John Smith

So it turns out the shooter has links to white supremacist groups. Another reminder that extremist whit nationalism is just as dangerous as extremist Islamic ideologies. In fact, I gather in this country it's statistically more dangerous.

This may or may not be true. Right now there’s one source who does not quite get the shooters name right. In the long run he may be a white supremicist, but the sourcing is sketchy right now.

You could say that about 95% of the media that is out there. Journalism is dead.

My example is one whose only purpose is to score political points. Real media actually tries to do their job right and get tainted by this shit.

The shooter's name is apparently Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, so stay tuned.

Gateway pundit got to his name, looked him up and proclaimed him a liberal democrat voter etc... only they got it wrong, completely. The actual shooter spells his name with a k, nikolas. So now some guy is probably getting death threats and unwarranted harassment because some shit heads, Lucien Weintrich/gateway pundit, were trying to score quick political points rather than actually doing some reporting.

Somehow it will be Obama's or Clinton's fault.

Hannity has it covered, it’s clearly Obama’s fault. Seriously. His moronic followers won’t put 2+2 together though. Hannity says that Obama’s fed kept interest rates low and that caused artificially inflated prices that tanked last week and this week. That will be good enough for them. They won’t in any way shape or form acknowledge that those same policies have been in effect during the gains claimed by trump and touted by fox. Obama’s bad policies can touch single days of trading it seems.

Paul Ryan stepped in it yesterday when he tweeted about a secretary who was getting an additional $1.50/week in her paycheck because of the tax cuts. He was rightfully ridiculed and deleted the tweet.

 

People confuse their paycheck with tax relief these days and they shouldn’t. You should calculate the tax year over year using the old law and the new law and compare the tax. For instance if you have 4 or 5 exemptions and your deductions are in the $23k range and your in the new 22% bracket, depending on your income you could pay more under the new rules. You would still get $xx more in your check because of the new withholding tables, but in the long run you’re not better off. Everyone’s tax picture is different and all the parts are different for everybody so you get different results. For instance in my example if you lower the current itemized deductions to $13k you are better off under the new law. Don’t be fooled by lower withholding on your new checks.

a sin of omission in the Nunes memo is that the conservative Washington Free Beacon started the intelligence gathering on Trump. I believe they may have hired Baker McKenzie who hired Fusion who hired Steele, or they hired Fusion directly.  Regardless the research was started by conservatives and Steele had no idea who the research was being done for.  Note though the Free Beacon denies they had anything to do with this now, however it has been testified to in congress once or twice that this is the chain of events. Also omitted is that multiple sources have noted that when applying for the FISA warrant the judge was aware that a political entity had been paying for research contained in the dossier. These are just a couple of tiny things that are in publicly available sources, such as congressional testimony.  Regardless these are just couple of issues with Nunes memo.

 

It is painfully obvious that our president has either not read the memo (most likely its six pages afterall) or has totally misunderstood what is in the memo (highly likely), or he is purposefully mis-representing the contents of the memo (also highly likely). This should worry regular people, wingnuts will rejoice in whatever he says.  

 

Its a shitshow because it didn't get the reaction that republicans thought it would.  Apparently Nunes didn't research it, he left that to Gowdy, and Gowdy is saying that the memo does not impugn Mueller, and the DOJ in response to Manafort's lawsuit says that the investigation is legal.  So, it appears that the opposite of the desired results are occurring. Hannity is still selling hard the notion that this is bigger than Watergate though, I agree that it is, but not in the same way.  Its bigger than Watergate because the president is committing crimes and the republican party and congress are helping to cover them up and some are actively involved in obstruction of justice.

 

One thing that I am interested in very greatly is the reported statement that an attack on North Korea might help republicans in the mid-terms.  I don't think the sourcing is independently verified yet, but I would not put it past this administration to start a war for political gain.  

Just read the Nunes memo. What a waste of time.

Exactly. However for trump fans what is in the memo is irrelevant. That the memo does not jibe with the narrative is irrelevant. Most will not read it. What is relevant to them is the story they have been sold.

 

Edit: Red State .com and Breitbart are talking about the inconsistencies in the memo and how it does not really support what has been said recently.  Judging by comments around the web though, the rank and file does not care.  Preaching to the choir works for them.

“Tonight,” he said, “I call on the congress to empower every Cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers—and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”

One more f’d up proposal from the beast. A dictatorial power. The irony is that dirty Dick Cheney worked to convert a ton of positions from appointee positions to career positions so he could embed conservatives on untouchable positions so they could continue to carry on Conservative positions...a deep state approach. Trump wants to make all positions subject to loyalty to him and politics. Pending Vlads approval though.

It looks like Trump is inching closer to dictatorship. He told congress to go pound sand regarding their Russian sanctions law. Congress is dutifully looking for sand.

I was pleasantly surprise to see Sturgill. He was pretty good.

Does the world really need a best of live Grateful Dead set?

The book release has been moved up to tomorrow.

Trump seems to unleash his most whacked out tweets as diversions, or so it seems. Are these latest tweets sent to divert attention away from Bannons comments in his book? Are they to divert attention away from the news that the FBI has been investigating and had someone inside the Trump

Campaign since 2016? Or is there something worse coming down the pipe for trump?

 

Also a few weeks ago Russia told the US to tone down the NK rhetoric...and it was toned down for about a month. Trump will not go to war against Putin’s wishes. Remember trumps outrage about the Chinese sending oil to NK? Not one word about Russia sending oil. So I don’t think it’s anything more than crazy tucked up posturing.

I saw the movie yesterday and thought that essentially it’s just another star wars movie. Nothing great, nothing bad...just what I exeoevt in a SW movie. Didn’t like the furry little gremlin puffin like critters. I feel like they are only part of the movie for marketing toys to young kids. I liked some of the humor. Didn’t like the length. I also fell asleep during the casino scene and woke when they were flying away. So I agree the casino added little to the movie.

 

Also...I’m not a huge Star Wars fanboy, I just see the movies when they come out because it’s Star Wars.

Doug Jones appears to have won. If the vote totals hold true I would expect the first lawsuit, calling for a recount or somehow otherwise challenging the results will be file sometime tomorrow afternoon. Anything to prevent him from being seated as long as possible.

 

Trumps tweets tomorrow should be interesting.

WHY IS NO ONE GOING AFTER TRUMP FOR HIS BEHAVIOR????

Because republicans and democrats play by different rules

They were on SNL this week and I was less than impressed.  They seem to be posing all the time, looking for the right angles for their shots.  I wonder if their whole performance was blocked before they started.

I agree, and do not understand why this is not happening!!!!??

 

Republicans and democrats play by two different sets of rules, that's why its not happening.  

It is as expected. The ICU for the first couple of days, then a regular room. They will try to get him up and moving either this evening or at latest, tomorrow...they don't want there to be any chance of developing blood clots.

Hope it all goes well.

your own personal covfefe moment.

 

what is this word?

Or ten or twenty... big fingers strike again

And the GOP has pretty much said they need to cut SS and Medicare to help pay for the cuts.

 

Also trumps lawyer either lied to us about trump implicating himself in and obstruction of justice charge via tweet, or is the worst attorney ever because he implicated his client publicly in an obstruction of justice charge. Which, if Dowd did the tweet removes that topic from attorney client privledge.

 

Also...Dowd has said basically that the president can’t commit obstruction of justice because he’d president.

 

Don’t even get me started on the tax bill. I work in corporate tax and let’s just say our management is very pleased.

 

There is always something, or ten things or twenty things.

Reports are now that Kushner was directing Flynn.

I have such a great big happy smile on my face this morning. Thank you Mr Mueller! Keep up the fantastic work!

If Flynn got some reason stops cooperating they can still go back to the original charges and go after his son. So it’s a good thing.

 

Also...no wonder trump was so unhinged on Twitter the last couple of days

MIne was an anterior replacement, which is supposed to be much easier for recovery than a posterior replacement.  Also im youngish (57) and in decent shape, which helps.