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Read the rules in the OP before posting, please.In order to ensure that this thread continues to meet TL standards and follows the proper guidelines, we will be enforcing the rules in the OP more strictly. Be sure to give them a re-read to refresh your memory! The vast majority of you are contributing in a healthy way, keep it up! NOTE: When providing a source, explain why you feel it is relevant and what purpose it adds to the discussion if it's not obvious. Also take note that unsubstantiated tweets/posts meant only to rekindle old arguments can result in a mod action. |
On July 27 2017 02:00 TheFish7 wrote:
Another masterful distraction from Trump. He's managed to do two things:
1. The liberal outrage machine is jumping all over the trans military ban, forgetting what they should really be outraged about.
2. Trump plays the pied piper to his base who have a bizarre fantasy that trans people in the military is an actual real problem.
The liberal outrage machine has grown in power and can now be pissed off about several things at once.
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On July 27 2017 02:00 TheFish7 wrote:
Another masterful distraction from Trump. He's managed to do two things:
1. The liberal outrage machine is jumping all over the trans military ban, forgetting what they should really be outraged about.
2. Trump plays the pied piper to his base who have a bizarre fantasy that trans people in the military is an actual real problem.
Says a lot about Trump if he can't comprehend juggling more than one thought at once.
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On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump.
I don't think he's getting away that easy anyways. His name is part of a FBI investigation. Just cause his "boss" is about to "fire" him, doesn't mean he's going to get off that easy.
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On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump.
Psh he's always had his Senate cred. It bolstered the Trump campaign when he signed on and Trump brought on his advisor that's still there in Trump admin. Sessions has been a fighting conservative stalwart on gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He's fine and will do fine whatever happens (and Trump would be a fool to fire him, but he might be just that foolish.)
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On July 27 2017 02:14 Danglars wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump. Psh he's always had his Senate cred. It bolstered the Trump campaign when he signed on and Trump brought on his advisor that's still there in Trump admin. Sessions has been a fighting conservative stalwart on gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He's fine and will do fine whatever happens (and Trump would be a fool to fire him, but he might be just that foolish.)
I think we can get rid of 'might' at this point. He is.
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On July 27 2017 02:16 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 02:14 Danglars wrote:On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump. Psh he's always had his Senate cred. It bolstered the Trump campaign when he signed on and Trump brought on his advisor that's still there in Trump admin. Sessions has been a fighting conservative stalwart on gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He's fine and will do fine whatever happens (and Trump would be a fool to fire him, but he might be just that foolish.) I think we can get rid of 'might' at this point. He is.
I think he is stupid enough to fire him.
I also think he is too much of a coward to do it. Trump his this big bully attitude but he strikes me as a big coward when it comes to actually doing things.
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I will be so happy when this healthcare fight is over. It is impossible to plan for anything while this nightmare is going on.
Edit: I am also not excited to have to pay my parents medical bills or the cost to put them in a nursing home. Apparently that is still a thing.
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On July 27 2017 02:20 IyMoon wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 02:16 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On July 27 2017 02:14 Danglars wrote:On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump. Psh he's always had his Senate cred. It bolstered the Trump campaign when he signed on and Trump brought on his advisor that's still there in Trump admin. Sessions has been a fighting conservative stalwart on gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He's fine and will do fine whatever happens (and Trump would be a fool to fire him, but he might be just that foolish.) I think we can get rid of 'might' at this point. He is. I think he is stupid enough to fire him. I also think he is too much of a coward to do it. Trump his this big bully attitude but he strikes me as a big coward when it comes to actually doing things.
I wonder if Comey would agree with that :p
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On July 27 2017 02:23 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 02:20 IyMoon wrote:On July 27 2017 02:16 ZerOCoolSC2 wrote:On July 27 2017 02:14 Danglars wrote:On July 27 2017 01:57 mahrgell wrote:On July 27 2017 01:37 mozoku wrote:
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Trump’s Sessions Abuse
Donald Trump won’t let even success intrude on his presidential ego, so naturally he couldn’t let the Senate’s health-care victory stand as the story of Tuesday. Instead he continued to demean Jeff Sessions, and in the process he is harming himself, alienating allies, and crossing dangerous legal and political lines.
For a week President Trump has waged an unseemly campaign against his own Attorney General, telling the New York Times he wished he’d never hired him, unleashing a tweet storm that has accused Mr. Sessions of being “beleaguered” and “weak.”
Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family. But that frustration has now taken a darker turn. This humiliation campaign is clearly aimed at forcing a Sessions resignation. Any Cabinet appointee serves at a President’s pleasure, but the deeply troubling aspect of this exercise is Mr. Trump’s hardly veiled intention: the commencement of a criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton by the Department of Justice and the firing of special prosecutor Robert Mueller.
On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Sessions “has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. ” This might play well with the red-meat crowd in Mr. Trump’s Twitterverse, but Sen. Lindsey Graham was explicit and correct in describing the legal line Mr. Trump had crossed.
“Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation,” Sen. Graham said. “To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party.” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also came to Mr. Sessions’ defense, citing his “unwavering commitment to the rule of law,” and Sen. Richard Shelby called him “a man of integrity.”
We will put the problem more bluntly. Mr. Trump’s suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan’s Turkey or Duterte’s Philippines.
Mr. Sessions had no way of knowing when he accepted the AG job that the Russia probe would become the firestorm it has, or that his belated memory of brief, public meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016 would require his recusal from supervising the probe. He was right to step back once the facts were out, not the least to shelter the Trump Administration from any suspicion of a politicized investigation.
If Mr. Trump wants someone to blame for the existence of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he can pick up a mirror. That open-ended probe is the direct result of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey months into his Russia investigation and then tweet that Mr. Comey should hope there are no Oval Office tapes of their meeting. That threat forced Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel.
As a candidate, Mr. Trump thought he could say anything and get away with it, and most often he did. A sitting President is not a one-man show. He needs allies in politics and allies to govern. Mr. Trump’s treatment of Jeff Sessions makes clear that he will desert both at peril to his Presidency.
No matter how powerful the office of the Presidency, it needs department leaders to execute policy. If by firing or forcing out Jeff Sessions Mr. Trump makes clear that his highest priority is executing personal political desires or whims, he will invite resignations from his first-rate Cabinet and only political hacks will stand in to replace them. And forget about Senate confirmation of his next AG.
Even on the day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was scraping together enough Republican votes to avoid a humiliating defeat for the President on health care, Mr. Trump was causing Senators to publicly align themselves with Mr. Sessions. Past some point of political erosion, Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda will become impossible to accomplish. Mr. Trump prides himself as a man above political convention, but there are some conventions he can’t ignore without destroying his Presidency.
SourceI mentioned to someone yesterday that the WSJ is no Fox News and is closer to Mitch McConnell/Paul Ryan than Hannity in its relationship with him. I thought the article independently brought up some interesting points as well. These twitter attacks must have been Sessions wet dream. He was highly questioned and doubted in his motivations and intentions. And now, that it looked like he was going down with the ship he himself prepped to sail, suddenly his captain is firing away at him, and he finds support along all kinds of fronts, from the left and from the right, everyone talks about his integrity and he is basically martyring himself in his position. A few years from now he can probably look back and say that those tweets were the ebst thing that could ever happen in this situation, as they allow him to somehow escape the Trump association, which seemed impossible given his early strong support of Trump. Psh he's always had his Senate cred. It bolstered the Trump campaign when he signed on and Trump brought on his advisor that's still there in Trump admin. Sessions has been a fighting conservative stalwart on gun control, immigration, and a host of other issues. He's fine and will do fine whatever happens (and Trump would be a fool to fire him, but he might be just that foolish.) I think we can get rid of 'might' at this point. He is. I think he is stupid enough to fire him. I also think he is too much of a coward to do it. Trump his this big bully attitude but he strikes me as a big coward when it comes to actually doing things. I wonder if Comey would agree with that :p
Granted, Comey is the only hole in my argument.
If you think of everything else he promised though, he has backed off. (promised revenge wise , special prosecutors... firing people)
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What happens when this transgender ban falls apart in three days? He obviously didn't run this by Mattis and the military has no idea how to implement this. Bannon and Coulter convinced Trump this would play well with the base, but DJT didn't do any of the necessary homework/teamwork it would require to implement such a thing. Do the cultists care? I guess this is just more Scott Adams style persuasion-by-going-nowhere-and-doing-nothing nonsense.
Further, there has been no ideological ground clearing for the transgender ban. Newt and Hannity have not put out any propaganda so the cultists aren't even primed to clap for this ban. This stinks of Trump's Russia-Cybersecurity team plan that fell apart in 6 hours.
EDIT: when the Command in Chief of the military issues a pants on head order that the military can't follow through on, the Office of the President is weakened. It is important that the military follows the orders of the Command in Chief and failed orders hurt that critical constitutional limitation on the military.
EDIT2: for Trump to be digging this deep into the emergency distraction play toolbox, there must be something going on in the Mueller investigation. 'Banning transgenders' had to be the 'break in case of emergency' play that he was saving just in case. Or the Senate Republican healthcare disaster falls apart tonight?
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The ban will face legal changes instantly. It flies in the face of a bunch of laws and military regulations. The PR angle is terrible, considering that transgender folks likely already face some discrimination in the military. And the military spends a whole bunch of money on Viagra(the number 41 million was being thrown around, but I question its accuracy). This is a fight no one asked for.
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On July 27 2017 02:41 Plansix wrote:
The ban will face legal changes instantly. It flies in the face of a bunch of laws and military regulations. The PR angle is terrible, considering that transgender folks likely already face some discrimination in the military. And the military spends a whole bunch of money on Viagra(the number 41 million was being thrown around, but I question its accuracy). This is a fight no one asked for.
But will it even make it to the court challenge? DJT didn't work with the Joint Chiefs to actually make this something they could push down the chain of command. Don't Ask Don't Tell had to be pushed down through the chain of command. There is nothing here.
EDIT: for reference, check out DADT:
http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/dodd/corres/html2/d130426x.htm
You know DJT didn't do any of that work here and he hasn't gotten the buy in of the Joint Chiefs or Mattis for writing a trans ban.
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Relevant and a good read.
Edit: Mattis is on vacation from reports. I'm sure he heard about this on twitter.
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On July 27 2017 02:45 Plansix wrote:
Edit: Mattis is on vacation from reports. I'm sure he heard about this on twitter.
But Trump said he discussed it with his generals and military experts. Do you think he would even lie about something trivial like that?
Also praise be to the lord of caps-lock
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On July 27 2017 03:02 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 02:45 Plansix wrote:
Edit: Mattis is on vacation from reports. I'm sure he heard about this on twitter. But Trump said he discussed it with his generals and military experts. Do you think he would even lie about something trivial like that? Also praise be to the lord of caps-lock https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890260758050856961
Man. I understand the right wanted someone to finally tell the left to shove it, but this is not productive.
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If Trump had actually worked this out to be a functional policy that can be executed, why isn't he announcing it with some guys in uniform standing behind him? Until I see Trump with the Joint Chiefs and Mattis at his back and a written DOD policy directive, this is a 48 hour distraction play to cover for healthcare or Mueller.
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In America we specifically separate God from the Government?
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United States44285 Posts
On July 27 2017 03:02 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 27 2017 02:45 Plansix wrote:
Edit: Mattis is on vacation from reports. I'm sure he heard about this on twitter. But Trump said he discussed it with his generals and military experts. Do you think he would even lie about something trivial like that? Also praise be to the lord of caps-lock https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890260758050856961
Is that a troll account?
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What a absolutely terrifying tweet.
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EPT
