BREAKING: Trump Fires Comey

[Associate Justice PiT]

Bharara was actually retained by the Trump Administration so his firing was a bit peculiar. Additionally the FBI director has to sign off on recommendations to prosecute or not. Trump's firing him and Sarah Huckabee saying its time to drop the Russian investigation makes things look highly suspicious and draws questions if Trump and Senate Republicans will confirm an independent director who will continue the investigation.

There's a lot of ways a FBI director can quietly kill or stymie an investigation. As I've said can we really trust Trump to appoint and Senate Republicans to confirm a director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of Trump associates?

If you believe that why do you believe so?

Bharara was no more "retained" by the Trump administration than the other 46 Obama prosecutors fired on the same day.  No political appointee is safe in his or her job - nor should they be.  They serve at the pleasure of the President, not the other way around.

Contrary to your (and Comey's) belief, FBI directors don't make the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute.  That's ultimately up to Justice Department prosecutors, not the FBI.  Comey's belief that he should be acting as a prosecutor is one of the reasons he has been fired.  The job got to his head, and he was making bad decisions.  His misstatements to Congress last week were the last straw.

Can we really trust any President to appoint FBI director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of his associates?  Why is Trump any different than Obama or Clinton or Bush?   So why bother appointing FBI directors?  Screaming Russia, Russia, Russia, as you, the liberal media and the Democrats are doing, without a scintilla of evidence that Trump did anything criminal isn't going to change this calculus.  The Russia investigation is part of the FBI's domestic surveillance role, not criminal.

     Yeah, this seems to changes very little. The FBI will continue investigating what they're investigating regardless of what is going on up top.

[Associate Justice PiT]

FAKE NEWS, the lamestream media is now making up stuff to bring down our President. LOCK THEM UP!

Lamepublicans trying to deflect hard, not working.

Weren't you a blue avatar most of your Atlasian life?

Yes, would still consider myself a moderate conservative. No longer a Republican. Tea party/alt right/most hard core Republicans are trash, no critical thinking, no compromise, sick of it.

This explains why you dislike trump and the current GOP, but it doesn't explain why you have become more friendly to a democratic party that is itself much more leftwing than when you were still a republican.

Perhaps at the same time the populist GOP has arisen, you are undergoing some personal philosophy changes yourself?

Main part is the Republican party needs a massive purge, and there's only one other party right now that would make that happen. I've always believed in climate change, protecting the environment, funding our schools, regulations now strongly support public transit. It's more the GOP has moved way far to the right, doesn't believe in education, critical thinking, it's using a bunch of uneducated populists in rural areas while destroying their livelihoods and brainwashed them into believing what they believe now will actually help them.

     Of course, the Democrats have also moved far to the left on a number of issues, embracing dangerous positions on immigration, education, and the law. "Buddying" up temporarily to force the Republicans to change certainly has an element of rationality to it, but I would caution people against pretending that the Democrats are the good guys here.

[Associate Justice PiT]

FAKE NEWS, the lamestream media is now making up stuff to bring down our President. LOCK THEM UP!

Lamepublicans trying to deflect hard, not working.

Weren't you a blue avatar most of your Atlasian life?

Yes, would still consider myself a moderate conservative. No longer a Republican. Tea party/alt right/most hard core Republicans are trash, no critical thinking, no compromise, sick of it.

This explains why you dislike trump and the current GOP, but it doesn't explain why you have become more friendly to a democratic party that is itself much more leftwing than when you were still a republican.

Perhaps at the same time the populist GOP has arisen, you are undergoing some personal philosophy changes yourself?

Main part is the Republican party needs a massive purge, and there's only one other party right now that would make that happen. I've always believed in climate change, protecting the environment, funding our schools, regulations now strongly support public transit. It's more the GOP has moved way far to the right, doesn't believe in education, critical thinking, it's using a bunch of uneducated populists in rural areas while destroying their livelihoods and brainwashed them into believing what they believe now will actually help them.

     Of course, the Democrats have also moved far to the left on a number of issues, embracing dangerous positions on immigration, education, and the law. "Buddying" up temporarily to force the Republicans to change certainly has an element of rationality to it, but I would caution people against pretending that the Democrats are the good guys here.

Generally nothing dangerous about immigration or education or the law. Not liking them really doesn't make them "dangerous", there's a difference.

     Open borders isn't as dangerous as most conservatives make out, but it is very poor policy that has become quite popular with Democrats. Free college is utopian and gaining steam. The list of poor ideas that I have heard mainstream Democrats posit in regards to law and the Constitution would be far too long to go over, but to choose one I will go with Obama attacking Romney over his assertion of corporate personhood, that being a basic legal doctrine.

     The effects of these things would not be good. They're not going to destroy the nation or something ridiculously hyperbolic like that, but I am naturally concerned about these things. Indeed, I am concerned for reasons that go well beyond simply "not liking them". At the same time, I recognize that the Republicans are also deeply flawed. I will not suppose that anyone can  reasonably make the claim that the Republicans are the good guys here either.

[Associate Justice PiT]

From Mark Salter, John McCain's speechwriter:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

https://twitter.com/MarkSalter55/status/862370152553349123

While Congress is vitally important, we also need more state legislatures OUT of Republican hands. They are perilously close to being able to implement their frequently floated fringe fantasy of calling a Constitutional Convention and re-writing the Constitution to do away with all the pesky bits they dislike: preventing the establishment of a state religion, freedom to criticize the President, etc.

This seems more than a little paranoia-based, to be honest. That would send approval of Republicans way down, and they know it.

     The odds of Republicans using a Convention to gut the Constitution are tiny, but the Democrats should be desperate to claim state legislatures anyway; the next Census isn't far off and gerrymandering could put the House effectively out of reach for Democrats for the next decade. That is a factor that can't be ignored.