The firing of Comey presumably means that the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia is now over. I didn’t think that Trump would do this. I’ve mostly been laughing at my friends talking about Trump being fascist, about the possibility that we’ll be living in Gilead-style police state.
I’m not laughing now.
Worst case scenario: what can we actually do to fight against a fascist police state? I haven’t given this a ton of thought before.
Corner Stone
Kill this thread and let’s continue the one below.
Elizabelle
Is it over? Don’t we have career professionals in the FBI, who are alarmed and possibly afraid of what Trump unleashed might do?
anon
stock up on guns and ammo like it’s 2009?
ruckus
The courts. Oh wait……….
Doug!
@Corner Stone:
I thought that one could be for calmish discussion and this one for gloom p0rn
Bevster
Are you new here, sweetie?
Swannie
It would help if citizens were armed!
Bill E Pilgrim
Stand over there with Chris Christie and Mitt Romney, Mr Comey, there you go.
Is it the scorpion story or the snake song I’m most reminded of…?
germy
Katy Kay on BBC just said whoever takes over for Comey will continue the investigation.
Shalimar
The U.S. investigation may be over, but I’m reasonably sure that various European intelligence organizations have most of the pieces that they can leak out if they so choose. And there will be lots of leaks from anti-Trump sources in U.S. intelligence too, just like there have been so far. I seriously doubt any of the leaks we have had were from Comey or his immediate staff.
Mike J
Hunter Gathers
Not a Fascist Police State.
Idiocracy.
Brawndo. It’s what Trump voters crave.
lamh36
@germy: bullshit
Alain the site fixer
Encryption. Sharing information. Refusing to accept the then-current acceptable standards for behavior or talking about others. Worshiping the glory in each of us and not letting fear, anger, or cockiness get a foothold and undo our awareness that there are unacceptable ways of treating other living things.
cain
I can’t wait till democrats finally take control of one of the houses of government. My sentiments should be exactly this
Weed them out.. weed them all out.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: How would she know this?
germy
@lamh36: I agree with you. Not sure what Katy was thinking.
A Ghost to Most
Jesus Doug; two sockpuppets conversing? You must be bored, waiting for spring in WNY.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
She assumes this is a normal administration following normal rules of law?
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
NR
@cain:
Unfortunately, these are Democrats we’re talking about, so what will actually happen is that we’ll get a lecture about how important bipartisanship is, and how we have to look forward and not backward, and everyone will walk away scot-free just like last time.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Digby as usual nailed it here earlier:
Comey was motivated by being more afraid of criticism from Republicans than from the rest of the country, to the point where he sacrificed his reputation, not to mention ruining the country in the process, which he now even seems aware of having done. And now look what he got for his efforts from Republicans.
Mr Stagger Lee
7 days in May and hope Burt Lancaster is tanned rested and ready. :-)
Shalimar
@anon: Reminder: You don’t need to stock up on guns and ammo. If the need actually arises, check your local newspaper’s comments section. There is a local gun nut close to you who has already stocked up. You can help yourself to his stash when he isn’t home.
lamh36
Jeffrey Toobin is all of us with a sound rational mind on CNN calling this Comey firing over HRC emails…BULLSHIT!
Shalimar
@Bill E Pilgrim: Maybe the July rant was for that purpose, but the letter to Chaffetz so close to the election at minimum was written with the knowledge that it would reduce her margin or cause her to lose. Comey isn’t an idiot.
Raven Onthill
One thing we don’t do is give the administration a reason for a crackdown.
I suspect the thing will fall over of its own weight, if given the right push. We have to figure out what that is, though.
Adam L Silverman
Yes this is bad. Yes, we now have a full fledged out in the open constitutional crisis as opposed to the simmering, just under the surface one that has been going on since January. The CI investigation is compartmented. It will stay that way under control of career National Security Section investigators and prosecutors. And we’ll have an acting FBI Director for a while.
Is this bad? Yes. Is the US now Chechnya? No.
HeleninEire
@germy: Katy Kay knows next to nothing about American politics.
Baud
@lamh36: I don’t like Toobin, but I’ll take my allies where I can find them.
jl
GOP hacks like Grassley already supporting the firing.
I guess when Trump replaces Pence with a horse as presiding officer of the Senate, they’ll line up to kiss its ass if Trumps sez so.
starscream
Liberals celebrating this are idiots. Yes, Comey fucked up in 2016. But the president just fired the person in charge of investigating his potential treason. This is bigger than election results or karma or misconduct or whatever.
lamh36
MSNBC has on Greta Van Sustern…and of course she’s still on that Faux News trip..so nothing but rationalizations.
I’m on CNN…cause Toobin et al…are treating with the seriousness it deserves.
Toobin esp…ain’t trying to sugarcoat it in PC language. He’s calling it bullshit without saying “bullshit”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Shalimar:
>Comey isn’t an idiot.
I think he actually sort of is. I’ve never seen anyone so puffed up with a sense of his own self-righteousness as I saw in that recent testimony, to the point where it totally addled any judgement he might have had. That’s enough to do it.
Look how he panicked and tried to announce that they wrapped up the investigation two days before the election and had found nothing in those emails (gosh what a surprise), that struck me as just as bizarre as the letter. We’ll never know but I think he like many others assumed she had it in the bag, and was mostly covering his ass.
eemom
I am uncharacteristically speechless.
maeve
This is the Saturday Night Massacre all over again
I wrote my two (Republican) senators pointing out that Trump was previously delighted by Comeys handling of Clinton emails and that it was obviously about Russia (also mentioned China and the Philippines) (confession – had to google spelling of the Philippines) and asked them to stand up for America and Alaska and not vote along party lines to confirm the next FBI director,
When I write them (through their email link which has me put in an Alaska address/email etc.) I try to stick to one issue/ not sound like a total opponent – phrase it in terms they might understand / always ask them to stand up for Alaskans.
Not sure if its of any use but ???? One is a Koch brothers funded “outsider” the other grew up in Alaska and I don’t agree with her (esp on environmental issues) but she has a her own point of view and occasionally does break with the party line (but not enough).
Kropadope
We could ask the Libertarians, but as much time as they spend thinking about it, they really haven’t thought about it either.
efgoldman
Obama should have fired him for cause, right after the press conference in July, or at least in October right after the letter to smarm face Chaffetz.
Yeah, the optics would have sucked; so what? What worse would have resulted? The usual suspects would have growled and screamed, and it would have just become more background noise. It couldn’t have resulted in any more damage than what happened.
Obama and Lynch could also have tasked the new acting (since a confirmed permanent replacement would be impossible) with cleaning out the Rudi Mafia in New York soonest. I bet those assholes would love transfers to Nome, or Pierre, or Butte, or Lubbock, or….
Fuckem
Bill E Pilgrim
@Adam L Silverman: Well said Adam.
Bill E Pilgrim
@starscream: I haven’t seen anyone celebrating. I might not be reading whatever you are.
efgoldman
@HeleninEire:
Neither does Jacobin. Doesn’t prevent them from
commentingbullshittingDoug!
@Raven Onthill:
That’s my gut instinct too. But I’m less sure today than I was ten days ago.
martian
You really didn’t think Trump was a fascist, Doug? Claiming we’re on the verge of Gilead is over the top, but Trump seems obviously a fascist. Is it that you thought our system of government could withstand having a fascist at the levers of power?
I pretty much concluded after the election that our system was actually in large part rule by good faith and a handshake. That’s all done for good now, I think. I don’t know where we’ll come out, but we can’t unknow what’s happened and go back to what we had.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Adam L Silverman:
Doug!
@Adam L Silverman:
Famous last words.
Elizabelle
@NR: Fuck you. No patience for you. And that is the last notice I will take of you this evening.
rikyrah
Robin @puppymnkey
FYI, if this goes thru, Putin will have enough $$$$ To invade Ukraine/others. Exxon applies for oil deal
Bill E Pilgrim
@Doug!:
We are devo.
Just seemed to fit the rhythm.
Jewish Steel
I feel so sorry for Washington’s Last Honest Man.
cain
@NR:
Maybe from the MSM, but I think Democrats have had enough “bipartisanship”. We’re being fucked over, and it’s time to start being aggressive.
jl
@Doug!: There’s always Hungary. Maybe we’ll go Hungary before we go full Chechnya.
As I said some thread below, at this rate, in 4 years either no pics of Trump anywhere, or they will be everywhere.
Chet Murthy
@Adam L Silverman: Adam, with respect, I don’t see how this ends well.
(1) Dampnut nominates a suitably pliant Director
(2) Regardless of whether Dems oppose, he get thru (52-48)
(3) investigation in FBI is over
At that point, the Rs cannot allow the Dems to retake Congress (maybe not even the House), right? Full-blown crisis, innit?
Doug!
@martian:
No, I didn’t. I thought he was just a grifter.
geg6
Gotta echo all of the olds here saying this feels a lot like the Saturday Night Massacre. Eerily so. Like your worst possible Groundhog Day.
And talk about feeling torn! So glad that Comey got shitcanned in the most public and humiliating way. But the reason he got shitcanned is so our traitor of a president can try to save his saggy ass. How to feel? I really don’t know!
But if worst comes to worst, we have guns. I don’t like having them but I know how to use them.
Kropadope
I decided my very mixed feelings about the firing of James comey can all be expressed with a single phase.
What an asshole.
rikyrah
Raw StoryVerified account @RawStory
‘Grotesque abuse of power’: CNN legal analyst Toobin just burned Trump to the ground for firing Comey http://ow.ly/YTER30bAegK
jl
@Chet Murthy: They are going to have to scale the voter suppression way way up to save their asses if they carry through with their plans. Like, Some Senate GOPers already saying they are going to come up with their own AHCA that looks suspiciously like a rubber stamp of the House Bill.
Baud
What does this do to the IG investigation into Comey?
rikyrah
Al GiordanoVerified account @AlGiordano
1. The @OurRevolution candidate in San Antonio school district 1 just lost with only 6% of the vote…
…
2. Its candidate in district six got only 20%. Here are the results of all the contests…
http://www.ksat.com/news/el… …
…
3. In district 9 they fared only marginally better, with a pale 22% of the vote…
…
4. It spends much time yelling about what the Democratic Party did or didn’t do in elections, but it appears that @OurRevolution does little
…
5. It did scrub these losing candidates from its endorsement page after they lost, but they can’t erase the March 30 press release!
…
6. This PAC & its spokesmen have a lot of loud opinions about what others must do to win elections but they only lose themselves.
…
7. What, then, is the value of its endorsement? Between 6% and 22% of the vote in a highly Democratic city? That’s just sad.
….
8. Press release endorsements do not win elections. You need trained organizers & resources to do that. But they don’t train either!
…
9. And apparently when you spend your time attacking others for garnering resources you don’t get much of them yourselves…
…
10. I think it’s clear that “Our Revolution” isn’t serious about electing anyone other than its figurehead – & he lost last year, too.
…
11. Anyway, I thought y’all would want to know how the scoreboard is going: same as always. Purity progressives always lose. End memo.
Baud
@rikyrah: Someone is primarying Manchin.
Baud
Schumer: Special prosecutor NOW!
martian
@Doug!: Ah. So, in a weird way, you thought better of him. Or the fact that he’s a clown and a grifter was a kind of protective coloration. A lot of people couldn’t take him seriously. Or his voters.
Raven Onthill
@Chet Murthy: “At that point, the Rs cannot allow the Dems to retake Congress (maybe not even the House), right? Full-blown crisis, innit?”
The House is already past that point with the passage of the AHCA.
rikyrah
So, if HIllary’s Camp had worked more on VOTER SUPPRESSION…well….
Rep. Keith EllisonVerified account @keithellison
Wisconsin’s Voter-ID Law Suppressed 200,000 Votes in 2016 (Trump Won by 22,748) – via @AriBerman @thenation
lamh36
lamh36
Baud
@Raven Onthill: Wave election, then clean house.
Marcopolo
At the MO2 absentee town hall for Ann Wagner now! Packed house. Lot’s of fired up pissed off constituents. Guessing 300+.
Starting w/ climate change, going through several other topics & finishing up with the AHCA 90 minutes from now.
Wild news about Comey. Lot’s of side chatter about that before we started. but onto the meeting.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
And how long will that last when the Russian traitors control the payroll, the home office and presumably will have access to HR and records telling them who they need to dismiss….or silence?
What happens when the investigators determine that they can’t report anything, because saying their own bosses are traitors to the Republic is a good way to get arrested and/or killed by their fellow FBI?
jimmiraybob
Replacements? Jared? Head waiter at Mar a Lago? Favorite caddy? Gorka? He’s already got a uniform and medals. Outsource FBI operations to Goldman Sachs? Shutter the doors and have assets sale? Merger with the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation? Let RNC run all investigations?
rikyrah
@AndreaChalupa
Follow
More
Source: Comey at the “rocket docket” yesterday in Virginia that expedites cases, submitting intel. Trump panicked. #FBIDirector #Comey fired
max
Worst case scenario: what can we actually do to fight against a fascist police state? I haven’t given this a ton of thought before.
Ahem: where you been, man? Large parts of the population have been living in that situation for some decades, Obama or no Obama.
I have no problem with Trump firing Comey since the supposed bastion against Trumpiness is totally worthless, as he demonstrated last fall. The next guy might be worse, but since the agency has been pretty much running its own show for awhile, I’m not sure it matters that much.
max
[‘Obviously, they might try to suppress the Russia investigation, but they’d be doing themselves in in the attempt.’]
rikyrah
Andrea Chalupa
✔
@AndreaChalupa
Dear Americans, I know you gave the world the Hollywood Happy Ending, but authoritarianism is real and not limited to history books.
5:47 PM – 9 May 2017
TenguPhule
Use your imagination. You’d be surprised what that can accomplish.
/You’d also be surprised how nitpicky a GM in an RPG can get when it comes to tactical situations against an Evil Empire. Invaluable learning tool as to common mistakes made by the unprepared and unaware.
rikyrah
Obamacare replacement bill clouds future of Children’s Health Insurance Program
By Harris Meyer | May 7, 2017
Passage of the House Republicans’ healthcare overhaul bill may have created political and policy complications for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, whose funding will end in September unless Congress reauthorizes it.
The Senate Finance Committee postponed a planned hearing on CHIP reauthorization scheduled for Tuesday, reportedly at the request of committee Democrats who didn’t want work on the House GOP’s American Health Care Act to overshadow efforts to extend the children’s program.
In addition, Republicans may seek to delay consideration of renewed funding for CHIP to use it as leverage to get Democrats and moderate Republicans to support their broad healthcare reform legislation, said Joe Antos, a conservative health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute. Others predict funding for federally qualified community health centers also may become part of the negotiations.
That worries children’s healthcare advocates, who argue CHIP — which has enjoyed bipartisan support since its creation 20 years ago — is so important to the 8.4 million low- and moderate-income children it covers that it should be kept out of the looming partisan war over the AHCA. An estimated two million CHIP enrollees have serious chronic conditions.
“Rolling CHIP into the broader debate would be very unfortunate,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University.
TenguPhule
@geg6:
Guns aren’t going to solve a thing. Worse then useless for the most part as they will immediately identify you as a combatant to either side. And under the Geneva Conventions, an illegal combatant. Which allows for summary battlefield execution by regular military forces (you have no rights).
IEDs on the other hand can look like pretty much anything. /Just saying
Uncle Cosmo
@Chet Murthy: Filibuster is a possibility. Force the Oldage Mucosal Nutjob Turtle to nuke it, which will demonstrate to one & all that he’s in it up to his chin-wattle & his mouth is Putin’s cockholster-in-waiting.
I don’t know whether to have a bad feeling about this or not. OT1H it can’t get any more obvious that Cheetoh Benito is trying to cover up major treason, & there ought to be enough folks disgusted by it to bring him down. OTOH my thoughts keep pingponging between the last few pages of Come Nineveh, Come Tyre & the last few minutes of Z.
Interesting times. In the classical Chinese sense.
rikyrah
Wisconsin’s Voter-ID Law Suppressed 200,000 Votes in 2016 (Trump Won by 22,748)
A new study shows how voter-ID laws decreased turnout among African-American and Democratic voters.
By Ari Berman
Prior to the 2016 election, Eddie Lee Holloway Jr., a 58-year-old African-American man, moved from Illinois to Wisconsin, which implemented a strict voter-ID law for the first time in 2016. He brought his expired Illinois photo ID, birth certificate, and Social Security card to get a photo ID for voting in Wisconsin, but the DMV in Milwaukee rejected his application because the name on his birth certificate read “Eddie Junior Holloway,” the result of a clerical error when it was issued. Holloway ended up making seven trips to different public agencies in two states and spent over $200 in an attempt to correct his birth certificate, but he was never able to obtain a voter ID in Wisconsin. Before the election, his lawyer for the ACLU told me Holloway was so disgusted he left Wisconsin for Illinois.
p.a.
They can’t even do THIS right. In true Banana Republican fashion Comey should have been charged with a sex crime (don’t tell me it’s any more preposterous than the stated reason. And what won’t Trumpists believe anyway?)
Then possibly killed while attempting escape.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@rikyrah:
Our Revolution is The Jeff and Jane Dark Money Grifters Honeypot for the gullible fools in Wilmer’s cult. It’s mind boggling that anyone would take that org seriously.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@jimmiraybob:
Trey Gowdy
Baud
Heinrich from New Mexico is on the attack. We never hear from him.
TenguPhule
@p.a.:
The Russians have evolved their methods since Stalin.
LurkerNoLonger
@jl: Grassley? Isn’t it passed his bed time? As far as the Comey firing: Shit just got real.
Mart
All you folks gonna stop governmental tyranny with your guns sound like fucking idiots (at least to me).
Waspuppet
Funny, Doug: Since we’re trading Clash lyrics and (among other things) discussing Comey’s replacement, I’ll raise you “Rudy Can’t Fail.”
rikyrah
A Landfill Is Consuming This Historic Alabama Community. The EPA Ignored Complaints. Now the Case Is Closed.
“Officials who are supposed to protect us…don’t, because we are black people.”
Nathalie Baptiste
May 9, 2017 2:10 PM
The Environmental Protection Agency has abruptly closed a longstanding civil rights complaint. In December 2003, the Ashurst Bar/Smith community in Tallassee, Alabama, filed a complaint against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which receives federal funds from the EPA, alleging that by permitting the expansion of a landfill community members had long seen as toxic, the agency violated their civil rights. On April 28, lawyers representing the community received a letter from the EPA notifying them that the federal agency would be dismissing the case, citing “insufficient evidence.”
“To say it’s disappointing is an understatement,” says Marianne Engelman Lado, a lawyer at Earthjustice who represents the majority black community, “That after all these years of sitting on the complaint, EPA would just close the case.”
The EPA’s Office of Civil Rights is tasked with enforcing federal civil rights laws that ban discrimination against members of the public by agencies that receive federal funds, and takes complaints through its External Civil Rights Compliance Office.
rikyrah
YasharVerified account @yashar
The wonderful @RosieGray reports on the campaign, mostly external, to rehabilitate Sebastian Gorka
jl
So, the Clinton email rationale is holding up well….
Reports: Trump Admin Has Been Seeking A Reason To Fire Comey Since Last Week
‘ Zeleny said Trump “did not necessarily have the rationale” to fire Comey when he first began discussing the possibility “but then asked the attorney general and the deputy attorney general to look for that rationale and that explanation.” ‘
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/reports-trump-admin-looking-for-reason-to-fire-comey
Baud
Adam Schiff is good.
rikyrah
John LegendVerified account @johnlegend
I would like the media to stop using “populist” as a synonym or euphemism for white nationalist or racist. They’re not the same thing.
hueyplong
This Comey move and its stated rationale seem so transparently stupid that it’s difficult to imagine anyone other than Trump himself or Bannon initiating it. Surely no one who has held any office at any time would want “credit” for being a participant.
I dread the near certain discovery tomorrow that people with whom I interact swallowed it and its rationale clean.
rikyrah
Sessions reviews Justice Department criminal charging policy
May 9 at 2:07 PM
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reviewing policy changes set in place by the Obama administration that eliminated harsh punishments for low-level drug crimes and could direct federal prosecutors to again charge drug offenders with crimes carrying the most severe penalties, according to U.S. officials.
The change, if adopted, would overturn a memo by then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that instructed prosecutors to avoid charging low-level defendants with drug offenses that would trigger severe mandatory minimum sentences. Only defendants who met certain criteria, such as not belonging to a large-scale drug trafficking organization, a gang or a cartel, qualified for consideration under Holder’s instructions.
If new charging instructions are implemented it would mark the first significant move by the Trump administration to bring back the drug war’s toughest practices — methods that had fallen out of favor in recent years as critics pointed to the damaging effects of mass incarceration.
jl
@hueyplong: Luckily, the Trumpsters leak like a sieve. They are already leaking that the stated rationale for the firing is total BS. Trump decided Comey should go last week and sent Sessions looking for a reason.
Lapassionara
@Marcopolo: thank you! I did not hear about this, and I live in her #*#% district! Please let us know how it goes.
Lapassionara
@rikyrah: you are a treasure! Thanks for all you do.
Bailey
If this investigation gets shut down, this will absolutely be prosecuted in the press.
Journalists just got a new “senior FBI official” leaker.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Yes, his tweets somewhat calm me down. But only somewhat.
lamh36
I cannot imagine that career FBI agents won’t be pissed by this…
Baud
@zhena gogolia: I think we have pretty good Dems, probably the best in my lifetime, despite what the internet says.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I agree. There are always these cute young Irish guys popping out of the woodwork (case in point Maloney in NY).
Schindler’s telling me to stock up on non-perishables. I think I’ll ignore him for now.
Baud
I love all these reporters now saying, oh yes, of course Comey mishandled the email investigation.
Bastards.
lamh36
So Mark Halperin now a spokesperson for the Trump campaign? MSNBC says he was just in the Oval Office….and Halperin giving talking points
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Who is Schindler?
liberal
@Baud: 20committee guy?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
John Schindler. Don’t ask me who he is, but he’s one of the people who frequently tweets that Trump is about to be led off in manacles, so I check his feed every once in a while.
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
Exactly how we’d expect the Leftier Than Thous to do.
Fuckem
Waspuppet
@rikyrah: I was talking with someone the other day when someone on the TV said something about Trump’s “ability to connect with voters.” I looked at the guy and said “I’m a voter and he didn’t connect with me; how about you?” Being black, he just laughed.
Besides, you’d think a populist would win the popular vote.
liberal
@Baud: as good as the ones that came in after Watergate? Maybe you’re not old enough…
lamh36
dude seriously…are u getting paid by the Trump admin to be this simple minded? I mean someone has to be paying you to sell ur pride down a river
liberal
@Waspuppet: yeah, same thing as 43 being a guy u could have a beer with. Came across as a smug prick.
Baud
@liberal: Yes. We just have fewer seats this time, which is unfortunate.
liberal
@lamh36: nah, he’s actually just fucking stupid.
hueyplong
I don’t understand how the word that corresponds to the DeNiro/Pesci/Stone movie gets you into moderation, but you can type “Cillizza” with impunity.
I know which one I find more offensive and spammy.
efgoldman
@max:
Right. The day that happens, there will be a leaked document dump more important than the Pentagon Papers ever were. Once it’s on the intartoobz, there’s no getting it back.
danielx
L’etat, c’est orange.
lamh36
Jeffrey Toobin is FIRED UP on CNN.
I’m glad Toobin is…he’s almost the only really wading thru the BS…to tell the ture nature of how bad this is
SiubhanDuinne
I’d be willing to put a small wager on Chaffetz being named next FBI Director.
Gin & Tonic
Not being mentioned anywhere is that Comey was in Queenstown, NZ just a few weeks ago for a big Five Eyes meeting. Wonder what was on the agenda there?
lamh36
Yep…all those Damn Dems should have been voted against ALLL of the Cheetos’ nominees…
Vote for the Rosentein 94-6, only 6 Dem Senators voted “No”…
satby
@Bill E Pilgrim: the trolls are coming out to preemptively declare us doomed, DOOMED!
? ?? Goku ? ?
Some people are doom and gloom about this. I’m not. Only because this action will only deepen the distrust of the public with the administration. It stinks of cover-up, so much so that GOP reps are speaking up about creating a independent commission for Russia.
The whole world is literally watching. Trump can’t silence the ICs of foreign nations, and, for the moment, our IC will likely still leak documents, especially after today
clay
So, chances are high that Trump lied in that letter, right? It’s extraordinarily unlikely that Comey, “Mr. Extreme Line-Toe-er”, would tell Trump outright that he wasn’t under investigation even once, much less three times.* Of course,Trump always hears what he wants to here. Cf. when he thought Elijah Cummings said he would be the greatest preznit evar!!
Shall we get Comey under oath to find out what he told Trump?
*”You will betray me three times before the cock crows.” Well, Trump is a cock, all right.
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
Do let us know when the intartoobz gain the power to empanel a grand jury.
clay
@lamh36: It wouldn’t have made a difference… I can’t really get hopped up about votes that literally have no impact.
rikyrah
Michael S. SchmidtVerified account @nytmike
Comey learned of firing as he addressed FBI employees in LA. TV screens in background flashed news of firing. Letter was then given to FBI.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
Yes, which is where the worrying comes into play.
We’re accustomed to Trump’s general incompetence, but the usage of Comey’s own assistance to Trump to throw him under a bus is a degree of intelligence and effectiveness that nobody in his current known circle have demonstrated before.
So where is it coming from?
And what else is it up to?
schrodingers_cat
@satby: As an interesting experiment, explore how many of the doom and gloomers are the other Russian candidate’s supporters.
rikyrah
Kirsten GillibrandVerified account @SenGillibrand
AG Sessions lied under oath about meetings with Kislyak. One way to exert control after recusal is by getting rid of FBI Director. Chilling.
SiubhanDuinne
@NR:
Where did I put that canister of Troll-B-Gone? I swear it was right here a minute ago….
? ?? Goku ? ?
@burnspbesq: Don’t be an asshole. That’s obviously not what he meant. The papers will be such compelling evidence then not even the Grand Oligarchy Party will be able to ignore it
liberal
@TenguPhule: effective? LOL.
Daniel Larison is a reasonably astute observer of politics, and he thinks this is one of the stupidest things Trump could do. (He added that that’s probably why he did it.)
? ?? Goku ? ?
@N(R): Those days are over
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Not that it matters in the slightest, but is that Los Angeles or Louisiana?
rikyrah
Christopher HayesVerified account @chrislhayes
Christopher Hayes Retweeted Katy Tur
We’re in uncharted territory…
Garry KasparovVerified account @Kasparov63
Garry Kasparov Retweeted Christopher Hayes
To the contrary, this territory has been very well charted in Russia, Turkey and Venezuela, to name a few. Trump is reading from that map.
TenguPhule
@liberal: Stupid to sane intelligent people. Not to his base or a very ignorant public already conditioned to think “both sides”.
rikyrah
Mark Cuban @subzerov690
The firing of FBI director is sign that pres & exec branch is going dangerously unchecked. This is serious. Must continue to resist. #COMEY
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: The former.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku ? ?:
A smoking gun in Trump’s hands couldn’t get the GOP’s attention now and you damn well know it.
rikyrah
SchooleyVerified account @Rschooley
How many potential Mark Felts are wrestling their next move at this very minute?
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Here there be Dragons.
liberal
@TenguPhule: his base don’t run the country.
germy
The Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner just confirmed during a national television interview that James Comey will still testify before the committee this week during public hearings, as had been planned. But the testimony will now take on a whole new meaning, as Comey is no longer in charge of the investigation into Trump, but instead a victim of Trump’s attempted coverup.
The Moar You Know
As terrifying as this news is (and it truly is) I could not escape a wonderful sense of satisfaction at watching that backstabbing piece of crap, Comey, get what he had coming.
He calls himself a cop. Thinks he’s the last honest man in Washington. He’s a fucking traitor to the country and should count himself lucky if getting thrown under the bus by his pal Trump is the worst thing that happens to him.
? ?? Goku ? ?
@TenguPhule: His base isn’t that big and most people polled have said they don’t trust him. And that was before he pulled this stunt. I agree with the opinion that it was stupid. Dangerous. But stupid
TenguPhule
@liberal: But his party does at the moment. Which is the problem. There are no checks and balances remaining to stop him legally.
liberal
@TenguPhule: if they calculate that they’re better off breaking against him, they will. Not a moment sooner, but also not later.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@rikyrah: I saw that, and thought Kasparov certainly is a subject matter expert on the topic. Sarah Kendzior has been warning of creeping authoritarian shifts, along with Andrea Chalupa.
However, Claude Taylor @ True Facts Stated and Andrew Laufer @ Lauferlaw both say their sources indicate that the legal process is beyond the point of no return, in terms of this move saving the Trump Crime Cartel and its (US) political enablers.
john carter
SO when the next director gets close to trump and the Russians, he gets fired, too. And the next…and the next…etc.
Should be able to delay anything substantial til after the midterms!
Kinda brilliant in a sucky way!
liberal
@TenguPhule: no they don’t. They run the legislative branch of government. That’s important, but it’s hardly the whole show.
They don’t even have absolute control over e.g. the FBI.
And the government isn’t the only locus of power.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku ? ?: But elections aren’t till 2018. He can do whatever he wants to consolidate power and it doesn’t matter how unpopular he gets because none of the Federal Checks or Balances is going to stop him. We’re in uncharted waters now, because there were Republicans in the days of old who could and did stand up to Nixon.
liberal
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Kasparov is a New Chronology nut job. I wouldn’t trust anything he says.
liberal
@TenguPhule: politics simply isn’t that simple.
nightranger
With Guiliani running the FBI I’m sure he will get to the bottom of this whole Russia think in no time at all.
TenguPhule
@liberal:
They’ve got control where it matters. At the top of all branches. They have the keys to the treasury and our military sure as hell is not going to stop him and risk escalating the crisis into a complete meltdown.
Our media is worthless. Protests aren’t going to get rid of Trump. Its called a crisis for a reason.
germy
TenguPhule
@liberal: It’s not politics anymore. This is a power grab.
lamh36
“Roger Stone…”
C’mon son…
Lizzy L
Josh Marshall at TPM. Re-posting from prior thread.
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
For the most part, I agree. But — please don’t hate me, or at least hold off a bit — I am often heartened by the comments on, e.g., a David Brooks or Richard Cohen column preaching bothsiderism. Yeah, most commentariat is rubbish, but there are still people who think and hold the right values and can/do express themselves both forcefully and articulately.
All to say that, for all their issues — and they are myriad — I’m still not giving up comp,Evelyn on the MSM.
ETA: Stoopid, STOOPID autocorrect.
For “comp,Evelyn” please substitute “completely.”
Kathleen
@lamh36: I remember reading that Wilmer said he’d be willing to hear what Sessions had to say in the confirmation hearings and he and “Jeff” were friends.
lamh36
Oh look it’s the Cryptkeeper Kellyanne Conway on CNN…CLICK!
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen:BS is pretty buddy buddy with the other anti-immigrant xenophobe Chuck Grassley too.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne: The Fourth Estate’s power was always in being believed and trusted by the public. A lot of that built up credit is gone. And the sword of sunshine it held over the heads of bad government is a faint shadow of what it once was.
I don’t see any ways forward here that don’t end messily.
rikyrah
Sam SteinVerified account @samsteinhp
Whoa. Raul Labrador is running for governor: http://huff.to/2qYl6Sa via @MEPFuller
Kathleen
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t remember who tweeted this but I saw a tweet that claimed Comey suspected/knew this was coming, which could be good news.
rikyrah
The Kushner Project Touted in China Is in Trouble at Home
May 9, 2017, 9:50 AM EDT
When Jared Kushner’s sister took the stage in two Chinese ballrooms over the weekend to urge investors to fund a New Jersey development through a controversial visa program, she mentioned her brother’s role in the White House and displayed a photo of President Donald Trump. It was a not-so-subtle signal that hers is a family company with connections.
What she didn’t mention was that the project has suffered a slew of problems: the exit of its anchor tenant, the loss of millions in tax breaks and a curdling political relationship with the mayor of its host city.
The previously unreported exit by tenant WeWork — which is also expected to sell its stake in the project — as well as the mayor’s shift, add up to a sharp reversal of fortunes that led the family company to do what it has done before: seek Chinese investors.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kathleen:
If he didn’t at least anticipate it as a possibility, he’s stupider than I thought. And for all his faults, I don’t think Comey is stupid.
lamh36
There you have it…IT IS A COVER UP…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NR:
Fuck off. Die.
Chris T.
@Gin & Tonic: They met in Queenstown? Sweet … might need to get myself a Five Eyes gig. :-)
rikyrah
TanielVerified account @Taniel
TPC: the top 1% of households will get half the benefits of #AHCA’s tax cuts.
Gin & Tonic
@Chris T.: Hey, if you have to meet someplace, why not someplace nice?
germy
germy
rikyrah
Sarah KendziorVerified account @sarahkendzior
Authoritarian governments rewrite laws to avoid prosecution. They hire and fire accordingly. This is why I said in Nov we had two months.
lamh36
Well I’ll be damned… CNN to a reporter NOT strategist…all dinging Cheeto and KellyAnne Conway….
We will see how it last.
Elie
@rikyrah:
But how could the AG fire Comey when he had recused himself from the Russian investigation? Oh, he could fire him for the part of his major investigation that had to do with what?
I tell ya, this is not going to go well for the Trumpanzees…
Baud
@rikyrah: Didn’t she also say that there was going to be an indictment last week?
Elie
@rikyrah:
And yes, if they had full control and were semi-competent, that would be true. Thankfully, they are not so the whole thing is destabilizing. Yes, we have to take advantage of every break, but they are not the Putin regime — yet.
clay
@lamh36: How stupid do they think we are? Like anyone believes that Roger Fucking Stone gives two shits about how Hillary was treated.
Ruckus
@jl:
As long as at some time they have a front and a profile view and there is a number board with the name of a legal detention facility on there, I’m good to go.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, you are EVIL
dogwood
@liberal:
Lairison is anything but politically astute. He spent all of ’07 and half of ’08 saying Obama was dead in the water. He was sure my one term democratic congressman would be reelected in ’10. He’s not someone to put much stock in when it comes to political analysis.
lamh36
David Gergen when Anderson Cooper said Kellyanne Conway said the firing of Comey had nothing to do with Russia… “guffaw”
lamh36
Baud
@lamh36: Your reporting is great.
PaulWartenberg
we are so effing screwed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
::nods head in agreement::
An evil, mob-enforcing mofo, that would be me.
LurkerNoLonger
@lamh36: K.A.C is back? I thought I smelled fish.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
Yeah, that’s what I keep wondering. Of course they are saying it’s all about the way Comey handled, or mishandled, the Hillary emails, but I think Trump gave it away in his “you’re fired” letter where he complimented Comey for assuring him on three separate occasions that he (Trump) was NOT under investigation. And the only thing he would have been under investigation for was Russia. And Comey had reused himself from Russia.
And round and round we go, like a chipmunk in a cage….
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
It could be a shot across the bow of the FBI. Comey is the easy fire and dumpf may feel like that may end everything. And if it doesn’t, he’ll just fire more people until there isn’t anyone left. He does believe in government small enough to fit down the drain, so that he can pull the plug any time he wants. No FBI, no investigations.
The election was bought and paid for, of that there is no doubt in my mind. Not necessarily in pay for votes in 2016 but in just a few years of pumping a ton or twelve into the media, into congress, from rich RWNJ and from countries that would love to see us fail, they have purchased a country. It’s possible that we can survive as the nation we are supposed to be, but I’m thinking probably not, just because so much of the checks and balances has been bought and paid for. Tell me I’m wrong, and explain how we get there.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: oh, God…name it not!
Miss Bianca
@lamh36: oK, you know what? NOW I’m pissed. NOW all these media fuckers and Trump flunkies are gonna concern-troll over what Comey did to HRC? They don’t give a shit about anything anymore -not consistency, not plausibility, and certainly not hypocrisy.
Chet Murthy
@lamh36: Dayyum. lamh36, that tweet’s the best thing I’ve read all day! Stone’s got a target painted on his back. If he -still- isn’t breathing easier, maybe there’s hope after all.