[Thanos]

So does the Enabling Act come after or before the concentration of all police power into the executive office?

All the liberals and moderates in the US who think guns are icky better get over it damn fucking quick. The throw-down is coming down the tracks and it's picking up speed.

[ShepherdsDog]

Just worried if the traitor in chief is impeached and jailed, his Knights of the Alt-Reich will stay true to their nature and do something stupid and or evil. Then the sane people will need to be armed against them.

[Thanos]

Americans then: get rid of rather benevolent king after launching a revolution over a piddly tax on tea

Americans today: destroy the fundamental underpinnings of republican democracy, the separation of powers and the rule of law? Why not? Everybody MAGA!

$1:

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.

- Abraham Lincoln, 1838

Never wanted to see this happen in my lifetime but it's not like we get much say about the times in which we live.

[ShepherdsDog]

It seems that once his usefulness to Trump ended, Comey became a liability to be disposed of. Jesus Christ, even Nixon's former attorney said Trump would end in a calamity.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/j ... ncy-234422

[Brenda]

If this doesnt cause Trump to be removed, impeached, or anything like that, then His Arrogance was right. He can shoot and kill someone on 5th Avenue and still get away with it.

[BRAH]

BURN!

[BeaverFever]

TRUMP: Bill, I did just like you said I should. Bad Comey's over!

BILL CLINTON: No, what I said was I said you have a BAD COMBOVER

TRUMP: Oh. Do you still want me to get you pictures of Ivanka in Regina?

[BRAH]

$1:

FMR U.S. Attorney: James Comey wanted to be a hero. He made the investigation about himself #Tucker @FoxNews

[xerxes]

DONALD TRUMP’S FIRING OF JAMES COMEY IS AN ATTACK ON AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
By John Cassidy May 9, 2017

$1:

At a time like this, it is important to express things plainly. On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump acted like a despot. Without warning or provocation, he summarily fired the independent-minded director of the F.B.I., James Comey. Comey had been overseeing an investigation into whether there was any collusion between Trump’s Presidential campaign and the government of Russia. With Comey out of the way, Trump can now pick his own man (or woman) to run the Bureau, and this person will have the authority to close down that investigation.

That is what has happened. It amounts to a premeditated and terrifying attack on the American system of government. Quite possibly, it will usher in a constitutional crisis. Even if it doesn’t, it represents the most unnerving turn yet in what is a uniquely unnerving Presidency.

Things like this are not supposed to happen in a liberal democracy, especially in one that takes pride, as the United States does, in safeguards put in place against the arbitrary exercise of power. The F.B.I. is meant to be an independent agency, above and beyond partisan politics and personal grudges. (That is why its directors are appointed for ten-year terms.) The President is supposed to respect this independence, especially when it comes to matters in which he has, or could have, a personal interest.

There is little in American history that compares to, or justifies, what Trump has now done. In recent times, the only possible precedent is the Saturday Night Massacre, of October 20, 1973, when Richard Nixon fired the special prosecutor investigating Watergate, Archibald Cox. Arguably, Trump’s Tuesday Afternoon Massacre was even more disturbing. In 1973, the two top law-enforcement officials in the land—the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus, refused to carry out Nixon’s dictatorial order to terminate Cox. It was left to the wretched Robert Bork, who was then the Solicitor General, to do the deed.

In contrast, Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, was a central figure in the ouster of Comey. In March, Sessions—a close political ally of Trump’s—was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after it emerged that he had failed to disclose meetings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador to Washington. But this recusal didn’t prevent Sessions from pushing for Comey’s dismissal. In its public statement announcing the firing, the White House said, “President Trump acted on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.”

Of course, the ultimate responsibility lies with Trump. In a brief letter to Comey, which the White House also released, he said, “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau. It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”

As Trump has amply demonstrated in the past, hardly anything he says can be taken at face value, and everything in his letter should be treated skeptically, especially his claims about what Comey told him. What we know for sure is that Comey, in his March 20th testimony on Capitol Hill, confirmed that the F.B.I. was conducting a criminal investigation into “any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coördination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” Although Comey refused to go into much detail about the investigation, he confirmed that it had been going on since last July, and he gave the distinct impression that, wherever it led, it would be pursued with vigor.

We also know that Comey issued a blunt public dismissal of Trump’s claims on Twitter that Barack Obama ordered U.S. spy agencies to wiretap Trump Tower during the Presidential campaign. “I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the F.B.I.,” Comey said, during his testimony.

This, surely, is the relevant context of Comey’s dismissal. By contrast, the two other documents that the White House released on Tuesday to justify Trump’s action—a letter from Sessions to the President, and a three-page memorandum from Rosenstein to Sessions—smacked of a desperate and unconvincing effort to cook up a pretext.

In his letter, Rosenstein, who hitherto had a reputation as an independent official, took issue with Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server. He focussed in particular on the July 5, 2016, press conference at which Comey announced that the Bureau had closed its investigation without recommending any charges, while at the same time criticizing how Clinton and her aides had handled classified information. This, Rosenstein said, was “a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.” He also brought up Comey’s subsequent announcement, on October 28, 2016, eleven days before the election, that the F.B.I. was reopening the Clinton case because of the discovery of thousands of e-mails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. Rosenstein called the announcement a departure from the agency’s tradition of avoiding public comment during an election season.

Many observers would agree with at least some of Rosenstein’s points about the Clinton investigation—but so what? Are we seriously being asked to countenance the idea that Trump fired Comey because he didn’t treat Hillary Clinton fairly? The same Trump who seized upon Comey’s press conference last July and used it to buttress his claims that Clinton should be jailed? The same Trump who, on October 31st, said, “It took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made in light of the kind of opposition he had”?

Until the White House comes up with a less ludicrous rationalization for its actions, we can only assume that Trump fired Comey because the Russia investigation is closing in on him and his associates, and he knew that he didn’t have much sway over the F.B.I. director. That is the simplest theory that fits the facts. And it is a cause for great alarm.

Ever since Trump took office, many people have worried about his commitment to democratic norms, the Constitution, and the rule of law. From the hasty promulgation of his anti-Muslim travel ban onward, he has done little to salve these concerns. Now he has acted like one of the authoritarian leaders he so admires—a Putin, an Erdoğan, or an el-Sisi.

Congress must restrain him and reassert the principles of American democracy by appointing an independent special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation. If the legislature won’t act unprompted—and the initial signs are that most of the G.O.P. intends to yield to the President’s abuse of his power—it will be incumbent on the American people to register their protests forcefully, and to put pressure on their elected officials. Trump is a menace. He must be stopped.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-james-comey-attack-american-democracy

[Sunnyways]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

By the way, this has happened before:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/20/us/de ... ident.html

$1:

WASHINGTON, July 19— President Clinton today dismissed William S. Sessions, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had stubbornly rejected an Administration ultimatum to resign six months after a harsh internal ethics report on his conduct.

In the Sessions case here was evidence of personal misconduct so it's not really the same.

[DrCaleb]

BRAH BRAH:

BURN!

Saturday Night Massacre Part II: Electric Boogaloo.

Nixon fired the person responsible for the investigation into his illegal activities. Activities that got him eventually impeached.

Trump has just fired one person heading an investigation into illegal activities by members of the Trump Administration . . . . the parallel is obvious.

And both Trump and Nixon posed for pictures with O.J. Simpson . . .

[BartSimpson]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Just worried if the traitor in chief is impeached and jailed, his Knights of the Alt-Reich will stay true to their nature and do something stupid and or evil. Then the sane people will need to be armed against them.

Haven't you read the Democrat statistics on guns? According to their research if they buy guns they're most likely to harm themselves so I'm not really worried about those idiots arming themselves.

Let them.

[BartSimpson]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Trump has just fired one person heading an investigation into illegal activities by members of the Trump Administration . . . . the parallel is obvious.

Comey has three times told the White House that there is no such investigation.

So what investigation are you referring to?

[DrCaleb]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Trump has just fired one person heading an investigation into illegal activities by members of the Trump Administration . . . . the parallel is obvious.

Comey has three times told the White House that there is no such investigation.

So what investigation are you referring to?

Sorry, the FBI investigation into Election interference, possibly by Russia, which might also involve members of the Trump Administration.

Personally, I don't think Trump is a Russian mole or whatever. I recall how the Russians play chess like Canadian play Hockey or Americans play basketball. I think it goes much deeper than people suspect.

I think that Putin was just as surprised that Trump won as everyone else.

[Thanos]

But her e-mails.....