१७ मे, २०१८

"Counterintelligence investigations can take years, but if the Russian government had influence over the Trump campaign, the F.B.I. wanted to know quickly."

"One option was the most direct: interview the campaign officials about their Russian contacts. That was discussed but not acted on, two former officials said, because interviewing witnesses or subpoenaing documents might thrust the investigation into public view, exactly what F.B.I. officials were trying to avoid during the heat of the presidential race. 'You do not take actions that will unnecessarily impact an election,' Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy attorney general, said in an interview. She would not discuss details, but added, 'Folks were very careful to make sure that actions that were being taken in connection with that investigation did not become public.'"

From "Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation" (NYT). There's much more to this article, which I'm still trying to digest. My confidence in the NYT is undermined by this correction: "An earlier version of this article misstated that news organizations did not report on the findings of the retired British spy Christopher Steele about links between Trump campaign officials and Russia. While most news organizations whose reporters met with Mr. Steele did not publish such reports before the 2016 election, Mother Jones magazine did." You got an easily checkable, important fact plainly wrong. How can we trust your reporting?

ADDED: At WaPo, Erik Wemple has "New York Times acknowledges it buried the lead in pre-election Russia-Trump story":
In a massive article Wednesday on the FBI’s 2016 snooping into the possible nexus between Russians and the Trump presidential campaign, reporters Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos include these two paragraphs:
In late October, in response to questions from The Times, law enforcement officials acknowledged the investigation but urged restraint. They said they had scrutinized some of Mr. Trump’s advisers but had found no proof of any involvement with Russian hacking. The resulting article, on Oct. 31, reflected that caution and said that agents had uncovered no “conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.”

The key fact of the article — that the F.B.I. had opened a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign — was published in the 10th paragraph.
That’s one heck of a concession: We buried the lead! In their book “Russian Roulette,” authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn report that editors at the New York Times “cast the absence of a conclusion as the article’s central theme rather than the fact of the investigation itself,” contrary to the wishes of the reporters....
AND: "10 Key Takeaways From The New York Times’ Error-Ridden Defense Of FBI Spying On Trump Campaign" by Mollie Hemingway (The Federalist).
ALSO: From the Hemingway article:
[T]he admissions in this New York Times story are coming out now, years after selective leaks to compliant reporters, just before an inspector general report detailing some of these actions is slated to be released this month. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that people mentioned in the report are beginning to get previews of what it alleges. It’s reasonable to assume that much of the new information in the New York Times report relates to information that will be coming out in the inspector general report.

By working with friendly reporters, these leaking FBI officials can ensure the first story about their unprecedented spying on political opponents will downplay that spying and even attempt to justify it. Of note is the story’s claim that very few people even knew about the spying on the Trump campaign in 2016, which means the leakers for this story come from a relatively small pool of people.

३२३ टिप्पण्या:

323 पैकी 1 – 200   नवीन›   नवीनतम»
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Seems like a minor complaint. And, there is no reason why news agencies shouldn't report the news.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

What seems like a minor complaint?

Jaq म्हणाले...

Of course, if Hillary was taking 150 million from Putin’s cronies, the proper response is incuriousness,

Oh, I forgot! Hillary never happened! She wasn’t the alternative to Trump the Democrats offered!

Curious George म्हणाले...

"How can we trust your reporting?"

That's what put you over the edge? Really?

Jaq म्हणाले...

I guess what I am saying is that all of this intense curiosity about Trump contrasted with extreme incuriosity regarding Hillary suggests that this is all politics through other means.

Jaq म्हणाले...

’Folks were very careful to make sure that actions that were being taken in connection with that investigation did not become public.'"

That cost me a mouthful of coffee and now I have to wipe my computer... “with a cloth.” That’s like the drunk resolving to be “very careful” but getting behind the wheel anyway.

Dad29 म्हणाले...

Some pundits regard this article as an inoculation, deliberately planted by the FBI to cover their smelly, large, tracks. One of the spies is an elderly Brit professor who told the Trump aide (Papadopolous) about the Hillary email breach, and that the Russians had those emails.

When Papadopolous reported same, he became "it" in this game of tag, and the FBI then had the traction to secure (no court needed) a national-security letter/warrant, and begin electronic spying on the entire campaign. THIS is why Trump said that his campaign was "wiretapped." Trump was told that by Mike Rogers, who may have been the only honest nat-sec official in the entire Obama Administration.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

If they wanted it kept secret why did they keep using Steele even after he went to the press and not rely on more trust worthy sources?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

It would have helped the credibility of the deep staters here if some, or all, of this had come out before the election, when it would have mattered. Now, not so much.

MayBee म्हणाले...

I suspect they were a little too nervous to actually throw an election, figuring they could just take him down afterward. Which is what they've been trying to do.

Xmas म्हणाले...

Some minor Trump figure drunkenly rambles about a story being fed to him by a paid FBI resource and the FBI's response is to start investigating other Trump campaign officials secretly as to not "influence the election".

Ignorance is Bliss म्हणाले...

I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at the morning driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas...

buwaya म्हणाले...

Tim's reaction was like mine.
I started laughing over my coffee.

MayBee म्हणाले...

tim in Vermont said...
I guess what I am saying is that all of this intense curiosity about Trump contrasted with extreme incuriosity regarding Hillary suggests that this is all politics through other means.

Not to mention extreme disinterest in Obama!!!

"i'll have more flexibility after the election" isn't even mentioned anymore!

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

MayBee said...
I suspect they were a little too nervous to actually throw an election, figuring they could just take him down afterward.


When he has all the powers of the presidency and can't be indicted? Interesting theory.

Owen म्हणाले...

What is Russian for "Pass the popcorn"?

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

LOL. The Great 2016 Coup is now begging to be seen as sincere, patriotic idealists motivated to save the USA from electing a strange foreign agent who is unlike the all American Obama or a Charitably motivated good hearted woman.

And please overlook our desperate conspiracy to overthrow an elected President before we all are hung for mass theft and Treason.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

You do know they tried to leak it to CNN and others, but the news agencies save Mother Jones didn't want to touch such outlandish claims without a fig leaf "newshook", right? And that intelligence officials created one by briefing Trump and Obama and then leaking the briefing.

You were aware of these facts right? If not, take some time off commenting and get spun up on current events.

gilbar म्हणाले...

"You do not take actions that will unnecessarily impact an election,' Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy attorney general, said"

it's OKAY to NECESSARILY impact an elect (that is; to make sure that Hillary wins)... but any impact that would counter the intended results would, of Course, be unnecessary

अनामित म्हणाले...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
It would have helped the credibility of the deep staters here if some, or all, of this had come out before the election, when it would have mattered. Now, not so much.

It didn't matter to the DeepState because Trump wasn't going to win anyway.

David Begley म्हणाले...

And Yates and others were very clever in how they leaked stuff.

Heads have got to roll on this. People have to go to jail. McCabe and Comey for sure. Strzok is going to rat them all out.

buwaya म्हणाले...

These are incompetent, silly people, that everyone takes so, so seriously - because they have to. Idiots that have such power.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

True. This was the insurance plan. They didn't want to go public about Fusion because Clinton paying Russians for dirt on Trump would be awkward to rationalize with the narrative. Yet. Here we are.

David Begley म्हणाले...

The major result of this entire Russia thing is that the credibility of the NYT, WaPo, CNN and MSNBC is completely destroyed. And just in time for the 2018 elections. The IG's report will finish them off.

robother म्हणाले...

Sounds like the Inspector general report disclosing this in a different light is coming shortly. NYTimes is allowing dems to say "that's old news, no big deal." Yeah. no big deal that the heads of the FBI, CIA and NSA decide that Trump is unfit to be President and set out to wiretap and spy on his campaign and report every week to Obama and his political advisors what they found. Oh, and who do you think recommended Christopher Steele to the Hillary campaign as someone who could manufacture dirt with Moscow operatives? The CIA and FBI that had worked with him.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Mike Rogers, who may have been the only honest nat-sec official in the entire Obama Administration.

Yes, and Brennan was the Deep State goto guy.

In his own clumsy way, Brennan knew that he was treading on a political minefield. He referred to the FBI/CIA’s spying on the Trump campaign as an “exceptionally, exceptionally sensitive issue.” That helpful crumb comes from Russian Roulette, the book by David Corn and Michael Isikoff.

Brennan dimly understood that there would be hell to pay if it came out that Hillary partisans in the U.S. government were spying on her opponent’s campaign, making use of opposition research that she had purchased. But Brennan, who was auditioning to be Hillary’s CIA director and choking on his anger at the thought of Trump as president, couldn’t help himself apparently. From April 2016 to July 2016, according to leaked stories in the British press, he assembled a multi-agency taskforce that served as the beginnings of a counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign. During these months, he was “personally briefing” Obama on “Russian interference” — Brennan’s euphemism for spying on the Trump campaign — and was practically camped out at the White House. So in all likelihood Obama knew about and had given his blessing to Brennan’s dirt-digging.


ARM, as usual, is carrying water for the black hats.

By the way, that comes from David Corn's new book.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

It's all over for the deep staters. Yowls at the moon over the vast incompetence of the empty headed orange hued fraud. A witless pawn of the GOPe and now the neocons

Michael K म्हणाले...

And just in time for the 2018 elections.

And just in time for the Democrats to run a hard left slate of candidates, including Henry Wallace's grandson, still red after all these years.

Owen म्हणाले...

I think there was a wonderful commensality or synergy at work, between the intelligence community "folks" running this "investigation" and their friends in the media. FBI or another agency would generate a "fact" that would smear Trump or his people or that would justify the surveillance tgeyvhad done or wanted to do. (In the case of the Steele dossier, these "facts" were both smears and justifications). Then these "facts" would be leaked to the media. Who were paid (in other access if not in coin) to publish and otherwise add buzz and legs to the @facts." And the media's doing so became a new, meta-fact, which justified the agencies in taking a new or continued interest in the target. It's a nice system: efficient, quick, well-focused. Illegal and unethical as hell, but that's hardly their concern.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

LarsPorsena said...
It didn't matter to the DeepState because Trump wasn't going to win anyway.


This is a good argument for why everything they did was motivated by law enforcement concerns rather than politics.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Buried the lede.

AllenS म्हणाले...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
It's all over for the deep staters. Yowls at the moon over the vast incompetence of the empty headed orange hued fraud. A witless pawn of the GOPe

So, ARM, you think that Trump is a pawn of the GOP establishment?

Kevin म्हणाले...

“I suspect they were a little too nervous to actually throw an election, figuring they could just take him down afterward. Which is what they've been trying to do.”

Comey said he was watching the polls and was sure Hillary would win. That’s why he felt safe disclosing her e-mails on Weiner’s laptop and not the FBI’s extensive investigation into Trump.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV म्हणाले...

We buried the lead!

Sailer has pointed out many times that the NYT puts the useful information near the end of its articles if that info doesn't serve The Narrative. Are they pretending that it's not standard practice?

Loren W Laurent म्हणाले...

I think the IG report is going to be a bit of a fizzle. I expect equivocations, dissimulations. To be straightforward would necessitate that heads must roll, and Washington is too incestuous to let that happen.

Minor players will incur some shaving cuts, but otherwise the NYT and Washington Post will print column inches of "What difference at this point does it make?"

To live outside the law you must be honest, etc etc.

-LWL

buwaya म्हणाले...

ARM really is trolling now.

robother म्हणाले...

Seems like ARM is flailing this morning, buying time until more coherent talking points are supplied by journo-list. He literally don't know what to think.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV म्हणाले...

rhhardin said...
Buried the lede.


"Lede" is the fake word.

Hagar म्हणाले...

I wonder if inquisitive minds should not also begin looking to see if a little (comparatively speaking) of the vast sums of loose money sloshing about around the world did not stick to these people. It may not be all about philosophical political differences.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

AllenS said...
So, ARM, you think that Trump is a pawn of the GOP establishment?


So tax cuts for the rich that creates trillion dollar deficits for eternity was Trump's idea? Sounds like Paul Ryan to me.

Kevin म्हणाले...

“The key fact of the article — that the F.B.I. had opened a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign — was published in the 10th paragraph.”

So the NYT knew about this all along but waited until (a) Sally Yates needed them to do a puff piece on her and her friends to insulate them from the impending IG report, (b) the NYT needed to run the exclusive because they were about to be scooped by the IG report, (c) all of the above.

Darkisland म्हणाले...

Crossfire Hurricane comes from a rolling stones song.

We were discussing trump's use of you can't always get what you want the other day.

Someone in one of the blogs I read suggested that trump knew about Crossfire and wad trolling the fbi with you can't always get what you want (ie; dirt on me)

John Henry

AllenS म्हणाले...

You think that trillion dollar deficits just started with Trump? How about trillion dollar deficits under Obama? I can't remember you raising a stink when BO did it.

Webgrandma म्हणाले...

Hate to be pedantic, but isn't it "buried the lede?"

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

To be fair to Trump he is dealing with an immense personal tragedy. For any parent, watching a child succumb to early onset Alzheimer's must be truly tragic.

Donald Trump Jr. said he couldn’t remember or didn’t know 186 times in his Trump Tower meeting testimony

MayBee म्हणाले...

When he has all the powers of the presidency and can't be indicted?

What do you mean, can't be indicted?

BTW, have you noticed what they've been doing to him since he won the election? Trying to undermine him from day 1. The Mueller investigation has been going on for a year now. You don't think someone in the IC is trying to either brush Trump back or take him out?

Molly म्हणाले...

I've been teaching myself journalism by reading the WaPo and NYT. I have this:

"Concerns that cash payments from supporters of Hillary Clinton to the NYTimes employees may have influenced the paper's coverage of the 2016 election continue to roil below the surface in analysis of media coverage. Some observers have expressed concern that the objectivity of NYT reporters and editors was severely compromised by payments from Clinton campaign supporters. One source close to NYT insiders believes that payments to the lead political reporters and editors may have been in the high 6 figures. To date, no firm evidence has emerged to support these allegations; however, investigations continue."

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

'You do not take actions that will unnecessarily impact an election,' Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy attorney general, said in an interview.

For this article that reveals DOJ/FBI secrets, a major source is Sally "The Logan Act Enforcer" Yates, who is a notorious ...

* leaker,

* confirmer of other leakers

* perjurer who denies under oath that she is a leaker.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV म्हणाले...

Counterintelligence investigations Cops found multiple bottles of Hitler-branded wine at the man's home

Tank म्हणाले...

But, was anyone "wire tapped"?

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

The DOJ/FBI redacted the code name Crossfire Hurricane out of the text messages that were sent between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and that were released to the public.

However, that same DOJ/FBI allows its favored Trump-hating journalists at The New York Times to publish that same code name, merely to help make the NYT article more interesting.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

I'm getting a tax cut, so I must be rich. Meanwhile, those guys in California and New York whose SALT deductions are capped at $10K must be the poor and downtrodden. What a brave new world that has such creatures in it

Big Mike म्हणाले...

One of the spies is an elderly Brit professor who told the Trump aide (Papadopolous) about the Hillary email breach, and that the Russians had those emails.

This was always obvious to anyone with a two digit IQ or higher. If it came out that Hillary Clinton was using an unsecured Email server for official State Department business, if the head of the Russian SVR did not have all of her message traffic then it is safe to assume he would be “retired,” probably with a terminal 9mm headache. Instead, he retired with the Russian “Order of Honor” medal.

Michael K म्हणाले...


AllenS said...
So, ARM, you think that Trump is a pawn of the GOP establishment?

So tax cuts for the rich that creates trillion dollar deficits for eternity was Trump's idea?


No, ARM, that was the DNC's idea. Lie about tax cuts to try to draw attention of the voters from their payroll check stubs.

I don't think it will work but we will see if communism is competitive with our national life this fall.

I ca guess what side you are on, ARM.

Michael Fitzgerald म्हणाले...

"...tax cuts for the rich..." ARM/Shiloh still spewing the prog refrain from 2004. Lame Democrat party asswipe.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Speaking of deep state, where's the outrage about the missing Financial Crimes Database documents on Michael Cohen? It's almost as if the outrage here is driven by trivial partisanship rather than a genuine concern for our country.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Michael K said...
that was the DNC's idea


The stupid is strong in this one.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

At least twice since the election I have pointed out the NY Times article in question. It was published on line on Nov 1, and can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html
I did this to point out to various "Russian collusion theorists" that the FBI told the times on Nov. 1 that it was anothingburger, and in after the election the intelligence agencies said it was not a nothing burger, and the that between November 1st and the about face, no new evidence had come to light. What caused the about face was that in the eyes of the Obama administration, the Democrat party, and the intelligence services was that the wrong candidate won the election.
Fer chrissakes, grow up, Democrats. You are like a bunch of bawling little brats.

The paragraph in question, paragraph 10, reads:

F.B.I. officials declined to comment on Monday. Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump’s aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Republican presidential candidate. Still, they have said that Mr. Trump himself has not become a target. And no evidence has emerged that would link him or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia’s election operations.

Wince म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
mccullough म्हणाले...

Is Strzok the only one from the story still working for the government? He’s in HR now, I read. Page quit since Strzok stopped fucking her. Yates is gone, Comey is gone. McCabe is gone.

The people who put Incompetence in FBI. Silly people. Heads full of straw.

Michael K म्हणाले...

To be straightforward would necessitate that heads must roll, and Washington is too incestuous to let that happen

That is certainly a real possibility. After all, these people are all neighbors and go to the same cocktail parties.

Nobody but Trump would ever have gotten us this far.

The furious resistance shows how far he has gotten.

Michael K म्हणाले...


Blogger Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
Michael K said...
that was the DNC's idea

The stupid is strong in this one.


I see the talking points have arrived. Were they late this morning ?

I can imagine consternation at the DNC with the OIG report so close.

Wince म्हणाले...

How much was the operation code name Crossfire Hurricane influenced by Trump's choice of You Can't Always Get a What You Want... as a campaign theme song?

Also wouldn't that imply the Trump campaign was the singular focus of the investigation rather than overall Russian influence or meddling in the election?

If not, please tell me the code name of that larger "Russian election meddling" investigation.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Ann Coulter tweeted

Today's BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Miles completed yesterday-Zero; Miles completed since Inauguration-- Zero. NEXT UPDATE TOMORROW.

Chuck म्हणाले...

So "investigating Manafort, Page, Flynn and Papadopoulos" is now "spying on the Trump campaign." Well, uh, okay.

But when I have heard Trump Team members talk about those four, what I have been hearing is that Manafort was only there a short time, Flynn lied to Trump and Pence, Page is a nobody who was barely connected to the campaign, and Papadopoulos was so important that he was basically getting coffee for the big guys.

All four, I expect, are going to be indicted. Manafort and Flynn have, already. Flynn has pleaded guilty, and I expect Manafort will someday as well, when a deal can be worked out.

chickelit म्हणाले...

The story is going down like a lede zeppelin. By the way, which one’s twink?

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

Speaking of deep state, where's the outrage about the missing Financial Crimes Database documents on Michael Cohen?
Oh, there are several legitimate reasons those docs could have been withheld.They were leaked by an anonymous government guy who admitted as much.
But to the conspiracy theorist, any missing or unavailable evidence or testimony is always PROOF that the conspiracy is not only real, it is more widespread than had previously been imagined!
It's kind of the opposite of using logic and reason.

buwaya म्हणाले...

I wonder.

There is another op going on, seeing as this one is being wound up.
This one ran for almost 18 months as media fodder, feeding lumps into the MSM Wurlitzer.

Kerry seeing the mullahs means something. Money moved for a reason somewhere. The sudden rhetorical turn of the NK's suggests a payoff to someone in NK to make trouble. Kerry, or his backers, making an international play vs Trump? To delay a NK deal till after the US elections?

The utter corruption of the US "establishment", as we see here, make everything of this sort plausible.

Richard Fernandez (Belmont Club) has useful commentary - article "The Global City" - on the nature of the Malaysian 1MDB scandal, which was a looting spree against Malaysian government finances. That is just an example, and it is really a small example, simply to illustrate the complexity and reach, across all sorts of international players, including connections with Wall Street (there is or should be a shoe dropping re Goldman Sachs in this case I think), and international politics.

This is just one small bit of a constant ongoing stew that explains, provides a reason, for a great deal. It matters a great deal who is in charge of the US government as all these things are under its oversight, like Goldman Sachs. The Iran business has much larger financial implications, at least an order of magnitude more. Anything Chinese is yet another order of magnitude greater.

Nothing that goes on, including the behavior of US intelligence agencies, can be understood without knowing the players interests, without following the money. And the money is global.

This is why narciso is always right. This is why anything in the media needs to be evaluated at a step removed, at a meta-level, as an element in a larger, deeper game. Nor can the slitherings of incompetent US intelligence officials be taken at face value.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Lewis Wetzel said...
to the conspiracy theorist, any missing or unavailable evidence or testimony is always PROOF that the conspiracy is not only real, it is more widespread than had previously been imagined!


Speaking truth to the choir.

Michael K म्हणाले...

All four, I expect, are going to be indicted. Manafort and Flynn have, already. Flynn has pleaded guilty, and I expect Manafort will someday as well, when a deal can be worked out.

Chuck, I see, has his hopes high.

Manafort is a crook and hiring him was a mistake by TRump's kids. He was fired soon after hiring. Read Lewandowski's book.

Flynn was an op by Yates and Obama to damage Trump's transition. He will be exonerated , perhaps as early as next week in the OIG report.

The others, especially Papadapoulis were used to justify the FISA warrant.


Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

Blogger Chuck said...

"So "investigating Manafort, Page, Flynn and Papadopoulos" is now "spying on the Trump campaign." Well, uh, okay."
Chuck, the intelligence said that they were investigating links between the russkis and Trump back in October, 2016.
For your benefit, I will once again copy-n-paste from the Nov. 1, 2016 NY Times story:

Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump’s aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Republican presidential candidate.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

'You do not take actions that will unnecessarily impact an election,'

I call bullshit.

Drago म्हणाले...

robother: "Seems like ARM is flailing this morning, "

He will be joined shortly by LLR Chuck ti run interference for the lefties.

Just last night, LLR Chuck, who has called Rachel Maddow "brilliant" and complete hack John Harwood "professional", was attacking Kimberly Strassel of the Wall St Journal for daring to report honestly in this subject.

The Horowitz report must have quite a bit in it for the lefties and their allies like Noted Racist Commenter Chuck and ARM to be chumming the water this desperately this early.

So, to summarize, LLR Chuck and lefties once again on EXACTLY the same narrative/talking point page and deflecting for the dems.

Honestly, I did not see that coming....LOL

Tommy Duncan म्हणाले...

Sally Yates:

"Folks were very careful to make sure that actions that were being taken in connection with that investigation did not become public."

If you've been pay attention, when you parse Yates' statement it is (unintentionally?) truthful at many levels.

chickelit म्हणाले...

As a side note, no one can seriously ever use the spelling “lede” again, now that this story has made people curious it about its phony origins.

Now if we could get pretentious writers to stop using the phony word “trailer” when they mean “preview”....

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

buwaya said...
I wonder.

There is another op going on,


See Lewis, Wetzel op. cit.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent म्हणाले...

“Today's BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Miles completed yesterday-Zero; Miles completed since Inauguration-- Zero. NEXT UPDATE TOMORROW.”

Quick, talk about immigration! That’ll throw those simple-minded hicks off the scent!

I love the rising hysteria of the Left.

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

Joseph Mifsud told George Papadopoulos that Russian Intelligence had thousands of Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

Then Papadopoulos was set up so that he mentioned that information to Alexander Downer and then to Stefan Halper, both of whom then reported it to Trump-hating John Brennan's CIA.

* How did Mifsud know about the e-mails?

* Why did Mifsud tell Papadopoulos about the e-mails?

* How did Downer and Halper know to ask Papadopoulos about the e-mails?

* Why didn't Papadopoulos tell anyone on the Trump campaign about the e-mails?

* Did Mifsud really tell Papadopoulos about the e-mails?

* Did Papadopoulos really tell Downer and Halper about the e-mails?

It's too bad that we do not have an honest Special Counsel to investigate this situation and report the facts to the public. Instead of an honest Special Counsel, unfortunately, we have Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

Blogger Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Speaking of deep state, where's the outrage about the missing Financial Crimes Database documents on Michael Cohen?

Perhaps the missing documents are in Jack Ruby's secret safety deposit box?

Lloyd W. Robertson म्हणाले...

Agencies of the federal government intervened in opposition to one presidential campaign, clearly hoping to help the other campaign. Generally speaking, they probably thought this was good for the country. They were also likely to have bigger careers if Hillary was elected than if she wasn't. They leaked information to the friendly media while keeping it from Congress. The almost complete absence of any evidence against Trump never stopped them from undermining him in every way they could, even after the election when he was their boss. Following on Owen's comment: leaking to the media that an investigation is underway (even with the disclaimer that nothing has been proved so far) reinforces the idea "where there's smoke, there must be some fire." On his book tour Comey says maybe there is some truth to the business about pissing in Moscow hotel rooms. "He hopes it isn't true." Nixonian, anyone?

Has Trump ever done anything that Putin would want or support? Maybe a return to U.S. sanctions against Iran will help the price of Russian oil? Does anyone think that's why Trump did what he did on Iran? Hillary spoke in favour of repealing the Magnitsky Act--something that Putin strongly and specifically wants. Donald Trump Jr. went to a meeting hoping to get dirt on Hillary; when it turned out the meeting was all about the Magnitsky Act, he lost all interest.

About all that's left is Russian oligarchs investing in Trump properties. (Interestingly enough, not mentioned so far by Mueller). In many cases, Trump didn't own the properties, he was paid a licensing fee for use of his name; he has said he didn't know if Russian oligarchs were involved or not. Deutsche Bank has been convicted of laundering money for Russians; lots of (now) wealthy people in the West have done so. Is there any actual evidence against Trump? If there were, would this disqualify him from being President, or justify CIA/FBI/Justice in mounting an investigation/political/media campaign against him?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Lewis Wetzel said...
Perhaps the missing documents are in Jack Ruby's secret safety deposit box?


Pretty sure buwaya came up with this idea first. Please check citations.

Michael K म्हणाले...

This is just one small bit of a constant ongoing stew that explains, provides a reason, for a great deal.

I've been reading a book about World War I called "The Sleepwalkers." The intrigue that went on in the ten years before the mistake that set off the World War were only a fraction of the magnitude of present day intrigue.

Money is behind most of it. People like Soros and Steyer have motives I still don't understand.

The US Navy was almost destroyed by the Fat Leonard Scandal, and the obsession with PC and female sailors.

The Indonesian thing probably has connections to the Clintons since they were heavily involved with Indonesian corruption for years.

“The long-running scandal became indelibly associated with the endemic high-level corruption in the country.”

And the Clintons were always involved.

I'm not sure Trump can get this stuff under some control but he is the only one who ever had a chance.

Drago म्हणाले...

Its undeniable Flynn was setup and Scooter Libby-ed and its also clear that all the exculpatory information was withheld from Flynns lawyers AND LLR Chucks beloved lefties maneuvered the case to corrupt FISA judge Contreras who was later forcibly recused.

And we havent even begun to discuss the implications of LLR Chucks beloved dems giving LLR Chucks beloved democrat oppo research firms complete access to ALL raw FISA 702 intercept data which provided the basis of the info pushed to Steele to help "launder" the hoax dossier content.

Democrats spying on everyone they want for whatever reason and weaponizing that info.

Or, as LLR Chuck would say, just another great day...

Amadeus 48 म्हणाले...

I just realized that ARM, Inga, and Toothless are all the same person, sitting in a shack somewhere in Eastern Ukraine.

rehajm म्हणाले...

So that’s why they played The Rolling Stones at his rallies!

buwaya म्हणाले...

They do indeed go to the same cocktail parties.

As for instance Leonardo DiCaprios bash in St. Tropez, implicated as he and his production company were in laundering some of the funds abstracted from 1MDB.

Goodness knows how many scams are ongoing among the guests at such a party, how many pies each reveler has a finger in. What you can be sure of is that the US Government is a silent partner in every case, with the role of turning a blind eye unless forced to take notice. Which is why it is so important, personally, to a great number of players of these games, that the right people run the US government.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

A cite for ARM:

Lichtblau, Eric and Myers, Steven Lee. "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia." Nov. 1, 2016. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html.


Intelligence officials have said in interviews over the last six weeks that apparent connections between some of Mr. Trump’s aides and Moscow originally compelled them to open a broad investigation into possible links between the Russian government and the Republican presidential candidate. Still, they have said that Mr. Trump himself has not become a target. And no evidence has emerged that would link him or anyone else in his business or political circle directly to Russia’s election operations.

Chuck म्हणाले...

Michael K said...
...

Flynn was an op by Yates and Obama to damage Trump's transition. He will be exonerated , perhaps as early as next week in the OIG report.


Do you suppose that Flynn's "exoneration" is going to occur before, or after, he is sentenced?

JPS म्हणाले...

BCARM:

"It's almost as if the outrage here is driven by trivial partisanship rather than a genuine concern for our country."

You really want to level that charge? OK, try this. Imagine for a moment that in the late days of the Bush administration, some senior national security / DOJ officials were alarmed at the rise of Obama. Some of them don't trust him because of his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright. Others were alarmed at the connections to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Someone else had the tape of his remarks at the Rashid Khalidi celebration, provided by a sympathetic journalist. Someone else got hold of his author bio, in theory supplied by him, stating that he was born in Kenya.

Now these officials, they're staunch McCain supporters, they can't believe he's not winning a hundred million to nothing, but that has nothing to do with their seeing Obama as a genuine threat, a sort of Manchurian Candidate fielded by sinister anti-American forces. No, no, they just love their country, they've devoted their adult lives to protecting it, and they're concerned that there's a real threat here. Politics doesn't even enter into it. So they act toward the Obama campaign, and later the incoming Obama administration, exactly as these officials have toward the Trump people.

And oh, by the way, they coordinate with the White House. And they claim national security as a reason not to come clean, because it's bad for national security if what they did comes out. People might lose trust in their institutions....

You'd be good with all that, right? You'd be calling out liberals for daring to question these officials' disinterested and totally apolitical stewardship of the security of this country?

Michael K म्हणाले...

Good summary Lloyd Robertson.

The NYT story is obviously a news dump before the weekend to head off the real story of the OIG report. IT is supposed to be previewed tomorrow so principals can comment. Then, I expect, it will be made public next week.

The left will spend the next week furiously spinning.

ARM, who sounds like a high school union teacher, is getting his marching orders already although they do seem to have been late this morning.

rehajm म्हणाले...

The story is going down like a lede zeppelin. By the way, which one’s twink?

Well done.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Do you suppose that Flynn's "exoneration" is going to occur before, or after, he is sentenced?

Why do you think his "sentencing" keeps being put off ?

Come on, chuck, you know better.

Drago म्हणाले...

Its good that Chucks mask is completely off now.

His "Dept of Black People" was the cherry on top.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

How can we trust your reporting?

@Althouse, what in the name of the seven mad gods that rule the sea* made you ever think you could?

_________
* From a short story by Stephen Crane.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
"It's all over for the deep staters. Yowls at the moon over the vast incompetence of the empty headed orange hued fraud. A witless pawn of the GOPe and now the neocons"

A little early to be hitting the bottle isn't it.
What is it? You in the mornings and ritmo at night?
Your concern over the economy is just precious. You were peeing in your pants with joy over Obama doubling the debt.

Drago म्हणाले...

Michael k: "Come on, chuck, you know better."

Of course he knows better.

But dem/lefty talking points are what they are and Chuck is here to advance those talking points..from a "republican" (wink wink) perspective

buwaya म्हणाले...

We are seeing moves on just one board of a multi-layered chess game.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

Mueller might have a Russian problem. There’s a guy he asked to fund an FBI project who could be linked to Iran.

This thing they’re hiding and targeting Trump for, is to cover their asses. Stop watching the right hand, start watching the left.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

I suggest to start reading Rantburg. The CIA and FBI are out of control.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Lede is a noun specific to news stories. Its spelling persists because it's useful. You can also bury lead (Pb). Disambiguation.

madAsHell म्हणाले...

These are incompetent, silly people,

No kidding! All these Ivy league types, but no one had the sense to say "Hey, maybe this isn't a good idea."

Michael K म्हणाले...

I donb;t have to read that NYT story because Mollie Hemingway has done it for me.

As Sean Davis wrote, “The most amazing aspect about this article is how blasé it is about the fact that the Obama admin was actively spying on four affiliates of a rival political campaign weeks before an election.”

The story says the FBI was worried that if it came out they were spying on Trump campaign it would “only reinforce his claims that the election was being rigged against him.” It is easy to understand how learning that the FBI was spying on one’s presidential campaign might reinforce claims of election-rigging.


Gee, what else have we learned ?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Michael K said...
Flynn was an op by Yates and Obama to damage Trump's transition.


Definitive proof.

Unknown म्हणाले...

Oh my. "MoveOn.org"? Good for Thee but not for me. Every mention of T read by anyone flips that identity voter. We’ve long loved an underdog who's putting it to the man. We're about to see the Largest mass wasting in History. Search Gingrich, Trumpism on YouTube. For why.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

The media want it to be true, because their corrupt candidate lost.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

Mollie Hemingway's article is really great. Her Tweeting on this topic has been outstanding, too. It's a real shame the TrueCon/NeverTrump crowd is so down on the Federalist writers--those writers have really been doing outstanding work.

DanTheMan म्हणाले...

>A witless pawn

Witless, billionaire pawn who got himself elected President of the United States.


Jaq म्हणाले...

A wise man once said that you have to fight your war with the army you've got, Trump fights, for all his flaws. Anybody else would have caved to the Democratic machine by now.

People who uncritically accept everything written in obviously partisan media like the New York Times don't even realize that there is a war on for freedom of expression and the rule of law dispassionately applied.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

The media need it to be true otherwise they’ll proverbially hang alongside them for protecting them.

Michael K म्हणाले...

ARM is back to desperate.

This New York Times story may have been designed to inoculate the FBI against revelations coming out of the inspector general report, but the net result was to affirm the fears of many Americans who are worried that the U.S. government’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies abused their powers to surveil and target Americans simply for their political views and affiliations. The gathered information has been leaked to media for years, leading to damaged reputations, and the launch of limitless probes, but not any reason to believe that Trump colluded with Russia to steal an election.

Mark Felt was not the first FBI figure to spy on American presidents but he might have been the first to use it to run a coup de etat.

Not the last to try, though.

ARM why lie about the Flynn story ?

Drago म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Seeing Red म्हणाले...

Midterms are coming. They can’t afford to make more deplorables.

chickelit म्हणाले...

@rhhardin: The English band Led Zeppelin changed the spelling of their name so that people wouldn’t mispronounce it as “lede”.

My objection to the journalistic jargon “lede” is that it makes people believe that something besides the “lead” is getting buried. Since journalists are in the business of informing us, I think they should stick with the traditional spelling, linotypes be damned.

Drago म्हणाले...

You know, just a bit more subtlety and LLR Chuck might have pulled off his little schtick.

But when your passion runs that hot for
leftist causes, leftist politicians and leftist "journalists" it becomes nearly impossible to stay in character all the time.

Eh Chuck?

LOL

Jaq म्हणाले...

Give 'em Hell, Donnie!

Drago म्हणाले...

Michael K: "ARM why lie about the Flynn story ?"

ARM and Chuck both know that the dems weaponized the entire federal govt and agencies as well as many state governments and agencies against domestic political opponents as if this were East Germany.

Team Dem needs all hands on deck and ARM and Chuck are simply the first to answer that call this morning.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

Think Jake Tapper et al. will run any corrections to their months-long snarky assertions that anyone claiming the Obama admin was spying on the Trump campaign was a nutso cukoo bird? Remember all the wonderful snark--the tongue clucking and frowny faces? The sarcastic chyrons!
Yeah, I bet they'll be walking those back reeeeal soon.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

The weird thing is Chuck says that he voted for Trump. I didn't vote for Trump.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Lede is the traditional spelling, once it comes out to be useful.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

The magic e makes the vowel say its own name.

Drago म्हणाले...

If I were Michael Horowitz and have grandkids, I would be especially concerned at this point about LLR Chuck and/or another Hodgkinson thinking about launching rumor or physical attacks against those children...

Drago म्हणाले...

HoodlumDoodlum: "Think Jake Tapper et al. will run any correction..."

Uh oh.

Now you've done it.

There is no way #StrongCNNDefender Chuck will allow you to besmirch the "journalstic integrity" of Mr Handgun Control Inc/LeftyDem Jake Tapper without a fight.

LLR Chucks need to defend CNN at all costs is something that is almost...erotic..at this point...

Hagar म्हणाले...

I see that hundreds of billions of dollars in Boeing and Airbus contracts are at stake if the Trump administration reimposes sanctions on Iran, and a company has been formed in London to contract for developing Iranian oilfields.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Do you suppose that Flynn's "exoneration" is going to occur before, or after, he is sentenced?

I choose C, "in lieu of sentencing."

Original Mike म्हणाले...

”This New York Times story may have been designed to inoculate the FBI against revelations coming out of the inspector general report,”

But the imminent IG report is on Hillary’s emails, not Trump and Russia.

Jaq म्हणाले...

No checks, balances, or legal restraints are needed for adherents of the One True Faith, liberalism. That's why our denizen trolls are mystified by concern over this.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

When we say the US government learned something about some foreign country from "an intelligence source" we mean a spy. When we say the US government placed "an informant" in this or that terrorist organization we mean a spy.

Here's the Media peddling the official line from Obama admin-era people desperately trying to get their spin out ahead of the official investigation results...and they can't avoid admitting that the Obama admin spied on the Trump campaign.

"Oh, of course they did, it was an active investigation!" LifeLongRepublicans cry out. But wait--haven't those same people been saying for MONTHS now that any assertion of that type of spying/investigation early in the Trump campaign was just false and reckless, that the real investigation into collusion didn't start until much much later as a result of some inciting event (which has changed from Papadopolous' drunken boasting to the Steele dossier and back again, etc)??

After denying it for so long it's fucking hilarious for the same people to now say "yeah, we knew this all along, old news, MoveOn.Org, nothing to see here" and expect us to buy it. Nice try, assholes.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Hagar, a comment about capitalists selling their hangman the rope comes to mind.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Drago, it is so obvious that Flynn was a victim of a perjury trap that didn't even work, according to the version now out there.

The administration was just setting up the transition and Flynn was to be National Security Advisor.

The FBI called and wanted a meeting. Flynn assumed it was a liaison meeting to set up the relations with the new administration.

He did not know it was to be an interview and did not even think of having a lawyer.

Instead, he was apparently quizzed about an intercepted phone call with the Russian ambassador.

The notes now revealed said he did not lie about anything. Why he told Pence he had misrepresented something is still a mystery.

Yates told the DoJ to go ahead and charge him with lying to a federal agent even though the an]gents, one of whom was Strzok, said he had not lied.

I expect that will be a bullet point in Horowitz's report.

ARM is out there with the DNC's riposte with the rooster crow.

Henry म्हणाले...

From Hemingway: The bureau says Trump’s top foreign policy advisor and future national security advisor — a published critic of Russia — was surveiled because he spoke at an event in Russia sponsored by Russia Today, a government-sponsored media outlet.

If that is the case, then the FBI has granted itself cause to open surveillance on a large number of U.S. citizens. Are you now, or have you ever been, a contributor to Russia Today?"

Here are some journalists who have shows on Russia Today America:

Chris Hedges, Thom Hartmann, Larry King, Ed Schultz, not to mention all their guests.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Drago said...
the dems weaponized the entire federal govt and agencies as well as many state governments and agencies against domestic political opponents as if this were East Germany.


A VAST LEFT-WING CONSPIRACY

robother म्हणाले...

Or, to read the negative pregnant in Sally Yates: you DO take actions that will necessarily influence an election.

buwaya म्हणाले...

From the mouths of despotic Muslim extremist politicians sometimes comes wisdom.
People aren't paying enough attention to the quite shocking Malaysian election.

Mahathir Mohammed, 92 years old, is again PM of Malaysia, because of the consequences of the global "deep state" game-playing in the 1MDB scandal. He is credited for saving Malaysia from the worst of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, by bucking the IMF and the international bankers. Thats why his people brought him back.

Its easier to see things of this sort clearly in a smaller, simpler place like Malaysia. And, important to note, one with a useful, informative press, regardless of many cases of government interference in it. Malaysians know more about their politics, more deeply, than Americans do about theirs. There is much less smoke and fog.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Tell us what's in your links, ARM, and why we should believe it, otherwise, your just an ugly whore at a mining camp who gets attention because you are all we've got.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Original Mike said...
But the imminent IG report is on Hillary’s emails, not Trump and Russia.


Ruh Roh!

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"'You do not take actions that will unnecessarily impact an election,' Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy attorney general, said in an interview."

Details like that just show them for the scum they are.

Their whole purpose was to "impact an election." Except they came up empty. When the wrong candidate won, they had to scramble to justify their nefarious scheming after the fact. Which Yates, Comey, et al. proceeded to do, no doubt with O's blessing (in the "unmasking," at least). Then someone hit on the idea to trigger a Special Counsel investigation that would kill two birds with one millstone: undermine Trump in office and retroactively legitimate the deep-state operation against the campaign of a major party candidate. Perfect!

The American establishment going up agains the challenger: what more could the Russians have wished? The Russia angle remains odd in any case: Hill and Bill had far closer ties to the Russians, and got more money from them more recently, than Trump; the oppo research firm she picked was also representing Putin and his buddies to overturn an American law; and Fusion GPS itself colluded with Russian officials to create the anti-Trump smear. Just the known facts suggest some coordination between Dems/deep staters and the Russians.

As someone asked above: who suggested to Hill and the DNC to contract Fusion, and who then steered Fusion to Steele?

Big Mike म्हणाले...

My own take is that top FBI and other top intelligence community officials were planning to leak the investigation as an "October surprise" but were stopped by more politically savvy people, possibly including Yates, because if Trump lost -- and he was expected to! -- then when the investigation turned up nothing -- as it always was going to, since the whole thing was a frame from start to finish -- then it would create problems for President Hillary as large portions of the voting public would claim that she won by using the FBI to cheat. The politically savvy folks told them to cool their jets and let Hillary win all by herself, and keep the bogus investigation for the 2% chance that Trump does pull it out.

Nonapod म्हणाले...

This whole thing is an embarassment. If you're going to use the most powerful nation in the world's intelligence apparatus (as well as UK intelligence) against your political opponents, one may imagine an air tight setup job that is beyond reproach. But instead we seem to get the spycraft equivilency of the keystone cops.

Of course it's both predictable and pathetic that we have people with so much power who have no ethical problem with weaponizing US intelligence against a presidential candidate. But it's also depressing and little scary when you realize that all the money and resources yields this level of incompetence. If they can't get this right, how are they any better at... you know... their actual jobs of protecting the nation.

buwaya म्हणाले...

It is indeed a vast left-wing conspiracy.
It exists.
Nowhere more so than in education, where it is overt, overbearing, and iron-bound.
And it is a deliberately engineered state of affairs.

Now, take that, and look elsewhere. Its interesting what you will find, it you choose to notice things.

Chuck म्हणाले...

Lewis Wetzel said...
The weird thing is Chuck says that he voted for Trump. I didn't vote for Trump.


What is so weird? I never vote Democratic; I deeply feared and loathed the notion of Justice Scalia being replaced by a Clinton-nominated judge. There are basically no core Democratic-party notions that I have ever supported.

Donald Trump, despite being a world-class asshole, and a liar, and an amoral disgrace, would avoid most of the worst of Democratic policies. Addition by subtraction, as it were. He is the non-Clinton president. And hopefully, Trump's personal failings will plague the nation for just one term.

All of that seems so normal to me; so positively not-weird. I'm not far left, or far right. I'm loyal to my mainstream political party. I realize that others might have a different view, which is fine. But it isn't "weird," at all.

I think that there are lots of Democrats, who hate other Democrats. And there are definitely lots of Republicans, who hate some Republicans. Sean Hannity hates most Republicans as far as I can tell. And with Jonah Goldberg, Steve Hayes, George Will and Bill Kristol, there are one or two Republicans that they hate, for sure.


M Jordan म्हणाले...

Wait a second ... did David Corn write a book that exposes Brennan and company? I am shocked (no sarc). Really.

Jaq म्हणाले...

I have tried to play your role on liberal sites, ARM, never indulging in name calling, always trying my best to be sincere, and yet uniformly, I get banned. What does that say about your side of they find themselves utterly unable to process heterodox points of view?

It says that you're a tribe. Chuck is the only one here who calls for banning people, your ally Chuck.

M Jordan म्हणाले...

Tim in vermont

You nailed it. The left is utterly brittle. They cannot endure counterpoint. Also, they are riding the last swell of a dying wave.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Angry TIm is back.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

ARM:

Seems like a minor complaint. And, there is no reason why news agencies shouldn't report the news.


Translation: ARM tells a retired US Constitution law professor to get over it.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

I couldn't vote for anyone I hated, Chuck. And if I did, I wouldn't go around complaining about him. Your vote had 0% chance of electing Hillary or Trump.

Vance म्हणाले...

So the FBI and the left are admitting they had spies in Trumps camp, as if he were a foreign state... and Chuck is here saying "Great! Great news! I love the Stasi! Any good Republican would love the Stasi! The Gestapo was totally misunderstood!"

I mean, I expect that from liberals. They always have loved police states and tyranny. But Chuck claims to be a Republican, so his love of FBI spying and attempting to throw an election should be mystifying.

But heck, Ann Althouse is more of a Republican these days than Chuck is. At least she is alarmed by overbearing government.

Chuck is enthusiastic for it.

Curious George म्हणाले...

Chuck said...I'm a cuck for my mainstream political party.

FIFY

Jaq म्हणाले...

I actually have tangentially been involved, through my work in network surveillance (not entirely what it sounds like) with issues involving the UK, and the UK thing makes perfect sense. There is no privacy there in any case where the government perceives a state interest. Shunting traffic through their probes, even were it domestic, would be child's play, and UK based companies have servers in the United States with monitoring capabilities.

AlbertAnonymous म्हणाले...

I wish I had a bettter timeline. I’m sure someone can point me to a good one. Seems like I’m now reading that Brennan started all this in April of 2016.

When were the Russian Bots supposedly using Facebook ads to “help Trump and hurt Hillary” ? As early as April 2016? Isn’t that the so-called Russian interference that the spy agencies claim was the impetus for making sure Trump wasn’t colluding with them?

Was trump even the nominee in April 2016?

Jaq म्हणाले...

Truth hurts, ARM, makes you angry, you seem to be the angry one. I find you amusing in your obtuse commentary. It's like how Inga's comments, in their unfathomable stupidity, are kind of fascinating. At least you don't seem that stupid, more like cynical and dishonest.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Blogger Big Mike said...”My own take is that top FBI and other top intelligence community officials were planning to leak the investigation as an "October surprise" but were stopped ...[because] ... it would create problems for President Hillary as large portions of the voting public would claim that she won by using the FBI to cheat.”. 5/17/18, 9:46 AM

I think this is right.

Rusty म्हणाले...

"ARM why lie about the Flynn story ?"
Because lies are comforting and Trump isn't a legitimate president.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

There’s a timeline buried at Rantburg. I hope with all this new info, it gets updated.

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

"Crazy Comey the Leaker" was conducting an investigation that was based on a statement of Joseph Mifsud to George Papadopoulos that Russian Intelligence had thousands of official e-mails of Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State.

If Comey really believed Mifsud's statement, then why did Comey publicly exonerate Clinton in July 2016 for her handling of her official e-mails?

The fact that Comey exonerated Clinton indicates to me that Comey did not really believe Mifsud's statement that Russian Intelligence had thousands of her e-mails.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

"This is a good argument for why everything they did was motivated by law enforcement concerns rather than politics. "

-- Except for the whole "insurance policy" tweet and discussions.

Jaq म्हणाले...

I would have gone with "Here's Johnny!"

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Tim jumps the ever reliable, "I'm rubber you're glue".

Michael K म्हणाले...

"But instead we seem to get the spycraft equivilency of the keystone cops. "

The one thing that may save us is the incompetence fo the ruling class and their funders.

Zero Hedge has some thoughts on this.

Thus, outsiders rarely muster the political power needed to over-ride these highly motivated forces of bureaucratic over-reach. For examples, we need look no further than the sickcare system, in which an outrageously costly week stay in a hospital has jumped from $10,000 to $120,000, or the Pentagon, where every new weapons system costs twice as much as the weapons it replaces (the F-35 fighter aircraft cost $110 million each, and perhaps as much as $150 million, replacing the Super Hornet F-18 E/F that cost $57 million each), and cities, which responded to the boom of the 80s and 90s by embarking on hiring sprees and limitless "sweeteners" to public labor unions and employees.

The one constant in government is failure. "If government was put in charge of deserts, there would soon be a shortage of sand."

I recently saw a video clip of a journalist who had asked 12 different government functionaries who was in charge of implementing the Obamacare website before its flawed launch and he'd received 12 different answers.

In other words, accountability had already been extinguished well before the site was even launched.


It's a pretty good summary of what we see.

Jaq म्हणाले...

You have to look at the timeline through the lens of a 95% probability of a Hillary win.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

If these guys are 'deep state' they are the worst fucking deep state on the planet. They've got shit on Trump that could change the election and they say nothing. Total losers.

Jaq म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

"They've got shit on Trump that could change the election and they say nothing."

-- They *didn't say nothing.* Just what they had was so unbelievable, the people they leaked to wouldn't run it.

Are you still THAT out of synch with facts?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

It's Watergate for corruptocrats.

Lewis Wetzel म्हणाले...

The FBI isn't just allowed to spy on people it would like to find dirt on. It has to be investigating a crime. Yet according to the Nov. 1, 2016 NY Times story, no crime was identified.

Fabi म्हणाले...

You can almost smell ARM's anger and disappointment! Hello Trump's second term, goodbye Blue Wave! Best of luck in 2024.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

The press is part of the deep state according to you guys. Still total losers.

Jaq म्हणाले...


Are you still THAT out of synch with facts?"

He carefully curates his news sources to ensure he never encounters an uncomfortable fact.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

How could the beloved Deep State criminals not let HIllary win. oh the agony!

What we need is a true voting system that cheats the voting public and hands to the corruptocrats and socialists each and every time.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

The press is an ARM to the democrat party. Everybody knows. Cats out of the bag.

Curious George म्हणाले...

ARM is flailing which probably explains our resident dullard, #IngaKnews absence. Still waiting for publish lefty talking points to cut and paste.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

"The press is part of the deep state according to you guys."

-- No. It by definition is not. Please at least understand the terms you're using and discussing on a basic level.

Chuck म्हणाले...

Lewis Wetzel said...
I couldn't vote for anyone I hated, Chuck. And if I did, I wouldn't go around complaining about him. Your vote had 0% chance of electing Hillary or Trump.


Before the 2016 election, I would have very strongly agreed that Trump had no chance of winning Michigan and that my presidential vote was meaningless.

But as it turns out, I was one of about 80,000 people whose votes swung the entire election. 80,000 (very roughly) out of more than 130,000,000 votes. So I wasn't just part of the 1% of deciding voters. I was part of the 0.06% of deciding voters!

Otto म्हणाले...

"....My confidence in the NYT is undermined....." Ann if this is an earnest statement you have to hone your discernment skills. That Madison bubble is showing.

PackerBronco म्हणाले...

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THE FBI IS THIS CORRUPT!!!"

vs.

"I can't believe the FBI is this corrupt."


To the NY Times, these are identical statements.

Matt Sablan म्हणाले...

I remember reading the Stzork comment and thinking "That's not how I remember it sounding." Misquoting someone is a fireable offense in journalism.

iowan2 म्हणाले...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
LarsPorsena said...
It didn't matter to the DeepState because Trump wasn't going to win anyway.

This is a good argument for why everything they did was motivated by law enforcement concerns rather than politics.


This is as good of place to start correcting the narrative that is about to be turned up to 11.

The mechanizations that started this whole thing, were never criminal or intel gathering investigation.
The original intent was always to lay the ground work to destroy President Trump, after he lost the election. All of CIA, State Dept, FBI, and DOJ involvement, months before the election, were designed to leave a trail of Russian ties to Russia. That is all there.
What has happened is the exculpatory evidence would never see the light of day.Buried by the all the corrupt executive level cabinet power players.

This was never intended play out in this fashion. Clinton's wife would have slowly played out all of this information, only on a wider swath, ripping open all of DJT's financial records, exposing his business secrets, gutting his ability to make deals and, in the fevered dreams of DT sweats, of Clinton's wife, push DJT, his family, business associates and every single political ally, to complete destruction.

The evidence that has come out in the last 10 days, connecting the dots, show the original intent, and shift of focus on November 9th.

The Destruction of DJT, and his supporters was originally intended as a metaphorical head on a pike, at the village gate, to any outsider, regardless of political stripe. A warning to what would happen to the next outsider that would have the hubris to infiltrate the DC Swamp.

Michael K म्हणाले...

ARM "They've got shit on Trump that could change the election and they say nothing. Total losers."

Speaking of losers, What was the "shit" they got on Trump ?

Do you need an intervention, ARM ?

AlbertAnonymous म्हणाले...

But the publicly stated reason for Russia Russia Russia was that some Russian Bots bought up ads to try and influence the election. Obama knew about it and kicked out some diplomats and told Putin to “knock it off”. And since that happened we now have to check and see if there was Collusion between Rilussia and the Trump team.

But all this trump investigation, we are now told, started no later than April of 2016. Before Trump was the Nominee. Was it also before the Russian Bot BS? In which case, they started before they knew anything. F’ers.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...
The press is an ARM to the democrat party. Everybody knows. Cats out of the bag.

Blogger Matthew Sablan said...
-- No. It by definition is not. Please at least understand the terms you're using and discussing on a basic level.


Mathew taking out the whip to poor Crazy April.

Jaq म्हणाले...

All you have to do to confirm that the press was an extension of the HRC campaign was to read the admittedly authentic emails from the DNC. But it's easier to maintain your beliefs by filtering out confirmed facts that argue against it.

But yes, they are pathetic losers, hothouse flowers afraid to leave the greenhouse into a world where they hear counters to their arguments. But you go ahead and believe the protestations of innocence from the WaPo and NYT despite the fact that the evidence is all out there, including the Times hiring a writer who submitted an article to the Hillary campaign with the proviso that they should not tell anybody what a "hack" he was.

AZ Bob म्हणाले...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at the morning driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas...


5/17/18, 7:48 AM

I believe it is "And I howled at my Mama in the driving rain."

But you never know with Mick Jagger and his habit of having his vocals buried in the mix.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

iowan2 said...
The original intent was always to lay the ground work to destroy President Trump, after he lost the election.


Wouldn't that be 'failed candidate Trump'. And, wouldn't that be kind of pointless.

Jaq म्हणाले...

By definition, LOL. Are you sure you want to go full r*tard, ARM?

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

You can tell exactly how sincere LifeLongRepublicans are in their belief that major collusion-related crimes occurred by how much they crow about Trump-affiliated people being charged with minor process crimes.

Flynn's guilty, he plead, he's a criminal! Of traitorous action, colluding with an enemy of the US, betraying his country, or any of the other horseshit the Media keeps saying Trump & Co. all did? No, no, nothing like that, just of lying to the FBI. Oh and the case for even that is weaker every time you turn around and the prosecution has put off final sentencing/recommendation 2 or 3 times now which is usually a bad sign for them. But hey, guilty!

NPR lead with "19 Indictments" and repeated that several times this morning. 3 of those are for Russian companies and 1 of those 3 is actually looking pretty bad for Mueller (the company is actually going to contest the charges & looks like Mueller never thought anyone would). 5 of them are for Trump-affiliated people and there have been 3 guilty pleas on those...but all of them are for minor process shit and none go directly to either criminal "collusion" nor back to Trump. But 19's such a big impressive number!

If you really think dark, treasonous, nefarious criminal things went on and that Trump & his people are as evil & stupid as you say then you ought to be pissed off that a year later (and nearly 2 years into "official" investigations of one sort or another) this pathetic total is all you have.

Jaq म्हणाले...

What was Watergate about? How many states did Nixon win? Pointless doesn't enter in to it.

Bay Area Guy म्हणाले...

Thank you, Chuck, for voting for Trump in Michigan. That helped him squeak by to win the Presidency. Much obliged.

On behalf of my fellow Trumpists, who believe, on substance, that Trump has done a swell job, we express our appreciation to you.

Look forward to your support in 2020!

ps Trump should fire Sessions when this is done and appoint Horowitz as the next AG. The guy is a battering ram.

Fabi म्हणाले...

"Before the 2016 election, I would have very strongly agreed that Trump had no chance of winning Michigan and that my presidential vote was meaningless."

No, what you said was you were from Michigan and there was NO WAY that Trump could win there.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

If we are going to have a deep state I want a competent one, not one that leaves some fat fool furiously thrashing around fucking my fuel costs.

Brent crude oil tops $80

Jaq म्हणाले...

I think that ARM is a Trump troll, bringing the weakest arguments as an inoculation to strengthen our support for Trump.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

But you liked Obama and his goal of higher energy costs.

It's for the children, Arm.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

AZ Bob said...I believe it is "And I howled at my Mama in the driving rain."

But you never know with Mick Jagger and his habit of having his vocals buried in the mix.


There's a scene early in the Wire where a rookie cop, a white guy (Prezbo), impresses the other detectives by understanding and correctly interpreting the inner-city Baltimore slang/patois of the drug dealers the cops intercept. The other detectives ask him to explain exactly how he's so good at that, and he says "Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields / Sold in the market down in New Orleans" and explains that he listened to the Stones over and over and developed his talents that way.
Good scene, good show. Couldn't find a clip for that one, sorry.

Discussed here.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan म्हणाले...

tim in vermont said...
What was Watergate about?


A break-in by five men at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972, and President Richard Nixon's administration's subsequent attempt to cover up its involvement?

Fabi म्हणाले...

Meltdown day for ARM. You can do it little man!

Jaq म्हणाले...

Gas should be $10 a gallon, Obama's energy advisor. Hillary opposed pipelines and fracking, both make us less dependent on her patron, Gazprom. How did selling low on the stock market work out for you?

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

The Destruction of DJT, and his supporters was originally intended as a metaphorical head on a pike, at the village gate, to any outsider, regardless of political stripe. A warning to what would happen to the next outsider that would have the hubris to infiltrate the DC Swamp.


BINGO!

They do it every day.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Right, he broke in, even though the election was in the bag. But I guess that the point of bringing that up escapes someone determined not to see it.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

As someone once said, this isn't who we are.

You don't sic the CIA, the FBI and use supposedly the special relationship Britain in a presidential campaign.

This is a NO-NO.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Look how they threw D'souza in jail on a pretext for making an anti-Hillary film.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

Watergate was about someone ho was pissed off about being passed over for a promotion.


So what does the Great Bernstein have to say about this little brouhaha?

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