Mandatory Fun might become the norm under a Pence administration
An American Taliban used to mandatory fun would love the Saudi General Authority for Entertainment, much like The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (formerly The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Elimination of Sin).
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.
Clearly, the world has also noticed Trump's obsession. The New York Times reports foreign 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."
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]
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.
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?
The more likely explanation for the contacts between Priebus and the FBI — which of course the White House does not deny took place — is that it was Priebus who reached out to McCabe and Comey and asked them to dispute the story.
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...
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.
President Trump will stay in a hotel suite built to withstand virtually any threat, including a building collapse, during his upcoming visit to Jerusalem.
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.
Donald Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Jerusalem’s Western Wall when he arrives in Israel next week but the diplomatic set-piece has already caused heated disagreements.
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.
and speaking of inappropriate contact …
Speaking of the US version of The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Elimination of Sin...