Trump Oil, Founders Impeach, Peek at Intelligence, Centennial, Nukes

Trump Intelligence

Continue reading “Trump Oil, Founders Impeach, Peek at Intelligence, Centennial, Nukes”

Chris Wallace Warns GOP on Forcing Hunter Biden, Others, to Testify

found online by Raymond

 

Chris Wallace

From Tommy Christopher:

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace warned Republicans they could be walking into a trap if they insist on calling their wish list of impeachment trial witnesses like Hunter Biden, because that would open the door for Democrats to secure potentially damaging testimony from the likes of John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, and even President Donald Trump.

On Friday morning’s edition of America’s Newsroom, anchor Sandra Smith asked Wallace to weigh in on the week of damaging impeachment testimony. Wallace delivered a mostly-neutral assessment of “both sides” of the issue, although he did remark that the witnesses had “certainly” proven a link between security assistance and a White House meeting, if not the investigations.

But then Wallace volunteered a warning to Republicans about calling in as laundry list of witnesses at a Senate trial.

– More –
 

Recent Progress in SpongeBob SquarePants® Studies

found online by Raymond

 

From The Journal of Improbable Research:

SpongeBob SquarePants first made a public appearance in 1999, but it took quite some time for the emergence of a scholarly work which directly cited the character as a primary focus for study. This one, from 2005, is a likely candidate as the first:

■ A More Porous Postmodernity: Absurdity, Politics, Consumerism and the Cultural Authority of Spongebob Squarepants

Since then, SpongeBob SquarePants has definitely not been ignored by academia.

– More Examples –
 

Trump’s Conspiracy Theory on ‘The Server’ Threatens Election Security

found online by Raymond

 

Alex Jones Interviews Donald Trump

From senior fellow at Cato Institute Julian Sanchez:

Donald Trump is still searching for “The Server.” On Friday morning, the president phoned in to his favorite cable news program, “Fox & Friends,” to make a series of false claims about the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems perpetrated by Russian hackers, as part of their elaborate efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. After the attack, claimed Trump, the DNC “gave the server to CrowdStrike, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian. I still want to see that server. The FBI has never gotten that server. That’s a big part of this whole thing.”

Every part of what Trump said was false — including the claim that the California-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, hired by the DNC when it discovered the infiltration of its systems, is owned by a “wealthy Ukrainian.” But “the server” has been a long-running obsession of the president’s. He has referenced it repeatedly on Twitter, in media interviews, while standing onstage next to Russian President Vladimir Putin and, more recently, in his July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

That refrain is troubling, most of all because it shows that Trump is fixated on a conspiracy theory that his own national security advisers have denounced as “completely debunked.” These theories allege that there is a server that the DNC refused to turn over to the FBI, purportedly to conceal evidence that would disprove the intelligence community’s consensus that Russia was responsible for the hack. According to some versions of the theory, another country (perhaps Ukraine) was the true culprit; in others, the theft of thousands of DNC emails later published by WikiLeaks was an “inside job.” The unifying theme, however, is a desire to exonerate Russia of the crime.

Trump’s obsession with the server suggests either that he is unwilling to seek reliable information from the government’s own intelligence and law enforcement agencies or that he disbelieves what they tell him, even on questions where there is no ambiguity or doubt. This goes well beyond healthy skepticism and into the realm of dangerous dysfunction: A president who refuses to accept intelligence assessments he prefers not to believe cannot make sound decisions, and over time this creates pressure to politicize intelligence — with agencies flattering the president’s preconceptions to remain relevant.

– More –
 

Fox Guest Wants Trump To Privatize Social Security

Stephen Moore and Social Security

found online by Raymond

 
From Frances Langum:

“It would be a great way for middle-class Americans to own stock,” says Stephen Moore.

Here we go again. Another clip to put on Democratic advertising.

They WANT to take your Social Security, America.

We’ve already posted (and saved to the C&L archives) Lindsey Graham promising Laura Ingraham that there must be cuts to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare to “deal with” the deficit. He said that on camera this year.

That. Medicare. and. Social. Security. Are. Promises. We. Can’t. Keep.

And Stephen Moore knows that by planting this seed on Fox and Friends is his best chance to get Trump’s ear on more tax cuts for billionaires, tucked into language about the middle class. “Capital Gains Rollover” is conserva-speak for “play the market for free” for rich people.

– More –
 

Don’t Buy the Conventional Wisdom on Impeachment

found online by Raymond

 

Trump and Impeachment Hearings

From Jonathan Bernstein:

The most likely outcome may still be a close-to-party-line impeachment in the House and acquittal in the Senate.

But remember that conservative Republicans stuck with President Richard Nixon in 1974 … right up until they didn’t. Trump’s seemingly unanimous support right now is similar to the backing that Nixon had even as his original cover-up collapsed in early 1973; as the Senate Watergate committee hearings dominated that summer; as the Saturday Night Massacre unfolded in October; and as the House judiciary committee debated and voted on specific articles of impeachment in 1974. And then: The smoking gun tape came out and it all collapsed immediately. Even Nixon’s strongest supporter on the judiciary committee, the Jim Jordan of the day, who had just vigorously defended the president during televised deliberations, flipped and said he’d vote to impeach on the House floor.

That suggests Nixon’s support was never as solid as it seemed. Which in turn suggests we just can’t know how firm Trump’s support is among congressional Republicans this time.

– More –
 

Another John Dean Moment

found online by Raymond

 
From Hart Williams at The Moderate Voice:

Dean was calm, level headed, clearly nervous and under a great deal of stress. And he came forward and outed the whole Nixon gang. He showed that rarest of qualities, moral courage.

It is curious – curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare. ‑ Mark Twain

From that point onwards, Watergate kept getting bigger, moving along as a historical drama, almost of its own accord. But it was big, and it turns out that no matter how bad you though old Tricky Dick was, he was worse. And that was the John Dean moment.

John Dean testified the next two days, but I could only catch the newspaper accounts. I worked from 7 am to 2 PM and then 5 pm to 2 AM the other six days. (The food was great and I didn’t have any time to spend my paychecks. The wizened salad lady cooked us a northern New Mexican meal before our shift started, an amazingly good, private restaurant.)

But that John Dean moment had opened up a can of worms that was much bigger than anyone to that moment realized. And the drama played out over the next year and change.

Dean’s testimony continued to rock the nation while I cracked eggs, cleaned shrimp, made croutons, cut endless tomatoes, lettuce, chopped garlic, etc. I still use what I learned in that kitchen, long ago, working for minimum wage, each and every day of my cooking life.

Watergate, though, faded.

Watching Ambassador Sondland testify today, I sensed many — though not all — of the conflicts and pressures that John Dean had felt. And I also felt that veil ripped asunder.

There’s a thing I half remember called Zymurgy’s Law which posits that once you open a can of worms, you always need a BIGGER can to get them back into.

Today’s link in the chain was the direct link back to Trump. And the whole gang knew about it.

That pop you heard was a BIG can of worms opening.

– More –
 

Dying to Leave, Trying to Live: My Depression Journey

found online by Raymond

 

Depression

From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

Trigger warning: suicide, self-harm

“I’m done living.”

It was a few days after Christmas and I was sitting in a car outside our Central New York hotel, with heavy snow swiftly obscuring the world outside the windows. My tears turned cold as they ran down my cheeks, and my labored breath shot white clouds like fireworks in front of me.

After months of a slow and steady slide into a now lingering sadness—all my exhausted mind could now process was, “I’m done.”

I didn’t want to kill myself (at least I didn’t process it that way in that moment), I just felt as though I’d exhausted every possibility that a living person could to not feel like this: prayer, therapy, meditation, medication, working out, nature, journaling, art, breathing exercises, positive thinking—and it was all presently failing me. I’d simply run out of options and energy, and I was done.

It didn’t matter that all the objective evidence of my life testified that I should be happy, that I was fortunate, that I had so much to be grateful for, so much to want to live for—none of that registered in that moment, none of that tipped the scales toward hope. The dire story I told myself didn’t require data. It never does.

That’s what people don’t understand about those of us who live with the inner monsters: intellectually we understand that this makes no sense, which is often part of the problem. We don’t just feel terrible—we feel guilty for feeling so terrible.

– More –
 

Nixon and Haldeman Explain How to Save Trump


 

The Haldeman maneuver didn’t really work for Nixon.

Trump has a more fanatic following.
Maybe they’ll fall into line.

As if I needed another reminder of my age, Donald Trump brings Bob Haldeman to my mind.

Haldeman was indignant 46 years ago during the Watergate hearings. John Dean had not lied, exactly, but he had misled the world by leaving out something important.

Dean had remembered talking with President Nixon about Watergate burglars. They had been caught and put in jail. They were being pressured to name names. They were about to tell an angry Judge John Sirica just who had ordered them to break into Democratic headquarters.

And they were demanding money from the Nixon people to keep quiet.

John Dean had discussed that demand with his boss, the President of the United States. And he told the Senate Committee on Watergate how that talk had gone:

I told the president about the fact there was no money to pay these individuals, to meet their demands. He asked me how much it would cost. I told him I could only make an estimate, that it might be as high as a million dollars or more.

He told me that that was no problem. He also looked over at Haldeman and repeated the same statement.

Well, that wraps it, I thought at the time. I was young.

Then it was Haldeman’s turn at the witness table. He denied being in that conversation at all.

President Nixon had been secretly recording conversations and this one was on tape. The President refused to let the Senate listen to the tapes, and he refused to let special investigators listen to them.

But Haldeman had been allowed. Even though he wasn’t there – he explained Dean was lying about that – he had heard everything in that conversation on tape and he could let the committee and the world know precisely what Dean had left out.
Continue reading “Nixon and Haldeman Explain How to Save Trump”

Jack Back, 1st Never-Trumper, 50 min Call, War & Oil, Sondland Sings

Donald Trump, Jr on Book Tour

Continue reading “Jack Back, 1st Never-Trumper, 50 min Call, War & Oil, Sondland Sings”