Trump fires FBI Director James Comey

[The Jester]

You're looking at a major political route come 2018. As beholden as a lot of Republicans are to their donors, they can read poll numbers.

[Broomstick]

We're probably talking about the work of dozens of FBI investigators here. If some serious shit went down, they're going to be fucking pissed about having all their hard work swept under the rug in the name of politics. Someone is bound to leak if they haven't already taken action after seeing the breaking news report.

And then what? Another negative news story about Trump? If congress doesn't want to do anything and Trump's pet AG stays compliant precisely fuck all results. Trump calls it fake news and moves on to the next outrage.

Not to mention trashing their own careers - it's becoming more and more apparent that anyone who questions the current administration is going to get canned and smeared.

[The Jester]

Sure. But the alternative is possibly accessory to covering up some serious criminal charges. It's possible that every one of the investigators that have access to critical evidence decides to aid in the cover up. It's also possible that faced with a prisoner's dilemma, they all agree to cooperate and trust that no one is secretly leaking information. I don't think it's likely, however. And I have a hard time believing Comey didn't ensure a few investigators loyal to him were assigned to the case. He had to have seen this as a possibility.

But true. I also remember what happened with the Iraq Invasion, Bush-era torture and Valerie Plame and I don't dismiss the fact that this could go the same way. However, I do believe this is a different situation, that Trump's cronies are nowhere near as competent as Bush and Cheney's and we live in a different era. Regardless, we're about to see some serious shit go down over the next month or so.

[Broomstick]

One difference is that I think cronies under the Bushes, Clintons, and others had more security in regards to keeping a job - Trump has demonstrated zero loyalty to underlings (like the toxic CEO he is) and happily throws anyone and everyone under the bus.

Why the hell would anyone cover up for someone who will just turn around and engineer that you take a fall a month later?

[Knife]

Remind me why Chaffetz would be vulnerable above and beyond the common run of Republican congressmen?

All I really know about him is that Howard Taylor of Schlock Mercenary despises him, which is good enough for me but might not be for others.

Chaffetz was in one of those 'safe' districts where him being elected was a forgone conclusion. Except until the healthcare vote that pissed enough people in his district off that a doctor who decided to challenge him in the next election and announced it, immediately got a huge rush of small donations and no pledges of help from big national Dems.

He was vulnerable, and yes I know a lot of GOPers are due to the healthcare vote, but Caffetz was vulnerable in one of those easy to get reelected districts. Now add on top of it any thing Caffetz knows about Trump/Russia probe.

[Knife]

We're probably talking about the work of dozens of FBI investigators here. If some serious shit went down, they're going to be fucking pissed about having all their hard work swept under the rug in the name of politics. Someone is bound to leak if they haven't already taken action after seeing the breaking news report.

And then what? Another negative news story about Trump? If congress doesn't want to do anything and Trump's pet AG stays compliant precisely fuck all results. Trump calls it fake news and moves on to the next outrage.

Not to mention trashing their own careers - it's becoming more and more apparent that anyone who questions the current administration is going to get canned and smeared.

If it gets shut down, there will be so many leaks. It'll be worse for the GOP than just an investigation. Career FBI guys seeing something huge like this and getting shut down for political reasons. It's not going to sit well with them. They'll leak.

[Caiaphas]

And then what? Another negative news story about Trump? If congress doesn't want to do anything and Trump's pet AG stays compliant precisely fuck all results. Trump calls it fake news and moves on to the next outrage.

Not to mention trashing their own careers - it's becoming more and more apparent that anyone who questions the current administration is going to get canned and smeared.

If it gets shut down, there will be so many leaks. It'll be worse for the GOP than just an investigation. Career FBI guys seeing something huge like this and getting shut down for political reasons. It's not going to sit well with them. They'll leak.

Is there any history of that happening? I'm young enough that I don't remember much from the Bush years and I can't bring anything to mind from the Obama era.

[The Romulan Republic]

We're probably talking about the work of dozens of FBI investigators here. If some serious shit went down, they're going to be fucking pissed about having all their hard work swept under the rug in the name of politics. Someone is bound to leak if they haven't already taken action after seeing the breaking news report.

And then what? Another negative news story about Trump? If congress doesn't want to do anything and Trump's pet AG stays compliant precisely fuck all results. Trump calls it fake news and moves on to the next outrage.

More fuel for the 2018 and 2020 Democratic campaigns, at least (provided Trump hasn't abolished elections by then). Plus it ensures that the evidence won't be destroyed for the historical record, at least.

[Thanas]

Lol.

People did not care about Bush lying about a war and getting thousands of Americans killed two years after the fact.
They did not care about torture or any other stuff like the abolishment of civil liberties.
They did not care about most of those programs going on under Obama (who also added unchecked droning on the list).

I would think that conspiracy with a foreign government will rank lower than causing tens of thousands of Americans to get wrecked.

[Khaat]

Well, loss of affordable health care has the potential to kill up to 26 million extra Americans ("us", over the next ten years), so tens of thousands killed under Bush or Obama ("them", over 12 years) is, really, small potatoes. And it isn't just "conspiracy with a foreign government", it's "conspiracy to undermine the US election, international relations and affairs, internal affairs, justice system, etc., etc.."

I also don't think it's "they didn't care about the wrongs done under Bush/Obama" it's just that the wrongs done by Trump are more immediate, so less easily dismissed/rationalized, as they have an immediate effect on them, personally, everyday. It's about the human skill of prioritizing: if it happens to a stranger half a world away, it's "sad", when it happens to you in your house, it's "a GODDAMN OUTRAGE!"

[Thanas]

Well, loss of affordable health care has the potential to kill up to 26 million extra Americans ("us", over the next ten years), so tens of thousands killed under Bush or Obama ("them", over 12 years)

US troops are now "them"?

[The Romulan Republic]

Lol.

People did not care about Bush lying about a war and getting thousands of Americans killed two years after the fact.
They did not care about torture or any other stuff like the abolishment of civil liberties.
They did not care about most of those programs going on under Obama (who also added unchecked droning on the list).

Actually, people did care, some of them anyway. Bush was a highly unpopular President towards the end of his term (though some of that was Katrina-related). Clinton's support for the war came back to haunt her in both 2008 and 2016. Do not doubt that Obama's curb stomp of McCain was due partly to popular sentiment towards the Iraq war at the time.

I know "Americans are evil" is kind of your shtick, but you could stand to have a slightly more nuanced and less generalized view of a diverse nation of over 300 million people.

I would think that conspiracy with a foreign government will rank lower than causing tens of thousands of Americans to get wrecked.

If that "conspiracy" is a betrayal of the country which undermines both our vote and our national sovereignty...

Well, if moral outrage doesn't suffice, nationalist pride might.

[Khaat]

Well, loss of affordable health care has the potential to kill up to 26 million extra Americans ("us", over the next ten years), so tens of thousands killed under Bush or Obama ("them", over 12 years)

US troops are now "them"?

Actually, I was referring to the natives of those "poor little brown countries", who died in far greater numbers than US troops. The US troops lost did knock down Bush (and Obama to a lesser extent) popularity, as other have pointed out.

[Thanas]

Apparently not enough to prevent re-election.

[The Romulan Republic]

The war had only been going on for a year and a half by the time Bush was reelected, and so, as depressing as that result was, I think its perhaps not surprising that the full scope of the cluster fuck hadn't sunk in yet, and Bush was able to capitalize on the traditional war-time incumbent boost.

Its still the worst call the American voters have made in my life time, however (I don't count Bush 2000 or Trump because the voters actually picked the other guy those times ). But by 2008, the tables had turned.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Thanas is, quite honestly, right on the money. The average voter just doesn't give a fuck unless it directly affects them, and it has to have happened within the past week. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say most of the Americans on the board are not "the average voter." Thanas is not saying Americans are evil so much as that the voters are just... apathetic about anything that isn't happening to them.

The 2018 backlash will be non-existent for current events. It has to happen within a month or less for most voters to even fucking remember it. Look back on all the different things that liberals put their hopes on swinging things in 2016 elections... And those things ended up not really making a difference. Shit that happened within about half a month of the actual elections is what mattered. If the GOP truly does worry about optics, they will placate voters with lipservice measures just prior to the elections and that's all it will take. Call me cynical if you want, but I prefer to call it "paying attention to how every fucking election in my lifetime has gone." Unless people are hurting now they won't remember and will just vote for the guy who spouts what they believe.

[Tribble]

Thanas is, quite honestly, right on the money. The average voter just doesn't give a fuck unless it directly affects them, and it has to have happened within the past week. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say most of the Americans on the board are not "the average voter." Thanas is not saying Americans are evil so much as that the voters are just... apathetic about anything that isn't happening to them.

The 2018 backlash will be non-existent for current events. It has to happen within a month or less for most voters to even fucking remember it. Look back on all the different things that liberals put their hopes on swinging things in 2016 elections... And those things ended up not really making a difference. Shit that happened within about half a month of the actual elections is what mattered. If the GOP truly does worry about optics, they will placate voters with lipservice measures just prior to the elections and that's all it will take. Call me cynical if you want, but I prefer to call it "paying attention to how every fucking election in my lifetime has gone." Unless people are hurting now they won't remember and will just vote for the guy who spouts what they believe.

I'll say that for swing voters, generally only the events of the last week or two really count. Clinton was steadily climbing (mostly due to all the stupid crap Trump was pulling) until ZOMG EMAILS! at the last minute. Had that happened a month prior it wouldn't have mattered all that much.

As for the rest, many already decided who they support, so what does events like this matter? "I'm a Republican, therefore I vote Republican" is the only thing that counts.

[Thanas]

I know "Americans are evil" is kind of your shtick, but you could stand to have a slightly more nuanced and less generalized view of a diverse nation of over 300 million people.

.....

Learn to read and maybe not strawman my position once in a while. Can you do that, sweetie?

If you promise to try real hard I will try real hard to take you seriously and as somebody worthy of a reply.

[Thanas]

The times:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/u ... dubBGznAz1

WASHINGTON — Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in resources for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election, according to four congressional officials, including Senator Richard J. Durbin.

Mr. Comey made his appeal to Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who also wrote the Justice Department’s memo that was used to justify the firing of Mr. Comey this week, the officials said.

[Tribble]

For those who are interested in how much Fox will spin things, well here you go:

Sean Hannity: Good riddance to James Comey, a national embarrassment

James Comey, the now-former FBI director, was lucky that President Trump kept him around as long as he did, given his unhinged and very erratic behavior. He had become a national embarrassment.
Comey failed the American people on a spectacular level. At every turn, he disrespected the Constitution and showed he does not care about the equal application of the rule of law. He stood by while our Fourth Amendment rights were trampled. Worst of all, he created a two-tiered justice system, one for Hillary and Bill Clinton, and one for the rest of America.
Consider the facts. Hillary Clinton used a private email server to circumvent congressional oversight and sunshine laws. That server contained top-secret special access programs -- in other words, the highest level of classified information on her computer. She deleted over 30,000 emails on that computer, claiming they were personal.
Back in July, when Comey made his big announcement on Hillary Clinton and the investigation, he acknowledged all of these facts. In doing so, he acknowledged that crimes had been committed. After noting that hundreds of emails found on the unsecured server were classified or top secret, Comey told us why it was such a dangerous situation.
“None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system,” he said. “But their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full- time security staff, like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail.”
In 13 minutes, Comey laid out an airtight legal case against Hillary Clinton. And then, inexplicably, he let her off the hook. Comey completely ignored all the laws that Hillary Clinton broke. If you or I had done anything close to what Hillary Clinton did, we would be perp walked, fingerprinted, mugshotted and put in jail.
In the end, Comey proved himself to be nothing more than a political hack. Was it because Comey thought Hillary was going to win and become the president? Did he like the power of holding the trajectory of the election in his hands? We may never know.
But we do know there was more than enough to drop the hammer on the Clintons. Through the Clinton Foundation, they lined their pockets with millions of dollars -- while Hillary was serving as secretary of state. Comey sat on the sidelines, despite overwhelming evidence. And Clinton even give up 20 percent of this nation's uranium to Vladimir Putin in this corrupt Uranium One deal. She personally, as secretary of state, had to sign off.
Like the alt-left, destroy-Trump propaganda media, Comey gave Clinton a pass. But there was no pass for Gen. Michael Flynn, who was spied on, had his identity unmasked and his name leaked to the press. Whomever did that committed a felony, but Comey was remarkably uncurious about getting to the bottom of that one.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, the Department of Justice lawyer who refused to enforce President Trump’s travel ban, is one of a few people who was in a position to leak that information about Flynn. Comey never talked to her about it.
About the only investigation Comey ever seemed to get excited about is the one into supposed Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. No evidence has come to light, but Comey told anyone who would listen that he was on the case.
In his letter firing Comey, the president revealed Comey told him on three separate occasions he's not being investigated. Why didn't the FBI director tell us that? Especially since he was so quick to divulge information exonerating Hillary Clinton.
To James Comey, good riddance. You deserve everything you got.
Adapted from Sean Hannity's monologue on "Hannity," May 9, 2017

[The Romulan Republic]

I know "Americans are evil" is kind of your shtick, but you could stand to have a slightly more nuanced and less generalized view of a diverse nation of over 300 million people.

.....

Learn to read and maybe not strawman my position once in a while. Can you do that, sweetie?

If you promise to try real hard I will try real hard to take you seriously and as somebody worthy of a reply.

I might also suggest that you try responding to criticism with something other than condescension.

That said, I did not intend to straw man, but I'll acknowledge that I exaggerated a little, and that I was probably more snide than I needed to be. My apologies.

I still feel that you are underestimating the public backlash to the Iraq War in the United States, however.

[The Jester]

For those who are interested in how much Fox will spin things, well here you go:

It would've been interesting to be a fly on the wall during the production meetings where Fox decided to go down this path. Sure, they've gone down this path before, but a few of them know they're playing with some serious political fire here. They know they need to sell an absolute stinker of a reason for the termination. They know the parallels with Nixon that are occurring here. They know that if they back the wrong horse, they could be facing major advertiser boycotts.

Actually, the same would go when for the meeting where they decided on Comey's reason for termination and drafted his termination letter and press release.
"Seriously?! That's the best you can do?!"
"Yes, Sir. The man's almost completely clean otherwise."
"You know we have to sell this to the public right? Media's going to be all over this like coke on hookers at a banker's bachelor party."
"I understand, Sir. But for all of Comey's transgressions we could find, this really was the only one that stood out."
"Do you remember... What... Oh... Four months ago when we defended the guy for the exact same fucking behaviour?!"
"Yes, Sir."
"And that's still the best you can come up with?"
"Yes, Sir."
"And you're expecting us to sell that for the next god-knows-how-long-the-media-frenzy-will-last?!"
"..."
"You ever heard of a man named Richard Milhous Nixon?"
"..."

A few moments later...

"The President wants to add what?!"
"A paragraph detailing how he's not under investigation to show that this termination isn't related to the ongoing Russian investigations."
"Why don't we just add a fucking neon sign declaring this to be a politically motivated termination while we at it?! It'd look less suspicious."

There is not a political satire on this Earth that would script something this insane. Even the most off-the-wall would reject such a script for being this outlandish.

[Flagg]

We're probably talking about the work of dozens of FBI investigators here. If some serious shit went down, they're going to be fucking pissed about having all their hard work swept under the rug in the name of politics. Someone is bound to leak if they haven't already taken action after seeing the breaking news report.

And then what? Another negative news story about Trump? If congress doesn't want to do anything and Trump's pet AG stays compliant precisely fuck all results. Trump calls it fake news and moves on to the next outrage.

Pretty much this. I hate that we all need to keep reminding ourselves that a huge portion (Bowie help us if it's even a feathers weight on the scale in favor of it being a majority) of the Trumpists who for the time being consider themselves Republicans live in an alternate reality where anything criticizing their shitty diapered messiah is just fake news made up by pagans witches Jews commies liberals who hate America.

[Flagg]

Lol.

People did not care about Bush lying about a war and getting thousands of Americans killed two years after the fact.
They did not care about torture or any other stuff like the abolishment of civil liberties.
They did not care about most of those programs going on under Obama (who also added unchecked droning on the list).

I would think that conspiracy with a foreign government will rank lower than causing tens of thousands of Americans to get wrecked.

The thing about that is that Americans (who are by and large cowards when there are attacks on their own soil by foreign elements) were in "poor us, what have we ever done, why do they hate us?" mode immediately followed by "we're pissed, do anything to prevent more attacks on our land by r*gh**ds so we feel safe that if we're killed in a movie theater or at the mall it's a crazy American with a gun" mode, then "do whatever on foreign soil and make the media stop showing us pictures of our troops torturing evil doers because it disturbs us" mode.

[Flagg]

Thanas is not saying Americans are evil so much as that the voters are just... apathetic about anything that isn't happening to them.

If Thanas is not saying that at least most Americans are evil then he's wrong. Unless you consider apathy in the face of an evil regime that unleashed unspeakable horrors upon entire regions of the world that resulted in the killing of, in some estimates, millions of people and ultimately leading to organizations like ISIS (that all of the willing armies of the "civilized west" can't seem to stop) as anything but evil.