The Biden Era

[Sandy Shanks]

"President Trump’s legal team on Monday asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to oversee review of classified documents and other materials the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago this month and to force the Justice Department to provide a more thorough explanation of why the search was necessary."

In January, National Archives officials retrieved 15 boxes of records that had been improperly taken to Mar-a-Lago when Trump left the White House last year -- then, two months ago, federal agents visited Mar-a-Lago to retrieve additional materials that they believed Trump had failed to turn over. Shortly after that visit, an attorney for Trump signed a statement saying that all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago had been turned over to federal investigators, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

But authorities believed Trump continued to possess classified documents, leading to the August 8 raid.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

I find it fascinating that the forum's Republicans are totally silent when it comes to the FBI's search of Donald Trump's home while at the same time cheering him on and making him the favorite in the Republican race for the Presidential nomination for 2024.

Trump's cultish followers support him by avoiding any discussion about him.

Trump's followers on this forum do not dare repeat what leading Republicans are saying about the DOJ and the search at Mar-a-Lago for fear of looking like idiots.

Trump-loyal sycophants like Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley have backed the former president with fresh attacks on the FBI. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has chosen a similar path with calls of a "weaponized" Department of Justice in his broader campaign messaging.

This is all a load of crap, and Trump's followers know it. That is why they remain silent. Their boy got caught red-handed, and silence is best.

Cruz, Hawley, DeSantis, and the like spew their lies on friendly forums where no one questions their ludicrous remarks. The forum's Republicans do not have that privilege.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

"President Trump’s legal team on Monday asked a federal judge to appoint a special master to oversee review of classified documents and other materials the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago this month and to force the Justice Department to provide a more thorough explanation of why the search was necessary."

As they say in golf, Trump has been put on the clock.

Trump already has made the mistake of making this filing too late. The DOJ has been working on the classified documents for two weeks. The damage has already been done insofar as Trump is concerned.

CNN reports, "A federal judge in Florida has given former President Donald Trump until Friday to refine the legal arguments in his request for a special master to oversee the review of evidence gathered in the Mar-a-Lago search.

"District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida ordered Trump’s lawyers to elaborate on their arguments for why the court has the ability to step in at this time, explain what exactly Trump is asking for and whether the Justice Department has been served with Trump’s special master motion.

Judge Cannon is no fool. She knows this filing for what it is -- strictly a delaying tactic.

Moreover, it is a sure sign of desperation. Trump is in a heap of trouble. Even his devout followers know it.

More Jan. 6 committee hearings are scheduled along with the committee's final report just in time for the November mid-terms.

Trump has that to look forward to.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The [Republican] Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/...rms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

The Times reports, "President Donald J. Trump took more than 700 pages of classified documents, including some related to the nation’s most covert intelligence operations, to his private club and residence in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a letter that the National Archives sent to his lawyers this year.

"The letter, dated May 10 and written by the acting U.S. archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, M. Evan Corcoran, described the state of alarm in the Justice Department as officials there began to realize how serious the documents were.

"The letter from the archives was made public shortly after Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed a legal motion on Monday asking a federal judge in Florida to appoint an independent arbiter, known as a special master, to weed out any documents protected by executive privilege from a trove that was removed during an F.B.I. search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8."

The federal judge in Florida gave Trump until Friday to refine the legal arguments in his request for a special master.

ABC continued, "The letter could further implicate Mr. Trump in a potential crime. It confirmed, for instance, that the former president had kept at Mar-a-Lago documents related to Special Access Programs, some of the nation’s most closely held secrets, before the F.B.I. searched the property.

"Mr. Solomon’s (a Trump ally) decision to release the letter did more than confirm that Mr. Trump had kept some of the country’s most highly guarded secrets in his relatively unsecured beachfront club in Florida. It also revealed that well before Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued in their court filing on Monday that many of the records were protected by executive privilege, the same argument had been rejected by the White House and a top official at the Justice Department."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

"District Court Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida ordered Trump’s lawyers to elaborate on their arguments for why the court has the ability to step in at this time, explain what exactly Trump is asking for and whether the Justice Department has been served with Trump’s special master motion.

Judge Cannon is no fool. She knows this filing for what it is -- strictly a delaying tactic.

Insider Reports, "Legal experts and former prosecutors are widely panning former President Donald Trump's team of lawyers as they continue grappling with the fallout from the FBI's unprecedented Mar-a-Lago raid.

"They appear to be either completely incompetent, or out of their depth," Renato Mariotti, a longtime former federal prosecutor, told Insider. "That's part of the reason why the former president has trouble finding lawyers: because he demands that they file documents and take positions that have no legal support whatsoever."

"This week's mockery of Trump's legal team comes after they filed a lawsuit Monday requesting the appointment of a special master to sift out potentially privileged materials seized in the FBI's Mar-a-Lago raid earlier this month.

"One attorney familiar with the Trump team's thought process expressed skepticism that the former president's lawyers are equipped to handle a case like this, adding that Trump's main focus (and that of his loyal followers in Congress) appears to be on waging a PR war against the Justice Department.

"He's a big believer of the public relations assault, which I've never seen work," the lawyer told Insider. "It says to me that they want to kill the messenger, which speaks to consciousness of guilt instead of dealing with the facts."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

It has never been fully explained why Israel opposes U.S. attempts to stop Iran from making a nuclear weapon. The position appears to be at odds with Israeli interests.

Is it because Iran would get sanctions relief as part of the deal, the deal being limitations on her nuclear program? That does not make sense.

ABC reports, "Israel's prime minister urged President Joe Biden and Western powers to call off an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, saying that negotiators are letting Tehran manipulate the talks and that an agreement would reward Israel's enemies.

"Yair Lapid called the emerging agreement a “bad deal” and suggested that Biden has failed to honor red lines he had previously promised to set.

“The countries of the West draw a red line, the Iranians ignore it, and the red line moves,” Lapid told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem. An emerging deal, Lapid said, “does not meet the standards set by President Biden himself: preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state.” (The last is a lie, and what red line? Lapid does not explain.)

"Biden has been eager to revive the 2015 deal, which offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. The original deal unraveled after then-President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, with strong encouragement from Israel.

"It remains unclear whether the United States and Iran will be able to reach a new agreement. But the Biden administration is expected to weigh in on Iran's latest offer in the coming days. With an agreement appearing close, Israel has stepped up its efforts to block it."

Because of Trump's horrible decision to destroy the Iran nuclear agreement, Iran has increased its uranium enrichment.

IAEA "experts warn Iran has enriched enough uranium up to 60% purity — a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% — to make one nuclear weapon should it decide to do so. However, Iran still would need to design a bomb and a delivery system for it, likely a months-long project," ABC.

Iran is a Russian ally.

Perhaps Lapid was talking about the red line drawn by the Trump administration. Iran ignored Trump's red line, but there is a new sheriff in town.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

In defending Trump, Trump's lawyers and Republican lawmakers can often look rather hilarious.

By way of an example, a nine-page memo is quite forthcoming.

NPR explains, "The Justice Department on Wednesday released a memo from 2019 laying out the case for not prosecuting former President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice in connection with then-special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"The nine-page memo dated March 24, 2019 was written by two senior Trump Justice Department officials: Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed O'Callaghan.

"They conclude that none of Trump's actions documented in the Mueller report— his firing of FBI director James Comey; his directing the top White House lawyer to fire Mueller; his exhorting witnesses not to flip — should be viewed as obstruction.

"We conclude that the evidence described in Volume II of the Report is not, in our judgment, sufficient to support a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the President violated the obstruction-of-justice statutes," the memo says. "In addition, we believe that certain of the conduct examined by the Special Counsel could not, as a matter of law, support an obstruction charge under the circumstances."

Come on, now that is funny.

To defend Trump, one has to ignore Trump's actions.

Being stupid helps.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

"The federal magistrate judge who authorized the warrant to search Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate emphasized Monday that he “carefully reviewed” the FBI’s sworn evidence before signing off and considers the facts contained in an accompanying affidavit to be “reliable.”

I knew the judge would not allow Trump and his lawyers to discover the witnesses and the investigation techniques aligned against him. It took all of four hours today for the judge to make his decision.

The Guardian reports, "A federal judge ordered on Thursday that the affidavit justifying the search warrant used to seize sensitive government documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month should be partly unsealed according to redactions proposed by the justice department.

The order from Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the FBI search warrant and is overseeing the case, instructed the justice department to release a redacted version of the affidavit that he had reviewed before noon on Friday.

"In a two-page ruling, the judge said the justice department’s proposed redactions were specifically restricted to keep secret grand jury material, the identities of uncharged individuals and sources and methods used in the criminal investigation – and the remainder could become public."

“The government has met its burden of showing that its proposed redactions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation and are the least onerous alternative to sealing the entire Affidavit,” Reinhart wrote.

There is a great deal of talk on the media concerning the public's interest in this affidavit that reveals the nature of the documents Trump stole from our house, namely the White House. The documents Trump stole belong to the American people.

The public's interest is served by not revealing the critical factors contained in the affidavit.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

I am from Minnesota. Minnesota is not known for its political fanatics. That said, in the Trump era, anything can happen.

To illustrate that point, my home state now has Kim Crockett. She is one of the GOP's finest.

She is quite strange.

CNN reports, "The Republican nominee to be the top elections official in Minnesota said changing the rules around voting following the 2020 “big rig” was “our 9/11,” invoking the terrorist attacks when discussing proposed changes to election laws in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s loss."

Only a Trump Republican could compare the 2020 election to 9/11. Obviously, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Crockett offers no evidence of a rigged election. Of course, no one, including Trump, has offered evidence of a rigged election.

They just say it. In Trump's MAGA world saying it makes it true. Crockett carries on that tradition.

CNN continued, "Crockett, an attorney and conservative activist, was appearing on a local Christian talk radio program to promote an upcoming event that month that she said would be discussing “the big rig” 2020 election.

"Crockett encouraged activists to sign up as election judges and poll watchers so they can exercise their “biblical citizenship,” an idea gaining traction in Christian nationalist circles which encourages Christians to accept that America was founded on Christian values and influence their government to adopt a “biblical worldview.”

Just what Minnesota needs. A Republican preacher for secretary of state.

Then we have Dr. Oz running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, and endorsed by Trump.

Where is the GOP getting these people?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

There is a great deal of talk on the media concerning the public's interest in this affidavit that reveals the nature of the documents Trump stole from our house, namely the White House. The documents Trump stole belong to the American people.

The public's interest is served by not revealing the critical factors contained in the affidavit.

In the Trump era, there are two facts every voter should know to enable intelligent decisions.

One, when the powers-that-be granted the President all his powers, they never once considered a President like Donald Trump.

Two, Donald Trump is just plain stupid.

Take, for example, his incredibly stupid decision to take hundreds of pages of classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago. He has never explained why he did that. It is quite likely he doesn't know. Just something to do? In any case, that remarkably incomprehensible decision has caused him nothing but grief, and he might be indicted.

The Wall Street Journal explains his folly. "Boxes retrieved from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home early this year contained more than 184 classified documents, including some deemed top secret or derived from clandestine human-intelligence sources, according to a heavily redacted affidavit released Friday laying out the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s justification for its extraordinary search of the Florida estate in early August.

"The document spanning 38 pages, 24 of them fully or partially blacked out, said there was “probable cause to believe that additional documents” containing classified national defense information and presidential records remained on the premises and “also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction” would be found there. A separate document said investigators relied on accounts from “a significant number of civilian witnesses” before searching the home.

"The affidavit was released on court order almost three weeks after FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and carted away more than two dozen boxes including 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were meant to be accessible only in special high-security facilities, according to a search warrant made public by the Florida court that approved it. The search followed months of correspondence by the National Archives and Records Administration to secure Trump administration records."

The Republican Party has captured the minds of those who live in the rural counties of America. The voters are mostly farmers, ranch hands, and rural shopkeepers. They lack education and they are not well informed. Most of what they know about politics is by word of mouth.

"The former president has seen his standing in the GOP strengthen since the Aug. 8 search as he considers a 2024 challenge to President Biden," the WSJ.

As is their custom, the forum's Republicans will not respond to the issues contained in this report.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

It is a mixed blessing, but things might be looking up for the Biden administration and American consumers.

ABC reports, "Inflation eased last month as energy prices tumbled, raising hopes that the surging costs of everything from gasoline to food may have peaked.

"According to a Commerce Department report Friday that is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, consumer prices rose 6.3% in July from a year earlier after posting an annual increase of 6.8% in June, the biggest jump since 1982. Energy prices made the difference in July: They dropped last month after surging in June.

"Yet on the same day at the Federal Reserve’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Chair Jerome Powell delivered a stark message: The Fed will likely impose more large interest rate hikes in coming months and is resolutely focused on taming inflation.

"So-called core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 4.6% last month from a year earlier after rising 4.8% in June. The drop — along with a reduction in the Labor Department's consumer price index last month — suggests that inflationary pressures may be easing."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

CNN reports, "In the days following the FBI search of Trump’s compound, the former President and his allies have claimed Trump had a “standing order” to declassify documents he took from the Oval Office to the White House residence.

"More than a dozen senior officials from the Trump administration never heard any such order issued during their time working for Trump, saying they believe the claim to be patently false."

Indeed, Trump's claim is amateurish in nature, almost childish.

The current President weighed in on the ludicrous claim, mocking it. It was the only way to handle such an inept claim.

CNN continued, "Biden and his top aides have worked diligently to avoid commenting on the ongoing criminal probe into Trump’s handling of classified material. They have said they only learn of developments from the news media.

"Still, some Biden administration officials have privately said there is concern internally about what exactly Trump took with him, and whether it has the potential to damage US national security.

"Asked Friday whether it was ever appropriate to take home classified material, Biden suggested there were scenarios when it was OK."

“It depends on the circumstance – for example, I have in my home a cabined-off space that is completely secure,” he said, describing the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility built to handle classified information.

“I’m taking home with me today today’s PDB (Presidential Daily Brief). It’s locked. I have a person with me, military with me. I read it. I lock it back up. I give it to the military,” he said.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

In the Trump era, there are two facts every voter should know to enable intelligent decisions.

One, when the powers-that-be granted the President all his powers, they never once considered a President like Donald Trump.

Two, Donald Trump is just plain stupid.

Former President Donald Trump demanded on Monday that the 2020 presidential election be declared “irreparably compromised” and a do-over be held “immediately!”

Trump complained today that the FBI “BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, ‘Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election.’” He then wrote that he should be declared the winner of the election — which was decided two years ago — or “and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately! ”It's 2022 and Trump Is Demanding an 'Immediate' Redo of the 2020 Election

It is easy to see why Trump Republicans avoid talking about Trump.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

We know that the director of national intelligence (DNI) is making an assessment into how much damage was done by the former Republican President when he stole hundreds of pages of classified documents and stored them in his home at Mar-a-Lago.

We know Trump has had classified documents for 20 months.

We know there is no control over the comings and goings at Mar-a-Lago except for Trump.

We know there was no control over the access to these documents other than Trump. We know that is a completely unreliable control.

We know Trump has never provided a reason as to why he stole the documents. This is the elephant in the room as the DOJ and the DNI try to assess the damage wrought by the former Republican President. Why did he take them? No one has a clue. The lack of an explanation -- even a lie -- is intriguing.

That said, there is a possible explanation.

We know Vladimir Putin helped Trump become our President in 2016.

"The [Republican] Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed its support for the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of putting Donald Trump in the Oval Office." https://www.politico.com/news/2020/...rms-russia-aimed-to-help-trump-in-2016-198171

Has a Russian agent already been allowed to see and record relevant intelligence from the documents?

Is this why the DNI is assessing the damage done by Trump?

Intel officials will assess 'risk to national security ... - NBC News​

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Trump already has made the mistake of making this filing too late. The DOJ has been working on the classified documents for two weeks. The damage has already been done insofar as Trump is concerned.

Trump and his lawyers continue to make fools of themselves.

The Post explains, "Trump’s legal team filed the request two weeks after the Aug. 8 search, calling the court-approved law enforcement action a “shockingly aggressive,” politically motivated raid.

The stupidity speaks for itself.

The Post continued, "FBI agents have already finished their examination of possibly privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court filing Monday that could undercut the former president’s efforts to have a special master appointed to review the files.

"The “filter team” used by the Justice Department to sort through the documents and weed out any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has completed its review, the brief filed by Justice Department prosecutors says. The filing came in response to a decision Saturday by U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon to hold a hearing this week on Trump’s motion seeking the appointment of a special master.

"The filing says prosecutors will provide more information later this week. But it notes that even before the judge’s weekend ruling, the filter team had “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information, completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of following the procedures” spelled out in the search warrant to handle any privilege disputes."

The DOJ is politely telling the judge appointed by Trump and confirmed after his election loss that her order is completely unnecessary.

Was the request by Trump's lawyers "politically motivated" in addition to being immaterial and far too late?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

One of Trump's other issues. He's got a few.

ABC reports, "A judge ruled Monday that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp must testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to influence the 2020 election in the state — but not until after the November midterm election.

"Lawyers for Kemp had argued that immunities related to his position as governor protect him from having to testify. But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, disagreed and said the governor must appear before the panel. But he did agree to a request from Kemp's lawyers to delay that testimony until after the Nov. 8 election, in which the Republican governor faces a rematch with Democrat Stacey Abrams."

“The Governor is in the midst of a re-election campaign and this criminal grand jury investigation should not be used by the District Attorney, the Governor's opponent, or the Governor himself to influence the outcome of that election,” McBurney wrote. “The sound and prudent course is to let the election proceed without further litigation or other activity concerning the Governor's involvement in the special grand jury's work.”

Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has announced another round of hearings will be held in September.

Trump thought he was above the law, and he is paying the price as the members of his cult remain silent on the issues.

It should be quite a while before we trust the Republican Party again.

 

[skye]

 

[Sandy Shanks]

It should be quite a while before we trust the Republican Party again.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. is a good man and a dedicated Senator.

But he made himself look like a fool when tried to defend the former Republican President.

ABC explains, "In an interview on ABC's "This Week," Blunt was repeatedly pressed by anchor George Stephanopoulos before he answered a question about how he felt about what the Department of Justice said Trump did.

"Initially responding to Stephanopoulos’ question, Blunt drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey for their past conduct related to records.

"But Stephanopoulos pushed back, noting that it wasn't the same."

“You’re still not answering the question. You are critical of Secretary Clinton, who actually turned over what she had … what we have here is a situation where the president did not turn over these documents. Can you say whether this was right or wrong?”

“He should have turned the documents over,” said Blunt.

Meaning, what Trump did was wrong.

Then Blunt tried desperately to change the subject, a common Republican tactic because Republican lawmakers do not want to talk about Trump.

"What I wonder about is why this could go on for almost two years and less than 100 days before the election [and] suddenly we're talking about this rather than the economy or inflation or even the student loan program you and I were going to talk about today?" he said.

"Well, it went on because the president didn't turn over the documents, correct? He was asked several times," Stephanopoulos said. "He didn't turn them over. He was subpoenaed, he didn’t respond to the subpoena."

“I understand he turned over a lot of documents,” Blunt claimed of Trump, seemingly referring to classified papers that were returned to the government in the months before the FBI search, after a protracted back-and-forth while ignoring the fact that Trump had hundreds more pages of classified documents which were seized by the FBI on August 8.

In attempting to defend Trump, the whole interview was a no-win situation for Blunt.

Another Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, threatened that there would be "riots in the streets" if Trump is indicted.

Donald Trump is the current leader of the Republican Party, and Republicans running for office strongly seek his endorsement.

It should be quite a while before we trust the Republican Party again.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

View attachment 688982

This guy and people like him chose our President in 2016.

 

[skye]

This guy and people like him chose our President in 2016.

oh well.....like we say....TDS ^^^