Swamp Watch News

[_Jersey Girl]

Me again. Sorry. So it looks like he went on for 2 hours (which would be a total of 3 hours on the ground) and didn't drop once. Better man than me I guess. Anyway, it ended with the Stones "You can't always get what you want"...he's been asked directly NOT to use it. Can they sue him? I guess if Keith were to whip out a knife in front of him again, that'd be a federal crime now. I dunno...Okay I'm gone.

[_EAllusion]

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get Trump reelected.

Trump was angry and complained Democrats might exploit the news. He didn't order that something be done to stop the Russians, instead he was just angry that Democrats found out.

"Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it [Feb 13th briefing, Adam Schiff in attendance] to take place."

This is why he's moving Grennell in.


Russia Backs Trump’s Re-election, and He Fears Democrats Will Exploit Its Support
A classified briefing to lawmakers angered the president, who complained that Democrats would “weaponize” the disclosure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/p ... crats.html

It's stunning how many 5-alarm fire stories have broke just since Trump's acquittal not that long ago that Democrats in Congress have backed off of in total cowardice.

Trump's practically attempting to steal the election in broad daylight and the best Democratic party machine offers amounts to cornered whimpering.

[_Icarus]

Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get Trump reelected.

Trump was angry and complained Democrats might exploit the news. He didn't order that something be done to stop the Russians, instead he was just angry that Democrats found out.

"Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it [Feb 13th briefing, Adam Schiff in attendance] to take place."

This is why he's moving Grennell in.


Russia Backs Trump’s Re-election, and He Fears Democrats Will Exploit Its Support
A classified briefing to lawmakers angered the president, who complained that Democrats would “weaponize” the disclosure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/p ... crats.html

It's stunning how many 5-alarm fire stories have broke just since Trump's acquittal not that long ago that Democrats in Congress have backed off of in total cowardice.

Trump's practically attempting to steal the election in broad daylight and the best Democratic party machine offers amounts to cornered whimpering.

Yeah, maybe they should do something proactive like try to impeach him.

Oh, wait.

[Guest]

It is becoming blazingly obvious that Trump and Barr are doing their darnedest to weaponize the DOJ into a tool whose main function is to protect Trump and his supporters who are willing to even break the law on his behalf, and punish any who are reluctant to do so, or even point it out to him whenever he requires them to do something illegal.

[_EAllusion]

Yeah, maybe they should do something proactive like try to impeach him.

Oh, wait.

There are things that Democrats could be doing right now that they are not. I can't tell if you are sarcastically implying they have no tools left, but if you are, that's not true.

It's the same mentality that made them want to rush impeachment, unleashing this upon us, that is causing them to back down here.

[_Icarus]

Wasn't saying it sarcastically just frustratingly. They went through a two year Mueller investigation that didn't do anything but embolden Trump to break more laws. Democrats in the House went through an exhaustive process of impeachment and it didn't do a damn thing but embolden him to break more laws. The system is broken. It doesn't work anymore. Because it takes more than just one party to hold a lawless IMPOTUS accountable. Whatever Democrats try to do Trump will simply block or refuse and that will be that. He controls the Fed, the Justice Dept, the Treasury, the Senate, and maybe even the Courts, which is more than enough to guarantee a smooth transition to tyranny. In the end, their failed efforts will be interpreted as "winning" for the Trump crowd and be more proof in their minds that he's just the most awesome unstoppable leader they always imagined, and then his poll numbers will be at their highest ever.

Sounds familiar?

I think their thoughts on this is that yes, we have the power of impeachment but that obviously went nowhere. And the election is coming up this year so they're going to leave it up to the American people. I thought they should have impeached him in his first year but they dragged their feet waiting for the Mueller Report, thinking Mueller was going to do the honorable thing and recommend indictment. But that didn't happen. It wasn't until the whistleblower's and a dozen other witnesses came forth testifying of Trump's attempt to undermine the upcoming election that they decided to move forward with impeachment, but even with some Republicans admitting the evidence was overwhelming against him, they still didn't come even close to getting enough votes to have him removed.

So what other tools did you have in mind?

[_MissTish]

Unhinged president ranting in all caps about tariffs (something his base doesn't understand)


Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
· 1h
IF OUR FORMALLY TARGETED FARMERS NEED ADDITIONAL AID UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THE TRADE DEALS WITH CHINA, MEXICO, CANADA AND OTHERS FULLY KICK IN, THAT AID WILL BE PROVIDED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, PAID FOR OUT OF THE MASSIVE TARIFF MONEY COMING INTO THE USA!

[_canpakes]

How totally unexpected.

President Donald Trump’s new acting intelligence director, Richard Grenell, used to do consulting work on behalf of an Eastern European oligarch who is now a fugitive and was recently barred from entering the U.S. under anti-corruption sanctions imposed last month by the State Department.

In 2016, Grenell wrote several articles defending the oligarch, a Moldovan politician named Vladimir Plahotniuc, but did not disclose that he was being paid, according to records and interviews. Grenell also did not register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which generally requires people to disclose work in the U.S. on behalf of foreign politicians.

FARA is the same law that Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates were convicted of violating. (Manafort went to trial. Gates pleaded guilty.)
It’s not clear whether the articles were directly part of Grenell’s paid consulting work for Plahotniuc. Unpaid work could still require disclosures under FARA if it was directed by or primarily benefited a foreign politician, according to Matthew Sanderson, a lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale who advises people on complying with FARA. FARA contains several exemptions, such as for lawyers and businesses, Sanderson said, but none appear to apply to Grenell’s op-eds about Plahotniuc.

“There is real reason to believe that Mr. Grenell should have registered here,” Sanderson said after ProPublica described the circumstances to him. “This is exactly the type of circumstances I’d expect the Department of Justice to investigate further.”

[_Gunnar]

The growing tendency of Trump to appoint "acting directors" of important government agencies before or even in lieu of presenting them before the Senate for a confirmation vote that may go against them is, I think, a very ominous and dangerous trend.

[_Icarus]

Justice Sotomayor warns the Supreme Court is doing special favors for the Trump administration

The ordinary rules no longer apply when the Trump administration shows up in court.

The Supreme Court voted along ideological lines Friday evening to allow a Trump administration rule restricting low-income immigrants’ ability to enter the US to take full effect. All four of the Court’s Democratic appointees dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a sharply worded dissenting opinion accusing her Court of “putting a thumb on the scale in favor of” the Trump administration.

“It is hard to say what is more troubling,” Sotomayor wrote. “That the government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it.”