Does the Sussman Trial Cause Any Regret at All?

 

From RealClearPolitics on Thursday:

Baker’s testimony was followed, on Friday, by that of Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook. Mook casually (perhaps inadvertently) dropped a bombshell. Hillary Clinton, he said, had personally approved sharing the Trump-Alfa Bank story with the press. Mook said the campaign wasn’t sure if the story was true but figured the press would look into it. Hillary agreed and approved spreading the false story.

But Mook cannot be right when he says “the campaign” didn’t know if the Alfa Bank story was true. Mook may not have known, but others in the campaign surely did since they were the ones who created the false story. They expended campaign funds to generate that dishonest “inference and narrative” about Trump and Alfa Bank from internet data, knowing it would fool only naïve FBI agents and reporters. Real cyber experts could – and did – disprove the “inference” almost immediately.

Without a doubt, this was the Democratic Party using the levers of government to go after its opponents. For every person on the right who complained loud and long about the threat to the Republic by Trump, where are those voices now?

Those of us willing to overlook mean tweets (or enjoy them, which I admit too) were able to see how this was all a setup at the time. It was painfully clear because our eyes were not clouded. We are owed apologies by the people screeching that Trump was a threat to democracy.

We won’t get it.

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  1. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow are way higher today and we don’t have a balanced budget. Somebody is kidding themself. It ain’t me.

    The stock market increasingly has little to do with the citizen class.

    • #121
  2. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    You have to get it straight in your own head, with your own words, why populism and Socialism are an issue today. Voting Democrat just makes everything worse. Vote Republican and work within that. 

    Trump was not exactly Mr. Intellectually Curious About Civics, but it’s not worth it to vote against him for that. 

    • #122
  3. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Percival (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    Two months and I decided that the Russia stuff was bogus.

    I waited for the evidence.

    And waited.

    And waited.

    But Adam Schiff had hard evidence! Incontrovertible proof!

     

    • #123
  4. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Cassandro (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    Two months and I decided that the Russia stuff was bogus.

    I waited for the evidence.

    And waited.

    And waited.

    If I recall, I was already inoculated against it by the CIA’s action associating Flynn with being a Russian spy.

    There are some on Ricochet who still believe it.

     

    • #124
  5. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):
    But Adam Schiff had hard evidence! Incontrovertible proof!

    Do Republicans with bar cards lie about the justice system even 10% as much as Democrats? It’s so screwy how they get to confuse the public with impunity like this.

    • #125
  6. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    GlennAmurgis (View Comment):
    Does David French, the writers at the Bulwark or Dispatch apologize for pushing Russia Collusion?

    Of course not. Which is why these blogs must be destroyed.

    My goodness! Feel free to not go to the Dispatch and the Bulwark, but how do you propose to “destroy” them?

    Tactical nukes.

    Or, how about we gin up a crime — like they did to Trump — and take them all down. Or how about we lock them up in prison for 18 months without due process like they are doing to the J6 attendees.

    Let’s do to them exactly what they supported doing to President Trump and see if they cry.

    And when they cry, let their cries go unheard. They are not dupes. They are co-conspirators with the Democrats.

     

     

    • #126
  7. ctlaw Coolidge
    ctlaw
    @ctlaw

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    Or, a DC jury acquits and the media spins this as proving the Russia hoax was actually true.

    As if on cue:

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-crusade-prove-russia-investigation-170429896.html

    • #127
  8. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    Or, a DC jury acquits and the media spins this as proving the Russia hoax was actually true.

    As if on cue:

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-crusade-prove-russia-investigation-170429896.html

    Absolutely mind boggling. There is no justice. The left will continue to cheat because there are no consequences. 

    • #128
  9. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Manny (View Comment):

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    Or, a DC jury acquits and the media spins this as proving the Russia hoax was actually true.

    As if on cue:

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-crusade-prove-russia-investigation-170429896.html

    Absolutely mind boggling. There is no justice. The left will continue to cheat because there are no consequences.

    Not just cheat.  Lie, steal, and cheat.

    Could it be that Barr and/or Durham actually had this result in mind, and it’s what they wanted?  They probably know that “the narrative” is what matters, regardless of facts.

    • #129
  10. spaceman_spiff Member
    spaceman_spiff
    @spacemanspiff

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    I was always a “gettable” vote but neither Trump nor his supporters were interested in winning my support. His strategy was an obsessive appeal to his base.

    In other words, you’re not especially fond of the conservative base

    Trump’s presidency had little to do with conservatism.

    It seems like your vote was only ‘gettable’ at too high a price…

    The “price” was a willingness to acknowledge Trump’s mistakes. His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck. His trade policy was long on bluster and short on results. His foreign policy was a triumph in the Near East but a looming calamity in Afghanistan. There was a lot I found objectionable about his presidency. I didn’t want to give my support to policies with which I disagreed especially because where I live a vote for Trump would have been purely symbolic. He wasn’t going to win Connecticut.

    … if the events of 2020 alone were not enough for you-its better to recruit people who are mugged by reality than people who see reality*, but don’t care.

    *An assumption based on your participation on conservative platforms.

    Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of dime store psychoanalysis.

    By the way, neocons used to describe themselves as mugged by reality. Neocon has long been a dirty word among Trump supporters. You aren’t really interested in recruit people who were mugged by reality.

     

    • #130
  11. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of dime store psychoanalysis.

    Obviously.

    • #131
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    I was always a “gettable” vote but neither Trump nor his supporters were interested in winning my support. His strategy was an obsessive appeal to his base.

    In other words, you’re not especially fond of the conservative base

    Trump’s presidency had little to do with conservatism.

    It seems like your vote was only ‘gettable’ at too high a price…

    The “price” was a willingness to acknowledge Trump’s mistakes. His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck. His trade policy was long on bluster and short on results. His foreign policy was a triumph in the Near East but a looming calamity in Afghanistan. There was a lot I found objectionable about his presidency. I didn’t want to give my support to policies with which I disagreed especially because where I live a vote for Trump would have been purely symbolic. He wasn’t going to win Connecticut.

    … if the events of 2020 alone were not enough for you-its better to recruit people who are mugged by reality than people who see reality*, but don’t care.

    *An assumption based on your participation on conservative platforms.

    Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of dime store psychoanalysis.

    By the way, neocons used to describe themselves as mugged by reality. Neocon has long been a dirty word among Trump supporters. You aren’t really interested in recruit people who were mugged by reality.

     

    And now millions if not billions of people are getting mugged by the reality of President Biden.  Smart.

    • #132
  13. spaceman_spiff Member
    spaceman_spiff
    @spacemanspiff

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow are way higher today and we don’t have a balanced budget. Somebody is kidding themself. It ain’t me.

    The stock market increasingly has little to do with the citizen class.

    The original claim was that the balanced budget at the end of the 90s was only due to a Nasdaq bubble. All the equities markets now are higher than they were then. If the budget only balanced then because of a Nasdaq bubble, why isn’t it balanced today? The citizen class also isn’t served by ever expanding deficits and runaway debt.

    • #133
  14. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow are way higher today and we don’t have a balanced budget. Somebody is kidding themself. It ain’t me.

    The stock market increasingly has little to do with the citizen class.

    The original claim was that the balanced budget at the end of the 90s was only due to a Nasdaq bubble. All the equities markets now are higher than they were then. If the budget only balanced then because of a Nasdaq bubble, why isn’t it balanced today? The citizen class also isn’t served by ever expanding deficits and runaway debt.

    Well obviously, the budget wasnt actually balanced then.

    Granted it was in better shape back then, but the budget was brought into balance by an accounting trick, that counted social security taxes as general revenue. Remember Al Gore (I know its a long shot) running around the country talking about the lock box? How he wanted key to the lock box to loot the social security fund? (he may not have said the quiet part out loud)

    • #134
  15. spaceman_spiff Member
    spaceman_spiff
    @spacemanspiff

    kedavis (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    I was always a “gettable” vote but neither Trump nor his supporters were interested in winning my support. His strategy was an obsessive appeal to his base.

    In other words, you’re not especially fond of the conservative base

    Trump’s presidency had little to do with conservatism.

    It seems like your vote was only ‘gettable’ at too high a price…

    The “price” was a willingness to acknowledge Trump’s mistakes. His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck. His trade policy was long on bluster and short on results. His foreign policy was a triumph in the Near East but a looming calamity in Afghanistan. There was a lot I found objectionable about his presidency. I didn’t want to give my support to policies with which I disagreed especially because where I live a vote for Trump would have been purely symbolic. He wasn’t going to win Connecticut.

    … if the events of 2020 alone were not enough for you-its better to recruit people who are mugged by reality than people who see reality*, but don’t care.

    *An assumption based on your participation on conservative platforms.

    Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of dime store psychoanalysis.

    By the way, neocons used to describe themselves as mugged by reality. Neocon has long been a dirty word among Trump supporters. You aren’t really interested in recruit people who were mugged by reality.

    And now millions if not billions of people are getting mugged by the reality of President Biden. Smart.

    Yeah, blame me. That’s pathetic. It’s not enough I didn’t vote for Biden and that I’ve always had an extremely low opinion him. I was also supposed to vote for Trump in a state where such a vote was absolutely futile and despite my substantial disagreements with Trump’s policies.

    I don’t expect you to try and persuade me to the “error of my ways” because persuasion isn’t part of your skill set. Not actively seeking to alienate me at every turn should be doable, though.

    • #135
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    I was always a “gettable” vote but neither Trump nor his supporters were interested in winning my support. His strategy was an obsessive appeal to his base.

    In other words, you’re not especially fond of the conservative base

    Trump’s presidency had little to do with conservatism.

    It seems like your vote was only ‘gettable’ at too high a price…

    The “price” was a willingness to acknowledge Trump’s mistakes. His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck. His trade policy was long on bluster and short on results. His foreign policy was a triumph in the Near East but a looming calamity in Afghanistan. There was a lot I found objectionable about his presidency. I didn’t want to give my support to policies with which I disagreed especially because where I live a vote for Trump would have been purely symbolic. He wasn’t going to win Connecticut.

    … if the events of 2020 alone were not enough for you-its better to recruit people who are mugged by reality than people who see reality*, but don’t care.

    *An assumption based on your participation on conservative platforms.

    Yeah, I’ve always been a huge fan of dime store psychoanalysis.

    By the way, neocons used to describe themselves as mugged by reality. Neocon has long been a dirty word among Trump supporters. You aren’t really interested in recruit people who were mugged by reality.

    And now millions if not billions of people are getting mugged by the reality of President Biden. Smart.

    Yeah, blame me. That’s pathetic. It’s not enough I didn’t vote for Biden and that I’ve always had an extremely low opinion him. I was also supposed to vote for Trump in a state where such a vote was absolutely futile and despite my substantial disagreements with Trump’s policies.

    I don’t expect you to try and persuade me to the “error of my ways” because persuasion isn’t part of your skill set. Not actively seeking to alienate me at every turn should be doable, though.

    No, in your state you didn’t need to vote for Trump.  But how about helping the states that did matter, correct for the fraud?  Or at least supporting the people who were doing their best.

    • #136
  17. spaceman_spiff Member
    spaceman_spiff
    @spacemanspiff

    OccupantCDN (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow are way higher today and we don’t have a balanced budget. Somebody is kidding themself. It ain’t me.

    The stock market increasingly has little to do with the citizen class.

    The original claim was that the balanced budget at the end of the 90s was only due to a Nasdaq bubble. All the equities markets now are higher than they were then. If the budget only balanced then because of a Nasdaq bubble, why isn’t it balanced today? The citizen class also isn’t served by ever expanding deficits and runaway debt.

    Well obviously, the budget wasnt actually balanced then.

    You are right. His 2000 budget had an $18B deficit. That’s the closest he came to a balanced budget but compared to today, all of us would take that in a heartbeat.

    Granted it was in better shape back then, but the budget was brought into balance by an accounting trick, that counted social security taxes as general revenue. Remember Al Gore (I know its a long shot) running around the country talking about the lock box? How he wanted key to the lock box to loot the social security fund? (he may not have said the quiet part out loud)

    The SS gimmick was used to conjure up the make-believe surpluses that Clinton and the Democrats claimed. Despite those phony claims real progress was made towards fiscal sanity. It wasn’t long before it was all thrown away.

    • #137
  18. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

     

    Regarding trade, we did everything wrong in the face of automation and globalized trade. The Fed should have run with deflation. It’s very complicated, now. 

    I don’t buy boiler plate GOP solutions anymore on almost anything.

    • #138
  19. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic … (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    The Nasdaq, S&P 500 and the Dow are way higher today and we don’t have a balanced budget. Somebody is kidding themself. It ain’t me.

    The stock market increasingly has little to do with the citizen class.

    The original claim was that the balanced budget at the end of the 90s was only due to a Nasdaq bubble. All the equities markets now are higher than they were then. If the budget only balanced then because of a Nasdaq bubble, why isn’t it balanced today? The citizen class also isn’t served by ever expanding deficits and runaway debt.

    For a short time the capital gains covered tax needs while the fed was printing money. It would be nice if we could keep doing that.

    • #139
  20. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    The smart guys I follow say the absolute latest you could be serious about controlling spending was 2004 before they passed Medicare Part D to finish off Iraq. Forget about it. It’s never happening. The mistakes were made when we did not adjust to the deflation from automation and globalized trade. 

    Blah blah blah, trade and automation lowers prices, blah blah blah and then the Fed runs with asset and CPI inflation anyway. Then people bitch about populism and socialism. Forget about all of it. 

     

     

     

    • #140
  21. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™

     

     

     

    • #141
  22. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

     

     

     

     

    • #142
  23. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Aw, my state is too Democratic for my vote to matter!

    Boo hoo. Once upon a time California was too Republican for Democrat votes to matter.

    What changed? Democrats didn’t throw in the towel.

     

    • #143
  24. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    Trump’s presidency had little to do with conservatism.

    Compared to what?  Personally, I was a Cruz supporter from the very beginning (I think we were in single digits) who thought that Trump was a progressive conman who would ‘triangulate’ and betray the base in pursuit of national popularity, and could barely bring myself to vote for him in a purple state.

    I changed my mind in light of new information and demonstrated actions-including being attentive to the base you mentioned, and that base openly and loudly calling out early mistakes, and Trump correcting himself on their behalf.

    So what do you consider the conservative base, that was in your eyes not appealed to, and Trump’s base, which should not have been appealed to?  And why do they seem to travel in the exact same circles?

    As for spending, Trump never campaigned as a conservative on that issue, but then, with the debatable exception of Reagan, we’ve never had a full-spectrum conservative to vote for in a national election.  Of course, in terms of results, if not intention, the effect of voting for either Reagan or Trump was the same; no relief on the fiscal front, but a warrior against the most salient national threat of the time in the White House.

    • #144
  25. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Megyn Kelly number #332 is outstanding on Sussman.

    • #145
  26. spaceman_spiff Member
    spaceman_spiff
    @spacemanspiff

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

    I do not get all the people who simultaneously complain about Dubya and Medicare Part D while excusing Trump’s fiscal incontinence. Pick a freaking lane! Bush’s $500 billion deficits weren’t okay but they were orders of magnitude better than Trump’s multi-trillion dollar deficits.

     

    • #146
  27. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

    I do not get all the people who simultaneously complain about Dubya and Medicare Part D while excusing Trump’s fiscal incontinence. Pick a freaking lane! Bush’s $500 billion deficits weren’t okay but they were orders of magnitude better than Trump’s multi-trillion dollar deficits.

     

    Excuse? Where are you seeing that?

    • #147
  28. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

    I do not get all the people who simultaneously complain about Dubya and Medicare Part D while excusing Trump’s fiscal incontinence. Pick a freaking lane! Bush’s $500 billion deficits weren’t okay but they were orders of magnitude better than Trump’s multi-trillion dollar deficits.

     

    The train left the station both mathematically and morally decades ago. Worry about something else until after the bond market collapses. 

    • #148
  29. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

    I do not get all the people who simultaneously complain about Dubya and Medicare Part D while excusing Trump’s fiscal incontinence. Pick a freaking lane! Bush’s $500 billion deficits weren’t okay but they were orders of magnitude better than Trump’s multi-trillion dollar deficits.

     

    Excuse? Where are you seeing that?

    Exactly. I’m not complaining. It’s too late.

    I’m halfway through an interview with Judy Shelton, who is a hard money monetary economist. The Fed should have told the government to take a hike no later than 1995. The GOP never cared and really it’s the whole ball game. All kinds of changes should have happened after the Soviet union fell if you didn’t want the country to look like it does now, and the GOP were the only ones that could do it. They didn’t.

     

    • #149
  30. DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unapologetic Oaf
    @DrewInWisconsin

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    spaceman_spiff (View Comment):
    His fiscal policy was an absolute train wreck.

    The GOP should control spending. What decade should we start? lol

    I do not get all the people who simultaneously complain about Dubya and Medicare Part D while excusing Trump’s fiscal incontinence. Pick a freaking lane! Bush’s $500 billion deficits weren’t okay but they were orders of magnitude better than Trump’s multi-trillion dollar deficits.

    Excuse? Where are you seeing that?

    Yeah, really. Medicare Part D seemed to be one of the incidents that caused a large portion of conservatives to start looking at Dubya with a jaundiced eye.

    • #150
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