Tom Toles for February 22, 2019

  1. Ddwiz avatar
    DD Wiz Premium Member about 5 years ago

    If TrumpubliCONs believed that the report from Robert Mueller (a life long Republican) would prove Trump to be innocent, they would be rushing to release it. Thing is, Mueller is a Republican, but he is a by-the-book straight shooter who will follow the evidence.

    And Trump and his TrumpubliCON brown-nosers all know Trump is guilty and, even before Republican Mueller releases his report, they know it is going to be bad for their White House CON man scam artist so they are already looking for ways to suppress it.

    Good thing is, in decades of experience as a U.S. Attorney, prosecutor, and FBI head (appointed by Dubya Bush, continued by Obama) Mueller has never lost a case, including more than a hundred cases before the Supreme Court (which only hears cases that could not be definitively resolved in lower courts, and is a hard venue to consistently win). Mueller is smarter than Trump, Barr, Whitaker and Sessions combined. And they know it.

    Mueller comes from a wealthy east-coast old money family. He is wealthy. He does not need the money. He does not need the job. But he has a life-long ethic of community service and, frankly, loves the challenge of investigative work. He is not doing this for the money. He is not going to invest almost two years into an investigation just to see it buried.

    Mueller is a straight-shooter who plays by the rules. He is not going to go rogue. But if Barr tries to suppress the report in a manner that Mueller considers to be an inappropriate or illegal obstruction of justice, believe me, he will find a way to get it made public. Maybe respond quickly to a House Democratic subpoena for it before it can be challenged, or include it as an attachment to a last-minute court filing. Or something. I took two semesters of undergraduate Constitutional law and two semesters of undergraduate business law, but I am no lawyer. I’m sure Mueller, one of the best there is (despite our partisan differences) can find a lot more options than I ca

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  2. Triumph
    Daeder  about 5 years ago

    While it’s true we all know Individual 1 is a guilty, criminal con-man. The legal system requires the rigmarole of due process.

    So let’s get it on already!!!

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    Ontman  about 5 years ago

    Will it ever see the light of (public) day?

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  4. Desron14
    Masterskrain Premium Member about 5 years ago

    The REAL difference is between what the Elephants KNOW, and what they will publicly ADMIT!!

    They KNOW that the Mindbogglingly corrupt and utterly inept Comrade-cadet Bonespurs-trumpski is MUCH MORE of a Liability to their Party then an asset, but will they ever admit that they were wrong in blindly supporting him and his crime cartel?? THAT’S the real question…

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    NobodyAwesome Premium Member about 5 years ago

    There has been so much suspense built up on this report. Both sides are looking for something absolute that will fulfill their need for vengeance. I just hope that the report is facts-based and impeccable. Otherwise rumor mongers and conspiracy theorists will get fuel for a long time, and weaken the trust in this country’s institutions even more.

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    piobaire  about 5 years ago

    The question for me is this: Knowing that a majority of the country is against Trump and his policies, why would the Republicans continue to support him?

    Wouldn’t it make more sense for Republicans who believe in the principles traditionally held by their party to renounce Trump and condemn him in no uncertain terms? (I know some have, but so many have not!)

    If Republicans believe in what their party stood for, shouldn’t they be distancing themselves as far and as fast as they can?

    If they believe in American values like truth, fair play, justice, shouldn’t they be separating themselves from anything to do with Trump?

    Are they content to see America damaged and corrupted? Are they content to see the Republican Party supporting corruption and criminality?

    How do Republicans expect to succeed?

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  7. Can flag
    Alberta Oil Premium Member about 5 years ago

    Every republican knows his / her president is an idiot and guilty as sin.. but getting them to admit it publicly is really hard. No one likes to admit they were wrong and made a big mistake.

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    piobaire  about 5 years ago

    True, and sad. I wonder how will Republicans explain it.

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  9. Coexist
    Bookworm  about 5 years ago

    One thing I’m very optimistic about; if the Mueller report is buried, it will be dug up. The White House has more leaks than a sieve. The current attorney general may try and keep a lit on it, but a pressure cooker will explode under the stress.

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    Nantucket Premium Member about 5 years ago

    Those that hacked into the DNC emails publicized what they found to embarrass and denigrate the Democratic Party. At the time, I remember the Repubs crowing about how their security was so much better, but I don’t believe that to be true. IMO, I think the RNC was hacked as well, but the embarrassing and possibly illegal things that were found are now being held to keep Repubs from turning against Trump.

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    Richard S Russell Premium Member about 5 years ago

    You know that old cynical joke about how some Republicans aired a bunch of commercials saying that the polls were going to be so crowded that the city decided to split elections into 2 days, with Republicans voting on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday? Mueller should do something like this, promising to release his report on March 31 and then actually doing it on March 1, before the bad guys are ready for it.

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  12. Jock
    Godfreydaniel  about 5 years ago

    I’m not sure why we suddenly think the Mueller Report will be released soon—we’ve heard it plenty of times before. (Most recently from career con artist Matthew Whitaker.) When you’re investigating an organized crime outfit, and you do it correctly, it takes TIME. As for Barr, if he cares the tiniest bit about his reputation, he will play at least semi-fair!

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  13. Jock
    Godfreydaniel  about 5 years ago

    A bit off-topic, but too good to resist: [aside to george harmon: let me know if you need help with the big words, which is to say, three letters and up]

    Conservative pundit George Will, on Larry Hogan,the Republican governor of Maryland, a noted despiser of the despicable Donald Trump: “Opposing any incumbent president is not a day at the beach, and campaigning against today’s uniquely smarmy incumbent would be especially disagreeable. Hogan has, however, undergone, while governor, six rounds of chemotherapy (24 hours a day, five days a week, times six, spanning 18 weeks) to defeat an advanced and aggressive cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), so has endured something almost as unpleasant as Donald Trump…….a majority of congressional Republicans seem poised to support Trump’s evisceration of the Constitution’s architecture of checks and balances. By opposing a binding resolution disapproving the president’s declaration of an emergency, they would approve Congress’s acquiescence in the loss of its core power, that of controlling spending. These Republicans raise two questions: Why is there a Congress? And why are such Republicans receiving salaries? Every Republican who supports the president in this trashing of the Constitution whose creation began here thereby violates his or her sworn oath to defend it and to “bear true faith and allegiance” to it. Voters should expel all of them from public life.”

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  14. Donald duck2
    gmu328  about 5 years ago

    We already know that the current president, Dumpy, is a liar, a cheat, a blowhard, a misogynist … the Republicans just do not have the balls to do anything about it.

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  15. Donald duck2
    gmu328  about 5 years ago

    Oh … did I forget something? Someone who embellishes what he has done? Thought “liar” covered that.

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  16. Jock
    Godfreydaniel  about 5 years ago

    Conservative pundit David Brooks: "A crucial question of the Trump years has always been: Will our institutions hold? Will the legal, political and social institutions of American life be able to withstand the norm-destroying corruption of King Chaos?

    The U.S. Congress has not fared well. Many Republicans have been supine while Donald Trump has shriveled congressional authority and shredded the rules of basic democratic behavior.

    The American legal system, however, seems to be holding up pretty well. Even under the intense Trumpian pressure my Times colleagues described earlier in the week.

    Robert Mueller is a solid rock in the face of waves of calumny. If anything, the investigators at the Southern District of New York seem to be picking up the pace. These investigations are being led, it should be noted, by Republicans. The S.D.N.Y. investigation seems to be zeroing in on the $107 million Trump inauguration extravaganza. From the hints dropped by the subpoenas, one gets the impression that the inauguration was a shambolic grabfest in which people with money tried to turn it into power and people who suddenly had power tried to turn it into money.

    Some legal experts believe the inauguration is being aggressively probed as a racketeering operation — a continuing criminal enterprise, complete with mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and the rest.

    So why aren’t the legal authorities wilting? One explanation: institutions and character. The legal institutions instill codes of excellence that are strong enough to take the heat. The people in authority have enough character to live up to those codes.

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    Calvin  about 5 years ago

    Has anyone defined tRump as being the AntiChrist?

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  18. Agent gates
    Radish the wordsmith  about 5 years ago

    Go Ahead And Say It: Republicans Are Perpetrating a Coup Against Our Democracy.

    ‘OPERATION DIVIDE THE LEFT’: Recent assault on Democratic candidates traced to 200 suspect accounts.

    Press gorges on the Jussie Smollett story, bypasses right-wing terrorist plotting to kill Democrats.

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  19. Agent gates
    Radish the wordsmith  about 5 years ago

    “Russian President Vladimir Putin could not lead us to distrust our own intelligence agencies or the FBI. He could not cause us to view our own free press as an enemy of the people. He could not undermine the independence of the Justice Department or denigrate judges. Only we could do that to ourselves. Although many forces have contributed to the decline in public confidence in our institutions, one force stands out as an accelerant, like gas on a fire. And try as some of us might to avoid invoking the arsonist’s name, we must say it.

    I speak, of course, of our president, Donald Trump.” Adam Schiff

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