by Jack
Poverty becomes an excuse for lawbreaking.
When it comes to criminal justice reform, Dallas, Texas is taking a page from California progressives.
The new Dallas DA ran on a platform of softer laws for certain criminals. Now that he has been elected he has already dismissed more than a 1000 minor drug offenses. The defendants in those cases are no doubt happy they will not be facing any fines, jail time, probation or even community service. Instead they will be expected to learn from their mistakes on their own, without any consequences. Crank addicts, glue sniffers and heroin junkies (names withheld by request) are pleased with Creuzot’s decision as are most of the local drug dealers. Will this have an impact on drug abuse? Oh, without a doubt.
DA Creuzot said he’ll dismiss many criminal trespass cases as well, charges he says are most often brought against criminals who roam the night looking for an opportunity to steal something of value. People suffering from anger management or depression can use this as an excuse to get off the hook for theft crimes…wow, its about time, Texas has always been real tough on criminals, thus the low crime rate. Can’t have that! CA says, crime victims don’t want people arrested, they want them counselled. This must be true too, because look at the plethora of soft on crime laws CA passed two years ago!
The DA, following the CA example, said his office will no longer prosecute theft cases involving items, such as liquor, clothing, power tools, car parts, copper wiring from telephone poles, bicycles, gun powder, etc. If it was worth less than $750 it’s not getting prosecuted, unless evidence shows it was for economic gain says Creuzot. Then the burden of proof falls on the police to prove it. This means they must catch the offender in the act of selling his stolen goods or get a voluntary confession from the defendant.
Andrew Arterburn, the owner of One Stop Express in Uptown said a shoplifter just stole $120 worth of laundry detergent on Thursday and he’s not happy to find out cases like this could be dismissed. What’s the defendant going to do with a $120 worth of assorted laundry detergent, you may wonder? Well, it can be easily sold for .25 cents on the dollar.
“It’s a slap on the wrist. They go to jail, get a meal, get let go. And they’re not going to be prosecuted at all for it,” said Arterburn. But, Creuzot doesn’t think is so bad. He’s reaching out…. appealing to one’s “better angels,” asking them to be better citizens. By giving them a break, he says they will learn it’s not nice to steal and they will stop. He must believe this will work equally well on the mentally ill.
Hispanic gang members of Dallas such as the Nortenos, Sorenos, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) also support DA Creuzot’s thinking, “This is a real good deal Esse, we like it a lot, who wouldn’t?” In fact they like it so much that we think gang members will now cancel their plans to migrate to California where the theft laws have already been decriminalized.
The President of the National Black Police Association, Sgt. Sheldon Smith, said he worries it will lead to more crime. Actually, he’s not worried that it will, he knows that it will. If they were not stealing before, they will now, just keep it under $750 or as Capt. Obvious says, “It opens the door for some people to think they can commit crimes.” Duh?
You should be proud that the inspiration for this progressive reform came from California! Yes, the great State of California is teaching Texans that all you 
have to do to is make it legal, then no more crime… simple.
Next let’s show them how easy it is to create sanctuary cities filled with tiny houses. I’ll bet many thousands of our homeless would love to live in Texas if they could get CA style benefits. (I’m just kidding, we love our bums, we don’t want to lose them)
And here I was considering dumping this lunatic state and moving to Texas. The liberal disease has become a contagion. A pandemic! We’re doomed, there is no escape from these zombies…
Jack, you swiped the braying jackass image I uploaded for the Friday Free-For-All post. No matter, it is perfect here! Best wishes my internet pal. Keep the faith and keep blogging!
Oops, sorry Pie, it was just there and I grabbed it without thinking who left it.
Pie here: No apology necessary! It fits in perfectly and you are welcome to anything I upload.
Welp, the Mueller report is out, and it seems to explain why Trump has been so nervous the past few days after originally claiming the report (which he had not read) “totally exonerated” him. A fun excerpt:
According to notes written by Hunt, when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair and said, “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.” The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, “How could you let this happen, Jeff?”
Definitely the words of a totally innocent man with nothing to hide!
This sentence is a doozy:
Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
In other words, what I suspected all along was absolutely true: there was no need for a formal collusion agreement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government because there didn’t need to be one. Both sides understood perfectly what the other side wanted, and each side gave the other what they wanted. No actual crime was necessary on the part of the Trump campaign (other than all the lies they told to investigators and under oath) for this collusion to take place.
But the Mueller investigation was never just a criminal investigation, it was also a counterintelligence investigation. And the inescapable conclusion of this report—and from any rational, casual observation of Trump’s behavior over the past three years—is that Trump stood idly by while the Russian government interfered in our election process. He knew it was happening, and not only did he do nothing, but he repeatedly defended Russia, because he knew they helped him, and that’s all that matters to him. Not the sanctity of our democracy or election process (are you kidding me?), just whatever benefits him personally.
This makes the President not only dangerously negligent, but also a national security risk. If he is willing to look the other way as a foreign government interferes with our election process (which is, again, something that he has been clearly doing since the campaign) because doing so benefits him personally, he is in violation of his oath of office. This may not be a crime, but it is certainly an impeachable offense.
“In other words, what I suspected all along was absolutely true: there was no need for a formal collusion agreement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government because there didn’t need to be one.”
There’s a scoop for you, Chris. One country interested in how the election in another country turns out. Who ever heard of such a thing? Shocking!
The phrase “interested in” is quite a euphemism for “illegally hacking into,” Cherokee. The FBI has indicted numerous Russians for their meddling in our democratic process, and every one of our intelligence agencies has identified what they did as a national security threat, and one they are likely to repeat, given Trump’s lackadaisical response. But I’m sure you and Trump know better than them.
Here’s the clip of Sarah Sanders telling a room full of reporters that she had spoken to “countless” FBI agents who were grateful that Donald Trump had fired James Comey.
https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1118952588924289026?s=21
Note how huffy she gets when asked by a skeptical NYT reporter if that really happened.
But the NYT reporter was right to be skeptical: according to the Mueller report, when Sarah Sanders was questioned by the FBI, she admitted that had never happened. She made it up.
Who’s the real fake news?
Oh, yes. I am pleased.
Again … and out of his own mouth … he is hoist. He is a felon in all but name, and we don’t have to pay any more attention to him.
And it makes you feel so good about your government, even the Republicans in it. Even if it’s only out of self-preservation … there are things they will not do. The system mostly works.
Huh. Usually I’m the optimist between the two of us. I won’t stop worrying until Dems move to impeach…and enough Republicans have the decency to join them. Until that happens, I give them zero credit.
Why do you never look into these things? Why do you ALWAYS just parrot what your handlers feed you?
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2018/12/27/dallas-countys-new-district-attorneyfires-12-prosecutors-before-taking-office-jan-1
I mean … something fairly scandalous had to be going on for a Dem to beat out a Repug DA in Dallas.
I read the link, but it didn’t really say anything about how this guy was going to accomplish anything. He’s fired a lot of experience people without hearing their side of the story, you should be appalled at that ruthless behavior. What he says sort of sounds good on its face, but I’ve heard it before and it never works out. It always comes back to this: You can’t reduce criminal behavior by reducing criminal penalties.
You also can’t legislate drug rehabilitation – only druggies can do that for themselves, if they are determined enough and very few are! That’s why addicts have over a 90% failure rate. Past efforts tell us, we can spend millions trying to educate and reform drug abusers, but unless they absolutely want to quit and have an iron will, then its all for nothing. People really have to hit bottom and then decide they can’t go on living that way or they will die… most will just die.
Ditto
The evidence from countries that focus on rehabilitation over criminalization seems to contradict that, Jack.
Re Chris: “Note how huffy she gets when asked by a skeptical NYT reporter if that really happened.”
Oooooh! “Huffy!” This is HUUUUUUGE!
Sometimes you just have to laugh.
Cherokee Jack, can you smell the desperation? It is palpable, no? I am beginning to think Democrats are suffering from some sort of psychosis.
Its over, but not for the left. Hanging onto the collusion hoax/witch hunt is sure winner for Democrats in 2020.
Next up, who initiated the Russia collusion hoax/spying to begin with? Eh? Inquiring minds want to know. (Actually we already know but it looks like the DOJ is going to take that up.)
Trump has been vindicated, but Democrats will never accept that. I am going to enjoy watching the party and Chris choke on it all the way to the nomination process.
Again, note the complete lack of rebuttal. The White House press secretary is a known liar, but criticizing her for lying is wrong, in Pie’s eyes, for reasons he does not care to explain.
“Vindicated.” Hilarious. The report clearly outlines the Trump campaign’s many, many unethical contacts with Russia. It clearly outlines that Trump knew that Russia was meddling while he was defending Russia against such allegations to the public. It clearly outlines Trump’s many attempts to obstruct justice, and concludes that he failed mostly because people working under him refused to follow his demands. The general thrust is that Trump and others, including his son, were too incompetent to meet the intent requirements of many of the offenses Mueller considered charging him with.
And this is a vindication. That’s how much you’ve allowed yourself to lower your standards for the most powerful person in the world–the person who is supposed to represent America to the world.
But don’t let any of those facts get in the way of your sneer.
Trump was vindicated. Period! Our laws do not require someone to prove they’re innocent, which is impossible. It requires a crime was committed. Mueller’s report clearly says no proof of a crime was found concerning the Trump’s actions. If one could be found guilty for our thoughts and things we said within the confines of a private conversation we’d all be in jail.
I expect Trump will declassify the Carter Page and even many of the other FISA court warrants shortly and other related documents. Trump is a counter puncher. They swung first, now it’s his turn.
I do expect Barr to look into who and when this all started. Documents are out showing it began in 2015 and there are emails between the lovebirds Lisa Page and Peter Strzok stating Obama, “Page wrote to Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016 about prepping Comey because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” Senate investigators told Fox News this text raises questions about Obama’s personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation.”
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/07/new-strzok-page-texts-obama-wanted-know-everything/
Next up will be the IG report on the FBI and DoJ, then Huber’s on Clinton and finally up to bat will be Barr doing cleanup on bringing back the ruptation, and honor to the FBI, DoJ and the office of the president.
Reminder, this whole Russian election meddling thing started under Obama’s watch before and during the campaign, when he thought Hillary would win. He did nothing until he realized Hillary could lose and when she did he had one mell of a hess to cover up. #1 item on the cover up list was to blame Trump for all of the illegal acts.
====
Obama team was warned in 2014 about Russian interference:
“In 2014, the administration got a report of Russia’s intention to disrupt Western democracies, including the United States.
“We were worried [Putin] would try to test us,” recalled a former Obama administration official.
The Ukraine crisis — coupled with the Kremlin’s embrace of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, who continues to be granted asylum by Moscow — was a sobering moment for the White House, one recently departed intelligence officer and the current administration official said.
Yet the administration still was reluctant to engage in more forceful counterintelligence strategies against the Kremlin, including more aggressively tracking and tailing Russian operatives within the United States, according to five of the officials who spoke to POLITICO.
Those outside the White House said they received frustrating mixed messages: The White House would subsequently dismiss Moscow’s capabilities while also citing fear of an escalation with Putin.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/14/obama-russia-election-interference-241547
Trump was vindicated. Period!
You’re lying, period. The Mueller report clearly explains that it does not exonerate Trump, and I’ve clearly explained how unethical and dangerous his conduct was.
Mueller’s report clearly says no proof of a crime was found concerning the Trump’s actions.
It also, again, clearly explains how he is not exonerated, and how many of his actions could plausibly be interpreted as criminal, but might not have been successfully prosecuted. Funny how you leave that out.
If one could be found guilty for our thoughts and things we said within the confines of a private conversation we’d all be in jail.
But I’m not arguing that he should be in jail, or found guilty of a crime based on the evidence we have. I’m condemning him on an ethical and national security basis. If you were able to rebut those arguments, you would’ve. Since you can’t, you resort to strawmen.
I also don’t remember you making this argument toward those who chanted “Lock her up!” at Trump rallies. Can you point me to where you did that?
I expect Trump will declassify the Carter Page and even many of the other FISA court warrants shortly and other related documents.
If that would benefit him he would have already done so. Remember, the Schiff memo revealed info from the FISA warrant that the Nunes memo intentionally left out, demolishing a lot of the Nunes memo’s claims. Also remember that the Trump administration went to great lengths to redact tons of portions of the Mueller report, and to roll out a narrative of “TOTAL EXONERATION” to the public that runs completely contrary to the actual report. A narrative no rational person would buy, but one that you bought hook, line, and sinker.
You then pivot to arguing that Obama “did nothing” to counter Russian aggression into our election process…while ignoring that Obama passed sanctions that Trump immediately rolled back, as Flynn promised. A promise that Flynn then lied about, which is why he is now in prison. Amazing.
No rational person could critique Obama for being too soft on Russian election interference while not also condemning Trump for the same. But then, we aren’t dealing with rational people.
Pie, Chris is delusional. We all know it, except for him of course. He’s a joke and it is fun laughing at him, while he takes himself so seriously. Obama committed actual acts of treason in addition to colluding with the Russians. Obama’s collusion and aiding the Russians is a long and varied list.
Remember the open mic, where he was caught saying he’d have more leeway after the election? Wonder if we’ll ever find out what he did so we can compare it to Trump?
Allowing the 1/5 of our uranium supply to be sold to them, leaving us to buy from others or even our own back must have been very profitable for him. We know it was for Hillary.
Obama armed ISIS. Trump took their arms and their Caliphate away.
Obama claimed executive privilege so many times I lost count. Plus, his AG Holder was the only AG to be held in contempt of Congress.
I could go on and on, but it’s late.Those of us who want America to be great again, after Obama tried to destroy it, will continue to laugh at Chris and thank God He gave us Trump to hopefully save it.
Can’t help but wonder how much more Trump could have accomplished if he wasn’t being attacked and stabbed in the back every day? On the home front almost zero unemployment, when adjusted for population growth and record high employment in almost every category. Stock market up from 18,000 to 25-26,000. Not bad. My IRA’a looking good. And we got to keep more of our own money instead of being taxed higher giving it to the Feds.
We can only imagine how much more he could have accomplished with our foreign policies if that knife hadn’t been visible for the world to see. A united US would have presented a strong force to our enemies and our allies.
We’re on the verge of our second Civil War between the slave owning democrats of the south today’s socialist and the northern republicans who want to free the slaves and let everyone today retain the freedom instead of living under today’s democrat masters.
Yes, Chris is delusional (to say the least) but I would not go so far as saying Obama was treasonous.
Obama was a very bad President, did a lot of harm to this country and severely politicized, corrupted and compromised the DOJ, IRS and just about every department he put his hands on.
He was definitely (and still is) a scumbag. But he is history now and dead to me.
Will he ever pay for his crimes? Probably not. Will Hillary ever pay for her’s? Probably not. But we will see what happens next at the DOJ and in Congress.
Frankly, I hope Democrats NEVER give up on the bogus collusion and obstruction bullsh*t. In fact, I hope they attempt to impeach him. Enough of the bloviating Dems, DO IT!
My belief is the Rats will ultimately be hoisted by their own petard. I also hope Chris clings steadfastly to this self-destructive lunacy too. I enjoy watching him go ballistic and make a compete ass of himself. Schadenfreude.
Great points, Peggy!
Not gonna comment on Chris since his blatherings are a complete waste of time.
Peggy, none of what you wrote constitutes a rebuttal to what I wrote, it’s just whataboutism. Here, let me remind you what rebuttals look like:
Remember the open mic, where he was caught saying he’d have more leeway after the election? Wonder if we’ll ever find out what he did so we can compare it to Trump?
But he didn’t *do* anything, and this is not collusion. What do you think Obama was asking the Russians for there? Be specific in the accusation you’re making. There is no evidence that Russia meddled in the 2012 election to help Obama; there is proof that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump, and that he knew about it, and did nothing. That is a major conclusion of the Mueller report, a document you are claiming vindicates Trump even though you haven’t read a word of it.
The president asking the Russian government to hold off on aggressive actions is not collusion and isn’t even wrong.
Allowing the 1/5 of our uranium supply to be sold to them, leaving us to buy from others or even our own back must have been very profitable for him. We know it was for Hillary.
This is so stupid. Nine different agencies signed off on this deal. You cannot even explain why the deal was a bad one. The Hillary connection is extremely weak; none of these agencies answered to her when making this deal, and there’s no evidence she even had a say in it. The donor you’re alluding to was already a major donor to her foundation, and no longer even had a stake in Uranium One at the time the deal was made.
So basically, the Uranium One conspiracy theory is that nine agencies signed a routine deal in order to get Hillary Clinton a donation from a guy that was already donating lots of money to her. That makes no sense, Peggy. But it’s what you believe.
Obama armed ISIS. Trump took their arms and their Caliphate away.
These are both lies.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/15/donald-trump/donald-trump-suggests-barack-obama-supported-isis-/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/10/25/trumps-claim-that-hes-done-by-far-more-than-obama-in-the-fight-against-isis/?utm_term=.00ac6e5ac861
I could go on and on, but it’s late.Those of us who want America to be great again, after Obama tried to destroy it, will continue to laugh at Chris and thank God He gave us Trump to hopefully save it.
This is cult-member language, Peggy. Trump is not a godly man, and it’s crazy to think he is.
Laugh away. I know that my positions are stronger than yours because I can defend them with facts and evidence. You and Pie have given up on that. If your worldview can’t withstand the challenges I throw at it, it’s a crappy worldview.
Can’t help but wonder how much more Trump could have accomplished if he wasn’t being attacked and stabbed in the back every day? On the home front almost zero unemployment, when adjusted for population growth and record high employment in almost every category. Stock market up from 18,000 to 25-26,000. Not bad. My IRA’a looking good. And we got to keep more of our own money instead of being taxed higher giving it to the Feds.
You are, again, describing trends that began under Obama.
We’re on the verge of our second Civil War between the slave owning democrats of the south today’s socialist and the northern republicans who want to free the slaves and let everyone today retain the freedom instead of living under today’s democrat masters.
And this…is not even a sentence, and makes me worry. It doesn’t make any sense. Even beyond the incomprehensible grammar…who do you think the South supports today? Socialists?
Apparently Chris needs to go back to school for remedial reading. I clearly responded to “Pie” and not him.
J Soden, I only read his first paragraph where he once again tried his verbal attack tactics on me. Reading anything else and responding is a complete waste of time. It’s funny how dense he is. His remarks indicate he thinks we really care about what he writes. Not! LOL
Drop the mean girl act, Peggy. It doesn’t suit you.
Again: I will defend my positions here any time. That you cannot do the same does not reflect well on you. You make claims that are easily proven false with a five-second Google search, and then you resent when I do the work to prove them wrong. The insults you get from me are thus entirely deserved, where yours are hollow and unearned because you refuse to justify them.
So don’t read my comments; fine. They’re not for you. They’re for anyone who might stumble across this site and has enough sense to not be misled by the lies you spread here, and may want to know the facts. If that doesn’t apply to any of the commenters here aside from Libby, more’s the pity.
Well now we have confirmation from our elitist that CNN is neither rational nor meaningful in what they report.
“(CNN)The partisan warfare over the Mueller report will rage, but one thing cannot be denied: Former President Barack Obama looks just plain bad. On his watch, the Russians meddled in our democracy while his administration did nothing about it.”
Harold, CNN publishing one editorial that I disagree does not make the organization as a whole “neither rational nor meaningful in what they report.” Why would you think I would think otherwise?
Anyway: do you agree with that paragraph you quoted? Do you agree that Obama should have done more to stop Russia? Because if you do, why do you have nothing to say about President Trump, who, according to the Mueller report, also knew that Russia was interfering to help him personally and denied this frequently, claiming he “believed Putin” over our intelligence agencies? Why do you not criticize Trump for rolling back the sanctions Obama passed, as Flynn promised he would—a promise he lied to the FBI about, resulting in a guilty plea and prison sentence?
I hope you will answer these questions.
Harold, Obama looks more than bad. he’s now being exposed for the incompetent leader he was.
Remember in 2012 he laughed at Romney for saying the Russian was our biggest Geopolitical threat, did nothing except to ask them to lay off and tried to show he knew they were a threat by sending a bunch of Russians home in December 2016, after Trump won? No wonder Putin wanted Hillary to win and Trump to lose. He knew he could buy her and had no idea what Trump would do. He knows now that Trump forced Germany to stop the oil line from Russian and told NATO to pony up their fair share, cuz America is not picking up the whole tab any more.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=obama+romney+debate+russia&view=detail&mid=5148444A231A93324A335148444A231A93324A33&FORM=VIRE
Afraid history will not be kind to our first black president. Not with so many blacks now turning on him because he let even them down.
Heard a new unemployment report puts us now at a 50 year low and highest black employment in US history. And Trump did it! The Bush era recession ended in June 2009, six months after Obama took office. So, it was really Bush’s recovery based on his policies. No way could Obama pull that off in less that five months since he didn’t take office until Jan. 21st. Eight long years later people were still losing jobs, no pay raises and kids living in their parents’ homes.
Trump walking into the Oval Office on Jan. 21, 2017 and in two years we have $7million unfilled jobs and 3.8% salary increase. When was the last time a boss GAVE an employee a pay raise to keep them, instead of knowing he/she could replace them with cheaper labor and/or reduced hours with no benefits? Two and a half years ago is when.
I love that people are living again instead of trying to survive. I just treated myself to a big beautiful 65 inch flat screen TV and paid someone to install it. The store was happy, the service tech was happy, and I’m really happy. Oh yeah, I used my tax savings for it. Hehehe
Trump will win in 2020, because no one in their right mind would go back to another Obama 2.0 clone and the miserable life his ilk enjoyed inflicting on others while they enjoyed the lifestyle of the privileged elites.
did nothing except to ask them to lay off and tried to show he knew they were a threat by sending a bunch of Russians home in December 2016, after Trump won?
What a convenient way to describe expelling Russian diplomats (a move Trump opposed).
Again: if you believe Obama should have done more against Russia because of their election hacking, it makes no sense to say nothing of Trump DENYING that any such hacking occurred, especially since the Mueller report proves that Trump knew it was happening and was happy to benefit from it.
Again: the President of the United States was happy to mislead the public about an attack on our country because he benefitted personally and politically from that attack. He is a national security risk.
No wonder Putin wanted Hillary to win and Trump to lose.
You are either delusional or a liar. This is the exactly the opposite of what every single one of our intelligence agencies has concluded. It is the opposite of what the Mueller report says. But you don’t care.
You also lie by suggesting that the current unemployment rates are a turnaround from the Obama administration when a glance at literally any graph dealing with the subject would prove you wrong.
But I’m going to be seen here as the bad guy for pointing out your lies, and you will be seen as a victim of bullying, because your friends here think you should be allowed to lie without being called a liar. Oh well.
Harold, Here’s more bad news for Obama, And it’s even from CNN.
Mueller’s report looks bad for Obama:
“Why did Obama go soft on Russia? My opinion is that it was because he was singularly focused on the nuclear deal with Iran. Obama wanted Putin in the deal, and to stand up to him on election interference would have, in Obama’s estimation, upset that negotiation. This turned out to be a disastrous policy decision.
Obama’s supporters claim he did stand up to Russia by deploying sanctions after the election to punish them for their actions. But, Obama, according to the Washington Post, “approved a modest package… with economic sanctions so narrowly targeted that even those who helped design them describe their impact as largely symbolic.” In other words, a toothless response to a serious incursion.
But don’t just take my word for it that Obama failed. Congressman Adam Schiff, who disgraced himself in this process by claiming collusion when Mueller found that none exists, once said that “the Obama administration should have done a lot more.” The Washington Post reported that a senior Obama administration official said they “sort of choked” in failing to stop the Russian government’s brazen activities. And Obama’s ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said, “The punishment did not fit the crime” about the weak sanctions rolled out after the 2016 election.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/opinions/mueller-report-obama-jennings/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3hynxGhCA06sBPORZIYBTiPzWOVyYy14gFn70wxZ28jIfIJgx8d1wuvic
Peggy responded to Harold’s comment by…posting the exact same article that Harold linked to in his comment that she was replying to, as if Harold hadn’t seen it yet.
Someone please check on this woman.
Pie here Peggy. Re Chris “You’re lying, period.”
Classic Chris, Peggy. He is full of it, of course. Anyone who disagrees with his agenda/opinion is a LIAR! But let him ramble on in his bizarre little alternate reality. The fellow is seriously twisted.
As most of his comments, they fall under the heading of “alternative truth.”
BTW, I noticed your buddy Jonah Goldberg also thought Sanders’ lie here was worthy of notice, as he retweeted the story.
Funny how he and I keep landing on the same positions, but when I articulate those positions, I’m an idiot unworthy of respect.
And speaking of National Review writers who have the good taste and impeccable judgment to agree with me, here’s David French with a devastating take:
I’ve finished reading the entire Mueller report, and I must confess that even as a longtime, quite open critic of Donald Trump, even I was surprised at the sheer scope, scale, and brazenness of the lies, falsehoods, and misdirections detailed by the Special Counsel’s Office. We’ve become accustomed to Trump making up his own facts on matters great and small, but to see the extent to which his virus infected his entire political operation is sobering. And the idea that anyone is treating this report as “win” for Trump, given the sheer extent of deceptions exposed (among other things), demonstrates that the bar for his conduct has sunk so low that anything other than outright criminality is too often brushed aside as relatively meaningless.
Huh. That’s almost exactly what I said in my previous comment. So weird!
If I were to list all the important lies in the report, I’d be reproducing much of the report itself. So let’s focus on the most important elements. We already knew that Michael Flynn lied about his communications with Russia, George Papadopolous lied about his contacts with a person he believed to be connected to Russia, Roger Stone lied about his attempts to obtain information from WikiLeaks, Michael Cohen lied about Trump’s continued efforts to negotiate a deal with Trump Tower Moscow, and that Trump had repeatedly misled the American people about those same dealings.
I definitely haven’t spent the past two years reminding you all of this on this blog, to approximately zero counter-argument!
We had previously known that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, had lied about his contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, a person the FBI has assessed as having contacts with Russian intelligence. But now we know the significance of those lies. They included covering up the ongoing transmission of internal Trump polling data to Ukrainians and a Russian oligarch, covering up communications about a proposed Ukrainian “peace plan” that would entail granting Russia a “backdoor” means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine. Moreover, because Manafort deleted messages and sometimes used “encryption applications” when he sent messages, we may never know the full extent of his communications — or his lies.
When asked about the Trump team’s contacts with Russia, key members of his campaign staff and administration responded with blatantly false statements. These statements may not have been deliberate (they could have believed internal lies and repeated them innocently), but they were nevertheless completely and totally wrong. Hope Hicks said, “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” When asked about any “contact or coordination” between the campaign and Russia, Reince Priebus said, “Even this question is insane. Of course we didn’t interface with the Russians.”
The campaign did, indeed, interface with the Russians — including in Trump Tower, when Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner met with a Russian lawyer in the explicit hope of gaining dirt on Hillary Clinton.
But no collusion!!!!
Moreover, as the Russian investigation continued, the lies multiplied. One of the most banal and petty came from Sarah Sanders, who simply made up claims to help justify Trump’s termination of James Comey:
Oh hey, weren’t we just talking about that? Uncanny!
Trump himself of course got in the act. He famously edited Donald Jr.’s draft statement disclosing his Trump Tower meeting to disguise his real purpose, and — even more significantly — tried to order Don McGahn to lie to the public about McGahn’s claims that Trump had directed him to fire Robert Mueller:
But ordering underlings to lie about one’s attempt to obstruct justice isn’t really obstruction of justice if there’s no underlying crime. Owned libs!!!!
These lies have multiple consequences. First and most obviously, they demonstrate that the president’s word simply can’t be trusted. Yes, I know that there are readers who will immediately respond that “we already knew that” or that his dishonesty is already “priced in.” But don’t forget — as recently as last year, 76 percent of Republicans still believed that Trump told the truth “all or most of the time.” I personally know many people who believe that Trump’s ability to “tell it like it is” is one of his chief appeals.
Second, the extent of the lying across the Trump team shows that Trump’s lies can’t be contained to Trump. Even honest people who believe and repeat Trump’s words or the words of key members of his team can find themselves deceiving the public. Those who resist Trump’s efforts to deceive can find themselves overruled and publicly shamed. It was to Donald Jr.’s credit that his instinct — after news of the Trump Tower meeting started to leak — was to be transparent. It is Trump’s shame that he forced his own son to put out a misleading statement instead.
Third, the lies help demonstrate why the underlying investigation was so very necessary. When our intelligence agencies are aware of Russian efforts to interfere in the election and tilt it toward Trump, they know Trump officials are in contact with Russians, and they know that Trump officials are lying about those contacts, then it makes cries of “witch hunt” sound hollow indeed — especially when the actual results of the investigation demonstrate that the special counsel declined to prosecute multiple individuals who had Russian contacts, including members of Trump’s own family.
Stupid David French! Everyone knows that lies don’t matter if they aren’t illegal, and an investigation that fails to find things that are definitely, easily prosecutable crimes is indeed a hoax and a total witch hunt! According to the Trumpalos, anything less than a guilty verdict in a criminal trial means that an investigation is completely illegitimate. You heard that right: OJ Simpson has been totally exonerated!
I’m old enough to remember the closing days of the 1996 campaign, when the Clinton administration was already beset by an avalanche of scandals. Bob Dole looked into the cameras and asked a pointed question — “Where is the outrage?” The same question applies today, but to a different audience. The lies are simply too much to bear. No Republican should tolerate such dishonesty.
Shifting out of sarcasm mode here: French is absolutely right every step of the way here, and Bill Clinton should have resigned in disgrace. But what Trump has lied about is far worse, even if he was not under oath at the time he told those lies, as Clinton was. As I said earlier–and as you refused to even try to rebut, knowing it was impossible–the president knew of an attack on our democratic process, an attack our intelligence agencies took very seriously, and chose to not only ignore it, but to defend the attackers by lying about his own knowledge of their attack, essentially rewarding the attackers because their attack benefitted him. Those on the right who have not yet abandoned their senses to abject hatred of Democrats–the single unifying impulse of Trump voters–can see this, and are rightly disturbed by it. Why aren’t you?
Next up, who initiated the Russia collusion hoax/spying to begin with? Eh? Inquiring minds want to know.
But you don’t have an inquiring mind, and you don’t want to know, or you already would. The investigation started as a result of George Papadopoulos running his mouth about Russia having DNC e-mails to a foreign dignitary. How did he know this? We still don’t know, and of the two of us, only one of us cares, and it isn’t you.
If that were the only suspicious data point at the time the FBI began investigating, you might be able to argue that the investigation was a “witch hunt.” But as the Mueller report documents–and as you could have figured out yourself by being a moderately informed person–it was far from the only suspicious data point in the vast web of the Trump campaign’s connections to the Russian government at the time that government was attacking our democratic process. There were so many connections that a refusal to investigate them would have constituted sheer negligence on the part of the FBI. There is no counter-argument to this, and you won’t make one, so why not just call me a cuck and a soyboy and get it over with? All you have are insults, so why not fully embrace the language of the MAGA subculture? Lean into it. You’ve got nowhere else to go at this point.
Pie here. Poor Chris is having another very bad day. This bloviating blowhard thinks folks actually read his lengthy tirades.
“Papadopoulos running his mouth about Russia having DNC e-mails to a foreign dignitary. How did he know this? We still don’t know, and of the two of us, only one of us cares, and it isn’t you. ”
Yep, Chris, you are the only one who cares! (Jackass.) Please tell me more about myself!
Pie, I know you don’t care about that information because if you did, you’d already know that information, and you wouldn’t be asking how the investigation started.
I made this quite clear.
I don’t understand this strategy of pretending you can’t follow the most basic things I say. I get that it impresses Peggy, but does it impress anyone else?
It has struck me for some time that the progs are much like Don Quixote. They only have two choices–face the Knight of Mirrors, or double down (again).
Yes, Kalifornia is infecting Dallas, and Austin, and Texas is by no means perfect. But the roots here run very deep, and in many important ways, they have got it right. My wife and I attended a signing for this book–
https://behindthetexasbadge.com/
This would never see the light of day in Sacratomato–
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20190418/texas-house-passes-evacuation-carry-bill
Speaking for myself, I do care. Lock her up.
More from David French:
Donald Trump Is Weak and Afraid. The Mueller Report Proves It
DAVID FRENCH April 19, 2019
French is a TIME columnist. A lawyer and senior fellow at the National Review Institute, he is a best-selling author whose next book will be The Great American Divorce.
We now know for sure what kind of man Donald Trump is. Beyond the tweets, the rallies, the interviews, the debates, the press conferences, the scandals, the best-selling yet unclearly sourced insider books and the unrelenting braggadocio and aggrandizement, a comprehensive read of the Mueller report brings to life the portrait of the man Donald Trump more than anything before it.
It takes the traits we already knew he exhibited — his mendacity, his propensity to surround himself with crooks and grifters, and his single-minded self-focus — and places them in the context of a sweeping narrative about a presidential campaign and presidency devoid of ethics, honor or even strength. The stories paint a picture of a president who is both petty and small, so very small.
One of the most telling moments occurs on page 102 in the obstruction of justice section of the Special Counsel’s analysis. It tells a short version of a story we largely already knew. When Donald Trump’s son, Donald Junior, learned that the New York Times was about to break the news of his now-infamous June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, his first instinct was to come clean.
He drafted a statement that began, “I was asked to have a meeting by an acquaintance I knew … with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign.” But his father said no. His father demanded that the statement be revised to omit the motivation for the meeting. Donald Jr. complied and misled America.
Think for a moment about that story. With his campaign in the media crosshairs, President Trump threw his son under the bus. He made his son transmit his own deceptions. He exposed his son to the scorn and ridicule he so richly deserved.
There are other important moments in the report. Here’s one we didn’t know before. According to the report, in June 2017, President Trump dictated a message for his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — who had been fired in June 2016, a few months after a misdemeanor battery charge against him had been brought and then dropped — to dictate to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump was directing Sessions to essentially reverse his recusal from the Russian investigation to narrow the scope of the Special Counsel’s investigation. Trump wanted Mueller to merely investigate “election meddling for future elections.”
Lewandowski never delivered Trump’s message. He scheduled a meeting with Sessions, but when Sessions canceled, Lewandowski never followed through. A disgraced former campaign manager felt free to disregard a directive from the President of the United States.
It’s difficult to overestimate the extent to which Trump’s appeal to his core supporters is built around the notion that — regardless of his other flaws — he possesses a core strength, a willingness to “fight” and an ability to strike a degree of fear in the hearts of his opponents. I live in the heart of Trump country in Tennessee, and I have consistently heard the same refrain from his most loyal supporters. Trump, as they say, “kicks ass.” He was the ultimate alpha male, a political version of Tony Soprano, a formidable boss who commands an army of loyal consiglieri. Cross him at your peril.
But now, thanks to the Mueller report, his “fights” look more like temper tantrums, and those closest to him — including low men like Lewandowski and far-more-noble men like former White House counsel Donald McGahn — understand that his fury is passing and his directives are unreliable, seemingly transitory and easily forgotten or disregarded.
Moreover, his vaunted personal judgment — an image cultivated through years of careful television production on The Apprentice — has been exposed as well. When one reads Robert Mueller’s account of Trump’s own campaign chair’s extraordinary efforts to maintain an encrypted connection to Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, it’s plain that Trump was played. Paul Manafort used Trump’s gullibility as a business opportunity.
But that’s the tip of the iceberg. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, didn’t just lie to the FBI; he lied to members of his own administration. Trump’s informal adviser, Roger Stone, didn’t have the access to Wikileaks that he publicly boasted about. Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chair had the terrible judgement to take a meeting with a Russian in the explicit hope of gaining “dirt” on Hillary Clinton to support an admitted Russian plan to help Trump. None of this is admirable. All of it speaks to Trump’s critical flaws.
The Mueller report stands as a monument to reality. It plainly and clearly makes the case that Donald Trump is not the man his supporters think he is. He’s not bold. He’s afraid. They attributed to him a primitive form of loyalty, where he was good to people who were good to him. Instead, he’d harm his own son to win a single news cycle. His foolish hiring decisions have come back to haunt him time and again.
President Trump is weak — too weak even to commit the acts of obstruction he desired. As the Mueller report stated, Trump’s attempts to influence the investigation “were mostly unsuccessful,” but it’s “largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.” He’s not strong. He’s not wise. He’s not honorable. And sometimes, when his subordinates disregard is orders, he’s not even truly the president. Regardless of his potential criminality, there is nothing revealed in the report that is admirable — or alpha — about Donald Trump.
http://time.com/5574118/mueller-report-donald-trump/
There is nothing stopping other Republicans from reaching the same conclusions other than their own stubbornness.