President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[Northwestcoug]

Tucker is his own brand of wacko. He doesn't exactly come off very well in that clip either.

I heard his ratings are great. I can't believe there's enough people out there besides UT who like his fish-in-the-barrel routine, finding the craziest liberals and letting them spout off. It is pretty lazy journalism (or whatever it is that he does), and so tedious to watch.

[Uncle Ted]

I heard his ratings are great. I can't believe there's enough people out there besides UT who like his fish-in-the-barrel routine, finding the craziest liberals and letting them spout off. It is pretty lazy journalism (or whatever it is that he does), and so tedious to watch.

The so called cable "news" networks don't hire journalists these days... they hire "entertainers". All the cable news networks just like to talk about the "train wrecks" and talk very little about actual news.

[Northwestcoug]

The so called cable "news" networks don't hire journalists these days... they hire "entertainers". All the cable news networks just like to talk about the "train wrecks" and talk very little about actual news.

That is certainly true. I should say, there are many Tuckers on the left side of the fence.

[wuapinmon]

Liberals these days by definition are wackos... Hopefully Drumpf has learned his lesson picking a democrat, even if he is sort of a blue dog.

I caught this interview the other night. It shows how bat sh*t crazy liberals these days are.

And she teaches middle school?

That woman makes my skin crawl.

[Northwestcoug]

Man, I was laughing at everyone who said Trump would be impeached. After today? I don't know anymore. Just seems like Flynn might not be the only admin official to fall.

[myboynoah]

Good hell, Laura Ingram on Fox saying Obama people planted stories that got Flynn canned. STFU! Why is she even given a voice?!?!

[BlueK]

This is getting really bad. At best for Trump, essentially he had a Russian spy as the top national security adviser and he knew about it for at least 18 days even after being warned by the FBI that Flynn was compromised. AND he kept the Vice President in the dark.

The very reason there are leaks is because there are people in the executive branch freaking out that the president is just sitting on that. And this is the BEST case scenario for Trump. It may actually be even worse than that.

[PaloAltoCougar]

This is getting really bad. At best for Trump, essentially he had a Russian spy as the top national security adviser and he knew about it for at least 18 days even after being warned by the FBI that Flynn was compromised. AND he kept the Vice President in the dark.

The very reason there are leaks is because there are people in the executive branch freaking out that the president is just sitting on that. And this is the BEST case scenario for Trump. It may actually be even worse than that.

It strains credulity to think that Flynn, a career military man, did anything with respect to the Russians without his boss' knowledge, instructions or approval.

[Walter Sobchak]

This is getting really bad. At best for Trump, essentially he had a Russian spy as the top national security adviser and he knew about it for at least 18 days even after being warned by the FBI that Flynn was compromised. AND he kept the Vice President in the dark.

The very reason there are leaks is because there are people in the executive branch freaking out that the president is just sitting on that. And this is the BEST case scenario for Trump. It may actually be even worse than that.

Oh, brother. Give me a break. The leaks didn't come from the executive branch.

America's spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.
<http://theweek.com/articles/680068/a...eeply-worrying>

The whole episode is evidence of the precipitous and ongoing collapse of America's democratic institutions — not a sign of their resiliency. Flynn's ouster was a soft coup (or political assassination) engineered by anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. The results might be salutary, but this isn't the way a liberal democracy is supposed to function.

Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way around. Far too many Trump critics appear not to care that these intelligence agents leaked highly sensitive information to the press — mostly because Trump critics are pleased with the result. "Finally," they say, "someone took a stand to expose collusion between the Russians and a senior aide to the president!" It is indeed important that someone took such a stand. But it matters greatly who that someone is and how they take their stand. Members of the unelected, unaccountable intelligence community are not the right someone, especially when they target a senior aide to the president by leaking anonymously to newspapers the content of classified phone intercepts, where the unverified, unsubstantiated information can inflict politically fatal damage almost instantaneously.

[...]

But no matter what Flynn did, it is simply not the role of the deep state to target a man working in one of the political branches of the government by dishing to reporters about information it has gathered clandestinely. It is the role of elected members of Congress to conduct public investigations of alleged wrongdoing by public officials.

[...]

In a liberal democracy, how things happen is often as important as what happens. Procedures matter. So do rules and public accountability. The chaotic, dysfunctional Trump White House is placing the entire system under enormous strain. That's bad. But the answer isn't to counter it with equally irregular acts of sabotage — or with a disinformation campaign waged by nameless civil servants toiling away in the surveillance state.

As Eli Lake of Bloomberg News put it in an important article following Flynn's resignation,

Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets. This is for good reason. Selectively disclosing details of private conversations monitored by the FBI or NSA gives the permanent state the power to destroy reputations from the cloak of anonymity. This is what police states do.

The Flynn resignation is a huge win for the Deep State.

[YOhio]

Oh, brother. Give me a break. The leaks didn't come from the executive branch.

America's spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.
<http://theweek.com/articles/680068/a...eeply-worrying>



The Flynn resignation is a huge win for the Deep State.

Lol. So many hot takes!

[Moliere]

I'd expect to see lots of interest payments and distributions going in and out of Russia (as well as a lot of other countries). I'd like to know how strong his personal financial connections are with the countries with whom he's negotiating on our behalf. Though of secondary importance, I'd also expect him to be embarrassed that his wealth/income may not be as great as he's been telling everyone or, on the other hand, that the properties he's been lowballing for the purpose of favorable tax assessments are in fact more valuable than he has maintained. Of one thing I'm quite certain: the returns will hurt him; has Donald ever withheld any information that he thought would be reflect well on himself?

Wouldn't all of that would be disclosed in the FEC required financial disclosures that Trump already filed? I'm sure there's a way to hide some of those interests on the FEC form, but they'd also be hidden in his tax returns. I'm not sure how aware people are of how vague things can be in tax returns, especially when dealing with corporate holdings, LLCs and some other pass-through entities.

I'm somewhat convinced the tax return request is a red herring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Topper]

Wouldn't all of that would be disclosed in the FEC required financial disclosures that Trump already filed? I'm sure there's a way to hide some of those interests on the FEC form, but they'd also be hidden in his tax returns. I'm not sure how aware people are of how vague things can be in tax returns, especially when dealing with corporate holdings, LLCs and some other pass-through entities.

I'm somewhat convinced the tax return request is a red herring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've never seen the tax return of a billionaire, but I have seen personal returns with diverse international holdings and bank loans. I've been rolling over how what PAC wanted to see would be disclosed, especially held through LLC or corporate shares. Private sources and private returns are not as revealing without the explanations provided by the taxpayer.

[Bo Diddley]

Oh, brother. Give me a break. The leaks didn't come from the executive branch.

America's spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.
<http://theweek.com/articles/680068/a...eeply-worrying>



The Flynn resignation is a huge win for the Deep State.

This is kind of where I am on it as well. OK, so there's some troubling connections, but more troubling to me is an intelligence community gone rogue.

[Topper]

This is kind of where I am on it as well. OK, so there's some troubling connections, but more troubling to me is an intelligence community gone rogue.

Which is a problem of giving the bureaucracy so much anonymity and power. The leaks are a reason to dismantle the Administrative State. The Fourth Estate needs to be gutted. It will lead to consequences, some of them unintended and some negative, but given the absolute impunity with which the Administrative State functions, a dismantling of it is warranted.

Yes, Trump is a bumbling circus show, but the disloyalty of the Fourth Estate is a bigger problem. Somebody drew the comparison that Trump is a salesman for deal making but for operating detailed operations; that's why he was built for the campaign trail, not the Oval Office. He lacks the experience or mindset to run a tight ship as CEO.

What the dismantling of the US Presidency has for future presidents remains to be seen. Perhaps it will be beneficial or transfer the power to the Congress. Will we effectively create a de facto Parliamentary system?

[imanihonjin]

The current state of politics is something incredible. For the last several months, dems have been hot and bothered because supposedly the Russians hacked the election by obtaining the personal communications of Hillary and her closest advisers via hacking. Never mind the information that was disclosed, dammit, she was hacked. Now, the republicans are doing the exact same thing. Never mind the info, Flynn's info was leaked improperly and this is dangerous shit, yadda yadda yadda.