

Parts of the statement are almost giggle-worthy, Trump having to remind people it’s the “home of the 45th President of the United States.” But then he implies that he is being the selfless one here, and he will allow the court and DOJ to release the affidavit in support of the search, “unredacted.”

Obviously, the unredacted release would – again, name the informant, which would put that person’s life in grave danger from the MAGAs and – if one wants to contemplate the conspiratorial – possible danger from some of Trump’s darker alleged allies from Eastern Europe. The informant is in enough danger knowing that a trial may be necessary or a leak might spring.

Ironically, the affidavit itself would contain information that would likely be absolutely devastating to Trump. It almost surely sets out the dangerous materials Trump is holding, the numerous attempts to retrieve those materials, and even perhaps evidence regarding what the FBI believes Trump might do with the materials, all or some of which would surely cause some of Trump’s reluctant supporters in Congress to turn on him. The affidavit would set out behavior that is simply indefensible. Trump knows that if the affidavit were released, it would hurt him deeply, but he knows they will not release it, especially unredacted.

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/08/16/trump-makes-his-most-dangerous-demand-yet-release-the-affidavit.html

Edited August 17, 2022 by Tracker

[Mark F]

3 hours ago, Tracker said:

they say he should be executed as a person that was ready to handed off nuclear secrets to Russia.”

 

[bustamente]

So American politicians can now threaten the AG of the United States, truly that country is headed to **** hole status and all because of a buffoon with the intellect of a 5 year old

[HardCoreBlue]

33 minutes ago, bustamente said:

So American politicians can now threaten the AG of the United States, truly that country is headed to **** hole status and all because of a buffoon with the intellect of a 5 year old

No matter who you are, what your affiliations are and how good you are in presenting your mis-informed opinions as fact, there is no way around this statement.  

[Bugsybombers]

Rand Paul now wants the espionage act to repealed because too many innocent Americans have been wrongly convicted and he wants this to be stopped.  After all these years  he suddenly wants it repealed because Trump is being investigated. I'm sure this is a coincidence, right?  I think he could be a little more obvious, but I'm not sure how

 

[TrueBlue4ever]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

Trump Makes His Most Dangerous Demand Yet:

‘Release the Affidavit!’s up in the middle of the night again, and that is entirely understandable. If federal agents just searched your house and found top secret and special clearance documents pertaining to nuclear weapons, you too would be up at night. But the man who asked Merrick Garland how he could “reduce the heat” around the country made his most dangerous demand yet. He wants the affidavit in support of the warrant released “in the interests of transparency.”

He wants it unredacted. His demand would require the release of the identity of the informant.

Trump wrote:  There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States (who got more votes, by far, than any sitting President in the history of our Country!), by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of “Justice” but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN. Also, the Judge on this case should recuse!

Parts of the statement are almost giggle-worthy, Trump having to remind people it’s the “home of the 45th President of the United States.” But then he implies that he is being the selfless one here, and he will allow the court and DOJ to release the affidavit in support of the search, “unredacted.”

Obviously, the unredacted release would – again, name the informant, which would put that person’s life in grave danger from the MAGAs and – if one wants to contemplate the conspiratorial – possible danger from some of Trump’s darker alleged allies from Eastern Europe. The informant is in enough danger knowing that a trial may be necessary or a leak might spring.

Ironically, the affidavit itself would contain information that would likely be absolutely devastating to Trump. It almost surely sets out the dangerous materials Trump is holding, the numerous attempts to retrieve those materials, and even perhaps evidence regarding what the FBI believes Trump might do with the materials, all or some of which would surely cause some of Trump’s reluctant supporters in Congress to turn on him. The affidavit would set out behavior that is simply indefensible. Trump knows that if the affidavit were released, it would hurt him deeply, but he knows they will not release it, especially unredacted.

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/08/16/trump-makes-his-most-dangerous-demand-yet-release-the-affidavit.html

Is there anything more hypocritical than a guy who pled the 5th 440 times in a recent deposition asking for transparency in the court system?

[Goldkobra]

46 minutes ago, Bugsybombers said:

Rand Paul now wants the espionage act to repealed because too many innocent Americans have been wrongly convicted and he wants this to be stopped.  After all these years  he suddenly wants it repealed because Trump is being investigated. I'm sure this is a coincidence, right?  I think he could be a little more obvious, but I'm not sure how

 

How do you confess to espionage without confessing to espionage?

"Maybe... we should make espionage legal??"

[Tracker]

Former US attorney calls for 'full investigation' after report Secret Service failed to share Pelosi threat
   
A former U.S. Attorney is calling for a full investigation into the U.S. Secret Service’s failure to share intelligence it had detailing a violent threat against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats.

“This is deeply disturbing,” says Joyce Vance, who is now a law professor and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst. She says it “requires a full investigation.”
“The Capitol Police are responsible for protecting the Speaker,” Vance continues. “If true” that the U.S. Secret Service “failed to pass on intelligence about threats, that’s very alarming.”

Vance points to a new report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) that finds the Secret Service discovered a violent social media based threat on January 4, 2021, two days before the insurrection, but did not share that intelligence with the Capitol Police until nearly 6 PM ET on January 6.

The U.S. Secret Service is an agency under the Dept. of Homeland Security. The DHS Inspector General, Joseph Cuffari, is under investigation by two powerful House Committee chairs who on Tuesday accused him of “obstruction.”

In a separate report CREW reveals that “days before the January 6 attack on the Capitol, documents exchanged between the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies outlined ‘threats of violence’ on the 6th, coming ‘predominantly from right wing groups’ with ‘plans to bring weapons into the District,’ according to documents obtained by CREW. The Secret Service knew that Trump’s supporters would be demonstrating around Freedom Plaza and the Capitol with the intent to cause violence, but the agency does not appear to have taken the threat seriously.”

“While the Secret Service downplayed threats posed by right-wing extremist groups and Trump’s supporters leading up to January 6, the newly obtained documents reveal just how grave and explicit the threats had actually been,” CREW alleges.

 

[Tracker]

How Liz Cheney was defeated by the very extremism she once promoted: journalist
   
In a GOP congressional primary election held in Wyoming on Tuesday, August 16, Rep. Liz Cheney suffered a landslide defeat when Harriet Hagemen — who was backed by former President Donald Trump — won by around 38 percent. The election results didn’t come as a major surprise, as MAGA Republicans vehemently resented Cheney for pushing for Trump’s second impeachment and playing a prominent role on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 select committee.

Cheney has drawn a great deal of praise, even from many liberals and progressives, for pushing back against the Big Lie and blaming Trump for the violence that rocked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. But journalist Tim Murphy, in an article published by Mother Jones after Cheney lost that primary, argues that the congresswoman was defeated in Wyoming by the type of extremism that she spent much of her political career encouraging.

“In the run-up to the 2016 election, Liz Cheney issued a dire warning,” Murphy recalls. “The future of American democracy, and the nation’s place as a symbol of freedom to the world, was on the ballot. If voters chose poorly, she told Rush Limbaugh, the next president ‘would be the most corrupt individual ever to sit in the Oval Office.’ She was referring, of course, to Hillary Clinton.”

Murphy emphasizes that Cheney was far from a Never Trumper back in 2016.

“She was a Bush Administration veteran who was willing to go to the mat for President Donald Trump, no matter what the naysayers said,” Murphy remembers. “They both had a use for each other. By the start of her second term, she was chair of the House Republican Conference. When Trump ran for reelection, she offered her endorsement. But on Tuesday, Cheney’s career in Congress came to an abrupt end, when she lost her Republican primary to conservative challenger Harriet Hageman.”

https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/liz-cheney-defeated-by-extremism/

[Tracker]

Trump Supporters' Threats To Judge Spur Democracy Concerns

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart has faced a storm of death threats since his signature cleared the way for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of federal judges face the same task every day: review an affidavit submitted by federal agents and approve requests for a search warrant. But for U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the fallout from his decision to approve a search warrant has been far from routine.

He has faced a storm of death threats since his signature earlier this month cleared the way for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a probe into whether he inappropriately removed sensitive materials from the White House. Reinhart’s home address was posted on right-wing sites, along with antisemitic slurs. The South Florida synagogue he attends canceled its Friday night Shabbat services in the wake of the uproar.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-supporters-threats-to-judge-spur-democracy-concerns_n_62fdb5cfe4b0f48a02040941