My inbox went quiet…
Are we in a constitutional crisis? Is it the end of the world as we know it? Or is it business as usual?
I DON’T KNOW!
The internet is de rigueur. Everybody’s got a smartphone. Technologically we’re up to date, but emotionally we haven’t digested the change.
Twenty-odd years ago we would have turned on the TV and been told what was right, by esteemed personages we believed more intelligent and more informed than ourselves.
But now we know most of the talking heads are overpaid wankers and the experts…EVERYBODY’S AN EXPERT NOW! My opinion is as good as theirs, so is yours.
And frighteningly, not a single so-called expert got it right last November.
So is this just an issue of two camps, each in their own silo?
It certainly isn’t about fake news. That’s a canard employed by those who are living in the last century. People have the power of discernment…WHEN THEY WANT TO! However they like reading stories that reinforce their viewpoint. But where did they get said viewpoint to begin with?
There’s been all this talk of the Saturday Night Massacre. And yes, President Nixon had just been reelected, but we’d come off the 1960s, an era of tumult and everything appeared to be up for grabs.
Today however our heroes are Ivy League dropouts who run the internet and billionaires – sometimes the same people. We’ve got so many channels we can afford to cut the cord. The wall fell and communism ended and it was supposed to be clear sailing.
Only it isn’t.
So you flip the channels and hear diametrically opposed views. And this is one crisis wherein the written word does not suffice. We want talking heads. We want live. We want video. We don’t want to read. We’re living it in real time, EXPLAIN IT TO US!
But what they’re not explaining is how we got here.
I’m not talking the 109 days since President Trump took office, but the changes in our country that allowed him to become president.
One thing’s for sure; we’ve got no idea what the temperature of the country will be until there’s another election. Hell, look at France. The good guy won, but the polls were off significantly – it was never that close.
And is this about math? With the Republicans in power, so it’s business as usual?
Is this about carpetbaggers or ineptitude?
It’s hard to see this as being confined to D.C. when our healthcare lies in the balance. When so many are struggling economically. Never in my lifetime have more people been looking for guidance.
But we’re not getting any!
We’ve got a bunch of talking heads and no leaders, no one to get behind.
It’s a veritable field day for the news business, this is what they live for.
Fox New‘s ratings have taken a hit since Bill O’Reilly got canned. Or is what’s happening here bigger than Fox/MSNBC, bigger than 538/Hannity. Is this what happens in a culture where money is exalted and everything else is trivial and those who’ve got it rule and those who don’t try to climb the greased totem pole and…?
How can you trust the biased, money-making media to begin with?
It’s the best we’ve got, but it’s not good enough.
I have no idea what’s going on, what the pulse of the country is. There are no markers, nothing definitive.
This is the new reality.
We can connect for free over thousands of miles but we’ve never been so disconnected in our entire lives.
There is no such thing as multitasking.
Short attention span millennials are a hoax.
We’ve got endless platitudes that are incorrect, their explanatory powers nonexistent.
It’s just you and me, arguing, going to bed looking at the ceiling wondering…
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
Was this supposed to be about the Comey firing? If so, the hypocrisy from the left side of the aisle over this is suffocating. Hell the Dems were screaming for his ouster not long ago due to his handling of the Hildabeast emails/server situation. And now these jerkoffs are clutching their pearls over Trump firing him? Sheezus, make up your minds, idiots. Even Steven Colbert nearly crapped his pants when his audience roared their approval when he announced that Trump fired Comey. He was stunned and said that there must be alot of Trump supporters in the audience. No, MORON. They are YOUR audience, filled with snowflake lefties who you and those of your ilk personally SPOONFED the narrative that Comey was in large part to blame for Hildabeast’s massive faceplant in the election. So how did you expect them to react when he was fired? Are they supposed to hate him or like him? Did you forget to tell them how to think this week, since we know they obviously can’t think on their own. You forgot to reprogram your robots when it comes to Comey. Here’s a question, anyone think Comey still would be working if Hildabeast had won? Anyone who thinks he would is practicing in self delusion.
That script can be flipped pretty easily as this president was just months ago praising Comey for the exact cause he used for firing him.
So what changed? Maybe it was Comey’s request for more resources for the Russia investigation three days prior to his ouster. Maybe unrelated but either way the optics are hideous.
It is possible for most people to hold two competing thoughts at the same time. You can hate the ump on one call and praise him on the next.
Yeah,but you can’t say he’s totally biased in favor of your opponent when he makes a call you don’t like and then turn around and say he’s a person of unparalleled courage and integrity a few minutes later when he makes a controversial ruling in your favor.Unless you’re a liar,hypocrite or a Democrat(but I repeat myself!).
+1
You’re right Guy, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Great post.
You know, it’s possible for one person to be of a consistent mind and to think that Comey is/was a bad actor when he did what he did in October, 2016 and still think that President Trump fired him for bad reasons. It’s possible to be one person and to think that Comey may have deliberately targeted Hillary Clinton last fall and could *ALSO* have been hunting the President for colluding with Russia in a present-day investigation.
You’re telling Dems to “make up their minds” about their views on Comey, but last fall candidate Trump and Senator Sessions were praising Comey for his bravery and balls in how he treated Clinton and now President Trump and AG Sessions are firing Comey for how he treated Clinton. Why no call for them to make up their minds?
And of course Comey would have been fired had Clinton won. But she wouldn’t have fired him for investigating her ties to Russia. Oh, and had that happened, I’m sure the collective right would be all “That’s chill, brah. NBD.”
The whole problem is that Comey shifts to fit the prevailing winds. When he’s blowing the Democrats way,they think he’ a hero.(July 2016 press conference absolving her of any criminal liability over e-mails) When he blows the GOP direction- however briefly-they rush to commend him.(the week in October after Comer disclosed the Weiner /Abedin security breach) Just last week.semi-0fficial Democratic spokesman Nate Silver laid the whole blame for Hillary’s loss on Comey’s supposed partisanship,never mind that the October letter was retracted prior to the election. Now he’s the reincarnation of the sainted Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor. Also,please tell me what Trump’s people did. Did they tell the Russians to hack the DNC e-mails,starting a year before the election and eight months before Trump’s nomination ,so certain were they that Trump would be the nominee? Did they tell Assange and Wikileaks to wait until after NBC ran the sensational Planet Hollywood tape to release the Podesta inside baseball e-mails to insure they would be overshadowed by the tape? Also,I’m sure the two million voters that swung from Obama in 201 to Trump in 2016 were transfixed by the Wikileaks’disclosure of bickering between Podesta,Clinton crony/bag man Doug Band,and Chelsea over who was pilfering more from the Clinton Foundation,which was the most embarassing disclosure from the hacked e-mails. (Who even knows who those characters are outside the Beltway?) Ask yourself if any of this makes any sense outside the studios of MSNBC or the shrinking newsrooms of the NYT,the WP,or the KC Star.
Not to mention that Diane Feinstein et al admit that there has been NO EVIDENCE FOUND. They’ve got nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip. This like the idiotic Birthers during the Obama presidency.
>>The whole problem is that Comey shifts to fit the prevailing winds.
No, the whole problem is that two days ago the administration said that Trump fired Comey based on recommendations from Rosenstein and Sessions and that today Trump said that he was going to fire Comey regardless of what the people at Justice said. The problem is that this administration can’t keep its story straight, which makes it very difficult to believe them in the first place.
>>When he’s blowing the Democrats way,they think he’ a hero.(July 2016 press conference absolving her of any criminal liability over e-mails) When he blows the GOP direction- however briefly-they rush to commend him.(the week in October after Comer disclosed the Weiner /Abedin security breach)
No, Dems didn’t think he was a hero when he did that. They thought he was correcting an error in opening an investigation that never should have been opened and was done under pressure by a GOP that was eager to see her prosecuted for a minor lapse (which, not for nothing is what it was).
>>Just last week.semi-0fficial Democratic spokesman Nate Silver laid the whole blame for Hillary’s loss on Comey’s supposed partisanship,never mind that the October letter was retracted prior to the election. Now he’s the reincarnation of the sainted Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor.
This is such crap I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re being sarcastic with the “semi-official” tag on Silver and just start in with the (lack of) analysis that Comey’s letter probably cost Clinton the election. Why argue the point when you can juust dismiss it, right? As Silver’s column says, the letter almost immediately negatively affected Clinton’s standing in the polls. It takes a week for polls to fully reflect the letter and her lead kept sinking the whole time. Now, there are a lot of factors at play here, but you just pretty much ignore all of them in favor of saying that Comey retracted the letter prior to the election. Which is, yeah, sure, true, but it was so late in the game that the retraction was done too late to allow the campaign to fully undo the damage the letter had done in the first place.
>>Also,please tell me what Trump’s people did.
WE DON’T KNOW! THAT’S THE POINT OF THE DEMAND FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR! YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT, RIGHT? ABOVE ALL ELSE, PLEASE TELL ME THAT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!
>>Did they tell the Russians to hack the DNC e-mails,starting a year before the election and eight months before Trump’s nomination ,so certain were they that Trump would be the nominee? Did they tell Assange and Wikileaks to wait until after NBC ran the sensational Planet Hollywood tape to release the Podesta inside baseball e-mails to insure they would be overshadowed by the tape? Also,I’m sure the two million voters that swung from Obama in 201 to Trump in 2016 were transfixed by the Wikileaks’disclosure of bickering between Podesta,Clinton crony/bag man Doug Band,and Chelsea over who was pilfering more from the Clinton Foundation,which was the most embarassing disclosure from the hacked e-mails. (Who even knows who those characters are outside the Beltway?) Ask yourself if any of this makes any sense outside the studios of MSNBC or the shrinking newsrooms of the NYT,the WP,or the KC Star.
All of that is really specific. Again, I don’t know. Probably not. But here is one thing I do know that Donald Trump did say ““I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” So, we do know that back when he was candidate Trump, he was aware that Russia was accused of hacking, wasn’t bothered by it at all an, in fact, encouraged them to keep doing it.
Also, and more to the point, all of this, every single word of it, elides the multiple other potential ways that the Trump campaign could have possibly colluded with the Russians and what other contacts they may have had. None of us are privy to what the FBI is, was or might have been investigating so to dismiss it out of hand or pretend like we know what they have by way of evidence and THEN dismiss it as being inconsequential makes no sense.
I worked on a case with a particularly stupid and unethical lawyer years ago. He accused me of “collusion” but was unable to point to a specific act of wrongdoing that I had “colluded” with anyone to commit. To charge someone with a crime it has to be a specific act,i.e.you have to show what was done that was wrongful;when ,where ,and how it happened;and who was involved. The whole Anglo-American legal tradition rejects the idea of letting a prosecutor go after someone in the hopes of turning up some illegal act to be used against them. This is why we have the requirement of probable cause in our constitution Tell me you understand that,Above All Else?
An investigation has to be based on specific evevidence. You can’t go into it based on the pre- ordained conclusion(‘Trump colluded with the Russians’)and then test “the multiple potential ways it could have happened”in hopes of dredging up something that will support your desired outcome. Your post is so ignorant(there is no special prosecutor law anymore) and wrongheaded( the Feds couldn’t recover the 33k deleted Hillary emails but paid a sleaze ball P.I. for the Golden Showers dossier,which is what prompted Trump’s sarcastic quip about asking the Russians for help)that it gives me material for my next post. Muchas gracias, Amigo Gavin!
Game, Set, Match.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight- Hillary would have been well within her rights as president to fire Comey because he targeted her for investigation in what HRC perceived to be a blatant and unfair manner? But if Trump fires Comey for targeting him for investigation in what Trump perceived to be a blatant and unfair manner our survival as a free society is threatened? Could the explanation be that Comey was bending to political pressure in both instances? In July,he was out to save Hillary’s candidacy but wanted to do it in what looked like a measured,judicious manner,that an all-clear from Loretta Lynch wouldn’t have after the schmooz session with the Big Dog at the Phoenix Airport.? In October,hadn’t he already boxed himself in by assuring the GOP that he would inform them if new evidence developed? Now,the Dems have gone to the mattresses over this “the Russians are coming schtick”and have to be humored and indulged. In each instance he has allowed himself to be buffeted by political pressure to save his own skin,most recently when he tried to justify his October surprise letter by claiming that Huma Abedin had sent “thousands”(!) of classified documents to Ricardo Danger’s(k.a. The Honorable Anthony Weiner,D-N.Y.) home laptop. The guy is a weasel and syncophant and we’re well rid of him before he gets to be like J. Edgar Hoover,who had presidents of both parties buffaloed for five decades.
With the GOP in control of the White House, Senate, and House, the reaction of the left is meaningless. It’s the reaction of the right that carries weight. Does anyone question the actual reason Trump pulled the trigger?
Hey Stomps, I sense that’s that’s a rhetorical question you’re posing…but
By wording it as such, you’re implying that EVERYONE believes what you think to be true to be true.
And that’s just plain and simple wrong.
To tongue-in-cheek paraphrase you from the recent past, you know better than that!
There are any number of different viewpoints and theories out there.
Climb out of that bubble and you’ll stumble onto them quite readily!
Yep, I’ve “stumbled” across many viewpoints and theories out there as to why Trump fired Comey when he did. Whether you think Comey is a long serving public servant and well respected member of the intelligence community that just calls them as he sees them as described by many in Congress or a blithering idiot subject to any partisan political breeze that touches him, he has certainly done something in the past year that probably pi$$ed you off and made his firing appropriate in your view. It’s not the act of firing itself that many people really question, it’s the timing. I’d like to think that all commenters here actually read and listen to “facts” and opinions across the political spectrum before making a decision. However it’s also true that both sides lie so maybe just listening to what Trump has said and tweeted about Comey and about the Russia hacking connection to our election is the best source for your opinion on the firing. Especially considering that it immediately followed Comey’s request for more money for the investigation.
So, pray tell sage admin, what is number one on your list for why Trump fired Comey at the moment he did? I’m stuck in my bubble and need your counsel.
Ah, excellent question; don’t have one
Just more hypocrisy from the bible-thumpin’ right. They defend everything they railed against for 8 years. I thought executive orders were a blight on the Constitution and the worst thing for the Republic. No? Oh, my mistake. Politics in the FBI and Dept. of Justice? Unconstitutional! No? Oh, my mistake. And so on, and so on, and so on.
On the flip side, Dems don’t have anything to brag about either. Different sides of the same coin.
100% agree. I loathe executive orders for the most part…but Jesus Christ, it seems like that’s the only way anything gets done. Otherwise it gets stuck in congress with the minority doing everything to obstruct the majority in power and it gets stuck in a quagmire. Which is EXACTLY what people are sick and tired of.
We get it Guy. You like Trump. Hey, next time spare us all the useless and unnecessary drivel. Be concise.
No not really. I think he’s a ham handed buffoon alot of the time. I voted for Gary Johnson. So go f*ck yourself. But the absolute meltdown on the left regardless of whatever he does simply drives more people to the right of center.
“the absolute meltdown on the left regardless of whatever he does simply drives more people to the right of center.”
– exactly… now that we’ve established said and found agreement there, let’s disagree… more on ‘your guy’ gary ‘Pothead’ johnson, the next comment below, Guy.
“I have no idea what’s going on, what the pulse of the country is. There are no markers, nothing definitive.”
– the degree ones own satisfaction or dis is a barometer the present temperature – least your own neck of the woods.
Are you more or less gratified today, than on the eve of November 11, 2016? Kerouac belongs former category; as such, his comfort level is trending up same as multiplied millions others who voted and believed same. More than enough to win the election, to the chagrin those would dismiss the electoral college in lieu popularity, ‘mob rule’ mentality; a look at how ‘the losers’ reacted post election all the barometric pressure and measure one needs to ascertain.
The places one inhabits/circles travel physically & intellectually can distort reality, just as sitting in front the boob tube did, last Presidential election… ‘if you hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner or later you’re gonna get a haircut’, Trump affirming.
A two sided political coin that lands its side/compromises not, the only option biding time, awaiting next spin the wheel of fortune – one day you’re heads up, and the next face down. Now, those other millions not so enamored know how the other half lived / felt these past eight years, darkest of black days in US history, Kerouac’s opine.
People choose to affiliate with what/those whom and in which they believe… anyone who needs/depends on the media tell them what to think/how to feel, is a lost cause, regardless which way they lean. As voters spoke for themselves at the polls, speak to your fellow man/woman… a better source which way the wind blows than an agenda driven talking tv head lot of them, main stream media.
Comey? Gesundheit. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t, and par for the course, the Democratic hypocrisy re: his firing because it was Trump pulled the trigger instead one of them, expected.
Four more years of draining that swamp and ‘Making America Great Again’
PRESIDENT TRUMP
🙂
Here, Shawnster. Kerouac loves Trump. I don’t believe I’m quite as far right as Kero. But that being said, the Democrats are allowing themselves to be dragged so far to the left by identity politics and victimization politics, that they are losing all of the more “centrist” democrats. It’s a shame. I like some ideas the Dems have and some ideas the Repubs have. There’s a bunch that I like about the Libertarian side. In fact, you might consider me a classic liberal to be honest. Being a liberal has been bastardized by the far left whack jobs. Ticks me off.
Kerouac voted for Trump because, my opine, he was the best of a sorry lot – best of the worst as ‘twere. Trump, clay-footed as anyone/everyone, was and still remains the last roadblock standing between this once great nations’ greatness past and demise, my opine, the end arriving if not in our lifetime then not interminably beyond.
Yours truly lost a friend due the now ex telling me: ‘I could never vote for Trump’. I just as definitively replied ‘and I could never vote for clinton’ – any – her, him, other spawn theirs.
Politics does not unite, it divides – period. Speaking of the devil, the ‘great divider’ himself, the of late not forgotten soon enough ‘magic negro’, obuma: gary ‘pothead’ johnson (more about that sobriquet shortly) shared the magic one’s ability spend money like it was coming out of someone else’s pocket… managed to turn an $1.8 billion debt in New Mexico (always ranking near the bottom the 50 states most every category) into more than double that, $4.6 bill in the red by the time he left; just think what he could do with the combined resources US; no thanks.
Beside his fiscal irresponsibility, ‘puff daddy’ johnson and too his preferences will always be reason enough Kerouac dismiss the Lib(ertarian). Translation: Kerouac is for the elimination drugs illegal, alcohol, cigarettes & anything else that has been proven to need ‘control’ at minimum, elimination the extreme. You/others say pain relief/escape from reality, I say ‘man and woman up’ and die on your feet, rather than upon your knees.
My opine, when one thinks of the damage ‘Pothead’/his screwy ilk (like ‘Moonbeam’, nod California’s Jerry Brown) could do a larger scale, Kerouac is convinced ‘elimination’ the entire State of California – and Taos, New Mexico, where ‘Pothead’ resides – be apropos.
Chicago columnist Mike Royko (who instead of becoming wiser with age instead grew soft in the head) coined ‘Moonbeam’ and branded California “the world’s largest outdoor mental asylum: if it babbles and its eyeballs are glazed (‘any’ inference that this has anything to do with CG, purely ‘unintentional’), it probably comes from California”… or Taos, a far east suburb the former, all intents & purposes.
Fortunately, the 2016 Presidential election conclusion, johnson stated he will not run for public office again; who/what/where’s Aleppo? Who cares, right gar? Go smoke another lenyo.
Kero…for the record, my vote for Johnson was more about making a personal statement that we need more options in our presidential elections other than the two ineffective parties currently in power. The American people deserve more/better.
“my vote for Johnson was more about making a personal statement that we need more options in our presidential elections”
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjYoNL4g5Vg
Having been a resident NM during ‘puff daddy’s sway, have no need wonder what ‘President’ Pat Paulsen would’ve offered, the form ‘puffy’same:
Press: ‘Mr. President, what would you do about Aleppo?’
President: “About”-
Press: ‘Aleppo’.
President: “And… what is Aleppo?”
[uncomfortable pause]
Press: ‘You’re kidding?’
President: “No”. . . .
Press: ‘Aleppo is in Syria. It’s the epicenter of the refugee crisis-
President: “OKAY, got it got it. Well. I feel that it is too directly bound to its own anguish to be anything other than a cry of negation, carrying within itself the seeds of its own destruction. However, to get to the meat of the matter, I will come right to the point, and take note of the fact that the heart of the issue in the final analysis escapes me.”
No more questions, gentleman. Garçon, another lenyo if you please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOT_BoGpCn4
🙂
We all, here in the hinterlands, watch the cable news and try to parse the truth from what facts are available and the opinions of others, who, supposedly have access to information unavailable to we hoi polloi.
What do we know for sure and can both sides agree on a premise, that would lead us to a consensus?
Here is a premise, that I think, is proven beyond doubt.
America’s intelligence agencies are leaking like the proverbial sieve. e.g.Flynn’s removal from power was abrupt and brought about by classified information being leaked from Deep State, Left Leaning intelligence personnel to the 4th estate.
There are no secrets in any Federal Agency, that relate to politics, that are safe for any length of time. Leaks are ubiquitous and revealed on the news every single night on cable stations claiming to have it “First”.
If Trump, were drinking White Russians and people in the NSA, FBI, et al. thought he should be drinking Black Russians and this would prove he hated Blacks and Jews to boot, it would be leaked to the NYT faster than you could say “Glen Thrush Is A Hack”.
If there was any “There” there, then there would be full throated, 2000 decibel level scream for impeachment from every Progressive press pack dog agent on the left that would drown out the sounds of galaxies colliding in your front room.
This “Ivestigation” has been grinding along at the speed of a wounded Maxine Waters synapse for almost a year.
Here is what probably happened.
Obama figured out, that he could acquire information on Trump and other Republicans (Rand Paul etc.) “Accidentally” when he sent Susan Rice to check out conversations and available information which were on the face of it, secret oversight relating to foreign agents. There was nothing there and all was well, until Trump won the election. Then, he realized that even though he could bullshit his way out of it, under the pretense of looking at evil Russian spies, he saw that the amount of interest, his administration had in opposing Republican politicians looked really bad.
While he was still technically able to probably lie his way out of it and claim only interests in National Security matters, it still looked bad.
So, on January 12th, Obama “Enhanced” the ability of Intelligence Agencies to share data, which, covered his (Susan Rice) tracks in the event of a retrospective overview by the new administration, which, would of course, be pissed as hell, that the last administration had “Tapped his phones”, or, more specifically, spied, illegally on them in order to acquire information that would hurt them in the election.
That is my opinion.
“This “Investigation” has been grinding along at the speed of a wounded Maxine Waters synapse for almost a year.”
Now that’s funny!