June 12, 2017

The Trump Fallacy: Comey's statements are both false and privileged. But they can't be both!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ap-fact-check-james-who-trump-paints-comey-as-a-stranger/2017/06/12/ac4f752c-4f43-11e7-b74e-0d2785d3083d_story.html

Trump’s legal team has accused Comey of leaking “privileged information.” It’s not clear the memos meet that standard. When information is privileged, the Freedom of Information Act cannot be used to force its disclosure. But any of the participants in the discussion are still free to make it public, says Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy specialist with the Federation of American Scientists.

“The other peculiar thing about this whole discussion is that the claim of privilege supports the accuracy of Comey’s account,” he said. “Privilege can only apply to accurate information.”

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Trump wants to have it both ways, but "privileged lies" is an oxymoron. If Comey was lying (which we all know he wasn't) then he didn't disclose privileged information. If Trump argues that Comey disclosed privileged information then he concedes that he wasn't lying.

June 11, 2017

Would you consider a rule against "fake news"?

This thread features a Time Magazine cover that appears at this point to be completely fabricated. I wanted to report it to the moderators but I couldn't find a rule that applies.



https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016186880

I'm concerned that allowing it to go unchallenged could tarnish the reputation of DU, and by extension, the Democratic Party.

June 10, 2017

Wacko anti-Sharia protester is only familiar with one amendment in the Bill of Rights.

Trump-supporting anti-Sharia protesters are trying to make a big deal out of a threat that doesn't even exist. The First Amendment forbids Sharia law, Christian law, Jewish law, or law based upon any other religion from taking hold in the USA, and as we know, the strongest threat to that constitutional principle comes from right-wingers constantly attempting to enforce Christianity.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/rallies-against-islamic-law-draw-counter-protests-across-us/2017/06/10/8d14a80e-4e16-11e7-987c-42ab5745db2e_story.html

But here's the funny part. The only word a right-winger thinks of in connection with "amendment" is "second":

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“I don’t believe Islam can peacefully co-exist with the Constitution,” said Seattle anti-Shariah demonstrator Aaron Bassford, 29. “I’m not going to tell them they can come here and take away my Second Amendment right. We need unity in this country under no ideology and no banner except the Constitution of the United States of America.”

That's a direct copy and paste of the Washington Post article. As I was writing this up, the article was changed.

June 9, 2017

A thought: For all practical purposes, Trump is now the FBI's Public Enemy #1.

With his ludicrous accusations against Comey, he has certainly made himself the FBI's #1 enemy. How can a U.S. president possibly function in a position like that?

June 9, 2017

Call Trump to testify under oath: CHECKMATE!

He's simply not capable of telling the truth.

June 9, 2017

The Tucson Weekly: A secret recording shows U.S. Rep. McSally has some concerns about reelection.

This is the same story referred to in the recent DU thread titled Republicans unhappy that voters tie them to Trump, which links to a Raw Story article, but Raw Story omits a lot of interesting material from their source, "The Skinny", a feature of the Tucson Weekly:

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Admittedly, McSally was making these comments as she was asking the bankers to open their checkbooks for her reelection campaign, so it could well be that she was just doing the ol' fear-mongering-for-dollars act.

McSally's comments came to light after some of McSally's critics—including Kristen Randall, the leader of Indivisible Southern Arizona—ordered tickets to a talk McSally was giving at a luncheon for the Arizona Bankers Association.

Someone on Team McSally, however, appears to have taken a closer look at who was attending the event, because four of the five members of the group received emails about two hours before the lunch informing them that their tickets had been revoked. "They caught onto us," Randall says with a laugh.

But the fifth member (whose identity The Skinny is not privy to) did manage to appear bankerly enough to crash the party—and the spy recorded McSally's entire speech for the Randall's group, and from there, it fell into our hands.

more...

June 9, 2017

"The president's councel does not appear to be awesome."

Rachel really has a way with words.

June 8, 2017

GOP pundits keep saying "Trump's not under investigation." No! He WASN'T last time Comey & he talked

... and that's all anyone outside of the FBI knows at this point.

June 8, 2017

This Trump attorney is attacking Comey! So what? That doesn't mean his client is innocent.

This is the best lawyer Trump could persuade to defend him?

June 8, 2017

"I can say definitively that Trump is not a liar." (Trump's press secretary, not his lawyer. Sorry.)

Edit: Sorry, it was White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders who said it.

http://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/