US General Election 2016

Is the Attorney General in charge of ICE?

As nearly as I can tell the AG sits on the Homeland Security Council, and ICE got rolled into Dept of Homeland Security under Bush, so I guess so, maybe?...

From what I can tell they don't seem to take orders from much of anybody, doing whatever they feel they can get away with (and under this administration that a lot! )

ICE, and the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, ultimately report to the Secretary of Homeland Security, who sits on the Cabinet alongside the Attorney General and various others.

Edit: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Public%20Org%20Charts%202017.08.15.pdf

I just want to say it's nice to see the hypocrisy exposed of all these people (celebrities) that were so "shocked" and "disgusted" by the Access Hollywood tape, that are now having sexual harassment allegations leveled against them.

Oh, the house-cleaning of Hollywood is long, long overdue.

But lumping Hollywood into one bin is unfair. The only one I can think of who expressed shock by the Access Hollywood tape who is now accused is Louis C.K. That was a major shocker as I thought he was a thoroughly decent man. But then, I thought the same of Bill Cosby. Even more so, in fact.

Money and Power, Creeps and Hypocrites. It's an old, old story!


Edit: 6500!

halfwise wrote:Oh, the house-cleaning of Hollywood is long, long overdue.

But lumping Hollywood into one bin is unfair.  The only one I can think of who expressed shock by the Access Hollywood tape who is now accused is Louis C.K.  That was a major shocker as I thought he was a thoroughly decent man.  But then, I thought the same of Bill Cosby.  Even more so, in fact.

Don't forget George "Oh My" Takei (not to mention his lewd behavior on the Howard Stern show) and now Richard Dreyffuss, both of whom sent out virtue signaling tweets after the tape release.

David H wrote:Money and Power, Creeps and Hypocrites. It's an old, old story!


Edit: 6500!

Only 363 to go...

Yeah, Dreyfuss is another one you wouldn't expect. I do give him and C.K. credit at least for not denying it and apologizing. Doesn't fix it, but at least shows some contrition.

bungobaggins wrote:
Only 363 to go...

{{So first Trump retweets a bunch of videos for Britain First- a tiny fringe minority party of racists and thugs in the UK no one listens to or gives any air time too. And now they have got a massive PR boast courtesy of the Leader of the (increasingly humorously titled) Free World who appears to be endorsing their extremest right wing views.
And when rebuked for this by the PM's office he responds by attacking the PM of one of his countries closest allies.

May on the otherhand is in the shit over it- she was already in the shit for making the invite to Trump for a State visit so early on- now noone even on her side wants him here but she cant really withdraw it and more importantly she is relying on the US and Trumps promise of a 'fast track' for a trade deal post Brexit (despite everything else Trump says about international trade implying it won't happen) so she has to cosy up to him even when he is publicly slapping her in face for criticizing his obviously wrong actions. What a pathetic mess! }}}

He's nothing if not entertaining. Though I wish he'd go back into being entertaining in realty/'reality' shows.

{{May's on a foreign visit right now so far the response has been from the PM's office and her Deputy- but later today she has a scheduled press conference- where this will be high on the agenda for journalists I am sure- be interesting to see what her response to Trump is here- she cant be seen to endorse Trump's actions as that gives strength and credence to Britain First and their agenda, if she doesn't respond to Trump slapping her down for criticizing his tweets she looks weak and pathetic, and if she does respond she risks further inflaming Trumps easily offended ego and scuppering any chances of a post-Brexit quick trade deal. I look forward to seeing what she does!}}}

{{{May's response- "The fact that we work together does not mean that we're afraid to say when we think the United States has got it wrong, and be very clear with them.
"And I'm very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do."

Regards the State visit and calls to cancel the invite, she said- "An invitation for a state visit has been extended and has been accepted. We have yet to set a date."

Question now is will Trump leave it at that or will he respond in some fashion? }}}

"The unpopular Theresa May has invited me to England to raise her ratings. I think I'll come. I'm very popular among the English."

halfwise wrote:"The unpopular Theresa May has invited me to England to raise her ratings.  I think I'll come.  I'm very popular among the English."

Genuinely can't tell at this point, is that a real tweet or not?

Theresa May is unpopular with many even within her own party, but Trump seems to be outright loathed by almost every politician in the country...

He definitely has a way of making it hard to tell reality from fiction. Probably because he doesn't make the distinction himself.

This is a bit overwrought, but captures why Trump stopped being funny for me when on the campaign trail he started promoting his ban on Muslim visas, and many people liked it.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/30/this-is-how-every-genocide-begins-trump-retweets-muslim-hate/

So can one of our American members explain what is going on with the Michael Flyn situation? I looked on reddit earlier and it's gone a bit crazy, but I don't know much about the guy (other than he was fired by Obama, then hired by Trump and fired again) and/or why exactly his testifying for the Muller inquiry is so important?

Michael Flynn was fired from the Trump White House after lying to Vice President Pence (among others) about not having contact with the Russian Ambassador during the campaign.  FBI director James Comey was fired by Trump because he wouldn't stop investigating Michael Flynn.

Mueller was appointed to lead the Russian election interference investigation after Comey was fired. Even a knothead like Trump can see he can't ditch Mueller without it looking way too obvious that he's trying to obstruct the Russian investigation.

Though the Russian interference with the election might be disconnected from the Trump campaign leaders if Flynn is not involved, the fact that Flynn feels enough guilt to enter into a plea deal means something big is on the horizon.  You don't admit to lying to law enforcement unless it's to wiggle out of being charged for something worse; and law enforcement doesn't let one guy wiggle out of something worse unless their guy is being groomed to squeal on a bigger guy.

In short, don't go napping on this one.  Mueller's maneuvering his chess pieces into place. The final blow will not be a light one.

Though once again, this isn't what I foresaw his appointment to be about.  I thought it was about general investigation into how Russia worked to manipulate the election.  Sure, this may take down some big figures, but I'd say the bigger impact was from planting stories in the media, etc.  The campaign managers were just play things, they really had no real influence.  Just my reading on things.

And here all I can think about is Comey interviewing Hillary after he had written her exoneration letter, and Hillary just saying "I don't recall" to his questions.

If they take out Trump I'm going to be so fucking pissed.

Love him or hate him, you've got to give Mueller points of being systematic.
From Paul Manafort -> Michael Flinn -> Jared Kushner, this is exactly the way you drain the swamp of a rich New York power-broker (whether their name begins with a C or a T ).
So maybe another promise our president is keeping!

He's draining himself? Well, at least I'd give him credit for keeping one campaign promise