Trump calls war on terrorism a battle between good and evil

Full transcript of remarks in Saudi Arabia here.

Gee, sounds just like Bush (and ISIS) and conservative talk radio is thrilled.

Typically, this rhetoric is used to justify treating the evil as less than human, which is what ISIS does, or sending American troops abroad in search of monsters to destroy. But we're 16 years into Afghanistan now, with no end in sight, and the monsters just keep reproducing themselves.

This is not to suggest moral equivalence, but only that the West continues to delegitimize the "Islamic" in Islamic State in order to keep the military-industrial complex busy.

The goal of war, rather, is supposed to be to end the enemy's ability to wage it. We haven't been serious about that, and I don't think Trump will be either.

Either end it, or quit it, but carrying on like this is bankrupting the country.

Enough. 

Flashback: Robert Mueller and James Comey at FBI accused the wrong guy in the 2001 anthrax letter deaths

Carl Cannon recounts the sorry episode of their incompetence, here, in The Orange County Register.

Hey Donald Trump, do the Arabs still owe us free oil for ten years?

Remember the Trump rallies where they shouted "Go to Arabia! Sell them weapons!"?

Yeah, me neither.

Fox to investigate fellow fox's conduct in hen house

Robert Mueller can't investigate Comey's record either, because Comey's his "protégé"

Conflict of interest.

Reported here:

Comey regards his predecessor as a mentor, while Mueller considers Comey his protégé.  When Comey was appointed to succeed Mueller as FBI Director, both men appeared together and were effusive in their praise of one another.  Their relationship is not merely a casual one.  It is precisely the kind of association which ethical rules are designed to guard against.     

Nancy Pelosi must be a Russian agent

She breathes the same air they do.

Oops, Robert Mueller's law firm represents both Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort

Conflict of interest!

If Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself, then Kushner and Manafort must be off limits to Mueller. Or, Mueller has to go.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Reported here:

Mueller's former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation.

Hey WaPo: Thom Hartmann, Larry King, Jesse Ventura and Ed Schultz get $ from RT RIGHT NOW, are they Russian agents?!

You turds.

Here:

Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

If you had a good mother and father, that's socialism

They did everything for you because you were of them and belonged to them.

No one else will ever care for you like that.

And that's as far as socialism goes, unless you're an Italian, capisce?

Robert Shiller blames housing bubbles on get rich quick flipper narratives, still completely misses the tax angle

Here, in The New York Times:

There is still no consensus on why the last housing boom and bust happened. That is troubling, because that violent housing cycle helped to produce the Great Recession and financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. We need to understand it all if we are going to be able to avoid ordeals like that in the future.

Ordinary Americans were suddenly able to make a lot of money by flipping their homes because of the tax law changes of 1997. Capital that was previously locked-up in housing by the rules of the New Deal until 1997 was suddenly unleashed to slosh around in the economy when lawmakers gave homeowners the right to avoid most capital gains on the sale of their homes as long as they lived in them only two years. Until 1997, if you didn't buy a more expensive home after you sold yours, you were exposed to a tax hit, unless you took the option of a once in a lifetime exclusion on the gain. The old arrangement had insured, along with the 30-year mortgage, that housing capital built up over a long period of time, creating forced savings for the middle class which could be safely liquidated in retirement without adversely affecting the housing market.

The Republican and Democrat geniuses who ran our government in 1997 changed all that, and within ten years the dang thing blew up. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Bill Clinton, and you, Newt Gingrich.

Too bad Robert Shiller still doesn't get it.

It would probably be unwise to turn back the tax clock now that the damage has been done, but the reinflation of the housing bubble after the crisis wasn't inevitable. The Fed's unprecedented zero interest rate policy has been responsible for that.

When the next housing crash comes, we'll probably not understand it either.

Meanwhile, the median sales price of homes in the aggregate has never been higher, or more unaffordable, and remains the primary driver of wealth inequality in America. 

Video of Comey saying under oath earlier this month that he's never been pressured to halt an investigation for political reasons

Here.

Obstruction of justice is Hillary Clinton deleting over 30,000 emails after they were subpoenaed

Lock her up, with the guy who gave her a pass.

You know, if Trump picks Joe Lieberman for FBI, I'm done

If we wanted that version of The Swamp in 2000, we would have voted for Al Gore.

We certainly don't want it now.

US House hasn't sent Obamacare repeal to Senate, waiting for budget score from CBO

It's been two weeks already. These people are soooooooooooooooo unserious.

Story here.

Kevin McCarthy is the poster boy for stupid Republicanism, but I repeat myself

No wonder Democrats run California.

From the story here:

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

Previously while preparing to replace Speaker John Boehner McCarthy infamously said with a straight face that Republican success was evident from the House Benghazi investigation because it was proving to be politically detrimental to Hillary. The mug. He never knew what hit him.

When are they going to lock up these Americans who "receive money from Russia" like Mike Flynn?

They all work for "RT" just like Flynn did once: liberal radio man Thom Hartmann, liberal CNN interviewer Larry King, former Minnesota governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and liberal radio man Ed Schultz.

Thom Hartmann

Larry King

Jesse Ventura

Ed Schultz

Tom Fitton is right, Robert Mueller will never find fault with anything done by Comey's FBI

Mueller led the FBI under Bush II and Obama before his pal Comey was appointed.

Fitton heads Judicial Watch, interviewed right now on Laura Ingraham.

Laura Ingraham singles out Justin Amash as a turncoat

In the last hour.

Good on her, but he's never been on our side. He's on his own side.

Libertarian Scott Sumner: Ideology good, reality bad