CatBus

TV’s Frink said:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/05/12/trump_accuses_trump_of_surveilling_trump_in_tapes_tweet.html

It Appears That Trump May Have Just Falsely Accused Himself of Wiretapping Himself

Amazing.

Naw, you’re not seeing the other conspiracy shoe dropping. Trump said “tapes” in quotes, just like “wiretapp”. Meaning, Trump wasn’t recording the Trump/Comey discussion–Obama was. That’s right, Obama’s sitting on a pile of evidence that could not only implicate Obama in criminal wrongdoing, but would also clear Trump of all wrongdoing as well (retroactive to the Trump University fraud suit even). Trump surrogates will take to the airwaves demanding Obama turn over the tapes that show what’s really going on with the Comey firing. Obama will say they’re all nuts, and that just proves he’s hiding something.

For the third act, Sessions will subpoena Obama for the tapes, Obama will say there aren’t any, and they’ll try to get him on obstruction for failing to comply with the subpoena.

TV’s Frink said:

I wonder how many Democrats would be happy to see both Trump and Comey prosecuted.

All of them?

As long as the charges were legit and they were given a fair trial, I think Democrats would be happy to see anyone prosecuted. It’s part of their “soft on crime” schtick to have those two preconditions, though.

Lawrence Tribe, constitutional law professor at Harvard said something interesting: By claiming Comey had told him that the FBI wasn’t investigating him, Trump waived executive privilege with regard to Trump/Comey exchanges.

Samuel Buell, law professor at Duke (and former federal prosecutor), said that while it’s ambiguous at the moment if firing Comey qualifies as obstruction of justice, threatening him later on Twitter makes the case for obstruction much clearer.

So basically: All the levers of power are Trump’s to lose, so keep tweeting!

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Jetrell Fo said:
I am not refuting your articles so I ask that you not refute what I saw before the briefing took place.

I’m starting to get it… it’s an entirely new logic system.

Ben: That’s no error. It’s a logic system.

Han: It’s too inconsistent to be a logic system.

Luke: I have a bad feeling about this.

Ben: Turn the conversation around.

Han: Yeah. I think you’re right. Full reverse. SilverWook, lock the thread!

Han: SilverWook, lock the thread!

Luke: Why are we still discussing this?

Han: We’re caught in a justification loop! It’s pulling us in!

Luke: There’s gotta be something you can do!

Han: There’s nothing I can do about it, kid. There’s someone wrong on the Internet. They’re not going to get me without a fight.

Ben: You can’t win. But you can ignore.

TV’s Frink said:

CatBus said:

the aging Gen-X dad who still wears his hipster clothes

Well…I don’t own hipster clothes, but otherwise that’s spot on.

That makes you Mom.

TV’s Frink said:

CatBus said:

Just like Thanksgiving with the folks.

Dammit, now I’m hungry.

Who am I at the table?

I wanna be the old crotchety woman who had a pony back in the old country.

I’m not naming names, but we’ve got the aging Gen-X dad who still wears his hipster clothes, we’ve got Mom who likes dad well enough but kinda thinks he’d make a much better point if he wasn’t wearing an old ratty Black Sabbath T-Shirt and waving a drumstick. Liesl the exchange student who thinks maybe she got placed with the wrong family but is too polite to bring it up. And Uncle Vinnie, who swears he’s just as liberal as the next guy, but he’s checked all three Internets AND Fox News and Obama is definitely a Muslim what’s so hard to understand about that?!?

Just like Thanksgiving with the folks.

Dammit, now I’m hungry.

Back in the early days of the Obama administration someone paid for a bunch of billboards with nothing but an image of George W Bush’s smiling face and the words “Miss Me Yet?” At the time, interpreted as “You could be taken back to the Bush years”, it felt like a threat. I actually had a hard time looking at it, the menace of it eliciting such a visceral response from me.

Now, I’ve got an answer. Yes, yes I do miss you, very much even. But the billboard is long gone.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-the-fbi-reels-candidates-emerge-to-succeed-james-comey-1494459279

IMO the Wall Street Journal kinda misses the point. The “three denials” statement was never to be taken literally, it was allegorical. Comey is Peter, see? It all works into the revised Testament.

There’s nothing left to discredit. This was more of a display of impunity than obstruction of justice (although it was that as well). Like the man himself said, he could shoot a guy on 5th Avenue–even today, wouldn’t change a thing. Spicer would say the guy installed a camera in Trump’s microwave and needed killing, the media would report “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, here’s both sides”, McConnell would say we need to let the Senate investigation into the microwave tampering scandal proceed for a few more years before jumping to any conclusions, and we’d move on to the next scandal.

Warbler said:

doubleofive said:

Jetrell Fo said:

I’m glad that you see it so simply and fairly because that is exactly what it is not.

He thanked the man for not investigating him while firing him for investigating something he was convinced was worth jailing Hillary over.

He fired him for investigating Hillary? Why? Is it because he didn’t enough on Hillary to satisfy Trump?

Well, the only reasons we have been given are the ones in relevant documents. We have the official announcement which says he was fired over Emailghazi–it’s unclear if it was because he acted unprofessionally or because he didn’t act unprofessionally enough. And we have an internal memo which says Trump had decided to fire Comey a while ago and asked the AG’s office to come up with a pretext, which was presumably later decided to be Emailgazi. Other than that, all you have is speculation. Certainly a lot of that speculation seems more credible than the official announcement.

TV’s Frink said:

I personally don’t care if it’s an ultimate box set or a stand-alone or it comes attached to the back of an emu. I just want it.

I dunno, man. If you have to dig it out from under Bill Cosby, I’ll pass.

Just a reminder to the kids out there that when it came time to impeach Nixon, a majority of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted against all of the proposed articles of impeachment. If not for the Democratic majority, the articles of impeachment would never have made it out of committee (if indeed they were even considered), and he may not have resigned at all.

NeverarGreat said:

I’m glad there isn’t an ongoing Trump/Russia investigation or this firing would look reaaaaalllly suspicious.

The masters of subtlety at the Russian state news agency just tweeted: Белый дом подтвердил, что у Трампа нет ни бизнеса, ни связей с Россией

Roughly: The White House confirmed that Trump has neither business nor other links to Russia

Well that plus the Comey firing settles it, then.

Ryan McAvoy said:

CatBus said:

Well… replacements?

Just imagine the worst and least qualified possible candidate. It’ll be him/her.

Not only that, but the demotion that comes with accepting the job would make Pence President.

Well… replacements? My serious money is on Giuliani. My God-I-wish-I-could-be-absolutely-certain-this-wasn’t-a-possibility money is on Flynn. At some point the pretense doesn’t serve a purpose anymore and just gets in the way.

TV’s Frink said:

Even if the firing is justified, the optics are staggeringly poor.

Fake optics.

SilverWook said:

Firing people always makes the problem go away.

Trumpy better hope Comey doesn’t have a certain video, or knows someone who does. 😉

I really never wanted to re-live the Watergate days. But now I’m wishing it ultimately boiled down to a matter of burglary.

Way to recuse yourself from all things related to the Russia investigation, Jefferson, after you got caught misleading Congress on the matter.

Looks like the FBI investigation will wrap itself up by next week. Turns out there was no fire under all that smoke after all.

A simpler conversation flowchart would go something like:

J: [Outrageous quote from non-credible source without any evidence]
R: Evidence?
J: There’s no evidence supporting this quote at all. I was just posting the quote. It’s not something I am stating myself, yeesh.

The same conclusion reached without spiraling out of control.

I’m pretty much against the ultimate-boxed-set approach. At least for quite a long time, the only way to buy the theatrical cut of Superman on Blu-ray, for example, was to buy a big-ass boxed set, with not only the Special Edition of Superman, but all the other movies, including multiple cuts of Superman II.

Now yeah, I bought it–because I’m a sucker–and now I have the movie I want and a bunch of shiny new coasters. There was also quite a while where the only way to buy Raiders of the Lost Ark on Blu was to buy it with all its attendant coasters. Fortunately I was able to wait that one out until it was available as a single.

Having to buy a bunch of swag just to get the movie you want is crappy. I don’t even think the trilogy should be bundled. Only want Empire? Fine, go for it.

Jetrell Fo said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Jetrell Fo said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/us/politics/obama-flynn-trump.html

“If President Obama was truly concerned about General Flynn, why didn’t they suspend his security clearance, which they approved just months earlier?” Mr. Spicer said during his daily press briefing.

“Not only did they reaffirm it, but they took no steps to suspend it,” Mr. Spicer said. He said that decision casts doubt on how vigorous Mr. Obama’s warning to Mr. Trump was during their meeting in November.

Evidence please.

It’s in the fracking article I quoted from … read it would you, it’s not something I am stating myself, yeesh.

Better yet, if you’re too lazy to read, watch then …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jAAvYmKkto

A quote from Spicer is not evidence in any sense of the word. We understand you’re not stating it yourself. After all, you’re a Bernie supporter!

Ryan McAvoy said:

Jetrell Fo said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/us/politics/obama-flynn-trump.html

“If President Obama was truly concerned about General Flynn, why didn’t they suspend his security clearance, which they approved just months earlier?” Mr. Spicer said during his daily press briefing.

“Not only did they reaffirm it, but they took no steps to suspend it,” Mr. Spicer said. He said that decision casts doubt on how vigorous Mr. Obama’s warning to Mr. Trump was during their meeting in November.

Evidence please.

Sure.

TV’s Frink said:

CatBus said:

I’m declaring May Alternate History Month.

Yeah but can a month last four years?

This last one sure seemed like it did.

I’m declaring May Alternate History Month.