COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump: A new INTELLIGENCE LEAK from the Amazon Washington Post,this time against A.G. Jeff Sessions.These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop! 3:33 AM - 22 Jul 2017

ALINSKY RULES for RADICALS


#13: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." 
Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. 
Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions."


Deep State Attacks Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Fresh Leaks on Meetings with Russian Ambassador

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty 

The Deep State renewed its campaign against top Trump administration officials late Friday when it leaked to the Washington Post details of intelligence intercepts in which Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reportedly told his superiors that he discussed “campaign-related matters” with Jeff Sessions before he became attorney general.

The Post reported that accounts of Kislyak’s two conversations with Sessions in 2016, when Sessions was a campaign adviser to Trump, were intercepted by U.S. spy agencies. They were not seen by the Post, but in a typically Deep State move, were described to the paper by officials. The story has extremely scarce details on what exactly was discussed, for how long, and in what level of detail.

One official told the Post that the intel indicated that Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on “campaign-related matters” including Trump’s positions on Russian issues, as well as prospects for U.S-Russian relations in a Trump administration.

Sessions recused himself from any Russian investigation in March after it was revealed he had two conversations with Kislyak in 2016, one in April and one in July — encounters he did not disclose at his Senate confirmation hearing.
If the accounts are accurate, they would appear to contradict a statement Sessions made in March in which he said: “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign.” He also said he only met with Kislyak in his capacity as a U.S. Senator.

Officials who spoke to the Post say they believe that what is on the intelligence intercepts contradicts what Sessions said publicly. The Justice Department said it was unable to comment on the story due to the lack of detail and the sketchy sourcing.

“Obviously I cannot comment on the reliability of what anonymous sources describe in a wholly uncorroborated intelligence intercept that the Washington Post has not seen and that has not been provided to me,” Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, told the Post in a statement, and said that Sessions did not discuss interference in the election.

The revelation seems timed to do the most damage to the conservative, pro-border security attorney general, who has long been heralded as nationalists’ favorite Trump cabinet appointment. 

Sessions has had enormous success in six short months in prison reform, getting tough on drug traffickers and violent offenders, and enforcing America’s border controls. Sessions has been a hardliner on immigration for years. In 2015 he sent around an “immigration handbook” to new Republican members of Congress in which he called “immigration reform” a “legislative honorific almost exclusively reserved for proposals which benefit everyone but actual American citizens.”
But Trump has apparently soured on his once-closest ally, particularly over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from any Russian investigation.

“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” he told the New York Times in an interview Wednesday. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”
However, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that while Trump was “disappointed” in Sessions’ decision to recuse himself, “clearly he has confidence in him or he would not be the Attorney General.” 
Sessions meanwhile said at a Thursday press conference: “I plan to continue to [serve] as long as that is appropriate.”

The Post notes that Sessions’ role in removing FBI Director James Comey has angered many at the bureau.

Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter:  @AdamShawNY

38 comments:

  1. Don't think for a moment that events in Europe are not related to events in the US.

    This its no longer constitutional democracy. It is a now medium level deep state putsch by the progressives on both sides of the Atlantic that is determined to force its Marxist ideology against the traditional values that are necessary for us to sustain our thousands of years of western culture.

    There will be blood because fair play and constitutional order has been bypassed by an elite that has substantial resources and support from the blind, those that do want to see and smug effete, pseudo-intelectuals. Conservatives and those on the traditional right know a scam when they see it. They see the tsunami. They know what they see and they see it clearly. They may not know what cultural relativism is but they have great sniffers for bullshit.

    Obama, Bush, Clinton/Clinton , McCain, Merkel, Blair, Transatlantic big media and progressive socialists own this. Iraq, Syria, the interventions in Africa under Clinton and Obama, Libya and Syria have fanned the flames of social unrest and societal reorganization, that was first ignited by the progressives in the fifties and sixties but has its percussor.

    Big government, always the playground of the left, seized control of the educational system in the sixties. Hollywood and liberal media di not wanted to improve western culture, they wanted to change it and have done one hell of a good job doing it.

    Trump has deep support. It is not docile. It is not fatalistic. If anyone can beat the establishment legally, it will be Trump.

    If Trump is wasted by the establishment, all bets are off.

    This will probably end in violence. It always does. We, those on my side of the thinking, will win. It is anyone's guess on how costly it will be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NOTE, on McCain and Merkel. However they leave the scene is indifferent to me. The sooner the better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Pope and Merkel have science on their side, poor John, only God.

      The left claims the Pope has a Masters in Chemistry, Snopes disagrees:

      http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/popechemistry.asp

      Merkel studied Physics.

      Delete
    2. I studied physics too, in high school, and didn't get a thing out of it.

      Delete
    3. I even had a chemistry course in college, and didn't get a thing out that, other than a decent grade.

      Delete
    4. I did good in Chemistry at Beserkley as a Chemical Engineering Major.

      ...but the major included Math, starting with Analytical Calculus.

      The Indian TA would fill two chalkboards with proofs.
      The Indian students would follow their leader.
      I couldn't, so I switched to Biology.

      A Decade later, John Dvorak said the competition was Chinese.
      He switched his major too.

      Delete
  3. It's disgusting.

    Hillary walks, and they want to put The Donald in the docks.

    I have little problem with these international rich dealing with one another. It's not a perfect world, and I would rather have countries have some investment by their leaders in other nuclear armed countries.

    It's better to talk talk, trade trade, than boom boom.

    If Trump and Friends have some interests in Russia it's not a bad thing. One tends not to put one's interests at risk.

    And vice versa with the Russians, and Chinese.

    We toured the Toyota plant in Lexington, Kentucky.

    It was really interesting.

    The whole experience marked the end of the idea of 'American Imperialism' to me.

    Our guys and gals working for the Nips, with an American black as plant manager. He happened to bump into our group and spoke for a few moments. He reminded me of no one more than Herman Cain, in positive attitude and physical likeness.

    Joseph Campbell once said if trade doesn't bring us together sooner or later the environmental crisis will.

    No one sane wants any big boom boom.

    By the way, you can order your Herman Cain Super Beets here:

    https://www.humann.com/herman-cain/?&gclid=Cj0KCQjw78vLBRCZARIsACr4cxw7ZykYZLN2YyLWLbTYdj7kTGV0yu81zgDB7b3fUuW1YR1uBvD0SV8aAoIVEALw_wcB

    "Beat the odds. Order Super Beets Today !"



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "If trade and enlightened self interest doesn't bring us together sooner or later the environmental crisis will"

      Delete
    2. Alas, there's insanity in the mix as well -

      So Are We Ready If It Comes Down To War With North Korea?
      JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:31 am on July 22, 2017


      What with all the new missile tests that Kim Jong-un has been conducting, should we be worried that he’s close to having nuclear ICBM capabilities? Some military intelligence experts think that North Korea is still a ways off from having both a reliable missile that could carry a significant payload across the Pacific and the ability to miniaturize their nukes to the point of fitting on such a missile. But one thing that most observers seem to agree on is that if Kim isn’t there yet he’s getting close enough to cause alarm. (Combined with the general perception that he’s probably the most unstable and possibly quite insane leader in the world right now.)

      SEE ALSO: Dunkirk a powerful tale that misses the epic scale

      Hawaii is taking the potential threat seriously, mostly because they are the closest target among the fifty states which North Korea might reach. And the threat is serious enough that they are now instituting nuclear attack drills not seen since the cold war era. (Associated Press).....

      Duck and Cover Video from the 1950's

      http://hotair.com/archives/2017/07/22/ready-comes-war-north-korea/

      How to handle the nuclear armed insane I have no idea.

      Delete
  4. TRUMP FIGHTS BACK AGAINST MUELLER

    I take it as a given that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is part of the Democratic Party’s effort to destroy the Trump administration. This is evidenced by the fact that he has staffed his investigation with Democratic Party activist lawyers and contributors to the Hillary Clinton campaign, and by his expansion of his “investigation” beyond any reasonable interpretation of his charge.

    This is what the order appointing Mueller says he is empowered to investigate:

    The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James B. Comey in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including:

    (i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and

    (ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and

    (iii) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

    Item (iii) authorizes the special counsel to look into efforts to obstruct his investigation, so Mueller’s mandate extends only to “links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump” and matters arising directly therefrom.

    Mueller evidently hasn’t found any evidence linking the Trump campaign to whatever the Russians did during the 2016 campaign–no one else has either–so instead of giving up, he is broadening his investigation to include President Trump’s business dealings:

    FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development in New York with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.

    What on God’s green Earth do the 2013 Miss Universe pageant or Trump’s sale of a house in 2008 have to do with Russian interference in the 2016 election? Nothing. Some have tried to argue that the Miss Universe pageant is relevant, on the ground that Donald Trump, Jr. met Rob Goldstone, who years later introduced him to a Russian lawyer, there.

    But so what? Mueller apparently doesn’t have any evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to spear phish the DNC’s email accounts, and no matter how much he investigates the Miss Universe pageant, or Trump’s 2008 sale of a house, he still won’t have any such evidence.

    I conclude that Mueller is not discharging his office of special counsel in good faith, but rather is acting as an agent of those who are trying to destroy or impede the Trump administration, and should be fired. Of course, whether President Trump thinks firing Mueller is politically viable is a separate question.

    In the meantime, it is good to see that Trump is at least pushing back against Mueller. It was reported this morning that Trump’s lawyers are investigating Mueller’s lawyers, with a focus on conflicts of interest. That is good, but only a beginning. Trump and others in his administration need to make clear that they consider Mueller’s investigation illegitimate; that he has gone far beyond the mandate he was given by the Acting Attorney General; that he has hired a partisan, biased staff; that he is serving as a tool of the Democratic Party; and that his investigation is a fraud. They should accord Mueller and his staff no credibility whatsoever.

    Trump is in a war. The good thing is, I think he knows it.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/trump-fights-back-against-mueller.php

    If he doesn't know it, The Donald is dumber than shit, and he's not dumber than shit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Russian Ambassador has the most wonderful double chin - picture -

    Trump slams 'illegal' leak alleging Sessions discussed campaign with Russian envoy
    BY ALICIA COHN - 07/22/17 06:55 AM EDT

    President Trump on Saturday morning blasted a Washington Post article based on U.S. intelligence reports claiming Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed Trump campaign issues with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.

    Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak recounted two such conversations with Sessions to his superiors in Moscow. Kislyak’s version of events was intercepted by U.S. spy agencies that monitor Russian communications, according to the Post.

    The report does additional damage to allegations that Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian officials at a time when the Kremlin was seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election.


    Trump pushed back on the source rather than the veracity of the Post’s report.

    “These illegal leaks, like Comey's, must stop!” he tweeted.


    Trump called the paper “the Amazon Washington Post,” in a dig at the Post’s owner Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The Post is a favorite punching bag of the president’s.

    He also tied the source of this report, based on intelligence material, to former FBI Director James Comey, who has been known to provide material to the media in the past. Trump has criticized Comey for leaking to the press.

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/343262-trump-slams-illegal-leak-alleging-sessions-discussed-campaign-with

    ReplyDelete
  6. Trump unleashes long Twitter tirade day after staff shakeup
    By Mary Kay Linge July 22, 2017 | 8:35am | Updated


    President Donald Trump embarked on an early-morning Twitter barrage Saturday that blasted “obstructionist” Democrats, complained about “intelligence leaks,” and called for investigations into “the many Hillary Clinton and Comey crimes.”

    “ObamaCare is dead and the Democrats are obstructionists, no ideas or votes, only obstruction,” he wrote at 8:23 am. “It is solely up to the 52 Republican Senators!”

    The 10-post tweetstorm, issued over two hours, touched on a half-dozen disparate topics, including the ongoing health care debate in Congress, headlines in the New York Times and Washington Post, and Clinton’s “deleted (& acid washed) … 33,000 e-mails”.

    “What about all of the Clinton ties to Russia, including Podesta Company, Uranium deal, Russian Reset, big dollar speeches etc.” Trump asked at 7:47 am.

    The lengthy string of messages emerged just a day after a shakeup in the White House communication team that saw the sudden resignation of Press Secretary Sean Spicer and the addition of Anthony Scaramucci, a hard-charging former Wall Street exec, as Trump’s new communications director.

    Scaramucci has called for the White House to leapfrog over the mainstream media with direct messaging efforts to voters – and Saturday’s Twitter tsunami was in keeping with such a strategy.

    Trump teased his new hire in one of his morning messages.

    “In all fairness to Anthony Scaramucci, he wanted to endorse me 1st, before the Republican Primaries started,” the president posted, “but didn’t think I was running!”

    http://nypost.com/2017/07/22/only-crime-so-far-is-leaks-trump-suggests-he-wont-seek-pardons/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unfortunately, many of Maduro's military brass seem to have already made their choice....for blood -

    Venezuela’s Opposition Just Appointed Their Own Set Of Supreme Court Judges
    JAZZ SHAWPosted at 1:01 pm on July 22, 2017


    The storm clouds hanging over Venezuela don’t look like they’ll be giving way to clear skies any time soon. In the latest twist to the story, the opposition leadership just seated their own panel of Supreme Court judges. It’s a choice which looks to be a largely symbolic protest against the current judges who are the hand-picked servants of President Nicolas Maduro. It’s a bold move, particularly given the ill temper and unstable nature of their dictator, but perhaps they are sensing a shift in the tides of their fortunes. (Reuters)

    Venezuela’s opposition-led congress said on Friday it will appoint 13 alternative judges to the country’s Supreme Court, whose current pro-government members have been a bedrock of support for leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

    While widely seen as symbolic, the move raises the specter of the development of a parallel state. The top court has warned that the naming of the alternate judges is illegal, and they could be jailed.

    “The Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber warns those who undertake the unconstitutional pretense of naming magistrates will face the consequences of usurpation of functions,” the Supreme Court said in a statement late on Thursday.
    They went ahead and did it, so now the big question is what the response will be. First of all, judges need a courtroom to sit in if they’re going to hear actual cases (not that there’s any sign of that happening yet) so where would they go? Attempting to march them down to the current Supreme Court building and seat them, presumably after physically throwing the current judges out the door, would be seen pretty much as an open act of war against Maduro. But if they establish them anywhere else it begins to look frighteningly like the situation described in the Reuters article, specifically the rise of a parallel state. Once you have two governments operating inside of a country at the same time, you are officially in a state of civil war whether you want to call it that or not. Maduro would have no choice but to send in the military and throw all the survivors in prison.

    But as I alluded to above, perhaps it won’t come to that. The opposition leaders in the legislature know precisely who they’re dealing with and exactly how vicious his retribution can be. I’m sure they have no more desire to go rot in one of Maduro’s prisons than anyone else. So is this a signal that they’ve sensed some weakness in the President? He’s been losing supporters in his own government lately, not to mention the constant, massive protests against him by his own citizens. If he’s beginning to get nervous about his own grip on power and the opposition knows it, this could be a trial balloon to see if Maduro will hunker down in the palace and let this slide. If he does, we may be close the beginning of the end.

    The problem is, what sort of “end game” will we get? I’ve wrestled with that question here many times in the past. The ideal solution would be for Maduro to simply relent, schedule new elections (including for his own office) at once and then leave peacefully after he loses in a landslide. But does that seem likely? He’s not been one bit shy about sending out his militias to beat down and even kill the protesters. Power is a blinding and addictive drug, particularly if you’re the sort who simply can’t let go of it. The other, less peaceful option would be a bloody awful spectacle for the world to behold.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/07/22/venezuelas-opposition-just-appointed-set-supreme-court-judges/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting articles all over the place today -


    THE SATURDAY ESSAY
    What Truman Can Teach Trump

    The politically astute Cold Warrior knew how to navigate the tides of populism at home while maintaining America’s leadership abroad

    ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CUNEO
    By Walter Russell Mead
    July 21, 2017 2:27 p.m. ET

    The foreign policy of the United States hasn’t seen a strategic crisis this profound since 1947, when President Harry Truman summoned the American people to fight Soviet ambitions in Europe. The Cuban missile crisis was more dramatic and the agony of Vietnam more wrenching, but since Truman, American presidents have believed that a global, outward-looking, order-building foreign policy was the necessary foundation for U.S. strategy and a peaceful, prosperous world.

    No longer. President Donald Trump, backed by a substantial segment of the American public, has distanced himself from some of the key foreign-policy assumptions and policies of the postwar era. Longstanding pillars of American strategy—free trade, alliances in Europe and Asia, defense of human rights, commitment to international institutions and the rule of law—have come into question as the new president denounces today’s global architecture as a bad deal for the U.S.

    Responses to the shift have ranged from bewilderment to outrage. Mr. Trump’s exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a carefully negotiated trade agreement intended to lock the major Asian trading states into a relationship with the U.S. that would exclude China—shocked free-trade advocates and Asia experts. His repeated descriptions of NATO as obsolete and his refusal (until his recent trip to Poland) to endorse the mutual-defense commitment at NATO’s heart left many wondering whether Mr. Trump still considers the alliance essential to U.S. security. A drumbeat of news stories pointing to alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign has further muddied the waters, with many concluding that the president’s Russia policies have more to do with his personal concerns than with the national interest.


    What explains this reversal in America’s priorities? A chorus of observers has identified the problem as......

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-truman-can-teach-trump-1500661673

    ReplyDelete
  9. Which paintings are better, those by apes or humans ? -

    Art world goes wild for chimpanzee's paintings as Warhol work flops
    A painting by Congo
    Image 1 of 2
    The paintings are the first non-human artworks to be auctioned
    By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent12:01AM BST 21 Jun 2005

    The art world, confusing at the best of times, took another right-angled lurch at Bonhams auction house yesterday.
    Amid wild scenes, three paintings by a chimpanzee were sold for £14,400, more than 20 times their estimate.

    In the same sale an Andy Warhol painting and a small Renoir sculpture attracted so little interest that they had to be withdrawn.

    The chimp daubings are believed to be the first works of art by a non-human to go under the hammer. But they were executed by no ordinary chimp. They were painted in the late 1950s by Congo, a celebrity chimp resident in London Zoo who was hailed as the Cezanne of the ape world.

    Picasso acquired one of Congo's 400 works, Miro swapped two of his paintings for one of Congo's, and Salvador Dali was so smitten with the ape's canvases that he declared: ''The hand of the chimpanzee is quasihuman; the hand of Jackson Pollock is totally animal!"

    Art world goes wild for chimpanzee's paintings as Warhol work flops ...
    www.telegraph.co.uk › News
    Jun 21, 2005 - The chimp daubings are believed to be the first works of art by a non-human to go under the hammer. But they were executed by no ordinary ...


    Also:

    Gorilla Art | koko.org
    https://www.koko.org/gorilla-art-0
    Gorillas Koko and Michael have produced many beautiful paintings over the years, some representational and some more abstract. We've reproduced some of ...

    Gorilla Art | koko.org
    https://www.koko.org/gorilla-art-1
    And we can tell the difference because the gorillas name their paintings via sign language. For example, the wild red and green strokes of "Anger" by gorilla ...

    ReplyDelete
  10. "WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The special counsel investigating possible collusion between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia has asked White House officials to preserve any records of a meeting last year between the president's eldest son and a Russian lawyer, according to a source with knowledge of the request.

    Special counsel Robert Mueller sent a document preservation request to the White House, saying the June 2016 meeting that Donald Trump Jr. had at Trump Tower in New York is relevant to his investigation, the source said on Friday."

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-idUSKBN1A61T6

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just say 30,000 memos and mails were about yoga and grandkids and get rid of them.

      (Why wouldn't they have gotten rid of anything "incriminating" already?

      Delete
    2. :)

      That would be an excellent reply.

      Bleachbit the suckers, and destroy the computers with a sledge hammer.

      Delete
  11. Interview with Douglas Murray (Strange Death of Europe) on Dennis Prager Podcast:

    http://www.podbean.com/site/Download/DIR2991186FR335

    ===

    Bob Sat Jul 22, 03:14:00 AM EDT

    In Murray’s words, “The world was coming into Europe at precisely the moment that Europe has lost sight of what it is.” It was a Europe that had lost faith in its beliefs, traditions, its very legitimacy.

    But Murray is especially good in focusing on the importance of guilt, what he calls Europe’s “unique, abiding, and perhaps fatal sense of and obsession with guilt” in shaping its behavior.

    While not ignored by others, the role of guilt has not been given the attention it deservedly gets here.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Toddler filmed taking his first steps hours before having his leg amputated

    The mum-of-one, who lives in Winsford, Cheshire, said that when Oliver was born in March 2016, he had two small red spots on his left leg.

    Every time she mentioned them to midwives or medics, she was told she shouldn’t worry, and that it was just a birthmark by a dermatologist.

    She said: ‘They started to grow and become lumpy, I knew it wasn’t a birthmark and I begged for Oliver to be seen by a specialist.’


    Oliver was eventually referred to the RMCH where doctors ordered a biopsy.
    Results found out it to be a non-cancerous nerve tumour, but it was so rare it was sent to America for further testing.

    Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2017/07/22/toddler-filmed-taking-his-first-steps-hours-before-having-his-leg-amputated-6798941/#ixzz4nbDIss4L

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just yesterday I heard some government Putz crowing about British Medicine being number 1 in the World.

      ...maybe it was Ash.

      Delete
    2. Oliver’s surgery was scheduled for June 2, and it was on that morning the youngster amazed his parents by taking his first proper steps.

      ‘There were no words for it, it was just a huge mix of emotions.’
      Hayley said:

      Delete
    3. Death threats sent to Great Ormond Street Hospital staff over Charlie Gard case

      Delete
  13. I think, as The Donald once said, it's the necessity of developers/big money folks to grease the skids -

    Looks Like Scaramucci Was Doing More Than Just Donating To Obama
    JAZZ SHAWPosted at 5:31 pm on July 22, 2017

    After Anthony Scaramucci was named the new White House communications director it took only moments for people to let slip the Google hounds of online research and dig up some interesting tidbits. The first one which caught my attention was a max single contributor donation he made to Barack Obama’s campaign as reported at The Week among many other outlets.

    SEE ALSO: House and Senate defy Trump, reach deal on Russia sanctions that WH can’t ease

    Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump’s newly hired communications director, is on the books as having donated a nice chunk of change to former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden in 2008. FEC donor records indicate the Wall Street financier and longtime Trump supporter gave $2,300 to Obama for America on May 31, 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet reported.

    Now, Trump has also donated to Democrats, so perhaps that wasn’t particularly problematic to him. Trump, for instance, previously donated to Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

    As noted in that excerpt, if this were the only donation on record it would be rather petty of the President to hold it against him too much, particularly given his own history of political contributions. Also, you’ll find 2008 Obama donations in all sorts of surprising places. He was riding that whole Hope and Change train all over the country and it’s well known that Obama attracted a lot of independent and even crossover support.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But that wasn’t nearly the only time Scaramucci was being generous to the left. A quick glance at his record over at Open Secrets shows that he’s been quite generous indeed. The list of names includes:

      Hillary Clinton (which is kind of weird because he donated against her to Rick Lazio during her 2000 Senate run)
      Kirsten Gillibrand
      DNC Services Corp. ($28.5K)
      Joe Liberman
      John Kerry
      Joe Biden
      Harry Reid
      Chuck Schumer
      Tom Daschle

      Now, to be fair, the majority of his Democrat donations (though not exclusively all) seemed to take place up through 2010. Starting in 2012 nearly all of his donations went to Republicans, including all of the congressional leadership, various PACs, the RNC and, of course, President Trump himself. Perhaps he just had a change of heart and experienced a conversion as many other Americans do.

      But it wasn’t just the money, either. The Washington Examiner did some digging and found that he’s been rather vocal in the past when it comes to many bread and butter issues which are near and dear to the hearts of liberals.

      In 2012, Scaramucci reacted to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings with a call for gun control.

      “I have always been for strong gun control laws,” Scaramucci wrote in December 2012…

      Earlier that year, he wrote, “We (the USA) has 5% of the world’s population but 50% of the world’s guns. Enough is enough. It is just common sense it apply more controls.”

      The 53-year-old Long Island native also urged conservatives to embrace gay marriage and rights in 2012.

      “Republicans should support Gay marriage,” he tweeted…

      “Walls don’t work,” he wrote. “Never have never will.”

      So was this a case of Trump not being aware of this history (lack of vetting) or simply an acknowledgement that the guy has “seen the light” and will be a loyal foot soldier? The President was clearly aware that people were pointing out Scaramucci’s early criticism of him and support for another candidate, but saw that as water under the bridge. As to some of his earlier, liberal positions, Donald Trump held a few of those himself in years past. All in all I don’t think we have that much of a mystery on our hands here. Trump clearly seems to judge people based on his own perception of how solid they are and he’s examined Scaramucci and found him to be a stand-up guy, so I doubt he’ll be going under the bus any time soon.

      Now if I could only get Bohemian Rhapsody out of my head.

      Rhapsody Video here:

      http://hotair.com/archives/2017/07/22/looks-like-scaramucci-just-donating-obama/

      Delete
  14. Entertaining anti-Trump screed -

    HAS TRUMP FINALLY ENTERED THE DEATH SPIRAL?

    Trump’s conviction, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is that in times of trouble his salvation lies in becoming less presidential and breaking more rules. The hiring of Anthony Scaramucci is just the latest example.


    BY T.A. FRANK
    JULY 21, 2017 6:04 PM

    By Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

    For those who believed that the White House’s main problem was too many adults in the room, the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci is welcome news. Sean Spicer has resigned in protest, with little to show for his time other than sartorial upgrades. In brief, a role that normally goes to people with decades of experience in communications and government will go to a neophyte from Wall Street whose main qualification seems to be that he’s loyal to Donald Trump on cable TV and high-energy. As Scaramucci once told New York Magazine, “My middle name could be Shit-stirrer, except then my initials on my shirt would be A.S.S., and I can’t have that.” The phrase “death spiral” is starting to come to mind.

    (Tony the Mooch Scaramucci has a good sense of humor....Bob)

    To be sure, you could argue that we’ve been here before. When Steve Bannon took over Trump’s campaign, conservative radio host Charlie Sykes compared it to entering a hospice phase with Trump wishing his campaign to die surrounded by loved ones. And we know how that turned out. So you could say that Trump is nothing but surprises. But Trump is also highly predictable. He promised repeatedly during the campaign that he could be presidential. But by early 2016 it was clear that he couldn’t, that no change would ever come. Chaos was going to be the norm. The question was always whether that chaos was controlled or not. More and more, “not” looks like the answer. Increasingly, Trump looks like Slim Pickens riding down with the missile, on the cusp of the final, sudden acceleration......

    http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/has-donald-trump-finally-entered-the-death-spiral

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  15. I advise against a civil war -

    Mueller and Trump Prepare for War with America the Loser

    BY ROGER L SIMON JULY 21, 2017

    Watergate ended with a whimper, not a bang. After months of sturm und drang, Richard Nixon finally mounted that helicopter, gave that famous farewell peace sign and flew away. Most Americans were relieved to see him go. Our long national nightmare was over.

    If something similar happens to Donald Trump, it will be entirely different. A significant portion of the American public — myself admittedly among them — will be convinced he has been railroaded in a partisan hatchet job. The voters who elected the president are going to feel, at the very least, undermined, more likely betrayed, by their own government and public officials. Many are going to feel this has nothing to do whatsoever with justice and will act accordingly.


    The exact results of this mammoth national split are not easy to predict but they could range from massive civil disobedience to outright civil war.

    The behavior of special prosecutor Robert Mueller has exacerbated the situation. Even CNN admits he has staffed his investigation almost exclusively with Democratic Party supporters and donors. It's hard to say whether this is brazen or stupid or both, but it certainly doesn't lend credibility to his eventual decisions. At the very least it's extremely unsophisticated for a former director of the FBI — but perhaps that's really the way it is. Nothing (and no one) can stand in the way of prosecution.


    And then there are the leaks that emerge from his supposedly confidential investigation at seemingly a mile a minute pace. The (always) anonymous creeps who do this are sleazy individuals who — under the mega-narcissistic pretense that they are informing the public of something of importance — undercut everything everyone has ever known about the rule of law. They are, effectively, enemies of the state and, even more, of the American people — and pompous ones into the bargain. It would be poetic justice to send them all to Gitmo.

    Advice to Trump: Be Bored

    The most recent of these leaks — published as is so frequently the case by that junk scandal sheet formerly known as The Washington Post — tells us that AG Sessions was supposedly talking about the Trump campaign with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. What Sessions said exactly, which could have been something completely innocuous and no more than a sentence or two, if indeed he did say anything at all, was of course not mentioned. If it was something serious, most likely it would have been specified, but then who knows. We don't know if this leak is first, second or fifth hand. We don't know anything about the source. We don't know anything about the content. We just have the smear. Not surprisingly too, this leak — a character assassination really — was again anonymous (what else?). When Joe McCarthy made his famous character assassinations, at least he had the guts to do it under his own name. (Yes, I know McCarthy turned out to be right in some instances.)........

    https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2017/07/21/mueller-and-trump-prepare-for-war-with-america-the-loser/




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  16. I am becoming fascinated with this topic -

    Trump Wants To Take On Bob Mueller? Good Luck With That

    The news that President Trump’s legal team is already evaluating the scope of his pardon authority, as well as steps that can be taken to push back on the breadth of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, rippled across social media Thursday night.

    Of particular interest was that Mueller’s potential inquiry into the president’s financial dealings (and his tax returns) has apparently so incensed President Trump and resulted in a warning that the former FBI director should not cross that proverbial “red line.”

    President Trump, of course, has a long history of being a more-than-capable litigant in his pre-presidential life, and he certainly is not a newcomer to the legal game. His battles with Eric Schneiderman, for instance, were legendary—at one point, Trump even filed a complaint about the New York attorney general with the state’s ethics commission. In 2010, he used civil litigation to effectively persuade Deutsche Bank (and other lenders) to grant him an extension on a $640 million construction loan.......


    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/07/22/trump-wants-to-take-on-bob-mueller-good-luck-with-that/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Ash: do you support and favor Bill 89?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good Grief, that is an awful bill.

      I too am interested in Ash's opinion on it.

      Delete

    2. I'm Transphobic by day and Transphylic by night.

      Delete
  18. Anyone finding their comments being erased before you complete them?


    ReplyDelete
  19. Not me. I seem to comment too much, I probably deserve it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. News O' The Endless Night from Jihad Watch (Hugh Fitzgerald is back !) -

    Hugh Fitzgerald: Miss World’s Very Own Islam
    By Hugh Fitzgerald on Jul 22, 2017 06:05 pm

    Hugh Fitzgerald: Miss World’s Very Own Islam
    If you google “Islam” and “news” this week, you will pull up from the Internet the inspiring story of Esma Voloder, who has just been declared Miss World Australia 2017. Here is her message to the world: My heart is full ❤️�� Gratitude and joy overtook me last night as I was crowned @missworldaustralia 2017 […]
    Read in browser »

    Lawyers for Muslim cop who killed unarmed woman call for autopsy to see if victim was on Ambien
    By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 02:17 pm
    Lawyers for Muslim cop who killed unarmed woman call for autopsy to see if victim was on Ambien
    Like so many Muslims before him, it looks as if Mohamed Noor has opted to defend himself by blaming the victim. According to Drugs.com, “Ambien (zolpidem) is a sedative, also called a hypnotic. Zolpidem affects chemicals in the brain that may be unbalanced in people with sleep problems insomnia). Ambien is used to treat insomnia….Ambien […]
    Read in browser »


    Lawyers for Muslim who planted bombs in NYC and NJ say he isn’t a terrorist
    By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 01:59 pm
    Lawyers for Muslim who planted bombs in NYC and NJ say he isn’t a terrorist
    Of course. It isn’t as if he were a right-wing extremist or anything really dangerous like that. In any case, it is clear from the photographs of him that Rahimi is a devout, observant Muslim, and that, no doubt, was a considerable part of his motivation in planting the bombs. But that almost certainly will […]
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    Trump administration brings Muslim who plotted to murder Muhammad cartoonist to U.S. for trial
    By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 01:44 pm
    Trump administration brings Muslim who plotted to murder Muhammad cartoonist to U.S. for trial
    Another broken promise: Trump had said he would end this Obama practice, and now Eric Holder and others whose support Trump should never have had or wanted are thumping their chests and claiming victory. This is a continuation of the false premise that every jihad plot is a separate criminal incident, unrelated to any and […]
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    Illinois: Muslima migrant who worked at O’Hare Airport charged with aiding ISIS, wanted to “bury unbelievers alive”
    By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 01:24 pm
    Illinois: Muslima migrant who worked at O’Hare Airport charged with aiding ISIS, wanted to “bury unbelievers alive”
    “The Schiller Park woman, a Bosnian refugee, and her alleged co-conspirators are accused of funneling military gear and money to fellow Bosnian national Abdullah Ramo Pazara. Investigators say Pazara is an ISIS leader in Syria, although there have been recent reports he was killed. Pazara, a U.S. citizen, is said to have facilitated money transfers […]
    Read in browser »


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Minneapolis: Witness may have caught Muslim cop’s shooting of unarmed woman on camera
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 01:12 pm
      Minneapolis: Witness may have caught Muslim cop’s shooting of unarmed woman on camera
      Meanwhile, in her statement saying she asked Police Chief Janee Harteau to resign, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said: “For us to continue to transform policing — and community trust in policing — we need new leadership at MPD.” We need more than that. We need an apology from Betsy Hodges (and her resignation as well) […]
      Read in browser »


      Canada: Prof says “government has absolutely no choice” but to “assist” Islamic State jihadis “to come home”
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 12:58 pm
      Canada: Prof says “government has absolutely no choice” but to “assist” Islamic State jihadis “to come home”
      These are enemy combatants who joined a group that has repeatedly called upon Muslims to murder non-Muslim civilians, and which considers itself to be at war with Canada and all non-Muslim nations. Dawson’s position is tantamount to calling for national suicide. Phil Gurski is correct: “Does the Canadian government have a legal, let alone a […]
      Read in browser »



      Protestors shut down Minneapolis mayor’s press conference, demand her resignation
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 12:05 pm
      Protestors shut down Minneapolis mayor’s press conference, demand her resignation
      Hodges should resign, but even that isn’t enough. Minneapolis, and other cities, need to discard their policies of hiring people such as Mohamed Noor not because they’re competent, but because they’re of a desired ethnicity or religion. Mohamed Noor was only on the police force because he was a Somali Muslim, and thus buttressed Minneapolis’ […]
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      India: Muslims threaten to cut off writer’s arm and leg if he doesn’t convert to Islam within 6 months
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 11:30 am
      India: Muslims threaten to cut off writer’s arm and leg if he doesn’t convert to Islam within 6 months
      He has been accused of “misleading” Muslim youth. Apparently the pious Muslims who are threatening him think he is causing “corruption in the land,” as per this verse of the Qur’an: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and cause corruption in the land is none but that they […]
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      UK: Muslim migrant who stormed church screaming “I will kill you and kill all the English” escapes deportation
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 11:02 am
      UK: Muslim migrant who stormed church screaming “I will kill you and kill all the English” escapes deportation
      The British government keeps making it clear that it wants jihadis in the country. Yet there is no significant political force in Britain that is challenging this and offering a real alternative to the British people. Consequently, Britain is on the path to national destruction. The government has been encouraging jihad, and discouraging resistance to […]
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      “Palestinian” Muslim murderer’s Facebook last words: “Allah will take revenge on you and will make it count”
      By Robert Spencer on Jul 22, 2017 10:18 am
      “Palestinian” Muslim murderer’s Facebook last words: “Allah will take revenge on you and will make it count”
      Facebook removes the pages of foes of jihad terror, or shadowbans them as it has done with Jihad Watch, such that our referrals have dropped 90% since mid-February. But jihad murderers are free to post with no problem. “West Bank terror: A killer’s last testament on Facebook,” by Eytan Halon, Jerusalem Post, July 22, 2017 […]
      Read in browser »

      Delete
  21. July 22, 2017
    Founder of firm that compiled Trump 'dossier' will plead the Fifth before Congress
    By Rick Moran

    The lawyer for the co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that compiled a dossier on president Trump's activities in Russia, has informed the Senate Judiciary Committee that his client, Glenn Simpson, will invoke his 5th Amendment rights rather than testify.

    Fox News:


    Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., confirmed in a statement that they subpoenaed Simpson to appear before the committee Wednesday as part of a hearing about the influence of foreign lobbying in last year's presidential election.

    "Simpson's attorney has asserted that his client will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the subpoena," Grassley and Feinstein said.

    During the campaign, Fusion GPS contracted former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele to look into rumors about Trump's financial and social connections in Russia. The resulting "dossier," which was leaked to the media following Trump's victory in November included a number of sordid allegations about the president's sexual proclivities.

    Last week, Fox News reported that Fusion GPS had ties to Russian efforts to undermine U.S. sanctions that were led by attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

    Investment manager Bill Browder claims Simpson was hired by one of Veselnitskaya's clients, Prevezon Holdings, as part of an effort to repeal the Magnitsky Act, named for Sergei Magnitsky – an attorney for Browder who was beaten to death in a Moscow prison after accusing Russian authorities of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through tax refunds and then laundering the money through New York banks.

    Veselnitskaya became the center of a political storm earlier this month after Donald Trump Jr. made public emails indicating that he had taken a meeting with her on the promise of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

    Grassley and Feinstein also noted that both Trump Jr., who met with Veselnitskaya in June of last year, and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who sat in on the meeting, are negotiating their appearances and the possibility of turning over documents, but left open the possibility that the pair would be subpoenaed.

    Fusion GPS has said it had nothing to do with the Trump Jr.-Veselnitskaya meeting.

    "Fusion GPS learned about this meeting from news reports and had no prior knowledge of it. Any claim that Fusion GPS arranged or facilitated this meeting in any way is absolutely false," the company said in a statement.

    The media have shown a curious disinterest in the ridiculously false assertions in the Trump "dossier" and where they came from. Steele, the former MI-6 intel agent who wrote it up has ties to Russian intelligence, as does Fusion GPS itself.

    More to the point, Fusion has close ties to the Democratic Party. We have yet to discover who ordered the dossier be written and why.

    But this story does not fit the Trump-Russia narrative. It would be confusing to present evidence that Democratic Party operatives were working with the Russians to discredit the new president. It would muddy the waters and take the focus off of the president. So the media will bury this story, and Congress will be none the wiser, because Mr. Simpson doesn't want to incriminate himself.


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/07/founder_of_firm_that_compiled_trump_dossier_will_plead_the_fifth_before_congress.html#ixzz4neAanbvF

    ReplyDelete