Majorityrights News > Category: The American right

        ...purposefully leaked or not, apparently kissing-up to YKW

Robert Kuttner revealed his conversation with Bannon: “To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything.” ... “Ethno-nationalism—it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.” ...“These guys are a collection of clowns,” he added.

American Prospect, “Steve Bannon, Unrepentant”, by Robert Kuttner, 16 Aug 2017:

Trump’s embattled strategist phones me, unbidden, to opine on China, Korea, and his enemies in the administration.

You might think from recent press accounts that Steve Bannon is on the ropes and therefore behaving prudently. In the aftermath of events in Charlottesville, he is widely blamed for his boss’s continuing indulgence of white supremacists. Allies of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster hold Bannon responsible for a campaign by Breitbart News, which Bannon once led, to vilify the security chief. Trump’s defense of Bannon, at his Tuesday press conference, was tepid.

But Bannon was in high spirits when he phoned me Tuesday afternoon to discuss the politics of taking a harder line with China, and minced no words describing his efforts to neutralize his rivals at the Departments of Defense, State, and Treasury. “They’re wetting themselves,” he said, proceeding to detail how he would oust some of his opponents at State and Defense.

Needless to say, I was a little stunned to get an email from Bannon’s assistant midday Tuesday, just as all hell was breaking loose once again about Charlottesville, saying that Bannon wished to meet with me.

Needless to say, I was a little stunned to get an email from Bannon’s assistant midday Tuesday, just as all hell was breaking loose once again about Charlottesville, saying that Bannon wished to meet with me. I’d just published a column on how China was profiting from the U.S.-North Korea nuclear brinkmanship, and it included some choice words about Bannon’s boss.

“In Kim, Trump has met his match,” I wrote. “The risk of two arrogant fools blundering into a nuclear exchange is more serious than at any time since October 1962.” Maybe Bannon wanted to scream at me?

I told the assistant that I was on vacation, but I would be happy to speak by phone. Bannon promptly called.

Far from dressing me down for comparing Trump to Kim, he began, “It’s a great honor to finally track you down. I’ve followed your writing for years and I think you and I are in the same boat when it comes to China.  You absolutely nailed it.”

“We’re at economic war with China,” he added. “It’s in all their literature. They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.”

Bannon said he might consider a deal in which China got North Korea to freeze its nuclear buildup with verifiable inspections and the United States removed its troops from the peninsula, but such a deal seemed remote. Given that China is not likely to do much more on North Korea, and that the logic of mutually assured destruction was its own source of restraint, Bannon saw no reason not to proceed with tough trade sanctions against China.

Contrary to Trump’s threat of fire and fury, Bannon said: “There’s no military solution [to North Korea’s nuclear threats], forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.” Bannon went on to describe his battle inside the administration to take a harder line on China trade, and not to fall into a trap of wishful thinking in which complaints against China’s trade practices now had to take a backseat to the hope that China, as honest broker, would help restrain Kim.

“To me,” Bannon said, “the economic war with China is everything. And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.”

Bannon’s plan of attack includes: a complaint under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act against Chinese coercion of technology transfers from American corporations doing business there, and follow-up complaints against steel and aluminum dumping. “We’re going to run the tables on these guys. We’ve come to the conclusion that they’re in an economic war and they’re crushing us.”

But what about his internal adversaries, at the departments of State and Defense, who think the United States can enlist Beijing’s aid on the North Korean standoff, and at Treasury and the National Economic Council who don’t want to mess with the trading system?

“Oh, they’re wetting themselves,” he said, explaining that the Section 301 complaint, which was put on hold when the war of threats with North Korea broke out, was shelved only temporarily, and will be revived in three weeks. As for other cabinet departments, Bannon has big plans to marginalize their influence. “I’m changing out people at East Asian Defense; I’m getting hawks in. I’m getting Susan Thornton [acting head of East Asian and Pacific Affairs] out at State.”

But can Bannon really win that fight internally?

“That’s a fight I fight every day here,” he said. “We’re still fighting. There’s Treasury and [National Economic Council chair] Gary Cohn and Goldman Sachs lobbying.” “We gotta do this. The president’s default position is to do it, but the apparatus is going crazy. Don’t get me wrong. It’s like, every day.”

Bannon explained that his strategy is to battle the trade doves inside the administration while building an outside coalition of trade hawks that includes left as well as right. Hence the phone call to me.

There are a couple of things that are startling about this premise. First, to the extent that most of the opponents of Bannon’s China trade strategy are other Trump administration officials, it’s not clear how reaching out to the left helps him. If anything, it gives his adversaries ammunition to characterize Bannon as unreliable or disloyal.

More puzzling is the fact that Bannon would phone a writer and editor of a progressive publication (the cover lines on whose first two issues after Trump’s election were “Resisting Trump” and “Containing Trump”) and assume that a possible convergence of views on China trade might somehow paper over the political and moral chasm on white nationalism.

The question of whether the phone call was on or off the record never came up. This is also puzzling, since Steve Bannon is not exactly Bambi when it comes to dealing with the press. He’s probably the most media-savvy person in America. I asked Bannon about the connection between his program of economic nationalism and the ugly white nationalism epitomized by the racist violence in Charlottesville and Trump’s reluctance to condemn it. Bannon, after all, was the architect of the strategy of using Breitbart to heat up white nationalism and then rely on the radical right as Trump’s base.

He dismissed the far right as irrelevant and sidestepped his own role in cultivating it: “Ethno-nationalism—it’s losers. It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much, and we gotta help crush it, you know, uh, help crush it more.”

“These guys are a collection of clowns,” he added.

From his lips to Trump’s ear. “The Democrats,” he said, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

I had never before spoken with Bannon. I came away from the conversation with a sense both of his savvy and his recklessness. The waters around him are rising, but he is going about his business of infighting, and attempting to cultivate improbable outside allies, to promote his China strategy. His enemies will do what they do.

Either the reports of the threats to Bannon’s job are grossly exaggerated and leaked by his rivals, or he has decided not to change his routine and to go down fighting. Given Trump’s impulsivity, neither Bannon nor Trump really has any idea from day to day whether Bannon is staying or going. He has survived earlier threats. So what the hell, damn the torpedoes. The conversation ended with Bannon inviting me to the White House after Labor Day to continue the discussion of China and trade. We’ll see if he’s still there.

        Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair. (AFP)

Times of Israel, “Yair Netanyahu says leftists more dangerous than neo-Nazis”, 16 Aug 2017:

Echoing Trump, PM’s son claims ‘thugs of Antifa and Black Lives Matter are getting stronger’ while Nazis are a thing of the past.

The son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said American left-wing groups are more dangerous than neo-Nazis.

Weighing in on the weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a far-right march, and US President Donald Trump’s controversial statements that “both sides were to blame” for the deadly incident, Yair Netanyahu said he was far more concerned by leftist organizations that have recently come into public focus.

“To put things in perspective,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook, “I’m a Jew, I’m an Israeli, the neo nazis scums [sic] in Virginia hate me and my country. But they belong to the past. Their breed is dying out.

“However the thugs of Antifa and [Black Lives Matter] who hate my country (and America too in my view) just as much are getting stronger and stronger and becoming super dominant in American universities and public life.”

The Israeli premier himself tweeted Tuesday that he was “outraged by expressions of anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism and racism. Everyone should oppose this hatred,” after he was criticized for staying silent on Charlottesville.

In a response Wednesday afternoon to Yair Netanyahu’s comments, sources close to the prime minister said, “Yair is an adult and his views are his alone”

Trump’s stance was also supported by Likud MK Oren Hazan, who said Tuesday that the president “is right. Violence and extremism on any side is forbidden and demands condemnation. That doesn’t matter to the bleeding hearts on the left and in the media. After all, they believe that only the right is extremist and violent.”

Other Israeli politicians - from left and right - have been far more critical of Trump’s position, some more directly than others.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett has called on US leaders to denounce the rally’s “displays of anti-Semitism.” Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of Bennett’s Jewish Home party has urged prosecution of neo-Nazi activists.

Yesh Atid chair MK Yair Lapid and Zionist Union number two MK Tzipi Livni explicitly criticized Trump’s equivalence.

“There aren’t two sides,” Lapid said in a Wednesday statement. “When Neo-Nazis march in Charlottesville and scream slogans against Jews and in support of white supremacy, the condemnation has to be unambiguous. They represent hate and evil. Anyone who believes in the human spirit must stand against them without fear.”

Livni said “When it comes to racism, anti-Semitism and Nazism, there are never two equal sides. There’s good and there’s evil. Period.”

Trump sparked a political firestorm Tuesday when he doubled down on his initial response to the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that ended in bloodshed, saying there was “blame on both sides.”

The Republican president — who the previous day solemnly denounced racism and singled out the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis as “criminals and thugs” — also hit out at what he called the “alt-left” over the weekend melee.

Trump has faced days of criticism from across the political spectrum over his reaction to Saturday’s unrest in the Virginia college town, where a rally by neo-Nazis and white supremacists over the removal of a Confederate statue erupted in clashes with counter-demonstrators.

               

The violent fracas ended in bloodshed when a 20-year-old suspected Nazi sympathizer, James Fields, plowed his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters, leaving one woman dead and 19 people injured.

In a rowdy exchange with journalists at Trump Tower in New York, Trump made clear on Tuesday that he was fed up with continued questioning about the issue.

“I think there is blame on both sides,” Trump said.

As he spoke, his new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former Marine general, appeared displeased during the president’s long tirade, standing rigidly.

“You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now,” Trump continued. “What about the alt-left that came charging… at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?… There are two sides to a story.”

“What about the fact they came charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. As far as I am concerned, that was a horrible, horrible day,” Trump said.

Trump’s comments were immediately welcomed by David Duke, a former “grand wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan and a key figure at Saturday’s rally.

“Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists,” Duke tweeted.

               
Torch-wielding white supremacists march at the University of Virginia on August 11, 2017 (Screen Capture/ YouTube)

But on the political left, the president’s words were met with indignation.

“Charlottesville violence was fueled by one side: white supremacists spreading racism, intolerance & intimidation. Those are the facts,” said Tim Kaine, a former Democratic vice presidential candidate and senator from Virginia.

The state’s other Democratic senator, Mark Warner, tweeted: “No words.”

Trump’s fellow Republicans also didn’t mince words.

“We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan wrote on Twitter.

“This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.”

When asked why he waited until Monday to explicitly condemn hate groups present in Charlottesville, Trump said he wanted to be careful not to make a “quick statement” on Saturday without all the facts.

“I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct,” Trump insisted.

Trump called Fields, who has been charged with second-degree murder, a “disgrace to himself, his family and this country.”

But he also said that while there were troublemakers at the rally, there were also many people there “to innocently protest and very legally protest” the removal of a “very important statue” of Confederate general Robert E Lee.

“I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” he said angrily, referring to the fact they owned slaves.

“Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? … You’re changing history. You’re changing culture.”

Unhinge the Right

Video shows car crashing into Charlottesville protest. Witnesses say that it was absolutely intentional; it is being treated as homicide.

Fox News, A 32-year-old woman was killed Saturday and 19 others were injured, five of them critically, when a car rammed into a group of counter-protesters during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.

Virginia Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran told the Associated Press that the driver of the car, a man, was in custody. Moran did not provide the driver’s name.

While following the goings on of the “Unite The Right Rally” in Charlottesville, in a live feed, Tara McCarthy took friendly questions from the likes of Roosh V. and fielded reports from the likes of Pax Dickinson, recommending that people contribute to his Mencious Moldbug (a Jewish man of Neo Reactionary fame) backed crowdfunding; Tara scolded “The Left” for counter-protesting what she says was meant to be a peaceful rally for free speech, and to encourage “normies” to join the cause of ethno-nationalism by showing them they’re not a bunch of neo-Nazis, skinheads and so-on. She might have wondered how that was supposed to happen with the motley array of right wingers that showed-up, including Commander Jeff Schoep’s Neo-Nazi group in full regalia, Carolina K.K.K., Matt Heimbach’s Jesus Freak Group, calling itself “The Traditional Workers Party” and a skinhead gang called “The Detroit Right Wings.” 

    ...and look at the headliners, starting with Mike Enoch Peinovich:

Yep, (((they’ve))) marshaled a reactionary formation against the so-called “left.” 

...with plenty of warning beforehand to nearly assure that there would be violence and prison sentences for those reactionaries coming most unhinged.

A death, dozens injured, including five critically, and a ruined life for the perpetrator of the car attack was only a somewhat surprising outcome of this mix.

Fox News, “Charlottesville white nationalist rally blamed for 3 deaths, dozens of injuries”, 12 Aug 2017:

A 32-year-old woman was killed Saturday and 19 others were injured, five of them critically, when a car rammed into a group of counter-protesters during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va.

A helicopter crash that killed the pilot and a passenger later in the afternoon outside the university town also was linked to the rally by State Police, though officials did not elaborate on how the crash was connected.

At a late afternoon news conference, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said that 35 people had been injured in various confrontations during the rally and made a point of saying that none of those involved his officers. Thomas also said that the car crash was being treated as an act of “criminal homicide.”

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Damore was fired from Google for writing a memo alleging reverse discrimination at Google.

Not only is Damore an idiot by evidence of his rendering of a beginner level, completely idiotic definition of the “the left”, a “definition” that is perfectly serviceable to Jewish and right-wing manipulation - i.e., suggesting that “the left is more open, while the right is more closed; the right is dealing with facts while the left is applying merely wishful social/humanitarian concepts to reality” - not only is this not someone worth listening to, but it is shocking that he and his statement would be trending exponentially at the lead among popular searches, such that he would be featured by the partial Jewish alt-liter, Stefan Molyneux - with popular concern far greater than the fact that North Korea (a regime propped up against the enemies of (((the Russian Federation))) now has 60 miniature (i.e., handy) nuclear bombs to deploy against the targets of their prerogative.

Meanwhile, the less naive, more obedient shabbos goy continue with their efforts to (mis)define and mislead people against “the left” as the enemy -

In yet another obnoxious effort to completely confound and conflate the idea of the left with liberalism, Jim Goad brings out someone calling himself “Michael Malice”  - doing it again, here at the behest of (((Edwin Oslan’s Savage Hippie))) platform:

Jim Goad Savage Hippie
Episode 2: MICHAEL MALICE (theme: LEFT/RIGHT), Aug 2017.

These people cannot be allowed to define what the left, i.e., social unionization, means for us. They cannot be allowed to cast it into universal and liberal terms, as if they are “just dealing with facts” while people concerned with full social groups are “just falsely applying liberal concepts” to reality.

At a press conference at Trump Tower in New York to declare his loyalty to the Republican Party, Donald Trump was flanked by guests from Indonesia, and made a big show of announcing one very special guest, Setya Novanto.

“He wants it big, and overlooking the sacred Tanah-Lot.”

Trump deal in Indonesia imposes Islamic compradors over ethno-nationalism and his hotel and business upon what is sacred to Indonesian ethno-nationalists.

FOUR CORNERS, 3 July 2017:

While running for President, Trump was courting the Indonesians over lucrative resort deals in Bali and Java; and lobbying Indonesian MP’s to expedite a toll road that would benefit his development.

The secretive dealings raise new questions about Trump’s corporate interests abroad and about the unholy business and political alliances he’s forged.

While at home, Trump rails against Muslim extremists, in the world’s largest Muslim country, his allies are cozying-up to Islamists who are posing a direct threat the country’s ethno-nationalism.

Donald Trump has entered into two huge deals in Indonesia, and the first of them will land here, on the southern edge of Bali almost on top of one of the Island’s most sacred religious sites, Tanah Lot - an hour or two away from the main tourist areas, the Balanese have fought for decades to protect this temple and its surrounds.

“Not much is known of Trump’s plans but what is known that he wants it big, the biggest in Bali he says,  he wants a tower on an island that bans them, and he wants it over looking the sacred Tahan Lot.”

“It’s one of the island-wide temples that are sacred to the Balanese, its the land, pana, and lot, which means ocean.”

Donald Trump makes deal with Islamic compradors in Indonesia, imposing them against the native stasis of Left ethno-nationalism, and his hotel and business upon what is sacred to native ethno-nationalists.

80,000 Indonesians were killed by Suharto on that beach in 1965, the victims were accused of being Leftists….

When President Suharto exited power in 1998, he took three decades of loot with him, estimated at 30 billion dollars.

Trump’s business partner in the deal, Harry Tanno, was a close friend of Suharto.

Tanno welcomes Trump and Sharia

Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s man is on screen talking after 37 minute mark - his appearance was the biggest thing in the whole video:

“Is it your ambition to impose Sharia Law in Indonesia?” “It is not our ambition, but our duty.”

An abstract kind of wild quid pro quo white America has going on there.

All imagery and story, THE COMPANY HE KEEPS: FOUR CORNERS, 3 July 2017.

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Tara McCarthy ♥️@TaraMcCarthy_14 Jul 22
Replying to @MajorityRights

Anyone who talks about the JQ gets shut down. I don’t have a choice.

daniel sienkiewicz‏ @MajorityRights Jul 22
Replying to @TaraMcCarthy_14

It’s not Not talking about the JQ that’s the big problem, it’s going along with their wish to make “The Left” the enemy that is the problem.

In ordinary language, “left” corresponds with unionization of people against elitist bullying and betrayal.

With J’s on top, they cooperate with right wing sellouts to argue that “The left” is the enemy as they don’t want us organizing against them.

What has been called “the Left” by the (((controlled media and academia))) is liberalism as it applies to Whites. It is not a White Left.

(((They)))‘ve associated it with all manner of absurdity as they do not want Whites deploying the concept of unionization.

They do not want us to have the means of accountability and compassion for OUR marginals that would popularize our cause.

They want to say its all about “equality” but White Left ethno-nationalism doesn’t have to mean anything so absurd for us.

It doesn’t mean people can’t be wealthy; or that people who are not contributing as much to the social capital aren’t accountable as well.

It doesn’t deny the reality of race, genetics, science, differing human abilities and limitations..

But we do have some agency and choice, we can unionize as left ethnonationalists to protect ourselves in coordination with other (coalitions of) ethno-nationalists.

Alt Right/Lite is a (((paleocon))) scam to co-opt White reaction into the alienating, manipulable that’s just-the-way-it-isness of the right.

..“that’s just the way it is” - just so happens (((these people))) are on top, its “just nature”.  The problems are being caused by “THE Left” (now that its convenient for the YKW and right wing sellouts in cooperation to say-so).

Illustration: Is “The left” imposing Islam on Indonesia and Turkey? No. Left nationalism’s bitterly opposed to Islam &vis versa

daniel sienkiewicz‏ @MajorityRights Jul 22
Replying to @TaraMcCarthy_14

Mike Cernovich is exposed as being at best a dumb vehicle for Active Measures, as his #FireMcMaster hashtag is botted and propagated hundreds of thousands of times by the 600 most active Russian fake Twitter accounts ...

John Ziegler confronts Cernovich with that and Cernovich’s conspiracy theory nonsense - that Soros* is pulling McMaster’s strings - Cernovich quivers nervously and makes the feeble counter-allegation that ‘Ziegler is anti-Zionist; just like McMaster.’

* We have long observed that Soros is a convenient Jew for other Jews to throw under the bus, particularly the more ardent Zionists.

John Ziegler, Free Speech Broadcasting.com, August 6th 2017, hour 2:

John Ziegler (25:55): Are you claiming that you alone are the reason that #FireMcMaster has been re-Tweeted at last check over 600,000 times worldwide - you’re saying that’s because of you?

Mike Cernovich: Amazing, the great citizens out there who support “America first”, participating very active, there was a protest today in front of The White House, the people are showing up…

John Ziegler: No, Mike, let me tell you the facts. That happened because of Russian operatives on Twitter.

Mike Cernovich: They’re everywhere, oh my god, the Russians. Imagine you talked about Jewish people the way you talk about Russians? Or you talked about Israel the way you talk about Russians?

John Ziegler: Are you anti-Semitic?

Mike Cernovich: You sound anti-Semitic and you sound xenophobic, because to me you’re xenophobic of Russians, an entire race of people…Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia…

Do you hate Israel the way McMaster does?

John Ziegler: You don’t want to answer the question because its troubling for you.

Mike Cernovich: McMaster hates Israel, do you hate Israel the way McMaster does? He fired pro-Israel Jews, he fired a guy for going to a Bar Mitzvah in Israel. Do you support that decision by McMaster?

John Ziegler (27:15): Are you denying that the 600 most well known Russian operative Twitter handles are responsible for the re-Tweets of the hashtag #FireMcMaster and that it was the top re-Tweet for all 600? Are you (Cernovich) denying that?

Mike Cernovich: I categorically deny that.

John Ziegler (29:03): “Here is my assessment; unless you’re totally lying and since we’re on the phone and we’ve never talked before in any substantive matter so I can’t know for sure; but my sense is that you are not actively working on behalf of Russia; but that Russian forces see you as somebody that they can use because he is so dumb he doesn’t realize he is being used and effectively you are being used as a stooge by Russia to do their dirty work for them among certain elements of the American population, i.e., the Trump cult.

That’s my belief, why am I wrong?

Mike Cernovich: Well my belief is you’re being used by anti-Zionist forces to support McMaster’s attacks on Israel and that’s why you support the purge of Jewish Trump supporters from the Trump administration.

John Ziegler: So you just think it is a coincidence that Russia is behind the fact that the #FireMcMaster hashtag has been re-Tweeted hundreds of thousands of times?

Mike Cernovich: I’m behind hat, I came up with that.

John Ziegler: Donald Trump, when he Tweets, if its a good Tweet, it might get 20,000 re-Tweets. #FireMcMaster has been re-Tweeted over 600,000 times world-wide because of you and you alone?

[...]

You think it’s beautiful that the President said, basically, you’re wrong, I’m not going to fire McMaster?

You implied on line that you did not believe that Trump wrote the statement that supported McMaster.

Mike Cernovich: No, Gen. Kelley definitely wrote that. I don’t believe Trump wrote that, it doesn’t sound anything like him.

John Ziegler: So, you don’t believe Trump is in charge then?

Mike Cernovich: Trump delegates a lot of things.

John Ziegler: Delegates a statement of his personal beliefs about McMaster, his National Security Advisor?

With that, thanks for your time, and I’ll be happy to send you the link to the entire interview un-edited.

Cernovich and Milo, Shills for the (((Trump agenda)))

That’s Mike Cernovich, a conspiracy nut-job, who has become famous in the Alt-Right by being a Donald Trump supporter, who no longer wants to be known as a Donald Trump supporter but is still doing the work for Donald Trump, although Trump is rejecting that work on the issue of whether National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster should be fired; if you understand all that, you’ve been listening very carefully and I appreciate it.

Related Story: From the week before, Ziegler does a good job exposing Milo Yiannopoulis as a mercenary stooge for Trump, brought onto Breitbart by Bannon and backed by Robert Mercer’s agenda and money. Milo did not promote the interview, which he would tend to do if he thought he came off well (he didn’t, his arguments came across as highly prefigurative, ill-fitting and mercenary for Trump).

Trump administration cornered by Mueller in a grand jury investigation.

Trump was not able to veto new sanctions against Russian as it would have been hapless against Capitol Hill’s unanimity on the measure, but betrayed his lack of innocence anyway by attaching a note of complaint (on behalf of his Russian friends?) to go along with his signing.

It would be a similar dead-ringer of guilt, revealing divided loyalties, if Trump tried to remove Mueller from the position of special investigation into Russian influence over his campaign, even if by the proxy of appointing someone who will do the dirty work where Sessions has recused himself - but now even that weasel-out of hiring someone to replace Sessions for the position to fire Meuller is being closed off; the Trump administration is being cornered, such that all administration personnel will be subject to appear before a grand jury and forced to present any documents, financial records, even emails that might have bearing - material evidence that they probably would not disclose voluntarily. 

Politico, “Could Trump Fire Mueller? It’s Complicated”, 3 August 2017:

But the real question is what Congress would do to stop him.

It turns out that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been calling ducks chickens all year long. In February, April and July, the Senate broke for 10 days or more. Each time, the Senate convened pro forma sessions. Subsequent reporting indicated that this was part of a plan hatched by the Senate GOP to prevent Trump from making any recess appointments at all. So it’s highly unlikely that Trump will be able to make a recess appointment during the upcoming break.

Does this mean Trump can’t ease out Sessions without sparking a messy confirmation process for his successor?

A Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing would inevitably rehash the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and even Republicans would be unlikely to confirm a nominee who didn’t pledge to protect Mueller’s investigation.

But Trump has other cards to play. He can appoint an acting attorney general and never get around to nominating a real one. By default, Rosenstein would take the helm. But Rosenstein is the one who hired Mueller, so if Trump’s goal is to get rid of the special counsel, he needs to pick someone else as acting attorney general.

But while a Grand Jury investigation is anything but good news for Trump and his administration, it is not news failing his incapacity to get rid of the Mueller and the investigation altogether - it is standard operating procedure for a special investigation of this kind:

Washington Post, “Why Mueller’s use of a grand jury confirms what we already knew”, 3 August 2017:

reathless tweets and breaking-news banners notwithstanding, reports that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has empaneled a grand jury in the ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign and potential Russian collusion are entirely unsurprising. This development isn’t a nothing-burger, but it doesn’t suggest anything we didn’t already know.

Grand juries are how federal prosecutors conduct their investigations. The grand jury has the subpoena power that prosecutors need to compel reluctant witnesses to testify under oath. Grand jury subpoenas are also how prosecutors gather documents such as bank records, emails and corporate papers from entities or people who might not produce them voluntarily.

If a preliminary inquiry suggests there is nothing to a case, prosecutors might never empanel a grand jury. They and the FBI might conduct voluntary interviews, examine readily available documents and determine that no more formal inquiry is warranted.

That quick-look, let’s-move-on scenario was never likely here. It’s been clear for months that the allegations are sufficiently serious to merit a full investigation. And in the world of federal prosecutors, that means using a grand jury.

In fact, prosecutors in this probe have been using a grand jury for some time. Grand jury proceedings take place in secret, so there is often not a lot of news about what is happening in the room.

But someone who receives a subpoena to testify or produce documents is not bound by those secrecy rules. They are free to disclose — to the media or to anyone else — that they received a grand jury subpoena or testified in the grand jury. It may be that someone who just received a subpoena contacted a reporter and that has resulted in the “breaking news” stories.

The reality is that any investigation serious enough to warrant the appointment of a special counsel was always likely to involve a grand jury. It was always going to drag on for months. In a case this complex, it takes a long time to investigate the various allegations, subpoena and review relevant documents, and put relevant witnesses before the grand jury. If there are grants of immunity or plea deals to be negotiated, that takes time as well.

Mueller has already hired more than a dozen prosecutors to staff his investigation. Anyone who thought this was going to be over quickly was kidding themselves. The “news” confirms what we already knew.

Finally, it’s important to remember that the existence of a grand jury investigation does not mean criminal charges will necessarily result. Especially in white-collar cases, it’s not unusual for grand jury investigations to close with no charges being filed. The grand jury is the investigative tool that prosecutors use to determine whether charges are warranted – and sometimes the answer is no.

In the past weeks, there have been a number of startling and significant developments in the Russia probe. News that the special counsel is using a grand jury is not one of them.