Tag: Investigations

Closing Thought–21Dec17

We hear a lot these days about the impeachment of Trump….there are people calling for this all over social media and even some media outlets.  But here is something to think about…..

If Trump leaves office we will get the next person in line for ascension, VP Mike Pence, a theocrat…….

I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” – Mike Pence, Speech to Republican National Convention, 2017

When (and if) Donald J. Trump leaves office – via impeachment, criminal indictment and conviction, resignation, or the 25th amendment – Mike Pence, his Vice President will become President. Mike Pence does not have a secret agenda – he is all out there: “My Christian faith is at the very heart of who I am,” he said during one of the vice presidential debates. And he means that. Welcome to Christian Theocracy.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/what-awaits-us-if-mike-pence-replaces-donald-trump/

But what if he is implicated when the investigations are complete and also resigns…that would leave Speaker Ryan next inline…a proven coward…..

Personally, I would rather Ryan than Pence…..Pence is a theocrat and will rein from under a Bible…..something that our founders did not want.

Just a little something to think about during this joyous season.

Until the morrow my friends….chuq

Is She A Russian Stooge?

It was fun watching Clintonians go about character assassination of the Green Party’s Jill Stein….and when we thought it was all over Stein is once again in the news…..this time as part of the Russian meddling investigation….

In her first comments to the press, former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said she will cooperate fully with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into “collusion with the Russians” during the 2016 campaign, and is currently searching for relevant documents. Stein denies holding any substantive communications with the Russian government or RT, its state-owned media property.

Stein says her involvement in the inquiry, first reported by BuzzFeed News, came as a surprise when they were first contacted last month. After a subsequent dialogue between attorneys representing Stein and lawyers from the Senate Intelligence Committee, the ex-candidate received a formal request for cooperation. Although she says the possibility of testifying before Congress has not yet been broached, Stein says she would be “happy to do so” if asked.

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/18/jill-stein-will-hand-over-russia-related-communications-to-senate-commmittee/

Since I could not support Clinton and I would hate myself if I voted for Trump Stein was the most logical vote for me…..with that said….if there was any collusion between the Green Party and Russia or any form of meddling in the election then I damn well want to know.  Unlike Trump supporters I refuse to look the other way at these accusations.  I want to know.

Damn Close To Checkmate?

For about a week the Trump media empire(FOX News and Breitbart) has been calling for the firing of Mueller it even extended into the Congress where all his little butt boyz echoed FOX calling the FBI corrupt and calling for Mueller to be fired….then over the weekend something changed a statement was issued saying that the president would not fire Mueller…..why the sudden turnaround?

Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian contacts with President Trump’s campaign has accessed thousands of his transition team’s emails, according to several sources. But the investigators did not directly request the records from Trump’s still-existing transition group, Trump for America, and instead obtained them from the General Services Administration, a separate federal agency that stored the material—prompting transition group general counsel Kory Langhofer to complain the move was “unauthorized” release of non-government material, reports the Washington Post. The tens of thousands of emails pertain to 13 senior Trump transition officials, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, reports the AP; many include national security discussions about possible Trump international aims as well as candid assessments of candidates for top posts.

Langhofer said that a GSA official appointed by Trump in May had assured the transition in June that any request for records from Mueller’s office would be referred to the transition’s attorneys. According to Langhofer, the assurance was made by then-GSA General Counsel Richard Beckler, who was hospitalized in August and has since died. But late Saturday, GSA Deputy Counsel Lenny Loewentritt, who was present for the conversation, told Buzzfeed that there was nothing improper about the disclosure of the emails. Loewentritt said the transition was informed that by using government devices, the GSA wouldn’t hold back records from law enforcement. Transition officials signed agreements that warn them that materials kept on government servers are subject to monitoring, and there’s no expectation of privacy. Late Saturday, a Mueller rep said that “when we have obtained emails … we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process.”

The game of political chess is fascinating…..I am sure that there is more drama and comedy to come…..stay tuned…..

Two high-ranking members of Donald Trump’s team said there’s been no talk at the White House of firing Robert Mueller, even as the president’s legal team accused the special counsel of obtaining emails from the Trump transition team illegally. Appearing on Meet the Press today, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short said there’s been “no conversation about that in the White House whatsoever,” Politico reports. “You guys keep bringing that up,” he added. “We’ve continued to cooperate in every single possible way in that investigation.” Yesterday White House lawyer Ty Cobb reiterated that the president has no plans to fire Mueller. “As the White House has repeatedly and emphatically said for months, there is no consideration at the White House of terminating the special counsel,” Cobb said.

Meanwhile, on CNN’s State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had to take time away from extolling the Republican tax-reform bill to address rumors about Mueller’s future, the New York Daily News reports. Mnuchin said he hadn’t “heard anything about this, any firing” at the White House, but said the decision would ultimately lie with Trump. “I don’t have any reason to think that the president is going to do that, but that’s obviously up to him,” Mnuchin said. Outside the White House, Republican Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said he thinks firing Mueller “would be a mistake myself.”

I love this stuff…..listening to the Trump minions is like a SNL skit…..rabid idiots is the best description…..Reps like Jordan and Gohmert have always been morons they just have the loudest mouths right now……

A SNL Skit?

I always appreciate good political humor…..and SNL does it about as good as there can be done…….and I really thought that a news report that I read was a story in “The Onion”……

There’s plenty of speculation in DC about whether President Trump might fire special counsel Robert Mueller. But Mike Allen of Axios reports on another strategy being explored by the president’s legal team: Appoint a second special counsel to investigate Mueller’s investigation. The story suggests that Trump’s attorneys trust Mueller himself but not others in the Justice Department. For example, they point to a Fox News story Monday detailing how the wife of a Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr worked for the company behind the infamous anti-Trump dossier that emerged during the election. Ohr was recently demoted for concealing his own meetings with the company, Fusion GPS.

“The Department of Justice and FBI cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interests,” Trump attorney Jay Sekulow tells Axios.
“These new revelations require the appointment of a special counsel to investigate.” It’s not clear how likely this is to happen, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions has previously floated the idea of a second special counsel to cover a wide range of GOP concerns. Meanwhile, the Washington Post has a profile of Trump’s legal trio: Sekulow (the TV presence), Ty Cobb (a White House attorney), and John Dowd (Trump’s personal attorney). They “serve not only as Trump’s lawyers but also as his strategists, publicists, therapists—and, based on Dowd’s claim that he wrote a controversial presidential tweet, ghostwriters,” per the Post.

It is TRUE!  These people want an investigation of the investigation…..(that alone should make one smile)……

My question is who will run this investigation?  FBI?  But I thought they were all corrupt and partisan.  How about the Congress?  Same reasons.

House GOP are morons……they do not know how stupid they appear with this made up BS from FOX…….they cannot think beyond their daily talking points……

Just who will handle this in-depth investigation?

Closing Thought–09Nov17

Remember awhile back there were 2 incidents where US Navy ships had collided with others merchant ships in the Far East?  Remember that far back?  It also caused the deaths of sailors as well.

It seems that the Navy has concluded its investigations and the results are in…….

The Navy announced Wednesday that two collisions that killed 17 sailors over the summer were partly caused by “multiple failures” by service members in charge of making sure their ships didn’t hit anything, the Washington Post reports. On June 17, the USS Fitzgerald hit a container ship off the coast of Japan. The Navy says the collision happened because, among other reasons, the crew didn’t take the required maneuvering actions until far too late, didn’t contact the container ship, and didn’t alert their own captain.

Meanwhile, the Aug. 21 collision of the USS John S. McCain with an oil tanker near Singapore was caused by a complete loss of “situational awareness”: A sailor in charge of steering didn’t realize he was; another sailor only reduced speed on one side of the ship without realizing it; and the captain couldn’t figure out what was going on or why the ship was turning toward the tanker. “We are a Navy that learns from mistakes,” Adm. John Richardson said in a statement Wednesday.

We will see if these investigations and findings will change anything…..human error is always a possibility no matter the situation.

Time for me to shut the tap off and relax awhile….I shall return with more stuff….chuq

Russia, Russia, Russia

Harvey and Russia……that is the extent of the news reports this week…..Russian news has gotten out of hand…..

They maybe diddled with our election……Trump and his cronies may have had dealings with the country and its leaders….the election thing is old hat…..the investigations are getting to the saturation level of most Americans

If Russia and the investigations are true then it is a legal issue….yes it is news but to what point?  Do we truly need to know if the pizza delivery guy met with some Russian looking for borscht on his pie?

With all the Russian news…is it possible that some of it could be misleading?

There is an inherent danger of news organizations getting infected by “confirmation bias” when they want something to be true so badly that even if the evidence goes in the opposite direction they twist the revelation to fit their narrative. Such is how The Washington Post, The New York Times and their followers in the mainstream media are reacting to newly released emails that actually show Donald Trump’s team having little or no influence in Moscow.

On Tuesday, for instance, the Times published a front-page article designed to advance the Russia-gate narrative, stating: “A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.”

Wow, that sounds pretty devastating! The Times is finally tying together the loose and scattered threads of the Russia-influencing-the-U.S.-election story. Here you have a supposed business deal in which Putin was to help Trump both make money and get elected. That is surely how a casual reader or a Russia-gate true believer would read it – and was meant to read it. But the lede is misleading.

Source: More Misleading Russia-gate Propaganda – Consortiumnews

Personally if any of this is true then a price needs to be paid….but I say let the investigation play out…..stop trying to convict in the realm of public opinion….all players that crapped on the Constitution and our laws need top pay and pay heavily……that is an “IF” they are guilty.

Here A Leak, There a Leak

Since Trump and his Boyz arrived in DC there have been leaks upon leaks….and this has the president just furious with the establishment according to him anyone leaking info to the press is not showing proper loyalty to hum, the president……

Now the Ag Sessions has issued a statement saying that there will be a DoJ investigation into all the leaks that Trump has been whining about for months.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will reportedly make an announcement about several criminal leak investigations within days.

Officials told The Washington Post about the forthcoming news from the Justice Department. The investigations will be centered around news reports containing sensitive material about intelligence, the report said.

The news comes as newly-appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci publicly decried leaks coming from within the West Wing in his first week on the job and vowed to fire staffers who continue talking to reporters.

The impending announcement also comes as Trump grows publicly unhappy with Sessions, last week criticized the attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Source: Sessions planning to announce leak investigations: report | TheHill

Here is a thought……could Sessions be trying to repair his image with the president by ordering these investigations……since Trump has been whining about the leaks for months.

And another thought……Sessions is not long for the admin position…..so could he be announcing this in a shot at Trump….since some of the “leaks” that made the news came from the mouth of Trump.  A parting shot at a man that he stood behind  thru thick and thin.

Any thoughts here?

A Mueller Conspiracy

We, the public, have been bombarded by the Russian affair…..some think there is something nefarious while others think there is nothing to see so move on….

I want to go into this “Special Prosecutor” thing…..

As most everyone knows Mueller is looking into the Trump connection to Russia…….or if there is one….everything was okay until there is word that Mueller will look into the financial status of Trump and his minions…..then everything became about trying to get around Mueller even the possibility of firing him.

The problem is that only the DoJ can do the deed…since Sessions has recused himself…he cannot do it…then it will fall to his second and since he is the person that appointed Mueller then he is out of the equation.

So what is the prez to do?

If he wants Mueller fired then he will have to get around Sessions and his second…fire them would be the easiest and install a more supportive lackey as AG.

Sessions seem to be in the sights of Trump after his interview and the stuff he said about Sessions…..(written about here on IST)…..

Source: Throw Jeff Under The Bus! – In Saner Thought

And now there seems to be another memo about Sessions talking with the Russians in favor of the campaign…..personally I think this one has appeared a little to convenient with the stuff about Sessions making its way around the web.

Jeff Sessions has insisted his meetings with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign had nothing to do with the campaign—but the ambassador is saying otherwise. Sergey Kislyak told his superiors that during two conversations with Sessions, who was a senator at the time and also serving as a foreign policy adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, the men discussed issues relating to the campaign, current and former US officials tell the Washington Post. Kislyak’s descriptions of the conversations were intercepted by US intelligence agencies, and the officials who spoke to the Post acknowledged that it’s not clear how reliable Kislyak’s accounts of the conversations are, but that he is known for relaying accurate information to the Kremlin.

One former official says Sessions—who, as attorney general, recused himself from the probe of Russian interference into the US election after initially failing to disclose his meetings with Kislyak during his confirmation hearing—appears to have had “substantive” discussions with Kislyak regarding Trump’s positions on issues of consequence to Russia. Another official says that based on the information from Kislyak, Sessions has apparently given “misleading” information about what they discussed that is “contradicted by other evidence.” A Justice Department spokesperson responded by again stating that Sessions never discussed interference in the election with the ambassador. Experts tell the Atlantic the new information could make Sessions himself a subject of the Russia probe.

Looks like Sessions is being set up….at least to me.

But where would they find a leader for DoJ if they eventually fire Sessions and his second?

Look no further than the “The Mooch”…..Trump’s new Comm Director…..

It’s been nearly two months since Mike Dubke left the Trump administration, and his communications director role has remained empty since. That’s apparently about to change. Four sources said to be “in and close to the White House” confirm to NBC News an earlier report by Axios that Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci—”Mooch” to those close to him—is set to be named as Dubke’s replacement. The announcement could come Friday. A source tells NBC Scaramucci was at the White House Thursday, where he met with Trump and Ivanka Trump and was offered the job. That source adds Trump has long known Scaramucci, 53, who stumped for Trump during the campaign and has been “a good advocate for the president.” He also defended Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter regarding the latter’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer.

Still, NBC notes Scaramucci wasn’t initially Team Trump: He first lent his support to Scott Walker, then Jeb Bush in the primaries portion of the presidential campaign. Scaramucci was appointed by Trump last month to a position with the Export-Import Bank, a position he’ll vacate if the comm director one becomes official. One White House insider who was apparently thrown by the news of Scaramucci’s impending appointment: chief of staff Reince Priebus, who Axios says found out about his potential new colleague only after the decision had been made. Meanwhile, press secretary Sean Spicer, who’s been taking care of Dubke’s responsibilities since he left, is expected to remain on staff, but it’s “unclear” exactly what he’ll be doing, Axios notes.

Since he went to Harvard School of Law he has some knowledge and since he is a Trump ass kisser and will do what he is told…he is the perfect person to lead DoJ and fire Mueller….

If this happens we will see just how weak this republic is for all the Congress can do is issue a strong protest and if that is ignored what is left for them…impeachment?

I do not see any GOPer with the guts to go along with that….how about you?

Also keep in mind that impeachment has been carried out 3 times…..and 2 of them stayed in office afterwards….so all this right wing boo-hoo is a bit premature.

I know a bit of a conspiracy but watch the headlines……there is so much more coming…..

Democrats! Time To Move On!

I waited a couple of years to see or read where a Repub said this with all the silly antics of the GOP in Congress….and as usual my wait was in vain.

This whole Russia-gate thing has been raging for months….all the while Dems are trying to use it as some sort of message to the American voter…they are failing.

Let’s be honest…the average person cares little about this Russian thing.  I spend time at a local college and there is very little discussion there as well.  The only places that this has any footing is the MSM and some blogs….after that no one is talking or even caring.

Even national polls show that it is not that important to the population…..

…….the latest Harvard-Harris Poll survey, provided exclusively to The Hill, which paints a complicated picture of voters’ opinions about the numerous probes that have engulfed the White House.

Sixty-four percent of voters said the investigations into President Trump and Russia are hurting the country. Fifty-six percent of voters said it’s time for Congress and the media to move on to other issues, compared to 44 percent who said the focus should stay on Russia.

But other surveys have found strong support for the special counsel investigating the Russia probe. A Harvard-Harris survey released last month found 75 percent support for former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s investigation.

There is evidence in the Harvard-Harris survey that voters are taking the investigations seriously: Fifty-eight percent say they’re concerned by allegations of obstruction of justice against Trump, with the same number worried about possible dealings between Trump and the Russian government.

But far more — 73 percent — say they’re concerned that the Russia probes have caused Congress to lose focus on the issues important to them. That figure encompasses 81 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independents and 68 percent of Democrats.

(thehill.com)

In short the public is growing ever weary of the political games and the lack of Congressional attention to the important things in the voters lives.

If the prez would stop using Twitter to try and bully any opposition then the MSM would have little to report and would move on.

I am not saying remove on from the investigations just keep any news close to the vest until there is something big to report.

As long as the fixation is on this Russian thing then important issue go under-reported or not at all.

We have a health care bill that is a piece of crap, we have a budget debate coming, etc.

Source: The Politics Behind ‘Russia-gate’ – Consortiumnews

And for God sake move on from the last election!  Clinton lost…Trump won.  Trying to find someone to blame is doing no good…it definitely is not a unifying topic for the Party.

Source: Russia-gate Flops as Democrats’ Golden Ticket – Consortiumnews

Dems need to find a message that will resonate with voters and stop chasing every Tweet that comes off Trump’s thumbs…..or 2018 will be NO different than any of the last couple of elections.

Crap! Someone Lied!

Yesterday was full of news…horrible news….the high rise fire in London, the shooting of a US Rep and others and then came the proverbial “other shoe”……

After many Tweets about the fact the he, Trump, was not the focus of any investigation…that damn “shoe” was thrown into the mechanism….

It’s not an entirely happy 71st birthday for President Trump as the Washington Post reports what it calls a “major turning point” in the FBI investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election: Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct justice, officials say. Though former FBI Director James Comey repeatedly told Trump he was not personally being investigated, that changed days after Trump fired Comey, officials say. Until now, the nearly year-old investigation has focused on Russia’s meddling and whether the Trump campaign was involved with it. Now, as the probe widens to include the obstruction of justice question, five people who have been briefed on requests from Mueller say that he is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of that examination.

Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’ former deputy, Richard Ledgett, have all agreed to be interviewed, the officials say. The Post has details of exchanges with Coats and Rogers that are reportedly of interest to Mueller, including a March 22 conversation in which Trump allegedly asked Coats to intervene with Comey to get the FBI to back off on Michael Flynn. The response to the story from Trump’s personal lawyer: “The FBI leak of information regarding the President is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal.” As for what will happen if evidence of criminal activity is uncovered, the Post explains that it’s complicated. Congress would likely need to review the evidence and decide whether to start impeachment proceedings.

The people in the White House have chimed in…….

When the Washington Post reported its potential bombshell on Wednesday—that a special prosecutor is looking into whether President Trump obstructed justice—the newspaper noted that aides were urging the president not to comment about the development on Twitter. Those requests didn’t work: Trump fired off two tweets Thursday morning denouncing the “phony story,” reports Politico. “You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people!” tweeted Trump, who didn’t specify the people he was talking about.

Trump also suggested that the obstruction development came about because his critics hit a dead end trying to prove his campaign worked with Moscow. “They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice,” he wrote. The Post, and later the New York Times, say that special prosecutor Robert Mueller wants to interview three key figures to try to figure out whether Trump improperly sought their help to get James Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn. They are Dan Coats, director of national intelligence; Michael Rogers, head of the National Security Agency; and Richard Ledgett, former NSA deputy director.

As I heard this news I imagined my Right wing brethren having stroke…..but look at this way…now you guys have something fresh……. some new material to put down in your journals and blogs.

Let the ranting begin…..I look forward to what new insults that can be leveled at those that do not agree with my Right wing brethren.