snafu

^^^^^^^^^^ Not only will the issue of lying to Congress come down on Barr’s side (it will never get that far) the whole issue is transparent manufactured outrage. It has a chilling effect on witnesses, and it cheapens the goal of looking for truth. Who’d want to come before Congress to answer questions if they’re going to parse every phrase of answers they don’t want to hear. Congress shouldn’t be in the business of setting traps for witnesses at all. Not ever. And @plenzmd1 The fact that Barr’s letter says what the executive summaries said in fewer words makes the Mueller letter come across as whining. What was Barr’s motivation for lying? Was it to downplay the SC team’s reaction to Barr’s initial letter? Was it to cover up his intentional mischaracterization of the report’s conclusions? If those are the reasons, then this is all b.s. since the executive summaries were released as part of the report a week later. I haven’t heard any other explanations for Barr’s motivation in answering the way he did. Barr said it himself — once Mueller made his report, his job was done. Whining or complaining about what Barr does with the report is exactly just that. I’m not trying to get into why Barr answered that Q on 4/9, but sounds like to me he was talking like a guy who (a) didn’t give a rats ass about Mueller’s letter, and (b) knew that the summaries were in the report already.

I bet if they took a photo of Cohen's nameplate, it would have figurines of a dog and a pony on it.

Of all the transcripts Doug Collins released, hers absolutely struck me as the most evasive and squirrely.

Holy *****. Hillary has got to let it go. She won’t accept the results of the election.

Barr is actually in a rough spot. He’s defending the report’s conclusions of no coordination and by doing that, it looks like he’s defending the President. And Mueller left him hanging out to dry on obstruction. The case FOR obstruction is just flimsy enough that Barr has to explain his position, and again it looks like he’s defending the President.

I guess we can't call them freshwater shrimp anymore.

Hockey isn't complex.

Did the Scandinavian countries nationalize private industry, or were they always organized that way? Do the Scandinavian countries have confiscatory taxes so that a centralized government can redistrubute wealth as they see fit, whether the recipients have done anything to earn it, or were they always run that way? Do the Scandinavian countries practice price controls? Do they ration resources? Have they ever done those things? If these things weren't in place, and then were all of a sudden imposed, you will have pulled the rug out from under the citizenry. Those government actions go against human nature. Maybe these things are good for groups of people who want to live together communally, but the ideas can't be scaled up and placed upon the unwilling. And as long as people are resentful of confiscation, they will be unsettled. Eventually, the only way to keep order is to (a) have a strong police force, cowed citizens, and informants, then (b) bend the country's constitution (or laws) to rig the system to keep those running the show in power, and when that fails (c) enforce order.

There was no dictatorship in Venezuela before socialism was implemented.

This is untrue. You're saying that only fans of teams in baseball playoffs watch the games -- as well as fans of baseball who don't live in a city with a ream? What makes pro playoffs different from NCAA tournament or Football championship/bowl games? Only alumna watch?

(A) Mueller was a DOJ appointment -- Executive Branch. (B) Mueller's investigation was not a criminal investigation. Technically, it was a counterintelligence matter, and those reports are part and parcel made for the President. This is obviously an odd case, and it would have been political suicide but the President could have bounced Mueller at any time.

Right after the 2016 election, he had a town hall debate vs. Bernie Sanders (I think it was on CNN). It was no contest whatsoever. Not remotely close. Ted Cruz is no fool. People don't like him because he's slick and squirrely.

I saw my first Harris bumper sticker today in Brooklyn. You may have already seen it in California. It says "Kamala Harris -- For the People".

Yeah, and for 2.5 years, people have been looking for something Trump did without knowing what it was. That's ass-backwards.

Blumenthal uses someone else's arm as his spine while they move his puppet-mouth.

I've been trying to ignore you, but this post is so mind-numbingly stupid and ill-informed. Here are the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Only ONE is NOT an attorney: no - Dianne Feinstein yes - Dick Durbin yes - Kamala D. Harris yes - Cory Booker yes - Mazie K. Hirono yes - Richard Blumenthal yes - Chris ***** yes - Amy Klobuchar yes - Sheldon Whitehouse yes - Patrick Leahy

Me. It's fantastic hockey to watch. I have it on (muted) while I listen to a podcast.

Yes, but it is a defense from attacks coming from the south, not the north. It might come into play in the next coming episodes, especially to bring Howland Reed into the story to verify Jon's claim.

The Bolivians were the last straw. That Figuera move put Maduro on the plane, and the Russians talked him off? “But, But BOLIVIA is gone!” ? The real issue are the Cubans. It seems that they’re so integrated into the military and security apparatus that most of the generals won’t make the leap to Guaidó. It can’t be both? Maduro is trying to preserve his form of government.

My wife's favorite character was Theon. She feels bad that he got completely bamboozled by both Balon and then the psychopath Bolton kid -- and he suffered mightily for his bad life choices. I say don't make bad life choices.

I hope this doesn't stop him.

Arya almost forgot to show up at the Godswood. Melisandre had to remind her what her purpose was. And Theon's slo-mo run at the Night King from 30 yards away was not the best plan of attack.

Fun-sucker! There don't seem to be too many hard and fast rules about this.

I count SEVEN beers. Thank you Trump!!!

Was there no one here who wanted to see Sansa kill reanimated, headless Ned Stark (or Rob even) when they were down in the crypts? Edit: Better yet -- Tyrion kills reanimated Ned. Keeps the Lannister/Stark wheel rolling.