Ed Breaking: Mueller Grand Jury charges filed, arrests as soon as Monday

[Segnosaur]

Feds tapped Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's phones
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, a source said

given that these calls happened before the raid, we can safely assume that they didn't alleviate the Fed's suspicions.

Did it? From your reference, it says:
Two sources close to Trump's newest attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, say he learned that days after the raid the president had made a call to Cohen, and told Trump never to call again out of concern the call was being recorded by prosecutors.

So my interpretation is that Trump called Cohen after the raid, either to express his sympathies, or to ask "Did they get anything to incriminate me?"

 

[BobTheCoward]

No, it doesn't. The President has no right to direct or terminate the functions of the US Attorney. He may hire and fire them. That is all. But he may not tell them what to do.

"Do this or I will fire you" is telling someone what to do.

 

[acbytesla]

"Do this or I will fire you" is telling someone what to do.

He technically CANNOT do that. He can fire you, he can hire you. But that is where it ends. Particularly if it remotely involves himself or his administration.

 

[acbytesla]

Did it? From your reference, it says:
Two sources close to Trump's newest attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, say he learned that days after the raid the president had made a call to Cohen, and told Trump never to call again out of concern the call was being recorded by prosecutors.

So my interpretation is that Trump called Cohen after the raid, either to express his sympathies, or to ask "Did they get anything to incriminate me?"

They tapped the phone weeks before the raid. They also were reading Cohen's emails.

 

[BobTheCoward]

He technically CANNOT do that. He can fire you, he can hire you. But that is where it ends. Particularly if it remotely involves himself or his administration.

He absolutely can. What stops him?

 

[Segnosaur]

Did it? From your reference, it says:
Two sources close to Trump's newest attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, say he learned that days after the raid the president had made a call to Cohen, and told Trump never to call again out of concern the call was being recorded by prosecutors.

So my interpretation is that Trump called Cohen after the raid, either to express his sympathies, or to ask "Did they get anything to incriminate me?"

They tapped the phone weeks before the raid. They also were reading Cohen's emails.

Yeah I know the tap was in place weeks before the raid... but the only phone call with Trump that was mentioned was the one that took place after the raid. (Not sure if that one was the one mentioned as being recorded, but again its the only one the article references.)

 

[Segnosaur]

I find it fitting that, after all the complaints trump made earlier about Obama "tapping his phones", he seems to completely forget "Oh yeah, tapping phones is something the government does during investigations".

 

[Emily's Cat]

Not a problem, just give me your friend's phone number and I'll patiently explain why she's full of ****

Why not explain to me why she's full of **** for being angry at an environmental policy causing her life-saving medicine to increase by a massive amount?

The greater good thing? There was no greater good. It was explicitly good for only a very targeted constituency. That's the problem, IMO. It's a false narrative that this was a case of clean air vs. your friend's wallet.

It's not a false narrative. The policy exists explicitly because of global warming and environmental concerns - that's the greater good. The policy doesn't exist in order to help pharma, it exists to help the environment. It's the shortsigthedness of the FDA in enforcing that policy in a way that allows pharma to get new patents that created the negative impact.

(Though clean air would probably help asthmatics??)

Smoky or smoggy air can exacerbate asthma, but clean air doesn't necessarily make asthma "better". Beyond that... the clean air that occurs from getting rid of CFCs isn't something to be experienced in our lifetime, so... It might eventually reduce the frequency of attacks for someone else while increasing the cost of treating asthma for people affected by the policy now, I suppose.

 

[acbytesla]

He absolutely can. What stops him?

The Law. Law enforcement is about enforcing and prosecuting the law. When there is a conflict of interest, one must recuse.

 

[BobTheCoward]

The Law. Law enforcement is about enforcing and prosecuting the law. When there is a conflict of interest, one must recuse.

There is no requirement for the president to recuse as he is the final say on what gets prosecuted. There is no procedure that counteracts his direction because he refused to recuse.

 

[acbytesla]

Yeah I know the tap was in place weeks before the raid... but the only phone call with Trump that was mentioned was the one that took place after the raid. (Not sure if that one was the one mentioned as being recorded, but again its the only one the article references.)

Then that is all they have in regards to Trump being wiretapped. But I never trust these articles until the info is officially released.

 

[acbytesla]

There is no requirement for the president to recuse as he is the final say on what gets prosecuted. There is no procedure that counteracts his direction because he refused to recuse.

WRONG. What you are suggesting is Obstruction of Justice.

 

[BobTheCoward]

WRONG. What you are suggesting is Obstruction of Justice.

And no one has the power to make the DoJ prosecute it if the president doesn't think it is a good use of resources.

 

[Cain]

Feds tapped Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's phones
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, a source said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/do...d-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-s-phones-n871011

**** The Apprentice. Finally, season six of The Wire.

 

[logger]

WRONG. What you are suggesting is Obstruction of Justice.

The only remedy is impeachment. There is no mechanism for obstruction.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Then that is all they have in regards to Trump being wiretapped. But I never trust these articles until the info is officially released.

The story is shifting, but if you think about it, Cohen calling Trump to say his phones are tapped sounds like something someone in the WH would leak.

 

[beren]

Why not explain to me why she's full of **** for being angry at an environmental policy causing her life-saving medicine to increase by a massive amount?

Because the policy didn't cause the increase.
The greedy and profiteering company did.
The fact that the used the policy as an excuse does not make the policy to blame.
This is what happens when the free market is in charge of healthcare.

 

[Andy_Ross]

BREAKING Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed 70 Blank subpoenas in the Eastern District of Virginia for witnesses in the Paul Manafort Case.

 

[Aridas]

Why not explain to me why she's full of **** for being angry at an environmental policy causing her life-saving medicine to increase by a massive amount?

First of all, to go back a bit, it wasn't actually the science or the science-related experts that said that CFCs were causing distinct problems that should bear any of the actual blame for the doings of the bureaucracy and industry. Yet, a fair portion pretty much inevitably gets diverted off onto them, seemingly by your own admission in what you had written. They can be completely correct and the general actions that they suggest could indeed result in a significant net benefit, even to most of those who bear the worst of the side-effects, and people will still vent much of their unhappiness in their direction because the changes wouldn't have happened without them and they tend not to be as focused on PR as the policy-makers and the industry people. On the side, one may as well add onto that the constant attacks on science by certain parts of the public that don't like science determining that some or all the treasured claims that they're making are false exacerbating the blame even further.

It's not a false narrative. The policy exists explicitly because of global warming and environmental concerns - that's the greater good. The policy doesn't exist in order to help pharma, it exists to help the environment. It's the shortsigthedness of the FDA in enforcing that policy in a way that allows pharma to get new patents that created the negative impact.

And, at the same time, it's Pharma that exploited the opportunity. So, we've indeed got blame to be apportioned between the crafters of the policy not managing to force the industry to "be good" and the industry people exploiting the opportunity to increase their profits disproportionately.

Smoky or smoggy air can exacerbate asthma, but clean air doesn't necessarily make asthma "better". Beyond that... the clean air that occurs from getting rid of CFCs isn't something to be experienced in our lifetime, so... It might eventually reduce the frequency of attacks for someone else while increasing the cost of treating asthma for people affected by the policy now, I suppose.

When it comes to CFCs, wasn't the actual and primary concern there the deterioration of the Ozone layer that they were contributing significantly to? There was little to nothing particularly relating CFCs and "clean air" that I recall. I could easily be wrong, though... it's been a while since CFCs were in the news much. The closest thing of relevance was an article that I saw talking about how the ozone hole over the Antarctic is now mending.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Beyond that... the clean air that occurs from getting rid of CFCs isn't something to be experienced in our lifetime, so...

The CFC propellant ban has nothing to do with clean air, it has to do with CFCs being responsible for Ozone layer depletion. With the ban in CFCs, the hole that was expanding from the 1970's through to 2000 started to stabilise in 2006 and has now started to reduce, but it will still take another 42 years to return to normal levels. The reduction of the Ozone Layer resulted in things such as increased skin cancers in populations under the hole, such as those in my country, So yeah, having CFC free inhalers is a darn good idea.

ETA: I also didn't want to make this sound like a solved problem either, it's not, there are still man made sources of Ozone depletion chemicals causing issues, and in the winter of 2011-12 it was cold enough in the Arctic that it helped to create a sizable hole there for the first time. Similarly one was observed above Tibet at the same time. Ozone levels above Antarctica are slowly rising (with seasonal variation) but there is a very long way to go and recovery has already been revised upwards once, so it's not something that is done and dusted. It's just that Climate Change issues have overwhelmed it as an environmental problem and so people often think it has been dealt with and isn't a problem anymore.

I also note that Aridas ninja'ed me on this.