I don’t have the book handy but, according to The Big Con, it’s generally accepted in conman circles that the key to a con is knowing how to find the larcenous bit in a person’s soul and tempt it out. But if that isn’t there, well, you can’t cheat an honest man.
Likely, not many people are honest.
I think the main thing that Comey needs to write about is an apology for writing a book about how to be a moral and upstanding person, who simply does his job in accordance with the norms and laws of the land, while being a person who admitted before Congress to leaking information to the press and doing so with the political aim of forcing a special counsel to be appointed.
Not to say that I disagree with the leaks and motive behind them, just that he’s failed in his own estimation and doesn’t seem to realize it.
The people Trump corrupts were forever corrupt to begin with; they just didn’t have the balls (or lack of shame) he did to reveal it.
Barr refuses to show up tomorrow.
As Ditka is to the Pit, Barr is to the House.
To be honest, his time tomorrow would be better spent polishing up that resignation letter.
Mueller has plans to appear, right? If not, it’s time to subpoena Mueller and quit fucking around. This “administration” is an abomination and a disgrace.
Why in the world would he resign as long as Trump wants him there? There are no consequences this Congress will enact against him and no one else can touch him.
ETA: Y’all better start really thinking about January 2021, IMO.
I think he may have some mentalist-type aptitude for reading people, which, of course, is an important skill for a conman. We know he likes to have one-on-ones with people that he’s attempting to recruit, with no-one else in the room. He probably talks about how great he is to test their obsequiousness, says some outrageous things to test their moral fiber, and then makes queries regarding the potential extent of their loyalty to him.
He’s also a magnet and an emboldener for morally corrupt people, because his moral corruption is so brazen, yet he seems to get away with it and is “facially”, to use a Barr term, successful.
It was a joke. Relax.
The Attorney General is not prepared to put himself through the same conditions that the woman interrogated at the Kavanaugh nomination hearings went through (facing questions from committee staff, rather than committee members).
He only needs to photocopy Rosenstein’s resignation letter, complete with butt licking.
Too bad Congressional subpoenas are toothless though.
I guess we learned that if you are being investigated you should do your damndest to obstruct the investigation so that there isn’t sufficient evidence to charge you with the underlying crime and therefore the obstruction is now legal.
Bill Barr is what happens the longer that people like Donald Trump stay in office. I think a lot of people believed that the system was strong enough to withstand Trump, that the adults in the room would put boundaries on him, and that the millions of civil servants would do their jobs regardless of what Donald Trump directed. The assumption has been that the Washington machine would chew someone like Trump up and spit him out, that the machine would outlast Trump.
Trump is defying those who make those assumptions. Whether he succeeds or not is still unclear, but what’s clear is that now we’re into his second attorney general. We saw that despite being an ardent Trump supporter, Jeff Sessions ultimately deferred to the customs and traditions of the justice department, because he assumed that’s what an AG does and that Trump would eventually relent. But Trump didn’t relent. He humiliated and made a spectacle out of Sessions. All the while, as he did, it became clear that the Senate felt increasingly confident about supporting Trump regardless of what he does - because they have their own agenda, which has a lot in common with Trump’s. This isn’t just Trump’s war on political norms and the rule of law; it’s Mitch McConnell’s as well. The Republican party has no problem turning the Department of Justice into its own public defender.
But I don’t think it ends there. If you’re Donald Trump and the GOP, what are you telling Barr right now? You’re telling him stop playing defense – and go on offense. Attack Peter Strzok. Go after James Comey. Go after the Clintons. Counter-investigate, and investigate the investigators, and try to make hyper-politicized look legitimate. In any event, they’ll assume that since everyone’s investigating each other, the public will eventually just give up and tune out.
You mean like this?
LOL! Yeah, like that.
“Hearins? I don’t need no stinkin hearins!”
“Subpoenas? I don’t need no stinkin subpoenas!”
Look, folks, they’re untouchable until January 2021 - at the earliest. I’d rather talk about how if you had 100 people at a barbecue, the guy hosting it would end up taking 40% of all the food and drinks for himself (channeling my inner Huey Long).
Anybody here read the noir novel Nightmare Alley?
I’d kinda like to see the short-fingered vulgarian end up like the conman protagonist…working for a two-bit carnival biting the heads off live chickens.
By the way, is there any precedent for an attorney general to label the subject of an investigation “falsely accused” after the Department has determined that the evidence does not rise to the level where they can prosecute them for a particular crime that they were investigating?
Stop the presses! Rachel Maddow: Barr ordered end of Mueller probe.