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Topic: Trumpled (Alternative Leading) (Read 836878 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1395 –
By the way, Trump has business interests in the Phillipines.  Trump's business partner there is a billionaire who has just opened a Trump Tower in Manila. He paid the Trump organisation handsomely for the right to use the Trump name.  And he just happens to be a special government Envoy to the US: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-11-22/trump-s-business-partner-will-be-manila-s-man-in-washington

Anything that's good for the Trump organisation has to be good for the US, I suppose.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1396 –
Democracy died in the US today.

Trump has sacked FBI Director Comey.  Yep, the same guy who was in control of the investigation of Trump's campaign.  To add a note of irony to it, Trump did so based on a memo which said Comey was unfair to Hillary Clinton regarding the so-called email scandal ::)

This is being compared to "The Saturday Night Massacre" in which Nixon sacked Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating Nixon over the Watergate scandal.

Presumably, Trump will appoint a stooge whose main role is to kill the investigation into the Trump campaign.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1397 –
Quote from: Mav – on
Democracy died in the US today.

Trump has sacked FBI Director Comey.  Yep, the same guy who was in control of the investigation of Trump's campaign.  To add a note of irony to it, Trump did so based on a memo which said Comey was unfair to Hillary Clinton regarding the so-called email scandal ::)

This is being compared to "The Saturday Night Massacre" in which Nixon sacked Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating Nixon over the Watergate scandal.

Presumably, Trump will appoint a stooge whose main role is to kill the investigation into the Trump campaign.

That's the argument the left will mount......(although they called for his head when he "sunk" Hillary.)

Some on the right will argue that the bloke should have been fired long ago.....(although that's not the argument they would have mounted when he "sunk" Hillary.)

Hypocrisy on both sides ::)

Comey strikes me as a show-pony who thrived on the attention.
Not the right man for the job

As for the investigation into the campaign ...wait and see...any attempt to cover it up will be very transparent.


 

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1398 –
Poor effort to equate the 2 sides' views. A better analogy would be: would it have been okay for Obama to sack Comey months before the election when he revealed the FBI was investigating Clinton's emails and then appoint a Clinton associate as FBI Director?  Of course not.  It would have appeared to be an attempt to kill an investigation of a Democrat.  But this analogy falls short because Trump is the one with his nuts in the wringer rather than a colleague.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1399 –
The real controversy will come with the appointment of a replacement!

It's is interesting to see how power corrupts, I'm not sure anyone no matter who it is that sits at the top of the FBI, has much genuine control over the direction the organisation takes. Certainly they control dollars but they cannot control thoughts, and thoughts are the domain of leaks!

The minute they try to interfere with the general operations for political purposes they basically expire / limit their tenancy on control, they deliver an opportunity for ambitious underlings to expose their political meddling!

The upper levels of all powerful organisations are full of back-room(the faceless) politicians who are both psychopaths and megalomaniacs!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1400 –
Quote from: Lods – on
As for the investigation into the campaign ...wait and see...any attempt to cover it up will be very transparent.
You mean like colluding with Devin Nunes to derail the House Intelligence Committee's investigation, trying to stop the Committee from calling Paula Yates from testifying, threatening her via Twitter before she testified etc. etc.?

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1401 –
Quote from: Mav – on
Poor analogy.  A better analogy would be: would it have been okay for Obama to sack Comey months before the election when he revealed the FBI was investigating Clinton's emails and then appoint a Clinton associate as FBI Director?  Of course not.  It would have appeared to be an attempt to kill an investigation of a Democrat.  But this analogy falls short because Trump is the one with his nuts in the wringer rather than a colleague.

We're really only arguing about the timing.
You yourself described his handling of the Hillary stuff during the campaign as a "clusterfork"

He was obviously unsuited to the position...."Democracy died in the USA" is a bit emotive isn't it?

The investigation will continue... Those doing the investigation won't be silent if there is interference from upper levels.

Democrats are already making comparison to Watergate and there is a comparison...These things will always come out eventually.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1402 –
Hmmm ... President sacks FBI Director who advises Congress that there's an ongoing investigation into his campaign.  That's democracy at work.  Why shouldn't he?  The President is like an all-powerful king or dictator, isn't he? 

All he needs now is some way to get rid of tenure for Federal Judges so that he can appoint his own stooges and the US will have a true democracy.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1403 –
Quote from: Mav – on
Hmmm ... President sacks FBI Director who advises Congress that there's an ongoing investigation into his campaign.  That's democracy at work.  Why shouldn't he?  The President is like an all-powerful king or dictator, isn't he? 

All he needs now is some way to get rid of tenure for Federal Judges so that he can appoint his own stooges and the US will have a true democracy.

Trump's intention may indeed be to somehow affect the course of the investigation. We know how the bloke works. In fact in his letter dismissing Comey he refers to Comey having told him that he (Trump) wasn't being personally investigated. Why mention that at all!

However the point remains Comey was not suited to the job.
I'm just pointing out the strange behaviour of folks getting all heated, working themselves up into a lather (which is how most Democrats are approaching it), after being so critical of Comey at other times.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1404 –
As LP says, we'll have to wait to see who Trump nominates as the new FBI Director and whether the Republicans in the Senate will confirm that nomination.

There are some absolute clowns that Trump could nominate: Sheriff Clarke, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie. Christie has been embroiled in Bridgegate over shutting down a bridge as political retribution against a mayor who didn't endorse Christie in his reelection campaign.  He became a lapdog for Trump during his campaign and served as the butt of jokes over his weight. Rudy Giuliani might have been a qualified candidate given his previous life as a mob-busting prosecutor but he presented himself as an unhinged extremist as a Trump surrogate.  Sheriff Clarke is an absolute nutcase.  Nominating him would be like appointing a climate denier and EPA opponent as head of the EPA, which Trump has already done.

Then the issue would be whether Mitch McConnell will kill the requirement for a 60% vote to confirm a nominee.  He threatened to do this in order to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court although this ultimately wasn't necessary.  Will he kill the 60% rule and bully the Republicans to vote to confirm en bloc?  There's little doubt they won't be able to count on any Democrat Senators to vote in favour of any Trump stooge.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1405 –
By the way, in totally unrelated news, reports say that Grand Jury subpoenas have been served on associates of General Flynn over the last week regarding his business activities in Russia and Turkey.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1406 –
By the way, just because many think that Comey stuffed up by going public over Clinton's emails doesn't mean he should be sacked. FBI Directors are appointed for 10 year terms precisely to give them a form of tenure that will allow them to act independently of the White House. Yes, an incoming President usually replaces the heads of many agencies.  But not the FBI Director. 

Only once has an FBI Director been sacked before the end of that term.  Bill Clinton sacked William Sessions in 1993 but that was with bipartisan support.  He had committed ethical violations by using the private FBI jet to visit his daughter (in the same way that Speakers such as Slipper and Bronwyn Bishop have been forced out). 

And never before has a President dismissed an FBI Director when the FBI was investigating the associates of the President.

An FBI Director shouldn't have the Damoclean Sword hanging over his or her head, ready to fall for mere errors of judgement in performing the job as opposed to ethical violations.

Apparently, Clinton had received firm advice prior to the election that she could not sack Comey if she won as it would be seen as a naked political revenge and she had accepted that advice.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1407 –
WTF ...

The Washington Post reports that Trump disclosed "Codeword-Level" information (the highest level of security classification) to the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador in the meeting he held with them in the Oval Office last week, the day after sacking James Comey.

Worse still, it seems he did this simply because he was boasting to them that he had all the best intel  ::)

It's alleged that he disclosed intelligence passed on by a Middle-Eastern ally regarding ISIS on the condition it not be revealed.  The concern is that the Russians would then be able to figure out how the information was gathered and who was involved.  Iran is an ally of Russia and Hezbollah is associated with Iran.  Was the ally Israel or Jordan?  Was the info about the concerns over laptop bombs? Should that ally suspend cooperation, it would be a blow for counter-terrorism efforts in the US and its allies (including us).

The White House has tried to deflect but the effort is being pilloried in the media.  General McMaster tried to attack a straw man argument by vigorously denying that Trump had revealed any sources or intelligence-gathering methods, something that was not alleged in the report. 

This is what you get when you have an ignorant and naive fool as POTUS.  The Russians must think he is a "useful idiot".  Reminds me of the old Get Smart series in which Max would reveal top secret info to KAOS without realising it.  But Trump doesn't have Max's ability to bumble his way to success.

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1408 –
Well one thing is for sure, Trump is safe from Russian assassination attempts, he's just too valuable to them alive! ;D
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"

Re: Trumpled (Alternative Leading)

Reply #1409 –
I wonder what the odds would be on Trump to be impeached during his presidency?

I reckon it would be worth having a few dollars on it, because he doesn't get the gravity of his situation. Oaths you swear and completely enforceable by law. He isn't in a business room now where he can lie, cheat bluff... If everything fails.. well start a new venture..
In this job he will be held accountable and I think he will end up impeached.

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