monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Do I really need to link you to the numerous posts he's made in just the last few days, in which he claims that there's no chance Trump did anything wrong, that none of his associates did either, that they have nothing to fear from State of NY investigation,

and that the whole Mueller thing is a 'Dem witch Hunt?'

Oral was called a Nazi because he likes to play the resident board nazi. Whether he really is Nazi or not is anybody's guess. But the proposal to ban the Democratic party is clearly both fascist and a total pipe dream, which is why I say he likes to play the resident board nazi.

Just curious... What is the rule for you "small government conservatives" - Is it "small government unless the big one hits"?

On the issue of attempting to use a charge of fascism in place of an argument, it is hardly my fault if my interlocutor ignores or cannot understand my argument.

On the issue of saying someone is a fascist, when they propose outlawing one of the only two viable, national parties--if it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck . . .

I called a spade a spade when I characterized Oralloy as a fascist, given that he is promoting a classic fascist tool of societal control--banning political parties.

In addition, I come here for a variety or reasons, and post in a variety of threads, enjoying quite a few of the people here. Even Oralloy gets out more than you do, and posts elsewhere than the political threads. You, however, come here for no other purpose than to attack people and ideas--and when you cannot find a legitimate basis, you make one up.

Am I the only member who saw Orals post about how he thought it was 'fun seeing the fat girl hit by the car',.........but he's not violent?

Thank you wmwcjr, I'll send a pm

One of Hitler's first actions when he took power was to ban all political parties except the Nazis. Oralloy, in clear violation of the Constitution, has repeatedly called for outlawing the Democratic party.

He's advocating following the fascist footsteps, no matter what he calls it or what anti-freedom justifications he thinks he has. As far as I can see, that puts him in the fascist fellow-traveler camp.

Special counsel Bob Mueller has teamed up with the IRS. According to sources familiar with his investigation into alleged Russian election interference, his probe has enlisted the help of agents from the IRS’ Criminal Investigations unit.

This unit—known as CI—is one of the federal government’s most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller’s said he always liked working with IRS’ special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney.

And it goes without saying that the IRS has access to Trump’s tax returns—documents that the president has long resisted releasing to the public.

Potential financial crimes are a central part of Mueller’s probe. One of his top deputies, Andy Weissmann, formerly helmed the Justice Department’s Enron probe and has extensive experience working with investigative agents from the IRS.

“From the agents, I know everyone has the utmost respect for both Mueller and Weissmann,” said Martin Sheil, a retired IRS Criminal Investigations agent.

And he said Mueller and Weissmann are known admirers of those agents’ work.

“They view them with the highest regard,” Sheil said. “IRS special agents are the very best in the business of conducting financial investigations. They will quickly tell you that it took an accountant to nab Al Capone, and it’s true.”

“The FBI’s expertise is spread out over so many statutes—and particularly since 9/11, where they really focused on counterintelligence and counterterror—that they simply don’t have the financial investigative expertise that the CI agents have,” Sheil continued. “When CI brings a case to a U.S. Attorney, it is done. It’s wrapped up with a ribbon and a bow. It’s just comprehensive.”

But the team-up between the IRS and Mueller probe could come with political complications. Mueller has already taken some criticism for the number of Democratic donors on his team. Those critiques intensified yesterday, when word leaked that Mueller was coordinating some of his activities with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a long-time Trump adversary.

The IRS, for its part, became a target of conservative ire during the Obama administration for its investigations into Tea Party groups—probes that Republicans called political witch hunts. The complaints about politicized taxmen could begin again, with the IRS joining forces with Mueller.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.

It’s been widely reported that the special counsel’s team is trying to “flip” Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign CEO, in hopes he will provide evidence against his former colleagues. Former federal prosecutors tell The Daily Beast one of Manafort’s biggest legal liabilities could be to what’s called a “check the box” prosecution. Federal law requires that people who have money in foreign bank accounts check a box on their tax returns disclosing that. And there’s speculation that Manafort may have neglected to check that box, which would be a felony. This is exactly the kind of allegation the IRS would look into.

These investigations, which are often extremely complex, can take a lot of time. That means the people involved sometimes have to spend significant amounts of money on legal fees. The Daily Beast previously reported that targets of Mueller’s probe—including Manafort—are facing financial strain because of the probe, and that Manafort recently parted ways with the law firm WilmerHale in part because of his financial troubles.

As special counsel, Mueller is subject to the same rules as U.S. Attorneys. That means that if he wants to bring charges against Trump associates related to violations of tax law, he will need approval from the Justice Department’s elite Tax Division. Trump hasn’t yet named his pick to run the division, which is a post that requires Senate confirmation. At the moment, career officials are helming the division.

One former Tax Division prosecutor told The Daily Beast that this could cause trouble for Trump.

“The fact that there is not a senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division, and that the Trump people have disregarded it despite warnings as far back as December that they needed to fill the AAG’s spot… shows what a self-created mess the Trump administration has found itself in,” said the former prosecutor, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “They have no one to keep Mueller and his Brooklyn team honest. They should be concerned about that.”

The former prosecutor said it could have benefitted Trump if he had an appointee in the division as these proceedings unfold—and that he’s now missed that opportunity.

“They could have picked any two people in the world,” he added, “and they picked nobody.”

Four companies have been chosen to build prototypes for Donald Trump's planned border wall, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said.
The four concrete prototypes will be 30ft (9m) long and up to 30ft tall, and will be built in the coming months.
Officials will then spend up to two months testing the walls for tampering and penetration resistance using small hand tools, CBP said.
The four contracts are worth up to $500,000 (£387,000) each.
A continuous wall across the entire southern US border was a key promise in President Trump's election campaign.
The prototypes "will help us refine the design standards" of the eventual wall, acting CBP deputy commissioner Ronald Vitiello said.
"Testing will look at things like the aesthetics of it, how penetrable they are, how resistant they are to tampering, and scaling or anti-climb features."
But he said the officials would stick to small hand tools rather than testing "ballistic kind of things".
The walls will also need to feature cable conduits and other design features for sensors and cameras.
Once the order to start building is given in the next few weeks, the prototypes are expected to be finished within 30 days.
The four companies to which the contracts were awarded are:
Caddell Construction, in Montgomery, Alabama
Fisher Industries in Tempe, Arizona
Texas Sterling Construction in Houston, Texas
WG Yates & Sons Construction in Philadelphia, Mississippi
Mr Vitiello said he did not know if any of the firms had had prior experience in border wall construction.
More than 200 companies are believed to have submitted designs for the proposed border wall.
Four more contracts for prototypes made from materials other than concrete will be announced next week.

This [IRS] unit—known as CI—is one of the federal government’s most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller’s said he always liked working with IRS’ special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney.

And it goes without saying that the IRS has access to Trump’s tax returns—documents that the president has long resisted releasing to the public.

(...)
What’s more, a Trump presidency would never have been possible had the ’90s not normalized new depths of voyeurism, mudslinging and hardball politics. That decade had its dark-arts tacticians, such as Roger Ailes, Rudolph Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, and the recent election had its equivalents, such as, well, Roger Ailes, Rudolph Giuliani and Newt Gingrich. Bill Clinton’s base warmed to his naughtiness, neediness and narcissism; Mr. Trump’s did precisely the same.
(...)
Ever since, it has been hard to miss the 1990s underpinnings of the Trump Teens. The tabloidism. The gutter talk. The kinky dossiers. (Remember the X-rated Starr report?) Had America not absorbed the sheer skeeviness of that decade, how else would it have become comfortable electing a thrice-married man who ran beauty contests and graced casinos, one of them with a strip club, with his name — a man accused of a string of unwanted sexual advances and assaults (all of which he denied)?
(...)
True, Mr. Trump lost the popular vote. But America has received what much of the nation had been asking for since the 1990s. In the electoral reckoning, civility had been trumped by hostility, respect by chauvinism, tolerance by bigotry, truth by fabrication and deceit, privacy by exposure, modesty by exhibitionism, achievement by fame, shame by shamelessness, and bridges by walls.

Olivier5 wrote:

What seems to be the problem with the Democratic Party?

Why do you ask questions that you already know the answer to?

The Democratic Party is maliciously abusing the legal process to harm innocent people merely because those people disagree with the Democrats' demented ideology.

A reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about this later Wednesday, and her answer was … something:

Quote:

He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the midst of every bit of this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed briefing information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a firsthand account.

No, it's not. That's a *second*hand account — the very definition of one, in fact.

buzzterm and a trigger

German? The language of the world's leading democracy?
It even sounds sweet from the mouth of my (German speaking) grandaughter.