We need to talk about Donald – the Nightmare continues

[pErvinalia]

Oh dear.

[Brian Peacock]

In nobody at the top of US politics or business not connected with the Kremlin somehow?

[Brian Peacock]

Yeah I had a laugh when I heard Ryan's excuse. "The president is clueless" isn't a very inspiring defence.

I know, right? He's saying Trump isn't qualified to be President, FFS

Finding out and understanding how thing work is what transition periods are for, so we blame the democrats right?

[pErvinalia]

What I thought was one of the strong points of Comey's testimony was the point that there was very little interest or urgency out of the Whitehouse about Russia interfering in US democracy. It doesn't look good when that is combined with the fact that there are so many connections between Trump and his team with Russia. It's of course possible that nothing is going on, but it certainly doesn't look good.

[Animavore]

The plan is simple. Drop sanctions with Russia. Exxon and Rosneft get the go ahead with their multibillion dollar deal. Let the oil flow. Ka-ching.

Anyone paying attention knew this ages ago. This is why Trump cultist idiots make me laugh so hard when they whimper that Trump's going to drain the swamp. The swamp isn't being drained. They're building a derrick on it.

America is being subjected to a fossil industry take over. They aren't even hiding it.

[pErvinalia]

The swamp isn't being drained. They're building a derrick on it.

If only my signature wasn't so cluttered I'd add this.

[Forty Two]

Yeah I had a laugh when I heard Ryan's excuse. "The president is clueless" isn't a very inspiring defence.

I know, right? He's saying Trump isn't qualified to be President, FFS

Is that a surprise? Most establishment Republicans have been saying that about Trump since July of 2015.

They don't like him.

They've never liked him.

He was not the Republican establishment's choice to be their candidate.

They don't think he's qualified to be President, and they never have. The "never Trump" movement was in the Republican Party.

Trump was elected by people who don't like the other leading Republicans.

[Tero]

It's more like this: They Trust to make smaller government (other than millitary spending which is always great for GOP):
The Daily 202: What would it take for the Republican base to stop trusting Donald Trump?
Washington Post - ‎1 hour ago‎

With Joanie Greve. THE BIG IDEA: A Washington Post/ABC News poll in late April found that 81 percent of Republicans think President Trump is honest and trustworthy - compared to 38 percent of Americans overall and 34 percent of independents.

[Animavore]

They really are stuck in a moral vacuum.

[L'Emmerdeur]

On the subject of Trump's lies: 'Comey May Have Confirmed Trump Is Not Under Investigation But Trump Was Caught Telling Two Big Lies'

I thought the celebrating was odd because Comey never said Trump was under investigation. Critics say it’s a media and Democratic Party narrative, but the reality is, Trump didn’t need Jim Comey to make a public statement on Trump’s behalf. He’s not a spokesperson for Trump. So the criticism that Comey didn’t go to bat for the president publicly to reassure people he wasn’t under investigation is silly.

That said, despite the fact there is nothing in the statement that leads to articles of impeachment, there are a couple of issues that will cause Trump political problems.

Here is what Comey said about the subject of Mike Flynn:

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Trump’s problem? He denied this happened:

President Trump on Thursday denied ever asking FBI Director James B. Comey to back off his agency’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as into the role played by former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Asked whether he urged Comey to ease up on the Flynn investigation, Trump said at a news conference, “No, no,” before ordering the media to move on to the “next question.”

Then there was the question of loyalty. Comey said:

A few moments later, the President said, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner.

Trump denied that as well:

Donald Trump is denying recent reports that he asked for former FBI Director James Comey’s loyalty a few days after he was sworn in as president.

Sources told ABC News that Trump posed the question to Comey more than once during a dinner in January and Comey would not promise such a thing to the new president, only that he would be honest.

“I didn’t ask that question,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro that aired Saturday night.

Trump, however, said it “wouldn’t be a bad question to ask.”

[Tero]

Lying president, lying lawyer accuse Comey of leaking the lies he found about lying Trump.
Trump's lawyer to file complaint against Comey over memos
CNN-4 hours ago
Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's legal team, in the wake of damning testimony from James Comey, plans to file a complaint ...
Trump's lawyer plans to file complaint against Comey over memo
CBS News-2 hours ago
Trump's lawyer accuses Comey of illegal leaks
International-Sky News Australia-21 hours ago

[Animavore]

Truth and falsehoods have no meaning with Trump. There's just a bunch of shit he rambled incoherently. Accusing Trump of lying is like complaining about a broken clock telling the wrong time.

[Tero]

Politics Analysis

There’s no indication Comey violated the law. Trump may be about to.
In other words, Comey, here, is an employee who is blowing the whistle, to use the idiom, on his former boss. That boss wants to punish him for doing so. That’s problematic — especially if there’s no evidence that Comey actually violated any law that would trigger punishment.
That, as described, is not illegal, Kohn said.

“Obviously you can report on a conversation with the president,” he said. “What the president does isn’t confidential or classified.” There is the principle of “executive privilege,” which protects the president’s deliberative process as he does his job. But that wouldn’t cover a conversation like the one between Comey and Trump.
Comey gave nonclassified notes about a conversation he had with the president to a friend with the express purpose of releasing that information to the media.
Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project pointed out in an email after this article was originally published that Comey himself isn’t covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act since he was both a presidential appointee and a representative of the FBI, a position which doesn’t fall under the act’s purview.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pol ... f128e15b17

[Tero]

Trump not ready to address congress on this so nothing will happen to Comey

It’s unclear what action the justice department might be able to take against Comey, who was no longer employed by it at the time. It’s also uncertain whether a formal complaint to the Senate judiciary committee would prompt a meaningful response.

Moreover, several experts agree that Comey did not violate any laws by sharing his personal memos with a friend to be made public and that his actions did not constitute the “unauthorized disclosure of privileged information”.

“It is not a ‘violation’ of executive privilege to voluntarily disclose materials that could be protected by the privilege, no matter what Kasowitz says,” Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, wrote in the Washington Post. “Nor is such a voluntary disclosure illegal.”

At least one Democratic senator, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, suggested Trump should now testify before Congress himself. “This is not just another silly tweet,” Schatz tweeted. “It is essential for our country that the president offer his testimony to Congress about what exactly happened.”
In an interview on Friday, Rhode Island senator Jack Reed, an ex officio member of the Senate intelligence committee, said he expected Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed in the wake of Comey’s firing to take over the Russia inquiry, to depose the president as part of the investigation.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -testimony

[Tero]

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20 hrs ·
Don't believe the hype- Trump's infrastructure "plan" is just another giveaway to big business and the super-rich.