All that inappropriate infidel contact, but now the scene shifts to Israel as the circus goes to another town to set up its tent in a bunker.
The closest we’ll get to a general authority for entertainment soon is the carnival of Congressional hearings since Reince Priebus is heading home “early”. He may be subject to obstruction of justice because of inappropriate contact with Comey and McCabe regarding a NY Times article.
If Kushner comes back early, then there’s more to that WaPo report about being a “person of interest”. But firing a son-in-law is probably not in the cards for Agent Orange.
More dreading… but will it end with Trump untouched by more of his staff jumping ship … as we approach a Pence administration.
The president is said to be dreading the nine-day tour, which will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Belgium, and Italy.
The biker rally ended at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, where many of the kingdom’s future clerics and Shariah judges are trained. The bikers hung out on the grass, drinking Diet Pepsi and lining up to face Mecca when the call to prayer sounded.
The ride had been organized by the General Authority for Entertainment, a government body charged with planning fun, G-rated activities in a kingdom where young people often complain of boredom. The riders wore white polo shirts with “Ride for entertainment” on the front and “No to terrorism” on the back.
Clearly, the world has also noticed Trump’s obsession. The New York Times reportsforeign officials are encouraging anyone scheduled to meet with Trump to occasionally drop praise of his Electoral College results…
But according to an anonymous US diplomat stationed in the Middle East, regardless of the speech’s content, Muslim leaders aren’t likely to take anything Trump says seriously. Why? “Not many people give much weight to anything he says,”the source told Buzzfeed. A scholar at the Century Foundation went further and said that the “bar is so low Trump will be seen as a success simply by avoiding the outlandish.”
‘…Another rider, Eyad Alrumaih, surmised that Saudis found Mr. Trump’s governing style similar to that of Arab leaders.Saudi Arabia has institutions and a parliamentary body that are supposed to represent the people, he said, “but at the end of the day, the king says what goes.”
He added: “This is why some of the Americans are against him: ‘He did this, he fired the head of the F.B.I.’ But this is how we do it here.’’’
In May 2012, the head of the mutaween, Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, stated that anyone using social media sites, such as Twitter, “has lost this world and his afterlife”.[30]
Priebus is said to be leaving the traveling White House caravan early, returning this week instead of staying the full foreign trip.
So even as Kushner has become a “person of interest”, Priebus has bigger problems since he may have made a pre-emptive move repeated by Agent Orange to try to force the FBI to deny a NY Times story.
In February, CNN reported that Priebus had reached out to the deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, as well as to FBI Director James Comey, and asked them to publicly refute a Feb. 14 New York Times article that said the FBI was investigating links between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials.
First of all, we know that Priebus’s public assertion that the New York Times story on contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence is simply not true. If there were no contacts, then the FBI clearly wouldn’t be investigating Trump and his aides. At the very least, Priebus lied to the American people and should apologize for doing so.
Second, Priebus’s claim that he was “approved” by the FBI to say the Times story was wrong is dubious, since Comey on Monday implicitly confirmed that the story was correct. Moreover, why would McCabe have acted so inappropriately in reaching out to Priebus to tell him the Times story was “BS” when we now know from Comey’s testimony that the story is not BS?
If all this is true, then Priebus not only violated longstanding norms that severely limit contact between the White House and the Department of Justice, but his outreach to the FBI looks very much like an implicit effort to pressure the FBI into denying the Times story. That sounds a lot like obstruction of justice.
Even if Priebus did not intend to pressure the FBI about the investigation, his contact with Comey and McCabe gives the appearance that this is exactly what he was trying to do.
In short, none of the White House’s explanations about the nature of the contact between Priebus and the FBI make any sense.
The more logical explanation is that Priebus committed a serious ethical – and potentially legal – violation.
He should resign immediately.
OTOH Priebus may just be getting back to the White House to put out a number of staff brushfires…
â Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) May 18, 2017
Some White House staffers have turned to impeachment gallows humor. Other mid-level aides have started reaching out to consultants, shopping their resumes. And at least one senior staffer has begun privately talking to friends about what a post-White House job would look like, according to two people close the staffer.
Trump, for his part, largely believes his recent string of mishaps are not substantive but simply errors of branding and public relations, according to people close to him and the White House.
Indeed, as he faced a wave of criticism following the disclosure he had leaked “code-word” intelligence material to Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting last week, the president took to Twitter to claim he had “the absolute right” to do so.
Absolute right ends when the right to exist becomes important for a nation rather than a pseudo-nationalist clown.
This was part of Trump’s clever plan to smash ISIS bigly, right? And of his plan to give Israel a big hug, yes? https://t.co/nB4QZ6purV
The King David Hotel bombing was a terrorist attack carried out on Monday, July 22, 1946, by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization, the Irgun, on the British administrative headquarters
NBC News reported Friday that the suite at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel cost about $5,700 per night, and has features protecting it from bombs, gas attacks, bullets and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).
Above the hotel, infrared cameras on balloons will keep watch, while bomb-seeking robots will patrol the sewers below the building. Meanwhile, 10,000 police officers will be deployed to oversee security during Trump’s visit to the Holy City.
Trouble began to brew over the trip when a U.S. state department official preparing the visit said Israel had no jurisdiction over the Western Wall, the holiest site in the Jewish faith.
“What are you talking about? It’s none of your business. It’s not even part of your responsibility. It’s not your territory. It’s part of the West Bank,” the official was quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 as saying in a meeting with Israeli officials, according to Reuters.
The Western Wall, which is one of last remaining structures that formed part of the outer wall of Jerusalem’s Second Temple, is the closest point to where the temple itself stood and, is the holiest place for prayer in Judaism.
It lies in Jerusalem’s Old City, which was captured with the rest of east Jerusalem by Israeli forces during the Six Day War in 1967. The annexation of the city has not been recognized by the international community which says it is part of the West Bank. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, is part of its indivisible capital.
I just read that Bannon has come back. He is already in the States. Nobody seems to know why. Some who claim to be WH insiders are saying he looked terrible, and everybody is scared. Gossip is that when tRump returns home, he has already picked out at least three people he intends to fire. Nobody knows any names. One of them may be Bannon, who knows?
Big showdown brewing between WH staffers – Bannon came back from trip early "…to prepare for war."
— Rogue WH Snr Advisor (@RogueSNRadvisor) May 22, 2017
even if some get fired more interesting will be whether there has been leakage about who’s getting indicted / subpoenaed … Bannon will probably go if the Mercers have thrown enough cash at Heritage to put him in charge
Could it have been because she was paid to say that? Heck, if one wants to get technical, one could say that sex with a prostitute is “consensual,” because she agrees to do it for a fee. “Romantic” must be a euphemism so it can be published for a general audience.
I just read that Bannon has come back. He is already in the States. Nobody seems to know why. Some who claim to be WH insiders are saying he looked terrible, and everybody is scared. Gossip is that when tRump returns home, he has already picked out at least three people he intends to fire. Nobody knows any names. One of them may be Bannon, who knows?
even if some get fired more interesting will be whether there has been leakage about who’s getting indicted / subpoenaed … Bannon will probably go if the Mercers have thrown enough cash at Heritage to put him in charge
Things are afoot in Washington, DC that we know nothing about. I have a feeling it is going to become far uglier before it is able to look better.
I look forward to a general housecleaning. Way overdue.
(from the Karen McDougal story)
“Karen McDougal, the 1998 Playmate of the Year, has told friends that she had a consensual romantic relationship with Trump starting in 2006”
Why would she feel the need to specify to friends that an affair was consensual?
Could it have been because she was paid to say that? Heck, if one wants to get technical, one could say that sex with a prostitute is “consensual,” because she agrees to do it for a fee. “Romantic” must be a euphemism so it can be published for a general audience.