Joe Scarborough is appalled by the GOP attacks on Robert Mueller, who has a spotless record of service to his country over many years.
He writes:
“The president’s response to the Michael Cohen search, duly authorized by an independent federal judge, was to reflexively trash law-enforcement officers, undermine the rule of law and slander a Vietnam War hero who has committed his adult life to the service of America.
“By now, of course, few should be surprised by the depths to which Trump sinks when attacking law enforcement personnel.
“But this week provided insight into just how desperate Trump and his courtiers have become in their defenses of an indefensible administration.
“The president promoted a Fox News show via Twitter that starred a steady stream of sycophants who slandered special counsel Robert S. Muller III. Mueller, who led a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam, has been awarded a Bronze Star, two Navy commendations, a Purple Heart and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After being shot through the leg, the young Princeton grad continued leading his troops in battle. Later he would continue his service in Vietnam even after he was given the opportunity to go home.
” Such bravery and dedication to the United States could never have been shown on the battlefield by the miserable crew who lined up to attack the special counsel.
“Despite playing tennis, golf and football during his college days, Trump took five deferments, four for college and one for bone spurs in his feet. On the day Trump graduated from college, 40 Americans were killed in Vietnam.
“Newt Gingrich, who went on Fox News and compared “the American FBI” to Joseph Stalin and Nazis, also did not serve. And Joe DiGenova, who now spends his days sliming law-enforcement officers who investigate crimes in Washington, took student deferments, even admitting in 2003 that anyone who did the same should seriously consider never seeking public office “when you didn’t serve, when you had a chance to.”
“And yet, DiGenova, Gingrich and Sean Hannity — beneficiary of the president’s Twitter news promo — seem all too comfortable attacking an American war hero who has spent his life honorably serving this country in times of war and peace. In fact, Mueller’s record has been so spotless that none other than Gingrich himself tweeted 11 months ago, “Robert Mueller is superb choice to be special counsel. His reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity. Media should now calm down.”
“What a difference a year makes. Gingrich has now joined the chorus of collaborators attacking Mueller. Since most Republicans on Capitol Hill agree with Gingrich’s earlier assessment of Mueller’s exemplary character, one wonders how GOP senators and conservative representatives will respond to these latest desperate and despicable attacks….
”Regardless how Mueller’s investigation ends, Trump will one day leave Washington. And when he does, the steady stream of attacks on Justice Department professionals, FBI agents and all the honorable men and women who daily defend Americans against enemies foreign and domestic will forever stain the reputations of Trump’s most shameless apologists. All this for a man who has spent decades showing loyalty to little else but his ravenous pursuit of money and fame.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump isn’t smart, savvy or sophisticated enough to run this country. He is a disaster and the GOP are sycophants. How much longer do we have to live with his chaos, division and ignorance?
He is getting worried and I am concerned about what damage he will propagate to keep attention away from his misdeeds? War on Syria? War in N. Korea? What is next?
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/382966-gop-unveils-mock-cover-of-comey-book-with-ego-attack
The Republic National Committee is intent on smearing Comey with an attack that makes them look really scared to death of the content in Comey’s book.
Maybe the RNC is also trying to distract attention from the President’s language in characterizing Comes.
Apparently the internet has been challenged to respond to a HUGE increase in people looking for a definition of slime ball, one of Trump’s descriptors. I believe a timely and accurate referent for that term can be found at the White House in the Oval office occupying the position of President of a campaign to “Make America Great Again.” The Republican National Committee is doing a number straight from the pages of the tabloids that populate the check-out lanes in grocery stores with the RNC’s fully funded “Lying Comey” website.
Why did republicans intially support Mueller, like Geinrich, only to harshly turn on him months later?
Mueller is a Republican. No doubt they figured he would cover up for Trump like the Republicans in Congress do.
time will tell: https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate
I read the article which was interesting with lots of smoking guns, but no bullets. We know Trump has lots of connections to wealthy Russians, some of whom are mobsters. We need something indictable. I hope Mueller finds the link.
Ekaterina bids me to say, you probably wouldn’t have too many nice words yourself if the FBI raided your attorney. How were you expecting Trump to react?
I don’t have any attorneys willing to use $150,000 of their own money to pay off any people who could tell the truth about my actions and embarrass me and possibly get me into legal trouble.
Do you?
And yes, if I had an “attorney” whose only job was to pay off the people who could offer facts that I wanted to keep hidden, I would be like Trump and want to let my attorney keep paying off whoever I wanted to be paid off. How dare anyone raid their files to stop it.
I suggest you look up Herbert Kalmbach, Richard Nixon’s “personal attorney” who went to jail for doing much less.
He was the bagman who channelled illegally obtained money to people who had dirt on Nixon to keep him quiet.
“My actions in the period immediately following the break-in,” he said before the Senate Watergate committee in July 1973, “which involved the raising of funds to provide for the legal defense of the Watergate defendants and for the support of their families were prompted in the belief that such was proper and necessary to discharge what I assumed to be a moral obligation that had arisen in some manner unknown to me by reason of earlier events.”
Mr. Kalmbach described for the committee the manner in which the cash was distributed: with utmost secrecy, using aliases and containers that included a hotel laundry bag, and with the assistance of Anthony Ulasewicz, a former New York City police detective who made the deliveries.”
When your “personal attorney” is your bagman and acts nothing like an attorney, you lose your privilege. And those who profess to not understand what the big deal is about seem to have a double standard in which a republican can have a personal bagman and they will defend them, but if a Democrat so much as takes a campaign donation and has a meeting — even if that meting leads to nothing — the throw them in jail and vote for Trump! Because the Dems are just as corrupt.
Ekaterina also bids me ask, what do you think of Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel? What do you think are the chances that Senate Democrats will unite to try to prevent either of those appointments? (Rand Paul is on record as opposed to Pompeo, so if he stays true to that – and I’ll be the first to admit that’s a mighty big if – Democrats can defeat him. But even if Republicans stay united, wouldn’t it be nice if Democrats actually, well, #Resisted?)
How can Democrats defeat him when they are not in the majority?
You think the Dems are not resisting? You mean if there are one or two defections who support Pompeo that is the same as the entire Democratic Party not resisting?
Ekaterina knows that the way for Democrats to actually #Resist is to WIN ELECTIONS. You know, actually vote FOR Democrats instead of smearing them as exactly the same as Republicans.
You posted over and over that Trump was no worse than Hillary. If you don’t like Trump’s appointments and are now “begging” the Democrats who you slime and attack to somehow stop the guy you said was just like the corrupt Democrats, then that takes a lot of chutzpah.
The only time I believe you and Ekaterina are on exactly the same page is when you work so hard to smear the Dems so that they lose.
By the way, here are some of the Supreme Court Justices appointed by those “corrupt” Democrats:
Ruth Bader Ginsberg — appointed by “dienne77 says he’s just like the Republicans” Bill Clinton
Stephen Breyer — appointed by “dienne77 says he’s just like the Republicans” Bill Clinton
Sonia Sotomayor — appointed by “dienne77 says he’s just like the Republicans” Barack Obama
Elena Kagan — appointed by “dienne77 says he’s just like the Republicans” Barack Obama
Neil Gorsuch — appointed by “dienne77 says that he’s no worse than Hillary Clinton” Donald Trump.
And I am not even including the extraordinarily number of appointees by the man you claim was no worse than “evil Hillary” — Donald Trump — who now sit on federal benches with lifetime appointments who are among some of the most rabidly right wing judges in this country.
I love how you look to blame the Democrats for Trump’s appointments. You should blame yourself and the others who agreed with you that there is absolutely no difference between Hillary and Trump. Maybe when you acknowledge that you were wrong, you can throw more stones at the Democrats who are trying to clean up the mess made by voters like you who gave us Trump because you were certain that his appointments would be no worse than Hillary would make. I haven’t yet heard you admit you were wrong. Instead you look to blame the Dems for not preventing your mistake from having the consequences we told you would happen but you insisted that we were wrong.
What chutzpah to criticize the Dems for not preventing Trump from doing exactly what you had no problem with him doing when you insisted he was no worse than Hillary.
Excellent analysis by NYC Public School Parent. Cynthia Nixon, a great progressive who supports the actual real public schools also supported Hillary and Obama. Does that make her a bad person? Not to mention that people like Bernie, Thomas Frank, Noam Chomsky and Robert Reich either voted for Hillary and/or recommended voting for Hillary in the general election. So come November, we will be going through this same nonsense that the Democrats are just as bad as the GOP and so vote for some 3rd party loser rather than vote for the lesser evil. Blah, blah, blah, but it’s still evil blah, blah, blah. In 2020, I am sure that we will be scolded by the ideological purists to vote for the Green party candidate instead of voting for the Democrat over some god awful GOP werewolf such as Trump. I will support and vote for progressives whenever I can but when it comes down to the wire in the general election, I will not shoot myself in the head and vote for some far right wing GOP gargoyle.
Thank you.
The hypocrisy of the self-described progressives like dienne77 is ridiculous. I have no doubt that if Cynthia Nixon was ever likely to win the election, dienne77 would be on here posting non-stop about how corrupt she was and not a real progressive. I wish she spent half the time criticizing Trump instead of stopping every criticism of Trump by repeating the right wing trope — “but the Dems are so corrupt so let’s talk about that instead”.
Look at diene77’s two posts on here in response to Diane Ravitch’s discussion about the very corrupt Republicans and their attacks on Mueller.
dienne77 just wants to talk about how terrible the Dems are instead.
If that isn’t acting like a troll, then I don’t know what is. Does anyone know dienne77 in real life? Because her posts trying to change the subject and blame Democrats and attack them whenever there is talk of Trump’s corruption are truly beyond what is normal for any progressive that I have ever met in real life. You don’t have to love Hillary but posting to attack the entire democratic party whenever there is criticism of Trump does seem to be exactly what trolls do.
After all, poor Trump, dienne77 understands why he would be upset about his personal attorney. And how dare anyone criticize Trump when dienne77 wants us to talk about the evil Democrats instead and blame them for not stopping Trump as a prelude to telling us that the dems are so evil that we should all turn away and stay home in November. Just like she did when she repeating the exact same right wing talking points in the fall of 2016. Coincidence?
Is that acting like a troll or not? You tell me.
You think the Dems are not resisting? You mean if there are one or two defections who support Pompeo that is the same as the entire Democratic Party not resisting?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ain’t no Dienne !. Sorry NYC and Joe , I voted the same as Noam ,Thomas and Bernie and even begged groups of workers to vote for her. .
But lets cover a few things . When the Republicans needed a Tax Bill were there any defections . When Obamacare repeal was being voted on (and I am no fan) is there any doubt that if John McCain had not been seriously maybe terminally ill and Scump had not personally attacked him, he would have fallen right in line . Just as Scarborough
says they do fall in line like sheep even when Democracy is on the line. The least we can expect is at this point from the Democrats is for Pompeo to be rejected .
It is a Dog and Pony show . One that we witnessed on full display when Fast Track Trade Authority came for a vote . It mattered little that 1000 + groups almost exclusively progressive objected to the TPP. The heart of the Democratic base,from Organized Labor to the Sierra club . 26 Democrats voted with the Republicans and it failed so two more rabbits were pulled out of the hat and it passed . Want to talk about prescription drugs from Canada.two of those 12 Democratic Senators who killed that Bill are from Jersey . I wonder who their donors are . Want to ask why the Employee Free Choice act never made it to Committee you might want to ask Diane Feinstein not Mitch McConnell . Forget the 2017 Republican Tax bill , how about making the Bush tax cuts permanent
So there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats , Republicans know exactly who they serve ,Democrats can not seem to make up their mind.
What possible reason could you have as a Democrat to vote for Pompeo ?
But this piece was on a(EX) Republican, Scarborough and although I enjoy the attacks on Scump and the rest of the Republicans . I cringe at some of his rational. Paul Ryan was never a policy wonk . The Republicans never gave a hoot about deficits . And lastly I am tired of all reporters in the media telling me what Scump thinks . Until you learn how to do the Vulcan mind meld you have no idea what Scump thinks, if he is even capable of thinking. CNN ,MSNBC ,WaPo …….just tell me what he and Republicans do . If I want to know what they think I’ll turn on State TV.
Make that reference to TPP ,Fast Track Trade Authority . TPP would have been passed in the Lame Duck .
Joel,
What is your point? That there is no difference between Dems and Republicans so we might as well just stop voting and turn over all of DC to the Republicans like dienne77 insists because it will be NO DIFFERENT than it is right now?
There is something so self-indulgent by people who demand some fealty to whatever THEY decide is most important and if the democrat doesn’t give THEIR idea fealty than they will smear them as not worthy top vote for and absolutely no different than right wing Republicans.
Bernie Sanders tried his hardest to get a pro-DFER anti-public school Governor into the Virginia statehouse. That is a fact. Bernie wanted the pro-DFER pro-chgarter guy to win the primary over the candidate who supported public schools. And when his anti-public education pro-charter candidate lost the primary, he refused to endorse the pro-public education candidate over the right wing pro-Trump guy.
I didn’t agree with Bernie Sanders total and complete abandonment of public education because he thought something else was more important. I didn’t like it but I understood that on this issue, Bernie Sanders was willing to throw public education under the bus for something he believed was more important.
Just like Diane Feinstein was willing to throw something under the bus. Just like Sen Elizabeth Warren is willing to throw something under the bus.
You are just a hypocrite who makes excuses for the progressive politicians who throw public education under the bus but demand fealty to your POV when it is something you believe it.
Until you explain why Bernie Sanders fought for the pro-charter democrat who the DFER money was supporting so he could turn Virginia into a DFER state, then I suggest you get rid of your holier than thou attitude when it comes to other Democrats who instead of doing like Bernie and throwing public education under the bus decide to throw some other progressive idea under the bus.
What a double standard you have. If I was as nasty as you, I’d use all sorts of innuendo and smears to suggest how corrupt Bernie Sanders is with his fake support of public schools as he did everything he could to undermine them in Virginia by fighting so hard to elect the anti-public school pro-charter Democrat. And then not endorsing the Democrat who IS pro-public school over a right wing Republican.
But because I am not a hypocrite like you, I recognize that Bernie Sanders can be more pro-charter than I like and still be a progressive even if he is abandoning public education when it suits him.
Who does Bernie serve? You smear anyone who abandons other progressive ideas so why not Bernie? You total hypocrite.
And I say that as someone who feels public education is IMPORTANT. That is why I read this blog. Do you really care about public schools, or are teachers just some labor group that help whatever politician you want to win? Because you sure don’t think supporting public schools is a deal breaker for your progressive politicians. But it’s fine for them to abandon public schools but woe to the politician who fights for the pharmaceutical companies in their state. Joel doesn’t care if you abandon public schools, as long as you don’t support pharmaceutical companies. Then you can abandon public schools all you want and Joel won’t attack you as corrupt and a sell-out.
I don’t need progressive politicians who will abandon public education. And I don’t know why you look the other way and only criticize the ones who abandon other progressive ideas but abandoning public education is A-OK with you.
Why are you even on this blog that you think public education is far less important than other things and is way down your list of what is important?
NYC public school parent
Are you feeling okay , you seem to be in rare form tonight . I am attacking the Democrats who are attacking Public Education . They are attacking Public Education because they fundamentally do not support Public Education or Public Goods . When you empower the plutocracy all the platitudes in the world about supporting Public Schools means little .Obama gave pretty speeches on National Charter School Appreciation week .. Talk about a kick in the gut to Americas Public School teachers You keep going back to the Virginia Governors race as if it is some sort of a litmus test . Why are you here Hillary lost and turned the Nation over to a fascist . In good part because Obama ran around the country promising to pass TPP in the lame duck session with Republican and like Dienne says whatever Democratic support was needed . Whether voters stayed home or voted for Trump ‘O’ did it .
” In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration, where he served as the assistant to the president for political affairs and as the senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy before resigning, in 1998. ” What strategy, was that ? Was it Welfare Reform , Was it the Crime Bill , Was it the Commodities futures Deregulation act . Perhaps it was NAFTA . Maybe it was the deregulation of the FCC that
allowed Sinclair Broadcasting to become what it is and Fox as well …..
”
held two Democratic leadership positions, serving as the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2007 and as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, from 2007 to 2009. After the 2008 presidential election, President Barack Obama appointed to serve as White House chief of staff.
Have you figured out Hill Bot who that Clintonista is . I’ll give you a hint and he is a hell of a lot more toxic to public education than Tom Perriello who at least Claimed to have changed since he was an Obama shill .
Hint :
Public Schools officials expect about 53,000 of the district’s roughly 400,000 students will attend charter schools this year, and the number of charters will increase to more than 100. The city is aiming to add 60 charter schools in the next five years with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is trying to expand charters across the country.
The biggest push for charter schools locally comes from some of the wealthiest backers of ———– ‘
Need another hint .
————— is a progressive mayor, period,” said Paul Begala, a longtime Bill Clinton adviser and a friend of ————- who advises the pro-Hillary Clinton Priorities super PAC. “I don’t think people should say a right-wing Democrat won. I think you’ve got to actually look at what he did and what he ran on.”
He ran on closing the Public Schools of Chicago . Got it yet Hill bot
And it wasn’t a little thing that Diane Feinstein did she killed the most significant labor reform since Taft Hartley in 1947 and in a positive sense since the NLRA in 1936. Had it passed it would have eliminated charters by taking away their prime reason for existing; breaking the teachers unions who have traditionally supported democrats. Breaking them with a low paid workforce with no agency in the work place . She did it because dollars from Silicone Valley and Venture capital were more important than the votes from California’s largest Union , teachers. .
So do us a favor make like Hillary and disappear.
Joel,
You spent a lot of time telling me things I already know. Do you think I support Rahm Emanuel? Newsflash: I do not.
I’m not a hypocrite like you. Public education is the most important issue to me right now and I won’t support a candidate just because he opposed TPP when he is more than happy to throw public education under the bus.
You will. Let’s agree to disagree.
Come on, Dienne. Your controller is not Ekaterina, it’s Glenn Greenwald.
Glenn Greenwald’s controller is billionaire Pierre Omidyar, who founded eBay.
Omidyar funded Greenwald’s “The Intercept” at $250 Million or so.
Greenwald is paid $500,000 a year to keep exonerating the Russians and Putin.
Nice fellow, Putin.
Helped Assad murder 500,000 Syrians.
Who has he poisoned lately?
Greenwald will never concede any flaw in Putin.
Nice work if you can get it.
Interesting info, Diane. Do you have a link for it? Thanks!
Duane, link to what? I’m answering on multiple threads
For the information on Greenwald. No hurry.
This is where I learned about billionaire Pierre Omidyar investing $250 Million to start The Intercept.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/glenn-greenwald-russia-investigation.html
I don’t remember where I read about Greenwald’s salary.
Thanks for the info!
The Republican Party had no problem making up false “swift boat” stories about another real war hero, John Kerry. Should this be a surprise?
I want to tell you how the so-called “liberal” media helps Trump with their laziness.
Yesterday we got a chorus of media types reporting about Andrew McCabe and the “scathing” Inspector General report (according to the NYT headline) that the NY Times reporting suggests to readers shows just how corrupt and wrong McCabe is.
I actually read the report — and with an eye toward how right wingers try to turn actions that are perfectly fine into some big corruption. (Reminded me of how Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, Jared Kushner, and other Republicans not only used private servers but deleted ALL their e-mails — millions of them – and the FBI didn’t bother to even try to get them to see if tens of thousands of classified e-mails were on them instead of a dozen.)
This is what happened with Andrew McCabe:
Some right wing, pro-Trump FBI officials illegally and improperly leaked information to the WSJ and not only illegally and improperly informed them of an “investigation” into the Clinton Foundation, but also lied about Andrew McCabe shutting down this “investigation” because — as those FBI leakers claimed to the WSJ — McCabe was a corrupt person who shut down this investigation because his wife got big campaign donations and McCabe was more than happy to break the law in exchange for those donations.
THAT is what the WSJ reported BEFORE McCabe’s “crime” (as the so-called liberal NYTimes wants readers to believe even though McCabe did nothing illegal.)
What McCabe did is to LEGALLY respond to this illegal leak by rabidly pro-Trump FBI officials by telling the WSJ that he had argued that the investigation SHOULD proceed and their previous story that tried to smear him as quashing the investigation to help Hillary Clinton was wrong. That’s it. McCabe had the authority to respond — unlike the pro-Trump FBI agents who obviously were leaking to the WSJ and lying about McCabe with the sole intention of trying to help elect Trump. McCabe’s directing his office to tell the WSJ reporters the TRUTH in response to the illegal actions of other FBI agents was absolutely legal!
So did the Inspector General investigate which FBI agents broke the law and illegally leaked to the WSJ that there was an investigation into the Clinton Foundation? Did the Inspector General put the pro-Trump FBI agents who illegally leaked this information under oath to find out who else was involved in their outright criminal behavior and illegal leaking? Nope. Mysteriously the IG has no interest in the real criminal behavior that happened at the FBI to help elect Trump.
Instead the IG’s only concern was the LEGAL action of McCabe correcting the record of lies that the people who the IG did NOT investigate were doing.
So the IG was perfectly fine with the crimes of the rabid pro-Trump FBI agents giving illegal information to the press and breaking the law. No investigation at all. None. Those people did illegal things and the IG doesn’t care because they were illegal actions that helped Trump.
Instead the IG decided what should be investigated is McCabe’s attempt to correct the record AFTER the pro-Trump agents broke the law to help Trump.
And the reason that the IG decided that McCabe should be fired is because the IG insisted that while it was completely legal for McCabe to talk to the WSJ because he was authorized to make those revelations, in this case it was “improper” because correcting the record actually helped McCabe’s own reputation and therefore the proper thing for McCabe to do was to let his reputation be trashed by the FBI agents doing illegal things.
Get it? The Inspector General has no interest whatsoever in all those rabid pro-Trump FBI agents who actually committed an outright crime to help elect Trump by illegally leaking to the press that there was an investigation of the Clinton Foundation and then lying that McCabe intentionally quashed this investigation to help Hillary.
The Inspector General is perfectly fine with that crime. It doesn’t bother him that FBI officials committed crimes that helped Trump get elected. Nope.
What the Inspector General is concerned with is that McCabe dared to correct the record after these crimes were committed. Even though it was completely legal for McCabe to do so. But because the IG claimed that it ALSO helped McCabe (since the illegal leaks were designed to trash his reputation AND smear Hillary Clinton as corrupt), McCabe was not allowed to do so. According to the IG, it was fine for FBI agents to break the law to elect Trump but McCabe couldn’t correct the record because it would also help clear his own name. Talk about a totally corrupt IG investigation.
And if you read the NY Times and the liberal media, you would not know any of this and think that McCabe did something wrong and should be punished. And you would never know that what McCabe “did wrong” was to try to stop all the pro-Trump people in the FBI who were committing crimes to help elect Trump!
If you don’t believe me, I suggest you read the entire IG report, including between the lines to see what is left out of the report.
The criticism of the IG report was that it only released the McCabe portion under political pressure . The issue was not what McCabe did but that when asked about it he claimed to have consulted with Comey something denied by Comey .
But your hysteria is Scumpian We do not know what conclusion the IG
has reached on the rest of the investigation.
What in Gods name makes you think that the NY Times , WaPo or the networks are “Liberal”
Did you even read what I wrote? Or were you rushing too fast to insult my “hysteria”. Maybe you can mansplain to me how Trump should be sympathized with because his “attorney” was investigated. That’s what dienne77 thinks.
Don’t mansplain to me what the “criticism of the IG report is”. I just told you what MY criticism of the IG report is. You are free to disagree but I stand by my criticism. it is a report that targets an FBI official for political reasons and intentionally overlooks the context and real lawbreaking that pro-Trump FBI officials were doing that caused this person to act in what was actually a correct and upright manner.
This report is the equivalent of a bunch of rich bullies targeting a victim and pushing him and kicking him during recess when the aides keep ignoring it. And when another honest student runs inside the school to get help from a real teacher while the kid is being attacked, the only “investigation” is all about whether that student asked permission before he ran to get help and how his answers about whether he “improperly” left to get help showed that he was really a criminal who deserved to be expelled from the school.
Meanwhile, the rich bullies and what they did to the victim that the expelled student tried to help are never investigated at all. The only person punished is the guy who tried to put a stop to the actual wrongdoing that the rich bullies were doing.
When that happens, something corrupt is going on. So please spare me your mansplaining of what is wrong with the IG report because you know it all.
The IG report focused only on the actions of the guy who tried to correct the illegal and lying leaks by other FBI agents. There was absolutely nothing wrong with McCabe doing what he did. For the IG to state that McCabe should have let the lies and illegal actions of the pro-Trump FBI agents go uncorrected in the media because by correcting them he was also clearing his own name is the most ridiculous claim I have ever heard.
And given that none of those real lawbreakers leaking to the media at the FBI who were HELPING Trump have ever been investigated or punished, this is clearly a witchhunt and an ugly one at that. Trying to send the clear message that pro-Trump FBI agents are allowed to break the law with impunity and no one will investigate but anyone who stops them will be severely punished.
Those who know the IG say that they do not believe that he is biased . But you did not read : “The criticism of the IG report was that it only released the McCabe portion under political pressure ” not that it wont . .
But there is another possibility could it be that McCabe was a sacrificial lamb offered by the IG and Sessions to preserve Sessions giving Muller more time . Could it be that the case brought in the Southern District of NY refers to State crimes as well as Federal Crimes and is being coordinated with the NY attorney General putting all of the Characters in a box. Flynn was very combative right to the day he sat with NYS prosecutors. One can only hope.
“mansplaining”??
Come on NYCpsp, you’re far better than that comment. (hopefully that isn’t mansplaining in itself-LOL!)
“But your hysteria is Scumpian”
I guess you don’t have a problem with a man explaining that a post in which I explained what I found wrong with the IG report is just “hysteria”. But how dare I use the word “mansplaining”?
I did not catch the hysteria comment. Helps me understand why you used the “mansplaining”. Makes sense now as I don’t mind little jabs at all. Give em and take em, eh!
Actually, Duane, NYCpsp isn’t better than that, and is often worse.
After her pointing out the “hysteria” comment, which I missed, I actually find the “mansplaining” comment as a nice little verbal jab.
Thank you, Duane.
One of the reasons I respect you is that you don’t have a double standard.
Regarding Michael Fiorillo — his comment speaks for itself.
J. DeGenova stated “that anyone who did the same should seriously consider never seeking public office “when you didn’t serve, when you had a chance to.””
Whether one has served in the military has never been a prerequisite to public office. And it never should be.
Many years ago, my uncle Ed (everybody has an uncle ed?) worked for the military building Camp Forrest, a WW2 tranning center, and the Oak Ridge facility, famous for the A bomb. He described the military with less than glowing accolades. For a time I held to the postulate that since military personal had to be trained to shoot first and ask questions later, and politicians should be talkers and compromisers, it followed that we should actually support a constitutional amendment that prohibited former members of the military from serving as elected officials altogether. I have reconsidered my stance in recent years, influenced other experiences.
Muller, of course, is serving as an agent of a policing arm of the government, whereas several of Trump’s cabinet have been military officials, cutting into the tradition of the civillian-controlled militarythat was supposed to make us more impervious to tyranny.
I agree, Duane. Has anyone ever noticed that the military is not based on democratic principles? There is a reason that soldiers don’t vote before an action is taken. Someone tells you to jump, and you ask how high. Democracy needs to be messy. We need to dissect and debate and compromise on every decision that is made. Well, not really, but you get the idea. Perhaps that is one reason for three branches of government to allow for swift action when necessary, careful consideration and debate in policy making, and a judicial review to rule on whether we got it right or wrong. Somehow someone who is steeped in the military command structure does not strike me as necessarily the automatic best choice for civilian public service.
Exactly, speduktr! Well stated about the difference between military command and control vs democracy in action.
I really love arguments from NYC public school parent and Dienne, plus dienne77 regarding political matters.
Who would be innocent or purity? How can we pick the TRUE side, NOT the correct or the right side?
I would follow Dr. Ravitch’s advice, or wise suggestion in many previous posts. We should unite and support the best local candidates in all elections from regional, municipal, and state level.
Local candidates who truly work for community’s interest in Public Education, in healthcare, in local working conditions for working class, for the mass, for the 99%, will be truthfully reflect democracy and equity for the rich and for the working class. Back2basic
I suppose that there’s some value in Joe Scarborough’s criticism of Trump and Republicans who aid and abet him. But it’s probably important to remember that Squint and the Meat Puppet were pretty helpful to Trump during the 2016 campaign, hosting him on their show, lobbing him softball questions, fawning over him. It was all pretty pathetic.
And at least – now – Scarborough is coming clean, sort of. Good for him. But it’s sort of like pushing war (Vietnam, Iraq, take your pick) for all the wrong and unsubstantiated reasons, and then later – after the damage, and lives lost, and billions or trillions spent – saying “oops, we were wrong, sorry ’bout that.”
That doesn’t undo what was done.
Like!
“That doesn’t undo what was done.”
Certainly applies to all the educational malpractices that harm many students implemented by those who supposedly have the best interests of the students in mind.
Republicans are always trying to make life more difficult for the poor. At the end of this article it mentions that they wanted to put in a requirement for work to get food stamps. Where are the jobs? They don’t exist. How about raising the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour so people who do get jobs can survive? All of this while being successful at giving huge permanent tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations that are making profits. I find this repulsive.
This is a classic case of blame the victims for being poor…and giving more to those who already have more than they’ll ever spend. This administration is indefensible.
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Trump order targets wide swath of public assistance programs..Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance
The Trump administration is seeking to completely revamp the country’s social safety net, targeting recipients of Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance.
Trump is doing so through a sweeping executive order that was quietly issued earlier this week — and that largely flew under the radar.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/383106-trump-order-targets-wide-swathe-of-public-assistance-programs
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A Pulitzer winner takes an even deeper look at evictions and finds an ongoing crisis for poor Americans
Matthew Desmond has teamed up with Princeton researchers and students to build up the nation’s first database of people kicked out of their homes in the United States. They found 83 million records — 2.3 million every year, as wages have stagnated and housing costs have soared. It’s an economic trauma that leaves a permanent mark on your record.
The typical eviction case: A family paying 60 percent to 80 percent of its income for a place to live, with no government assistance.
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/601783346/601892980
The feds spent $70 billion in 2016 on “food stamps.” My back-of-envelope calculations put that at about 1.8% of federal expenditures. Shockingly (to me), 44 million people received that benefit that year (according to Wikipedia), about 15% of all Americans.
But hey, who needs food.
Oh–& just added–have to take drug tests, as well!
retiredbutmissthekids: Right. And where is all the money coming from to continually monitor people to be sure they aren’t taking drugs or have stopped looking for jobs or got fired? How are the poor supposed to keep up with all of this paperwork. They can’t and won’t so the GOP can again brag about how much money has been saved and how much better the population is now that people have gotten off all types of welfare.
It would be SO much easier to tax corporations and the wealthy and let the poor have the services they need to exist. I’ve had enough of the philosophy that cutting back on these services would make everyone happier because they’d learn to take care of themselves.
So not only do drug addicts not need to eat, but their children don’t need to either.
speduktr: This is how the GOP makes the world a better place for drug addicts. If they know they can’t get food, they’ll stop taking drugs.
It’s the same thinking on work. If people get jobs and don’t depend upon SNAP, they’ll be so much happier. There are no jobs but that doesn’t matter.
I think it’s part of the ‘family values’ thing. Make the world a better place for all and save money. Mostly, its save money. Those greedy, lazy takers need to learn and this forces them to.
As Pence says, “we want to partner with them in their success.”
It’s so easy for those who are comfortable to not care or understand hardship. They also don’t see corporate greed nor the takers who are wealthy and never have enough.
The above comment of mine a reply to carolmalaysia–4/15–@ 3:08 PM
Here’s Pence’s thoughts on people getting food stamps. {I believe Trump’s actions are a result of Pence’s influence. ] Is he going to be better than Trump? He will be meaner and cater to every GOP wish.
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Gov. Mike Pence Says He’s ‘Ennobling’ Poor People By Cutting Off Food Stamps In Indiana
By David
11/18/14 12:49pm
…”I’m someone that believes there’s nothing more ennobling to a person than a job,” Pence insisted. “And to make sure that able-bodied adults without dependants at home know that here in the state of Indiana, we want to partner with them in their success.”
“You know, it’s the old story,” he continued. “Give someone a fish, and they’ll eat for a day. Teach them to fish, they’ll eat for a lifetime. I think this is an idea whose time has come here in the state of Indiana.”
Think Progress pointed out last month that there were 2 million people in the Midwest seeking jobs, but only about a million jobs available. And that’s not counting the thousands of people who are no longer counted as unemployed because they gave up looking for a job.
Advocates of the poor have argued that the state should solve the problem by creating programs to help jobless people before stripping their food stamp benefits…
https://crooksandliars.com/2014/11/gov-mike-pence-says-hes-ennobling-poor
“Is he going to be better than Trump?”
A resounding NO!
He’s far more dangerous considering his xtian fundie beliefs.
Typical Scarborough (can’t stand the guy): half-assed attempt to backpedal. Why focus on “who served” 50 yrs ago anyway, Trump is hardly alone in taking multiple student deferrals & a 4F of he could manage it. That is perhaps a peccadillo which pales beside the strong whiffs of obstruction of justice & disregard for checks/balances that trail from his continual slams & smears of SC & DOJ. And squint’s war-hero-pandering deflects from Mueller’s pertinent attribute: bipartisan respect earned through a long & impeccable career in public service/ law enforcement. But that would be hitting Trump too close to the belt, so he delivers the cheap shot.
Today would be a good day for Trump to release his tax returns.