Secret CIA source claims Russia rigged 2016 election

Realistically it’s doubtful that the Hatch Act would survive a Supreme Court challenge. There are serious First Amendment issues with telling people what they can and cannot say to others.

So I gather the DoJ decides if charges will be pressed, not the FBI?

Remember, folks, that Flynn is also being investigated by the Army, separately from the FBI, over a trip he took to Moscow in 2015.

I think it was reported today that they had no records of his trip.

Yes … and to be clear, this is the noteworthy thing. As a retired general, he would have had to notify them if he received money from Russia during it, or be in violation of the emoluments clause.*

(He definitely took the trip, it’s where the pictures of him sitting with Putin and Jill Stein come from.)

*Fuel for the Optimism thread - thanks to all this I am gradually learning how to correctly spell “emoluments.”

The FBI doesn’t prosecute cases. US Attorneys and their assistants do that, just as DAs do for non-federal crimes.

Fox News trying to protect their market, afraid of all the “fake news” allegations being thrown around? What the hell is going on?

Well, Shepard Smith was also taking all the Fake News allegations pretty personal earlier today, during this glorious segment. It’s Shep Smith though, so it’s not like we’ve entered an alternate dimension, but Fox did air it.

This was probably posted elsewhere, but I can’t tell because videos here won’t play in Android Chrome for me.

Shepard has long been the odd-man out at Fox on Trump, going all the back into the primaries. And long before Trump was around.

Classic Shep moment on torture:

From…Fox News:

And I thought things might calm down until Monday at least…

This will go well:

On the plus side, he’s got to run out of billionaires to appoint sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Chaffetz is taking “But her emails!” literally.

Trump say that the leaks are real, but the news are fake because are mean to him.

Sadly this is probably literally true. In Trumpland, any criticism of the Dear Leader is manifestly and categorically false, as He is above reproach.

The bizarre thing is people see this and go along with it. I mean, it’s not like Trump is some sort of hugely charismatic wunderkind who helps old ladies across the street and rescues puppies. It’s so strange people actually idolize him.

Then again, most evil twits like this have been fairly wretched human beings yet still manage to motive the masses.

There was another post more insightful about this than mine, but I think this is simply for the fact that Trump is super rich. Forget about whether he’s worth 8 or 4 or 3 billion, that’s super rich, and for a vast swath of people in this country, getting super rich is literally their end state. For them, being rich means you have succeeded, and the way you got rich is unimportant.

For these people, it’s very possible that Trump is very much a God in their eyes. A being that has ascended to a higher plane and is to be idolized, and who is beyond reproach. Anyone who demeans Trump is a heretic.

I despise this toad. I wish I lived a little further south so that I could cast a vote against him, even if it’s only symbolically.

On the other hand… yeah, no real desire to live in large swatches of his district. :)

A whole lot of people long to be assholes.

Specifically, a whole lot of people dream of being an rich, powerful authoritarian figure who get to boss around minions, abuse people to their faces, and eat ice cream for breakfast - even though they have no talents, skills, or relevant experience.

Donnie is living that dream.

I see what you did there.