By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor
In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, Attorney General Beauregard Sessions went all suth’un on the Senators.
Sessions opened his testimony to the panel with a fiery assertion that he never had any conversations with Russians about “any type of interference” in the 2016 presidential election.
“The suggestion that I participated in any collusion … is an appalling and detestable lie,” Sessions said.
***
“If any brief interaction occurred in passing with the Russian ambassador during that reception, I do not remember it,” Sessions said. If he did have a conversation with the ambassador, it was “certainly nothing improper.”
Why, suh, th’ mere suggestion that I would do such a dishonorable thing is an insult to me and to mah family name. Why, in a different time I would call you out and challenge you to a duel.
(So if he can’t remember having a conversation with Sergei, how can he say whether that conversation could or could not be improper? But I digress).
He went on to say things like:
“I am not able to discuss with you or confirm or deny the nature of private conversations that I may have had with the president on this subject or others,” Sessions said.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) pressed Sessions to explain how he could decline to answer questions about his talks with the president without the White House asserting executive privilege.
“I am protecting the right of the president to assert it if he chooses, and there may be other privileges that apply,’’ answered Sessions. “At this point I believe it’s premature for me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege.’’
And this, ladies and gentlemen is gobbledygook from the Attorney General of the United States. So exactly WHY did he go before the Senate Intelligence Committee again? Not to put too fine a pint on it, but I’d say your continued engagement as Mad Magazine’s image person is secure.
More Posts by Pogo
pogo,
noregard’s “At this point I believe it’s premature for me to deny the president a full and intelligent choice about executive privilege.’’
is his version of
scarlet’s ““ Tomorrow I’ll think of some way . . . after all, tomorrow is another day”
I think Beau watched Gone With The Wind a few too many times.
I have a very loose and indirect knowledge of Sessions stretching back to my college days. My good friend and roommate’s brother-in-law went to law school with Sessions. He didn’t know him well but he knew of him because he was an “ambitious guy”, and the brother-in-law had not a good word to say about Beau. I can recall him referring to Sessions as an idiot. I also had a very good friend who became city attorney for Tuscaloosa, and he had tangential contact with Sessions over the years because of his US Attorney post. He was not impressed.
raw story re raul castro
Cuban leader Raul Castro has announced the beginning of the end of his presidency.
Castro called for municipal elections on October 22, the first step in the process towards the election of a new leader and the first vote held on the island since the death of his older brother Fidel, the revolutionary Marxist leader who ruled Cuba for 47 years and died in November.
somehow raul’s announcement seems to overshadow or at least diminish the oomph factor of this one.
from http://fortune.com/2017/06/16/trump-cuba-policy-travel-tourism/
fortune:
Trump’s New Cuba Policy Is Expected to Partly Rollback Travel and Business Links Relaxed under Obama
President Donald Trump on Friday will announce a plan to tighten rules on Americans traveling to Cuba and significantly restrict U.S. companies from doing business with Cuban enterprises controlled by the military, senior White House officials said on Thursday.
Trump will lay out his new Cuba policy in a speech in Miami that will roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to the communist-ruled island after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two former Cold War foes.
Taking a tougher approach against Havana after promising to do so during the presidential campaign, Trump will outline stricter enforcement of an existing ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists and will seek to prevent U.S. dollars from being used to fund what the new U.S. administration sees as a repressive military-dominated government.
The new policy will ban most U.S. business deals with the Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group (GAESA), a sprawling conglomerate involved in all sectors of the economy, but make exceptions related to air and sea travel, the officials said. This will essentially shield U.S. airlines and cruise lines now serving the island.
https://youtu.be/Hg_x7S5PADE
Published on Jun 15, 2017
Seth takes a closer look at reports that President Trump is personally under investigation for obstruction of justice as Senate Republicans edge closer to passing a secret health care bill.
clips from Sessions testimony played all week, didn’t get any better for him
re the senate’s enigma bill
Published on Jun 15, 2017
The Senate GOP keeps its plan to repeal and replace Obamacare shrouded in secrecy, drawing outrage from Democrats.
lawdy, lawdy, miz harris, you’ll hurt his lil feelin’s asking all those pointed legally type questions.
cnn:
Again and again during the Senate intelligence committee hearings into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Harris, who is of black and Indian descent, has been reprimanded by her all-white male colleagues for simply doing her job: asking direct questions and expecting direct answers in return.
By her colleagues and by pundits, she’s been called too tough, too rude, even hysterical by one former Trump campaign adviser. The only senator to be cut off for asking tough questions in these hearings has been Harris, once last week while questioning Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and then again Tuesday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions was testifying
The one man in the lunacy con man’s clan who has shown a sense of smarts is pence. He hired himself a real attorney as opposed to shysters and flimflam men joining the others legal brigades. Obviously the difference is pence is a politician and knows what is going on; he probably has read the tea leaves and knows the final chapter. As I keep saying, he is almost as dirty as the others.
Patd. It wasn’t too long ago that the Senate Majority leader stopped Elizabeth Warren in mid sentence on the floor using an old arcane ruling to silence her. Sexism in the cradle of democracy!
Pogo. Great post with personal insights into Noregard Sessions. He’s got to go!
When you said he was going all southern I thought you meant when Sen Harris scared him and made him nervous –he just stopped short of waving his hanky.
severe tweetstorm warning
business insider:
“I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted.
[….]
“After 7 months of investigations & committee hearings about my ‘collusion with the Russians,’ nobody has been able to show any proof. Sad!,” Trump tweeted Friday morning.
The president also praised his own use of social media, tweeting about how he is able to bypass traditional news media.
“The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media – over 100 million people! I can go around them,” Trump tweeted.
Additionally, he took the opportunity to highlight some percieved presidential wins, while continuing to decry the “phony Witch Hunt.”
“Despite the phony Witch Hunt going on in America, the economic & jobs numbers are great. Regulations way down, jobs and enthusiasm way up!,” Trump tweeted.
.
Hey Pogo, are you suggesting that Sessions acted like a caricature of a typical Southern lawyer as depicted in Hollywood… 🙂
and why am I thinking of My Cousin Vinny right now….
If pussy g suddenly legalized pot I still wouldn’t support him – Roger Stone the world’s sleaziest human is trying to stay in the mix by promising to get pussy g to legalize pot –
in return for support for pussy g –lmao
vanity fair: Watch Kate McKinnon Conduct Her Own Testimony as Jeff Sessions
If Jeff Sessions’s testimony on Tuesday had you wishing Saturday Night Live were not on hiatus—and Kate McKinnon was returning this weekend to once again do her surprisingly convincing impression of the attorney general—you’re in luck! The comedian stopped by Late Night Tuesday night to gab with fellow S.N.L. alum Seth Meyers and, happily, just happened to have a little impression prepared.
“You know, ‘oath’ is such a strong word,” McKinnon said in character. “When I said ‘oath,’ I thought I said ‘oats,’ in one of those lispy Barcelona accents . . . Sergey Kislyak, I only met him two times. Three times. O.K., three times, but the third time was in a men’s restroom, and we was just talkin’ about what a trial it is to get soap out of those electric soap dispensers . . . As for Jim Comey, he asked me to keep Trump out of his way . . . but the truth is, I didn’t hear him. This guy’s about 6 foot 8 and I had heard a sound above my head; I thought it was a cicada.”
Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $13.4 billion
Renee, Sessions couldn’t carry Trotter’s briefcase. (Gotta say that MCV is without a doubt my favorite “law” movie – Tied with Inherit the Wind).
No, Poobah, Sessions did not come off better with the replays of his testimony. His stumbling and bumbling exposed his lack of fitness for his office.
KC, I thought he was going to have the vapors – what with all that fast paced questioning making him nervous. I hope to god that he’s a better lawyer than he is a witness (although I know that’s not likely).
And patd, thanks for the Kate moment – IMHO she is just frickin’ wonderful.
Good that means I don’t have to go all the way out to the suburbs to get my cheese fix. I can just order it on Amazon and have I delivered to my door.
Jack
Amazon already has groceries including cheese this is about expanding it and fits in with BB’s conversation about retail
Watching Session testify? Then watching it in reruns?
You are a tougher man than I am, Craig
I watched 10 seconds then turned it off before I injured myself.
I would rather listen to vogon poetry.
https://youtu.be/A8JJH7ZL_Fk
Jack
amazon universal assimilation inevitable. resistance is futile.
KGC
I’ve looked over Amazons grocery selections and wasn’t impressed. I found it over priced and limited.
Whole Foods cheese selection on the other hand……………….
It is about the only thing I buy at Whole Foods. So it fits nicely into my Amazon purchasing model. Odd things that are hard to find in regular retail.
Jack
jack, as long as we’re on the subject of literature, meant to ask if you took me up on the book below that I suggested sometime ago?
great summer read even though it’s non-fiction and fully of more info than anyone ever needs to know on paths.
Look inside
Amazon
4.5/5
The best outdoors book of the year Sierra Club Stunning A wondrous nonfiction debut Departures A wanderer s dream The Economist One of the Best Books of 2016 as chosen by The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Amazon, National Post, The Telegr…
ny times:
President Trump has officially reversed his campaign pledge to deport the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as small children.
The Department of Homeland Security announced late Thursday that it would continue the Obama-era program intended to protect those immigrants from deportation and provide them work permits so they can find legal employment.
A fact sheet posted on the department’s website says immigrants enrolled in the 2012 program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, “will continue to be eligible” to renew every two years and notes that “no work permits will be terminated prior to their current expiration dates.”
[….]
The decision is a reversal from Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric during the campaign and is likely to disappoint some of the president’s most ardent supporters, who view the program started by former President Barack Obama as an illegal grant of amnesty.
I think the thing most people miss about Amazon isn’t it’s retail sales but the fact that it provides a platform for other merchants so that I often buy direct from the manufacturer’s agent in China. eliminating a whole bunch of middle men.
It’s major problem is the same with all catalogue/online retailers. Return of defective or unwanted merchandise. So while I purchased my extralarge socks from Amazon, for my sixe 14 shoes I use a company with retail outlets where I can easily return the item if it doesn’t work for my feet. My feet are very picky any more about the shoes I wear.
BTW I use Famous Foot wear rather than Walmart because of the ease of returns. It is the long lines at Walmart that turn me off.
Jack
The scary part of the Amazon- Whole Foods article was a single sentence saying that Amazon has just received a patent for technology that will prevent shoppers from doing in-store price comparisons of competitors’ offerings.
If the FCC allows the deployment of said technology, I will immediately refrain from shopping in any establishment owned or controlled by the deployer.
The best actor to play ol session is Leslie Jordan, who played Beverley Leslie on Will and Grace. About the same size and accent. Perhaps Leslie can put a little extra in it to match Sessions.
BB, Leslie Jordan would be perfect to portray Sessions.
Happy to hear about the DACA decision of DHS. The cynical side of me says it is to try and curry favor with hispanic voters – hell, he’s losing everyone else.
In today’s Journal there’s a below the fold front page article bemoaning the demise of ‘whom’ in both verbal and written communication. I shared the author’s feelings of loss. But, when I reached the opinion page there was an article by Daniella J. Greenbaum, an assistant editor at Commentary Magazine.
It was entitled “Whom Have You Brought to Shabbat?” Shabbat, indeed.
Alexandra Petri on the Sessions session. It starts:
It gets funny after that.
Jack
I see what you mean about the prices – even the most expensive grocery store in the area has better prices than that
That’s a might fine impression of Foghorn Leghorn. If No-regard is a chicken, who is the tiny chicken hawk? Surprised he didn’t wear suspenders to snap during the hearing.
****
All of the grocery stores here have an order online & pick-up or deliver option now.
I actually like going to the store very early in the morning. Pushing a shopping cart is kind of like a walker.
I like searching for bargains. Monday I found fifteen lamb loin rib chops at one quarter of original price. They were still fresh. And they were American.
Pat
A couple of years ago we had a famly reunion in Charlotte NC. I wanted to go check out the mountains, Mrs Jack wanted the ocean, she won, She got her beach time and I got food poisoning from a bad oyster.
We’ll get to them hills some day,
Jack
time:
Dianne Feinstein ‘Increasingly Concerned’ Donald Trump Will Try to Fire Investigators
California Senator Dianne Feinstein has raised concerns that President Donald Trump will try to dismiss Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller, two officials involved in an ongoing probe into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“I’m growing increasingly concerned that the president will attempt to fire not only Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible obstruction of justice, but also Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein who appointed Mueller,” the Democratic senator, who is also a member of the Senate Intelligence committee, said in a statement.
[….]
“The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired,” Feinstein said in her statement. “That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office.”
Special counsel Mueller can only be dismissed by Rosenstein, Feinstein asserted in her statement, something he has testified under oath he would not do “without good cause.”
“It’s becoming clear to me that the president has embarked on an effort to undermine anyone with the ability to bring any misdeeds to light, be that Congress, the media or the Justice Department,” she said. “We’re a nation of laws that apply equally to everyone, a lesson the president would be wise to learn.”
you know things are getting bad when their lawyers are hiring lawyers 🙂
President Trump’s Personal Lawyer Has Hired His Own Lawyer to Handle the Russia Investigation
Well…. living where I live… being able to order stuff online is a godsend. But grocery stores are too far away to deliver. I kinda like going to the grocery store too. I like going to speciality stores too.
Pogo… thanks for reminding me to read Petri… sometimes I forget.
slate: On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made very clear in Senate testimony that he would not fire special counsel Robert Mueller without “good cause,” no matter what the desires of President Donald Trump. It was a direct promise not to obey such a potentially unlawful order from Trump, who earlier this week had been said to be desiring such a move. This promise seems to have put Rosenstein directly in Trump’s crosshairs. On Friday, the president fired his opening public salvo on Twitter: [trump’s tweet “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt”] Rosenstein, as you’ll recall, wrote a memo before James Comey was fired criticizing the former FBI director’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email case. Attorney General Jeff Sessions then held up that memo to justify Comey’s firing. This pretextual case, however, soon came undone when the president said on national television that the reason for the firing was actually because Trump didn’t like the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s interference in our election and whether or not his campaign colluded in that cyberattack in any way. At the time, Trump said he was going to fire Comey regardless of Rosenstein’s memo and that Russia was on his mind. “In fact when I decided to just do it,” the president acknowledged, “I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse… Read more »
politicususa: Adam Schiff Just Signaled That All Hell Will Break Loose If Trump Fires Rosenstein And Mueller Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee just hinted at the constitutional crisis that will occur if Trump fires the Deputy Attorney General and the Special Counsel. In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Rep. Schiff said: It has become clear that President Trump believes that he has the power to fire anyone in government he chooses and for any reason, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That is not how the rule of law works, and Congress will not allow the President to so egregiously overstep his authority. If President Trump were to try to replicate Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre by firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in addition to Mueller, Congress must unite to stop him – without respect to party, and for the sake of the nation. Congress can defend our system of checks and balances by passing an independent counsel law that empowers an independent prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation and anything that arises from it. Such a law should allow for the reappointment of Bob Mueller, someone who has served Presidents of both parties and whom Democrats and Republicans have come to admire. We cannot allow the President to choose who will conduct this investigation or to interfere with its progress in any way. The reality is that if Trump pulls his own Saturday Night Massacre, Republicans aren’t going to have any choice… Read more »
pretty fiery excerpt from the root’s Y’all Knew Kamala Harris Was Black, Right? Turns Out She’s Also Got an Extra-Special Super Power Harris vs. Ol’ Dixieland Sessions: Guess Who Got Their Ass Beat? And in the interests of public service, let’s speak now to the newcomers and to the East Coast journalists and pundits who are apparently quite shook after witnessing Sen. Harris’ turns at the mic during two recent hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. You’ve seen the video by now, and read the Twitter posts of solidarity from a range of women who say they, too, are fed up with being “shushed” and shut down by men. True, what Harris accomplished by using rapier, rapid-fire questioning techniques with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the U.S. attorney general, on Tuesday, and on three Trump-administration intelligence-agency experts earlier this month, was impressive. The clip showing Sessions’ elfin face screwing into an aggravated mask as Harris zapped query after query at him will be on everyone’s loop for years to come. “I, I am not able to be rushed this fast,” Sessions stammered. “It makes me nervous.” That Republican Sens. John McCain and Richard Burr both rode to Sessions’ side and interrupted Harris during the Tuesday hearing and when she similarly braced three other Trump administration officials during hearings last week, and admonished her, has caused a firestorm of outrage from both sides of the aisle. But folks are missing the biggest takeaway from those exchanges. Yes, the moment when Harris’ super… Read more »
my apologies for all these long-winded quotes but they were too delicious to pass up and not share.
these are the times I miss trail friend tony…. am sure he’d be right here cutting and pasting them too.
I see trump as Foghorn Leghorn – with a NY accent – and Sessions as Egghead Jr. or the chicken hawk (but with a southern fried accent).
I’m no scholar of this stuff, but I think with respect to Mueller, trump can’t fire him – that has to be done by Rosenstein or whoever replaces him when trump fires him because he refuses to fire Mueller.
we used to get government cheese…….what happened?
I got some legitimate claim to Alabamaism…….and the folks I knew in Alabama were long ago able to spot Beauregard as a classic pinhead.
I’m good wid dat.
i.e. He couldn’t pour piss outa boot if the directions were on the heel.
or, that boy could fuck up an anvil with a balsa wood mallet……..
i think every congressperson should have to spend a winter in a tent at Valley Forge……..we might see some legitimate legislation after the first winter.
Mr Sturgeone,
We’d soon see both Valley Forgeries and attempts to sell the Valley to russhun real estate partnerships, ala benedict arnold.
Re congressional baseball, the Dems beat the rippers 11-2. Or, as lyin’ ryan would say, it was a tight game.
now now, er, remember the call for civility and sportsmanship. it’s mr. speaker lyin ryan, please. good one on lessons for critterville last night on cbs “on the road” In light of tragedy, Congress can learn a thing or two from Little League here’s some of it: Tragedy can have that effect on people. But, you know, baseball helps too. It’s hard not be a good sport when you’re playing America’s pastime. In fact, I would argue that everything Congress needs to know about fixing our political acrimony, they already l In Little League they teach you that losers don’t whine, winners don’t gloat and you don’t question a call based on the umpire’s heritage. These things are no-brainers to young minds, but for some reason, we forget those life lessons in our later innings. So why bother even teaching kids good sportsmanship if we’re just going to cast it aside as adults? And why celebrate that baseball game if the mutual respect we witnessed was a mirage that will fade as soon as the infield dust settles? earned in Little League. That’s my fear — that Monday we’ll be right back where we were. Unless we try something new. Or in this case, something old. The postgame handshake is the bedrock of Little League. Kids do it after every game all the way through college. It stops in the pros, but for no good reason. So here’s my idea: After every session of Congress, after every State of the Union,… Read more »