After two years of investigation, Mueller’s findings about Team Trump can be roughly summarized as follows: Too stupid to conspire. Too incompetent to obstruct.
I learned the hard way that predictions are perilous in the current age: I literally ate a column asserting that Republicans would never nominate Donald Trump for president.
So please forgive this victory lap as I claim total EXONERATION(!) by the Mueller report for my forecast in November 2017that the president and his aides might be saved by their own stupidity:
“With all the documentation of Russian collusion piling up, President Trump’s best excuse may be that his people were too incompetent to organize a conspiracy. Luckily for him, an innocent-by-reason-of-stupidity defense has the virtue of being plausible. For example, there is clear and compelling evidence that Donald Trump Jr. is dumb as a post.”
[…..]
This was essentially Robert Mueller’s conclusion as he recounted the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting, for which Russian interests promised “official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary” Clinton and Trump Jr. replied “if it’s what you say I love it.”
Prosecutors “considered whether to charge Trump Campaign officials with crimes in connection with the June 9 meeting,” Mueller wrote, but couldn’t “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these individuals acted ‘willfully,’ i.e., with general knowledge of the illegality of their conduct.” Specifically, prosecutors couldn’t prove “the participants in the meeting were familiar with the foreign-contribution ban or the application of federal law to the relevant factual context.”
Apparently unaware that this meant he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, Trump Jr. welcomed Mueller’s findings Thursday as vindication. “TOLD YA!!!” he boasted.
Who says ignorance of the law is no excuse?
Mueller’s findings on obstruction were similar: Not guilty by reason of incompetence. “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” Mueller concluded, listing former FBI director James Comey, former White House counsel Donald McGahn and former White House deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn.
After two years of investigation, Mueller’s findings about Team Trump can be roughly summarized as follows: Too stupid to conspire. Too incompetent to obstruct.
[…]
And it goes on but really, beyond too stupid and too incompetent is anything else necessary?
though clearly disputed by at least 15 recorded instances in the mueller report according to wapo’s aaron blake, the twit insists via his almost 10,000th lie OR perhaps, in truthiness, he meant:
(a) that those who do disobey are in his eyes “nobodies” and unworthy of recognition
(b) that he added enigmatically and inaudibly “and lives lawsuit free with reputation and financial worth intact”
(c) that “it depends on what I mean by orders” as in is is really is as bill once opined.
US detention centers that hold migrant parents and children have been nearly empty for months, despite Donald Trump’s administration repeatedly warning that the US-Mexico border is at a “breaking point” because of the surge in Central American families fleeing poverty and violence.
There were nearly 2,000 empty beds in two detention centers last week, with a facility in Dilley, Texas, at 26% capacity and a facility in Berks county, Pennsylvania, at 19% capacity. On 1 April, the third family shelter was temporarily changed into a facility for adult women only.
This, combined with reports of aid agencies at the border overwhelmed by the food, shelter and medicine needs of migrants, has advocates warning that the government could be manufacturing a crisis to justify its hardline immigration policies.
“I think that the people making policy decisions don’t want [the system] to work … they want to create chaos,” said Michelle Brané, director of the migrant rights and justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission.
[…]
“You could go through all of the policies since they’ve come in and they’ve all been about undermining or destroying the system we have in place for processing and screening people, so here we are,” said Brané.
These policies include metering how many people are allowed to request asylum at legal ports of entry each day – which has created backlogs of thousands of people in the largest border towns. These long waits have also driven people to cross the US border with Mexico outside of ports of entry, hoping to encounter an agent who must consider their asylum request.
Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told the AP that the empty shelters were also part of a government narrative that it must conduct “catch and release” because Congress won’t change laws to extend limits on family detention and to make it easier for the government to deport asylum seekers.
“Trump’s policies have swung from one extreme to the other,” Schey said. “There’s no consistency; there’s no strategic planning.”
It is up to border agents to determine whether an asylum seeker is sent to detention or given a notice to appear in court and allowed to settle in the US while they wait for a court date.
pogo, thanks. my wits well has run dry, dregs and all.
thank heavens for Sunday and Saturday respites: jace’s serendipities and sturge’s pictures. along those lines, freeing up entire weekends for fearless leader and relieving him also from Friday thread tasks, I’ve been thinking of suggesting a Friday default thread called “read anything good lately?” which seemed to work okay last Friday.
Use mine wherever it fits.
I can hardly read books any more. It’s weird but there it is. I got Lenny’s book to jump start it, but I’m about halfway thru and stalled. Don’t know if it’s the digital age or the Sturgeone age. I do, however, still like to see what people are reading.
I’m reading a book club book that’s what I call “chick-lit lite”. I mean… what did authors who wrote books that were largely moved along by coincidence and poorly written do before book clubs…
I used to do something on Fridays called Agenda Free Fridays… I could resurrect that again.
ps… the book is entitled The Mountain Between Us (cuz I know someone’s gonna ask). Do I recommend it…. hell no.
the hill: Five town hall takeaways: Warren shines, Sanders gives ammo to critics
Five Democratic presidential hopefuls made their cases to an audience of college students during a marathon series of CNN town halls on Monday, an event that offered one of the clearest glimpses to date of the still-emerging primary field.
The Massachusetts senator’s performance drew immediate praise from pundits on social media, including David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic consultant and former chief strategist to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, and Ezra Klein, an editor-at-large at Vox.
“Been on a plane and in cars watching the fascinating candidate Town Halls on @CNN,” Axelrod tweeted. “One thing I’d note right off the top: Passionate @ewarren oration on the anti-consumer aspects of ‘05 bankruptcy bill was a not-very-subtle shot across the bow to @JoeBiden, who fought for it.”
And liberals praised Warren for distilling difficult policy issues into understandable soundbites that would appeal to working-class voters.
“That monopolies answer by Warren in her CNN townhall was killer. A master class is how to clearly explain a complex policy … without collapsing into jargon,” Klein wrote. “The idea that Warren isn’t a charismatic speaker is insane. This is the stuff people gushed over Bill Clinton for.”
We watched Klobuchar’s and Warren’s town hall appearances on CNN last night. Both ladies did themselves proud, IMO. We refused to give any rating to Sanders (who got the coveted 9-10pm spot) and changed the channel. Wish Mayor Pete was on earlier… he got the 11pm-12 am spot… too late for our tastes.
Patd – I will try to put together a couple which can be used when needed. From various levels above me, word has been passed down the mountain path to tell us the administration is reading our online verbiage to see if we are being subservient and giving our stiff arm salute and pledge of allegiance enough. Something about we cannot disparage an orange monster dictator-wannabe. I am to be careful about what I write online. SFB cannot read so that is one good thing.
If you want to see an interesting discussion of waiver of privilege by failure to assert it in one forum watch Rachel now. She’s doing a wonderful job explaining it. Does the name John Dean ring a bell? Trump is fucked.
McGahn was trump’s john dean : the president’s counsel. I can’t imagine that the job could be done under trump or nixon by anything less than a department. The job is to constrain a headstrong nutter, who suffers from delusions of adequacy and grandeur.
Under Carter the job would have been a sinecure, or cinch, as they say.
speaking about ideations, bet there are some humdingers in the press pool on this:
wapo
What to do about Sarah Sanders? White House reporters have a few ideas.
The Mueller report is finally released to the public, proving not to be as vindicating for Trump as Attorney General William Barr initially claimed.
Dana Milbank in WaPo today sums up the redacted Mueller report.
And it goes on but really, beyond too stupid and too incompetent is anything else necessary?
“Nobody disobeys my orders.”
though clearly disputed by at least 15 recorded instances in the mueller report according to wapo’s aaron blake, the twit insists via his almost 10,000th lie OR perhaps, in truthiness, he meant:
(a) that those who do disobey are in his eyes “nobodies” and unworthy of recognition
(b) that he added enigmatically and inaudibly “and lives lawsuit free with reputation and financial worth intact”
(c) that “it depends on what I mean by orders” as in is is really is as bill once opined.
🙂
the guardian:
US detention centers that hold migrant parents and children have been nearly empty for months, despite Donald Trump’s administration repeatedly warning that the US-Mexico border is at a “breaking point” because of the surge in Central American families fleeing poverty and violence.
There were nearly 2,000 empty beds in two detention centers last week, with a facility in Dilley, Texas, at 26% capacity and a facility in Berks county, Pennsylvania, at 19% capacity. On 1 April, the third family shelter was temporarily changed into a facility for adult women only.
This, combined with reports of aid agencies at the border overwhelmed by the food, shelter and medicine needs of migrants, has advocates warning that the government could be manufacturing a crisis to justify its hardline immigration policies.
“I think that the people making policy decisions don’t want [the system] to work … they want to create chaos,” said Michelle Brané, director of the migrant rights and justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission.
[…]
“You could go through all of the policies since they’ve come in and they’ve all been about undermining or destroying the system we have in place for processing and screening people, so here we are,” said Brané.
These policies include metering how many people are allowed to request asylum at legal ports of entry each day – which has created backlogs of thousands of people in the largest border towns. These long waits have also driven people to cross the US border with Mexico outside of ports of entry, hoping to encounter an agent who must consider their asylum request.
Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told the AP that the empty shelters were also part of a government narrative that it must conduct “catch and release” because Congress won’t change laws to extend limits on family detention and to make it easier for the government to deport asylum seekers.
“Trump’s policies have swung from one extreme to the other,” Schey said. “There’s no consistency; there’s no strategic planning.”
It is up to border agents to determine whether an asylum seeker is sent to detention or given a notice to appear in court and allowed to settle in the US while they wait for a court date.
[continues]
pat, I’ll throw you a lifeline this evening.
pogo, thanks. my wits well has run dry, dregs and all.
thank heavens for Sunday and Saturday respites: jace’s serendipities and sturge’s pictures. along those lines, freeing up entire weekends for fearless leader and relieving him also from Friday thread tasks, I’ve been thinking of suggesting a Friday default thread called “read anything good lately?” which seemed to work okay last Friday.
Use mine wherever it fits.
I can hardly read books any more. It’s weird but there it is. I got Lenny’s book to jump start it, but I’m about halfway thru and stalled. Don’t know if it’s the digital age or the Sturgeone age. I do, however, still like to see what people are reading.
I’m reading a book club book that’s what I call “chick-lit lite”. I mean… what did authors who wrote books that were largely moved along by coincidence and poorly written do before book clubs…
I used to do something on Fridays called Agenda Free Fridays… I could resurrect that again.
ps… the book is entitled The Mountain Between Us (cuz I know someone’s gonna ask). Do I recommend it…. hell no.
the hill: Five town hall takeaways: Warren shines, Sanders gives ammo to critics
Five Democratic presidential hopefuls made their cases to an audience of college students during a marathon series of CNN town halls on Monday, an event that offered one of the clearest glimpses to date of the still-emerging primary field.
Those town halls — featuring Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), as well as South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — touched on everything from felon voting rights to the question of whether President Trump should be impeached for possible obstruction of justice.
[…]
The Massachusetts senator’s performance drew immediate praise from pundits on social media, including David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic consultant and former chief strategist to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, and Ezra Klein, an editor-at-large at Vox.
“Been on a plane and in cars watching the fascinating candidate Town Halls on @CNN,” Axelrod tweeted. “One thing I’d note right off the top: Passionate @ewarren oration on the anti-consumer aspects of ‘05 bankruptcy bill was a not-very-subtle shot across the bow to @JoeBiden, who fought for it.”
And liberals praised Warren for distilling difficult policy issues into understandable soundbites that would appeal to working-class voters.
“That monopolies answer by Warren in her CNN townhall was killer. A master class is how to clearly explain a complex policy … without collapsing into jargon,” Klein wrote. “The idea that Warren isn’t a charismatic speaker is insane. This is the stuff people gushed over Bill Clinton for.”
[continues]
We watched Klobuchar’s and Warren’s town hall appearances on CNN last night. Both ladies did themselves proud, IMO. We refused to give any rating to Sanders (who got the coveted 9-10pm spot) and changed the channel. Wish Mayor Pete was on earlier… he got the 11pm-12 am spot… too late for our tastes.
RR, ?
Mayor Pete may have been late, but he was terrific, too.
I wonder if these candidates knew which Qs were coming ahead of time.
Mayhappen, 2 years of trumpery has lowered my expectations to near zero, but I thought that the candidates were great – even the least of him. snicker
Patd – I will try to put together a couple which can be used when needed. From various levels above me, word has been passed down the mountain path to tell us the administration is reading our online verbiage to see if we are being subservient and giving our stiff arm salute and pledge of allegiance enough. Something about we cannot disparage an orange monster dictator-wannabe. I am to be careful about what I write online. SFB cannot read so that is one good thing.
If you want to see an interesting discussion of waiver of privilege by failure to assert it in one forum watch Rachel now. She’s doing a wonderful job explaining it. Does the name John Dean ring a bell? Trump is fucked.
McGahn was trump’s john dean : the president’s counsel. I can’t imagine that the job could be done under trump or nixon by anything less than a department. The job is to constrain a headstrong nutter, who suffers from delusions of adequacy and grandeur.
Under Carter the job would have been a sinecure, or cinch, as they say.
Ms Pat, I deposited a topic and title in the Quick Draft box on the Dashboard. I hope that you or Mr Jace find it to be engaging.
NEW THREAD