Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

One 30-second phone call from Trump and it could be public in 10 minutes. Any of the outraged Congressmen could legally read it from the floor of Congress with no consequences.

That is certainly what I believed to be the case, but I heard an R rep say that the proper procedure would be for there to be an Intel Com. meeting. If a majority of the Com. votes to release the memo, then the President has five days to sign his agreement. Something about having the two elected branches involved in the process.

As far as reading it from the floor, I've always heard that that would be doable.

Alternatively, one could give it to Diane Feinstein. That would get into the public sphere within hours.

[Da Geezer]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the California AG coming out and saying that there will be potential jail time and heavy fines if a private citizen assists federal agents in the state (I'm assuming he just means ICE).

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/19/california-ag-will-prosecute-employers-who-violate-sanctuary-laws.html

[Kapture1]

The 'shocking memo' that will result in numerous resignations across the FBI, CIA, NSA, NASA, and the Elks Lodge, is a 4-page document exclusively written by Devin Nunes which details 'shocking' abuse.

One 30-second phone call from Trump and it could be public in 10 minutes. Any of the outraged Congressmen could legally read it from the floor of Congress with no consequences.

Why doesn't Trump take action, even ignoring the pleas from his own son? Why don't Congressman Jordan or Meadows storm down to the microphone and begin exposing the evidence that'll make Watergate seem like child's play?

Kapture has no good answer to those questions. Just the same, tired memes.

Who knows. Im pulling for him to read the entire thing during the State of the Union address. BTFO out the left and deep state infront of the entire world.

Not likely. It will be released. The dems can worry about whats in there a bit longer, totally fine. If its as bad as i think it will be, the Russian investigation is over, and the dems will have to stick to body shamming.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Who knows. Im pulling for him to read the entire thing during the State of the Union address. BTFO out the left and deep state infront of the entire world.

Not likely. It will be released. The dems can worry about whats in there a bit longer, totally fine. If its as bad as i think it will be, the Russian investigation is over, and the dems will have to stick to body shamming.

lol...it's a 4 page memo written by Devin Nunes. That alone isn't going to force mass resignations, get Mueller fired, have Manafort/Flynn pardoned, yadda yadda. Of the Republicans on the Intel Committee who have seen BOTH the memo and information its based upon, they are all urging caution.

Peter King (R-NY), Mike Conaway (R-TX), and Chris Stewart (R-UT) are all Intel Committee members and are all quoted in this piece that they don't want a full version of the memo released. Nunes himself isn't calling for its release.

Expect to be disappointed.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/19/house-republicans-clash-release-the-memo-351132

Two groups are being most hysterical over this memo...the most slavishly loyal Trump allies in Congress who promise the public that Trump will have an 80% approval rating once the memo is released, and Freedom Caucus folks who may have used this as a last-ditch effort to sway Trump into not reathorizing FISA (but he just signed the bill yesterday).

Maybe it'll be partially released in some form, eventually. But no, a highly-redacted 4-page document that's merely one-Congressman's personal investigation summary is not going to be a 'bombshell'.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Here's a good summary of the options available to release the memo and all the underlying evidence and documentation

https://theintercept.com/2018/01/19/republicans-have-four-easy-ways-to-releasethememo-and-the-evidence-for-it-not-doing-so-will-prove-them-to-be-shameless-frauds/

Under no circumstances can Democrats stand in the way of its release. The power to make the memo & evidence public lies entirely within the hands of Republicans in Congress and President Trump.

But as Greenwald/Schwartz write, here's what's possibly going on with the Republicans:

On the other hand, if the GOP’s claims are false or significantly misleading – if they are, with the deepest cynicism imaginable, simply using these crucial issues to whip up their base or discredit the Mueller investigation, or exaggerating or making claims that lack any evidentiary support, or trying to have the best of all worlds by making explosive claims about the memo but never having to prove their truth — then they will either not release the memo or they will release it without any supporting documentation, making it impossible for Americans to judge its accuracy for themselves.

[Kapture1]

Jesus i never thought the Dems would put CHIP at risk for Illegal immigrants yet here we are

[Dr. Strangelove]

Why didn't the R's create a separate stand-alone bill for CHIP they way they been asked to for months?

Oh right, so they could say "Jesus i never thought the Dems would put CHIP at risk for Illegal immigrants yet here we are" during CR negotiations.

Both sides are playing politics. C'mon.

[Kapture1]

CHIP expired yesterday. DACA is good till March. There would be another CR in Feb for the Dems to go all in for illegals. They picked a shit time

[Kapture1]

Lets see what Chuck and Nancy said back in 2013 shall we?



Democrats warning that Republicans are to be blamed in a government shutdown over refusing to give in to liberal immigration demands gave a much different argument in the 2013 shutdown when they dubbed GOP leaders “legislative arsonists” for demanding Obamacare changes in exchange for keeping the government open.

“The basic line is: No matter how strongly one feels about an issue, you shouldn’t hold millions of people hostage. That’s what the other side is doing. That’s wrong and we can’t give in to that,”*said Sen. Chuck Schumer.

“I call them*'legislative arsonists,'” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. “They're there to burn down what we should be building up in terms of investments and education and scientific research, and all that it is that makes our country great and competitive,” she added.

In 2013, Republicans sought changes to Obamacare in the shutdown fight and were accused of hurting people by refusing to budge during the 16-day closure. In the 2018 shutdown fight, Democrats are seeking protection for some 700,000 illegal immigrants granted protection by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Schumer, the Senate minority leader, summed up the arguments in both battles nicely in this 2013 quote that also previewed the current fight, telling ABC:

“[Former House] Speaker [John] Boehner comes in and he says, basically, it’s sorta like this. Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says ‘Let’s negotiate over the price of your house.’ You know, we could do the same thing on immigration. We believe strongly in immigration reform. We could say, ‘We’re shutting down the government, we’re not gonna raise the debt ceiling, until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos.”

Pelosi called the 2013 GOP bid an “unthinkable tactic.” She told ABC, “I join the American people in their disgust in what happened in terms of the shutdown of government. That’s an unthinkable tactic to use in a political debate.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee at the time, ripped the GOP as “unhinged” during the shutdown.

And even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a leading challenger to President Trump in the 2020 election, got in on the fight.

In a*comment that has 2018 overtones,*he said, “Our Republican friends in the House are trying to annul the election that took place last November. Some of them were shocked that Obama won and that he won by 5 million votes.”

He added, “Ultimately, what we are dealing with tonight is an extraordinary anti-democratic act. Every member of the Senate has strong feelings, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but when you are in the minority—they do not control the White House, they do not control the United States Senate—they cannot force the American people to give them what they want.”

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com

[Kapture1]

lol...it's a 4 page memo written by Devin Nunes. That alone isn't going to force mass resignations, get Mueller fired, have Manafort/Flynn pardoned, yadda yadda. Of the Republicans on the Intel Committee who have seen BOTH the memo and information its based upon, they are all urging caution.

Peter King (R-NY), Mike Conaway (R-TX), and Chris Stewart (R-UT) are all Intel Committee members and are all quoted in this piece that they don't want a full version of the memo released. Nunes himself isn't calling for its release.

Expect to be disappointed.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/19/house-republicans-clash-release-the-memo-351132

Two groups are being most hysterical over this memo...the most slavishly loyal Trump allies in Congress who promise the public that Trump will have an 80% approval rating once the memo is released, and Freedom Caucus folks who may have used this as a last-ditch effort to sway Trump into not reathorizing FISA (but he just signed the bill yesterday).

Maybe it'll be partially released in some form, eventually. But no, a highly-redacted 4-page document that's merely one-Congressman's personal investigation summary is not going to be a 'bombshell'.

It's not just a memo, it's all based on and backed up by source documents.

It's rather funny that of all the House members that have gone into the secure room and read the memo, not one single democrat, yet they are working hard to discredit it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's not just a memo, it's all based on and backed up by source documents.

It's rather funny that of all the House members that have gone into the secure room and read the memo, not one single democrat, yet they are working hard to discredit it.

If they just release the memo, without the source documents it is based upon, then that will be close to worthless. That's what I've been saying and what Greenwald/Schwartz have been arguing. Most of the people screaming loudest about this have seen JUST the memo. They haven't seen the underlying information to know if the memo cherry-picks or is accurate. That's why even the Republicans on the Intel Committee are saying "whoa, slow down, releasing the memo only could be misleading and releasing ALL the information could be dangerous".

[Kapture1]

It wouldnt be close to worthless. For example we got to see the texts of people incharge of the Russia Trump investigation refrencing an insurance polity incase Trump wins. We dont know the full story of what insurance policy they are talking about, but it has resulted in the search for additional information. It helped fill in the blanks to the full picture of the people incharge of the investigation. If this memo paints an incomplete picture we can push hard for the declassification to the referenced source documents, dont you want transparency? To get to the bottom of illegal activity? I do. Ive been waiting for over a year, and have heard all sorts of unvdrified stories, published by media and spread by democrat hacks. I want the truth, and i think we are closer than ever to getting it.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I legit laughed.

[Da Geezer]

If this memo paints an incomplete picture we can push hard for the declassification to the referenced source documents, don't you want transparency? To get to the bottom of illegal activity?

The two reporters at Politico who have been breaking the news on the sundry memos say that the 4-page memo is not even 5% of what is coming in texts among FBI, DOJ, and CIA.

What you progs here are going to have to consider is do you agree that Trump was such a menace to the US that officers working for the government in a Democrat administration should be allowed to help create and use a false document to induce a FISA judge to allow intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on a political opponent with the intent of tilting the election. IF what Kap and I see developing actually happened, are you OK with that?

And what does make Trump such a threat to the US that the ends justify the means? How about that he beat 17 Republicans for the nomination in a hostile takeover of the Party. These federal g-men just knew that none of this would come to light. IF 50% of what we already know about the communications by law enforcement officers evidencing their hatred of Trump is true, then we have a problem in the upper levels of the DOJ, FBI, and CIA.

I can tell you what I believe traditional Democrats and Republicans both believe. They believe that if American citizens were wiretapped in America using warrants obtained fraudulently, that that is a bigger problem than any "sources and methods" protection that the agencies claim. They believe as I do that these memos texts and the rest of it should be opened up to the public in its entirety because there is a lot more to fear from our own government right now than there is to fear from outsiders. We can protect both, but let the sunshine in

When you put such profoundly corrupt persons as Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch in charge of the DOJ, is it really a surprise that these things happen. What is the possible justification for Loretta Lynch to meet privately with Bill Clinton?

[Dr. Strangelove]

The cons insisted the unmasking 'scandal' was going to result in jail sentences for most Obama Administration officials and wholesale purges at DOJ, the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. Now it's barely talked about. Nothing has happened. These are good stories for getting the base fired up and to encourage them to believe everything Mueller produces as lies or illegitimate.

What you progs here are going to have to consider is do you agree that Trump was such a menace to the US that officers working for the government in a Democrat administration should be allowed to help create and use a false document to induce a FISA judge to allow intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on a political opponent with the intent of tilting the election. IF what Kap and I see developing actually happened, are you OK with that?

Sadly, for you, it's not the truth to say Democrats created a 'fake document' which was the sole basis for the FISA warrant. The Dossier contains, at a minimum, a lot of truth, and we know for a fact (I believe) that it wasn't the only FISA basis.

You guys keep wanting to dance around and avoid the simple truth here: Trump could release any of these secret documents. You've come up with some excuses as to why he hasn't...Kapture said it's not 'strategic' to do it now...which makes NO sense to me. Why not end the RUssia investigation by releasing the warrant, since you guys claim that's exactly what it would do? Why would Trump possibly want this to drag on and on if he had proof in his pocket that it's all a partisan sham?

I suspect my hunch is very much correct...that the FISA application will NOT totally exonerate Trump and that it IS at least partially embarrassing for him. It's far more politically useful to keep it secret and claim to his followers that it contains proof that he's been unfairly persecuted by the 'Deep State'.