Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Ken White's account is (always) worth a read:

https://twitter.com/popehat

He's a former AUSA whose overall views are probably highly simpatico with Sebastian.

This nugget came from today's PopeHat thread (which I've very much enjoyed):

"[T]he president’s eternal public flow of hyperbolic bullshit prevents any one instance of such from being unusual and thus protects it from any number of intent-focused charges."

Yup.

Is he an evil genius playing dumb? Well, I don't want to be accused of any turgidness here, but I'm going to go with "no." The Oust Trump Brigade has been chasing Chauncey Gardiner for the past 22 months.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

A very small detail, but one that I find hugely problematic: Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, says that he saw the Mueller report on Tuesday afternoon. I think there's a case to be made that DOJ can share the report with the White House (and before Congress sees it), because constitutionally, the Attorney General serves the President. But Sekulow serves Trump personally, not the President. Government officials should not be privileging private parties, even high-ranking government officials, particularly when they are denying access to Congress. If Sekulow saw the report -- and for that I'm relying on Jonathan Swan at Axios, who says that Sekulow told him he did -- then there is no excuse for withholding it from Congress.

I thought I heard Barr admit he showed Trump's personal lawyer the document during the press conference. But I might have been hallucinating again.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Go to the table of contents, find the section on Manafort's contacts with the Russians, and start there if you really want to know. Of course the juiciest bits are redacted.

I got the audio book. It's read by a Charles Nelson Reilly impersonator.

(I've not been able to search it yet, but thanks for pointing to good stuff to save me time.)

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Barr is protecting Trump, but strangely, Trump is probably worthy of protection here. He's a dimwit doing as dimwits do, not a master villain, or even a Nixon.

Dimwits can obstruct too.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

It's funny when people @ him thinking he is the Pope.

I found him years ago because he was blogging about the Prenda scheme. Good times.

I had something where I had to deal with the Prenda numbnuts at one point. What crooks.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I know it's heresy here, in the hair on fire world of Trump haters...

You're a clown.

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Is he an evil genius playing dumb?

The standard for criminal behavior does not include "genius." He can be both stupid and criminal at the same time.

TM

[ThurgreedMarshall]

No evidence of agreement and thus no criminal conspiracy, but most definitely coordination and cooperation (which I believe meets the dictionary definition of collusion).

“[C]ollusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law.”

As I said before, Mueller lays it all out because it's up to Congress to determine if what they did amounts to a high crime and misdemeanor, which does not have the same 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard as a criminal charge.

“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice."

"If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state."

Barr is completely full of shit.

TM

[Pretty Little Flower]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

The press conference and the report were each utterly damning in their own way. If you want to fixate on the question of whether Mueller or DOJ should have brought more criminal charges, you can focus only on that, but to me it's more important to have a public accounting of what the President and his people did.

You evidently are more bothered by (some) people reacting to Trump than by Trump. If that's where your contrarianism takes you, well, I guess you're stuck there.

Here's what I wrote before reading any of Sebastian's reactions to the press conference and report:

"I predict Sebastian will abandon all logic and integrity entirely in his demented and clown-like efforts to simultaneously fully justify the actions of Barr and completely downplay anything damning in the report, all the while laughably attempting to cast himself as an impartial beacon of wisdom, and claiming that all who disagree with him are hysterical chardonnay-swilling Nancies who cannot see the truth through their menstruation-induced crying jags."

I've not read his posts and choose not to. How close was I?

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The Oust Trump Brigade has been chasing Chauncey Gardiner for the past 22 months.

Chauncey Gardiner is most definitely impeachable.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower

I've not read his posts and choose not to. How close was I?

Cue the vuvuzelas

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

Chauncey Gardiner is most definitely impeachable.

Clouseau might be the more apt Sellers analogue.

The news on this is as insipid and craven as I expected. The same people accusing Barr of selectively quoting Mueller are doing the exact same thing.

The quote from Trump that he’s “fucked” is cited endlessly. The rest of the paragraph of the report from which that quote was lifted, which places the quote in a far less dramatic, and indeed exculpatory context, is never mentioned.

Again, the very worst in this? Our media.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

The standard for criminal behavior does not include "genius." He can be both stupid and criminal at the same time.

TM

Being so dumb and ADD addled that one appears unable to marshall the mental faculties to intend a criminal scheme is a pretty compelling defense to a criminal charge.

This guy so doesn’t know what he’s doing that he can’t intend anything. He’s truly blundering through his presidency.

The strange reality emerging is that, had McGhan been compliant in firing Mueller, both McGhan and Trump would probably face obstruction charges. Trump sought to do something arguably illegal, but McGhan saved him by refusing to join the conspiracy. The criminal code needs to amended to include a crime for attempted obstruction of justice.

I’ve no doubt some officious sort is working on it right now.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Clouseau might be the more apt Sellers analogue.

The news on this is as insipid and craven as I expected. The same people accusing Barr of selectively quoting Mueller are doing the exact same thing.

The quote from Trump that he’s “fucked” is cited endlessly. The rest of the paragraph of the report from which that quote was lifted, which places the quote in a far less dramatic, and indeed exculpatory context, is never mentioned.

Again, the very worst in this? Our media.

Don't dilute your personal brand now. When the going gets tough, the tough double down.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Meanwhile, your liberal media at work.