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The Coming Trainwreck
A deeply ugly scenario is shaping up. Consider the strong possibility that (a) Donald Trump through sheer petulance and poor judgment, has actually managed to be culpable of obstruction with respect to the May grand jury subpoena and (b) the morally deficient Twitter-slave currently running the Department of Justice under the watchful eye of the malignant buffoon who is currently POTUS is on a desperate course to indict the former president on whatever grounds possible and will do so regardless. Consider the possibility that Trump is guilty but of crimes for which no Democrat would ever be prosecuted.
The likelihood that there is a great risk to national security from the contents of the documents at Mar-a-Lago strikes me as infinitesimally small. Anything of military or strategic value has likely been vacuumed up by Chinese techno espionage, Eric Swalwell’s pillow talk or everyday leaks, embassy parties, and/or old-fashioned bribery. But the left will tell us that Garland saved us from utter disaster at the hands of our enemies. And most irritating of all will be that the mentally challenged who still believe the dossier proved Trump’s collusion with Putin will feel vindicated.
Why did Trump hang onto that material? Even conceding his authority to declassify, the bulk of that stuff is still the property of the archive. If he wanted evidence of the Russiagate hoax, for example, was it not possible to identify and summarize each relevant document and then insist on some secure handling by the archive to prevent surreptitious destruction or removal by the conspirators?
My concern is that Trump’s reasons for hanging onto that material may turn out to be not very cogent, much less exculpatory and it will have needlessly opened him up to his enemies.
The sheer ugliness of the national reaction to such a prosecution, the media gloating, the self-righteous pap from the usual suspects, and the seething rage of the right… It has not happened yet but it already seems tiresome.
I would like to fantasize that in the aftermath of this fiasco, the GOP would respectfully decline to re-nominate a wounded Trump, instead elect a strong replacement with a popular mandate and sizeable congressional majorities and then effect vengeance and even prosecute the swamp creatures to the same measure as those lowlife scum have gone after conservatives in general and Trump affiliates in particular. Would that it were a time of true, slashing defunding of the left with fun side events like stripping security clearance and barring government employment for the 51 “experts” who declared Hunter Biden’s laptop to be disinformation.
But that will not happen. There will likely be a GOP President other than Trump and a GOP Congress but the left will recede only slightly, whine continuously, persist in rhetorical attacks, and somehow impose a near-mandatory amnesia about their crimes and atrocities on the grounds that it would be “extreme” or “divisive” or “partisan” even to point out their foul, recent history much less impose accountability. And Republicans will be too polite and say that they are “looking forward, not backward” and we will limp along until the left launches its next new offensive from their unmolested sanctuaries.
Published in General
It does not matter. The President can declassify things. That declassification does not evaporate when he leaves office.
I think you miss my point, but I am done trying to make it.
If the DOJ actually arrests and goes after Trump for Obstruction, I predict there will be hell to pay. There will be a clear message to 75 million people they don’t count. Especially as the DOJ did nothing of the sort to Democrats. Trump will be able to rally people to his flag.
This is going to get ugly. As in dead people ugly. This well could be the spark that blows it all up.
But wait, I am courting a Civil war and I am bad for warning about it.
I think that Biden waived privilege for Trump. Who can stop him? Democrats have POTUS, Congress and the federal government.
After they kill and lock up enough Trump people the Right will stand down.
They cannot stop a war once it stops.
You would be the voice saying Britian would win.
With that gang running things? No.
They can decide that anyone they choose to point at, is “too Trumpy,” without any kind of rationale.
How can someone “obstruct justice” in something that isn’t a crime?
I believe the usual term is “October Surprise.”
Did you understand my comment at all? As several other people have observed declassification doesn’t render the material less sensitive.
I believe the pResident is requesting and encouraging these actions live on TV, tonight
Old, so the bottom line of your post, comments and concern, is that Trump likely did nothing illegal, nor improper, but that his reactions to demands for archival records can be construed as “obstruction of justice”.
Further, if he is charged thusly, that it is his own fault, that could have been avoided, if only he were… more compliant?
I am definitely more in Bryan’s school of thought, than your’s on this topic.
I however, think the odds of this blowing up in the DOJ’s face, is less likely than Trump being frog-walked away in orange scrubs. That in no way would reflect justice, but, rather the reality that we live in a Marxist society.
DeSantis is acceptable to me. I would prefer a couple of others, but I will accept and vote for DeSantis in 2024. It takes a lot to vote for a Democrat for President, I have done so only in 1972 and 2020.
None. The records in Chicago are under the control of the United States Archives. This was enacted by Congress after Nixon’s resignation.
If you go to the Reagan Presidential Library, it has two parts. The public museum is controlled by Reagan loyalists. But the archives and documents themselves, are controlled by the United States Archives.
Can’t blame her, she’s just a woman.
Yes he is. He feels he has the support to stomp those that oppose. He may be right.
Why do y’all fall for the corrupt Democrats’ spin? They are playing you like a sad violin.
https://twitter.com/marklevinshow/status/1564628348978040839?s=21&t=6xv7BULphaAnLxY5LCE9xw
Because what the rumblers say matter little. All the matter are what the hard boys with guns decide to do. Laws mean nothing to them. They got laws buy the bushels……
1. Mere possession of the documents does appear to be illegal pursuant to archive requirements but not criminal.
2. Because the archivist had substantive reason to believe that some of documents had been classified, the DOJ was invited to undertake a criminal probe. We do not know what the extent of any negotiations were. We do not know what was presented to the grand jury five months ago. We do not know whether Trump’s attorneys presented some accounting/inventory with some statement of declassification.
3. Because the DOJ did persuade a grand jury to issue a subpoena, either they went way out on a limb and withheld Trump’s responses/actions /notifications about declassification or Trump simply blew off the demands and let this crapfest get out of hand and made himself legally vulnerable.
4. Get it through your head that it is illegal to obstruct formal process even when the predicate for that process is utter [REDACTED].
5. Tough talk about consequences for these bastards is hot air. The prospect of outrage on Fox News and (massively suppressed) social media anger, or a 3 or 4 point swing in polling will not deter these people. They do not fear polite tea party marchers. The is no Antifa on the right. Nobody burned buildings or fired shots because old ladies will do six months(!!?) in the slammer for being in the Capitol for ten minutes. Nobody riots when the corrupt Joe Biden makes an appearance.
6. Even a GOP electoral wave will not cause firings or disbarment or jail time for these pukes. That idiot Thibault was walked out of FBI building for being stupidly overt about his intentions and leanings not for actually abusing his office. That is all we get. Wake me when Lois Lerner needs to even hire a lawyer.
I used to say that abortion will never be fully outlawed (maybe with a few exceptions) as long as Molly Yard is willing to shoot Jerry Falwell to keep it legal, but Jerry Falwell is not willing to shoot Molly Yard to stop it.
OK, so we give up and meekly submit.
Strange stance from someone with your avatar.
Man, and I am the one that gets accused of being hopeless.
Sorry, but a 1775 moment is coming if things don’t change. You cannot put 150 million people in a nation with 400 million fire arms under government control.
It is not about submission. But bushido fantasies about going all Red Dawn against the oppressor with our zillion guns is not the starting point for a useful grownup response to our real political and social problems.
The people we elect have to do the work, to quite literally drain the swamp by defunding the sinecures. Our media and social leaders need to help us to build a focused cancel culture capability of our own in which companies, law firms and individuals can get targeted. Our side doesn’t do any of that.
We do not gut funding for diversity commissars by imposing conditions of minimal quality (e.g., faculty-admin ratios) to guarantee student loans. We do not target and humiliate gutless University presidents. We barely disrupt perverts who come after our children in our schools.
It goes against the grain of our long-held Romneyesque tendencies to choose to inflict pain on our enemies. But there has to be pushback, and not just rhetorically.
I was part of the polite 200,000+ in DC’s first Tea Party march. I thought that visible action, mobilizing awareness etc mattered. It turns out that it matters much less if the other side does not play by the same rules.
The Alinsky approach is to pressure, hurt, embarrass, demoralize the opposition. Our approach needs to have a different end in mind–Ok, do you really want us to play by these rules too, to inflict pain and fight ugly–we will if they make us– or do you want the America with rules and decency we once had and could have again? We can’t have that until you help us remove leftist hatred of the normal, the valuable, the good from every corner of our society. You hate Trump? Then stop tacitly endorsing the perversions and methods that made Trump inevitable and even necessary.
With respect to the current scandalous FBI behavior, my ongoing annoyance with Trump is that given the sheer predictability of the enemy, why ever give them such an opening? Why not assemble and then actually listen to capable people? To stay on the offensive? If the docs were proof of Russiagate malfeasance, why were they not all in the public domain already, the attack underway? Instead, how does Trump manage to alienate literally everybody who served his administration?
Not at all what I am doing, but thanks for putting words in my mouth and reading my mind.
Nor will they ever.
Who is “our”?
Trump was the only voice on our side.
You don’t like Trump fighting back, but you say we need to fight back. Right.
So to sum up:
1 Bryan is eager for Civil War
2 We need to fight back in other ways, even though the GOP has never done that before.
3 The only person to ever fight back for us since Reagan, needs to not fight and shut up.
Trump ordered their release pending a final scrub for redactions needed for security. The DOJ under AG Garbage won’t please it, I bet.
Talk about putting words in people’s mouths…
When the other side has so many resources it is necessary to fight smart, not start gratuitous side battles. Trump wants to relitigate the 2020 election which is constitutionally impossible. Pep rallies are useless unless the good guys are also going through voter rolls with a fine-toothed comb to fend off the next cheat and unless quality candidates are offering positive conservative agendas.
Trump is basing endorsements in local races on the candidates’ personal loyalty to him rather than the best chance for the party to retake Congress. Fighting for his own ego is not the same as fighting for us. It will be tough to drag Dr Oz over the line and we need that Senate seat.
What issues is Trump articulating for the mid-terms? What legislation? What is gained by attacking Mitch McConnell or Mick Pence?
Trump was victimized by the complete lack of honor and decency by Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton which allowed the Mueller farce to disrupt his presidency. He was subject to unprecedented media abuse. In light of that, his accomplishments were heroic. The administrative mishandling of COVID and electoral fraud unfairly denied him re-election. He has legit grievances without direct remedy.
But it ain’t about him. Nor can it just be about his vindication. We need to win. And he is not absolved from the need to fight smart, selectively and productively.
Also, if it is legit to bash McConnell for departures from a better agenda, why can’t Republicans criticize Trump for the same thing? As long as he is opposing the FBI schmucks then everything he does is for the best? Even if he sucks the oxygen out of the room when other candidates and issues should be pushed forward it should still be about him?
Precisely because of Trump’s role and near-salvational term of office, he cannot piss away opportunities or galvanize the enemy for no purpose and on their preferred ground.
OB, the same could be said for McConnell and his gang. When Scott introduced a platform of sorts for this year, McConnell behind the scenes trashed him and it. At least Trump is saying something about the Democrats being demons and schiesters. What is McConnell doing? Oh he is bashing the candidates from his own freaking party.
Long past time to take a page out of Garland’s playbook and leak it all. Somebody needed to do some serious lawyering and engineer discovery of that stuff so that it does not wind up in a box next to the Ark of The Covenant in the Area 51 warehouse.
I would be amazed if nobody reviewed and summarized that stuff such that the details could not be made available to an author. And also so that very precise FOIA requests could be made to force the bastards on record about exactly what and why anything was being withheld.
My guess is that there is no single smoking gun memo (like the Strok-Page texts about preventing Trump’s election) and just exchanges that detail what we already knew–they lied to get surveillance, they lied about the dossier, they lied about the state of their knowledge, etc. And even if the statute of limitations has not run out by the time there is a GOP POTUS and AG, good luck convicting any of them in DC.
Trump is a former POTUS and the de facto head of the party. Unity and that 11th commandment stuff should be coming from him. What would Reagan do?
I don’t care who laps like dogs or who kneels to drink, we need all those guys to kick Midianite butt.
I’m sorry but I am not interested in not criticizing Rethuglicans like McConnell. That guy is a snake, and I am probably being too harsh on snakes.