This is worth a thread, so that we can celebrate Christmas cheer on Betty’s thread below.
Donald Trump is attacking James Baker, the top lawyer at the FBI and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe has announced he is retiring.
Some responses:
The president can obstruct justice by firing senior law enforcement officials and impeachment is a fully constitutional remedy, says Bob Bauer. https://t.co/nLPOyQh5ii
— Lawfare (@lawfareblog) December 22, 2017
Most Americans have never witnessed such a tactic because most of our presidents have acted in good faith in this regard, allowing the Department of Justice and the FBI relative independence to uphold the law.
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) December 23, 2017
In many cases, this is accomplished by firing senior law enforcement officials en masse. Our norms make that difficult. So instead, Trump and his allies are working overtime to set the pretext for targeted firings, demotions, and forced retirements to accomplish the same thing.
— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) December 23, 2017
This taunting is important. It’s Trump’s way of signaling that he has purged the FBI. He doesn’t want anyone to think this is a normal retirement. He wants everyone to see it as a manifestation of his power—and for serving FBI agents & prosecutors to fear crossing him. https://t.co/FfupKzvGKq
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) December 23, 2017
Now if FBI’s Andrew McCabe and James Baker testify against Trump, he will claim it’s sour grapes because he forced them out of their jobs. This is an inversion of reality but it will satisfy Trump’s base.
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) December 23, 2017
History suggests that it's not a super-great idea for an American president to wage war against the FBI and CIA.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) December 23, 2017
And I expect there will be Republican congresscritters on the Sunday talk shows telling us it’s just fine for the President to attack particular individuals. Or maybe they’ll join in.
Hunter Gathers
But my sister-in-laws cousin, who knows this guy who knows this girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 flavors last night, saw some Blacks buying steak and lobster with food stamps.
So there.
Trentrunner
Boot’s point about McCabe/Baker testifying against Trump is likely not hypothetical: McCabe was likely a witness (via hearsay, but) that Trump had tried to obstruct justice via pressuring Comey to end the Flynn investigation.
This is worse than Nixon, and it’s out in the open.
Sarah in Kingston
What the everlasting fuck are we supposed to do about this?!?!?
Mike in NC
How soon into 2018 will Putin be invited to Mar-A-Lago for some VIP treatment?
bluefish
Guess we’re about to find out what we’re really made of. The men and women in our Congress, our Governors, and state officials — One can only hope that there is still some small vestige of the most basic honor left in enough of them to make a difference. And in our people — Getting out my walking shoes and ready to heed the call. We need to be in the streets, again. Every day and night if need be. It seems as though those that are meant to serve us, to lead us, need to be introduced to the quaint notion of good old fashioned SHAME. And told firmly, without fear, that the vast majority of folks in this country are not interested in living in the past, tied again to every anchor that brings us low, subject to this daily assault on our sanity. This crew is un-American. Where did they get the gall to imagine that the push back would not rise up in kind and then some?
Hunter Gathers
@Sarah in Kingston: Nothing. Doing anything about it will force yet another Cletus Expedition by major press outlets. And since the Cleti are also Nazi sympathisers, going after their beloved Fuhrer is going to give them a major sad, and the Press will tut-tut trying to force the Nazis out of power, because it will hurt the feelings of the Cleti, who are the Voice of Real America
James E. Powell
This is how Republicans are now. Just imagine how unrestrained they will be if they hold the senate and house in 2018.
N M
I guess we now know that the meeting between the Presinutz’ lawyers and Mueller’s squad didn’t go well…
JPL
@Hunter Gathers: lol.. I asked someone how do they get close enough to know how someone pays.
Lapassionara
@Sarah in Kingston: Good question. All the plans so far have focused on taking action if Mueller is fired. I think we need to consider taking action sooner. I am not sure we have until November 2018 to change the direction the country is going in. We are headed to, if not already in, a full-blown authoritarian regime.
JPL
So the republican is taunting the FBI on twitter, and the republicans will cheer. ugh
MomSense
@Sarah in Kingston:
Get a plan in place to hit the streets if trump interferes or stops the Mueller investigation. And we have to continue to call and write our Congress critters to tell them what we expect of them even if they won’t do the right thing.
JPL
Jon Favreau has this tweet
https://twitter.com/jonfavs
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
I still can’t believe being shot at didn’t wake at least some of the goopers up. That’s a preview of their future if they continue on like this and next time they might not be so lucky.
JPL
@MomSense: He’s already interfered by his purge in the FBI, and opening boasting about it.
tobie
Where for the love of God is any, I mean any, Democratic leader right now? This unrelenting effort on the part of Trump and the GOP to subvert justice is starting to feel like a move to end democracy in this country.
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
I think the only time I was aware as a customer that someone was paying with food stamps was because she had grabbed a block of cheese that was not covered under WIC and someone had to go get the correct cheese. That’s why I find these “cheater” stories so implausible — if the cashier can’t even ring up pepper jack cheese when it’s not on the WIC list, how is someone buying steaks and lobster?
And the people who whine about someone buying their kid’s birthday cake with food stamps are beneath contempt. Really, poor kids shouldn’t even be allowed a fucking BIRTHDAY CAKE?
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Adam Schiff is on it, and I’m sure other Democrats are as well, but nobody can stop Trump from tweeting, including his family.
Humiliating James Baker was probably a bad move. He’s the ultimate Republican inside guy and the consigliere for the Bush family. This could end up as all-out civil war for the Republicans now that the purges for insufficient fealty to Trump have begun.
MikeEss
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@bluefish:
Some of the Republicans governors will have something to say about this. There might be a few in Congress who claim to give a shit, mostly those who aren’t running next year. Overall, though, they’re going to stand by and let him do and say whatever he wants because they want shit from him and because they really don’t give a shit anyway. They’d be screaming to the heavens if a Democrat did this, but when it’s one of theirs, hey, have at it, Donnie.
This is going to be up to us. We can’t worry about what the Republicans are going to do, since they won’t do shit. This is our job. We need to organize. We need to march. We need to send money to Democratic candidates and work for their campaigns, and most of all, we need to vote. That’s the only way we’re going to get through this.
debbie
We know for sure McCabe was forced out and isn’t leaving of his own volition?
tobie
@Mnemosyne: maybe I’m being dense (likely) but I thought the former general counsel for the FBI James baker was different than the former Secretary of State James baker. Are they related?
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne:
No. Because in the eyes of those complaining people, poor people deserve to be punished. Why? Because they’re poor, of course. A lot of the complainers tend to be the sorts that brag about their fervent Christianity, which makes it doubly assholish.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@N M:
Ah there we go, and Trump is bullying.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
My niece had a big whoo-haa on FB because the charity that allows people to pick up a wish from a poor kid for Christmas gave her a wish that was expensive. This somehow made the child evil. When I pointed out that poor kids see other kids with X-Boxes and iPads they would like to have one too and it is not the kids fault those things are expensive. Apparently she feels they should only be allowed to ask for necessities like socks & warm coats. SHe did not care for may reply
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne:
You mean the former Security of State. Oh this makes sense. Both GW and GH Bush have been critical of Trump so Trump is taking revenge.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
I thought they were the same guy. Which one of us is confused? ?
Schlemazel
If only but I am afraid Gawd really does not love us enough for this
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
Then why didn’t she pick a different wish? Sheesh. We got our Adopt A Family a laptop, a bicycle, and a violin, because that’s what they asked for.
The Ancient Randonneur
Congressional R’s now have the tax cut signed into law. Look for the rats to flee Trump’s sinking ship.
HeleninEire
@Mnemosyne: No, two different guys.
germy
Gravenstone
@Mnemosyne: Wrong James Baker. This is career FBI guy, not professional consigliere and rat fucker.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mnemosyne: @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Different James Baker.
ETA: It confuses me too.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Mnemosyne: Possibly Trump is confused.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
I think her family can’t afford it but I told her to simply tell them that & ask for a different wish. Maybe the program should sort by cost range but, again, it is not the kids fault & there is no good reason a poor kids wants should be much different than middle-class. Mostly I think it was her wanting to be a saving angel helping those poor urchins. That would allow her to feel superior to them.
pat
Hmmm, wonder how many will see all this as proof of guilt? One can hope…..
Cheryl Rofer
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Ironic
These FBI assholes fucked Hillary and the voters over because she had cooties and they wanted their white male supremacy reinstated.
Now it’s blown up in their faces.
Quinerly
Totally different James Baker. Not the former SOS. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Baker_(government_attorney)
J R in WV
@tobie:
Gosh>! Ya think? End Democracy?
They’ve been working on that since the mid 1800s. Treason on the part of the Confederates ever since the actual shooting wound down. First the Dixiecrats for 70 or 80 years and now the Republican racist haters ever since LBJ signed the first modern civil rights act.
Hard to say how this will work out. It’s like living in an action movie, only the boring parts aren’t cut out in editing. Hunt for Red Trump is going on all around us, in secret. Slow but sure. Scary as hell, too.
Achrachno
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: It’s a different James Baker “Donald Trump is attacking James Baker, the top lawyer at the FBI “
eclare
@Mnemosyne: Different James Baker.
MomSense
@Cheryl Rofer:
Games are afoot. I hope someday we learn the whole story.
Trentrunner
@Trentrunner: I hate being right:
CNN:
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
The Bush Insider is 87 years old. The FBI guy is a different James Baker.
ETA: Late again!
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Surely that’s a different James Baker.
(I could be wrong. But I don’t think I am this time.)
Cheryl Rofer
@MomSense: From Brian Krassenstein’s tweet:
Interesting that he included Sally Yates. We still don’t know her full story. Cummings has been paying close attention.
I hope we’ll get something like the full story eventually. There is so much to it, though.
Cheryl Rofer
A bit more information.
raven
@Steeplejack: Sheesh, people really don’t know that? Ty Cobb didn’t play for Detroit either.
West of the Cascades
@Mike in NC:
You mean a blowjob from Mike Pence?
J R in WV
Like living in a really good movie about real life…
“The Hunt for Red Trump!!”
Starring John Candy as Red Trump
Tom Hanks as James Comey
Sean Connery as MI6 operative Christopher Steele
Representative John Lewis as himself
James Earl Jones as Representative Ellijah Cummings
Humphrey Bogart as Robert Mueller III
AND
Meryl Streep as Hillary Clinton
with Boris Karloff as Steve Bannon
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Too late to edit.
@Mnemosyne:
ETA: I see that thousands of others got there first.
Quinerly
Good background piece on McCabe: https://www.vox.com/world/2017/12/21/16801054/andrew-mccabe-trump-fbi-mueller-republicans
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
@Gravenstone:
@Cheryl Rofer:
Et al.
D’oh! Oh, well, carry on, then.
West of the Cascades
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Some FBI assholes, mainly in NYC and James Comey. Not willing to tar the whole FBI with their misdeeds.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Cascades:
Naah. A big slice of beautiful chocolate cake and an extra scoop of ice cream should put Putin in Trump’s debt forever.
MomSense
@Cheryl Rofer:
We know she was so concerned about Flynn being compromised that she went to the White House to meet with Pence in person and even after that they kept Flynn in place. That intelligence must have been ?
This is so beyond the scope of any previous intrigue.
mai naem mobile
@Mnemosyne: different James Baker but I am betting he’s a Republican. I would bet most FBI ar. W GOPrs and are probably finding this shit stunning and disappointing.
Brachiator
This line of attack will alternate with declarations about how Trump is the trumpiest trumper who ever trumped because of his bigly trumpian tax cuts.
Mutha-trumpers
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: Also Mark Warner making a speech on the floor of the Senate warning against these partisan efforts to undermine the investigation. Or the letter from 171 House Democrats opposing interference in the Mueller probe. This is one issue where I don’t think there’s much reason for complaint about the Dems’ public response.
Miss Bianca
@J R in WV: OK, that last line made me LOL. I’d pay to see that movie!
Van Buren
Just returned from a party with some true believers.
“I give credit to Trump for standing tall against unprecedented attacks by the media ” was the line that made me get my coat and say my goodbyes. It was either that or go for the knife drawer.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Problem is, too many of these guardians are leaving public service, or being pushed out.
Sherparick
@tobie: Senator Warner made a speech that was covered far and wide on the impending Constitutional crisis & defending the FBI. So have other Democrats. I keep wondering about this belief that even in the minority the Democrats have some super power to stop all this. The people on the streets in the millions will stop this slide into autocracy.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@J R in WV:
Well, Karloff works for Bannon if John Belushi is unavailable.
fuckwit
@Mnemosyne: what??? The James Baker III former secretary of state under poppy bush, served in the Reagan ADM? That’s wgi troll is attacking! Wtf!
Jeffro
Take him out, IC. History will forever remember how you saved the Republic.
Matt McIrvin
@fuckwit: No, it’s a different guy.
jc
Donald Trump acting in “good faith,” don’t make me laugh.