“You’re fired!” That’s what Donald Trump would bark from his boardroom chair at the end of each episode of “The Apprentice.” For years, millions of Americans would smile, laugh, and even cheer in front of their television sets as the property tycoon performed his signature move.
There is little to laugh about this week. The firing of FBI Director James Comey by President Trump will be remembered as a dark and depressing day in the downward spiral of American democracy. It’s difficult to disagree with the scathing assessment of CNN’s senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who described the sacking as a “grotesque” abuse of power. “This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies,” he told host Wolf Blitzer in a clip that has since, deservedly, gone viral. “They fire the people who are in charge of the investigation.” Toobin continued: “This is something that is not within the American political tradition. … This is not normal, this is not politics as usual.”
There is indeed nothing “normal” about removing the head of the FBI from his post less than four months into a new presidency — and an FBI boss who has been credited with delivering that president his election victory, against the odds. You have to go all the way back to 1993 to find the last — and only other — time a president (William J. Clinton) decided to dismiss his FBI chief (William S. Sessions). And the latter, unlike Comey, was accused of a long list of bizarre ethics violations including, as the Washington Post reported at the time, “charging the government for personal travel,” diverting FBI aircraft to pick up his wife, Alice Sessions, in other cities, and deploying FBI cars “to take her to get her nails done.”
Nor is there anything “normal” about an American president sending his long-standing head of private security, and former bodyguard, to hand-deliver a letter of termination to his FBI chief. There are tinpot dictators in Africa who would have avoided doing that simply in order to avoid giving the wrong impression. Tinpot Trump, however, didn’t care. (His brutish security chief, Keith Schiller, lest we forget, spent the presidential campaign smacking Latino protesters and manhandling Latino reporters on behalf of his boss.)
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates was also sacked by Trump via hand-delivered letter. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, was sacked by Trump after he refused to resign. What do Comey, Yates, and Bharara have in common? “They all were investigating Trump when they got fired, and there’s a Russia thread in each of their cases,” observes Shannon Vavra of Axios.
“You’re fired!” This is how Tinpot Trump deals with those who seek to hold him to account. We can’t say we weren’t warned. He has, after all, never hidden his authoritarian inclinations, his brazen disregard for political, legal, and social norms.
This handout image released on May 9, 2017, by the White House shows a copy of the termination letter from President Donald Trump to FBI Director James Comey.
Photo: The White House/AFP/Getty Images
Trump, the property tycoon, slammed Mikhail Gorbachev for not responding to anti-Soviet protesters with a “firm enough hand,” while gazing in awe at the Chinese show of “strength” against the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
Trump, the presidential candidate, lavished praise on Vladimir Putin as a president who “has been a leader far more than our president [Obama] has been” and who had “great control over his country.”
Trump, the president, in his very first speech to the nation, did his best impression of super-villain Bane from “The Dark Knight,” delivering a dystopian address on “American carnage” while vowing to “make America strong again.” On Twitter, he has referred to the media as an “enemy of the American people” and denounced a “so-called judge” who dared to rule against his “Muslim ban.”
Is it any wonder that experts on authoritarianism and fascism have been sounding the alarm bell for many months now? Listen to Ruth Ben Ghiat, the New York University history professor who has written a book on the rise of Mussolini in pre-war Italy. Trump “is an authoritarian,” she told me on my Al Jazeera English show in February, “who has the ability to stretch the boundaries of democracy to something unrecognizable.”
Is it any surprise that commentators have been invoking President Richard Nixon’s infamous “Saturday Night Massacre,” in which he fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox? Listen to John Dean, former White House counsel to Nixon, who believes Trump is much worse than Nixon and told The Atlantic in January: “The American presidency has never been at the whims of an authoritarian personality like Donald Trump.”
With Nixon, the checks and balances worked. He was stopped. Eventually. Who will stop Tinpot Trump? The congressional Republicans? You’re kidding, right? They have marched in partisan lockstep with their Dear Leader since he won their party’s presidential nomination last summer.
Consider their treatment this week of Yates, who testified in front of the Senate on Monday. Sen. Ted Cruz, whose wife Trump mocked as ugly and whose father he accused of colluding in the assassination of JFK, decided to attack Yates on behalf of the president over her refusal to defend Trump’s “Muslim ban” in court.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, who Trump has called “incompetent” and an “embarrassment,” decided to echo a key Trump talking point by asking Yates about who leaked classified information about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia, rather than about the substance of those ties.
These are the elected representatives in whose hands rests the fate of the U.S. Republic? Seriously?
Who will stop Tinpot Trump? The Democrats? They will line up to appear on MSNBC and loudly demand a special prosecutor; they may even become bold enough to talk impeachment. But they are the minority party in both chambers. They don’t have the votes to demand anything. Nor do they have much credibility in the eyes of the public — a recent poll revealed the Democrats to be less popular than the Republicans, Vice President Mike Pence, and Trump himself.
Who will stop Tinpot Trump? The courts? Here and there, maybe, but over one and possibly even two terms? And as the president’s patronage powers kick in? I doubt it. Remember: The Trump effect on the U.S. judiciary will go far beyond the appointment of ultra-conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Trump has inherited more than 100 court vacancies from Obama, which is more than double the number of vacancies Obama inherited from Bush in 2009.
Who will stop Tinpot Trump? The U.S. media? Give me a break! So much of the so-called fourth estate has embarrassed itself with fawning and deferential coverage of the president; cable news sees Trump less as a threat to democracy and more as a cash cow and ratings boon. In recent weeks, CBS Sunday morning anchor John Dickerson was escorted out of the Oval Office after he asked Trump a question the latter didn’t like, while CNN’s Van Jones and Fareed Zakaria fell over one another to declare Trump “presidential” because he gave a good speech and launched a few missiles at Syria.
American checks and balances are out of whack. The firing of the FBI director is only the beginning. There will be more sackings; more political corruption; more abuses of power. And, again, we can’t say we weren’t warned. Tinpot Trump, cautioned John Dean back in January, “is going to test our democracy as it has never been tested.” Whether American democracy is up to that test is another matter.
Top photo: FBI Director James Comey leaves the Capitol after a meeting on Feb. 17, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
we saw this coming didn’t we? anyway mehdi thanks for a very good piece.I am a strong admirer of u that is fascinated by your guts to stand by the unpopular truth and not the popular false.I have being following your career for quite a long time and I am impressed. keep up the good job
I don’t fault Trump for firing Comey. I suspect something about Comey that I will not disclose here or anywhere, because it would compromise him. What I will speculate on is that Comey may have been the leaker of CIA files. A CIA insider may have provided access, and Comey may have then sent the files to Wikileaks. Comey was “protesting too strongly” against Wikileaks… Well if true, then I suppose I have compromised Comey. Granted that suspicions and facts are not the same thing, unless they are true.
Other bold moves are imperative, like firing McMaster, maybe Mattis, who are said to be taking their cues from Wolfowitz and Petreus [Betrayus]. The Bush whore Condoleeza Rice hovers like buzzard overhead, trying to direct things along a neocon agenda.
” I suspect something about Comey that I will not disclose here or anywhere, because it would compromise him. What I will speculate on is that Comey may have been the leaker of CIA files. ”
Your post states that you will not disclose yet you do speculate. Speculation is the reason when there are no facts. How have you compromised Comey?
Obama already turned this country into an unrecognizable democracy. Where did he get the $400 million cash he ordered hand delivered in unmarked planes (and probably unmarked bills)? Now that’s a dictator.
This author can jump up and down, throw mud at our new president-go ahead. That’s your right in the USA. If this President offends your sensibilities so much, stay out of America. Settle in somewhere on the planet that’s less “authoritarian”. And hurry up about it.
Let’s face it, Americans really aren’t going to care if we become an authoritarian state if our bellies are full, we have a roof over our heads, and we have the latest electronics and junk TV. Trump already labels anyone who disagrees with him as the “enemy,” and the deplorables eat it up, so if some of the “Others” — the Mexicans, the Muslims, the blacks, the gays — are put in their place, hey, we’re just “making America great again.”
Most Americans don’t vote in presidential elections, let alone local elections in off years. Would they really miss it if they couldn’t vote at all? The answer is no. We like to pride ourselves on our vaunted “democratic values,” to the point of forcing them on others at gunpoint, but we’ve become complacent in our own country. We started giving up our rights on September 12, 2001, and hardly anyone cared.
Comey as the savior of democracy is quite a stretch, since he declined to refer one of the USA’s biggest criminals for prosecution (which would never have occurred because she owned the Justice Department, including Sally Yates). Preet Bharara, the US Attny who spent years NOT prosecuting banksters is also pushing it a bit. Sally Yates, another crusader for Hillary. Is Donny an authoritarian clown? Yes. Did he fire a bunch of crusaders for justice? No. Let’s not pretend the Obama years provided the US with anything but more corruption. Trump is the punishment for keeping the Democrats and Republicans around long past the time those corpses started stinking.
What’s your justification for labeling Mrs. Clinton “one of the USA’s biggest criminals”? Biased Fox News reports and lunatic conspiracy theories from Infowars and their ilk don’t count. Despite all the investigations over the decades — including those by Republicans who would gladly have crucified her if they could have — she was never indicted for criminal activities. Try thinking beyond your hatred.
Matty, I agree with your last statement. You should heed your own words if you dare. Try to think beyond your own hatred and you just might see that there is enough abuse of power on all sides. The positioning of “yours is so much worse than mine” only prolongs the pain and gets us to where we are now.
Hillary is one of the world’s biggest criminals. She is, not solely but partly, responsible for the destruction of one of Africa’s most advanced states, Libya, which not only saw a major loss of civilian life, but, now is a haven for terrorism. In addition, the Clinton Foundation made money out of dodgy deals with a whole consortium of ruthless, corrupt and oppressive dictators, from the Congo to Qatar. These are not theories, these are facts and events.
2nd, CrookdClintO WSTrio.
Yes but the problem is NOT TRUMP it is CAPITALISM – militarized. financialized, algorithmized capitalism with its puppet government committing State Crimes Against Democracy SDAC.
Yes, that’s more to the point. Capitalism has corrupted politics and Trump is now delivering on their ultimate objective – to remove democratic processes that restrict corporation having free reign.
Supporting Mr Comey as FBI director seems to have become, in the minds of certain commentators, the equivalent of supporting «democracy» (whatever that is in the context of the USA) ! I had expected to find this type of «analysis» in the columns of the New York Times or the Washington Post, but had, naive as I am, expected/hoped to avoid seeing it on the Intercept….
Henri
[CNN’s senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, who described the sacking as a “grotesque” abuse of power. “This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies,” ] This statement is true, it happens here in Ecuador every day.
Very well written and timely article! Please keep these all important ‘wake-up call’ articles coming—regards, DC
A general.
The “news” focuses on the daily Byzantine machinations of beltway bozos in the empire while continuing to pretend our once almost but now nonexistent democracy is in peril.
The real question Is not who will stop Trump but rather who will corral the empire.
the only certainty in our current dilemma is that if citizens fail to act inside the homeland inc it is only a matter of time before others outside will – regardless of PNAC fantasies.
Comey is just another extension of the Obama Administrations’ corruption and organized crime protection syndicate.
Ron Paul is Right — The FBI should be dissolved and defunded …..
…. the CIA and Military, as well and the DHS Task Force Agencies corrupted organized crime, political protection and domestic terrorism activities associated with criminal personnel embedded in government agencies needs to be ended.
All of the Obama Administration, and the Clintons, need to be prosecuted for conspiracy, treason, organized crime, domestic terrorism, and surveillance targeted crimes against US citizens and residents…….. The FBI and DHS Task Force Agencies exist to run protection for politically protected criminals and target citizens and residents for surveillance crimes.
Defund and Dissolve the FBI and Homeland Security Criminal personnel, contractors and operatives and that will end their organized crimes and domestic terrorist activities against covertly surveillance-targeted citizens.
I agree. I hope that now that the road blocks are out of the way, the DOJ can properly investigate the Clintons for all their blatant crimes. Additionally, Lynch, Obama, Comey plus others clearly obstructed justice and should get a good look as well.
What a waste of an article. No new information, just ranting and raving in pseudo conspiratorial fashion. Comey should have been fired the day after he delivered that absurd press conference that both accused Hillary and then let her off. An FBI making policy and indictment decisions is a gestapo. Sadly, Obama did not fire Comey and it took until now for Trump to finally get rid of this blot on America. The real question is: what took so long? The real answer: politics.
Reading your comment was a waste of time. This is a fine article by a fine journalist but perhaps as you seem to be a supporter of Trump, quality journalism, reason and common sense might not come naturally to you.
Just what did the Russians do? The hacks only revealed the depravity of the dnc and Hillary. And there’s no indication the Russians did it. Snoden says it was an inside job.
Hillary had state secrets on her unprotected personal server. How comey let her off is unfathomable.
The Democratic party has seized the mantle from Sen. Joe McCarthy. I wonder if they realize it…
I had no idea this is a Demrat Lib publication.
I am here because of the respect I have for Greenwald. Maybe the Intercept is trying to get some of the (growing) ‘indignant left’ market share. But NYT, WaPo, et al. does indignant fake news sufficiently. Sad.
So easy to spot a Trump University graduate.
I hate to break it to everyone, but the Democrats don’t want to impeach Trump. They need him to avert a massacre in the Senate in 2018. If he’s gone and a “normal” republican is in, Democrats will probably lose several seats there based on the seats that are up for election. They need anti-Trump sentiment to keep those seats and take the house.
After that, it’s sayonara. But the damage may be done by then. Now if evidence from the raids by EDVA yesterday start to implicate the GOP as a whole, that’s another story. But I kinda doubt that happens.
There’s no such thing as a “normal” Republican anymore. Republicans’ embrace of the far right fringe allowed the cancer of their lunacy to infect mainstream Republican thoughts and policies.
As we approach the Friday afternoon when the news tends to get a bit quiet, will we have Guliani or the portly governor Christie anointed as the new head of the F.B.I.?
My bets on Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB. Who else would President Putin consider?
It will be Christie only if he promises not to go after anyone in Jared Kusher’s family.
The Russians and the Donald were having a good laugh into their sleeves over the media as “opposition party” the other day when punking Andrea Mitchell … Even as Breitbart was recalling Obama bowing before the Saudi King. When you stretch the truth and redefine language and meaning of words so much nothing has any meaning anymore as the chickens have come home to roost. All the opposition can do is sputter and name call as they become even more irrelevant with no answers or a standard bearer to rally round…
Who can you trust ?
We stopped Tinpot Hillary, so Trump should be a piece of cake.
Now; what is it that we are resisting again? I’m guessing it’s not the fact that a certain billionaire has a contract with the CIA worth 3x what he paid for the money-losing Washington Post?
I thought Jeff only paid twice that for 600m.
Say, what’s Jeff doing with his Snowden Archive JTRIG docs? Same the FBI?
$250M for the Post; $700M from the CIA for cloud services. So 2.8x…
“Mr. Bezos said he bought the newspaper because he wanted to make it into a more powerful national — and even global — publication, and that The Post was well situated to be a watchdog over the leaders of the world’s most powerful country.”
Hmm..why would a billionaire care about “journalism” all of a sudden? Weird that Amazon also has zero footprint in Russia.
$600M…I stand by my point however…
Complexity is non-linear by nature.
“ …For whatever a man sows he will also reap” selected through wealth management, elected by disappointed voters.
How can we mend unrealistic hopes, false promises, deception and systematic political corruption?
What makes the political elite go round? “ How can a loser ever win?”
How can we mend the world’s most war-torn countries? More bombing,selection of the dictator of the year and regime change?
But one thing for sure is that , Comey’s educational intelligence porno is more than welcome and will be well received.
The check on the administrative branch is not that branch itself. There is nothing in the Constitution that says that the President can’t fire any appointed person who is not explicitly protected. Action on the basis of treasonous collaboration with Russia (or whatever) will presumably have to come from the other branches. Congress can investigate if the FBI won’t. This is really a political process now, not a Constitutional crisis. If Republicans finally come to think that Trump will damage their re-election chances they can probably oust him, with assistance from Democrats.
But if you’re the Democrats, why help the GOP oust him? If it gets to the point where the GOP wants him out in order to save themselves, the Democrats stay on the sidelines and let them disintegrate in extraordinary fashion. If the GOP brings and impeachment vote to the floor, the Democrats will have to support it. But that won’t happen unless the GOP has the votes to do it themselves, which they won’t get.
When Mehdi Hasan was hired, I felt a sense of betrayal.
Al Jazeera once,Al Jazeera forever.
A journalist with an agenda is hardly reliable. The very essence of the fake liberal.
No, a journalist with an agenda is no less reliable than anybody else.
I can’t understand people like you who have not got the faintest clue about where you are. This site does NOT promote the fake ass goal of “objective journalism.” Journalism with a point of view that doesn’t hide behind fake objectivity is what we come here for.
This is different than making up shit, by the way, which I am not recommending.
I have made brutal fun of Hasan’s ridiculous prose style in this article below. But the problem with him is not that he has “an agenda.”
On the other hand, you could say that Hasan believes himself to be an objective journalist, and is therefore a “fake liberal” because he is not. That might be worth going for, but not if you just want to replace him with somebody who pretends to be objective. This is all “objective journalism” is: a pose of objectivity.
A goal of objective fake is only fake to the extent that the journalists are dishonest, and dishonesty is a problem independent of the professed goal of the journalist. The poit is that objectivity os goal, not necessarily a perfect state of being. And a journalist that pursues objectivity honestly will always be more reliable than commentators that use “advocacy journalism” as a license to manipulate and distort facts and narratives more freely, with consent of clueless readers who buy this lame justification. Mr.Hasan does indeed manipulates facts and narratives, doing popitical propaganda more than journalism. Many readers, lacking critical thinking skills, can’t tell the difference.
“I can’t understand people like you who have not got the faintest clue about where you are”. Sorry, but anyone who starts a conversation in this way, shows himself as clueless as one can be.
People like me are people who do more research than you, that do not take journalism as te chance to express a personal, MSM style rant (just like Mehdi did)
“I have made brutal fun of Hasan’s ridiculous prose style in this article below. But the problem with him is not that he has “an agenda.””
Vice, sweetheart, who exactly do you think you are to:
– define people as “people like you”
– decide what the problem is and is not with specific journalists
– be so self righteous while your whole comment shows that you are the most clueless person ever.
Unless you have something intelligent and noteworthy to say, abstain from comments as the one you made above.
You embarrassed yourself
The comments on the Intercept site can now be likened to the thoughts of a group of people on a Mobius strip with their heads up each others asses. Petty wrangling and ad hominum attacks dominate between people who will never change the others’ minds.
The editors might consider changing the rules so that each commentator is allowed two comments per article. This might give people pause to read the entire article, take a minute or two to digest it and write well thought out commentary; and then they would have one crack at an opposing viewpoint.
I am only thankful this is all online, otherwise all the ink spilled here (another near-dead metaphor) if committed to real paper would have brought down a substantial stand of old growth timber and mightily pissed of young Master Groot.
Ad hominem attacks. You mean like you accusing people of having their heads up asses?
Who will put a stop to him? No one. Democrats have no spine and whatever spine is left among some of them has been completely obliterated during the last election. Republicans have finally found their dream leader and henchman in Trump an dont care. With Trump they finally got the person they always wanted, you know, the guy who has made being a greedy hater and bigot “in”.
By definition, authoritarians cannot be voted out of office or prosecuted. There is heav gerrymandering going on in red states and once he installs all his loyalists into various agencies and departments and government positions, there wont anyone left to go after him. That is how it works. I mean see Sessions: the head of the judiciary. He is not gonna go after him for anything. Congress has no spine…we are screwed.
Trump’s popularity hit a reported 36% low today. If this was an “authoritarian regime” like Saudi Arabia, which of course doesn’t allow polls on the popularity of the House of Saud, then that figure would not have been published; or you’d have a North Korea style “Universal Love reported for the Great Leader” type headline.
In addition, Republicans wanted their insider Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio in charge, not Trump; people who are remarkably similar to Hillary Clinton on the important issues – loyal to Wall Street, dedicated to neoliberal imperialism, and very predictable.
And gosh aren’t those establishment polls reputable.
It gets worse.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-04-17/trump-popularity-plummets-in-russia-poll-shows
*talk about biting the hand that feeds you …
:-)
Didn’t Trump know you’re supposed to wait til Saturday night to massacre people investigating you?
Mehdi, you are a fine journalist ,but I cannot understand why you would quote a corporate tool like Jeffrey Toobin to support your argument. A similar quote taken from a reputable journalist as yourself would be much more appropriate, I believe.
Perhaps it is worth discussing what a real tinpot dictatorship is all about, before considering how to dump Trump:
Also, consider this:
A few examples of candidates for tinpot dictator status at present are the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Syria (Middle East), Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique (Africa), and Honduras. There are certainly others. In general, these rulers all rely on the support of external powers such as the United States, China or Russia to maintain their political status.
What many Americans simply refuse to accept is that this is the preferred model; the U.S. State Department, Pentagon, White House and Congress actually oppose the replacement of U.S.-friendly tinpot dictators by independent democratic systems of government. Concerns about “humanitarian rights” and “democratic reforms” are only raised in the context of non-aligned dictatorships. Consider, for example, the current brutal military dictatorship in Egypt, which will continue to torture with impunity as it is a “US ally”.
So Trump isn’t actually a “tinpot dictator”, he’s merely a buffoonish clown who has packed his administration with ExxonMobil and Goldman Sachs characters, and who was legitimately elected according to constitutional rules, like it or not. As far as who will ‘stop Trump’, well it’s clearly not going to be the Clinton Democrats, nor their corporate media allies – all the Borg’s horses and all the Borg’s men, couldn’t get Hillary Clinton elected again.
Curiously, this article neglects to mention that Bernie Sanders would have beaten Trump by about ten points in the general election, according to numerous polls. Hence, the only plausible way to ‘stop Trump’ is to cede control of the Democratic Party to Sanders Democrats.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-election-poll-bernie-sanders-trump_us_58260f7ee4b0c4b63b0c6928
Crucially, independent voters, who made up nearly one-third of the general election voters this year, favored Sanders over Trump, 55 percent to 45 percent, the poll found. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, lost independents 48 percent to 42 percent, according to exit polls.
However, the plutocratic sector, the American oligarch class, is even more opposed to an FDR-style New Deal, which is really what Sanders proposed, then they are to a Trump presidency, although they’d have preferred their loyal predictable Hillary Clinton to either.
In world affairs, you can be sure the goldfinger Tinpot dictator won’t mince words and would surely Veto any attempt to abolish or even reform the … tyranny of the minority … inherent in UN deliberations and continue on his quest to Make America Great Again … unilaterally./
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/10/un-reform-secretary-general-antonio-guterres
Unfortunately, in the 21st century, now more than ever, we are all parties to the conflict.
Great post but this really hit home:
“However, the plutocratic sector, the American oligarch class, is even more opposed to an FDR-style New Deal, which is really what Sanders proposed, then they are to a Trump presidency…”
Exactly right. Hard to forget all the “centrist” Dems chortling at the utter ABSURDITY of: a living wage, single-payer health care, and reasonable costs for college. I mean, all those (dirty) people just want free stuff!!!
Funny how democrats were calling for him to be fired BEFORE the election lol. HypocrIts and drama queens, 99% of you!
We are at peace with East Comey. We have always been at peace with East Comey.
So, Comey is no longer the Dems’ Emmanuel Goldstein?
Anyone see the Colbert segment when he announced that Comey was fired and his lemming audience cheered? He then had to chastise them for this doubleplusungood reaction; they hadn’t yet been inculcated with the new talking point.
Exactly.
Four legs good. Two legs bad.
Three legs impressive.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/09/murder-suspect-tries-big-penis-defense-and-it-might-work/
Very interesting! Thanks for making my visit to the comments section worthwhile, Virginia.
The only reason former FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover was never fired was because for decades he ruthlessly maintained fanatical control of a vast internal security apparatus thru illegal blackmail & threats directed at everyday U.S. citizens & political elites alike.
Comey does appear a sort of hapless if not sympathetic figure in comparison to the psychopathic Hoover , but likely has a great severance package & associated pension benefits coming in exchange for his brief ‘service’. He hasn’t a care in the world about his sudden joblessness.
As well, Trump’s actions seem quite congruent w/ a long,hallowed tradition of infighting among the power elite . A bit of feuding over who gets to control the rest of us.
Technically speaking , an elected civilian just got rid of the director of the U.S. version of the KGB. Is that any consolation ? Not much.
Memo to The Intercept staff: a truly interesting article would be to tell us all what the FBI does, what it is supposed to do, discuss its successes and failures, and examine its role in the Republic. (Spoiler: my own view is that the FBI should be decommissioned entirely.)
I’m sorry, you were trusting the shadowy and unaccountable FBI to shepherd our nation through this dempcratically elected president’s term? You’ve got it ass backwards again there, buddy
The Russians, the Russians, the Russians………
Anyone who voted for Hillary Clinton ( and this includes Bernie Sanders)
is actually one of the “Russians” who helped elect Trump.
Every time you blame “the Russians” you should get a mirror
and investigate your own corruption, but I realize
this proposal is an impossibility because democrats and republicans
are too delusional to see their own perversity.
Yeah….
Right…
And you voted for?.
I voted for Jill Stein for the 2nd time.
I have no illusions that she could win the office, but
anyone who would vote for Trump or Clinton
(or any democrat or republican) was voting for more global
corruption and more global destruction.
We are all fools, but the most dangerous are those who think
they are superior because they desperately cling to the
most blatantly corrupt corporate capitalist candidates.
WaPo is reporting that Trump’s firing Comey is the result of a general anger at Comey, not specific fear or rage about investigations concerning Russia. Yesterday morning on Democracy Now!, Greenwald also thought that was likely the impetus.
Trump is a toddler having a tantrum.
This popular need to portray Trump as immature or as a
breaking away from what is typical of the faking “exceptionalists”
of the U$A is also a form of willful ignorance.
Trump is actually a more blatant expression of the arrogance and
indifference to reality which is central to the so-called
“american way of life.”
It is NOT new. It is how the majority of “indian” tribes were driven
to the brink of extinction and it was a significant component
of every war fought during the 19th Century by the United States
of Capitalism. Hypocrisy, indifference to the suffering of others,
and deception have always been a significant part of
“making america great.”
It is a mix of arrogance and desperation and,
of these two components,
the majority of people seem to prefer to use arrogance to distract
from their desperation. Trump will slaughter innocent people in
the same arrogant way that Obama, Hillary Clinton,
and the vast majority of delusional voters have done
to reinforce the lie of integrity.
As disgusting as Trump is, he benefits when he is (wrongly) portrayed
as if he is a maverick.
A toddler having a tantrum can burn down a house.
The same forthright, ‘Democrathy Dieth in Darkneth,’ Washington Post which never printed an ounce of ink of coverage of the 2014 Bundy/10th Amendment rangeland episode until, for its first time ever, on April 19, a full week after the BLM retreated and released the cattle it hadn’t slaughtered?
It’s all becasue of the “subtle Satanism” that your insane link below so well describes. That’s just how deranged you roll.
The VigilantCitizen.com reader comments warn potential viewers away from the Poppy vids, Mona. So please heed their advice and don’t do that.
Deranged bilge such as that which you chronically spew is not harmless. It is not benign. People like you spread the contagion of unreason, and that has long had bad results for innocent human beings. (So have other things, but unreason remains a deep evil.)
That does not assuage my fears. .. but I can understand how Comey’s recent public announcement that swaying the election made him ‘nauseous’ might piss-off Trump.
*also, normally I could find some humour in the suggestion that Comey now lead a SSIC investigation into the Russian ???? (TI does not support Cyrillic letters.), but Richard Burr,R chair, seems rather fond of Comey and may, at least, pursue some form of poetic justice./
Nor should it. Mr. Key is quite right that toddlers can burn down houses. Clark seems to think acknowledging that, as a human being, Donald Trump isn’t emotionally stable is to deny…lots of things. It isn’t.
Mona, do you still want to explain to readers why you feel it’s stupid for a president to fire officeholders that you fear?
The NYT is not remiss in not permitting Alex Jones worshippers such as you to post their endless litany of unreason in their space. You’ve been banned here 4-5 times for much the same reason.
Innocent human beings suffer when crazy conspiracies and plots are accepted by a sufficient percentage of the population.
Among the rancid beliefs you promote here is that Sandy Hook was a hoax, and all these poor, grieving parents are “crisis actors.” That’s foul, truly depraved. You are not a harmless crank — a crank, but not benign.
BTW, like WaPo, the New York Times,, too, never spilled an ounce of reporting ink for the full duration on the Bundy Nevada rangeland/10th Amendment episode–until almost (6 days) a full week after the BLM retreated and released the animals it hadn’t slaughtered. (It’s first acknowledgement–on April 18–of ultimately 1000 (prior) participants in the standoff was an emotional opinion piece by Timothy Egan called ‘Deadbeat on the Range.’)
What you promote is vicious.
Care to ever link to anything you say I’m “promot(ing)”?
Were you as marginal a lawyer as you are a researcher?
Donald trump was elected on soundbites – lies and campaign promises (282 of them)
People really are fed up with the status quo of politics with the lowest ever recorded ratings.
DRAIN THE SWAMP, did they realize it does work that was? They are elected – “You’re Fired” may sound good and be a good soundbite – it doesn’t work. The tax returns -“to be released after the election” didn’t happen?? Going to build a wall – a big wall – a big beautiful wall – and Mexico is going to pay for it “didn’t work” His two China policy, changed the minute they gave him patents or copy-rights he was after…(Trump backed off of his brief flirtation with a “two China” policy – the Chinese government granted Trump preliminary approval of 38 trademarks of his name.) Approved pipelines that are doomed to leak and poison the earth – “to be made with American Steel?” BUT the contracts were already signed so “NO AMERICAN STEEL” JOBS?? Coal regulations eased – but coal will not be making a comeback….Do you want to say history or the future? Coal is past and not coming back…. Big headline coming from FORD bringing back jobs from Mexico – upgrading its plants…total job gain under 200 new jobs agreed by the unions under Obama not Trump.
YES – we have a lot of headlines – I guess a lot of soundbites. Healthcare – better coverage – existing conditions coverage ( Trump says yes – Congress says no)
DICTATOR DONALD HAS GIVEN US NOTHING…..stand up and cheer – be a mindless supporter
It is a matter of style, not of substance. If my memory serves me correctly – and I am sure that someone out there will correct me if it does not – the previous administration had two successive Attorneys General, both appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, who turned a blind eye to fraud and misconduct on a scale unprecedented in US history, who allowed various agencies, the FBI included, to continue and even expand their warrantless searches of citizens’ electronic communications and activities and to illegally detain and torture thousands of people.
Trump is evil, no doubt about it. But he is no less so than his democratic predecessor and opponent; he is simply more transparently so.
Trump is a buffoon and his administration a joke. Does anyone really think Cheney, Condi Rice, Rumsfeld, Kelly, Chertoff, Giuliani, Kristol, Barnes, and the rest of the PNACers heaved a sigh of relief and said “Praise D. Lawd, Donnie poo’s in the orifice?”
Can The Intercept find a writer who uses a lot of rhetorical questions? Yes? No? Yes! Give me a break! Of course! Can he weave interjections with punctuation? I don’t doubt it. With even more rhetorical questions? Who will stop tinpot Trump? I say it again, Who will stop tinpot Trump? It sounds more serious if I say it twice. So who? Who will do it? Who I say, who? Who who who?
Can I hperventilate on cue? Can I sound more like a 6th grader imitating Geraldo Rivera as I do? Actually Geraldo Rivera was kind of calm. Can I take what might be a serious situation and make it sound like headlines for The Weekly World News? ! ? Just watch. Just you watch.
For years Americans would smile, cheer and even laugh. Well, no one is laughing now. Well except you over there. And you. Are there no checks and balances left? Who uses checks any more? What will we do about it? Seriously! Seriously?? Seriously!
With all due respect, many of the people who voted for Mr. Trump had no idea that he would be placed in charge of the Federal Government. And unlike most reality shows, you don’t get to vote the President off the island every week but have to wait a full four years. This may have made sense when America was founded, but people today no longer have such enormous attention spans. The general public is starting to realize that giving Mr. Trump four years to wreak havoc may have been a mistake. Mr. Trump has taken many companies into bankruptcy in much less than four years and I expect him to maintain a similar level of success while running the United States.
Some people no doubt voted for him because they believe the bankruptcy of the United States will be a good thing. But many others were just signalling their protest and it doesn’t seem fair that they should have to live with the consequences of their actions. Presidents should come with a warrantee period, that lets you return them at no charge within the first 100 days if you are not completely satisfied. I’ve searched in the fine print of the Constitution, however, and the founders omitted to include a trial period clause. Unfortunately, it’s probably too late for anyone to sue the founders for negligence.
You’re stepping on my bit.
I believe that you’ve hit upon something, Jove.
It would be much better if DC were an island. Seriously.
Let’s river it off on all sides and create a moat. Yes, a moat. Let’s genetically alter some gators to live at that latitude so that they can scare away the people.
I mean, if we’re going to do the emperor thing rightly, we’ll need to keep the people away. An island with no votes. That’s the proper thing.
The only weakness that I see is the gator hunters coming in and ruining everything by killing the gators for TV ratings. Scum chum.
If it’s any comfort to Comey fans, he probably wouldn’t have lasted even this long in a Clinton administration. He had a good run though, stirred up a lot of trouble and helped keep the FBI in the news. The NSA, with the Snowden coup, had hogged most of the limelight for the past several years. The CIA, with their fleet of killer drones, had become much sexier than the FBI. But Mr. Comey made the FBI relevant again, by showing they could interfere in the political process like no other agency, and while he didn’t always receive full credit for this, he can retire knowing he has played his trump card.
Who would that be … even the dogs don’t like him.
*also, as an once-avid Bridge player, unless Comey has a few Aces up his sleeve getting shit-canned by Trump is not the same as playing his ‘trump card’? Yet.
Well, yes. For Comey personally, becoming a sympathetic cause célèbre is all kinds of helpful. It’s not as if he was gonna be elected to the D.C. prom court anytime soon.
It’s true. The alt-center doesn’t like him for obvious reasons. Neither do Trump supporters. No one in the left should like him, as he’s a status quo authoritarian, judging by what he recently said about Wikileaks.
Really? This article begins by repeating the fiction about Comey and the 2016 election, and we’re quoting? Jeffrey Toobin now? I expect better from The Intercept.
Thus will never happen bc it is NOT THE FBI job to monitor the Potus, but the job of the DEPARTMENTOF Justice. The Fbi is NOT a de ison making court–YOU ARE PERPETUATING THE CROOKDCLINTON MISDEFINTIONS! Civics class, please.
If it wasn’t for the MSM and the Washington political divide, this President would get all the credit for his decisive action.
When he put out his last pre-election letter he assumed Clinton would win so that by doing it he might look less conspiratorial about the Russia collusion case when it came down. In short, he’s an idealistic purist who believes his own bullshit which is a dangerous trait when practiced by a man in power.
Conteary, Comey is just a beancounter who got trashed bc it was his job to reveal the facts. CrookdClintO cannot accept bad facts avout themsleves and try to change the reality. That is called DISHONESTY. Comey’s recommendations have no weoght or value, they are NOT COURT JUDICIAL DECISIONS– once again, contrary to what CrookdClinton would have you believe! YOU HAVE BEEN FOOLED!
At what point do people, such as this author, decide truth matters when writing about the truth. So much irony where people climb atop moral pedestals and then manipulate truth. Preet was not investigating Trump and it is routine for new Presidents to fire all prosecutors who were appointed by previous President.
James Comey was becoming a very dangerous fellow. He was relishing the power he had usurped and the attention he was getting by repeatedly engaging in publicity stunts that was very unbecoming of his office. He was misusing his security clearance to enhance his own image, never mind any laws that circumscribed his power. It is better he is gone and we will soon get an honest and straight-forward chap to replace him. Reince Priebus has been out of focus lately and he would be an excellent choice for the position. If I had my way I would appoint Major Salzmann for the post but alas, I doubt if anyone else would second my choice. Perhaps Mona can be persuaded.
Perhaps you could recommend Winnie-The-Pooh.
I think that’s more your speed anyways.
Either he’s a budding autocratic dictator or he is an ineffectual failure. You can’t have it both!
This superficial “analysis” reminded me of this great article:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/donald-trump-fascism-authoritarian-jeet-heer
For a measured, reasoned and hyperbolae-free analysis on this matter, it’s pretty tough to beat Glenn’s interview on DemocracyNow! this morning. I found Edward Snowden’s tweet particularly noteworthy.
https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/862069019301601281
wake up @snowden – perpetual investigations for political causes is exactly why he should be fired.
WP just reported:
If true, wow…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-trumps-anger-and-impatience-prompted-him-to-fire-the-fbi-director/2017/05/10/d9642334-359c-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_no-name%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.e574fd5a0188
“the narrative emerging from the White House” = “I don’t have any specific examples of any actual statement to that effect”.
Anyone stupid enough to believe that the WH pushed a narrative that the POTUS jumps to action when prompted by a Deputy AG is beyond help.
LOL, you have absolutely no clue what is going on, do ya?
Three memos were released, by (1) Trump, (2) Sessions, and (3) Rosenstein. Only Rosenstein’s provided significant detail of the supposed justification. Then the WH press crew came out and affirmed that.
This is not hard to figure out MacRandall; god bless you for trying.
As the world turns.
https://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/poppy-youtube-star-illuminati-mind-control/
No one, it seems. We better make sure Erdogan, Maduro, and Putin don’t take plans from Trump, who knows how much worse they’ll be.
Wow. Sorry, Mehdi. But you’re quite clueless it seems. I’m not defending Drumpf. But his firing of an ex-top-executive for Lockheed Martin, one who covered for, not only the warmongerer, Shillary, but also the Clinton Foundation’s ruthless, corrupt, and slimy deals and contributor shenanigans is a problem? Speechless. I know at part of the staff at ‘The Intercept’ is compromised. But you? We know his Muslim ban was ridiculous. that’s a given. But now you are demonizing Putin too? To what end? Time to get a clue, Mehdi.
So, did you just start noticing that things have gone terribly wrong here in the good old USA last week? This latest mini-outrage has a shelf life of about a week, and then . . . nothing. In the meantime, the Horror that is our awful politics continues on, like a zombie on an endless death march. Comey’s gone! Democracy threatened! On to the next crisis . . . .
Off-topic. Anyone for good news?
Indian Solar Power Prices Hit Record Low, Undercutting Fossil Fuels
That is good news, but. . . in the longer term, measuring the cost of energy production in money units isn’t very meaningful. The only measurement that ultimately counts is EROEI — energy return on energy invested.
And, indeed, since India has a large and multi-pronged subsidy program for solar power, even the price in rupees isn’t a pure reflection of production costs.
But it’s certainly not bad news.
Thanks, Maisie. I needed that.
Mostly likely, a decline in the US economy will be the force that derails both Trump and the Republicans. One indication of this: The velocity of money in the US economy has been trending steadily downward for years and years. The big tax breaks for the rich under Trump and the Republicans will make income inequality in the US even worse than it already this. This will further slow down the velocity of money as the rich spend money more slowly than everyone else. There are other ominous indications that the US economy may be approaching another recession.
Another problem that is looming for Trump is the US Senate. All it takes is a few Republicans in the US Senate to caucus with the Democrats on legislation in order to disrupt the agenda of Trump and the far-right. Today, an attempt to gut environmental regulations that were enacted during the Obama administration has ended in failure when Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, and John McCain joined the Democrats in voting ‘no’ on this legislation. The abrupt firing of James Comey may have ticked them off sufficiently to obstruct Trump’s agenda. Meanwhile, the US Senate Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas for the financial records of Mike Flynn and 4 other business associates from the Treasury Dept. If the Trump administration fails to comply, members of the committee have threatened to block some of Trump’s appointments until they receive these financial records.
You still think this is a party thing? Ever hear of the neocons?
To be fair, the Tiananmen thing was always bullshit. I mean, Americans could tell themselves that if pro-democracy demonstrators aligned with a powerful foreign rival set up an ornamental fully functional fifty-caliber machine gun, part of a military munitions train they had ransacked, somewhere in the monument district in Washington, that our police would go down there with flowers and megaphones and have a love-in with them. But I mean seriously, who the hell ever believed this low-grade capitalist propaganda??? You might as well expect Americans to favor a loony cult that denies its kids medical care in favor of a magic swastika invisibly rotating in their abdomen instead of giving it a treatment that makes Falun Gong look lucky. One good thing about losing democracy in America is that at least people can finally stop with the BULLSHIT!
I was hoping to get a balanced take, since I listened to Glenn Greenwald on Democracy Now! today. Excellent interview.
Instead I a clickbait headline, and political Alzheimer’s. Obama – Drone war, Afghanistan, NSA, GITMO… And Comey explained why Hillary was corrupt and should be prosecuted, but she is one of the elites, so couldn’t be. For the worse than Snowden email server or her corrupt contribution money laundering foundation.
Does the Intercept and its writers really want to keep the corrupt banana republic deep-state? It’s easy to complain about Trump, but if we keep even half of the BIPARTISAN corruption around, something worse will happen.
Oh that’s rich… Robin is suddenly an ally of transparency and democracy? Sure didn’t seem that way when he was all about prosecuting whistle blowers, defending the deep state, and relentlessly vindictive of Snowden and Manning.
The mess really does look like the result of auctioning off the government. Insiders played both sides for the most money they could get,tried to be ahead of the other sides game, interests converged, things arent going as planned.
“Whether American democracy is up to that test is another matter”
Oh please! America is an oligarchy and not a democracy! If we were a democracy why would public opinion run 180 degrees counter to the positions voted for by “our” oligarch funded representatives? America simply has the best government money can buy.
On point comment. Nice.
Happy to see you came over to the dark side, we will crush America from within. The hate is strong in this one, excellent.
Hasan:
“On Twitter, he has referred to the media as an “enemy of the American people””
The tweet:
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
Way to go, Mehdi. You argue with all of the good faith of one of your readers, -Mona-.
Say, why aren’t you explaining how it is that 9/11 was a “human sacrifice ritual” given that it didn’t occur in the “Season of Sacrifice?”
How do you know “magick” was involved? Where did you learn that the Trade Center “represented the central pillar in the First Degree tracing board?” What do Jachin and Boaz have to do with this truth about 9/11? And what did you mean when you invoked “3 paths on the qabbalistic tree–brought down into their base?”
You’ve posted these amazing revelations about 9/11 Truth, but never explained it for we mere laypeople who lack your expertise. Certainly you’ve not given your (no doubt) scholarly sources.
One would think an enthusiastic Truther like you would eagerly jump right into extensive explanation and documentation. So, where is it?
Mona, why do you never have a response about the post itself? Are you that lame at forming a topical rebuttal?
Want to tell the readers why you–the self styled “researcher”—wanted to wait for proof that Luke Rudkowski and We Are Change were truthers?
Or about how stupid you feel that it is for a president to fire officeholders that you fear?
Mr Hasan,
Either your youth is showing: ” You have to go all the way back to 1993 to find the last — and only other —… ” or it is your way of adding to the hyperbole. There is a lot to unpack in this story (Comey’s) and most of it doesn’t look good for Agent Orange.
Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama – are continuing current events, not all the way back.
Uncle Henry (Kissinger) met with the POTUS this afternoon, how apropos..reminiscing about the good ol 1970’s I suppose, when Hebert was the Secretary of Stare and also National Security Advisor ( he still might be..lol).. and going over the to-do list..
Henry..damn this iPad spell checker
Maybe Trump could consider Hillary as FBI chief. Just as Obama offered her earthly shell to the wraith of John Foster Dulles (and she happily accepted), when he gave her State. One could not ask for a better avatar for a re-emergent J. Edgar.
Now that Hilly and Donny are both so cozy with Henry, everything should come carpet-bombingly back to nicey nice.
There’s so much to agree on, like global bombing, fossil fuel extraction like there’s no tomorrow (and indeed there isn’t), and repressing the American public under any and all circumstances.
Perhaps Henry can reprise his role as an avuncular elder statesman, in full Dr. Strangelove mode, and bring reconciliation and war-mongering, blood-sucking, people-crushing, resource-exploiting harmony, back to a supposedly “divided” power elite.
The powers that be need to stop this silly internecine bickering and get back to what they are so good at; hurting and killing people and destroying large swathes of the planet. Its a job for Super Henry.
“Who Will Stop Trump’s Tinpot Dictatorship?”
Good question. Balls are in short supply in Washington these days.
I’m troubled by the call for a special prosecutor. It brings back bad memories. Ken Starr was originally empowered to investigate the Whitewater scandal. He then went into sexual harassment claims and claims of perjured testimony, eventually sniffing out a stained dress. It did damage Bill Clinton, but he survived impeachment.
The alleged scandal involving Russia seems like a pretext. If they find nothing there, where else will they go?
They go where the several other elements of the House and FBI investigations were already headed. Toward revealing everyone and anyone responsible for targeting and unmasking US citizens specifically to yielding them and theirs (D) or (R) political or economic advantages rather than for the express and sole combatting or preventing (cough cough) terrorism international or domestic.
The statute authorizing the Office of Independent Counsel, which provided for appointment of counsel by the Court of Appeals for the DC District, upon request of Congress or the Attorney General, prevented said counsel’s termination except for cause, provided for essentially unlimited resources and independence, etc. lapsed in 1999.
The “replacement” is the “Office of Special Counsel” in the Justice Department. Appointment is by the Attorney General and the AG gets to supervise, discipline and/or remove a special counsel.
So, no worries. You aren’t going to get a rogue investigation. You aren’t going to get an independent investigation at all.
I been tryin’ to tell y’all.
Oh my: SEAN SPICER HAD A MELTDOWN AFTER TRUMP FIRED COMEY, HIDING IN BUSHES AND DEMANDING DARKNESS
DJT has done a lot of business with dictators and I’d imagine that given that his business background is authoritarian (as all businesses are) he holds attitudes that would congeal the blood of any truly moral human. Why he’s now the President is a question that only good Germans of the future will answer. What he does while he is being relentlessly hunted by the forces that oppose him is like the man himself, totally unpredictable but reliably disconnected from sensible. The damage done to the country in just a few months is breath taking. But for me it’s still the trash who have enabled him are the real curiosity.
Who do you think shows up on the stoop of a function room in 1938 with the words “Socialist” and “Workers’ Party” (National as in NPR) scribbled above the doorbell?
Answer: The same hipsters as tried to disavow their own generational candidate 70 years later using the same post-Nuremberg playbook that their embarrassed, chastened leftist antecedents tried to use when their guy Hitler fell out of public favor.
Both complete with their own solar symbols.
Oh, yes, this symbol stuff is one of your fields of expertise. You’ve shown us that 9/11 was a “human sacrifice ritual,” and occult symbols were all involved. You have not, however, explained how that can be, given that 9/11 was not in this “season.” You:
Well?
The Season of Sacrifice, a 40 day period that ends on May Day, doesn’t preclude sacrifice rituals at other times of the year.
Why not? What’s so special about that 40-day period, then? And where did you obtain this information?
I’m quite certain it isn’t from a “hipster,”, so where’s it come from.
Sure he’s a loose cannon. And unpredictable to. McMaster (stage a false flag attack to justify a purposefully unsuccessful bombing of a Russian ally for domestic political advantage) is on the way out looking for his fourth star.
Firing Comey IS huge. Think of the deliberately unsuccessful bombing of a hardened Syrian airfield (complete with a heads up to Russia) in response to a false flag attack as a paranoid Deep State MSMs price of admission for enough domestic political relief for Vladimir Trump to thread Dennis Montgomerys needle.
The (D)s pretend the Senate and House Intelligence and Judiciary and FBI investigations don’t include within their investigatory perview “unmasking domestic political adversaries” with no nexus to terrorism for political advantage as separate discrete felonies (Flynn, Trump, Sessions, Stone, Manafort, Page, Paul, Burr, Warner, Chaffetz, Gowdy, Nunes, Amash, Every Republican in Congress, The Entire Population of the United States Regardless of Political Affiliation and so on) worthy of investigation and prosecution which THEY ALL HAVE since their inception.
Watergate was about bugging and sabotaging a thousand or so of Nixons political opponents. ObamaBushgate is about our out of control Deep states placing both political parties in a position to direct their proxies to engage in unsullied constituent management utilizing the Deep states cradle to grave digital dossiers to serve their personal agendas and quell or foment political insurrection.
There is no deep state. US intelligence is just one faction among many others that attempts to influence the economic, social, and/or foreign policies of the US government. Trump has a long history of dubious business relationships with Russians and other shady characters within the international community. Trump, his campaign staff, and political appointees, both during and after the election, have too many interconnections with Russia for this to be a coincidence.
There is no Julian Assange, There is no Edward Snowden. There is no Bill Binney. There is no Sibel Edmonds. There is no Russel Tice. There is no Thomas Drake. There is no deep state. There never have been, are or ever will be scores of unelected unaccountable rogue intelligence and law enforcement agencies governed by secret courts pursuing wholly unconstitutional anti democratic domestic and international political and military agendas.
Humpty Trumpty sat on the Whitehouse Wall…
Humpty Trumpty is about to have a bigly fall…
All the liars in Humpty Trumpty’s administration and all his crooked friends…
Could NOT put Humpty Trumpty back together again!
Moral of the story: Never elect a “Rotten Egg-Head” President!
Regards,
Nobody stopped President Obama’s Tin Pot dictatorship did they. They assume just because Obama used all the offices of attorney general, FBI, CIA, and NSA all the Dems just assume President Trump will do the same. Comey did Botch the Hillary investigation
LOL. The Dems aren’t going to do anything about this because it’s not in their interests to (or their DNA for that matter). They will, as usual, stand to the side and wring their hands at all the awful things being done, and as usual do nothing about it. Other than shill for campaign donations. If you think any differently then you haven’t been paying attention to their actions for the last 40+ years.
They are the Washington Generals to Trumps Globetrotters.
Absolutely correct. Just to elucidate, however: They have, by this point in time so weakened and marginalized themselves, so alienated the base, that there’s not really much they could do.
Unless and until Trump does something that results in significant outrage among Republicans in Congress, there will be many more episodes in this series.
If they were really interested in regaining power and doing something valuable with it (by valuable, I mean for those not firmly ensconced in DC and on Wall Street) they would work at the local level to try to do something about the 900+ state legislatures seats lost from 08-14. From there they could move on to federal races at the state level. But all that takes work.
But they aren’t interested in work (or helping the poor and middle class). Witness the Perez-Bernie Bullshit Tour 17. It’s all about the latest outrage and their fundraising from it.
Maybe they can tweet or Vriksasana their way in.
The Dems could do a party-wide seppuku on the Capitol steps. That would certainly be a start, and would do wonders to reaffirm their bona fides…
I believe “goldpot” is more appropriate for the dictatorship of Drumpf.
Yeah, it’s gilded, but you can’t tell unless you grab hold of it.
I’m not grabbing a hold of any Trump chamber pot. .. but, you’re right, Trump himself would be offended with Tinpot.
Now I am more inclined to think Trump is a “changer” more than Obama ever was. These acts take an outsider and not much concern about keeping political scores. The deep state is real.
This is all so hilariously stupid. Comey should have been dumped long ago. The only people who should care about this are the people who believe Trump is some kind of Russian mole and Comey was hot on his trail. Anyone who actually believes that is a complete moron. The people on T.V. telling you that are frauds and they are using you. You are a moron!
Let’s be REAL CLEAR about James Comey the FIRED f…b…i… guy.
He said he could not crack a phone used in a crime – that was a lie.
He said because he couldnt crack cells, every software maker and cell maker needs to provide him with backdoors – that is unamerican and illegal.
He said “we dont need no warrants to bug any US citizen”- unamerican and illegal.
He said that no prosecutor would prosecute Hillary Clinton for violating many US statutes on many many occasions – that is fortune telling territory.
And yet, certain tv personalities call firing him some sort of conspiritorial tragedy, unprecedented – that is total BS.
If you believe that Putin or al-Assad or Sisi or Netanyahu or Gadafi or Hussein didnt or dont have the powers that James Comey wanted to lay upon all Americans, then your head is not just up there, it is welded in.
Bill Clinton fired FBI chief William Sessions when he was President. Well within Trump’s rights. Comey should have arrested Huma Abedin and Antony Weiner, let Clinton off the hook due to political pressure. Sad!
I love these intercept titles, they are often so clearly made for the simple reason to make a reader go silent. So who is going to stop Trump? Guess what, that is a rhetorical question of which the answer is: nobody knows, why should we care.
Comey is not the issue, but this is
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/09/jimmy-carter-and-bernie-sanders-explain-how-inequality-breeds-authoritarianism/
Willem, can you walk and chew bubblegum?
Inequality is an issue and so is the Comey firing. BTW, complaining about how an article’s title silences discussion kind of falls flat when you don’t even attempt to contribute something substantive to the discussion.
I do absolutely agree with you on this: Hasan’s attitude in this article is defeatist/fatalist.
This is why I love the Intercept. Even when they bring in the lazy writers who revert to their default clickbait sensationalist feed the ‘I feel superior by association because I read a fancy paper that condescends on those unwashed rednecks’ audience mode that their previous corporate employers thoroughly drilled into their head like Mehdi and Robert, the Intercept readers call them out.
“American checks and balances are out of whack. The firing of the FBI director is only the beginning. ”
The intercept defending the arch-fascist FBI and the crackpot ‘libertarian’ theory of ‘division of powers’.
The Progressive Philosophers, like the rest of american fascists don’t seem to undertand that ‘checks and balances’ are in place to keep the masses or ‘citiizens’, but correctly described as subjects (or slaves), at check.
go ahead assholes, keep cheering your Democratic Institituions like the FBI.
As far as why Trump fired Comey? One obvious explanation is being ignored.
Let’s see, a shady real estate hustler / reality TV state from New Jersey accidentally lands the Presidency, and then fires the FBI head, why do that? Perhaps just to get his own guy in place? Trump is probably thinking he can flog the presidency of the United States for at least a few billion dollars for himself, his family members, and his business associates. This is of course how Clinton ran the State Department and Clinton Foundation while in office, so they’re quite similar on that. Crooks, criminals, greedy self-serving narcissists? That’s the psychological profile, that’s their shared history.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/trump-clinton-refuse-explain-share-address-delaware/215907/
Trump probably thought that since everyone hates Comey, getting rid of him would be no big deal, and then he could run all sorts of shady business deals with no interference. What do you think he’s been talking about down at Mar-A-Lago, after all? Looting the U.S. Treasury is probably at the top of his agenda.
But anyway, on Comey’s role – here’s an illuminating election timeline.
(1) The Democratic primary.
Issues regarding Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Clinton Foundation & CGI pay-to-play schemes with corporations and foreign governments from late 2015 throughout the primary season. The FBI is supposedly investigating the private email server, but makes no public statements. This is basically cooperation with the Clinton campaign, to help their chances against Bernie Sanders. The State Department IG is doing the Clinton Foundation investigation (that was effectively buried). On July 5, 2016, directly before the Super Tuesday primary, Comey publicly states Clinton has been cleared for the private email server use; the CF/CGI issue has vanished.
(2) The general election.
On Oct. 28, Comey reopens the investigation after the Anthony Weiner drives are discovered. This is closed two days before the election. All told this brings the issue back into the media spotlight. Comey may have justified all this as a balance of support for Clinton and support for Trump; and likely refusal to address the Weiner issue would have caused a Republican backlash.
(3) The post-election period:
This is when the Russia-angle theme takes off, because (a) Clinton wants to place the blame for her loss on something other than her own record of corruption, greed and betrayal of middle-class voters, and (b) Deep State agencies want to dictate foreign policy agendas to the incoming Trump team. Comey dutifully cooperates with this agenda, happy little bureaucratic fiefdom apparatchik that he is, and so here we are.
Obviously, a real journalistic interview with Comey could tackle all these issues – not likely though. Remember, Comey went from the FBI to Lockheed Martin to HSBC and back to the FBI – which says a lot. The FBI is rather like the enforcement arm of the Wall Street/Military-Industrial white-collar mafia. Notice how no Wall Street actors were prosecuted for ripping off middle-class homeowners? Bernie Madoff, the one exception, made the mistake of ripping off the wealthy.
This kind of Byzantine corruption was also seen in the Brezhnev Soviet Union as it lurched towards total collapse, too. The FBI won’t stop it here any more than the KGB did there.
Doesn’t take long to find a major hole in your timeline.
As we learned during Comey’s March testimony, the investigation into whether there was coordination between people associated with the Trump campaign and the Russians began in late July 2016. So no, “the Russia-angle” didn’t take off because Comey did the bidding of the losing Presidential candidate (like that even makes sense, seeing how by losing she had no power over him).
Another error:
Wrong. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-director-acknowledges-agency-looking-clinton-emails-n437061
And it is standard practice not to announce investigations. The FBI justified its announcement because Clinton herself was talking about it.
Again, incorrect. Why speculate on how “Comey may have justified this” when he provided his own explanation to Congress on May 3.
No, actually it doesn’t say anything other than that providing lazy innuendo is easy!
Oh come on, the FBI could have recommended indicting Clinton over her private email server right when the Democratic primary opened – let alone the State Department IG investigation into corrupt Clinton deals as State Department, in which various contracts and arms deals were signed off on after large Clinton Foundation donors and Bill Clinton speaking fees were delivered.
Isn’t it obvious that the July 5th statement – right before the primary election Super Tuesday – in which Comey said Clinton wouldn’t be prosecuted – was designed to help Clinton win votes? And what about the quiet burial of the Clinton Foundation investigation as well?
What people like you really seem to get upset about is when people “undermine faith in trusted U.S. institutions” – but face reality, the fish rots from the head down. Just like in the old Soviet Union. Only a real political revolution has any hope of changing this, and it will have to be on the scale of FDR’s New Deal.
Don’t try to muddy the waters by bringing up the Clinton Foundation. It has absolutely nothing to do with this article and only obfuscates the current discussion.
Do you mean to say “recommended not indicting Clinton…” If not, your statement makes no sense. If so, this claim would assume that the FBI closed its investigation in early February – March 2016, sat on it for several months and then announced it publicly in July. There is simply no evidence of that, nor have I heard anyone even claim this occurred. As for Comey’s July 5th statement, what you don’t seem to realize, is that Comey’s announcement was unique in itself. Usually when a case is closed, the DOJ announces it and it is not accompanied by some detailed explanation (until Congress brings them to the Hill to be interrogated). Again, I think you need to actually read Comey’s May 2017 testimony because he lays out his explanation for the statement:
Comey then gave the press conference because he feared that an announcement from DOJ would be perceived as political because of Bill and Loretta’s idiotic tarmac meeting.
What you also seem to be forgetting is that while Clinton was able to sigh a breath of relief, she was raked over the coals for her “extremely careless” actions.
As Chris Cillizza said that day: “Here’s the good news for Hillary Clinton: The FBI has recommended that no charges be brought following its investigation of the former secretary of state’s private email server. Here’s the bad news: Just about everything else.”
Remove the words “faith in trusted” and you’ve accurately conveyed my concerns on that matter!
” Bill and Loretta’s idiotic tarmac meeting”
LULZ. yes, it was idiotic, there wasn’t anything even mildly unethical.
If you’re concerned about the undermining of U.S. institutions, then you should point the finger where it belongs – at the corrupt inept leadership of those institutions. Revolving doors between corporations and regulatory agencies (including the FBI and Wall Street), corruption in Congress on a massive scale in which legislative favors are granted in exchange for political donations, jobs for family members, private foundation donations, and so on?
The boy who pointed out the Emperor was running around naked was not the problem, you know. Was he ‘undermining the institution’ by pointing out the obvious fact?
J. Edgar Hoover was black-mailed, with pictures of him in a dress – sucking cock, by the Capone organization 6 years before the FBI was born … Hoover was regularly supplied with young men.
This information came out in the era of the Church Hearings but it has been mostly quashed.
But worship as you will, please …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/cross-dressing-j-edgar-hoover-story-dismissed-by-historians/2011/11/08/gIQAyiiQCN_story.html
Even when you spout irrelevant comments intended to distract from the actual article, I take a couple minutes to correct you. What a nice guy I am.
WaPo! … Bwahahaha!!
They are the mouthpiece of the folks who pull the strings of people like Comey. They made sure you would find their truth in 0.56 seconds …
The FBI denies Hoover in drag as Turkey denies the Armenian holocaust.
I read a biography on Capone back n the late 70s; they even had pictures of Hoover in drag, cropped of course.
Study-up on Prohibition and the corruption it bred. The mob had more money than the industrialists and they have been investing heavily in police and politics ever since.
Who else went to jail besides Capone? How many bankers that laundered millions (in 1920s $) went to jail?
How many bankers saw even the inside of a courtroom for the mortgage swindles? (hint: the wife of the leader of the senate was on the board of directors of one of the biggest criminal banks in America)
Complete. Corruption. That’s why Tom Price gloated over a reporter being arrested for asking Price about the ridiculous “healthcare” bill. That’s why America arrests and convicts someone for laughing at the idea Jeff Sessions ever demonstrated racial tolerance.
America is in free-fall; make of that what you will.
OMG. I just assumed you were an angst-ridden teenager, lashing out against your overzealous parents. What is this feeling that is washing over me: pity?
I think you’re just getting confused. It was actually you that drew the pictures of Hoover in drag. I ain’t gon’ judge!!
“Even when you spout irrelevant comments intended to distract from the actual article, ”
A comment about a former head of the FBI is irrelevant to an article about the most recent head of the FBI?
Perhaps those “couple of minutes” would be better spent on comprehension exercises.
Perhaps not given your spectacular history.
Yes, absolutely irrelevant; try to keep up.
Yep. Nate youre a bit too informed to be so clueless. Get another job. The bums lost.
It’s not nice to call the American people “bums” but I sympathize.
Thanks for participating in the conversation. Another top notch contribution!
This is all rumor, unsubstantiated and disputed.
Hoover was a vile asshole but the truth about his sexuality is, in fact, not publicly known with any certainty.
Sorry Professor Salzmann. His sexuality was known and leveraged 6 years prior to the birth of the FBI.
I read about it 40 years ago and have never been able to locate that book again. Just as Turkey buys every copy of books on the Armenian Genocide, the FBI has a vested interest in not having its history discussed; they are the Pinkerton’s for the rich and elected.
(Many years ago I found a small book on The Armenian Genocide. It was from 1922 and I was shocked after reading it – only 30-40 pages long. I could have purchased the book for about $8 but decided not too. I had no idea how rare that book was.)
No one is allowed to reach any high level of power without a leash; drugs are too easy to spot so illicit sex works well.
You didn’t read any credible documents unavailable to Athan Theoharis, who has been around for a very long time. He’s no FBI shill — to understate. And he doesn’t credit this claim as being supported. Certainly he doesn’t advocate that the FBI has somehow managed to disappear such documentation.
This is the exact moment that nuf said knew he’d lost the argument…
While we’re piling on, this is Tim Weiner’s description from his book Enemies: A History of the FBI —
I have it on Audiobook, great listen!!
For a sober interpretation of all this:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/im-not-sure-its-an-attack-on-democracy
“American checks and balances are out of whack.”
The very last check is the American people. We have been found sadly wanting after having been dumbed down by bread and circus and propaganda for two generations.
The Clear and Present Danger is here and we are part of it. Anyone who tells us that we should do this or must do that are lying – we need to do it all, fast and hard and persistently.
“The very last check is the American people.”
You mean the same Great American People™ who checked off your Banana Republic’s last N front-ends?
I hate to split hairs, but the USA’s dumbed down own sole, exclusive responsibility for being dumb. The USA’s
citizensconsumers should not need to be told dumbed down plutocrats, generals, and stasi thugs are just doing their job.I screwed up.
The USA’s
citizensconsumers should not need to be told dumbed down plutocrats, generals, and stasi thugs are just doing their job.That was your screw-up.
Can’t argue with that. Just look at the blood-sport of our “Black Friday” sales…just in time for the celebration of Christ’s birthday (which, in reality, never had a damned thing in common with Christ’s birth).
I have been arguing against the epithet of “consumer” for years. The corporate media listens only to its master.
Under a normal President, this type of action would be the primary subject of news coverage. Under the Trump Administration, it is simply a footnote. For all his bluster and tough guy persona, Trump is a chicken-shit coward. In addition to using a lackey to break the news after it already hit the airwaves, he recruits AG Sessions – yep, the guy who recused himself from the investigation – to support his decision and then used newly minted DAG Rosenstein to manufacture the post-hoc justification for firing Comey. Just over 100 days in and these hacks were already ordered to fall on Trump’s sword.
This has been the most despicable part. I can only think of a handful of congresspersons that have come out and denounced this decision – Richard Burr and John McCain come to mind, and Burr said he was “troubled” by Comey’s firing.
The media has done a fine job of covering the Comey firing. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director Comey is receiving saturation media coverage and the media’s tone was overwhelmingly negative, with a decidedly skeptical note on the stated reasons for Comey’s firing. In other words, they are doing their jobs and they are not falling for the bullshit explanation that Trump is selling. But it doesn’t matter if a large swathe of the public doesn’t give a damn what they say and are too partisan to come outside of their claustrophobic political bubbles. If you get your news exclusively from talking heads on Cable TV, you the viewer have no grounds to complain; you’re the problem, not the media that you constantly bitch and moan about.
The answer is: we need more John McCains?
As low a bar as we’re setting by conceding this, yes we do.
so the left wing fascists at the intercept are defending the FBI because the FBI ‘now’ are the good guys.
the intercept is its sorry, corrupt parody.
I’m starting to see why this was a free comment.
WTF? What plausible interpretation of anything at The Intercept could be characterized as “defending the FBI?”
I thought the left was socialist, or so the right has been telling us for years.
Tell ya what – we’ll be socialists and you be fascists. There, order restored.
of course you master progressives haven’t noticed it yet, but your country is a textbook example of fascism. And if you want to waste time with cosmetic differences then there are right wing fascist also know as conservatives, and left wing fascists and that is you ‘progressives’. No, I don’t belong to either category.
at Mona. Hey we the people are waiting for you to realease all the documents Snowden got from his ex employees the US military child murderes. Oh wait, you only realese what your masters, the US govt, allows you to release. Impressive ‘journalism’ eh.
“No, I don’t belong to either category.”
Floating free up in the ether breathing rarified air. Bully for you, you get to be above it all.
And just what is the “textbook example of fascism”? If that is corporatism, that is very true – we are that. And yet…corporatism is world ’round. Hail, fellow fascist!
There is no evidence in the historical record that Mussolini ever used words linking fascism and corporatism.
WTF are you on about now? Did you learn this “argument” at the same place that taught you Hitler was a leftist?
Just because you have to be taught everything, it doesn’t mean the same for others, Mona. Is that your site?
Were you as marginal a lawyer as you are a researcher?
So, you learned nowhere that Hitler was a leftist? You just made it up?
Were you taught after the public abandoned them to believe that a “Socialist” “Workers’ Party” (National as in NARAL) is by nature attractive to anything other than leftist hipsters?
So, that’s a “yes?” You made it up, this stuff about Hitler being a leftist?
The US is a military empire with bases all over the world, murdering children to get cheap oil, among many other ‘benefits’. The US political system is based on close cooperations between corporations and the military/government. THAT is fascism. The US is an ultra nationalistic society with the highest incarceration rate on the planet – a virtual police state. The US is also responsible for sabotaging telecomunications security world wide. Etc.
You either don;’t know what fascism means Ted, or you are playing dumb.
“corporatism is world ’round. Hail, fellow fascist!”
I have nothing to do with your corporatism Ted and even less with your military murderers. So I am not a fellow of yours. Thanfully.
we need that oil and those kids are in the way…
Privyet, comrade!
Yes, you’ve evinced such poor reasoning and made such bizarre claims that it’s no surprise to see you claim *I* have Snowden documents or that *I* release them, as allowed by *my* “government masters” yet. [eyes rolling]
I didn’t mean you personally so you are going off a tangent. But anyway, and since you bring it up : you claim to be Greenwald’s partner/friend so maybe you do share part of the responsibility?
And I made bizarre claims? Here’s some more for you : the intercept is bankrolled by the american fascist corporation ebay-paypal. I guess getting 250 millions from omydiar is the hallmark of progressivism eh? You surely are on the side of poor workers making less than minimum wage.
As to my “poor reasoning”, sure. Let me know when you manage to counter any of it.
I find Trump’s stated reasoning for the firing much more disturbing than the firing itself, basically taking what would have been Hillary’s excuse for firing Comey had she won. I would truly be amazed if Trump or Sessions actually thought anybody would buy the excuse that Trump was disappointed with how he handled the email investigation. There level of cynicism here is seldom seen outside of comic book villains, let alone from anyone in an elected office
And Trump is a totally-manipulated puppet of the Koch Brothers. They installed him with their Crosscheck voter purge and other voter suppression after the DNC illegally took out Sanders. Russia played no part.
“puppet of the Koch Brothers”
That is the real issue isn’t it? What is the nature of this administration? Is it an alt-right revolution, a “deconstruction of government” as Bannon called it or is it a mere continuation of neoliberalism in a somewhat extended manner?
I think the question what the essence of this government is, is not resolved today. They are fighting within the government. The firing and hiring of certain influential people, the placing of key functions… All of that is contentious and there is presumably a lot of intrigue going on within government circles.
And they are certainly not able to conceil their quarreling from the public. These communications demonstrate that clearly. I don’t think Trump overviews these developments properly, he is to much involved with playing golf, watching Fox and writing on Twitter. So it may be that the intrigues are also about getting access to the President.
(As a side note: While I write this, I am shocked how similar all of that sounds to the government structure of the Nazis – in this second part of an overall documentary worth watching the chaotic structure of the Nazi-government and its consequences are described quite well: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xq226f_the-nazis-a-warning-from-history-2-chaos-and-consent_lifestyle)
The most disturbing thing is that I see a lot of people adopting a certain fatalism and we’re only a hundred days in. So much for the self-proclaimed “exceptionalism” Americans likes to extol.
The Intercept’s capricious god, Snowden, has issued a condemnation of Comey’s firing as “political”:
https://www.rt.com/usa/387844-comey-assange-snowden-wikileaks/
LOL at you putting “political” in quotes. It seems there are some naive patsies out there willing to swallow the Trump/Sessions/Rosenstein justification of Comey’s firing.
Not my quote. “political interference”–Snowden
Yes and Snowden is exactly correct. And it shouldn’t take someone of Snowden’s stature to make this point. Not only is this obviously political interference but potentially obstruction of justice. I don’t believe for a minute that Trump suddenly saw the light and became rightly concerned about DOJ and FBI tradition and procedures that he didn’t give a rat’s ass about during the 2016 campaign. We now need an investigation of the firing of Comey; my expectation is that the Justice Department’s Inspector General conducts a review of the DOJ-aspects of this firing (after which Trump would probably fire the Inspector General).
And a funny coincidence, right after the firing, out come the minions with their trademark subtlety:
The Hill:
I mean, what better way to move on than firing the guy leading the investigation!? But no, no, no, no….that’s definitely not political!
Given that he thinks leftist “dark occultists” smothered Antonin Scalia with a pillow so that Obama could put a “liberal Jew on the Supreme Court, and further believes that Sandy Hook was a hoax in which “crisis actors” portrayed grieving parents of non-existent dead kids, there’s no reason to take him seriously on anything at all.
Don’t you mean “yet another liberal Jew on the Supreme Court”? Which isn’t even half of the quote you should be dutifully repeating instead of editing away 50% of the context and meaning like the argument crippled squirrel that you are?
Link to the whole post, Mona. You don’t argue in good faith.
And here’s the dash cam from Sandy Hook that day during what appears to be a multi-agency drill. FF to around 1:30 to for the hearty laughs and snacks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGLVE5JbCgs
I didn’t keep it — but do explain to all the nice people here how Scalia was smothered, by whom, why, and how you “know” this.
I do, however, have one of your other comments. This one:
You’ve often lamented that the NYT won’t let you post comments. What on earth could they be thinking!? It’s as if they find that the Alex Jones crowd doesn’t add to intelligent discussion.
Link to where I wrote “know,” Mona.
You don’t keep anything. The Intercept does. Link to it.
You dimwit, I used scare quotes to indicate sarcasm about your “knowing” the insane things you spout, such as that Antonin Scalia was smothered with a pillow by leftist dark occultists so Obama could put a liberal Jew on the High Court. That’s just one of your many bizarro shite spewings from the fever farms you find online.
Your problem here, Mona, is that the term “scare quotes” is only used by a debater to sometimes derisively refer to real attributed quotes when she doesn’t want to encounter the actual punctuation in an argument from an opponent.
But readers could see clearly that you deliberately wanted to imply that I wrote something I didn’t.
I don’t know how in the fuck I will ever live this down?!11!!11! You don’t deny claiming that “dark occultists” smothered Antonin Scalia with a pillow so Obama could put “a(nother) liberal Jew” on SCOTUS. Having impressed one and ill with unparalleled reasonableness and sagacity, you now also claim I told a tall one about using scare quotes.
How I shall continue to show my name here I don’t know. The struggle, the struggle.
Now, while I still have you, please explain the basis for your claims that these forces smothered Antonin Scalia with a pillow, and for the purpose you claim?
Fun facts for the alt right, almost certain to generate outraged denials:
(1) Islam, Judaism, Christianity and paganism contributed about equally to what you call “white European culture.”
(2) The “white euro-male” is not genetically superior to women and other ethnic groups from around the world, despite whatever you read in “The Bell Curve.”
(3) The supplements sold on Alex Jones’ Infowars channel will not increase your virility and manliness.
(4) America really is a nation of immigrants, plus the remnant displaced Native American population.
(5) ‘Cultural Marxism’ has never been a thing in America; see Mao in China and Tibet if you want to see what that really looks like (about 70 million dead, almost all monasteries destroyed, etc.)
I think that about covers the basic alt-right mental spectrum.
“Islam, Judaism, Christianity and paganism contributed about equally to what you call “white European culture.””
——
We Muslims prefer to keep Islam’s positive influences on the West a secret.
For example, Christian West’s Renaissance.
Little do members of the alt-right now that when they’re forced to study “Al-Gebra” in high school, they’re being covertly indoctrinated with Islamic scholarship. Let alone “Al-Chemistry”.
If an English word starts with “al”, chances are it is derived from Arabic.
Al-Jebra, Al-Chemy, Al-gorithm, Al-Cohol, Al-Gore, …, sorry, scratch Al-Gore.
Al Bundy… et al….
So thats why there is a concerted effort among the Bush/Obama/ Gates/ DeVos/ Duncan/ Rhees et al. to eliminate the teaching and learning of algebra in US high schools and colleges… noting that writing also began in China and Mesopotamia similarly suggests why there exists the parallel effort to eliminate verbal literacy… Having our nation’s children infected by such foreign and malignant prions is anathema to all we hold dear.
You have a stunted, demented, misshapen view of your political rivals.
I’d counter that, among other examples of your cluelessness, you had to ask repeatedly for solid proof that Luke Rudkowski and We Are Change are truther. But when I did in kind the other day, you tried to lugubriously ask what that had to do with the article.
So, Mona, tell the audience what your 3:16 p.m. petulant fit has to do with this article.
Oh my, I’m slain.
What a meteoric descent by the Intercept, you now share the same sewer as the NYTs and the WaPO yellow rags. Same propaganda, same lame regurgitations. Who’s your daddy?
There daddy, ironically, are the people that want to kill or capture Edward Snowden.
Yet you don’t make a single argument about why this is propaganda or a lame regurgitation. Funny how that seems to work out.
“Gus”. Your parents understood you well when they mercifully chose a first name with only three letters and a single syllable.
OMG what a devastating retort. Is that what passes for clever banter in your dilettante, hipster circles? The future of the nation is in safe onanist hands.
The CBS Late Show studio audience enthusiastically applauds the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, before host Stephen Colbert corrects them:
https://www.infowars.com/colbert-corrects-audience-after-they-cheer-trumps-firing-of-comey/
[VIDEO]
Tin pot dictatorship. How rich coming from a neoliberal rag that supported Obama’s chosen successor. A president that claimed the legal right to kill or detain anyone without judicial oversight.
“The Obama administration has invoked the state secrets privilege for the second time in less than a month—this time in an effort to shut down discussion of the targeted killing of a US civilian who has not been charged of any crime.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/obamas-use-state-secrets-privilege-new-normal/
That my friends is dictatorship, not the firing of a corrupt FBI director:
“The FBI director has no credibility,”
– Maxine Waters
“One standard was applied to the Russians and another standard applied to Hillary Clinton.”
– Nancy Pelosi
“I do not have confidence in him [Comey] any longer,”
– Chuck Schumer
Boing, boing, boing. Lot of deflection going on here.
And using the hypocrisy of others to frame and justify your non-existent counterargument. Delicioso!
Deflection means I am trying to spare Trump any wrongdoing by deflecting the discussion somewhere else. In reality, I am just pointing out the hypocrisy of liberals — they sit on their hands when a president claims the legal right to kill or detain them, yet have tantrums over a legal constitutional act to fire an incompetent FBI director.
This site is not “neoliberal.” One or two of the (unfortunately hired) writers are, but, by far, not most.
Many of the readers here rightly consider being called a “liberal” highly insulting. I certainly do.
Even Edward Snowden has denounced the firing of James Comey — and Comey wants Snowden’s blood.
Thanks for corroborating my points.
That’s the beauty of arguments whose foundation is solely built on hypocrisy: you can always find at least one prominent hypocrite across the vast media/political landscape, grasp onto it like a tick, and then have an excuse to ignore the specific issue that’s unfolding!
While one might not disagree with the general thrust of this article, if a key component of the arguments here is the firing of three individuals, to include Preet Bharara with the other two is to weaken the argument by one-third. As I understand the traditional mechanisms, in the transition from one administration to the next, prosecutors in Mr. Bharara’s position nationwide offer their resignations and await the pleasure of the new administration for re-appointment. Dems and Republicans often don’t reappoint certain individuals because of their real or perceived political inclinations. Mr. Bharara refused to resign and was, therefore, fired.
Insofar as any criticism of Trump doesn’t really require any exaggeration which might weaken an argument, I would be happy to be corrected on this point.
Here you go, BrianBruse,
Apparently you did not know that Mr Trump asked Mr Bharara to stay, and he agreed. That is why he refused to resign.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/nyregion/preet-bharara-says-he-will-stay-on-as-us-attorney-under-trump.html?_r=0
James Comey’s firing should be an alarm, a klaxon — flashing red and blue lights and citywide tornado sirens.
Here at The Intercept, the denizens will call Trump stupid and mean — and then complain about the ineffectual democrats, the lying media, the “no-there-there” investigation, Clinton and Obama, Wall Street: all complaints echoing Trump’s campaign.
Then (again a la Trump) use quips and snarls and accusations of partisanship to defuse any and all criticism.
The view from Complacency is quite scenic I’m sure; no fires, no gunfire, no collapsing buildings, no police patrols, no Denalis with tinted windows and flashers pulling up to the curb, no riots, no fear … nothing but a little concern over this thuggish imbecile who somehow rode Clinton’s unpopularity into power. It can’t last, here in Complacency. This is America. We have checks and balances. We have money. We can afford a little fascism — we’ve been living with these clowns for years.
After all, what’s the worse they can do?
Besides, remember that speech Clinton gave to Wall Street?
Disgraceful!
Democrats made this firing inevitable by complaining that Mr. Comey made a partisan attack on Mrs. Clinton during the election. Mr. Trump could not allow a partisan FBI director to remain in office, particularly when he was perceived as being the beneficiary of that partisanship. He therefore fired Mr. Comey to avoid even the slightest perception of favoritism towards the FBI director.
It has been a long time since the United States had such a rigorously principled leader.
Snort
This sort of puerile giggling is another example of imbecilic complacency.
To each his own. Some engage in frantic hand-wringing; others prefer imbecilic complacency. The end result is the same.
Its harder for the unpracticed eye to notice the residual blood on a well wrung hand.
“imbecilic complacency…”
my. shades of the rapier wit, fiery tongue, and infinite wisdom of Nixonian verbal engineer, NYT prima donna, and anal wart, Safire. He of the nattering nabobs…
So what you’re saying is essentially that Clinton Democrats would rather watch Trump burn the country down rather than relinquish control of the DNC and the Democratic Party to the Sanders Democrats who stand a better chance of defeating Republicans over the next four years?
And the basis of your argument is fear, fear, fear? Rational appeals to fear? Emotional appeals to fear? That’s it?
How would I know what Clinton Democrats want? Do you have any evidence of any Democrat — any of the Clinton faction or of any other faction among Democrats — saying they want to watch Trump burn down the country? Democrats say, unanimously, that’s exactly what they want to prevent.
Your attribution of sinister motives to a dissolved Clinton faction is simply a sly way to denigrate and slander a candidate who has already lost the election. What’s your point, other than to engage in a Rovian political smear?
If you prefer Trump to Clinton, at least have the personal integrity to say so.
Because, whether you admit it or not, you’re promoting a candidate Sanders explicitly repudiated.
Milton, Milton, Milton …
The Dems want to blame Trump for the scorched-earth we call America.
8 years of Obama NOT allowing single-payer or even importation of drugs already made in the US is symptomatic of the level of corruption in government.
The DNC would rather give us Trump than not run Hillary … that is the biggest ‘Fuck you America!’ possible.
Haim Saban would “rather cut off his balls” than not be the largest “donor” to the DNC. He also swears Israel is his “one and only concern”.
But hey look over there at the Russians ……..
Sorry.
It’s probably those damn solar flares.
My mind-meld with the great Democrat directives established by the Committee of Overlords hasn’t told me what to say. The atmospheric disturbances seem particularly strong today and as you might imagine, I can’t speak without permission from my thought-masters.
As soon as I rejoin the grand communion of Democrat thinking, I’ll gladly confirm or deny the Democrat plan for today.
I know this isn’t a satisfying answer about the deep and devious machinations of the Committee of Overlords, but I believe your certainty about Democrat motives might be impossible to effect.
Go with your gut.
What is a $20/hr factory job? I heard, many years ago, that was what you avoided by going to college.
Today you just avoid work altogether by getting a college degree.
Actually, the Clinton Democrats had hoped for the opportunity to burn it down themselves. They have had to settle for the next best thing.
No doubt you’ll be safe in your tin foil hut.
As long as you don’t drink the water.
“After James Comey’s Firing, Who Will Stop Trump’s Tinpot Dictatorship?”
In the movie Demolition Man there is a phrase “send a maniac to catch a maniac”
Ask NBC to hire Keith Olbermann and turn him lose on the political scenne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCcw2sPlplY
A violent misogynist, mental patient? Go for it:
“Right. Somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out.”
– Crazy Keith on Hillary in 2008
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-10/trump-has-very-very-good-meeting-lavrov-live-feed
Graham tries to talk a mean game. But in reality he’s just embarassing himself. Why isn’t he calling for “independent” Special prosecutor? Because he’s just like McConnell, McCain, Cruz and all the rest of those racist assholes. Trump’s a joke. But he’s a Republican racist joke. So I’ll support him.
Name 1 Republican who would vote to impeach Trump. No, you can’t. Why? Because there are none. On the Democrat side, Maxine Waters continues to call for impeachment. At the same time, others in Congress who aren’t stupid enough to use the N word in public are saying (in coded racist talk)n****r, shut the fuck up!
Why aren’t the Republicans cooperating in the Russian investigation? Because to them it’s reduced to the level of the 2018 midterms. All the Democrats care about is manipulating the shit out of this to win in 2018. We must destroy them.
Meanwhile, the media stumble all over themselves to fill air time and column space.
Dear World
We promise not to lecture you on democracy anymore.
Your Sincerely,
America
something is terribly wrong here….greenwald may send his personal goon after the writer for EVEN SUGGESTING he greenwald has BEEN WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING regarding trump/russia.
why the need to stop trump if he isnt in bed with the Russians?
maybe some of the sycophants can come up with reasons for it.
go at it!
ahh…when you going to apologize greenie?
comey was fired BECAUSE HE HAS THE GOODS ON TRUMP/RUSSIA.
try fitting that reality into your next column.
No, Fbi Comey does not run a personal private enterprise, all the facts– russia not arenot his to havve and to hold, they are in the usgov data base. They are accessible as facts theUS has acquirzed. If Comey had a heartz attack, his successor would carry on. It is not a oersonal vendetta. The Fbi discover facts and does research as an underderpartment of the DOJ– JUDICIAL BRANCH.
Chamomile tea and a quit room can help. Do you have a close friend you can talk to about your incoherent agitation?
For a truly elevated discussion I recommend that you all see Robert Parry’s article on the subject. Some one here blogged “make Obama president for life.” That could be the deep state strategy behind what’s been going on in Washington and with MSM, …and with Comey. Read the article. It makes sense.
jeez…..that stuff you smoke would end the opioid crisis over night
Actually, Parry isn’t always right, but he’s almost always worth reading. This one, even if speculative, is certainly worth reading:
Watergate Redux or ‘Deep State’ Coup?
the totally legal firing of this fellow is not the stuff of tyranny
and since when do “progressives” champion a highly-politicized “top cop”?
why not shoot for total absurdity and hold a candlelight vigil for the ghost of j edgar hoover
privyet comrade !!!!
Seriously, you moron, go to The Guardian with this imbecilic “Russian baiting.”
Glenn to Amy Goodman this morning:
That all seems right to me. A fired James Comey doesn’t become a defanged Comey. No FBI investigation that found a “smoking gun” is going to die with Comey’s directorship. All that the impetuous toddler who is our president has done, is royally piss off a dangerous smart man and, created optics that make him strongly appear to be covering up what likely doesn’t exist.
It was typically stupid, and thus typically Trump, to do this.
Trump got to where he is by not caring what you think.
You can’t do a job running on fear of others’ reactions. Trump understands this. He also understands there are people smarter than you on the other end of the bell curve who are going about their day to day with an awareness that Trump dismissed a director who was recommended for termination by a career Justice official because the director overstepped the boundaries of his job description too often.
Your non sequiturs to and about me are only slightly less deranged than the “substantive” claims you make about current events. Claims like, e.g., no one died at Sandy Hook, because you agree with Alex Jones that the grieving parents of the dead kids there are “crisis actors.”
On the other hand, your wholehearted attempts to administer and mod this site is driven by your fear of others’ reactions.
you know what is typically stupid?
YOU, and your continuous assertions that comey didn’t have the proof even though he is “dangerously” intelligent.
and as far as it making any sense…since WHEN does trump get credit for acting with sense?
you not only are in denial of what everyone but your prophet knows but you also have no awareness of the man you maintain is not in the cross-hairs of the FBI.
how PATHETIC is that?
You are very confused. I have made no “assertions” — contentious or otherwise — that James Comey has not got “proof” of anything.
Uh, what? It’s certainly “pathetic” for you to run around disparaging such incoherent thought processes.
FB will not let me share this… wonder why?
For everyone (including Glenn) who is calling for a truly independent investigation of the “Russian interference” and “collusion” claims:
That would be nice, but we no longer have a mechanism to establish such an investigation. The law authorizing the Office of Independent Counsel expired in 1999 (Republicans were in control of both Houses, but there was nary a peep from the Democrats, as Ken Starr was still busy with the vivisection of Bill Clinton at the time).
The only investigation(s) you’ll see will be subject to ultimate control by either the president or the Republican-controlled Congress.
Consequently, should such an investigation fail to find the much hoped-for interference and/or collusion, it, too, will be denounced as part of a cover-up.
Just a brief reality check.
How about just wishing for a vast document dump on WikiLeaks?
To people asking themselves to what the firing of Mr. Comey may lead, try answering this question: If FBI directors are free to publicly discuss confidential investigations during the final days of political campaigns, where is that likely to lead?
No sympathy here for Mr. Comey.
Mehdi…you must have a bad day. You didn’t state any link to anti -Muslim or Racism in this article…
Instead you are turning to calling the President with little names….
@Alberto inanely spews
Thank you for a second opportunity to direct readers to Greenwald’s excellent discussion this morning with Amy Goodman regarding the Comey firing. Poor Alberto must have a severe deficit in the reading comprehension department, for as Greenwald observed this a.m., he has regularly endorsed a sober and sane investigation into allegations about Russia/Trump.
What Greenwald has righteously railed against is hysteria about Russia — and accusations that he and many others are “FSB assets” and assorted other neo-McCarthyite smears. Democrats have started seeing Russians and their assets under the bed. All reasonable and decent people oppose this Democratic Derangement.
Huh? Really? This is the evidence you present that Greenwald has ‘regularly endorsed a sober and sane investigation” into allegations of Russia/ Trump? An after-the-fact interview with Amy Goodman? Too little too late. Every mention I read Glenn make was one disparaging people who were asking legitimate questions into such interference. It wouldn’t surprise me if he starts changing his tune now about the need for an investigation. After all, history might show he was asleep at the wheel at one of the most important stories in US history.
Huh? Really? This is the evidence you present that Greenwald has ‘regularly endorsed a sober and sane investigation” into allegations of Russia / Trump? An after-the-fact interview with Amy Goodman? Too little too late. Every mention I read Glenn make are ones disparaging people who ask legitimate questions into such interference. It wouldn’t surprise me if he starts changing his tune now about the need for an investigation. After all, history may show he was asleep at the wheel at one of the most important stories in US history.
No. I offered no such evidence, tho it copiously exists. As you would know had you been reading or listening to him since the election. What you did here today was authoritatively issue a stupid rant without knowing what the man has many times said and written.
That was not very smart of you, now was it?
‘Copiously exists.’ Really? Please show me your copious evidence that he endorsed an investigation. I suspect if he ever did so, which I have no evidence of, that he spent much more time denigrating people who called for such investigations.
Ah, so, you admit you’ve been ranting about Greenwald without knowing what he’s actually long been saying. Well, in addition to his many such calls on Twitter and in interviews, this is only one, from two months ago here at TI, my emphasis:
So, this is copious? One statement from an article where he dedicates most of his words to belittling people who were calling for vigorous investigations? This is is embarrassing.
President Trump – it’s just way too fun, shaking up washington and all.
I don’t belive we are going to have any “What does this button do?” moments.
He is finding out that things in washington are as bad as he talked about in the campaign. After he asks himself, “What the hell am i doing here?” he will look around and ask “What the hell are you doing here?”. And since the DC political criminals and whores have been firing on mainstreet for so many years, it just feels all kinds of good hearing “YOU’RE FIRED” echoing from hell usa.
‘shaking up washington’? How about ‘consolidation of power’, ala putin and Russia. Now reporters are arrested for asking questions, after consolidation shoot them on the street. We keep relying on the next election to save our nation, how much consolidation does it take before there is no next election?
I made the prediction months ago, that only a NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE by Americans will put an end to trump and his fools, until Americans arrive at and execute that conclusion we are on the road to destruction. Shut the nation down until trump and pence run, schedule a new election, make President Obama the interim president.
Why not President-for-life? That would prevent the voters from once again subverting democracy.
It has now come out that Comey had just requested more funds for the Russia investigation. The criticism of how Comey overstepped his boundaries during the HRC email investigation are deliberately leaving out the fact that Lynch had left the decision whether to prosecute up to Comey after she compromised herself by meeting with Bill Clinton. It was Lynch who put him into the position of explaining the decision not to prosecute. The Dems loved him then and heaped praises on him for it. Then whe more evidence came to light on Weiner’s computer he reported it to the Congressional committee, and they, not he, made that public. Comey then expedited the review of those emails and completed it before bthe elction and said nothing new had changed his recommendation not to prosecute. Of course then HRC used it as asn excuse as to why she lost the election. Although I don’t agree with his decision not to prosecute HRC, IMO he was doling his job honestly with being as transparent as he was able to be, and it is that honesty that Trump now finds dangerous and the real reason for his firing
Everyone agrees that Mr. Comey was either fired for being too honest or for being too dishonest.
what nonsense passes for self-satisfaction here.
NO ONE has ever suggested comey is/was dishonest.
You agree that Comey was fired for being too honest. Therefore my statement is correct.
There is zero evidence that Trumps Campaign Team Putin colluded with a Putin Inspired Fifth Column Borscht Belt to RT and Sputnik the American Rust Belt…
…not wittingly.
2nd, he was just doing his job as told. How many know the FBi is an underdepartment of the DOJ for the discovery of FACTS. He has no juging or decision making authority other than Recommendation which can be totally ignored. The CrookdClintonO Grio created this public Circus in attempt to fool WethePeople this was a real bonafide Trial Court. It is not. Makes no difference what Comey says or thinks, he is not judge or jury.
It is very insightful that Trump seeks to remove him from office anyone who will investigate his administration. This is clearly evidence of a fascist tendency. And having read the previous comments to this article, I would invite the commenters to see the forest for the trees. Facts are facts. Trump is very much a dictator
Well without gloating, usa_naziland is surely openly obvious now? More & more posts around the web use the word nazi, they also see the fascist states of north america for what it is.
It is time for a Deep Throat. It is time for someone inside the FBI to leak the information that has driven Trump to this act of desperation.
It’s unlikely Trump is acting from “desperation,” or that there’s any smoking gun for a “Deep Throat” to reveal. Donald Trump is unstable, impetuous to an excessive degree. He doesn’t tolerate people being anything but squarely on Team Donald. Comey was overseeing investigation into the Trump campaign —
that alone, and on its own, would get him fired.
But either way, this firing is stupid. To paraphrase Greenwald from this morning, James Comey is a very savvy man, who knows how to stick a dagger in without leaving fingerprints. Removing him as Director doesn’t end any FBI investigation into the Trump campaign (career agents will continue with or without Comey); all it does is piss off a dangerous and resourceful man.
Glenn is being naive. Firing Comey and replacing him with someone loyal to Trump can make a big difference. The director of the FBI controls how money and people are allocated to an investigation. I doubt that the fact that Comey just asked for more funding for this investigation did not have something to do with Trump’s decision and I will bet that the person appointed to replace Comey won’t be making the same request.
Glenn is many things. “Naive” is not among them.
Watch his interview and/or read the transcript (when it is available).
which has more Russian agents, the Trump Administration or the comments section of The Intercept?
Privyet Comrades!
You should go to The Guardian. They love the hell out of nonsense like yours.
[snort] And Milton — as well as other Hillarybots here — insist there’s no such thing as neo-McCarthyism, certainly not from those wunnerful Democrats.
if you thing I’m a “Hillarybot”, just do a history search of my posts and you would see that you are grievously mistaken…
Could be — but you certainly are carrying on in a McCarthyite manner.
I could have read nearly the same hair-on-fire, pointless panic attack in almost any neoliberal media outlet, this morning.
Who can stop Trump from firing people who serve at the pleasure of the president? While he is president, no one can.
Who could have obviated this reality before it manifested? That would be the other wing of our one-party political system, the Democrats. All they needed to do was (1) not have abandoned and alienated their base for decades; (2) not have nominated one of the few mainstream candidates so corrupt and widely disliked that she actually could lose to Donald Trump; and (3) not have run such a pathetic, godawful campaign that she actually did lose.
As for corrective or rear-guard action that may be possible now, the best first step would be to drop the ridiculous and infantile hysteria over “Russian interference,” engage in serious introspection and attempt to re-engage with what once was the Democratic base, if it’s not too late.
Otherwise? Buy popcorn and try to find the humor in the shitshow.
well said
aint it great?
that loud resounding “you’re fired” shot from a loose cannon after all the salvos the corrupt political whores fired on us.
now, every time he walks into the west wing, people are going to freeze and wonder who is going to get fired.
c’mon donald, do it agin, fire someone.
Will you PLEASE stop linking to fake news sites like the Washington Post?
I visit sites like “The Intercept” specifically so that I can avoid that sort of crap.
And consortium news! Hopefully readers are turning away from the bought and paid for MSM journalism, owned by what? …only six large corporations? And so obvious!
It seems like The Intercept has been shamefully slow to realize that we need a thorough investigation of the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Will someone now please show this article to Glenn Greenwald who has seriously compromised his reputation by belittling the Russia interference every step of the way.
Giggle.
Fortunately, I hear that researchers are busily working on a cure for Russian Interference Derangement Syndrome. Unfortunately, they are the same researchers who have been working for more than a decade to find a cure for Trutherism, so we’re probably screwed.
Interesting that you conflate a call for a thorough investigation with a ‘derangement syndrome.’ If I were to follow your reductio ad absurdum tactics I would accuse you of suffering from Russian Interference Denial Syndrome. But I and many like my are calling for an INVESTIGATION> Unless you are willing to hold your leaders accountable you do not deserve to live in a democracy.
There is currently no mechanism under US law to establish an actual independent investigation (see my explanation, above) and you appear to be in the camp most likely to be unhappy with the probable outcome of any investigation that could be arranged.
I don’t live in a democracy and neither do you.
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
Furthermore, I’m sorry to say that, the longer I live, study and observe the world and my fellow humans, the less convinced I am of the benefits of democracy. On average, humans aren’t all that bright (and, as George Carlin said, “. . .half of them are stupider than that!”), are extremely poorly informed, and are guided much more by emotion than by reason.
The outlook is poor and there is little rational basis for optimism.
They’ve been “investigating” for almost a year you ——- retard. Illegally spying 24/7 on and unmasking thousands of US Citizens with the help of TOP Obama Administration officials like SUSAN RICE, JIM CLAPPER, JAMES COMEY and JOHN BRENNAN and our FIVE EYES PARTNERS (Judge GCHQ Napolitano for Supreme Court).
This LEFT WINGER from SF supports Trey Gowdy for FBI Director.
Jeff Sessions and Trey Gowdy could help Trump (who just fired cointelpro 2s muse) continue dismantling our domestically oppressive deep state CIA, NSA, DEA, FBI. The deep state Feinstein, Schumer and Pelosi are ON THE RECORD to scared of to do anything about.
I agree Alberto. Where is Greenwald’s unbiased journalism now. While I believe in what the Intercept stands for, Greenwald needs to check himself and start asking more questions about this issue. Just ask the questions and investigate, instead of just assuming it’s all partisan nonsense. He really ruined his credibility with me although I like many of the other journalists at The Intercept.
Greenwald has never claimed to practice “unbiased journalism.” Indeed, he doesn’t believe such a thing exists or that it could exist.
Now that we have that little misunderstanding out of the way, what questions do you think Greenwald should ask about “this issue?”
Glenn Greenwald absolutely REJECTS any suggestion that he is “unbiased.” He is totally upfront about his points of view, and that he advocates for them in his journalism.
You are wrong, very wrong. What Greenwald writes of here is the definition of partisan nonsense — pernicious nonsense.
Unless, of course, you think it’s not appalling that a former DNC chair publicly speculates that The Intercept is in the pay of Russia? McCarthyism 2.0 is no more attractive when Democrats are leading it than when it’s mostly Republicans.
Both parties are trash. I don’t advocate for either of them leading anything in this country.
“American checks and balances are out of whack.” Have been for decades!
” Whether American democracy is up to that test is another matter.” We may be about to find OUT, good.
Trump may be the crass test of the Constitution we need. Much rougher than Bushies and much much rougher than Obomites. No smooth edges like Hillary, or political skill of Nixon, game on?
Mehdi Hassan. Check.
General Flynn lied to the Vice President about his conversation with the Russian Ambassador. He was fired. Mr. Comey lied to Congress about Abedin sending ‘thousands’ of classified e-mails to Weiner. He was fired. Firing people is Mr. Trump’s forte, and the worrying aspect, given the propensity of officials in his administration to lie, is not why he has fired so many, but so few.
I would criticize this article extensively, however, it wanders all over the place. Absolutely EVERYTHING is evidence of Trump being a dictator, including statements made decades ago.
The Russian meme is nonsense. It is not aimed at Russia or at fixing the American election system. It is a manufactured political controversy aimed at crippling the Trump administration.
Trump was sent to Washington to Drain the Swamp. It is the entrenched power elites that Trump was sent to Washington root out, who are pushing the Russian meme. The same power elites that Mr. Hasan and other “journalists” prostrate themselves before in obeisance.
Consider this definition of a dictator:
Trump is acting under law. It is within his right to fire the Director of the FBI.
Mr. Hasan is wrong. Worse. He gets paid to spread this “wrongness” through the media.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/09/why-james-comey-had-to-go/
The Russian Meme is nonsense. Mr. Hassan is wrong.
It’s spelled Hasan at the top of the page.
“Russian” is an adjective describing “meme”. Meme is not a proper noun so it remains lower case AFAIK.
absolutely.
re: j edgar comey –
“Five presidents wanted to fire Hoover, with Harry Truman accusing him of running a police state and of blackmail. But all were afraid of Hoover, so he died in office. Trump acted before Comey could get that kind of lifetime protection, which has no place in American democracy.”
Privyet Comrade!!!
I agree. Read the Robert Parry article on this subject (as I mentioned in post above).
Trump’s a clown, in many ways a disgrace. But is it *really* so “difficult to disagree with the scathing assessment of CNN’s senior legal analyst..”? Virtual definition of an unreliable witness. May as well depend on an assessment by Nancy Pelosi.
If you remember from your civics class, Mehdi, the FBI ‘s director serves at the pleasure of the president.
This was a long time in coming; Comey was encroaching on job descriptions that didn’t belong to him. A career Justice Dept. official made the recommendation to the administration for his dismissal.
If you’re looking for a tin-pot dictator, look no further than Barack Obama.
you’re wrong about “at the pleasure of the president”
The FBI Director’s term was changed to 10 years precisely in response to Nixon’s reprehensible conduct…and was set at 10 years to permit greater independence, given that the term would overlap presidents.
You’re wrong. The FBI director’s term is a limit; they are allowed to serve no more than 10 years in the position unless granted a special exception by the president and Congress.
Remember anybody called Louis Freeh?
allow me to amend my statement…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-fbi/2016/11/04/ac08f73e-a1fe-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html?utm_term=.56c98fc4bfcf
It ought to be emphasized that the length was set so as to permit great independence from the political nature of the appointment, and to overlap administrations.
An odd assertion since, (1.) Nixon never fired an FBI director, and (2.) Nixon had been out of office for two years during the almost full elapse of a completely separate Ford presidency before the 10-year limit on an directorship incumbent was added as part of the Crime Control Act of 1976.
post Watergate… and post Nixon’s resignation, changes were made,including to the term of the FBI Director. They were part of a series of corrective responses to the Nixon administration’s obstruction of justice.
Nixon did not fire the FBI director, true, but he fired the special prosecutor.
The term length was modified as an attempt to isolate the director from political conflicts of interest and serve as a greater check on the president.
https://books.google.com/books?id=GCTDYetREvEC&pg=PA19774&lpg=PA19774&dq=modification+of+fbi+director+term+due+to+nixon&source=bl&ots=MtJrD0345Z&sig=VSzAYNbqnZeT7qylLEXzZi9wP2U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf06KP5-XTAhWFx4MKHdulDagQ6AEITDAG#v=onepage&q=modification%20of%20fbi%20director%20term%20due%20to%20nixon&f=false
You my friend, are not very well educated on the subject. As sources indicate (and yes I am inclined to believe real journalists over your analysis), this was political (and for Trump, personal) and had nothing to do with Comey’s mishandling of Hillary Clinton’s email investigation. For the record, I can’t stand Hillary either. All presidents and politicians are corrupt. Most of us know this, yet this should be a nonpartisan issue as Trump is attacking our Democracy. Is Obama the president? Why are you bringing him up?
Bush and Obama DISMANTLED our constitutional democracy through secret courts, Executive Order 12333 and a willful knowing collusion among the Five Eyes providing for the wholesale extra constitutional monitoring of one anothers respective domestic populations.
Actually Christian, Reagan issued Executive Order 12333 and other presidents choose to uphold it. I hate both parties and this has nothing to do with partisan politics. Yes, we are spied on , WOW!!!!! I didn’t know that. Bush and Obama hurt our Democracy? No, you don’t say? What does your insight have to do with the issue in this thread? Trump is the president and he is doing many things that have NEVER been done in the history of this corrupt country. Let’s focus on who we have now, not the past.
Yeah I know all that and so much more I expect given the position of my catbird seat and resource base. FBI directors can be appointed by and/or removed by any sitting President as advided by the Attorney General. You focus on the thread kid while I game the textile industry.
Because he quite literally thinks Obama is controlled by Satanic forces and that, e.g., Plotters smothered Antonin Scalia with a pillow so Obama could place a “liberal Jew” on the Supreme Court. He routinely writes about progressive”occult forces” and links to articles and books about Satanist/Illuminati running The Show.
Alex Jones is his revered authority. So, reasoning with this one is not ever going to result in fruitful discussion.
Link?
Full link?
“CBS Sunday morning anchor John Dickerson was escorted out of the Oval Office after he asked Trump a question the latter didn’t like”
Just because you link to a source doesn’t mean your job is done, Mehdi. Did you read that article? Here’s a quote from the article you linked to:
“CBS anchor Gayle King . . . asked Dickerson if he was escorted out of the Oval Office.
‘I think it was pretty clear that I was to escort myself out, or I would be escorted out — I would be moved along,’ he said. ‘It was time for our conversation to be over.’
Later in the day on Saturday, however, Dickerson still traveled with the president as planned to a 100th-day rally in Pennsylvania.”
I hate to defend Trump, but that’s exactly what your mischaracterization of events begs me to do. The interview ended abruptly, as the article you link to says, but Dickerson was NOT escorted from the office and, in fact, still traveled with the President later that day. Trump was asked the same question multiple times. He made it clear he wasn’t going to answer differently. At some point, Dickerson is just badgering him — and I approve of the reasons why. But, I would have done the same thing as Trump did. At some point, he really has no obligation to continue to “answer” the same question.
All that said, your overall point is diminished significantly when you mischaracterize facts. It diminishes your credibility.
there’s also this:
> (His brutish security chief, Keith Schiller, lest we forget, spent the presidential campaign smacking Latino protesters and manhandling Latino reporters on behalf of his boss.)
if you look at the video, ramos was hardly ‘manhandled’. he was firmly but gently escorted out of the room. this sort of distortion is all too common at the intercept
May 7, 2017 It Wasn’t Russia, How Erdogan Bought Trump and His Neocon Gangsters, the Kosher Nostra
Learn who Mike Flynn and Rudy Giuliani really work for and why they are stabbing America in the back while Trump smiles
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/05/07/it-wasnt-russia-how-erdogan-bought-trump-and-his-neocon-gangsters-the-kosher-nostra/
Pieces like this remind me of how conservatives continually warned that Obama would impose Communism on the US. 8 years later and that couldn’t have been further from the truth. I wish cooler heads would prevail because there are plenty of legitimate things to worry about. Trump becoming a dictator is not one of them.
Trump may more or less be constrained by law but his attitude towards his fellow man is precisely the reason why dictators are allowed to exist in this world. There something about humanity that allows regimes of liars and murders to exist and Trump is good representation of that something. His selfish disposition. His delusional thinking. The way he lies. His lack of understanding. People like Trump are the reason why I feel humanity is doomed.
Its amazing how an article can be published with out facts and bias attitude which only continues to fester the Russian collusion the same tactics use by Saul Alinsky’s rules. The recommendation was written by the DAG Rod Rosenstein who passed his confirmation by senator tue with 94to 6 to confirm. If you read the letter President Trump would have been held irresponsible if he did not let Comey go. Unless you read the letter your comments are uninformed or regurgitate liberal rhetoric
Pattymoo, good unbiased journalism would be all over Trump and this Russia collusion issue. You are clearly a Republican who just accepts this without asking questions. Whether Trump was in on the collusion remains to be seen, but the questions still need to be asked. If he has nothing to hide, just go about your business and the truth will come out one way or another. He doesn’t do that though. If you can’t see the wool being pulled over your eyes, then you actually want to ruin our democracy. There are other countries, like Russia who would welcome you with open arms. Why be upset, Trump’s in power?
Rosenstein. Confirmed 94 to 6. Republicans and Democrats all voted for this guy in a genuinely toxic hyperpartisan environment. Sessions willingly recused himself from the stalled (for lack of evidence) Russian collusion BS but not from the other 97 % of the balance of the DOJs agenda up to and including imprisoning those responsible for UNMASKING-MONITORING-AND-HARRASSING-TENS-OF-MILLIONS-OF-INNOCENT-AMERICAN-CITIZENS-GATE.
DEAS Project Hemisphere IS FBIs Project Dragnet.
Michael Morrell a Clinton supporting former CIA Director said MONTHS AGO “Clinton Ally Says Smoke, But No Fire: No Russia-Trump Collusion”
Clapper agrees with that chief. Even your homey Comey agreed with that.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/clinton-ally-says-smoke-no-fire-no-russia-trump-collusion-n734176
Preet Bharara, Sally Yates and James Comey: Fired while investigating Donald Trump
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/comey-yates-bharara-fired-after-investigations/index.html
Calling Trump is a dictator is an insult to people living in real dictatorships. Trump is still constrained by the constitution, the supreme court, and congress. He is limited to a four year term. He was actually elected by the people – he is not an airforce colonel who seized the white house through force.
I don’t like Trump and look forward to him being replaced by someone competent – but all of this talk of Trump being a dictator is turning the US into a third world country.
Yes, and it makes less informed people have real, but completely unjustified, fears. How many children woke up genuinely terrified the day after the election, even though they were in no real way threatened (illegals and children of illegals excepted), because their parents had led them to believe Trump=the death of democracy, and disaster for them personally? It is childish tantrum throwing by people who should know better.
James, of course there is a difference between a real dictatorship and what we are experiencing. Trump is an authoritarian who wants to be the king or dictator. He has become increasingly agitated and frustrated about the limits of his power as his tweets and other sources suggest. If he could fire anyone opposed to him; judges and congressmen, he would do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know what your point is other than to make a point about how talking about a dictatorship is turning us into a third world country. Maybe you need to rethink that one?
Well – third world countries often have oligopolistic control of their news media and partisan political divides. The current climate in the US reminds me more and more of countries like Brazil.
Here it is: Peak meltdown. Previous meltdowns pale in comparison to yours. I assume the next FBI director will be touted as pro-gulag from this rag. Disappointing drivel.
Increasingly reliable dissapointing drivel.
Let me get this straight. Comey, who clearly was derelict in his duty last year as he let Hillary Clinton off the hook for crimes he explicitly stated would have gotten anyone else prosecuted, and who has so far done absolutely nothing to stop Drumpf so far, was the last thing keeping the Great Orange Dope from going full-on dictator? This is a stretch even for the Clintonites now infesting The Intercept.
I am no Dump fan, but I have to agree, the same breathless hysteria that characterizes the MSM seems to rule the day here now, too. This is the same FBI director that the other side of the same (establishment) coin was screaming to have fired ten minutes ago for ‘delivering’ the election to Dumpie. Can’t wait to hear Hillary bemoan the unfair firing of a great American patriot. :)
And last I checked, the other two branches of government are fully intact and have had none of their powers impinged, where is the move to ‘dictatorship’? Seems like a nice distracting song and dance to me, while offstage the oligarchs and plutocrats continue to promote greater inequality and endless war (hey, were finally going to win in Afghanistan! and we’re massing troops on the Syrian-Jordanian border), with nary a peep from the media. How many months now have we set temperature records? Anybody notice a few months ago that the MIC floated a permanent presence in Iraq, to a few MSM shrugs? And accusations that the Russians have engaged in ‘war’ ‘hacking’ our election, have been complicit in Syrian ‘gassing’ civilians, and are now ‘supporting’ the Taliban, all convenient justifications piling up to justify WW3, are accepted as true without an ounce of skepticism. Journalism’s damn near as dead as the Democratic Party. We’re left with Glenn, FAIR, and folks like Caitlyn Johnson and Jimmy Dore, along with a few other independents. Intercept, not so much.
“Set aside politics: every American should condemn such political interference in the Bureau’s work.” Edward Snowden
https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/862067649748119553
The FBI has always been a highly politicized agency. Its practical purpose has long been to abuse the powers of the state in order to crush what J. Edgar Hoover saw as subversive, communist elements within the United States. Such was his paranoia that even legitimate opposition to wars based on lies was considered communist in nature. The FBI has spent more time spying on American dissenters and finding excuses to lock them up, than it ever has actually protecting the country or its people. Since Hoover’s un-lamented demise, the agency has become an appendage of the executive branch, highly politicized, sucking up to whomever its heads think will best support the agency. Comey was no different in that regard. He tried to suck up with his thumb in their air, switching allegiances in the moment, without thought for the consequences. Small wonder he finally went too far and got himself fired.
Firing Comey doesn’t interfere in the slightest with the Bureau’s work. If Comey had been doing the Bureau’s work instead of stealing his paycheck from the public while doing the work of his political bosses he would never have accepted the task he was given of “deciding” against Clinron’s prosecution.