It's Muller Time

[O Really]

Yeppers - thus our move to be Canafornians - or Calinadians, whichever. Our life as Florilinians ends Tuesday. Of course, we still have to invade and survive Arkansas and Texas, as well as Land of Mormon, but nobody said life as a refugee is always easy.

[Vrede too]

... What is Graham doing? He was a leading POSPOTUS critic within the GOP. Angling for a Cabinet post, now or in 2021? Positioning himself if POSPOTUS doesn’t run? Coming on to VP Q-tip? ...

Just announced he's running for Senate reelection in 2020. Must not want to deal with any Trumpette wrath in SC.

[O Really]

... What is Graham doing? He was a leading POSPOTUS critic within the GOP. Angling for a Cabinet post, now or in 2021? Positioning himself if POSPOTUS doesn’t run? Coming on to VP Q-tip? ...

Just announced he's running for Senate reelection in 2020. Must not want to deal with any Trumpette wrath in SC.

You're probably right, but he could have toned down the fawning drooling boot/ass licking a little and still appeared supportive. Actually, he could have just kept his mouth shut and most in SC would have assumed him to be with Trump. But he can't keep his mouth shut on any topic, can he? Never missed an opportunity for a quote or a spot on a talking head show. I've generally thought that his PR staff probably sends out comments and quotes by the hundreds to every news media they can find and figures some of them are bound to quote him.

[Vrede too]

You're probably right, but he could have toned down the fawning drooling boot/ass licking a little and still appeared supportive. Actually, he could have just kept his mouth shut and most in SC would have assumed him to be with Trump. But he can't keep his mouth shut on any topic, can he? Never missed an opportunity for a quote or a spot on a talking head show. I've generally thought that his PR staff probably sends out comments and quotes by the hundreds to every news media they can find and figures some of them are bound to quote him.

Maybe he was told that he had to atone for being a leading POSPOTUS critic within the GOP? Maybe POSPOTUS directly threatened him? Idk.

[GoCubsGo]

Awwwww.....

Roger Stone's woes: He's broke. Trump doesn't call. And his wife broke her ankle

[Whack9]

Anyone read the Mueller report?

[Vrede too]

Anyone read the Mueller report?

Nah, but I read this:

Read: Mueller’s letter to AG Barr criticizing his framing of the Russia report’s findings
Special counsel Robert Mueller urged William Barr to release summaries his team had prepared.

[Whack9]

Robert Mueller gave a very brief press conference today.

The key takeaways:

Mueller reiterated the finding in his report, saying if his office "had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so."

"We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime," he said.

Mueller then explained, citing Department of Justice policy, that a President "cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional."

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... 4b2b662007

The points above, expanded a bit, that I find interesting:
(From a transcript of his speech)

First, the opinion explicitly permits the investigation of a sitting president, because it is important to preserve evidence while memories are fresh and documents available. Among other things, that evidence could be used if there were co-conspirators who could be charged now.

And second, the opinion says that the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. And beyond department policy, we were guided by principles of fairness. It would be unfair to potentially — it would be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crime when there can be no court resolution of the actual charge.

Sounds like Mueller is saying it's up to Congress to take his findings and formally accuse the president of wrong doing. The report speaks for itself.

[billy.pilgrim]

Sounds like a cop- out.

He did determine that Flynn and popodolopolous committed crimes.But they were nobodies.

He also had plenty of almost identical crimes on Jared and junior. But they, like trump, are somebodies.

Reminds me of watching another prosecutor close his eyes to the real crimes of the somebodies while scooting a minor player off to wait for the promised pardon.

[1 CAT FAN]

Mueller's report looks bad for Obama

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. The Mueller report flatly states that Russia began interfering in American democracy in 2014. Over the next couple of years, the effort blossomed into a robust attempt to interfere in our 2016 presidential election. The Obama administration knew this was going on and yet did nothing. In 2016, Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice told her staff to "stand down" and "knock it off" as they drew up plans to "strike back" against the Russians, according to an account from Michael Isikoff and David Corn in their book "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump". 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. A legitimate question Republicans are asking is whether the potential "collusion" narrative was invented to cover up the Obama administration's failures. Two years have been spent fomenting the idea that Russia only interfered because it had a willing, colluding partner: Trump. Now that Mueller has popped that balloon, we must ask why this collusion narrative was invented in the first place.
Given Obama's record on Russia, one operating theory is that his people needed a smokescreen to obscure just how wrong they were. They've blamed Trump. They've even blamed Mitch McConnell, in some twisted attempt to deflect blame to another branch of government. Joe Biden once claimed McConnell refused to sign a letter condemning the Russians during the 2016 election. But McConnell's office counters that the White House asked him to sign a letter urging state electors to accept federal help in securing local elections -- and he did. I guess if I had failed to stop Russia from marching into Crimea, making a mess in Syria, and hacking our democracy I'd be looking to blame someone else, too. If you consider Russian election interference a crisis for our democracy, then you cannot read the Mueller report, adding it to the available public evidence, and conclude anything other than Barack Obama spectacularly failed America. Subsequent investigations of this matter should explore how and why Obama's White House failed, and whether they invented the collusion narrative to cover up those failures.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/opinions ... index.html

[neoplacebo]

[bannination]

lol wut

[1 CAT FAN]

Maybe the CNN journalist is still employed.

[Vrede too]

Republican Group to Run Ad on Fox News Urging Congress to Protect Elections Because Trump Won't (article)

Website, with ad on homepage:
Republicans for the Rule of Law

Wow.

[GoCubsGo]

Republican Group to Run Ad on Fox News Urging Congress to Protect Elections Because Trump Won't (article)

Website, with ad on homepage:
Republicans for the Rule of Law

Wow.

The party of Reagan isn't quite dead, though it is on life support.

[neoplacebo]

I saw video of trump telling George Stephanopoulos that he's accomplished more than any other first term president which means trump thinks of himself as better than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or FDR. He probably really believes this. sad

[GoCubsGo]

Anyone having popcorn for breakfast?

[Vrede too]

Anyone having popcorn for breakfast?

Caught just a very little, but don't have the patience for it. I will read and watch a few accounts of the highlights.

[billy.pilgrim]

Still not watching anything remotely newsy on the TV thing. Planning to start News Hour on PBS at some point - maybe.

Y'all tell me what happens. My guess: Muller will answer some questions but will play the good repug on others. Democrats will be outraged (justifiably) and repugs will say - nothing new, no big deal, let's just Move On.

Remember trump's Article the 2nd

“Then, I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president,” he said. “But I don’t even talk about that.”

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/politic ... utType=amp

[Vrede too]

... Y'all tell me what happens....

Mueller confirms report did not exonerate Trump of obstruction

... Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mueller’s report, released in April, cleared him of allegations that he obstructed justice by attempting to influence the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., asked Mueller about Trump’s assertions.

“And what about total exoneration?” Nadler asked. “Did you actually totally exonerate the president?”

“No,” Mueller said. He also confirmed that his report expressly states the president was not exonerated.

Trump tweeted “NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!” about 35 minutes before Mueller’s testimony was scheduled to start Wednesday morning.

Mueller’s report stated that Trump had attempted to remove the special counsel, limit the scope of the investigation and influence the testimony of witnesses, among other alleged actions that could constitute obstruction of justice. Mueller declined to decide whether Trump had committed crimes, citing a Department of Justice policy that states a sitting president cannot be indicted.