The People Versus the Deep State: FBI working as a wing of the Democrats

Everyone is talking about The Nunes memo, possibly because the bigger implications of what it reveals — something like an attempted coup. Explosive. Corruption at the highest level.

Big Claims:

Bigger than Watergate. Tip of the Iceberg. More Memos to come.

This thread covers the most interesting things I’ve read. First up, some very provocative talk. Further down, elected Reps. speaking I presume in careful legally vetted words. Lastly, some Democrat replies.  In the middle, a diversion about the role of the media — also a part of the Deep State. h/t David. Roger. Scott of the Pacific. Charles. Pat. RAH. others… Thanks.

THE RIGHT’S SPIN: Watergate X1000: What The MSM Is Hoping you Ignore About the FISA Memo,

by Lucian Wintrich:

With the release of the memo, we finally have proof that … the Clinton machine, powered by the Obama Administration, using the DNC as its main appendage, funded the creation of a false dossier, that they simultaneously leaked to the press and sold to the FBI, and then pressured top government employees to turn that into a FISA warrant, and more broadly into what the MSM refers to as the “Russia Investigation”.

Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and the DNC manufactured a completely false dossier, which led to the United States government, under the Obama administration, spying on Trump staffers. The DNC paid for the Steele dossier and then used their Obama administration contacts to say that it’s grounds for an investigation. … The information from the ongoing investigation … was then illegally leaked to the press in an attempt to steer public opinion toward the impeachment of now elected President Trump. …

These supposedly neutral government agencies acted and functioned as wings and branches of the DNC.

The Hill:  The FISA memo is a ‘deep state’ bombshell

The Nunes memo is out, and it is a stunning rebuke of the prevailing Democrat narrative on Trump-Russia collusion. It shows, beyond reasonable doubt, that extreme abuses of authority and bad faith were instrumental in getting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to approve a counterintelligence warrant that circumvents normal 4th Amendment processes for an American citizen.

This is a deeply concerning development, one for which there must be accountability at the government level, and a complete rethinking of the entire Russia collusion storyline that has news coverage for over a year.

There can no longer be any doubt — oppo research was used to weaponize the intelligence collection process on behalf of one American political party against the other during a presidential election.

It gets worse. We now know that, despite the highly dubious provenance of this dossier, senior DOJ and FBI officials never once, in three renewals of the FISA request, told the secret court about the dossier’s origins.

It defies belief and common sense that seasoned lawyers and investigators like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr would have missed the massive significance of this omission. The much more likely explanation is that they felt they could get away with it, and stopping Trump was more important than fulfilling their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Daniel Greenfield calls it a coup

A clear and simple fact emerges from the memo.

Top figures in the DOJ and the FBI, some loyal to Obama and Hillary, abused the FISA process in the hopes of influencing or reversing the results of an election by targeting their political opponents. The tool that they used for the job came from the Clinton campaign. Using America’s intelligence services to destroy and defeat a political opponent running for president is the worst possible abuse of power and an unprecedented threat to a democratic system of free, open elections.

We have been treated to frequent lectures about the independence of the DOJ and the FBI. But our country isn’t based around government institutions that are independent of oversight by elected officials. When unelected officials have more power than elected officials, that’s tyranny.

A Justice Department that acts as the Praetorian Guard for a political campaign is committing a coup and engaging in treason. The complex ways that the Steele dossier was laundered from the Clinton campaign to a FISA application is evidence of a conspiracy by both the DOJ and the Clinton campaign.

h/t Pat

For those who want the key background points, the excellent Ross McKitrick sums up the story so far in an 11 page PDF.   h/t commenter Ross (not the same Ross)

The media is part of the deep state

Things would never have got so far down the well if the media were not part of the campaign team for one side of politics. Thanks to commenter Pat for the video of Newt Gingrich speaking from a few days ago. The comments are at 4:45 and 6 minutes, but the opening comments are interesting too.

Youtube: 7mins44secs: NEWT GINGRICH FULL ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH SEAN HANNITY (1/31/2018)

4mins49secs: “The elite media is part of the deep state. The elite media group has survived by being in collusion with the senior bureaucracy, the city of Washington, the senior reporters, the senior bureaucrats, the senior lobbyists, they all hang out together, they all talk to each other, they all compare notes.”

6mins28secs: “The elite media in the United States is not neutral. They’re not referees. They’re the offensive wing of the other team. You saw this in some of the clips you had, some of which are frankly outrageously anti-Trump in a way that is almost bizarre. These are folks who are so deeply hostile to what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish that they are fully as much a part of the opposition as is Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer and that’s part of why you’re getting this unbelievably biased coverage.”…

The bottom line

What does it mean at the bare minimum? The Republican Reps are talking about the spying issue, presumably waiting for more pieces of the puzzle to pick up the more sweeping implications. This presumably is the strongest point (legally).

Rep. Jim Jordan

That’s it? Top brass at FBI/DOJ take “salacious & unverified”(your words, not mine) partisan funded dossier to get secret warrant from secret court to spy on private American on rival campaign. Doesn’t bother you? Bothers me. And more importantly, it bothers the American people.    @Jim_Jordan

FBI doesn’t tell the court that the DNC/Clinton campaign paid for that dossier. And they did that FOUR times.  @JimJordan

Representative Mark Meadows explains:

Via The Last Refuge, h/t RAH

What this issue is all about: whether the Department of Justice and FBI, under President Obama, abused their surveillance authority against American citizens and political opponents. Put another way: was the Obama DOJ weaponized to spy on the Trump campaign?

Remember, in general, the DOJ and FBI spying on American citizens should automatically be met with MAJOR skepticism. That’s what the Fourth Amendment is designed to protect against. When those American citizens are ALSO political opponents? It should raise even more red flags.

If any Department of Justice, Republican or Democrat, put their thumb on the scale for the sake of politics–it would undermine the very fabric of who we are as a nation. Americans deserve the truth, one way or the other.

Last point: If you remember anything from this news cycle, remember: your right as an American to privacy from your government spying on you is critical. It is foundational to who we are as a Republic. Never take that right for granted, no matter the political party you belong to.  (link)

Sundance at the last Refuge reminds us that the DOJ are portrayed as an independent fourth branch of government but they are not. The DOJ and FBI are part of the Executive Branch and they are accountable to congressional oversight.

Replies from the Democrats:

The Democrats claim this is only about stopping the Muller investigation.

Is there a better answer out there? Judge for yourself:

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed the release of the memo, saying it was “reckless and demonstrates an astonishing disregard for the truth.”

Democrats say the memo is a “dud” and an “outright bust” that won’t undermine the Russia probe, while some pundits have gone as far as calling it a “nothingburger”.

“Republicans have overplayed their hand, and they have created a frenzy about this memo,” Democrat senator Jackie Speier, a member of the House intelligence committee, told Politico.

“Because the person who is a person of interest here is the president of the United States and in his mind this was going to derail the investigation. It’s not going to derail the investigation.” –– The Australian

From Chiefio:

The News has Democrats claiming important information was removed from the memo in order to make it look bad. Not sure how removing information can make an existing fact look bad, but I’m sure leaks will fill that in.

Looks like someone started draining a swamp.

9.2 out of 10 based on 140 ratings

287 comments to The People Versus the Deep State: FBI working as a wing of the Democrats

  • #
    Pauly

    Of course, this latest simply adds to the disclosures, first brought to light by Project Veritas, then exposed by the email hack of the DNC server by Guccifer2.0, of the “win at all costs” behaviour of the DNC. What eventually comes from shining a bright light on the backstage machinations of US elections will only be good for democracy.

    From another perspective, it is interesting that Ross McKitrick and Steve McIntyre’s contribution, possibly borne out of their work in digging through the deception of anthropogenic global warming, is highlighting the facts and inconsistencies of the spin campaign being pushed down the public’s throat by an entirely complicit media. The term “investigative journalism” is now approaching oxymoronic status, and it would appear that individuals with almost no resources but their intellect are left to challenge the stories that are fed to us repeatedly, as if consensus in reporting makes those stories reality.

    The parallels to the campaign to push anthropogenic global warming is no coincidence. The ultimate objective of both campaigns, whether deep state or one global government courtesy of the highly effective, highly democratic (/sarc) organs of the UN, is still not obvious to me. However, driving it all must be a few people in positions of influence, with a common alignment of vested self interests. It is not for me to name what their ultimate interest is, but the driving force must be the flow of large sums of money. So as the light starts to shine on these activities, I would suggest we “follow the money” back to its source.

    On a lighter note, as Roy Spencer continues to point out, the world continues to cool. AGW believers find their own doubts growing, and I’m seeing less bombastic narratives when the northern hemisphere is blanketed under six feet of snow. All of which continues to prove how little influence mankind has on this planet, and in shaping reality.

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    • #
      Ted O’Brien.

      “The ultimate objective…is still not obvious…”

      Very true. The primary objective is clear, to destroy capitalism. But what could someone who is fabulously wealthy in a capitalist system expect to gain by destroying capitalism?

      I can’t see a logical answer to that question that doesn’t include the killing of a lot of people.

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      • #
        farmerbraun

        If there is no logical answer then surely we must look to superstition for a clue as to what could drive such actions?

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        • #
          farmerbraun

          It’s an open and shut case that the FBI was working as a wing of the Democrats.
          But the Democrats were the useful idiots working as the wing of some other body or group/cabal/what-have-you.

          (The Republicans would have done the same thing , I’m sure).

          So I want to know who was pulling the Dems strings. Who were the puppet masters?

          Follow the money, or follow the wars? Or both?

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          • #
            farmerbraun

            Only one red thumb so far on this thread , and it was awarded to farmerbraun.
            Yes!

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            None of this surprises me…the last Prez still wasnt convincingly confirmed as a US citizen, yet despite being also being what appeared to be what looked and walked like a Marxist, was still able to do what he did…..

            And other past prezs could siphon huge money off thier foundations and every time someone gets close to the truth or testifying in court, they wind up having attacks of fatal clumsiness…

            If the USA doesnt hold some sort of Nuremberg trial over thus, its finished as a country. Trump either routes a large chunk of the deep state, or resigns.

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          • #
            Unemployed Taxpayer

            farmerbraun
            I recommend this book The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger
            It gives you another take on the idea that all wars are Bankers Wars because it is bankers that fund the conflicts.

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        • #
          jorgekafkazar

          You refer, no doubt, to Satan. Until recently, I didn’t believe in a Devil, but the polarity of the US (not to mention the world) looks increasingly like an apocalyptic good-vs-evil confrontation rather than ordinary politics.

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          • #
            farmerbraun

            Actually no ; it was the superstitious belief in the inevitability of one’s “elite” status that I had in mind.
            I didn’t see elitism as being exclusive to any particular religion or race or culture. Although there are examples of all of those. It’s an irrational belief that cannot be countered by rational counter-argument.

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            • #
              Pauly

              Farmerbraun, I think the word “conceit” is more appropriate than superstition. One of my other interests over the last decade was delving into the causes of the Global Financial Crisis. The best answer I found was in the book titled “This Time is Different “ by Reinhardt and Rogoff. The conceit is that individuals believe they are smarter than all those other humans in history. But what the book shows is that human behaviour consistently follows the same path.

              The problem is not our lack of intelligence. Rather, it is those things that we believe to be true that aren’t. As an example, only 12 economists in the entire world predicted the GFC. One was Steve Keen from Australia. He points out that only one economic theory is taught world wide, and no one questions it. Yet it failed to provide either an accurate prediction of the GFC, nor any useful strategies for economic recovery once the GFC was underway. Yet despite its obvious failure, there has been no massive surge in research to replace today’s economic theory with a better one, nor any concerted effort from established schools to revise their curriculum. The concept of even raising doubts about the theory as it is taught today instead draws rapid response. Steve Keen was sacked from his academic position.

              I usually discuss this topic as a comparison to climate change belief. But it is just as applicable in this case as well. The comparisons to the Watergate scandal are already being made.

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              • #
                Ted O'Brien.

                I didn’t read a book, but I should write one. I’ll start with the most obvious.

                The Hawke government was elected in 1983. They “deregulated” the banks. Why? Prior to that time it had been the radical right wingers who called for this. Not enough space to debate the issue here.

                They then promoted Alan Bond’s activities in a bizarre fashion. Why again? The commentariat told us that it was because Bond had given the ALP $3 million. But it was too big and too bizarre for that.

                So, what was Bond doing? He was abusing the bank deregulation! And Hawke was promoting this. I never saw any commenter note the connection between the bank deregulation, Bond’s activities and Hawke’s promotion.

                And it wasn’t just Bond, he was just the front runner. Every prudent businessman knew that what they were doing had to lead to a bust. Yet three of our “big four” banks joined the fray, while the CEO of the fourth was publicly vilified for refusing to join their road to ruin.

                They got their bust in 1987, but were outsmarted, and failed to gain control.

                Then, in Australia at least, they embarked on a program of running up public debt, which continues today at the call of Al Gore through his proxy the PUP. Public debt is private capital already spent outside of private management.

                As for Steve Keen, he wasn’t so much sacked. They closed his faculty for want of enrolments. There was a change in government regulations which allowed prospective students to apply anywhere they liked, and nobody was interested in studying under a world famous professor. They all wanted the “prestige” and supposedly higher incomes that supposedly emanate from the so called “sandstone” universities.

                The University of Western Sydney must bear some of the blame there. Had they promoted this marvellous asset that they had they should have been able to build a world leading faculty. But they had no experience of having to promote their product, and missed the boat.

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              • #
                CameronH

                A couple of books to read on this are The Fatal Conceit by Frederick Hayek and The Visions of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell.

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      • #
        TedM

        But what could someone who is fabulously wealthy in a capitalist system expect to gain by destroying capitalism?”

        It makes them the head of a totalitarian socialist state.

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        • #
          James Poulos

          Yep. ‘In the land of the blind a one-eyed man is king’.

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          • #
            Russ Wood

            Odd little fact: I tried to find the source of that quote used by H G Wells as the title of the book, and what I found (at least via Google of old) was that the first mention of the quote was by HG himself!

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        • #
          Leonard Lane

          Right, TedM. Being fabulously wealthy is not enough for some people–they must have more wealth and also have political and personal power over others, is some cases they lust for power over all. Right again, “head of a totalitarian state.”

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          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Ah the ultimate Faustian deal.

            We know that even powerful people are still fooled – the Devil is cunning… he dangles the earthly trinkets of money and power, and lets human fleshly greed do the rest.

            When Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the wildeness, the Devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms ( countries/ govts) of the world if Jesus would corrupt himself and worship the Devil, instead of God.

            The take home point is the Devil cant offer Jesus what he doesnt already own….

            Jesus said you cant be Godly and do deals with the Devil at the same time….

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        • #
          graphicconception

          But what could someone who is fabulously wealthy in a capitalist system expect to gain by destroying capitalism?”

          The big problem with capitalism is that it can give rise to a middle class. If the middle class get rich enough they can start to challenge the elite and that is an issue.

          Much better to have a socialist system where all the workers are kept firmly in their place with no chance to advance.

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          • #
            Rah

            Exactly right. And that is why sometime in the next 30 years or so I suspect the PRC will become a democracy. That is IF the communists don’t start WWIII in an effort to thwart the threat to their power.

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      • #
        Duster

        Not to put too fine a point on it, the FBI’s job, or one of them, is to investigate potentially treasonous behaviour by citizens within the borders of the US, or outside them if the citizen is traveling back and forth. It really doesn’t matter if the citizen is attached to a presidential campaign or even a candidate. Treason is serious business. In this instance, there is a complaint that the FBI used an “unverified” intelligence source, but their job description calls for them to investigate that report. Even if it does come from a foreign citizen – albeit a well respected former MI6 member with an expert knowledge of Russia.

        At the same time we need to acknowledge that FBI behaviour with respect to the Clinton email fiasco contributed directly to Trump’s victory. Since the email business also ties back to Russia or Eastern Europe, that leaves us precisely where? No place good. It’s obvious that the FBI could not do much about either of the candidates’ legal issues without appearing to interfere with the election. But what they DID do benefitted Trump.

        If you examine the raft load (something like 2,000) bogus social media pages, the “object” is obvious and this entire fiasco is it. Those pages target every form of paranoia from far right to far left with an extraordinary even handedness. The page owners clearly had on interest in any specific party, or economic theory. Instead, they are targeted at destabilizing US society, encouraging social divisiveness that has been increasing since the early ’70s when personal income for most citizens became uncoupled from their productivity. The decoupling has contributed steadily and directly to gradual failures in equal opportunity, in increasing racism, in impoverished people blaming other impoverished people for their poverty.

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        • #
          JC

          While there is no doubt that the late October FBI statement (re: classified emails from Clinton discovered on Anthny Weiner’s laptop) damaged Clinton’s election chances, on reflection, the most believable explanation is that the FBI intended to withhold that information at least until after the election, From internal FBI texts, the investigators knew in late September about Weiner’s laptop having classified emails. It certainly didn’t take a month for this serious information to reach the upper management, since we know from the texts that the agents were meeting with them on a regular or even daily basis. According to then-Director Comey, they didn’t start an actual review of the emails until the day he made the announcement in late October. So, for a month, agents knew about the emails but did absolutely nothing. Then, suddenly, only a week and a half before the election, the public and Congress were told? Given the rather obviously political leanings of those inside who knew (and did nothing for a month), the most likely explanation is that the discovery leaked somehow – maybe someone inside who wasn’t a Clinton fan, or just as likely, someone who was playing both ends trying to insure a good job with the next administration – meaning Comey had to go public before we all learned that Carlos Danger had classified Clinton-generated material from the press. I cannot believe that, given the obvious political stance of the FBI management, that the email cache existence was announced to hurt Hillary. They tried to cover it up, and had to scramble at the last moment to cover up the cover up.

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          • #
            R2Dtoo

            IIRC they had to release the Weiner emails because the NYPD also had copies and refused to remain quiet. Were there not articles about this at the time?

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            • #
              Pauly

              Steven McIntyre has provided very detailed analysis of this email fiasco. This article provides his input:
              https://climateaudit.org/2016/11/04/the-destruction-of-huma-abedins-emails-on-the-clinton-server-and-their-surprise-recovery/

              He has several more that focus on the email hack, and his conclusions are that there is absolutely no definitive evidence of Russian involvement. Conversely, there is direct confirmation from Christopher Steele that he did make contact with Russian agents, who apparently were the sources for some of the information provided in the Steele dossier. One question that has yet to be asked is whether these Russian agents were paid for their information. Which then begs the question of which organisation funded that transaction: the DNC through Fusion-GPS, the Clinton Foundation through their lawyers, or the FBI through their informant payments. More threads to be pulled.

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        • #
          Mary E

          the FBI’s job, or one of them, is to investigate potentially treasonous behaviour by citizens within the borders of the US, or outside them if the citizen is traveling back and forth. It really doesn’t matter if the citizen is attached to a presidential campaign or even a candidate. Treason is serious business.

          Treason is serious, and it is very, very rare. As for mission, see the FBI’s own page – https://www.justice.gov/jmd/organization-mission-and-functions-manual-federal-bureau-investigation for what it is supposed to do. Treason is found at the link below, among other places – https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381 and is very specific,and yet “adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere” seems straightforward, until you talk to a lawyer or a federal agent (“their enemies” speaks to the enemies of the United States – not the FBI, or the President, but to the nation as a whole.)

          Here’s a quote from the FBI’s page that sums up the basic job it has:

          The mission of the FBI is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the Constitution of the United States.

          How can anyone trust the FBI to uphold the laws if they, themselves, are breaking the laws? They aren’t above the law, they have to work within the law, or you run the risk of loose cannons abusing power to further their own agendas.

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        • #
          CameronH

          What a load of rubbish. They have been spying on Trump and investigating this Russia thing for close on two years and have found nothing. They even had to use a completely dodgy “dossier” full of lies and prepared by Hillary’s campaign to get the court order to do the spying. There is also clear email and text messages from the high level FBI agents involved where they are conspiring to concoct evidence and destroy other evidence in their bid to damage Trump both before and after the election.

          With Hillary’s emails on the other hand, she clearly used an illegal private server to send and receive classified material which was then hacked and ended up who knows where. When this highly illegal behaviour came out she then set about trying to destroy any evidence on this. More illegal activity. What has now come out is that agents at the FBI, including the director, then tried to cover it up and when caught tried to make out like it was not important and Hillary would not be indicted for it. I also doubt very much that this had anything to do with Trump’s victory. Most of the useful idiots who voted for Hillary would only be watching and listening to the far left wing MSM who were all in the tank for Hillary and either, did not report this at all, or put a positive pro Hillary spin on it.

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        • #

          Spot on, Duster.
          And let’s not forget that the main thrust of the “Nunes Memo” is on the subject of the surveillance of Carter Page (Trump foreign policy advisor in 2016), who has not been charged nor arrested for anything.
          He was previously interviewed by the FBI in 2013 after having been the target of a Russian intelligence operation, the Russians having labelled him an “idiot”.
          Trump dumped him the month *before* the FBI got their FISA warrant, and the FBI have been watching him on and off ever since 2013, particularly closely in July 2016, before the Steele dossier.

          Nunes appears far less interested in Paul Manafort (Trump campaign chairman in 2016) who was the subject of a FISA warrant in 2014 (before the Steele dossier) and who was forced to resign in August 2016 (before the 2016 FISA warrant was issued). Manafort is currently under indictment on 12 criminal charges including that he acted as the undisclosed agent of a foreign power.
          Nunes also doesn’t seem to think it relevant that Rick Gates is under indictment, nor that Papadopoulos has pled guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.

          Yes, the FBI mentioned the Steele dossier in their October 2016 FISA applications – they were probably legally bound to do so – but clearly the October 2016 FISA warrants were part of a much bigger, ongoing picture, with the ball having well and truly started rolling long before Steele’s dossier came into the picture.

          The Nunes memo is a highly selective look at a few isolated facts, mostly only about Carter Page, that ignores the greater pattern of behaviour among a much larger circle of people that was being subjected to FBI investigation which has already yielded charges as well as one guilty plea.

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          • #
            Ross

            “FBI investigation which has already yielded charges as well as one guilty plea”

            Neither of those charges had anything to do with Russian collusion. Mueller has asked the Flynn’s sentencing hearing be posponed–you have to wonder why.

            This memo is not really about Page. It is about the how they went about getting the FISA warrant and laws being broken to get it.

            Page was just used as a “tool” for them to get surveillance on Trump and his team. By getting a Title 1 warrant it can be used retroactively in that they can go back over Pages activities and all those he came in contact with.

            Also you have to remember this memo is a summary of issues arising from hundreds of thousands of pages of information.

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            • #

              You sometimes have to wonder which alternate reality these people are on…

              Mueller has asked the Flynn’s sentencing hearing be posponed–you have to wonder why.

              Indeed, you would wonder why, especially seeing as Flynn has not been charged with anything, let alone convicted, and is not therefore awaiting any kind of sentencing.

              Flynn *is* under investigation by his ex-employer – the US Defence Dept. – for having lied in a security clearance renewal, having failed to fess up to having received a $45k payment from Russia…

              Paul Manafort, on the other hand, Trump campaign manager sacked by Trump in August 2016, having been the repeated target of FBI investigations since 2014, is the subject of 12 criminal charges, one of which is “failure to register as an agent of a foreign power”.

              And Rick Gates, another senior Trump Team member with a penchant for working far too closely with seriously unpleasant Russians is also now under indictment for “failure to register as an agent of a foreign power”, together with 11 other charges.

              The memo is almost entirely about Page, seeing as the Republicans are far to embarrassed to bring up the subject of Manafort, Gates who have been busted working for a foreign country which happens to be the USA’s enemy.

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              • #
                Ross

                Get up to date Craig. Here is the document lodged by Mueller and Flynn’s lawyer about the posponement.

                https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4364040/1-31-18-Flynn-Status-Report.pdf

                Basically because Flynn ran out of money to defend himself he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

                But now Flynn’s lawyers are drafting documents to get his charges dismissed.( Flynn has plenty of supporters who will help fund the lawyers now)

                You are correct about Manafort and Gates but those charges has nothing to do with election related collusion as I stated earlier. Manafort is suing the DoJ and others as is Page.

                “You sometimes have to wonder which alternate reality these people are on …” You were talking about yourself again Craig !!!

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      • #
        Roger

        @ Ted O’B I don’t think the intent is to simply destroy capitalism – too many of the major behind-the-scenes players seem to me to be wealthy individuals or those aspiring to great wealth.

        There is no doubt from Maurice Strong’s (and others’) approach through the UN that the intention is to create a global government along socialist / marxist lines – But approached from the belief that can’t or won’t happen through democracy. Hence the need to excise or bypass democracy and create institutions which function without democracy but with a sufficient veneer of ‘democracy’ that the public won’t realise they are no longer living in a democracy.

        That approach has been tested through the creation of the EU where decisions and new laws are made through the unelected and unaccountable. Those new laws are then passed seamlessly, and often silently, through nation states’ governments as if they had been made democratically. Many of those are decisions that no elected politician could get away with making and get re-elected.

        The EU founders believed that the electorate, the ‘little people’, weren’t competent to make the ‘right’ decisions and structured it accordingly.

        In the wider sense there are those in positions of power who believe that the global population must be reduced, who believe that the capitalist economic/industrial model must be replaced with another that severely restricts consumption and growth.

        In my view, and I have been expressing this for the last 15 years, we are undergoing the most dangerous attack that democracy has ever faced. The attack has been through deception, propaganda and plain dishonesty, all coordinated globally.

        It has been kept below the radar (secret) for good reason – why would you need to defend what you believe in if you don’t know or understand how it is under attack and what is intended to replace it? I see this as the gravest of threats to our way of life and that of future generations – we must maintain, recover and restore democracy where it has been already stolen (EU etc)and fight to preserve it where it still functions.

        The Left Wing alliance of socialists and marxists have been trying to subvert democracy for decades but in recent years with the seeming success of the global warming campaign they appear to believe their prize is now in sight. For the sake of our descendants we must ensure that fails and that democracy triumphs.

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          Ted O'Brien.

          Roger, for many I say the intent is simply to destroy capitalism. A great many of them lack the intelligence to see past that. And after they have succeeded they will be very disappointed to discover that their leaders are as ready to get rid of them as they were the capitalists.

          As for Left Wing Socialists and Marxists. I lump them all under the title Marxist. Their defining policy is the abolition of private management of industry and private ownership of land, including housing.

          If you had been saying this for 50 years instead of 15 you would still be right. I spent the first 45 years of my life in the confident expectation that modern communications, from radio and TV to Jumbo Jets, would save us from future wars. Then I realised, people never change. There will be more wars.

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        • #

          Since Cain and Abel, someone has been attempting to rule the entire world. Think Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Stalin , etc. Good and Evil seem to be apportioned unequally in Homo Sapiens.
          What we are witnessing, and have been for several decades, is little more than theatre. The real social engineering has been happening behind the curtain.
          In the USA, the ‘cabal’, presumably the Council on Foreign Relation and Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, among others represent the elite, who by and large act through the United Nations.
          For nearly the entire post war period, this cabal has been infiltrating the bureaucracies and agencies within all of the institutions in every country. The direction for these programs and activities is for the most part the CIA.
          In the USA, this was manifest in the CFR ‘sixteen year plan’, otherwise known as two terms of Obama and two terms of Hillary, after which the cabal would have complete and utter control of the life of every citizen. as outlined in Diane West’s “American Betrayal” and “The Death of the Grown-up”.
          What is known as “Deep State” is a collection of sympathisers to this cause in institutions such as schools, universities, churches, the military, and especially the arms of government especially the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and the BLM.
          You can visualise the essence of the plan by examining the very moves made by the current administration. Dozens of executive orders issued during the previous 8 years have been rescinded, and dozens have been issued. Regulations enabling the EPA, the BLM and the IRS to carry out activities promoting submission have been changed. Immigration is gradually becoming less chaotic.
          Of course the rank and file of the intelligence services are for the most part patriots, and have professionally and expertly executed the plan to turn the situation around. We can only hope that patriots within the Australian and Canadian bureaucracies take note and duplicate this turn around. There are many tasks yet to be accomplished.
          The behaviour of the past eight years are known as Treason and Sedition. The punishment for Treason is life imprisonment. The punishment for Sedition is death by hanging. Hence Hillary lamented in late October 2016 “We’ll all hang if we lose this election”.
          That’s my take onit, anyhow.

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        Rupert Ashford

        “the killing of a lot of people”… ah, now you’re touching a nerve. In my opinion the AGW zealots (global green movement with “Greens” parties worldwide in cahoots) have as their ultimate goal a massive global population reduction. That is the ONLY way to reverse AGW. They know they will not make an inch of political progress if they come out and state that as their ultimate goal so they are doing it by stealth and deception. And it’s controlled by the Marxists who went underground when the wall fell.

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        Tom O

        The ultimate objective? How can it NOT be clear? The ONLY purpose of AGW has been to present to the world a faked situation that shows that sovereign governments will never place the world before themselves. Thus, if the world is threatened by CO2, the ONLY thing that can confront this terrible threat is a World Government, capable of forcing people to do “what is best for GAIA.”

        You can’t understand why people of great wealth via capitalism would want to destroy capitalism? Consider that continued capitalism is a threat to their great wealth. But wealth isn’t what they crave most, for wealth gives them power, and it is the “high” they get from power that drives them towards getting more power. If it takes destroying capitalism and the nation state that allowed them to rise to the top, it doesn’t matter. Only the power to control can give them the jaded sense they desire. Imagine the self-satisfaction that might be theirs if they were “king of the world” or “the board of directors” of planet Earth! Then you will understand what drives these things.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Socialists have many times over many years, won control of organisations and even whole nations by first destroying them, then taking over the burning rubble. They genuinely believe that this is some sort of legitimate rebirthing process. It is an example of the Left’s tendency to believe that the end always justifies the means.

      Sensible people look at this with puzzled frowns, wondering how already rich and influential people could risk their own wealth and power in this way, but my belief is that they truly believe they are smart enough, and well-connected enough, to float above the destruction, able to return with their assets not only intact but increased.

      Of course, their utopian socialist vision must find a way to discount the many past failures of socialist states, but that’s easy because they are just SO MUCH CLEVERER that the others who failed. As is often said, the only type of socialism that actually works is the next one.

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      • #
        TimiBoy

        The simplest explanation is that people can have a veritable ton of intelligence, Yet lack a shred of Wisdom. Such people are very, very dangerous.

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          Annie

          Or else they lack a good moral code…

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          • #
            jorgekafkazar

            Well, the first things that present-day liberals liberate themselves from are standards, codes, morals, laws, ethics, and rules.

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            • #
              OriginalSteve

              And the wisdom of the framers of the US Constitution once again is apparent with the 2nd Ammendment of the right to bear arms.

              Logically, if the deep state manages to eviscerate Trump, the US may collapse internally. Then it will be on…

              Socialists would happily confiscate every Americans firearm, then commit another Stalin upon the USA.

              Only fools refuse to learn from history…

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    • #
      Geoff

      The people who have applied for grants to “look into global warming” should at the very least lose their jobs. Many should go to prison for [snip].

      [must always be careful with that word] ED

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      Geoff

      Government will ALWAYS look after government. Checks and balances will NEVER prevent this. A free press can expose corruption only when they are not involved in the corruption. A free press can NEVER have “friends in government”.

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      • #
        Geoff

        blob:http://video.foxnews.com/811c7f03-917b-408e-bfaf-c24ef56ef8c0

        The “Free” press were in on the corruption. They not only aided and abetted by actually directed it in some cases.

        This was all done with the approval and/or direction of the FBI, the DoJ, Hilary Clinton and the President of the United States when in office and continued when a new President was elected in order to depose an elected President by false testimony to a secret court.

        This is an attempted coup by Government to retain power to avoid information leaking out about something worse?

        Has the Democrat Party lined their election campaign via the Clinton Foundation?

        Is Australia implicated?

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          Geoff

          Did Australia help in an attempted overthrow of a sitting United States President?

          If so, did we know what were were doing or did we do it because we were ignorant?

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    • #
      Rob Scanlan

      The source is Big Brother, which is the pervayor of groupthink, the ministry of truth which propagates lies and the ministry of peace which is responsible for the fake war on Eastasia which is global warming.

      10

    • #
      Ceetee

      Ross McKitrick – what a legendary man. Do not try and sell a turd as a coprolite to this man. Respect.

      10

    • #
      Ceetee

      Words that come to mind al la Nancy Pelosi….”Take it to the bank, Trump won’t win” If you saw her face when she said that you’d go Hmmm…..What we are about to find out is just how awesome USA democracy is. Can it self correct, is the system so compromised that dodgy leftist lawyers can pervert it, buy and sell it, s*** on it….Never liked Trump that much, Too much ego. Now I love him, now I get him. Don’t give a rats about who he slept with, how he did it #Metoo can go and [SNIP] themselves. Big girls look after themselves and silly boys usually see their [snip “back-ends”] when strong women stand in front of them. This is how the wold works when you are not a snowflake. A-frakking men”!!

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  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    How people react, and when they react, is often more important that what their reaction says,

    Democrats say the memo [which “exposes” the conspiracy and collusion within the DoJ and FBI] is a “dud” and an “outright bust” that won’t undermine the Russia probe

    The whole Russia farrago appears to have been debunked, and was almost certainly illegal. But it is all they have to cling to, so they will keep on digging until they get out of the hole.

    I hope all you folks have invested in popcorn futures.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      They would say that, wouldn’t they?

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      Mary E

      This is what I don’t understand, having read the memo (quote is from the Politico link, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/02/democrats-nunes-memo-trump-mueller-389011)

      “This memo seems to do more to confirm the legitimacy of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign than to undermine it,” Murphy said in a statement.

      The document revealed that the FBI’s probe began not with the controversial dossier — financed by Democrats and commissioned by former British intelligence official Christopher Steele — but with a tip from Australian officials who had received intelligence from Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos during a random April 2016 encounter. It also indicated that no surveillance warrants were issued for Page until after he left the Trump campaign. And it left unchallenged much of the substance of the Steele Dossier.”

      There is nothing in the Nunes memo that mentions the “Australian Connection.” The FBI’s own words and treatment of Steele show they found little to no substance in the dossier. I have no clue how accurate any of the reporting on Papadopoulos is – the “leaks” and lead article are too reminiscent of the way the Steele Dossier was leaked for my taste – is there any proof of the meeting and wording as reported? I haven’t seen much aside from media reporting – would like to know if a recording of the conversation was made, and if the Aussie gentleman is connected to the Clintons or other players on the offense. Politics is politics, until it becomes criminal, or tyranny.

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        There is nothing in the Nunes memo that mentions the “Australian Connection”.

        So in this intricate web, we at least have something concrete, upon which to hang our collective hat, which is that nobody seems to know who these mysterious “Australian Officials” might have been; nor where their information, or lack thereof, came from, or didn’t, as the case may be.

        I will categorically state that I was not a party to any conversation involving Mr Papadopoulos nor any Australians who may have met with the said Mr Papadopoulos, on some occasion or other.

        This little story does demonstrate, very well, how waters get muddied, and how the real facts of the matter can get buried under all of the mud.

        The Australians were not named, and neither was the organisation that they were purported to represent.

        It is all smoke and mirrors. The really interesting question is, “Why create this alternative scenario in the first place?” Perhaps Politico are feeling a bit left out of things, and so they fly a kite, to see how many column inches of debate are created, just like this one. Now that makes some sense.

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        • #
          Mary E

          The really interesting question is, “Why create this alternative scenario in the first place?”

          Politico didn’t make the connection up – if anyone did, it’s the New York Times; they broke the story back in December –

          (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html)

          “Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.”

          But there is no mention of this connection in the Nunes memo. So it bothers me that the Politico story infers that the “document” (memo) says there is.

          I think the Dems are grabbing at straws, and Politico needs to up their reading skills. It was a short memo, not too many big words, they should have been able to remember what was in there and what wasn’t – or at least go back and scan the few pages to ensure they got it right.

          Sheesh.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          In my humble view, Politico is not exactly the objective observer of politics they say they are. I share this view with others whose opinion I trust.

          I look at their output when it looks interesting but I do not take it as accurate or authoritative unless it can be corroborated independently of Politico.

          You all should look at Politico through the same jaundiced eyes that I do. The rule is get the same picture from several different independent sources before you believe it.

          As for the NY Times…your dog will appreciate a few sheets of it each day rather than the floor. They may be right or they may be wrong but either way, they are not doing objective journalism. They are a shill for the Democrat/progressive agenda — my opinion to be sure but again, shared with others whose opinions I trust to be honestly arrived at. So you make your own decision.

          For myself — right now I’m not sure what’s going on so I watch and see what actually happens. Then I know what was going on…or as close to that as I can get.

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      Ross

      RK

      The obvious response the Democrats calling it a dud is to ask them why the DoJ and the FBI fought so hard to not have memo released and then when they realised it was inevitable they pushed to have names redacted. You would not fight that hard if it was a dud.
      The other thing is the Democrats have not latched onto the fact that this is just the beginning not the end.

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    Richard Ilfeld

    Now that the declassification & release process has begun, expect the republicans to release data to counteract Dem talking points as they become notorious. This was just a light slipper dropping. The shoe falls when the DOJ inspector General’s report comes out (the cause of mutliple firings and re-assignments so far). He can, in turn, go to a grand Jury. Whether or not the cabal provided motivation for Mueller, so far his work is free-standing. He dropped folks who were tainted as soon as he found out, and is not precluded from using tainted evidence to the degreee his work is in intelligence. IF he scoops us all the folks cavorting with Russians on both sides, we are well served. If he finds only those on the right, he’ll be discredited by a public that know knows for a fact that an operative paid by the Dems was using Russian sources.

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    Ted O’Brien.

    How deep is that swamp?

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    • #
      pattoh

      The State Department is going to be the next cab off the rank.

      When that train rolls into the Clinton Foundation, there is going to be some fun out here!

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        Kinky Keith

        I think that nothing less than a full accounting of funds received would be acceptable.

        Perhaps they might even find a few AUDs in there with Property of the Australian Taxpayers stamped on them.

        Tracing the origin of these funds back to the “donor” might be useful.

        KK

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      Dennis

      How long is a piece of string?

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        Rereke Whakaaro

        Don’t take much rope to make a noose. Especially if the noose is positioned right above that there hole they be a dig-in’, for they-selves.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          You mean like a rabbit snare?

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        • #
          Ceetee

          Rereke, is there any truth that you know of that our tax dollars went to this Clinton Foundation boondoggle? If so do we have the journalists prepared to dig up this smelly dead dog. Thank god we don’t have CNN but then when I listen to some of our talking heads I am blown away. The left is dying, it is not sustainable which in a way is really hilarious,,,,,,

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      • #
        Dean from Ohio

        No, sir!

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    Richard Ilfeld

    The good news if that stuff is being dragged out from behind the wall of secrecy, and both sides are having their full-throated say about same, clearly without restraint. This doesn’t happen everywhere. I expect one or more of our major media outlets, where there actually are a number of fine journalists, to shake off the partisan overlay and have a go at actual reporting for a change — declining ratings and the lure of a Pulitzer can motivate. Outside the US? IMHO, try the Wall Street Journal for objective and balanced coverage.

    The Dems are very loud right now: “destroying democracy”, “Constitutional crisis” & all that. Reminder to all: the flac is thickest when you are over the target.

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      Graeme No.3

      Richard Ilfeld:

      It is probably too early to say, but how do you think this will effect the upcoming elections in November?
      I note that the turnout at the last Presidential election was very low, and that Bernie Sanders had more support than Hilary among Democrats (except the ones tallying the votes). On the latter he would have supporters deep in the bureaucratic ranks who might like to leak information to boost his chances of controlling the Democrat party.
      Equally I think Trump will benefit as the undecided (non)voters start to think he is a good thing. He is doing what he said he would, making him almost unique among contemporary politicians, has a booming economy and a series of revelations coming over the next 6 months that will make the standard Democrats unappealing to all but the “people of the swamp”. Especially as many of their best known leaders retire (often overseas) or face charges. And there may be a number of senior Republicans in that category too.

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        jorgekafkazar

        Obviously the Dims must derail the economic recovery by whatever means they can bring to bear.

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        Richard Ilfeld

        Question 1, will the election be nationalized, or 50 separate state elections. I suspect a national flavor – Dems will run against Trump as evil incarnated, Republicans will run against Chuck and Nancy and the though that a vote for any Democrat, no matter how they speak locally, is a vote for unified obstructionism.
        Aside from the personalities, there are likely to be two issues: the economy, and whatever catches the imaginations 90 days before the election. We don’t know if immigration will be on the table still. Malfeasence during the 2016 campaign will have used up it’s juice unless there is a sensational finding. I’m anticipating a black swan: death of a Supreme Court Justice, or action in North Korea or the Middle East — not necessarily war. If the Palestinians or Koreans made a significant move one way or the other, Trump’s response could be a big issue. In 2016 there were lot of “shy” Trump voters, many former blue collar Democrats. There are more now, but it is unclear if they are motivated to vote in a non-presidential year. Democrat excess suggesting they might lose their recent gains can bring them out. Finally, a small drop in Latino or African American turnout, also likely unpollable, would kill the Dems. Based on little more than Kentucky Windage and suspicians, I think the Republicans lose a half dozen net seats in the house (the biggest factor being the Democrats self-gerrymandering by all living together, and a diminished mionority turnout in swing districts), and a Republiocan gain of two in the Senate ….. 6 or 7 tho if there is a Supreme Court appointment pending.

        This opinion is worth exactly what y’all paid for it….my political science major is now more than 50 years old.

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      graphicconception

      The first thing that needs to be done is to have a secure voting system.

      Currently, there is no reliable voter id system. Anyone can vote, in practice, you do not need to be a citizen and you don’t need to limit yourself to only one vote. Some areas in the US had more than a 100% turnout at the 2016 election. No-one seems to bat an eyelid!

      The voting machines can be set to return a 49%:51% split in returned votes, favouring your preferred candidate, regardless of the actual ratio.

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    • #

      In Russia, journalists who ask the hard questions tend to find themselves visited one night by a group of thugs who proceed to throw them off their apartment building roof.

      And this is precisely why we need to know who in our democratic society is colluding with vicious foreign regimes who don’t abide by any rule of law.

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  • #
    Stuart Elliot

    I’ve been following the story for more than a year now, and am both delighted and discouraged now that the Nunes memo has been released.

    I am delighted that several layers of the onion have been peeled back, and that informed commentators (including Mark Steyn, whose “Un-Candid in Camera” column is tremendous) can provide level-headed observations for those who may be new to the issues and their implications.

    I am discouraged that the reactions of those involved in, or benefiting from, the corruption at the FBI and DOJ display a complete lack of shame. The Democrats have gone from shrieking that releasing the memo will expose national security secrets to claiming that there is nothing in the memo worth reading, all in the space of a week.

    The US media continues to disgrace itself through all of this by accusing the Republicans, without any apparent sense of irony, of “partisanship”.

    My conclusion is that simply revealing and discussing this massive breach of trust by government agencies will not be enough. They have no shame, they will defend themselves to the end, and the press will faithfully back them against the very interests and laws of their own country.

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    • #
      James

      Most of the US media. Fox news has covered this, and it has been covered on Breitbart and other non tradional media!

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        GreatAuntJanet

        And the Australian media? Missing in action, not interested, accepting the democrats’protests as fact. No wonder so many people over here are happy to dismiss President Trump as an idiot or worse, when that is all they hear from all the media. Unless they are motivated to read further, they just accept what they are told is reality.

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        • #

          I have been watching and commenting on Australian media on the internet as they all seem to parrot CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WAPO talking points. Many others are doing the same, so the media is under scrutiny. They seem to have given up on editing out comments they don’t like at least. The Murdoch media such as The Australian have been almost as bad, as if they are trying to emulate Fairfax.

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          • #
            Steve of Cornubia

            Earlier today, I posted a comment on a UK news site. The article wasn’t about Trump, but my post basically took a conservative view of the topic and criticised the leftist/progressive tenor of the piece.

            Within a few minutes, I received an email from the site saying that my post had been removed because they had received “a number of complaints”. Now, you’ll have to take my word for this, but there was nothing particularly controversial in what I said, nor did I use bad language or make threats. I simply made – I suspect – a good point.

            There is now way that the site received “a number of complaints in the couple of minutes my post was up, if indeed it was published at all (it is a moderated site). I reckon the mods simply disallowed it because I was on the money.

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      Kinky Keith

      Good perspective Stuart.

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  • #

    Is it really that much different in Australia? We have the ABC and The Age as the two most virulent anti-conservative, aka anti-LNP, media outlets, we have the AHRC being blatantly political (note the Children in Custody issue withheld by Triggs), government leaks, and possibly a lot more that isn’t public. The Deep State is operating everywhere in the west.

    360

    • #
      el gordo

      The MSM is naturally an integral part of the ‘deep state’.

      For confirmation lets see how it handles the Nunes memo.

      290

    • #
      Phillip Bratby

      It’s the same in the UK with the BBC. Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg is quite rightly saying that the civil servants in the Treasury and the Foreign Office (who are all pro-EU) are creating false economics data (as they did before the referendum with ‘Project Fear’) to try and undermine the Brexit process. The BBC, being 100% anti-Brexit, puts a completely different spin on it from J R-M.

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      Dennis

      There is very interesting background information in the following link, and please look at the additional reference links at the bottom;

      https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-crisis-capitalism/

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      • #

        More and more people are coming to realise that the climate worriers’ true aim is to introduce socialism on a grand scale.

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        • #
          toorightmate

          Yep,
          This “Deep State” is the very same group who proclaim “the end of the world due to global warming” on a continuing basis.
          The same group that in this country belittles Bob Carter, Jennifer Marohasey, Malcolm Roberts, Peter Ridd, etc yet espouses the likes of Flannery, Gore and Steffan.
          Heaven help us.

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          • #
            graphicconception

            This “Deep State” is the very same group who proclaim “the end of the world due to global warming”

            Agreed. I started from GW and moved on to US politics. The same tactics are used in both cases (e.g. suppress bad news, rubbish the messenger, appeal to authority etc).

            I came to the conclusion that “globalists” really do exist and they want to rule the world. This is a long term plan. The UN was created as a step along the way. Now they need to provide some permanent funding for it. What better than a global tax of some sort? “Carbon” taxes to avert climate change are made for the job. Everyone wants to “save the planet”. No-one minds a “revenue neutral” tax when it is for a good cause but even revenue neutral taxes will have overheads. How long would it be before the overheads exceeded the other payments? Think Clinton Foundation as an example of what could happen.

            I concluded that GW is just a small part of the master plan and it was, therefore, no surprise that the same people were involved.

            40

        • #
          Dennis

          Noting that the architect of man-made global warming politics was now deceased Canadian billionaire Maurice Strong who had strong ties to Communist China, and he died in China after seeking asylum when Canadian environmental protection authorities were after him for tapping into a fresh water aquifer illegally, below ground on a property he purchased to harvest that water, bottle it and sell it.

          Controlled and managed socialism brand of capitalism similar to the Communist China model.

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      nc

      It is the same in Canada with the liberal biased taxpayer funded CBC, and the private CTV, Global and most newspapers. The proof was the obscene open bias against the Conservative Harper in our last national election. We have our own deep state.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      bemused:

      The bureaucracy is concentrated in Washington, a city created to administer/ manage/ control the country. So is Canberra.
      The politicians in the USA rely heavily on the ‘expertise’ and advice from the upper levels of bureaucracy. So too in Canberra.
      Washington is very much a “closed society” where public policy is of absorbing interest. So too in Canberra.
      The belief among the bureaucracy is that the process of decision making is more important than opinions from outsiders who “don’t understand” and should be ignored. Gradually this idea becomes more and more entrenched in the P.S. especially as more children of bureaucrats attend the same schools and university and move into the bureaucracy.
      If only “the serfs” would shut up then things would move more smoothly. Likewise politicians who aren’t ‘biddable’ are feared, therefore the information given to the politicians is restricted to “what they need to know”. Any leaks must be contained. No information about problems should be disclosed. By now the senior bureaucrats believe they are the ones running the country and that democracy is expendable.
      Decisions by the bureaucracy must be defended, however stupid they are. Any method will do.
      Need I go on?

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    Harold Beadling

    The (((progressives))) have clearly overplayed their hand here in the U.S. I’ve been a subscriber to JoNova and Stop These Things for the last few years and have derived a wealth of information(thank you) on your willfully ignorant/corrupt green politicians disastrous energy decisions to pass on to my local corrupt green politicians. Now to speak on my assessment of the political providence gifted to my home country, I will assure you that Donald John Trump is a benevolent, common sense individual who sacrificed a comfortable life in his twilight years for the good of our constitutional republic. He has captured and taken leadership of a republican party that hadn’t accomplished anything to speak of when they controlled the reigns of power under GWB or Reagan. He has proven to be a genuine leader who is steadily gaining the support of the once rudderless republican party(even when they controlled the executive and legislative branches in past admins.) So far so good. Only time will tell but our corrupt media and media polls, just like yours, is beginning to feel the strain. How did I begin my day today? I packed up a few pistols and some ammo and went to my local range to exercise my 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Here in the U.S. I can walk my little dog in the wee hours of the morning with my Sig Sauer P938 tucked in my waistband for protection. People do get confronted and robbed by criminals late at night in my area. Life can be good in the U.S. when one takes their own security seriously. Thank you, HB

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    Another Ian

    “When The FBI Does It, That Means That It’s Not Illegal”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2018/02/when-the-fbi-do-10.html

    And

    “A Brief History Of James Comey”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2018/02/a-brief-history-2.html

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  • #
    TdeF

    In reading the comments reported on Britebart, there is no consistency in how the DNC are handling these damning revelations, far worse than Watergate. Despite all the histrionics to stop publication, the appeals to the White House, the personal visit of the head of the FBI, the DNC, the media are utterly confused in how to respond.

    Comey, so that’s all you have? (As if there is much more). Pelosi, ‘bogus memo’. ‘Profoundly unpatriotic to create doubt in the FBI’. As for the press, a ‘nothing burger’, ‘a hit job’, ‘Putin has succeeded’. The never Trumpers like failed Republican candidate McCain ‘the memo serves **NO** American interests, only Putin’s’.

    In fact the memo described spying by Hilary Clinton’s team using the FBI and an unbelievable ‘Trumped up’ story of blackmail by unknown Russians to spy on Trump’s campaign. This is identical to Watergate, except that the breakin was approved by the FICS and requested by the FBI while knowing full well that the dossier was uncorroborated nonsense by one man paid by the Clintons. Even the FBI paid him. You would have to assume Yahoo News also paid.

    So this ‘nothingburger’ is a rich feast. The question is what you do about it. This is criminal activity and involves all the senior people in the Obama administration from the former Secretary of State to the Head of the FBI and the head of the Department of Justice. It is not a little plot hatched in the Oval room. Or is it?

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      el gordo

      Newt said quite convincingly that its only a ‘thin layer’ of the bureaucracy, a hangover from the Obama Administration, which has corrupted the democratic system.

      China Daily isn’t running the story.

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    Another Ian

    Mark Steyn on the subject

    https://www.steynonline.com/8431/un-candid-in-camera

    Via comment at SDA

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      Tdef

      Steyn has been on top of this all along. The alleged dossiers on the Clintons mentioned by Steele have not been leaked. Why? Surely Hillary was as much the prospective US President as Trump? Where is the surveillance of the Clinton team?

      The one good thing from all this is that any dirt on Donald Trump, alleged or real, has been made public. The dirt on the Clintons is endless and held secret by the media and the DOJ and the FBI. Bill and Hilary are saints.

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      • #
        TdeF

        More specifically Steele wrote that the Russians also had a Kompromat, a compromising dossier on the Clintons. This one is likely to be real. The misdeeds of the Clintons are legion and it was Hillary and Obama who approved selling 10% of the US uranium stockpile to Russia, not Trump. It was Hillary who kept the secrets of state in plain English on her garage computer and on Yahoo and (somehow unexplained) on her assistant’s husband’s laptop computer. It was the President Obama who said he was unaware of this garage server but used an alias to email Hillary through the same garage file server. Then there were all those rumours about Bill and all those women. Rumours about Hillary and Abadin have barely surfaced. Nothing to see here folks.

        So the US media have their own version of Camelot as they had and still have with the Kennedy family. Where if Trump farted it would be front page news, Hillary and Bill can do no wrong. Again it is remarkable how little dirt has been found on Trump.

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        Leonard Lane

        Clintons are saints to the evil one, and as always, the devil will have their souls for all eternity–and that’s a long time.

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  • #
    Lachlan

    The memo just cannot support the conspiracy theory it’s trying to push:

    * The memo itself states that the investigation was running before the FISA warrant for Carter Page was sought.

    * The FISA warrant was obtained less than a month before the election. If the plan was to collect dirt to influence the election in that time frame, it was a really bad plan.

    * Carter Page was no longer working for the Trump campaign when the surveillance started.

    See here for a good explaination.

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    • #
      Mark D.

      Sorry Laleche, the memo must be used together with other bits and pieces like for example: the Attorney General meeting for 40 minutes on a tarmac with Hillary’s husband right about the time she Hillary gets a free pass from Comey. Hillary was desperate. This isn’t a puzzle that a leftist comrade can piece together.

      Russia Russia Russia. Sounds like a stupid line from a very old sit-com

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    • #
      John Smith

      Yes, Lachlan Sir …
      their plan was to gentlemanly accept the outcome of the election and they would never have considered prepping for rearguard action.
      After all, Hillary was certain to win.
      No one would ever, ever use a secret court for politics.
      Except, of course, those nasty conservative types.

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    • #
      Ted O’Brien.

      The provenance of the dossier was unsound and known to be so. It’s use was illegal, and everything that flowed from its use was illegal.

      There’s your “good explanation. In less than 30 words.

      20

    • #

      I don’t think these people do logic, Lachlan.

      Carter Page was dumped by Trump *before* the FISA warrant was issued, *before* anybody at the FBI had seen the Steele dossier, because the FBI had started sniffing around him in 2013, and renewed their interest in him big time in July 2016 – again a reminder: before the Steele dossier and before the FISA warrant.

      Think logically – the FBI were already on his case, the Steele dossier was therefore not the cause of their investigation into him, thus the Nunes memo is a fizzer.
      Nobody has infringed Page’s civil rights by investigating him on the basis of scurrilous and unproven allegations – the investigation commenced *before* those allegations came to light, and thus the investigation into Page is being done in accordance with standard procedure and for the benefit of the American people who rely on their constitution and their law enforcement bodies to uncover mis-deeds even when Trump would rather they didn’t.

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      • #
        Ted O’Brien.

        The law says otherwise. Use (and acceptance) of a document of unsound provenance to procure an illegal warrant is not standard practice. If this was in fact done, Carter Page’s civil rights were indeed infringed!

        10

  • #
    ATheoK

    A good collection of information, JoNova:

    One must remember, professionals have been collecting and collating events and actions leading up to this point.
    Consider some of the attached links:

    A timeline: http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-timeline-of-treason-how-fbi.html

    The missing FBI Boss: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/30/oh-lordy-fbi-director-wray-sent-counterintelligence-official-to-review-memo-prior-to-committee-vote/

    The high stakes criminal referral: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/29/details-surface-of-senator-grassleys-criminal-referral/

    About those judges who awarded FISA warrants: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/12/08/the-big-ugly-why-u-s-district-court-judge-rudolph-contreras-recusal-from-mike-flynn-case-is-a-big-deal/

    Judicial Watch has been instrumental in freeing up FOIA documents and emails:
    “HILLARY CLINTON’S SECRET EMAIL SCANDAL”

    “Benghazi Cover Up”

    “Judicial Watch: Documents Reveal Obama State Department Provided Classified Records to Sen. Ben Cardin to Undermine President Trump”

    “The Russian Dossier: Enter, Sid”

    Right now, MSM and Democrats are fighting for what constitutes the public viewpoint. Especially, that viewpoint maintained by the low information urban dwelling Democrats.

    The legal, investigative and eventually prosecutable battleground is what the professionals are aggregating into a timeline of actions, events and communications between the key players.

    What is critical to this process are identifying personnel intrinsic to the performance of these actions and who was/is ancillary.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “16 Bombshells in the Nunes Memo the Media Do Not Want You to Know About”

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/02/03/16-nunes-memo-bombshells-media-not-want-know/

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  • #
    jim2

    The US government has already trampled all over the 4th Amendment. The intel agencies here gather our communications and other personal data without our consent and without a warrant. This has happened and is happening no matter what party has power. This business with Trump just shoves the Fourth further down the toilet.

    100

    • #

      Those of us who do not collude with foreign powers aren’t very worried about this collection of intel though.

      Trump on the other hand seems very worried. I wonder why that is?

      02

      • #
        Ann Ominous

        The loss of 4th amendment privacy protections for internet traffic collapsed the International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles agreements. This is a significant hardship on law-abiding American companies that attempt to process data belonging to Europeans.

        00

  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    Sorry for repeating this but this under-the-radar Executive Order by Trump last December is the big sledgehammer hanging over these developments. Not over the events we’re watching now but over the political machine, including the Clinton Foundation and its tentacles, that have been funding this corruption. The financial strangling began with the recent crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia – which took out some big Clinton donors – but there’s more to come.

    Here’s the key paragraph:

    “I therefore determine that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-involved-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/?utm_source=twitter

    Note the “national emergency” part which gives it very serious and unfettered powers and the “around the world” part. Nice that “human rights abuse” is added – who can oppose that? – but it is the “corruption” part that really matters.

    “Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in…”

    No doubt a lot of the global elite (including corporations) worrying about this and it may well explain some things that have already happened.

    We sure are living in interesting times!

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    TdeF

    Two areas spring to mind immediately, the outrageous Clinton Foundation (to which Australia contributed heavily) and the Pay for Play nature of the Secretary of State. An arms sale to Morrocco was refused but was approved the day after a donation to the Clinton Foundation. How much more blatant does it have to be to be corruption?

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    Dave of Reedy Creek, Qld

    Hmmm, brings to mind something here in Oz with the removal of Abbott and the sudden disappearance of all the news and information about the Royal Commission into unions in Australia. It was like suddenly it never happened when Lord Trumble took over. Then we get tiny snippets of union activity that must almost parallel this and an opposition leader up to his neck in it all. The media here are probably worse than the US in their fake news, bias and the ABC now totally beyond any credibility.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Plus the ABC and Gillard orchestrated riot and violent attack on Tony Abbott in the fake Australia day ceremony in the Glasshouse next to the Aboriginal embassy bbq in Canberra. One Gillard staffer fled overseas, caught telephoning to get the riot started. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a prepared cartoon of Abbott punching an aboriginal elder. Shame to waste the cartoon. Everyone was in one it. Gillard had to rescue Abbott when the police locked the doors because it had all gone wrong and she knew what was coming. No one was prosecuted. Nothing to see here folks.

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      Dennis

      Many witnesses that appeared at the Trade Union Royal Commission into governance and corruption were referred by the Commissioner to state and federal legal agencies for further investigation and possible prosecution. The Abbott Government arranged for that federal TURC to have the cooperation of states and territory governments.

      Following the bad decision to not further extend the TURC inquiries by the Turnbull Government I have read many cheeky comments suggesting that the TURC was a waste of money because nothing came of it.

      Of course not, files marked closed by order the political system and compliant legal system.

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    Dave in the States

    There are strong parallels to the CAGW religion and the Russian Collusion dogma. They both assume presumptions are facts. I don’t need to list all the faulty presumptions that the CAGW House of Cards is built upon here. Nonetheless, a basic presumption of the Russian Collusion theory is that it must of happened and if we just keep on searching for it we will eventually find the evidence. They have never found any evidence or they would have already used it.

    In both cases they assume a theory and then look for the evidence. It’s brassakwards in terms of process. When presented with facts that contradict their presumptions they just poo poo them away, exclaiming: “That doesn’t disprove our theory”, as if their never proven theory is robust established fact that must be over turned by any skeptic of it.

    In the collusion fantasy, they used made up evidence to launch their witch hunt, presenting false documentation to a court! Moreover, they used the same faked dossier, previously leaked to Yahoo News as a news report, LOL!, as corroboration of said fake document!

    The judges who were duped into issuing warrants based on this deception should declare those warrants null and void, pulling the rug out from under the whole stinking mess.

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    • #

      The only one pooh-poohing any facts here is you.

      The investigations were well under way long before the Steele Dossier was handed over, and this Nunes memo doesn’t mention those who are already indicted or have pled guilty as a result of those investigations.

      A FISA warrant was issued against Carter Page before the Steel Dossier, even.

      You’ve fallen for this silly “memo” smokescreen hook, line and sinker.

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  • #
    TdeF

    Plus the ABC and Gillard orchestrated ri*t and vi*lent attack on Tony Abbott in the f*ke Australia day ceremony in the Glasshouse next to the *boriginal embassy bbq in Canberra. One Gillard staffer fled overseas, caught telephoning to get the ri*t started. The Sydney Morning Herald ran a prepared cartoon of Abbott punchin* an *boriginal elder. Shame to waste the cartoon. Everyone was in one it. Gillard had to rescue Abbott when the p*lice locked the doors because it had all gone wrong and she knew what was coming. No one was prosecuted. Nothing to see here folks.

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    • #
      TdeF

      My sad point is that corruption at the top is rarely investigated. The core question for liberty is who polices the police? In the case of wire tapping in the US, judges do. So what happens when they are clearly and deliberately misled? We will see.

      140

      • #
        toorightmate

        Agree,
        Gillard is a perfect example of this. As guilty as sin, yet remains protected from justice by a compliant parliament, left wing press and left wing judiciary.
        The WA and Vic police have ample to hang her out to dry, but she remains protected by the hierarchy of those organisations being politicised.

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      • #
        R2Dtoo

        IIRC all but one of the FISA judges are Obama appointments. What makes you think the left political machine doesn’t know which of the these judges are “on side”. Corrupt or “cooperative” judges are hardly an unknown entity.

        00

    • #
      Dennis

      A staffer “resigned” and there was rumour that a foreign spin doctor was another involved.

      60

  • #

    It seems to me that Australians should be asking some questions such as:
    To what extent to other Western nations harbour a “Deep State”?
    How much influence does the CFR and Soros have on our affairs?
    To what extent do UN activities mesh with the objectives of the attempted coup d’etat in the USA, and is the influence of the UN in Australian affairs similar?
    Given the relationship of a former Prime Minster and HRC, and the willingness of the ALP to assist the DNC in 2016, what involvement has DFAT with the Deep State in the USA?
    How much has Soros invested in directing the activities of subversive organisations in Australia?

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    by Lucian Wintrich:

    With the release of the memo, we finally have proof that…

    I wish I could say it’s proof. But after reading the memo I have to say it isn’t proof. The memo presents very strong evidence but much more is needed before anything is proved.

    I’m absolutely ecstatic about the revelations we now have. But now all the heavy lifting has to be done to prove it and be able to file charges in federal court. And for that we need a lot more than the Nuñez memo. I want charges brought wherever they’re justified and convictions to follow. And I’m not going to make a great big leap of faith and say it’s all sewed up when I know better.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      It’s one thing for me or anyone else to think the memo is enough and another thing entirely for it to actually be enough. And we dare not relax or ignore the standards for obtaining warrants or obtaining indictments that were ignored in getting us into this mess.

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    • #
      Extreme Hiatus

      “for that we need a lot more than the Nuñez memo”

      Roy, the beauty of this step-by-step process is that now everybody, particularly the Dems et al, are saying the same thing. Show us the underlying details!!!

      For the Dems it is like a mouse demanding to chew the cheese in a mousetrap.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        And with good luck the Republicans will pursue those steps before they lose their senate majority. Or with better luck, we will not lose seats in the senate but gain a few more.

        Right now the Democrats look like ants scurrying around after their burrow has been exposed by turning over a big rock, all running to save the queen, if you know what I mean.

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        • #
          Extreme Hiatus

          Roy, the way things are going I’ll be shocked if the Republicans don’t gain seats in both houses, maybe a lot. Even though some of the Republicans really don’t deserve to be on this ‘Trump train.’

          In the meantime, looks like Pelosi is losing it altogether.

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          • #
            TdeF

            When the ordinary people, the voters get a big lift in wages AND a cut in taxes, it is hard to buy better support.

            Many in the black and Hispanic community want jobs, better lives, no drugs, no crime and the death rate in black areas is that of a third world country. Only Trump is offering them hope and now giving them results. Sixteen out of twenty years of Democratic rule has made their lives much worse.

            This will turn into a popular revolt against the Democrats and they know it. All Pelosi can do is spit. Schumer can look over his glasses at the elections running away from them. Failed candidates McCain and Romney can only fume.

            It is reasonable to think that Donald Trump is doing what no other Republican leader could do, show what a free market in a free country can do. Deep State, the UN, the EU, China, the Elites in the Blue cities are all being challenged. More strength to him. The FBI, CIA and DOJ must not become the tools of the political elites and unaccountable to Congress. The memo shows this has happened and that they have been caught. Many more need to resign. The case for the wiretaps of the Republican campaign must be reviewed by the judge who ordered them. There is ample evidence of a prima facie case for prosecution of the FBI leaders.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            I don’t think Nancy Pelosi ever had it to lose in the first place. She was sans anything useful for as long as I’ve been aware of her.

            She acts with what she’s had all along, the attitude of a little girl stuck in a woman’s body. I’ve been told she’s, smart, cunning, you name it but I don’t see the evidence of it.

            20

            • #
              Roy Hogue

              As speaker of the House she abused her privilege of government provided air travel in a big way. She was entitled to secret service protection, a government airplane and those things we give the Speaker gladly since the Speaker of the House is first in line of succession to the presidency after the VP.

              But Pelosi wanted more than what she was entitled to, much more. And she got it through demanding it backed up by threats, implied threats, any way she could. The record of this that I read said she even had an onboard bar stocked at taxpayer expense. I’m not sure the president gets that. Our elected office holders are paid well and expected to pay their way like everyone else with the exception of allowances for staff and other expenses of doing the people’s business.

              So let her act out. Maybe the world will finally notice it and say, “Nuts to you, Nancy.”

              30

          • #
            Rah

            Isn’t it funny now how Pelosi talked of the need to “drain the swamp” shortly before she became speaker years ago.

            20

            • #
              Roy Hogue

              She can say anything she thinks is expedient at the time. So I never believe her. That way I’m never disappointed.

              Even California senator Barbara Boxer, now thankfully gone, had a better act than Pelosi.

              10

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      And here’s one for you U.S. readers to ponder. The very existence of that FISA court was supposed to be a secret according to what I have read so as to be able to protect classified information, etc., etc.

      I’m all for protecting classified information but I do not think a secret court meets the requirements of the constitution and I’m glad it’s presence is now common knowledge.

      As in any warrant, it’s issuance is kept secret for one very good reason, so that if nothing is found pursuant to the warrant, it’s existence is never made public and the reputation of the subject of the warrant is protected.

      But it bothered me to find out there was a court that no one should even know existed. The Constitution doesn’t provide for that kind of court.

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      • #
        DaveR

        Roy,

        I also believe the FBI and DOJ have been complicit in Democrat politics around the time of the last US election, and after, and they need to be legally sorted out.

        But to say the Steele Dossier is “false” at this point is just not correct. It is uncorroborated, and never has been corroborated.

        However, I fully expect its contents to be proven false.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Dave,

          Such things often turn out to be a combination of a grain of truth and a pile of sand that’s, of course, very false. You take something real and build a false narrative around it and anyone looking at it says, “Oh yes, that’s true because it starts with something that really happened.”

          There really were meetings with Russians. The question now is a simple one, is there evidence that any of those meetings violated any law? So far the answer is no. They have not produced a single shred of evidence of anything illegal, yet we now have a special prosecutor being paid to find something that will destroy Donald Trump’s presidency. And as I already said in another comment, we all know what that leads to.

          I am ashamed of my country but not of my president.

          00

    • #
      Graham Richards

      Trump if far too smart to have any more than a hint of the misdemeanours made public at a his stage. More, much more will follow as the “deep state” sweats & reacts.
      He’ll drip feed ithe information & make their lives really miserable before the axe really falls.
      I hope he exposes every last one of them& gets that bastard McCain before his dies.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        I lost more and more respect for John McCain as time went by. And now he’s thrown away what was left of it by one single statement.

        I’ve never figured out what drove the man to be mistaken, wrong and rebellious against good judgment. But he has been exactly that in my view, from ignoring a clear warning in his cockpit that a missile had locked onto him right on down to everything he did as a senator. He seems to have never figured out that the objective in politics is to win, not compromise away the win you already have in your hand.

        The only thing he did well was handle being a POW.

        00

    • #
      Kneel

      “I wish I could say it’s proof. But after reading the memo I have to say it isn’t proof.”

      Given this is a political committee summary, not initially thought to be made public for decades if ever, it seems to me evidence sufficient to require either an independent judicial inquiry or a senate inquiry to get to the bottom of it. As usual, the terms of reference will be the big indicator of only the public expectations, not those expectations made privately, or indirectly (eg, made apparent by choice of judge/senators)

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      • #
        TdeF

        The only brake on a runaway police state is that the actions of the police are supervised by an independent judiciary. If the judge who authorized the wire tap orders is now aware that there was no independent corroboration by an indpendent and trusted government agent, as stated, he has enough to act. Evidence is not needed. In the cloak and dagger world of espionage, the word of the FBI was trusted absolutely without evidence. Now it is clear the FBI knew there was no collaboration at all, the presentation of a salacious allegation prepared by an employee of the Clintons as sufficient proof for a wire tap on Republican politicians is clearly a lie. It was never anything else.

        So the question is whether the independent judge or judges will react. If they do not, it means the system is broken. If they require politicians to tell them what to do, the system is broken. District court judges have shown they are prepared to stand up to a direct order of the President. All this judge has to do is recall the FBI to prove that they did not lie. The sentence which can be given could see the most senior FBI members in jail. Just like Haldemann.

        Consider the aftermath of Watergate

        ..In the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s resignation, Watergate continued to claim victims.

        The final toll included:

        one presidential resignation

        one vice-presidential resignation – although Agnew’s crimes were unrelated to Watergate

        40 government officials indicted or jailed

        H.R. Haldeman and John Erlichman (White House staff), resigned 30 April 1973, subsequently jailed

        John Dean (White House legal counsel), sacked 30 April 1973, subsequently jailed

        John Mitchell, Attorney-General and Chairman of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), jailed

        Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy (ex-White House staff), planned the Watergate break-in, both jailed

        Charles Colson, special counsel to the President, jailed

        James McCord (Security Director of CREEP), jailed

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        • #
          TdeF

          Also the judge was not informed that the information came from someone paid ultimately by Hilary Clinton. He was even paid by the FBI themselves and presumably by Yahoo News. They were all aware of this and it was not mentioned to the judge. These critical omission is as actionable as a lie making the judge an unwitting enabler of a crime against nothing less than the fourth amendment of the Constitution.

          In the US democracy, privacy is paramount and this was a totally unjustified wire tap of a citizen because of their position on candidate Trump’s team. Political eavesdropping by the FBI for a political party. Besides, what criminality did this urgent and critical wire tap actually reveal other than President Trump’s electoral strategy? So what was the real purpose? The mens rea, the criminal intent is there.

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        • #
          TdeF

          That’s 46 people who went to jail, incluging the Attorney count. This body count could be as big, many from the FBI.

          30

          • #
            TdeF

            Ignore that clumsy typist!

            That’s 46 people who went to jail, including the Attorney General! This body count could be as big, many from the FBI.

            60

      • #
        TdeF

        Kneel, you do not need ‘proof’. In asking to secretly spy on someone, you can hardly ask them for permission.

        So the judge who authorizes it is entirely dependent on full and true information from the one party.

        This happened four times. Each time the FBI argued that the dossier was real, likely true and corroborated independently by a trusted Government source. The question is then not only that the facts were verifiable, but that the blackmail was possible.

        Then as well as sworn lies, they did not reveal all the facts, a statutory obligation. Consider Steele’s hatred of Trump, the determination of all parties to see that Trump was discredited and not elected and that there was no corroboration at all. They lied repeatedly but the omission of serious relevant information is equally culpable.

        In these critical situations, the onus was on the FBI to prove their case. They lied and omitted so much. You even have intent. It is actionable under the very laws which set up this system. Every power granted comes with great legal responsibility and severe punishment. Check the act which set up the system.

        50

        • #
          TdeF

          Then there was the fact that Steele made a lot of money from many parties, doing what he loved doing, discrediting Trump.
          The others were all paid by the government or by the Clintons or the Democratic party. Was any of this made clear to the judge?
          The FBI even fired Steele after they found he had revealed all to Yahoo News but they persisted in applying for the wire tap to be renewed even though Steele and his dossier were discredited. What other reason was there for the wiretap? What did they discover? How much did they reveal to Fusion GPS and the Hilary campaign? Why is the FBI taking orders from Hilary Clinton, the Democratic party and Fusion GPS? These are supposed by law to take their orders from the government and two wire taps happened after Trump was elected. Much more is yet to come out, from the FBI itself. Expect more resignations.

          30

        • #
          Kneel

          “Kneel, you do not need ‘proof’.”

          Exactly my point. This document suggests other supporting information (not disclosed) is likely sufficient to indict several individuals at least – and that further investigation of the facts of the case, and any subsequent plea bargains, may result in some very high flyers doing some serious time.
          Alternately, it may be a diversion.
          So investigate both. D’uh!
          Lets have the full facts first, shall we?
          My personal opinion is that this whole sequence of events (as well as many yet to come) has been anticipated by PDT (from advisors he trusts in the pentagon,eg), and he is carefully ensuring that no-one can say he participated in any decisions that rightfully belong to others officers. He’s letting them hang themselves by their own petard – no assistance required. These sociopaths think they are untouchable, and now reality is biting back. More popcorn and long island iced tea please!

          50

          • #
            TdeF

            Not sure how the system works to investigate itself. In Australia there is a real reluctance by politicians to investigate politicians. In America, the judges are often quite independent and they have shown themselves to be so here. However to get the ball rolling, usually someone has to bring a case and that rarely happens. Our Human Right Commission is a case in point where they threaten to prosecute and thus blackmail people for using freedom of speech. $5,000 fine for being brought to their attention. You just get a letter and are expected to pay up. The HRC is dead against Freedom of speech.

            What was a surprise in revisiting the Watergate scandal is that 40 people I did not know about went to jail, and those close to Nixon who approved of it and funded it. In this case the number may be in the hundreds and include two Attorneys general, one former Secretary of State and numerous heads of the FBI and their minions. Obama himself has denied knowing about Hillary’s garage server, even though he used it with an alias.

            The NYPD investigation into Mr Weiner which brought the contents of his laptop into prominence as also been buried and may resurface. What it showed about the Clintons is as serious as what it showed about the Secretary of State being extremely careless about State secrets. Surely even the fact of being in plain English on Weiner’s laptop is criminal enough and there is no good explanation. What the NYPD had to say about what was on it implicated everyone in other potential crimes. All hushed up. Mr Weiner is in jail.

            It all makes nonsense of the Tom Clancy books. Under Hillary Clinton, there were no secrets. What happened in Benghazi and later in the “Arab spring” explains why the Russians had to intervene.

            What has all this to do with Climate Change? Everything. The Green Money Machine is run by the same elites. No one has even explained how humble, tiny CO2 is supposed to change not just the world’s temperature, but produce Climate Change and Extreme Events. There is not even a shred of science but it is all accepted as fact, because NASA say so.

            No more.

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              TdeF

              Also of interest, only this Jan 11th 2018

              The top Hillary Clinton aide has pulled her divorce case with her jailed serial-sexter husband, Anthony Weiner.

              This week, both their legal teams cited their desire to protect their 6-year-old son by settling outside court. But Page Six reports that the real reason could be to “shield one another from a potential federal probe” and invoke spousal immunity.

              Anthony Weiner Refuses To Take Off His Wedding Ring – But Why?
              The news came as Huma was spotted enjoying a Hawaiian vacation while her lawyer submitted paperwork signed by both parties agreeing to end the case. The judge declared the case “discontinued.”

              Could that be that Huma does not want the facts examined? There is so much more to a situation where Huma’s boss, the US Secretary of State had somehow transferred all her private and secret emails to Weiner’s laptop? No one want the divorce proceedings.

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      amortiser

      All the claims made in the memo are supported by documentary evidence and transcripts of evidence by witnesses before the House Intelligence Committee.

      The Democrats are not complaining about the content of the memo but what it claims has been left out. They have their own version of the evidence before the committee and that will see the light of day in due course.

      The Democrats claims that the disclosure of the memo would be seriously detrimental to national security has been shown to be completely unfounded. With that track record of hyping a narrative, there is little likelihood that the Democrats will be able to make supportable claims contrary to the content of that memo.

      There is much more to come in this story and all will be detrimental to the Democrats, Hillary and Obama. This is why they have been so desperate to have it suppressed.

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    Jon Reinertsen

    It is interesting, the prime objective of all security services is to disrupt the enemy. In this case the Donald! Anyone remember how the NKVD managed to get FDR to follow the script written by Uncle Joe at Yalta? No? We didn’t actually learn about that until 1997. When it was proven beyond doubt, that both the secretaries of the treasury, and state were Russian agents. Democrats of course!

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      If you remember William F. Buckley you’ll remember that he was adamant that Senator Joe McCarthy was right, there were communists in the United States Government. Fortunately I think they did little enough harm that we withstood their presence. But after Obama, who knows what the situation is that faces Donald Trump. The media doesn’t talk about Trumps activities very much unless they disapprove of them but I suspect Trump’s more than smart enough to be ridding us of the identifiable ones.

      The tragedy of McCarthy’s witch hunt approach is that men like Oppenheimer who did so much to get the Manhattan Project to a successful end were branded as communists, lost their jobs and suffered for no reason. So many of them were completely loyal to this country. McCarthy even went after composer Aaron Copeland who wrote some of the best music I have in my collection, including Fanfare for the Common Man, which is a block buster if you have a good system with speakers able to hand you the drum that will shake the walls and windows, a man who was completely harmless.

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      • #
        Lance

        McCarthy was proven right when the Venona Project was declassified in 1995.

        An overview of Venona is here: http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Venona_project

        You may see decrypted documents here: https://archive.org/details/nsia-venona

        The “bottom line” is that the US was riddled with Soviet spies at the highest levels.

        “Among those identified are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; Alger Hiss; Harry Dexter White,[21] the second-highest official in the Treasury Department; Lauchlin Currie,[22] a personal aide to Franklin Roosevelt; and Maurice Halperin,[23] a section head in the Office of Strategic Services. The Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA, housed at one time or another between fifteen and twenty Soviet spies.[26] Duncan Lee, Donald Wheeler, Jane Foster Zlatowski, and Maurice Halperin passed information to Moscow. The War Production Board, the Board of Economic Warfare, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs and the Office of War Information, included at least half a dozen Soviet sources each among their employees. In the opinion of some, almost every American military and diplomatic agency of any importance was compromised to some extent by Soviet espionage.[27]”

        McCarthy wasn’t wrong. He actually underestimated the problem. The Democrats, to this day, still try to deny it.

        90

      • #
        Lance

        Roy, the issue for Oppenheimer was Klaus Fuchs and Lewis Strauss.
        Oppenheimer had defended Fuchs on professional grounds and was unaware of the Venona Project. Fuchs WAS a spy.
        Strauss was jealous of Oppenheimer.

        Oppie was dethroned by Lewis Strauss.

        http://www.y12.doe.gov/sites/default/files/history/pdf/articles/08-07-24.pdf

        “When Eisenhower looked for a successor to Dean in 1953, he chose another original commissioner, Lewis Strauss, but Strauss would accept the position only on the condition that Oppenheimer be excludeed from any influence within the AEC. While a commissioner in the Atomic Energy Commission and before being selected to replace Gordon Dean, Lewis Strauss insisted on the need for a technical capability to detect nuclear explosions around
        the world. His strong leadership here led to just such a system being in place barely in time to detect the
        first Soviet Union atomic test in August 1949. This test was named “First Lightning” by the Soviets and “Joe 1” by the United States. It was a replica of “Fat Man” as provided the Soviets by Klaus Fuchs. President Truman announced to the public that the Soviets had exploded an atomic device. This announcement was made on September 23, 1949 four years and one month after Hiroshima. Lewis Stauss took strong exception to Robert Oppenheimer’s continuing involvement in the nuclear weapons program and agreed to serve as its chairman only if Oppenheimer was restricted from participating in any way. He removed all classified materials from Oppenheimer’s office and had his clearance revoked. ”

        Too late to be useful, but Oppie was eventually cleared.

        http://www.businessinsider.com/newly-declassified-documents-clear-oppenheimer-2014-10

        50

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Thank you. That’s detail I didn’t know. I did know that oppenheimer was finally cleared but he was beyond redemption by then. As you say, it was too late.

          In the end Joe McCarthy did the country more harm than good by the way he went about it and by not getting and keeping his facts complete and straight before he opened a hearing into someone. You can be an X sympathiser and be completely harmless or be dangerous — let X be anything you think is a problem. Why go after the harmless ones when the real problem sympathisers are where the effort needs to be put.

          10

      • #
        Lance

        Oops. Forgot a reference:

        https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/venona/chronology.shtml

        1948-1951 Exploitation of VENONA exposes major KGB espionage agents such as Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Theodore Hall, William Perl, the Rosenbergs, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, and Harry D. White.

        and

        http://articles.latimes.com/1987-11-29/books/bk-25168_1_klaus-fuchs-atom-spy

        50

    • #
      Dennis

      Socialist Demorats?

      30

  • #
    NB

    Roy Hogue at #19 says:
    ‘I wish I could say it’s proof. But after reading the memo I have to say it isn’t proof.’
    Correct. For a non-partisan assessment of the memo and other Trump events it is worth listening to Scott Adams (Dilbert) on Periscope or YouTube. He discusses PDT in terms of the tools of persuasion, and is himself quite persuasive in his conclusions and predictions.
    Certainly the media is partisan, mostly in favour of the Dems, but the default position for mass media since its inception during the 19C is partisanship. Of course, the ABC, as a government funded broadcaster, should be neutral. However, it has become the cheerleader of partisanship in Australia, and needs to be broken up.

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  • #
    Ruairi

    One low down political trick,
    Is to throw mud and make it stick,
    Such as claiming the red,
    Who hides under Trump’s bed,
    IS a real Russian Bolshevik.

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  • #

    ’twas ever so-
    vigilance required,
    who guards the guardian?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEESNpAu1EU

    60

  • #
  • #
    RAH

    The so called “Steele Dossier”. Political opposition research bought and paid for by the DNC and Hillary campaign using a foreign agent working with Russian “sources” and used to get the initial FISA warrant and all three of the renewals by being presented to the FICA Judge by the FBI as vetted intelligence.
    Name one material thing in that “Dossier” that has been corroborated by a reliable source. I can’t despite the fact that “Dossier” has been out in the public for months.
    “* The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the initial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
    * Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.

    * The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
    * DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele’s bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.”
    So as thing stand now with what information that is in the public square it’s looking like the POTUS and his family and everyone else being surveilled had their 4th amendment rights violated.
    “Amendment IV
    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

    What was the probable cause? It seems to me that is the key question that the FBI has to answer to justify the FISC warrant and renewals and what Mueller and those that appointed him has to answer to justify the current investigation. I’m not a lawyer but it would seem to me that anything revealed from the surveillance or the Muller investigation would be inadmissible in a court of law if there was no probable cause to justify either.

    It would also seem to me that whoever was representing the Government when the “Steele Dossier” was presented as probable cause for the warrant and renewals to the FISC court and gave the “oath of affirmation” should be prosecuted.

    Anyway, multiple sources, including some Republican members on the Intel Committee are saying there is more to come, lots more, in the form of more memos. Multiple sources outside of the committee are saying that what is to come is even more damaging.

    We shall see. Fact is that the leftist press is trying to say this is a nothingburger while anyone that is paying attention and honest knows it isn’t.

    That being said, one has to be careful. We don’t know nearly everything.

    60

  • #
    Graham Richards

    The really frightening part of this is that the USA can only be in this parlous state having had years of collusion from administrations of both Republican & Democrat parties.
    In other words since Reagan “the establishment/ elites” of both parties have been constructing this DEEP STATE to run the USA on behalf of who? United Nations/ New World Government/Globalists?? No doubt the EU, AU ( African Union) , and probably the Rudd idea idea of an Asian Union. ( I believe Rudd was used as a sounding board by the UN).
    Thank God Trump was elected. I hope he & his loyal supporters survive this to rid the USA of this treacherous scum.

    180

    • #
      Dennis

      The concept of a new world order was developed after the socialist Fabian Society was established in England in the late 1800s, George Bernard Shaw was a foundation member. The Australian Fabian Society is a branch of the UK Society.

      Australian Labor Attorney General Evatt (Communist) put forward a plan adopted by the United Nations son after it was established after WW2 that all member nations would be encouraged to sign treaties with the UN, as many as could be created, treaties that would enable compliant member nation governments to get around the laws of their nation and permit UN to impose whatever.

      During January 2016 our Minister for Foreign Affairs signed a new treaty or whatever it was described as to pledge support for UN Agenda 30 and I cannot recall the government or the opposition announcing this. There was a federal election during 2016 and no mention.

      It is now very clear that citizens of developed world nations have been blissfully unaware that the leftists were on the march and plotting to remove borders, dismantle sovereign nations, create a “world parliament” as now retired Greens leader Bob Brown explained during his last National Press Club address, Deputy Opposition Leader for Labor Tanya Plibersek stated during 2017 that she opposed borders. And that the conspiracy of silence extends to both sides of Parliament here.

      ABC Radio National broadcast a series New World Order and I obtained a transcript, that was during the 1990s. But until maybe ten years ago few people wanted to know about it, just another conspiracy theory many said.

      And as was covered here not long ago, the “crony capitalists” have taken advantage for the purpose of wealth creation and their political fellow travellers have assisted with encouragement from the unelected officials of the UN. The infiltration of the business world, the media as well as governments is breath taking.

      Thank you President Donald Trump and supporters for exposing these traitors.

      100

  • #
    philthegeek

    Interesting to see frightend right wingers commenting on this and the extent to which they are willing to trash institutions for short term politics. 🙂

    We see it here as well…particularly from daS UberTuberFurher Dutton.

    Whats happening in the US not a coup, its about the POTUS NOT being above the law. However they try and frantically spin it, conceptually its real simple people.

    Complicated by the politics and how the US judicial system works, but is shaping up as a pretty good example of how its often not the act that scuppers people, but the attempted cover up.

    Obstruction of justice by someone in as high an office as POTUS is serious stuff.

    And while we are here…..whatever happened to the teaba…..er…. Tea Party wing of the Repugs? Dont hear much about them any more?? 🙂

    627

    • #
      Mark D.

      Phil your true colors shine right through with the TEA BAGERS comment. You must be a Dumba-s to not realize that they are now the R party that Mcpain can’t get his arms around. Too bad he’ll be way beyond irrelevant just like you.

      143

    • #
      Dennis

      Taxed Enough Already.

      President Trump obviously agrees.

      70

    • #
      AndyG55

      “Obstruction of justice by someone in as high an office as POTUS is serious stuff.”

      Yes, we can all hope that Obama, as well as the likes of Clinton and the heads of the DOJ and FBI get held to account.

      Why are you a Marxist/left-wing-fascist sympathiser, phil?

      What’s in it for you?

      95

      • #
        philthegeek

        Why are you a Marxist/left-wing-fascist sympathiser, phil?

        Your entitled top your opinion angry. For what its worth. 🙂

        59

        • #
          AndyG55

          As are you, little non-entity.

          53

          • #
            Rereke Whakaaro

            I had a school teacher who was Socialist, if not Communist.

            She gave the class a little demonstration. She had a collection of sticks, that she had tied together, into a bundle. She explained that unity was better than being on your own, and asked a larger boy to break the bundle. He was a big lad, and strong, but he was unable to break the bundle.

            She then asked if anybody else would like to have a go. So I volunteered, and was given the bundle. But instead of applying brute strength, as my class-mate had done, I pushed out the stick in the middle of the bundle, broke that, and then had no problem breaking the rest, all at once.

            The teacher said that my effort was not valid, because I had cheated, to which I replied that the bundle was only as strong, as the weakest stick. Which got me sent to the Headmaster, with a note detailing my misdemeanor.

            The Headmaster read the note, and asked for my interpretation of events, which I gave him.

            He then said, “There are times when you know you can win, but by doing so, you create an enemy, who will remember your winning for life. It is often better to know you can win, but not demonstrate that fact, because you will always retain the upper hand.”

            At the time, I didn’t really get what he meant, but I have been reminded of his wisdom on many occasions. So there you go.

            120

            • #
              Lance

              Point of definition. The “bundle of sticks” is a symbol of Fascism, not Socialism.

              http://ndynes.weebly.com/mussolini–the-rise-of-facism.html

              As an economic/political model, under Fascism the State controls industry/production directly or indirectly. Under Socialism, the State owns AND directly controls industry/production and there is no private property.

              The ever expanding Government means of “indirect control” is accomplished via the Administrative State and Regulations that have the overall effect of “control” without actual Laws directly enabling that authority.

              Thus, it seems as if your Teacher was espousing Fascism. Perhaps she didn’t understand, herself, the differences?

              NAZI is an acronym (German) for National Socialist German Worker’s Party. National Socialism differed from Fascism in that it proposed racial superiority. Mussolini did not care about the religious affiliation or ancestry of fascist members. They only needed to subjugate themselves to the State. Hitler, on the other hand, not only required subjugation to the State but also demanded racial purity and the enslavement or destruction of “inferior people” including the sick, elderly, demented, genetically compromised, etc.

              Mussolini had his “Blackshirts”. Hitler had his “Brownshirts”. American Democrats have “Anti Fa”.

              A relevant read on this topic is: “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left”

              Book review at: https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/book-review-dinesh-dsouzas-the-big-lie/

              Overall a good read. Some is “over the top”, but in general informative.

              30

          • #
            philthegeek

            Seriously angry.

            At least Rereke came up with something interesting about being a class smartie bottom exploiting a teachers apparent confusion about social and structural engineering.

            do better.

            30

    • #

      Since the memo is based on actual evidence that the FBI admits is real but will not allow us to see, the memo itself can be taken as fact.
      The FBI has the evidence. They’ve showed it to the House Intelligence Committee. Both agree on the facts. So, by extension, the memo is all the evidence we need.

      Put that in your DNC-scripted talking point pipe and blow it out your ass.

      20

  • #
    robert rosicka

    OT but the Libs have just launched their energy policy for SA election and it involves batteries and an extension cord !

    90

    • #
      philthegeek

      Liberals with an actual policy?? Write this date down!! 🙂

      Although if Malcolm was involved you can have a reasonable expectation its pure brainfart and will disappear in few days.

      121

      • #
        TdeF

        Tony Abbott had a lot of good policies. The deaths of 1200 people at sea stopped immediately. The removal of the Carbon tax and Mining tax were difficult against stiff opposition in the Green controlled senate, but succeeded. The postal referendum was his idea, rubbished by Malcolm, who now takes credit. The Knighthood recommendation for Prince Phillip was directly requested by the palace, as if Phillip needed it but it was his 90th birthday. Since then Malcolm has lived on the glory of someone who actually made a difference. His Manus island deal with Trump was insulting to the Americans, but they accepted it while it burnt a lot of goodwill with Trump.

        No, Turnbull’s Liberals ™ is a total disaster, as if he cares. Only the fact that Shorten’s Union officials party is worse is keeping Malcolm in power, by one seat.

        The one policy we must have is to remove the RET. It is killing us. Malcolm in contrast actually applauds carbon taxes, a Republic and all the other lefty Green ideas. He and Julie Bishop were aghast that Trump won. As Julie said, we will survive Trump.

        81

        • #
          Dennis

          They hope they will survive Trump.

          I hope they don’t.

          60

        • #
          philthegeek

          “Tony Abbott had a lot of good policies.”

          Ah yes…who can forget the public bliss and enthusiasm with which their failed 2104 budget was received. 🙂

          Would have been interesting to see the magnitude of their loss had Truffles not knifed Abbooot.

          Hmmm Truffles coming up for 30 bad newspolls soon. Fun times ahead.

          33

          • #
            AndyG55

            “magnitude of their loss”

            Far less seats than truffles lost.

            Remember, the Trump victory, little socialist sympathiser. !

            21

          • #
            AndyG55

            Abbott won in a landslide, Turnbull lost all that and more in one election.

            And he will go even further backwards next election, BECAUSE he has taken the left-wing stance that you and your ilk submit to.

            21

            • #
              philthegeek

              Angry, are you about jump into full indignant enegizer bunny frothing poster mode….again??

              got tissues handy??

              I’m sure there are pills for that??

              12

          • #
            Dennis

            You conveniently ignore that Tony Abbott led the Coalition to the 2010 federal election and Labor, who had won the 2007 election comfortably, were forced into a minority alliance to remain in government. At the 2013 election Abbott led the Coalition to a landslide victory to defeat Labor.

            According to The Australian newspaper last year Abbott was targeted using GetUp and others by the Turnbull “black hand” faction from before he was drafted to become Liberal Leader in 2009 because Opposition Leader Turnbull feared defeat as leader. Abbott continued to have his character assassinated, smeared, through 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 until Turnbull managed to replace him in 2015. It is said that disunity is death. The “black hand” effectively undermined the Coalition using those tactics.

            The last Labor Government created a mine field budget for 2013/14 which they handed over to the Abbott Government. During the 2013 election campaign Opposition Leader Abbott and his colleagues refused to promise anything, they said their policies would be subject to an independent audit of Labor’s budget. The independent auditors discovered unfunded budget items, and accordingly the budget deficit was much higher than Labor admitted and therefore money had to be borrowed to pay for Labor’s budget commitments so, effectively, the debt was higher than Labor had indicated.

            The Hockey-Abbott Budget for 2014/15 was based on the audit of Labor’s budget for 2013/14 and was delivered as a budget to repair the deficit and attack the debt. PM Abbott pointed out that unless the repair measures were adopted, if Labor’s poor management had continued, the debt by 2017 would be approaching $700 billion. Last year debt peaked around $600 billion.

            The trustworthy financial journalists and others praised the Hockey Budget delivered in May 2014 but the relentless negativity directed at PM Abbott and the government he led was ongoing and accordingly Labor and the negative MSM/ABC ignored expert advice and claimed a budget failure.

            Many voters today realise that we had been in good hands with Tony Abbott.

            10

  • #
    Clyde Spencer

    A question to be asked: When does the Fourth Estate become a Fifth Column?

    110

  • #
    Apoxonbothyourhouses

    None of this was supposed to happen. All these subversive activities were based on a supreme confidence that Clinton would win. With Hillary in the White House none of this would have emerged and the culprits would have been rewarded rather than being investigated.

    120

  • #
    Mark M

    Hillary Clinton so far ahead in polls that she ‘doesn’t even think about’ Donald Trump anymore 

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/23/hillary-clinton-so-far-ahead-in-polls-that-doesnt-even-think-abo/
    . . .

    She thinks about him now.

    100

  • #
    pat

    wow:

    2 Feb: Twitter: CNN: TWEET: Former CIA counterterrorism official Phil Mudd: The FBI people “are ticked” and they’ll be saying of Trump, “You’ve been around for 13 months. We’ve been around since 1908. I know how this game is going to be played. We’re going to win” http://cnn.it/2GEPZD3
    https://twitter.com/CNN/status/959565646999707657

    11 Aug 2017: The Hill: Joe Concha: Former Mueller deputy on Trump: ‘Government is going to kill this guy’
    CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd warned that President Trump is agitating the government, saying during a Thursday afternoon interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper that the U.S. government “is going to kill this guy.”

    Mudd, who served as deputy director to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, said Trump’s defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin has compelled federal employees “at Langley, Foggy Bottom, CIA and State” to try to take Trump down.

    “Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. Government is going to kill this guy,” Mudd, a staunch critic of Trump, said on “The Lead.”
    http://thehill.com/homenews/media/346171-former-mueller-deputy-on-trump-government-is-going-to-kill-this-guy

    40

  • #
    pat

    Fox’s legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, tweets re his claim on Hannity Show yesterday (link in comments on jo’s Trump/SOTU thread).
    needs Intel Committee members to come forward to confirm or deny:

    3 Feb: Twitter: Gregg Jarrett, Formerly a trial attorney, Jarrett is a legal and political analyst for Fox New Channel
    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett, Fox Legal Analyst: A 2nd source has now confirmed to me that, in a meeting on January 10, Deputy A-G Rosenstein used the power of his office to threaten to subpoena the calls & texts of the Intel Committee to get it to stop it’s investigation of DOJ and FBI. Likely an Abuse of Power & Obstruction.

    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: Again, if true, Rosenstein’s action was an illegal abuse of power and he should no longer serve as Deputy Attorney General. He allegedly used threats to try to stop the Intelligence Committee from exposing wrongful behavior in an attempt to cover it up.

    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: Nunes was exercising his constitutional oversight authority by investigating alleged wrongdoing in the FBI and DOJ. Rosenstein, according to the source, threatened to use his power to retaliate against Nunes and others in an effort to intimidate them and stop their legal efforts.

    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: It is a crime for a government official to use his office to threaten anyone, including a member of Congress, for exercising a constitutionally protected right. See 18 USC 242 and other similar abuse of power statutes.

    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: In a meeting with Chairman Devin Nunes, FBI Director Christopher Wray and others, the source says that Rosenstein threatened to subpoena the texts and emails of Congress because he was”tired of dealing with the Intelligence Committee.” If true, Rosenstein must resign or be fired.

    TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: Abuse of power continues still at the Department of Justice. As I reported last night on Hannity, a highly reliable congressional source tells me that 3 weeks ago, on January 10, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein used the power of his office to threaten Members of Congress.
    https://twitter.com/GreggJarrett

    60

  • #
    pat

    2 Feb: Youtube: 6mins29secs: SARA CARTER FULL ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEW WITH SEAN HANNITY (2/2/2018)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=091m0Z4Az2k

    WSJ – behind paywall:

    2 Feb: WSJ: Obama and the FISA Court
    Both of their reputations cannot survive the collusion investigation.
    By James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-and-the-fisa-court-1517608555

    30

  • #
  • #
    pat

    4 Feb: ABC: Elon Musk’s Tesla and SA Labor reach deal to give solar panels and batteries to 50,000 homes
    By political reporter Nick Harmsen
    At least 50,000 homes in SA will be given solar panels and batteries in a scheme by Elon Musk’s Tesla and the SA Government to build the world’s largest virtual power plant, slashing household power bills in the process.

    Under the deal unveiled by Premier Jay Weatherill ahead of the March state election, solar systems and batteries will be supplied and installed free of charge.

    The cost of the project will be financed through the sale of electricity, generated by the panels, in what Mr Weatherill said would be the largest project of its kind.
    The Government will this week issue an expression of interest for a retailer to deliver the program, with the intention of bringing additional competition to the market.
    The retailer will have the right to tap output of the household batteries and solar panels to supply power into the grid.

    A trial of the scheme in 1,100 Housing Trust properties has already begun.
    Following the trial, a further 24,000 systems are set to be installed in Housing Trust properties.
    A similar deal would then be offered to all South Australian households, with at least 50,000 systems to be installed within four years…

    Mr Weatherill said analysis by economic consultancy firm Frontier Economics showed the 250 megawatt system in South Australia would lower energy bills for participating households by 30 per cent.
    “More renewable energy means cheaper power for all South Australians,” Mr Weatherill said.
    “My government has already delivered the world’s biggest battery. Now we will deliver the world’s largest virtual power plant.”…

    Just like the 100-megawatt lithium ion battery already installed near Jamestown in the state’s Mid North region, the virtual power plant scheme is the result of a contractual arrangement between Tesla and South Australian taxpayers…
    The State Government will assist the rollout of the virtual power plant scheme with a $2 million grant and a $30 million loan from the Renewable Technology Fund…

    Liberal Opposition Leader Steven Marshall has already pledged means-tested grants averaging $2,500 to facilitate the installation of batteries in 40,000 homes.
    SA Best Leader Nick Xenophon has promised to unveil an energy policy in coming weeks
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/elon-musk-tesla-to-give-solar-panels-batteries-to-sa-homes/9394352

    40

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Geez I can’t wait to see what happens on one of those cloudy ,sunny, cloudy days and of course no mention of base power at all .

      80

      • #
        pat

        31 Jan: SolarPowerPortal: David Pratt: Just 300MW of solar to be built from current Irish pipeline, says Amarenco
        Just 300MW of the near 6GW pipeline of large scale solar projects in Ireland is likely to get built, according to John Mullins, chief executive officer of Amarenco.

        Mullins was speaking at this week’s Solar Finance and Investment Europe, event organised by Solar Power Portal publisher Solar Media. Discussing opportunities in Ireland alongside Anthony Doherty, group corporate finance director at NTR, Mullins explained that only the ‘shovel-ready’ products – those with both a grid connection and planning permission – will be permitted owing to Ireland’s many constraining factors.

        “There is no way in hell…that the Irish grid under any circumstances will be able to take GW of solar. In fact it will struggle to take 1GW of solar.
        “The capacity in many rural areas just isn’t there. The cost of connection for putting in a new transformer would be absolutely punitive in the context of building a 5-6MW plant,” he said…

        Both planning and heritage authorities are said to have issues granting permission to build solar on land which could be used to support the wider aspects of the Irish economy.
        Community opposition is also playing a role…READ ALL
        https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/just_300mw_of_solar_to_be_built_from_current_irish_pipeline_says_amarenco_c

        40

      • #
        toorightmate

        Who needs base load when Elon jumps on board!!
        The Oh Bummer handout has disappeared.
        So who’s the next sucker in line? Penny Wrong’s old boyfriend (the antithesis of the Rhodes Scholar).

        61

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        But Robert,
        you are working in the real world rather the “virtual world” where the sun shines every day all the time.

        P.S. Weatherill promised 5,000 homes would get this before the 2014 election but only 400 got it.

        00

    • #
      yarpos

      “lower energy bills for participating households by 30 per cent” and everyone else?

      60

    • #

      Thanks for the off-topic cut’n’paste, Pat!

      02

  • #
    pat

    3 Feb: Fox: Wall St Journal Editorial: A Reckoning for the FBI: House Memo Reveals Disturbing Facts About the Misuse of FISA
    Now we know why the FBI tried so hard to block release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. And why Democrats and the media want to change the subject to Republican motivations. The four-page memo released Friday reports disturbing facts about how the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath.

    The White House declassified the memo Friday, and you don’t have to be a civil libertarian to be shocked by the details. The memo confirms that the FBI and Justice Department on Oct. 21, 2016 obtained a FISA order to surveil Carter Page, an American citizen who was a relatively minor volunteer adviser to the Trump presidential campaign.

    The memo says an “essential” part of the FISA application was the “dossier” assembled by former British spy Christopher Steele and the research firm Fusion GPS that was hired by a law firm attached to the Clinton campaign. The memo adds that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told the committee in December 2017 that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” without the dossier.

    This is troubling enough, but the memo also discloses that the FBI failed to inform the FISA court that the Clinton campaign had funded the dossier. The memo says the FBI supported its FISA application by “extensively” citing a September 2016 article in Yahoo News that contained allegations against Mr. Page. But the FBI failed to tell the court that Mr. Steele and Fusion were the main sources for that Yahoo article. In essence the FBI was citing Mr. Steele to corroborate Mr. Steele.

    Unlike a normal court, FISA doesn’t have competing pleaders. The FBI and Justice appear ex parte as applicants, and thus the judges depend on candor from both. Yet the FBI never informed the court that Mr. Steele was in effect working for the Clinton campaign. The FBI retained Mr. Steele as a source, and in October 2016 he talked to Mother Jones magazine without authorization about the FBI investigation and his dossier alleging collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The FBI then fired Mr. Steele, but it never told the FISA judges about that either. Nor did it tell the court any of this as it sought three subsequent renewals of the order on Mr. Page…(LINKS TO WSJ, BEHIND PAYWALL, FOR FULL EDITORIAL)
    http://nation.foxnews.com/2018/02/03/reckoning-fbi-house-memo-reveals-disturbing-facts-about-misuse-fisa

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    pat

    includes MSM screenshots…

    3 Feb: The Federalist: Mainstream Media Outlets Banish Contents Of Republican Memo From Front Page Coverage
    Outlets including The New York Times are burying the allegation laid out in the memo that the FBI abused its power to spy on a Trump campaign member.
    By Rachel Stoltzfoos
    The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and other mainstream outlets blocked these explosive allegations from their home pages Friday night, in some cases mischaracterizing the contents of the memo and downplaying its significance…READ ON
    http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/03/mainstream-media-banishes-contents-of-gop-memo-from-front-page-coverage/

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    • #
      TdeF

      Yes, unlike Nixon a Republican, this is the Democrat party paying for a wiretap of their opposition, organized by no less than the Justice Department and the FBI. It remains to be seen when the left leaning press start to admit there might be a bit of a problem with the legality of the wiretap. The Democrats eaten alive by a nothing burger, but the burger is out of the box and it is a mess.

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    TdeF

    Two more candidates for prosecution are probably Bruce Ohr and his wife. Now that has to be a problem for both.

    “Memo reveals how smear firm Fusion GPS employed wife of its top Justice Department contact – but nobody told the judge who issued the wire tap warrant.”

    and..

    “Justice Department official Bruce Ohr found his way into the Russia investigation in a circuitous way. He knew a former British intelligence officer who authored the controversial dossier alleging contacts between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and — apparently at the intelligence officer’s urging — discussed the matter with the opposition research firm that hired the officer to dig into Trump.”

    So unless you have Chinese walls at home, you have the Justice Department on both sides of this, pushing Steele to his wife’s employer Fusion GPS who in turn paid for the the Steele report and pushed it to the FBI. Then “Within the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is responsible to the Attorney General”.

    The Attorney General was Loretta Lynch who had that tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton at the time of the investigation into her garage file server as Secretary of State.

    The question is starting, who isn’t involved? Are we going to see another Attorney General in jail, as was John Mitchell in Watergate?

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    • #
      TdeF

      As Pat reported and I repeat..

      TWEET: Gregg Jarrett: Abuse of power continues still at the Department of Justice. As I reported last night on Hannity, a highly reliable congressional source tells me that 3 weeks ago, on January 10, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein used the power of his office to threaten Members of Congress.

      So two Attorney Generals or is that Attorneys General? They can argue that on the inside.

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      • #
        Extreme Hiatus

        “So two Attorney Generals or is that Attorneys General?”

        Don’t forget the AG before Lynch, Eric Holder who was there for Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS and more.

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    • #
      Extreme Hiatus

      Did you catch this bit about Nellie Ohr?

      “Wife of DOJ Deputy Was Fusion GPS Employee, CIA Research Aide, and Applied for HAM Radio License Month After Contracting MI6 Agent Christopher Steele…

      In short, Mrs. Nelli Ohr would know that using HAM radio frequencies would be a way to avoid the risk of U.S. intelligence intercepts on her communications.”

      https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/12/12/wife-of-doj-deputy-was-fusion-gps-employee-cia-research-aid-and-applied-for-ham-radio-license-month-after-contracting-mi6-agent-christopher-steele/

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      • #
        TdeF

        So there is a suggestion of real cloak and dagger and ham radio. Microdots anyone? Enigma? Maybe she just wants to talk to her family who cannot afford mobile phones?

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        • #
          Extreme Hiatus

          She may well be thinking more of her family, and the good old days, more now. The whole thing is like a fantastic spy novel.

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      • #
        Chris in Hervey Bay

        Ham radio, at face value, appears to be low Tech.
        A modern Transceiver coupled to a computer via a modern digital interface, is a very effective way of getting around Government surveillance.
        Files can be encrypted and stored on thumb drives and then burnt after use. Nothing left on the computer, never was on the computer.
        And transmission speeds can almost equal internet speeds. Lets face it, your mobile phone is only a fancy Walkie Talkie (radio) working through a repeater (cell tower).
        Nothing new in this world, just have to think outside the box.
        Chris…VK4-xxx

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  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    BIG NEWS re “The media is part of the deep state”

    “So Christopher Steele was meeting with journalists, the journalists were writing articles; the FBI was leaking to media and citing articles as underlying evidence to support their counterintelligence investigations; and all of this was used to validate the investigative documents the FBI was receiving from Christopher Steele; who, along with the leaking FBI officials, was also the source of the media articles.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/03/this-is-madness-the-media-are-just-as-complicit-in-the-doj-corruption-and-fisa-abuse/#more-145439

    Definitely worth reading it all. This isn’t from “sources.” It is from court and FBI documents! Catastrophic news for the Fake News machine and it is not fake news.

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  • #
    RoHa

    I know that Australia slavishly follows the US in all its idiotic policies, and that Australian politicians are little more than US agents, but do we really need blow-by-blow accounts of Washington infighting? We can do nothing about it, other than touch our caps and say “Yes, Master” to whomever comes out on top.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Australian politicians are little more than EU and UN agents. Never US agents!

      The implications here is that Trump is at war with the elites who control not only the US government, but also the EU. Abbott had to be removed before the Paris meeting as did the Canadian PM. None of that was accidental.

      The significance for us is that Trump may win a major victory here, we can get out of the Paris agreement, remove the RET and get back to having the world’s cheapest electricity.

      The Deep State not only runs Europe, it runs the US and Australia. There are 10,000 unelected people in Brussels who earn more than the British PM. 60% of laws which affect British people are written overseas by unelected officials. The same is happening everywhere. The RET is a classic example, neither tax nor on carbon, but the world’s biggest (and utterly hidden) carbon tax and the money flows overseas like a river, $6 million a week and another $6Million a week to energy companies who trouser the lot, which is why we pay so much.

      Any win for Trump is a win for ending the Green Money Machine, run out of the swamp.

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    • #
      ivan

      it matters hugely…the same activists are pushing the AGW meme.

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  • #

    The dangerous upshot of the Russia beat-up is that a president of the US is presently in the position of being unable to negotiate with Russia.

    Let’s leave aside rights and wrongs, black hats/white helmets etc because we’re talking about negotiation, not justification. We have the shooting down of another Russian jet, legally present in Syrian airspace, with high-end weaponry (McCain’s contribution? Hillary’s?) at the same time that the US is confronting a NATO partner in Northern Syria.

    The dream of pipelines across the Middle East has been – or should have been – shattered by the reality of Turkey’s and Qatar’s own new agendas. The romance of the Kurds requires us to believe that Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria will abandon not only critical oil and land to an expansionist minority, but the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. The main taps? Really?

    This is just one set of problems, and I’m not proposing anyone as a good guy or bad guy. But if the POTUS is not free to talk with Russia how do you even get a cynical or temporary compromise, let alone a sane one?

    Okay, there are idealists who really can’t accept anything less than hugs, freedom, democracy and colour revolutions for Ukraine and Kurdistan and will even settle for the CNN-style illusion. But there are also people, clearly very highly placed in both admin and intelligence, who don’t care about hugs and colour revolutions but really want war. They see this shutdown of negotiation as a good thing. It just can’t be.

    No use saying nobody would be this foolish or wicked. They were saying that in 1914.

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    • #
      Extreme Hiatus

      “The dangerous upshot of the Russia beat-up is that a president of the US is presently in the position of being unable to negotiate with Russia.”

      I agree. Very dangerous. Very. Too many Dr. Strangelove characters, 1914 type triggers, building tensions, instability and nukes galore.

      But let’s not think about that. The biggest challenge we face is Climate Change.

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    michael

    What people get wrong about the Deep State is that it is not political. They favour their own interests. Most are nominally republican. They like their total incompetence at stopping the enemies of the US and getting more money and power. They liked the Democratic Party because they were so corrupt that it was child’s play getting more of what they got before. They’d have been happy to directly help Clinton’s election but it was too much exposure and probably somewhat deluded about her chances- these guys are generally hopeless. Senator McCain happy with the Deep State as a swamp politician they never want the uselessness/corruptness of the FBI and Justice Dept (and others) to ever come to light. Russia has its deep state so it not as effective as it could so it doesn’t need stopping.

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    yarpos

    I am just in awe of the Democrats felbility with the truth and how they move on as if “I didnt reall say that”

    First the resist release via there minion organisations
    Then they claim intellence armegaeddon, exposure of State secrets, exposure of foreign powers secrets (nada)
    Then they say its nothing really, “is that all”
    Then its outrageous and perhaps illegal
    Then its witch hunt, not sure how disclsure of facts is a witch hunt

    and on it goes , whatever the rationale du jour is just gets blurted out, doesnt matter because it will be different tomorrow

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    • #
      TdeF

      There are two approaches.

      Firstly the media will bury it, not mention it, make sure most Americans cannot view it but then there’s the internet.

      Secondly, they will obfuscate, smokescreen, divert attention, everything possible to confuse the public when the issue is quite clear. The Clinton’s Democratic party organized and paid for a wire tap on Trump’s campaign. The Democrats and the FBI and DOJ were part of a conspiracy to pervert the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution by misleading a judge, repeatedly. It could not be more serious unless and until some connection with the White House is uncovered.

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      • #
        TdeF

        The only amusing difference between this and Nixon is that the Republicans championed free enterprise and used professional criminals to wire tap the opposition in an election. The Democrats used the DOJ, FBI and public servants and public money, not their own. Hardly free enterprise.

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      • #
        Another Ian

        TdeF

        The real progress of either is

        ” but then there’s the internet.”

        Of which more are becoming aware it would seem

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      • #
        Extreme Hiatus

        If Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé put it on their Twitter feeds that would reach a lot of Dems.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Hi Jo,

    SA is the column inches gift that just keeps on giving….

    http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/how-tesla-sa-labor-free-battery-scheme-would-work/9394728

    “South Australia’s Labor Premier Jay Weatherill has unveiled what he expects to be a vote-winning power policy before the March state election — ‘free’ solar panels and Tesla batteries for 50,000 homes.

    And it’s all thanks to the guy on the right. Yep, it’s the latest gift in the ongoing bromace between Mr Weatherill and billionaire Tesla boss Elon Musk, after the pair teamed up to help fund the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery (which is already producing power in the South Australian grid).

    “Free?” I hear you ask. They say nothing is certain but death and taxes.

    This deal will involve some of the latter (a $2 million taxpayer-funded grant and $30 million loan to Tesla), plus a significant catch — the power generated by the solar panels and the batteries will not be owned directly by the households, but may well be sold back to them via a retailer.

    First things first. What is a ‘Virtual Power Plant’?
    A VPP is trendy terminology for distributed electricity generation. It’s a bit like the internet. Or bitcoin.

    The idea is that by sharing surplus energy produced by rooftop solar panels when not being used, all consumers can benefit.”

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  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    oops… there

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    The South African equivelent of our power problems?

    Kind of has echoes of that South African movie “District 9” and all the marie celeste overtones of South Africa in an alternate future……

    http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-south-africa-water-crisis-20180119-story.html

    “Cape Town, South Africa’s second-largest city, is facing its worst drought in a century, with its water supply expected to run dry April 21.

    They’re calling it “Day Zero.” In this city of 4 million, people will have to line up in the streets at just 200 water stations. The police and army will enforce a limit of 6.6 gallons per person and adopt measures to control crowds. Some experts believe evacuations will be necessary.”

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    • #
      AndyG55

      A decent coal or gas fired power station, running a decent desal plant, would solve this problem quiet quickly.

      Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have some.. unused.. Some weather damage on the one from Sydney

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “The Problem Isn’t Just Corruption at the FBI and Main Justice, It’s Also The Media…”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/24/the-problem-isnt-just-corruption-at-the-fbi-and-main-justice-its-also-the-media/

    “This is Madness – The Media are Just as Complicit In The DOJ Corruption and FISA Abuse…”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/03/this-is-madness-the-media-are-just-as-complicit-in-the-doj-corruption-and-fisa-abuse/comment-page-2/#comments

    “Reader Mike Murphy takes the Today Show’s Professor Joe Siracusa to task on the FISA memo”

    http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2018/02/reader-mike-murphy-takes-the-today-shows-professor-joe-siracusa-to-task-on-the-fisa-memo.html#comment-6a0177444b0c2e970d01b8d2d72915970c

    And what else in Oz?

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  • #
    Doc

    1. Hilary is alleged to have paid Steele for the dossier.
    2. Steele got input from the Russians to manufacture the dossier which I believe even he has stated is full of unproven stories and outright lies.
    3. The higher echelons of the FBI used the dossier (without stating its source and funding – the Clinton campaign) in the FISA court to get the warrant to spy on Carter Page and has been used for three 90day renewals.
    4. It is the only basis for which the warrant could have been made (Rosenstein) connecting the Trump campaign to the Russians and birthing the Mueller Inquiry.

    Surely, the Mueller Inquiry should be redirected to examine the Democrat campaign where alleged/proven Russian collusion has occured (Steele is just the cutout man) and where the real colluders have been named and should be indicted.

    This is probably the reason for the entire, full frontal Democrat onslaught against the release of the memo. There is no belittling of the FBI staff where the total embarrassment is being laid at the feet of its appointed leaders. Similarly for the DOJ and Lynch’s meeting with Bill Clinton. Then there has to be an investigation of the relationships and meetings that may have occured between these leaders, the Clinton campaign people and the major Press networks
    who have totally taken the Democrat line and totally ‘ignored’ these matters until the memo (a bare summary only) was composed by the Republicans of the Congress oversight committee and released by Trump. The actual facts of the memo seem not to be debated as true, but the argument they are incompletely presented comes from demands, by the FBI to protect the FBI methodology and people. For Mueller and everyone else, this memo only represents around 15% of
    the material still to come n a series of following memos.

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  • #
    Another Ian

    “Pointman says:
    February 4, 2018 at 7:38 am

    1

    0

    Rate this comment

    Nunes: FISA Memo Just “Phase One,” Now Targeting State Department In “Phase Two”.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-03/nunes-fisa-memo-just-phase-one-now-targeting-state-department-phase-two

    Oh dear, and there was the State Dept. thinking they’d escaped the shit storm.

    Pointy”

    https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/treason/

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  • #
    Jim

    Sorry, wrong. The FBI, was political ly compromised, years prior to this latest debacale. You could say since it’s founding. Are lawyers trained in the best American schools liberal? Those are the chosen ones to lead the departments and therefore chosen to lead the agency. The lawyers investigators are not from Berkeley, not from Chicago, but vmi, Yale, and Harvard, real liberal hotbeds, right.
    Naturally, those people chosen would represent the liberal agenda. Pursue the same agendas as the others?
    So, yes, I will agree with you, they are political, but, wrong ways. They are not liberal. They are agenda driven, but not liberal agenda driven, not even centerist driven,
    And the FBI is not srs, which is a political appointment, but a cadre appointment schedule. FBI cadre.

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  • #

    The only way for Trump to restore confidence in the FBI, DOJ and FISA may be to freeze the “higher functions” of those agencies until an independent investigation can purge those agencies of the corrupt. The rule of law must be seen to apply equally to all.

    The released memo is probably not enough to convict, but it ought to be enough to cause the release of the FISA application, signed by Comey and the Director of the DOJ. Those signatures, in conjunction with already established facts, would find those heads culpable in the deliberate omission of information in the FISA application, leading to the unlawful surveillance of US citizens. Malfeasance and perjury. More serious charges (e.g. treason) could be laid as their application deliberately sought to portray Carter Page as a foreign agent, whose surveillance caused resources to be deployed; not in the interests of national security but in the pursuit of political goals.

    Prosecutors must ensure that the rule of law is seen to apply equally to all.

    After the first prosecutions, there are bound to be waves of resignations from the agencies. It is not sufficient to have the corrupt merely resign. It may be expedient in their removal but the rule of law applies equally to all. Investigators should identify who can be prosecuted and what charges can be made to stick. Not a “witch hunt”, but a pursuit of those who have broken the law while in a position of public trust.

    While Trump has no allies in Deep State, Deep State has many enemies. Perhaps more than 100 million who have seen or suffered the excesses of State first hand.

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    • #
      Ross

      Bernd

      The memo is really a summary of the executive summary. There are hundreds of thousands of pages behind it. So what you say about the memo is not enough to convict is correct on it’s own but taken together with the background data for the points made there will be plenty to enable a conviction.

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  • #

    Everyone is talking about The Nunes memo,

    It hasn’t even made the television news here in New Zealand. What a corrupt entity TVNZ is!

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  • #
    Another Ian

    More questions this morning

    “Memo Fallout: Nine Questions About James Comey’s Role in Fueling Russia Collusion Conspiracy”

    http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/02/04/memo-fallout-nine-questions-james-comeys-role-fueling-russia-collusion-conspiracy/

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  • #
    Mickey Reno

    Warning: curse word advisedly used in this post. Read on at your own risk.

    I believe the Steele “dossier” is an attempt at [SNIP “bad stuff”] by the Hillary Clinton campaign. It never had to be true, it only had to be lurid and marginally plausible, vague enough so as not to be immediately dismissed. Once it became clear that Trump would win the nomination, it needed to be “leaked” to the media. That Steele also tried to make it into multiple revenue streams was fine with Hillary, as long as he didn’t do anything to destroy it’s superficial credibility. The more mystery surrounding the dossier itself, it’s creation, could only assist in building it’s [SNIP “bad”] value.

    Sympathetic FBI agents then took over to soothe their own sense of pro-Democrat outrage. They took the thin gruel of a campaign oppo-research [SNIP] and turned it into an official investigation as an insurance policy against a Trump victory as Peter Strzok said he wanted. The dumb [SNIP] just didn’t understand that there was nothing any [SNIP] could say about Trump that Trump wasn’t already guilty of, and some CNN anchor hadn’t already been apoplectic about. ha ha ha ha what a bunch of dummies.

    [Despite the warning, the crass had to go. Too lurid, sorry. – Jo]

    10

  • #
    Richard Greene

    And to show how incompetent
    goobermint bureaucrats are
    they still couldn’t stop Trump !

    And maybe that is the good
    news that everyone is
    overlooking.

    My politics blog:
    http://www.ElectionCircus.Blogspot.com

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  • #
    philthegeek

    And then there was…dah dah dah dah dah dah……..

    🙂

    01

  • #
    Dennis

    Moscow has seen its heaviest snowfall in a day since records began, with more than 2,000 trees brought down and air travel disrupted, officials say.
    More than half the monthly average snow – 38cm (15 inches) – fell on Saturday, beating the previous record from 1957.

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  • #
    Amber

    Comey and his little band of FBI traitors placed a bet and lost . Hillary would win .
    Then they doubled down on it and lost again when Trump was elected .
    The guy is an egotistical A Hole and a traitor who tried to take down a duly elected President by lying to FISA Court using a national enquirer piece of garbage paid for by his Democrat pals . The … insurance policy .
    Comey “That’s It ? response to the “memo ‘ shows what a delusional idiot he is .
    Let’s see now . He is an admitted leaker . First time leaking to his friend ? Really ? Not exactly a characteristic FBI recruiters seek out .
    Imagine the lost credibility when the guy who is supposed to be a role model turns out to be a self serving flake ?
    No that’s not it .

    Never forget that video of this two faced walking across to shake Trumps hand . He should have manned up and quit but oh no
    then he wouldn’t have so cleverly plotted to have his friend hired . Nice to have the Uranium 1 crowd in one big circle though .

    So stepping back… given the bags of money directed at the Clinton’s by the Russians and the sell out 20% of the USA uranium , who would the Russians actually think they owned ? Clinton or Trump ? Leverage forever over the Clintons , the FBI top brass , or Trump ?

    “Is that it ” ? Sadly No … But really is any more necessary ? The winners of all of this is the FBI . They got rid of a little clique of really poor gamblers .

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    Tom O

    By the way, lost in this whole mess was the fact that in the beginning, the dossier was also linked to John McCain’s organization for funding.

    10

  • #
    Amber

    John McCain is a little ball of Trump hate . Now why of all people would the FBI and Democrats target McCain to try and
    enlist his services ?… Other than it would be so easy . The FBI knew full well what was coming as Steel was their paid stooge . They had to cut him lose when he tried to honor his contract to Hillary’s campaign by flogging the Democrat hit piece on Trump to the media . If he hadn’t tried to sell the Democrat bought ,paid for, and written garbage would anyone have found out he was already on the FBI payroll ?
    Now Steel is in deep deep shit and he has gone to ground . He wouldn’t want to be “robbed ” like Seth Rich now would he .

    10