Trump's base (mostly poorly-educated whites) has a pretty strong track record of having no real opinion on something until they find out what minorities and/or academics think and then taking the opposite position.

How G.O.P Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science

I'm not so sure that it's so much that as it is more akin to one of the greatest compliments I was ever paid. An old boss of mine, asked to explain me, replied "Jon doesn't suffer fools well, nor long."

I can see a similar streak in Trump, with the difference being that he's had a lot less practice than me.

A leaker has been arrested. The name of the leaker???

Reality Winner.

You can't make this stuff up.

This pretty much renders The Onion redundant, doesn't it?

It's all so stupid I legitimately question my reality.

On the surface, it looked like pretty big stuff she leaked, but I guess there's pieces missing that stop it short from being a smoking gun. Probably not worth the felony conviction, but maybe combined with other stuff later, it can tell a bigger story about Russia's role in the election.

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/...2016-election/

Edit: And apparently "Winner" is a surname of German origin, it's a variant of Wiener. Who knew.

And while i never have come across the Name, a "Wiener" as a description can be a) a person coming from the city of Vienna or b) a rather tasty type of saussage named after the city (except everybody but us germans calls them "Frankfurter" after the city of Frankfurt in Germany)

You are welcome ;)

Trump is apparently winning so much he's getting tired of Winner.

When scrolling through my Twitter feed last night in bed shortly before posting here about it, I kept seeing various versions of "Reality Winner arrested for leaking classified information," and my interpretation was that someone had won a reality show, told all their friends before it aired, and had been *arrested* for breaking some stupid TV show's NDA. As a result, I wasted ~3 minutes of my life being pissed off about a combination of gubmint overreach and that people/news sites that I follow would be forcing me to scroll past such inanity, all because of this bimbo's idiot parents. :D

Everything's a con.

My eye doctor when I was a kid-his last name was Weiner. :)

It does show that the "tinfoil" shit thrown at dems for suggesting Russia was heavily involved in our election was wrong.

It's ridiculous that some don't see Russia as a primary threat to us and are ok with us being allies.

They're not. They're either lying or lying to themselves.

What's that about a fool for a client? But Thursday should be fun.

Sen Graham: "I don't believe Trump colluded with the Russians because I don't think he colludes with his own staff."

— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) June 6, 2017

{Goes to buy popcorn stock.}

$20 says he actually sends tweets to our Comey instead of the former FBI director.

I think we should all do that :)

Trump has scheduled a speech to religious conservatives during the Comey testimony and outside of that reportedly plans to live tweet his responses to the testimony.

What a time to be alive.

Looks like the open session starts at 10am EDT, and a non-television closed session starts at "around 1pm." Trump's speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition is scheduled to begin at 12:30pm, so it sounds like he'll be available for the large majority of the public testimony.

Those are two different questions.

1. I don't think Russia is a primary threat. China is a much bigger concern, for example. Terrorism in general is a bigger concern.

2. Allies, no. Cooperating when our interests converge, yes. Allies in the traditional sense seem to virtually not exist anymore. The only nations I'd call allies are the UK, Australia, and Israel, and even that list may not last much longer.

Donald Trump To Dine With Two Senators Who Will Question James Comey

I think people sleep on Russia because they're more of a covert than overt threat. As far as impact on our country Russia and China are 1a and 1b as far as threats go. Terrorism would be a very, very distant 2nd at best.

Terrorism has a very minuscule chance of directly affecting you, but you do have a tiny tiny chance of being killed by terrorism. You are far more likely to be killed by basically anything other than terrorism in the USA.

You are even less likely to be killed by Russia, but they are far more likely to materially and negatively affect your country, your politics, and therefore your daily life.

A statistically insignificant chance of dying v. a quite likely, perhaps even probable, chance of your life being negatively affected - which is the bigger threat?

I think you are, and possibly Atocep as well, selling the impact of terrorism far, far short. The steps that various governments do or do not take in reaction to it affect life negatively, in a similar way to the actions of a nation like Russia. To the extent terrorism has an impact on other countries, it has a ripple effect here. I also am an 'anti-patriot' to the extent that I do not believe one should make decisions based on how they affect America only; how they affect the world ought to matter more. That's something that I think will become more and more prevalent for practical reasons(globalism isn't going away), but there's a moral component to it as well IMO.

Certainly NATO countries are allies in the traditional sense unless we decide not to honor Article 5.

And fill the Rio Grande with sharks with friggin laser beams.

"Trump told the lawmakers they could talk about the solar-paneled wall as long as they said it was his idea"

Easily the best part of all of that.

:+1:

Instead Of Trump's Wall, Let's Build A Border Of Solar Panels | HuffPost

That would have to cost a lot of money.

That's as good as the other idea of making the wall out of coal, giving the miners something to do , and then you can set the wall on fire.

But wait, that won't work

Rick Santorum on Twitter: "Sad to be criticized by the left for something as obvious as solar (clouds & darkness) and wind (calm winds) are not reliable or consistent. https://t.co/tkNrTRbk1u"

That actually is a good argument.

But that doesn't absolve his lieutenants.

I agree that China is a bigger threat long term - economic and extending its sphere of influence.

I would add Canada to your list.

Trudeau decides it’s just not worth appeasing Trump in foreign-policy shift - The Globe and Mail

America has left the world, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland signalled in Tuesday’s landmark foreign policy address. Canada and its allies will hang together, she vowed, awaiting its return.

Trump says he's meeting with Obamacare "victims" today in Ohio. Has yet to address victims of Orlando shooting Monday. NRABucks are powerful.

AQ striking back ... wonder what took them so long.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/07/middle...ing/index.html

It worked though and its being reported as 'his idea' ... despite the fact that it blatantly wasn't .. this was one of the reported concepts presented for the wall by a company.

https://apnews.com/aadd3018366346568...n-solar-panels

I don't think that Trump is long-gamey enough for this, but if he does not tweet during Comey's testimony, that would be a huge win for him.

He's signaled that he will. The media loves him and can't wait for him to tweet. NO ONE is going to pay attention to what Comey says. EVERYONE is instead waiting to see what Trump tweets.

And, if he does not tweet, then the story becomes that he showed a "Presidential" level of restraint.

In any event, the actual testimony gets ignored.

The Qatar issue is shaping up to be a serious crisis. The Saudis sent a list of demands to Qatar, and the Turks are planning to fast track legislation to send troops in support of Qatar. The Russians have supposedly called Qatar to voice support.

Meanwhile Trump is escalating while the DoD is desperately trying to deescalate.

For someone trying to get rid of a Russia investigation Trump loves to surround himself with people with Russia ties. His FBI pick works for the lawyers that represents Rosneft.

He may be more than qualified for the position but you'd think we've hit the point where Trump would be specifically looking for guys that don't have strong ties to Moscow.

Trump is less concerned about being an effective president than making sure the only people that say nice things about him, his hardcore base, continue to make him feel good about himself.

That means tweets. Even if it torpedoes everything the administration is trying to accomplish.

Every single problem he has, including the media spotlight on the Russian investigation, is 100% his fault and his inability to shut his trap. However if it leads to a vocal contingent loudly applauding him, he'll gladly take that tradeoff.

I'm certainly not looking to mitigate anything for the guy but I'd imagine the firm that represents a company like that would be a monster firm that operates in many countries. Unless this guy was THE guy I think that's likely a non-issue.

I expected the Comey testimony to be a bust, but the transcript of his opening statement is full of bullets. Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare for the WH.

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/...mey-060817.pdf

Russian hookers :popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

That should stir the pot.

Not one bit of new info in there. Which makes CNN's current front page humourous and sad.

Nothing there which wasn't at least partially known already imho and while it makes Trump look a bit of a prat, I don't think there is enough to 'down him' ... fingers crossed he tweets live tomorrow as I'm fully expecting (as with most Trumpian issues) that Trump himself will be his biggest enemy ..

While most of it indeed has been mentioned already, this will be the first time that it is "on record".

So really the question would be -- is there actually anything to him being charged with obstruction of justice? If not, there's really nothing here that warrants all the excitement people have about tomorrow.

Everything prior to this was "sources say...". Hearing it directly from the former head of the FBI is definitely news.

I think tomorrow is certain to be a letdown. The independent investigation rolls on, and that's what actually matters.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but my perception is that the excitement is more around "what UIC will Trump tweet during the hearings" than what will actually come out.

At least that's the case for me. ;)

It's news, its not 50 point bold face Bombshell.

Another turn of the dial.

Not sure if there really are going to be any big surprises in the near term (regardless of what CNN & MSNBC wishes for)... time for the Dems to dig up something else about Trump & Family and come in at another direction.

Sounds like we'll just hear what has been reported. He committed obstruction of justice.

The independent investigation is probably what people should be waiting on. I still think that's going to be focused much more on people like Flynn and Kushner who likely did illegal things.

I get that the GOP congress isn't going to see this as big news, but when the President repeatedly asks the FBI director to drop an investigation into his administration and then fires the FBI director because he wouldn't drop it, should shock us. That's as clear as can be that the admin is putting itself above the law.

I don't view it as news because it's become accepted for the past 20-30 years(at least) that our leaders will put themselves above the law. I don't approve it of course, it's enough for me to favor impeachment, but I think a lot more impeachment should go on than does, and it's neither news or surprising while at the same time being rather terrible.

What Trump did, which basically no one argues, is unprecedented. At no point in our past has a president fired an FBI director because he refused to stop an investigation into the administration.

Predictions for Tomorrow:

• Comey will simply repeat everything we've already heard a million times
• Congressmen at the hearing will grandstand for their constituents
• MSM will fall all over itself with 16-man panels and chyron-over-chyron-over-chyron and SuperExtraBreakingNEWS!
• Liberals will be I-told-you-so
• Conservatives will be all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Trump's base will not be able to care less
• I'll coach T-Ball at 6PM and have fun doing it.

While I think Trump is bad for the US and the rest of the world, you also have to consider the possibility that Comey could be lying, could be committing perjury, treason, whatever law it would be to lie to the investigation.

Edward said it's another turn of the dial, and that's all is will be, albeit an important one. A president is not going to get brought down by the testimony of one man, it will need a weight of testimonies and supporting evidence for that to happen.

Actual substance aside, I was having this argument last night while watching Rachel Maddow at my parents... imo the liberal media has hyped this testimony up to the point where anything short of Comey saying he was on a conference call with Trump & Putin while being peed on by hookers can be brushed aside.
Bullshit.

Who has fun coaching T-ball? :p

Ok, I giggled.

Dear @realDonaldTrump: You get back to work. I'll handle the Comey live-tweeting.

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 8, 2017

Trump not tweeting. Smart. Maybe someone in the WH had the sense to shut off the WiFi.

Comey just directly said that he didn't document meetings with Bush or Obama, but that he did with Trump because he felt that Trump would lie about the nature of the meetings later.

Several times Comey indicates he believes Trump is a liar....then he says "I'll take him at his word" that he was fired because of the Russia investigation. That one isn't gonna play well.

Only by people grasping at straws.

That's basically like the old "when did you stop beating your wife?" trick.

Jeez, Comey isn't holding back. Accusing him of looking for a quid pro quo.

Fixed that for ya. ;)

It's stunning (and then again, it isn't) how many times the former Director Of The FBI has called the President Of The United States a liar.

We endured a p.o.s. that refused to enforce various laws on the books, refused to protect or defend the Constitution.

How come all the sudden interest in presidents & laws?

2/10. I expected much better.

Firing Comey shows everything wrong with Trump as a politician. He had a guy on the inside who was going to protect him and was going to protect the office of the presidency. But that guy refused to pledge personal loyalty to him or pretend he liked him. So he had to go, even at great political cost to Trump.

Maybe he should have had Colonel Cathcart ask him to sign the loyalty pledge.

BREAKING: Speaker Paul Ryan says FBI director needs to be independent, says Trump unfamiliar with protocol, `just new to this'

— The Associated Press (@AP) June 8, 2017

Dola:

Someone said that Ryan and McConnell could go up to Trump and propose a show trial in which he would be found guilty of misdemeanor malfeasance, but then afterwards he would get to be emperor for life.

And Trump would turn them down. Because he could not comprehend even one day of humiliation in exchange for a lifetime of power.

He turned Tom into Tessio

Sessions is coming off pretty bad here as well.

I've been watching it for past hour, that's not my impression? Comey said alot of I don't know re: Sessions.

Holy cow. Does John McCain have dementia?

I sure as hell hope so.

McCain seems confused. Time to put him out to pasture.

Yeah...wtf is he watching?

Does he not understand that Clinton and Russia were separate investigations?

He's troubled and concerned by Trump's actions, but not so much that he's not going to focus on Her Emails as the most pressing issue.

It appears that he doesn't. Either that or he's wondering why the FBI didn't investigate Hillary Clinton for colluding with Russia to elect Donald Trump. :p

Did he also say "President Comey" a couple of times?

Yes. He also wondered what "that thing" was. I'm assuming he wonders what a lot of things are now.

Was there a hard end time on this? If so, thank god it wasn't 7 mins shorter.

Ah, you meant Lynch ... yes, she came off looking bad

Rubio on McCain: "I didn't follow that line of questioning very well."

I wasn't following where McCain was tracking ... thought I missed something. Good to know I wasn't alone

No idea if this is accurate, but it's a fair summation of the McCain questions...

Other senators' faces as McCain talks. pic.twitter.com/2x1nmRzbkQ

— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) June 8, 2017

Interesting. Fox News pundit said that Mueller investigation will eventually call on Trump to testify under oath.

Hope it happens. I'm sure it'll be close door but would be fun if it was open.

Right now:

We're on vacation with my in-laws. My father-in-law after missing the hearing after he spent 90 minutes at a bait shop, then coming in and checking fox news:

Wow, nothing bad for Trump.... something, something Loretta Lynch.

There's literally no way to get through to these people.

I'd say something, but my daughter is sitting here ignoring him watching Sofia the First. I don't feel the need to anger him when she's 5 feet away.

Also, that Trump was right to fire Comey about the memo, even if he didn't know about the memo.

I'm talking about the questions the Senators were raising about Sessions. He probably didn't think he'd be featured so much in hearing.

And that Comey indicated that there were other reason Sessions would have had to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, but he couldn't reveal them. And Comey saying it's a 'reasonable question' as to whether Sessions should have been involved in Comey's firing since he recused himself.

Did Mccain have a stroke on national television? or some heavy burtations?