[Winstonm]

We will know a lot more about this country in 6 months.

[kenberg]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-04, 07:49, said:

We will know a lot more about this country in 6 months.

Yes, we will. This inspired me to look up how my Representative, Jamie Raskin, is faring. Five Thirty Eight scores representatives on how often a member votes in line with Trump's position. Raskin's score is 9.1 %. Not quite the lowest score, but close to it. As far as I know, he will be re-elected. I'm fine with that, I voted for him both in the general election and in the (very expensive) primary, I will again, but probably some of my neighbors are not so happy about it. I live in one of those Congressional districts that are often cited when gerrymandering is discussed. I don't see us turning Red.

[barmar]

If things go well with North Korea, I'll be willing to admit that this is a win in Trump's column.

I wonder if whatever agreement Mr "Art of the Deal" makes will have as many protections as the Iran deal that he claims is a disaster.

[ldrews]

barmar, on 2018-May-04, 09:46, said:

If things go well with North Korea, I'll be willing to admit that this is a win in Trump's column.

I wonder if whatever agreement Mr "Art of the Deal" makes will have as many protections as the Iran deal that he claims is a disaster.

According to the Israelies Iran has not been abiding by the agreement any way.

[johnu]

ldrews, on 2018-May-04, 10:41, said:

According to the Israelies Iran has not been abiding by the agreement any way.

Among other people, noted "liberal" Pat Buchanan has other thoughts.

https://www.realclea...or_decades.html

but Netanyahu has serious support from John Bolton

https://www.nytimes....-bomb-iran.html

I suggest everybody chill out and listen to:

https://www.youtube....h?v=vZwDL3-Ze4w

Nothing says "Make America Great" more than starting another war that we can't win.

[hrothgar]

ldrews, on 2018-May-04, 10:41, said:

According to the Israelies Iran has not been abiding by the agreement any way.

According to the Israeli's, Iran was actively pursuing a nuclear program back in 2003
Almost no one disputes this.

Netanyahu claims that this means that the Iranians can't be trusted to abide by the current deal.
There is very little support for this contention.

https://www.newyorke...t-the-iran-deal

https://www.haaretz....-iran-1.5451124

Quote

Netanyahu and Lieberman’s position is at odds with most Israeli experts in Military Intelligence and in the IDF’s Planning Directorate, the Mossad, Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Committee.

[Winstonm]

kenberg, on 2018-May-04, 09:11, said:

Yes, we will. This inspired me to look up how my Representative, Jamie Raskin, is faring. Five Thirty Eight scores representatives on how often a member votes in line with Trump's position. Raskin's score is 9.1 %. Not quite the lowest score, but close to it. As far as I know, he will be re-elected. I'm fine with that, I voted for him both in the general election and in the (very expensive) primary, I will again, but probably some of my neighbors are not so happy about it. I live in one of those Congressional districts that are often cited when gerrymandering is discussed. I don't see us turning Red.

Bloomberg is reporting this: https://www.bloomber...cratic-majority

Quote

House Speaker Paul Ryan warned that Democratic gains in November’s congressional elections could make it impossible to get anything accomplished and expose President Donald Trump’s administration to more aggressive oversight.

Should Republicans lose control of either the House or Senate, “you’ll have gridlock, you’ll have subpoenas,” with the whole legislative system “shutting down,” Ryan said Wednesday in Beverly Hills, California, at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference.

Not only will there be subpoenas, there will also be aggressive ethics oversight as well as emoluments oversight - all extremely ugly occurrences for the present administration.

[Winstonm]

This, from The Observer, is a damning report on how unscrupulous and relentless Donald Trump is in fighting to protect his delusions.

Quote

Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.

People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.

The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump’s 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.

Trump’s dirty ops attack on Obama legacy shows pure hatred for Iran deal.

Jack Straw, who as foreign secretary was involved in earlier efforts to restrict Iranian weapons, said: “These are extraordinary and appalling allegations but which also illustrate a high level of desperation by Trump and [the Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, not so much to discredit the deal but to undermine those around it.”

One former high-ranking British diplomat with wide experience of negotiating international peace agreements, requesting anonymity, said: “It’s bloody outrageous to do this. The whole point of negotiations is to not play dirty tricks like this.”

Sources said that officials linked to Trump’s team contacted investigators days after Trump visited Tel Aviv a year ago, his first foreign tour as US president. Trump promised Netanyahu that Iran would never have nuclear weapons and suggested that the Iranians thought they could “do what they want” since negotiating the nuclear deal in 2015. A source with details of the “dirty tricks campaign” said: “The idea was that people acting for Trump would discredit those who were pivotal in selling the deal, making it easier to pull out of it.”

[johnu]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-04, 07:49, said:

We will know a lot more about this country in 6 months.

http://thehill.com/p...olicy-bill-bill

Dennison and the Republicans are trying to keep America safe by proposing a military parade along the lines of military parade in France for Bastille day that captured Dennison's attention for months. I feel safer already.

Cost and redeployment of equipment could be a drawback. Let me be the first to suggest that Comrade Dennison ask his good buddy Comrade Putin for the appropriate aid. Let me be clear, I am not suggesting collusion which never happened and if it did happen was completely by accident.

[barmar]

johnu, on 2018-May-06, 01:09, said:

Dennison and the Republicans are trying to keep America safe by proposing a military parade along the lines of military parade in France for Bastille day that captured Dennison's attention for months. I feel safer already.

Bill Maher has a checklist of 10 indicators that your leader is a dictator. The military parade, if it happens, would make it 9 out of 10 for Trump (the remaining one would be wearing a military uniform).

[Winstonm]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-05, 20:08, said:

This, from The Observer, is a damning report on how unscrupulous and relentless Donald Trump is in fighting to protect his delusions.

Update and correction from the New Yorker by way of The Daily Beast: (emphasis added)

The secretive Israeli intelligence firm reportedly once enlisted by disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein to dig up dirt on his accusers also targeted aides to former President Barack Obama in an attempt to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, according to documents obtained by The New Yorker. The documents come after a weekend story by The Observer, which reported that aides to President Trump had hired a private Israeli intelligence firm in an attempt to discredit the previous administration’s advocacy of the Iran nuclear accord. The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow reports that the firm in question is, indeed, Black Cube—the entity used by Weinstein. But he cites a source saying the work was not done at the behest of the Trump administration but, rather, for “a private-sector client pursuing commercial interests related to sanctions on Iran.”

[hrothgar]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-07, 09:06, said:

The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow reports that the firm in question is, indeed, Black Cube—the entity used by Weinstein. But he cites a source saying the work was not done at the behest of the Trump administration but, rather, for “a private-sector client pursuing commercial interests related to sanctions on Iran.”

Sheldon Adelson

[Winstonm]

hrothgar, on 2018-May-07, 09:11, said:

Sheldon Adelson

Thanks.
That makes one wonder if the reporters at the Observer and the New Yorker hold two different pieces of the same puzzle.

[Winstonm]

This, from Politico, should chill you to the bone as an American. (ehphasis added)

Quote

Their emergence underscores a reality of the Trump era: power and prominence on Capitol Hill these days often flow not to the most senior lawmakers but to Republicans who display allegiance to a president who prizes loyalty. None of the four holds a powerful committee chairmanship, but they have something just as important: regular airtime on Fox News. And their pressure campaign against the Justice Department and FBI has put Mueller’s boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the defensive.

[Winstonm]

Twitter:

Quote

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The 13 Angry Democrats in charge of the Russian Witch Hunt are starting to find out that there is a Court System in place that actually protects people from injustice...and just wait ‘till the Courts get to see your unrevealed Conflicts of Interest!

6:39 AM - May 7, 2018
62.8K
34.2K people are talking about this

If there truly are 80-90% of Republicans and upwards of 60 million people in the U.S. who still support this guy, then, as a country, we are in a much more precarious position regarding continued democracy than I ever imagined was possible to reach in many lifetimes.

We can only hope this cabal will be shattered into thousands of pieces in November.

[Al_U_Card]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-07, 09:38, said:

This, from Politico, should chill you to the bone as an American. (ehphasis added)

As it has been (Starr, Cox etc.) so shall it be. Part of the underbelly of your system.

[Winstonm]

Nice job of draining the swamp.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, writing in WaPo:

“At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists, and . . . many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of. We’ve also discovered ethics waivers that allow Trump staffers to work on subjects in which they have financial conflicts of interest.”

https://www.washingt...m=.5d4c8f457aee

[Winstonm]

Al_U_Card, on 2018-May-08, 05:36, said:

As it has been (Starr, Cox etc.) so shall it be. Part of the underbelly of your system.

Nixon was a little like this. No one else in modern times has come close to the total disregard for American values and total demand for personal loyalty other than in the crime families.

[barmar]

Winstonm, on 2018-May-08, 08:27, said:

Nixon was a little like this. No one else in modern times has come close to the total disregard for American values and total demand for personal loyalty other than in the crime families.

And every time someone mentions the possibility of Trump firing Mueller or Rosenstein, someone mentions parallels to the Saturday Night Massacre.

Nixon at least had the advantage of being a career politician. Aside from his illegal activities, he at least seemed to understand what the job of POTUS entailed, and how to navigate the DC system.

[Al_U_Card]

barmar, on 2018-May-08, 09:55, said:

And every time someone mentions the possibility of Trump firing Mueller or Rosenstein, someone mentions parallels to the Saturday Night Massacre.

Nixon at least had the advantage of being a career politician. Aside from his illegal activities, he at least seemed to understand what the job of POTUS entailed, and how to navigate the DC system.

With the moniker "Tricky Dick" the surprise was his straying into detente and subsequent conflict with the deep state and their objectives (Slick Willie, Frat boy (W) et al notwithstanding.) Trump is likely the exemplar of crony (toady?) PALitics but what happens in Washington rarely stays there.....a neverending story.