Water Dog wrote:Umm, so your argument is that the FBI is a fourth branch of our government?
My argument is that is as clear-cut of an example of abuse of official powers that constitutes "high crimes as misdemenors" in criteria for impeachment as is possible. You are arguing, ala Nixon, that when the president does it, it can't be illegal. So the president, in your view, can obstruct justice on FBI related matters without consequence. I am countering that this is exactly what impeachment is designed for.
In fact, if a president caught doing that isn't forced out of office, that's a collapse of the US system of government. Impeachment is the last escape hatch out of that kind of dictatorial power.
EAllusion wrote:In fact, if a president caught doing that isn't forced out of office, that's a collapse of the US system of government. Impeachment is the last escape hatch out of that kind of dictatorial power.
Well. It's actually meant to be used in lieu of a coup or revolution. You know. The kinds of things that happen when a democracy fails.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
In today's other Russia news, there's internal emails indicating that Trump was advised to go easy on Russia on sanctions for election interference - what Flynn was lying about his role in to the FBI - because Russia aided them in the election.
The best defense of that is down to, "That was sarcasm."
... well, yeah, because Russia didn't interfere with the election! What did they do? There isn't a shred of documented evidence they did anything. What have you got, Podesta emails? John Podesta falls for a phishing scam, and then Wiki dumps them. Wow, that's some l33t hax0ring there. The emails are all true, Democrats convicted by the raw truth of their corruption, like rigging primaries against Bernie, etc.
What, again, does this have to do with Trump or Russians? What is the supposed Russian agenda to begin with, and how in the world would that line up with Republicans and conservatives?
So Trump comes into office. Democrats are livid. They want to blame his victory on anything but their rank incompetence. So they invent this Russia scandal. And your expectation is that Trump should run with this football and engage in economic warfare with Russia over it? That's what you're saying. Trump didn't want to help the Donkey Party with their fundraising by playing chicken with a nuclear power, therefore, he's totes guilty of collusion. Makes sense.
Dude.
What's wrong with you?
You probably didn't realize this until reading these words that I'm typing out right now, but Jared Kushner is still working on an interim security clearance.
There's a reason for that.
Here's the thing - Jared Kushner was in charge of the Trump campaign's digital operation and is currently under investigation.[1] We recently found out that Trump Jr. was in contact with Wikileaks via Twitter and forwarded the messages to top campaign officials,[2] meaning Kushner lied to investigators when he claimed that he knew of no contacts.[3] Kushner and the campaign worked with Mercer/Cambridge Analytica. We have learned that Cambridge Analytica reached out to Wikileaks.[4] They also offered to organize the hacked emails.[5] Cambridge Analytica is under investigation by the Russia probe.[6] Why would Mercer work with the Russians to undermine American democracy? Perhaps he wanted to avoid paying $7 billion in owed taxes.[7] The Paradise Papers leak confirms that Mercer used dark money to fund his efforts to sink Hillary Clinton's campaign.[8] And President Trump has now put a tax dodging expert as the interim IRS commissioner.[9] Russia's disinformation campaign has unfortunately succeeded. A third of the population will not believe any negative news about President Trump and his administration's ties to Russia. Remember it only took 80 thousand votes to flip the electoral college vote in favour of President Trump.[10] Although Trump has been quick to attack the Intel Community and side with Russia time and time again,[11] we know that the United States Intelligence Agencies have confirmed that a foreign nation interfered with the American election process.[12] We know two dozen state's election systems came under attack.[13] We now know that the Russians hired[14] individuals who were,[15] and currently are,[16] actively pushing propaganda and fake news to create a system that manipulates the narrative using social media sites as conduits for this endeavour. The Russian ads that were meant to sow division in America through misinformation on Facebook reached at least 126 million Americans.[17] The Paradise Papers leak has confirmed that the Kremlin funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Yuri Milner, a Russian technology magnate who also owns a stake in a company co-owned by Jared Kushner.[18] Remember the Trump Tower meeting Russian operatives allegedly discussed "adoptions" with Jared Kushner, Trump Junior, and Paul Manafort?[19] Well "adoptions" is a euphemism used in reference to the Magnitsky Act, sanctions against Russians. Russian sanctions, and in particular the Magnitsky Act, provides us with a motive.[20] Browder's Senate Judicial Committee testimony clarified reasons as to why the Russians would collude with Trump. He confirmed that Putin/Russia was closely tied to the Trump campaign.[21] You can watch his testimony on CSPAN.[22]. He paints an incredible picture of how the Russian government operates.
Sources:
1) McClatchy - Trump-Russia investigators probe Jared Kushner-run digital operation 2) The Atlantic - The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks 3) CNN - Kushner testified he did not recall any campaign WikiLeaks contact 4) CNN - Trump campaign analytics company contacted WikiLeaks about Clinton emails 5) Wall Street Journal - Trump Donor Asked Data Firm If It Could Better Organize Hacked Emails 6) The Daily Beast - Russia Probe Now Investigating Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s ‘Psychographic’ Data Guru 7) The Daily Beast - A Trump Backer’s $7 Billion War Against the IRS 8) The Guardian - Robert Mercer invested offshore dark money to sink Clinton. He must be delighted 9) The Daily Beast - Trump Installs Tax-Dodging Expert as the Head of the IRS 10) Washington Post - Donald Trump will be president thanks to 80,000 people in three states 11) CBS - Clapper, Brennan slam Trump over comments on Russian election meddling 12) New York Times - Trump Misleads on Russian Meddling: Why 17 Intelligence Agencies Don’t Need to Agree 13) NPR - 10 Months After Election Day, Feds Tell States More About Russian Hacking 14) QZ - Russia’s troll factory also paid for 100 activists in the US 15) Washington Post - Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms 16) Washington Post - Facebook to turn over thousands of Russian ads to Congress, reversing decision 17) BBC - Russia-linked posts 'reached 126m Facebook users in US' 18) The Guardian - Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner investor 19) New York Times - Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign 20) The Atlantantic - Why Does the Kremlin Care So Much About the Magnitsky Act? 21) Written transcript from The Atlantic - Bill Browder's Testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee 22) CSPAN - Browder Senate Judiciary Testimony
I would recommend you click on the sources if you feel the need to vet this out a bit.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Since I can't post the images, it's a contrast between Trump's statement today that he fired Flynn because he knew he lied to the FBI with Trump's earlier tweet claiming that Flynn should ask for immunity because the investigation involving him is a witchhunt to pursued by his enemies to excuse an election loss.
Water Dog wrote:I'm not a fan of Jared. Trump's family is definitely his kryptonite. I wouldn't be surprised if he got popped on a silly charge similar to Flynn. None of this is evidence of any "collusion" though. As for why Jared hasn't gotten his clearance. Have you ever gotten one, Doc? I have an active one right now. It takes forever, and I can say from my own insider information that they've been backlogged and moving quite slow the past year.
Yes. I held a TS-SCI//SI-TK-HCS-G// throughout my military career, and was also read-on to a few Special Access Programs. I was the personnel security manager and then Special Security Officer for a USASOC special missions unit accounting for ~1700 people, and was intimately familiar with the Office of Personnel Management, their procedures, processes, and timelines.
Jared Kushner would receive priority processing of his Single Scope Background Investigation as do most high-priority types within the federal government. You can literally prioritize people to the top of the pile, so to speak. The fact that he's still working on an interim indicates issues he can't clear up with the OPM investigators, and even if he somehow did the adjudicating body would be held up most likely due to ancillary investigations into him, his family, and whatever else is going on that I don't feel like listing off.
- Doc
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Can't link it right now but a newly released email proves the Trump transition team said Russia "threw the election" for Trump. This is huge folks. Someone link it please, I'm on phone.