Does no one here find the following a little…strange?
I do.
The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.
Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.
A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.
I repeat:
“A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. Sarah Isgur Flores, the spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also declined to comment.”
Almost three days so far, and nobody’s sayin’ nuthin’!!!
In the midst of a rapidly gathering constitutional crisis…because bet on it, that’s what’s headed our way, and soon…the only two involved parties to open their mouths with any seriousness are two repeatedly proven liars, James Clapper and Donald Trump. They contradict each other and thus their proclivityies for lying cancel each other out.
Everyone else…? The silence before the storm.
No one is willing to get in the way of what is about to happen because no one is really sure exactly what is going to happen.
Another interesting piece of info from today’s (Monday’s) early news:
In a piece about Trump’s angry reaming out of his staff on Friday (“[He}]went ‘ballistic,’ senior White House sources told ABC News.”).,ABC appended this little tidbit right at the end of the story:
As President Trump was in the air aboard Marine One headed for Air Force One on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, a last-minute phone call was made from the West Wing to the team on board the president’s plane with a directive to remove Priebus and Bannon from the manifest, sources said. They would not be coming to the Sunshine State.
Now…either the have been tasked with handling this business by themselves, staked out all alone in DC while the PermaWolves draw ever closer and Trump tries to keep his hands as clean as he can get them, or else they are going to be his designated patsies.
Later…
AG
P.S. Or of course…as in a vision I had fairly recently…Air Force One is on its way to a safe haven.
Like…Moscow.
(Just kiddin’…I think…)
Stay tuned.
P.P.S. Charles Dickens would have loved many of the names in this little novel. Trump, Comey, Bannon, Prince Rebus…errr, ahhh, Reince Priebus…
AP
Bannon got a lift back to DC on AF-1. He and Kushner were on duty at the WH last evening and this morning.
Trump is now getting a taste of Borg or Blob hardball when it isn’t saddled with covering other presidential candidates. And he fell right into their laps in past four days.
Trump is his own biggest enemy and that’s saying something!
Consider the quality and competence of his enemies. He’s been shooting himself in the foot from the opening of his campaign June 2015, but that combined with the punches his opponents, including the MSM, landed is only roughly similar to the punches he’s landed on them.
Another book title “Confederacy of Dunces”.
It is now Tuesday morning. Four days after Comey’s public “request”…a request that is usually treated more like an order, especially if it is publicized.
Not a (public) word from DOJ.
HMMMmmmm…
Anybody have any ideas?
I’m stumped.
I am especially stumped that this is not front page news in and of itself itself.
What gives?
AG
Either Comey is bluffing because he knows there’s nobody at DOJ that can, is able, or is willing to issue a public statement or there is nobody at DOJ that can, is able, or is willing to issue a public statement?
If I were in an appointed DOJ position (and knew nothing other than what Comey has said), I wouldn’t want to touch it. “You’re fired” is one of DT’s favorite phrases. And insiders also have their own suspicions (possibly as often incorrect as correct) and going out on a limb on something or for someone that one can’t verify risks one’s survival. If I were in any DOJ position and knew more (either that Comey isn’t entirely correct as to the FBI or that it’s false wrt to one or more other agencies), I wouldn’t touch it.
Isn’t FBI Director an appointed position and thus subject to “You’re fired!”? Or does Comey have a file like Hoover? I remember from the Nixon tapes, “J.Edgar Hoover, there was a man! He had a file on everyone!”
Of course there are those rumored underage sex flights. Could Comey be sitting on something? Not any good in Court but plenty good in the Press? What was Clinton’s Original Sin? Sex with an adult, willing and eager intern of the opposite sex. Nothing to prosecute there, but in the Court of Public Opinion…
Yes, appointed to a ten year term, but a President can fire the FBI Director for cause. That’s a much higher standard than those appointed who serve at the pleasure of the President. Only one was FBI Director has been fired, William Sessions. Reagan appointee who appears to have been loathed by the GHWB administration, but it was Clinton mid-1993 that fired him after he refused to resign.
Hoover — based on extremely rudimentary knowledge — the times couldn’t have been more perfect for a character like him. Times that he likely participated in creating such as the Hayes Code and the anti-communism. If he didn’t have a complete file on every politician, they were led to believe that he did. With an anti-communist and Puritan revival landscape, anything, regardless of how minor, could be inflated to smear and destroy politicians and celebrities. He apparently delight in collecting what was then considered salacious. A very warped individual. And one nobody dared to cross. The SOB had to die (age 77) to get him out of there.
Why, IMHO, the Hoover and Tolson relationship has never risen above the level of rumor is that they had few close and safe friends. One or two may have talked later but that’s too few to give them much credibility. Hoover also had a couple of long term beards which is effective to deceive straight homophobic people. If either of them were ever promiscuous, it would have been when they were young and the sex was furtive and anonymous. “Safe people” know, don’t care, and don’t talk about the sexuality of others — not even to a closeted or semi-closeted gay or lesbian individual unless invited to do so by that person.
Long term beards? I’m not familiar with that term. Or a typo? can’t think of what typo it could be.
A “beard” is a term used for a heterosexual companion of a homosexual person used with the intent of masking his or her homosexuality.
AG
Ah! That makes sense. In fact I have heard of male and female homosexuals faking a relationship to masquerad both. It would certainly help if they were actually friends, then they could go on dinner or theater dates and hint at more to their straight friends, having fun and deepening their cover. Of course, that was before the gay revolution, like back in the ’60s and ’70s
It would certainly help if they were actually friends, then they could go on dinner or theater dates and hint at more to their straight friends, having fun and deepening their cover.
While there are variations, that’s pretty much how it goes. Often includes rumors that the two may marry or are engaged. Except in double-cover (gay and lesbian) relationships, the woman may consider it an authentic heterosexual relationship and there is no deception on her part. That’s more difficult to maintain for a longer period of time than when the woman is aware and accepts the role. Marriage may be part of the equation; although IMO that’s cruel if the woman doesn’t understand the score.*
A further complication is that emotional and lifestyle affiliation doesn’t always conform with one’s sexual orientation. And there are authentic bisexuals that do form complete physical, emotional, and lifestyle bonds with partners of both sexes.
*Both men and women unclear about or unable to accept their sexual orientation, marry a person of the opposite sex with the expectation that it will resolve the issue for them. It doesn’t. ie. Christian Mom Blogger Reveals Relationship With Soccer Star Abby Wambach and Famous parenting blogger Jill Smokler is divorcing her gay husband. All the recent changes and acceptance of same-sex relationships should reduce the number of such stories — in most a lot of pain is involved for the parties — but they’ll still happen.
Yes, I’ve heard of that too. So much of what we learned about sex in the ’50s and ’60s was untrue. I’ll say untrue because those who taught us may not have been aware that they were teaching falsehoods. Never did understand why God should care if we were doing it and with whom as long as there were no lies or force or extortion involved. If the Devil was the one giving us urges then he was the one who wanted the human race to survive and God, who is supposed to love us, prefers we all be celibate and have the human race die out. Not to mention that He is one condemning people to Hell, not the Devil. He sets up the rules, setting us up to fail. What’s that?
“God” through religions preaches both celibacy and breeding like rabbits. The reconciliation between the two is marriage.
Or as Paul(?) said: “It is better to marry than to burn.” Implicitly, best to do neither. What a fun guy he was! The original Christian misogynist. Jesus of Nazareth I have no quarrel with, but his successors…