The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on February 14, 2019, 02:31:21 pm
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Rule change sharpens Dem investigations into Trump
By Morgan Chalfant - 02/14/19 06:00 AM EST
A change to House rules is putting sharper teeth into Democratic investigations of President Trump and his administration.
The change allows staff of House committees to conduct depositions without any lawmakers present, freeing up the panels to move through witnesses in their investigations quickly without the constraints of the previous Congress.
The change will offer Democrats on powerful House committees including Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Judiciary substantial momentum as they open wide-ranging probes into Trump, producing new headaches for the White House as the president readies his reelection bid.
“It’s more teeth, faster legs, longer breath, greater strength and just bigger,†said Steven Cash, a former staffer and counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The other thing it signals is this isn’t the political theater of the Benghazi hearings. They’re not really interested in what comes out on television. They want sworn testimony. That indicates to me they’re looking for facts and not show,†added Cash, who is now a lawyer at Day Pitney specializing in criminal and national security law.
A fight has been percolating between House Democrats and the president since the November midterm elections, when Democrats captured the majority in the lower chamber and took control of all of the oversight and investigative powers that come with it.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/429934-rule-change-sharpens-dem-investigations-into-trump
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They're not interested in actually finding any crime...they just want to...mud sling through 2020 in hopes of making Trump look bad enough they have a shot at winning.
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Someone on another thread was worried that if we changed the rules at all, the dems would exploit that when they get into power. Here's a good example of what actually happens - the dems change the rules to suit their goals, regardless of what the republicans have done or not done in the past.
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Someone on another thread was worried that if we changed the rules at all, the dems would exploit that when they get into power. Here's a good example of what actually happens - the dems change the rules to suit their goals, regardless of what the republicans have done or not done in the past.
Dems play hardball for keeps always! Republicans play nerf ball for funsies!
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Someone on another thread was worried that if we changed the rules at all, the dems would exploit that when they get into power. Here's a good example of what actually happens - the dems change the rules to suit their goals, regardless of what the republicans have done or not done in the past.
I tend to agree. There's no leading by example, or respect for tradition, that animates the Dems. They will bend, break, change and subvert rules to suit their purpose. Hell, their bedrock premise is that they refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election.
If Trump needs to declare a national emergency to build the wall, then he should do it without fear of setting a precedent. The Dems won't be deterred from using this weapon simply because Republicans have exercised restraint. It's like us and the Russians. We adhere to treaties that the Russians have been violating for decades.
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I tend to agree. There's no leading by example, or respect for tradition, that animates the Dems. They will bend, break, change and subvert rules to suit their purpose. Hell, their bedrock premise is that they refuse to accept the results of a free and fair election.
If Trump needs to declare a national emergency to build the wall, then he should do it without fear of setting a precedent. The Dems won't be deterred from using this weapon simply because Republicans have exercised restraint. It's like us and the Russians. We adhere to treaties that the Russians have been violating for decades.
888high58888
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I would encourage everyone to read this:
The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic
The things that are happening now, the disregard for legislative custom and tradition...willingness to set aside the rule of law when convenient...the precedent for the use of mob violence and protest to intimidate lawmakers...the introduction of amoral legislators who's only real goal is their own accumulation of power...are anything but new.
The American Left is little more than the latest version of the popularis faction that destroyed the Roman Republic through demagoguery, disdain for the rule, disregard and condemnation of constitutional traditions, and a selective moral narcissism.
The lesson for the "old school" constitutionalist "optimates" of our time is to not ignore the genuine concerns of the people...if they/we do...the popularis will use that kernel of genuine need and turn it into a tool of revolution and destruction. So, in the midst of this revolutionary climate, we constitutionalists must be fervent and devotional in our efforts to address the "real" concerns of the people...we cannot allow ourselves to be "demagogued" into the role of uncaring hard liners, unwilling and unable to address the needs of the populace. So we must, as conservatives, be ACTIVE in improving the lives of individual Americans...our constitutionality must co-exist with visible and public works to improve the lives of the middle class.
We've already had "optimate" congressman (Scalise) shot up on a softball field by a product of the Left's demagoguery...leaders accosted and assaulted while on private business with their families in restaurants and other public venues...do not make the mistake of thinking that was anything other than the beginning of their use of violence to attain their means.
The rule of law, and of the constitution, is disintegrating...and this is not incidental. Its a deliberate and concerted effort of the extreme left...and in this description I refer to the AOC wing of the party (the more moderate Dems simply being useful idiots and weak kneed accomplices).
I am not, and never have been, a "sky is falling" conservative...I despise political "conspiracy" theories as a genre of interpretation for political events. But...only a fool would pretend that there is anything less than a concerted effort going on, from the Left, to bring down the Republic as we have known it and to replace it with a facade that will surely appear similar on the surface...but which in action is little more than a cover for the Far Left's permanent assumption of power.
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say there is a hint of gunpowder in the air after every speech made by the Dem "Socialists"...they want revolution, not reform, though they are clever enough at this point to dress it up as "social justice".
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Someone on another thread was worried that if we changed the rules at all, the dems would exploit that when they get into power. Here's a good example of what actually happens - the dems change the rules to suit their goals, regardless of what the republicans have done or not done in the past.
Totally agree @Sanguine . I'm sick of the fearful chant, 'but what if democrats get in power.' If democrats get in power, they will do evil things regardless of what Republicans do, as you said.
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@Mesaclone Wonderful essay. Sometimes we're inclined to dismiss the weird stuff the leftists do as too ridiculous to take seriously.
But way too many people take this seriously. We have to read about a guy who claims eating meat will destroy humanity, to a wild chick who wants to change the entire infrastructure in fear of green something.
In the meantime, some of us so-called conservatives are saving all our passion for criticizing either Trump or the people they refer to as do-nothing Republicans. No sense of proportion at all.
Frankly, I'm scared.
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@Mesaclone Wonderful essay. Sometimes we're inclined to dismiss the weird stuff the leftists do as too ridiculous to take seriously.
But way too many people take this seriously. We have to read about a guy who claims eating meat will destroy humanity, to a wild chick who wants to change the entire infrastructure in fear of green something.
In the meantime, some of us so-called conservatives are saving all our passion for criticizing either Trump or the people they refer to as do-nothing Republicans. No sense of proportion at all.
Frankly, I'm scared.
You are right...what these NT folks do is akin to squabbling over the arrangement of the furniture whilst barbarians burn down the house we all live in. Its insane...and if it continues...we will all burn in the fires of Socialism. I think you're right to be scared...we should all be fearful.
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You are right...what these NT folks do is akin to squabbling over the arrangement of the furniture whilst barbarians burn down the house we all live in. Its insane...and if it continues...we will all burn in the fires of Socialism. I think you're right to be scared...we should all be fearful.
You should more about what the Democrat Party is trying to do to the President and the country and less about some mythical group within the GOP that you've labeled as "NT" because they don't agree with Trump 110% of the time.
This circular firing squad mentality that has gripped the Uber Trump faithful is what will allow the Dems to make gains if not outright take over the WH in two years.
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You should more about what the Democrat Party is trying to do to the President and the country and less about some mythical group within the GOP that you've labeled as "NT" because they don't agree with Trump 110% of the time.
This circular firing squad mentality that has gripped the Uber Trump faithful is what will allow the Dems to make gains if not outright take over the WH in two years.
@txradioguy You should make a slight attempt to understand what @Mesaclone is trying to tell you. He is much smarter than either of us. He did not even mention the NTers ... I brought that up but it is applicable.
People who deal in facts and don't cling to 2016 mentality know that Trump has done a good job on so many fronts and that he is, in fact, more popular now than when he was elected.
I merely pointed out that you and your fellow haters would rather spend your time bashing a good President because he's not your type, than calling attention to the horror that is the democrat party and the ignorant leftist side of society.
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Did you just call one of our board members a "brownshirt"? Really?
Have you NO decency, sir?
And let me add, if there's a circular firing squad its not been formed by supporters of the President. We are the ones actually calling FOR Republican/Conservative unity in the face of what is little less than a slow motion Socialist coup de etat.
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Everything in that post is a lie @txradioguy . There are no 'brown-shirted loyalists" on this forum in the sense that you mean it, which is an insult that is almost evil in its implication. I am ashamed of you for saying that.
Jihad against journalists? Jihad? C'mon. I wish journalists could be held accountable for outright lies but most Trump supporters believe in Freedom of the Press.
Retribution against anyone who didn't vote for Trump? I didn't vote for Trump. Am I supposed to strangle myself in my sleep.
Look, your hate has turned a formerly rational guy into something of a nut case.
I hope you will get well someday.
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Did you just call one of our board members a "brownshirt"? Really?
Have you NO decency, sir?
The very same member that has said much worse about people who merely voted for Cruz in the 2016 election?
Yes I did. Don't lecture me on decency when you have done nothing to either minimize some of the violent rhetoric DCP and other militant Trump supporters have said on this forum over the last 3 years. Get back to me when you try to calm those people down in public.
The very same person I might add...that in that craptastic meme he posted insinuated that myself and others here HATE America.
You wanna talk about decency?
And let me add, if there's a circular firing squad its not been formed by supporters of the President. We are the ones actually calling FOR Republican/Conservative unity in the face of what is little less than a slow motion Socialist coup de etat.
Then prove it by doing your part to stop the the NT bullsh*t against people who support the President on some things but might have a disagreement on how he handles other agenda items.
The rabid anti Trump people...with one glaring exception are gone from here. What's left (again with one glaring exception) are not anywhere close to being considered NT nor should the be labeled as such.
Maybe then your alleged call for "unity" will seem a little more sincere.
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Thread locked for an hour or two...
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Opening the thread again...
In the future, please don't quote remarks that offend...that just quadrupled the labor and made me lock it until @mystery-ak and I cleaned up the mess.
TIA
ETA: The obligatory "Stop making it personal": There are still some personal attacks above this post and I would appreciate it if you all could review what's posted and edit your own remarks? It beats me having to go through and delete everything. Just about everybody is in on it.
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Opening the thread again...
In the future, please don't quote remarks that offend...that just quadrupled the labor and made me lock it until @mystery-ak and I cleaned up the mess.
TIA
ETA: The obligatory "Stop making it personal": There are still some personal attacks above this post and I would appreciate it if you all could review what's posted and edit your own remarks? It beats me having to go through and delete everything. Just about everybody is in on it.
We cannot have a decent thread if a certain poster is allow to call Trump supporters certain names.
We had a really good post about important matters by Mesaclone and then hate set in.
If that poster posts again, I won't.
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@Emjay please take it to PMs. This thread is for the discussion of Congressional rule changes.
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Someone on another thread was worried that if we changed the rules at all, the dems would exploit that when they get into power. Here's a good example of what actually happens - the dems change the rules to suit their goals, regardless of what the republicans have done or not done in the past.
Exactly. That's how they got ObamaCare rammed through. They change the rules ANYway.
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They're not interested in actually finding any crime...
I think they are interested in finding crime and I have no doubt the think crimes were committed, but as we all know the GOP is infallible. Not like other humans, and even if people like Flynn, Cohen, Manifort, ect. did commit crimes, the rats are worse.
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I think they are interested in finding crime and I have no doubt the think crimes were committed, but as we all know the GOP is infallible. Not like other humans, and even if people like Flynn, Cohen, Manifort, ect. did commit crimes, the rats are worse.
*****rollingeyes*****
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I think they are interested in finding crime and I have no doubt the think crimes were committed, but as we all know the GOP is infallible. Not like other humans, and even if people like Flynn, Cohen, Manifort, ect. did commit crimes, the rats are worse.
Wow. Not sure I've ever read anything so unintentionally ridiculous. Each point could be refuted by a smarter than average 8 year old...but why bother...the whole thing just speaks for itself, declaring loudly who and what the author really is.
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I have some melatonin and an old lamp cord, if it’ll help.
What a guy. **nononono*
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I have some melatonin and an old lamp cord, if it’ll help.
Dude, you're an a-hole. You should go away and never come back...that was way beyond the pale.
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Dude, you're an a-hole. You should go away and never come back...that was way beyond the pale.
Well, unfortunately for you, IDGAF what you think.
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Well, unfortunately for you, IDGAF what you think.
Shocker. Clearly, a person who would encourage another to commit suicide cares only for themselves. Which was precisely my point, so thanks for reinforcing that.
Again, you should be banned forever for what you said. I'm all for hot debate and even a few personal jobs...what you just did is quite nearly a criminal act (a young girl was just convicted of murder for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide), and at a minimum demonstrates you are unworthy of engaging with the members of this board.
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I have some melatonin and an old lamp cord, if it’ll help.
That's tasteless. Suicide is neither painless nor humorous.
EVERYBODY: Drop the subject and get back to the Topic, please.
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Dude, you're an a-hole. You should go away and never come back...that was way beyond the pale.
Actually, @Mesaclone I understand the concept of freedom of speech but there are a few members who abuse that daily with outrageous personal insults to people who disagree with them.
I know the mods have a hard job and this group constitutes about one-fourth of the active members, but really I think they should be given a time out until they can stick to facts and eschew insults.
I handle it myself by having 6 or 7 people on ignore. I only see their posts when someone else quotes them. I have not missed a single interesting or valid post by doing so and have spared myself the futile urge to argue with odd people.
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I have some melatonin and an old lamp cord, if it’ll help.
This was a reported post...I am sure he was just trying to be funny...lighten up a little
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This was a reported post...I am sure he was just trying to be funny...lighten up a little
How is it funny to encourage suicide?
I'm pretty laid back about all the banter that goes on...can dish it out AND take it. That one goes WAY too far and I don't think its right to pooh-pooh it as a "lighten up" situation. I'll leave it at that and just put the person involved on my ignore...that will be the first time I've done so in several years.
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This was a reported post...I am sure he was just trying to be funny...lighten up a little
No kidding. My seriousness was on the same level as her intent to actually do it. Honestly, the handwringing only makes it funnier to me.
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How is it funny to encourage suicide?
I'm pretty laid back about all the banter that goes on...can dish it out AND take it. That one goes WAY too far and I don't think its right to pooh-pooh it as a "lighten up" situation. I'll leave it at that and just put the person involved on my ignore...that will be the first time I've done so in several years.
If you read the conversation up the thread, you can see he was responding to a post about suicide. But for that, I'd have just blown it away.
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If you read the conversation up the thread, you can see he was responding to a post about suicide. But for that, I'd have just blown it away.
@Cyber Liberty I've told you before you are one of the nicest people in the forum.
But I have to protest the laughing off and lightening up we are supposed to do about really nasty posters. They get their jollies out of annoying others, particularly Trump supporters.
Fortunately, I don't run this forum or some of them would be on a very long time out.
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@Cyber Liberty I've told you before you are one of the nicest people in the forum.
But I have to protest the laughing off and lightening up we are supposed to do about really nasty posters. They get their jollies out of annoying others, particularly Trump supporters.
Fortunately, I don't run this forum or some of them would be on a very long time out.
:shrug:
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Let he/she who hasn't said silly $hit that has been misinterpreted by someone cast the first stone.
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Let he/she who hasn't said silly $hit that has been misinterpreted by someone cast the first stone.
I totally understand the problem of the mods, @corbe and I say silly stuff all the time. That does not offend me although it can get boring and over the top.
I'm talking about nastiness to another poster which is not cool.
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How is it funny to encourage suicide?
I'm pretty laid back about all the banter that goes on...can dish it out AND take it. That one goes WAY too far and I don't think its right to pooh-pooh it as a "lighten up" situation. I'll leave it at that and just put the person involved on my ignore...that will be the first time I've done so in several years.
Your selective outrage is noted.
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The rabid anti Trump people...with one glaring exception are gone from here.
:seeya:
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They're not interested in actually finding any crime...they just want to...mud sling through 2020 in hopes of making Trump look bad enough they have a shot at winning.
@txradioguy
There it is. They know that if they lose to him again,chances are the senior Dims who are in power now will never be in power again the rest of their lives. They will have lost their "edge" and their ability to punish people who don't bend to their will. Look for most of the senior alleged Republicans to be giving them all the help they can give them because this applies to them even more than it does the Dims.
It's going to get ugly.
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Maybe the Senate Republican can counter the House aggression a bit. Imagine Lindsay Graham issuing subpoenas for Adam Schiff to do some splainin about his meetings with Fusion GPS, if that’s possible.
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Maybe the Senate Republican can counter the House aggression a bit. Imagine Lindsay Graham issuing subpoenas for Adam Schiff to do some splainin about his meetings with Fusion GPS, if that’s possible.
@RetBobbyMI
I like imagining it,and it MIGHT even happen. Lady Lindsey has shown some evidence lately of having remembered where he left h is stones,and strapping them on again.
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Dems play hardball for keeps always! Republicans play nerf ball for funsies!
....because "...we're supposed to be better than that" /S *****rollingeyes***** such BS...
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@Mesaclone Wonderful essay. Sometimes we're inclined to dismiss the weird stuff the leftists do as too ridiculous to take seriously.
But way too many people take this seriously. We have to read about a guy who claims eating meat will destroy humanity, to a wild chick who wants to change the entire infrastructure in fear of green something.
In the meantime, some of us so-called conservatives are saving all our passion for criticizing either Trump or the people they refer to as do-nothing Republicans. No sense of proportion at all.
Frankly, I'm scared.
IMO, this is exactly the DEM strategy for 2020.
Get all the Socialists running to appear insane. In steps [fill-in-the-blank] to come across as a 'Centrist'.
I'm scared too. @Emjay
Thank God that the last one standing over there has to face Donald J. Trump in 2020.
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You should more about what the Democrat Party is trying to do to the President and the country and less about some mythical group within the GOP that you've labeled as "NT" because they don't agree with Trump 110% of the time.
This circular firing squad mentality that has gripped the Uber Trump faithful is what will allow the Dems to make gains if not outright take over the WH in two years.
ROFL! You really think you can blame staunch 'Trump fans' now if he goes down in 2020?
Your bullshit excuse for not owning the NT label around here is the laugh of the week. You're a joke. A sick joke.
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If some in-depth research was done, why do I get the feeling a fair amount of those saying the emergency precedent danger is absurd would also include those who said they tried to warn us the Patriot Act would someday be used by Democrats to spy on Americans, when they held power?
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Maybe the Senate Republican can counter the House aggression a bit. Imagine Lindsay Graham issuing subpoenas for Adam Schiff to do some splainin about his meetings with Fusion GPS, if that’s possible.
That is Lindsey Graham 2.0 and I love it.
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ROFL! You really think you can blame staunch 'Trump fans' now if he goes down in 2020?
Your bullshit excuse for not owning the NT label around here is the laugh of the week. You're a joke. A sick joke.
The only joke around here...and a pathetic one at that...is you and your continued hatred towards anyone who doesn’t worship Trump like you do.
You’re still praying for that “retribution†you talked about a couple years ago against anyone who didn’t vote for Trump.
And you’re giving a textbook example of the point I was making about how the militants in the Trump base are alienating people from even considering voting for him in 2020.
Your anger is clearly directed at the wrong people.
But you obviously don’t care.
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You should more about what the Democrat Party is trying to do to the President and the country and less about some mythical group within the GOP that you've labeled as "NT" because they don't agree with Trump 110% of the time.
This circular firing squad mentality that has gripped the Uber Trump faithful is what will allow the Dems to make gains if not outright take over the WH in two years.
Agree 100%. @txradioguy
I am so sick of these cowardly indirect NT labelings at people that loudly cheer Trump on each time he does something Conservative yet have the principle to call him out for abandoning Conservatism.
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Let he/she who hasn't said silly $hit that has been misinterpreted by someone cast the first stone.
I can't believe we have no rock throwing emoji.