Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Last Call For Russian To Judgment, Con't

Former FBI Director James Comey has authorized the Senate Intelligence Committee to release his repared testimony for tomorrow, and it's basically a diary of Trump's attempts to influence the investigation into Mike Flynn and Russia.  Ben Wittes at Lawfare goes over the seven-page release:



Legal experts much more experience than I'll ever be point out that obstruction of justice as a legal term doesn't care a whit about feelings or intent, but rather the act of interference itself, either by word or by deed.




So there's a legal question, and a conduct question.  Whether or not this rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors is solely up to the House, and there's a 0% chance of that happening while the GOP runs the House.

But again, even if the Dems win back the House and flip the Senate, they won't have the 67 votes in the upper chamber to remove Trump from office, and there's no reason to believe he'd vacate the office anyway. Even voting him out of office may not be enough.

We'll see what Comey chooses to expand upon tomorrow, but my guess is that the country's going to move into a new stage where Trump is bunkered up and furious, and all the while the Senate is plotting to pass Trumpcare under the radar.

Tune in tomorrow.

We're Not Even People To Eric Trump

So does Eric Trump represent the right as a whole, or the views of his father, when he told Sean Hannity last night that critics of the Trump regime don't even qualify as people to him?


Hannity introduced the segment by complaining about the mainstream media floating “baseless Russian conspiracy theories” and what he described as Democrats on the Hill searching for “any evidence of collusion,” namely the investigation into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign’s ties to the Kremlin.

I’ve never seen hatred like this,” Eric Trump said. “I mean, to me, they’re not even people.”

Eric Trump also called the recently elected Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez a “total whackjob,” then decried the increase in name-calling.

“We deserve so much better than this as a country,” Eric Trump added.

I mean I've said before on a number of occasions that Republicans consider Democrats, black folks, Latinx folks, Asian folks, LBGTQ folks, etc to be second-class citizens and even that we're viewed as less than human, but this is the son of the man in the White House publicly admitting on TV that he doesn't consider his father's critics to qualify as people.

We are nothing more than what, chattel?  Animals to be exploited?  Vermin to be exterminated by the Trump regime?  This is the son of the man in the Oval Office saying that basic human rights only belong to those who support Trump, and in some parallel universe where Chelsea Clinton said this about the people who go after her parents, there would be Republican lawmakers openly calling for her arrest, if not her public execution.

But this is Trump's America now.

Qatar Pin, Linchpin, Grenade Pin, Boom, Con't

So yesterday I gave my reasons to support what I think happened in Qatar, and now we have the why of the matter, and why Trump was so eager to do this.  Remember what I said Monday?

Of course, the larger issue goes back to Qatar being the largest producer of natural gas. Qatar has long wanted a pipeline through Syria to sell its product in Europe.  The war in Syria has made that pipeline impossible for years.  And guess who's currently the biggest natural gas dealer to Europe right now?

Our friend Vlad.  So what if wrecking the Qatari ambition for a pipeline becomes the price Doha has to pay to get back in the Gulf States country club?

Guess what we found out late yesterday?

It's not yet clear whether the US has tracked the hackers in the Qatar incident to Russian criminal organizations or to the Russian security services blamed for the US election hacks. One official noted that based on past intelligence, "not much happens in that country without the blessing of the government." 
The FBI and CIA declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Qatari embassy in Washington said the investigation is ongoing and its results would be released publicly soon.

Man it does not end with these guys. 

Final piece of the puzzle falls into place.  Forget wrecking the pipeline like I said before, what if the aim is to put Qatar's LNG out of business and corner the market?

Trump's more than ready to destroy the US relationship with Qatar because Russia wants him to, and Russia provided the cover to do so.  Maybe Trump is a dupe and was fed this fake report, maybe he went along with it willingly, but the point is he did Russia's bidding.

Think about that.


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