Push someone down, to try and lift yourself up.... They've attacked everything and everyone in their desperate madness to lift themselves up.... It only shows, how inept and lowly they are.

Savages... fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.... a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized.

He's hoping there's no justice in the world.

Because if there is ANY JUSTICE AT ALL, he's toast.

It freezes my computer, and often their headlines are hyperbolic per the content in the story.

Sounds like an important story - and if their are more sources it merits reading consideration. But if just Raw Story - meh. Sometimes it is rather clickbaity.

Link to tweet

That law, even if it is constitutional, prohibits private citizens from communicating with foreign governments for the purpose of acting to undermine existing laws or policies of the United States. The Iran treaty is an existing law of the United States, and Kerry is trying to keep it intact, not undermine it.

You saved me a lot of searching.

talking to the Russians before they held office officially, and undermining president Obama and his efforts.

Just keep shooting your mouth off, Nunes. Come November you are gone. Even the people in your district hate you and are embarrassed every time you open your mouth. In five years, you won't even be a footnote.

Just another attempt by Mr Nunes to throw some chum to the bottom-feeders.

-- Mal

John Kerry is lobbying for sanity.

and yet he is the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

but let's go in chronological order. Just about everyone in Trump's inner circle including his kids are ahead of Kerry in line.

when someone on the right is being investigated for some crime.....the midnight weasel or one of Trump's other servile lackeys manufactures the exact same accusation against some Democrat.

Last edited Sat May 5, 2018, 12:18 AM - Edit history (1)

perhaps also Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, etc., etc.,? Oooh, and don't leave out Erik Prince. Wasn't he monkeying around in Saudi Arabia for something? fu, Nunes.

Nunes is a couple of fries short of a happy meal.

why doesn't the FBI go after all fascist GOP pigs, they are traitors, mobsters and con artists, now that makes sense.

Last edited Sat May 5, 2018, 08:46 AM - Edit history (1)

Or win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sounds just like John Kerry - quietly trying to make something good happen.
Sounds just like the Republicans - loudly trying to punish or ridicule or slander anyone trying to do good, zealously working to destroy or reverse any progress that has been made.
Sounds just like Trump (I'm referring to his outrageous NRA comments on Kerry, but also to almost anything that comes out of his mouth) - tearing down anyone who opposes him with cruelty, lies, and ridicule, who "wins" by stoking fear, prejudice, and hatred of others among his misguided supporters.

I am sick of the meanness and the lies and the cruelty and the corruption and the vandalism of my country.

I had long wondered, given the shift on the part of the Europeans to be willing to do something to add onto the agreement, whether the reported conversations with Kerry at various meetings might have influenced that. If so, Trump's explicit policy has been to "fix" the deal or eliminate it. I would not have been surprised if Kerry were trying to find any common ground that the Europeans and Iran could propose -- that would give Trump a face saving way to claim he was now ok because the deal was "fixed". (Some rw arguments are not true - so simply restated the provisions and claiming they are now fixed could happen) It would not have surprised me had this worked that he would have been completely happy NOT to have his name involved ... because it would trigger Trump.

I still remember when many of us were watching the CSPAN coverage of the Senate passing a Small Business bill to help New Orleans. Both Kerry and Olympia Snowe wrote bills with their committee staff - they were then combined. By the time the bill went to a vote, It was Snowe/Kerry - because the Republicans controlled the Senate. We watched (and blogged to DU JK) while voting started. There was some action we did not understand where both Kerry and Snowe left the main area. The bill's name suddenly changed to Snowe/Vitter and then many Republicans, who had refrained earlier from voting -- voted yes, on what had been a very bipartisan bill. Apparently, Kerry took his name off to insure that the bill would pass -- which it very easily did.

It is interesting that this is now out in the open. The question is whether this was BG investigative reporting or if it is a sign that the more covert action was not working and this was a gamble to allow Kerry and Moniz and others to directly speak on the issue. It could be that having all these people talking to both foreign leaders and the Congress was likely to have someone speak about it and the BG to hear and feel the need to report on it.

It is interesting that keeping the deal is now the majority opinion. I also was happy that Senator Cardin, one of the 4 Democrats who voted against it is now in favor of keeping it. (I saw him speak at a J Street conference last month where he said so. As a side note, I liked that JK tweeted a J Street letter from a few dozen Israel military/intelligence people in favor of keeping the deal.) Durbin, who was the whip who got all the Democrats except Schumer, Menendez, Cardin and Manchin to vote for the deal - getting over the 40 needed, also spoke. In retrospect, it is amazing he did that against the second strongest Democrat and the 2 top Democrats in the SFRC. Digression aside, what was said is that several no votes, now are against simply ripping up the deal.

It could be that the hope is that even if Trump again refuses to certify that Iran is in compliance or actually claims they are breaking the deal (with his own or Netanyahu's lies) that Congress will not reimpose the sanctions for the nuclear program. (If they eliminated the unnecessary Presidential certification and did not reimpose sanctions, this could continue to drift on as is.)

It could also be that the more realistic goal is to get Iran to stay in - as they sometimes say they will (followed by statements that they will leave) and for the other P5 + 1 countries to try to continue to give Iran some benefit from doing so. (Meaning just the US might be out of compliance.)

All of this, against the backdrop of Trump working with Saudi Arabia/Israel trying to solve their domestic problems by putting all the focus on Iran as the common enemy that needs to be immediately taken down or made a complete pariah to diminish any regional power they could gain.

It would be completely uncharacteristic for JK NOT to try, but the odds seem even less than the daunting odds against the agreement in the first place.

Did you see David Wade's response on twitter?

Link to tweet

Thanks for this thoughtful assessment and new information.
David Wade's "tweet" is, as is usual, spot on, and hilarious.
Must have been great for Kerry, as both senator and secretary of state, to have Wade at his side as chief of staff and in other roles.

Federal Marshals cop-knock on his front door someday soon.

Last edited Sat May 5, 2018, 11:18 AM - Edit history (1)

1) The Iran deal has actually gained support over Trump's term - in spite of Netanyahu, Trump and Saudi Arabia. The more Trump makes it an issue, the more likely that Moniz, Kerry and others will defend it. In fact, this might be Trump's response to Kerry's 4 tweet defense made on May 1, where he includes a J Street letter from Israeli commanders and a European source on the need to keep the deal - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wade-iran-commentary/commentary-trumps-iran-revisionism-wont-help-with-north-korea-idUSKBN1HW29A

This was a strong, focused, fact based response to Netanyahu's much derided presentation of pre deal intelligence as proof that Iran is cheating. Kerry has no platform - unlike Trump or Netanyahu. What he has is a reputation for honesty and the facts. Trump used his platform to simply lie about never leaving the table, which the US did at points - always linking to a next meeting though. He also thought it good to play to his base on Kerry's accident.

2) Kerry's accident does not reflect negatively on him. He regularly took bike rides, including demanding ones, as a stress reducer from tense, complicated negotiations. He has regularly spoken of how they help him focus. However, it is impossible to make him look unathletic --- after they blanketed the airwaves of video of him windsurfing in his late 60s!

Link to tweet

Link to tweet