The pieces are falling into place.
It is quite a spectacle. AOL this morning offered a poll showing that people want a special prosecutor to look into the Trump-Russian connection. It’s no wonder, given the daily bombardment of innuendo the networks drop on viewers. Never mind the constant insults by the late night idiots and even reporters. Scott Pelley has completely abandoned pretending to be a journalist. CBS This Morning hammered Trump again today and Matt Lauer was nasty to Chris Christie.
Day after day after day it’s “What is Trump hiding?’
Let’s back up a second.
Let’s remember that this is the same garbage media that didn’t question what Putin had on obama, despite obama’s repeated obsequiousness toward Putin. This is the same garbage media that let slide the Hillary-Bill-Russian nexus with Bill getting $500,000 for two minute speech and the coincidence of more than $145 million subsequently pouring into the Clinton Foundation while US uranium stockpiles were being sold to Russia.
Also today two democrat Senators (Burr and Warner) suggested that the investigation into the Trump-Russia connection was the most grave in the history of the country.
What is it that the Russians are supposed to have done with Trump? Have you heard anyone specify what that is?
Of course not.
So what do we know? We know that there was no alteration in vote tallies. I have yet hear anyone admit that their vote for hillary was changed to Trump because of the Russians- and I have asked.
We also know that a crime was committed. Gen. Michael Flynn was unmasked as a participant in a conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. We do not know yet who did it or who leaked it but FBI Director Comey said it could have been the White House or the DOJ.
As I said, more pieces are falling in to place.
At the very end of his Presidency, obama altered the rules so that a very large number of agencies could get access to the identity of Americans who normally would remain anonymous:
And in his final days in office, Obama created the largest ever expansion of access to non-minimized NSA intercepts, creating a path for all U.S. intelligence to gain access to unmasked reports by changes encoded in a Reagan-era Executive Order 12333.
The government officials who could request or approve an exception to unmask a U.S. citizen’s identity has grown substantially. The NSA now has 20 executives who can approve the unmasking of American information inside intercepts, and the FBI has similar numbers.
And executives in 16 agencies — not just the FBI, CIA and NSA — have the right to request unmasked information.
“This raises serious concerns that agencies that have responsibilities such as prosecuting domestic crimes, regulating our financial policy, and enforcing our immigration laws will now have access to a wealth of personal information that could be misused. Congress needs to take action to regulate and provide oversight over these activities,” ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani warned in January.
Which would explain how there were nine separate individuals from different agencies who could confirm Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak.
We also learn that the outgoing obama administration was scooping up as much information on the Trump team as possible before they left.
A former top Obama administration official has acknowledged efforts by her colleagues to gather intelligence on Trump team ties to Russia before Donald Trump took office and to conceal the sources of that intelligence from the incoming administration.
Evelyn Farkas, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, made the disclosure March 2 while on the air with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski.
“I was urging my former colleagues and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill, it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration,” Farkas, who is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said.
“Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left, so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy … that the Trump folks – if they found out how we knew what we knew about their … the Trump staff dealing with Russians – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.”
A couple more things. Trump did not say he was wiretapped. He said he had his “wires tapped.” Very different things. “Wiretapping” obviously means surveillance of any kind and it is clear that Trump and his team were surveilled. The order to either wiretap or surveil the Trump team does not come from the President. The President cannot order this. The order has to come from the DOJ- most likely the Attorney General.
To suggest that any of this could transpire without the knowledge of the President is not credible. Allowing the identity of Americans who normally remain masked to be widely circulated to virtually guarantee it being leaked is a baldly political action.
obama knew since 2015 that the Russians were making an effort to “hack” the election, as it were, but he did nothing and said nothing. The NY Times would have you believe it was because obama was “loathe” to interfere in the election- as if he was ever loathe to interfere in elections ( see Israel and Brexit). It’s bullsh*t. obama chose not to say anything as he fully believed hillary’s electoral triumph was a fait accompli.
It is difficult to accept that there is any real merit to the Trump-Russia allegations. Had there been anything, obama would already have engineered a leak of anything substantial. As it is, he has only created confusion by leaking Flynn’s communications with Kislyak- and muddying the waters may well have been the goal. Flynn’s transgression was being dishonest about his exchanges with the Russian Ambassador. Contacting Kislyak was no crime. obama himself undercut the current Bush by negotiating with Iran prior to his be becoming President. In return, Iran supported obama in the 2008 election.
Where was the outrage? Where were the demands for investigations?
So frankly, democrats, ESAD.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Where are the drugs? Where’s the oxycotin?
Good summary of the situation to this point. If anyone thinks the US does not try to influence elections in foreign countries, they just a not applying reason.
Obama and his acts of treason releasing hundreds of dangerous crinimals bringing in so called refugees civilian disarniment abuse of power(Executive Orders)sneering his big fat anout at the law turning the whitehouse purple for Prince and rainbow for the gays but not blue for the police appointing a cabinet of crooks signing having a traitor in his cabinet(John Kerry)who signed the Small Arms Control Treaty with the Useless Nations appoligised to the world trashed america. He needs life in prison and no visits,book or movie deals and no parole,clemency,pardon or plea bargins and fed on bread and water/ A idea for his presidential LIE-BRARY a outhouse or portapotty enrough room for a pen and phone
the radical muslin terrorist, ex pres allowed for the return of refugee warriors, several hundred a year. the doj and fbi have lost the files and data on the terrorist-orders to delete came from the wipe house.
Something the Dems have not come out and openly stated is exactly what statute President Trump or his advisors have specifically violated. Why?
Also, referencing “The President cannot order this (wiretapping). The order has to come from the DOJ- most likely the Attorney General.” I disagree, see 50 U.S.C. 1802(a)(1) “Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that…”
If one applies a tiny amt of logic to all the media bru ha ha it seems the ones that were tampering illegally or unethically with the election process it was the ones that are screaming about Trump not being a legit Prez. They become more and more frustrated as none of their angles work, Russia, sanity ect. As it seems anyone that gets close to uncovering real evidence of their crimes must step aside from an investigation. Tilting at windmills seems to be the new liberal hobby.
The investigation needs to be aimed at Obama’s weaponizing and politicizing of every aspect of our government.
@Bill: Doesnt it seem that the vacationing by a former President has been extended extra long?
Don’t worry, Adam Schiff has all the evidence showing Trump and Putin conspired to steal the election from Hillary. He just hasn’t released it to anyone yet because he’s too busy ranting about wanting to get Nunes recused for similar accusations of withholding evidence. Perhaps his evidence comes from the same unsubstantiated and discredited sources he has been using all along.
Amazing how after all these years, the dems have come around to realize that the Russians spy on us. The rest of us have known that for years. We also knew not to trust Putin. Of course when Bush was POTUS, the dems and left applauded Putin for attacking him every chance they could get. Putin was one of their knights in shining armor. How times change.
@another vet:
Well, I’ll even bet it was going on back in the 1950’s and 60’s. Anyone watch “The Americans”, that seems to indicate there was much infiltration into the USA even back in the 70’s and 80’s. I’ll bet a lot of that was to ‘influence’ what went on in the US. The liberal Dumbocraps seem to want to believe it was only invented while Obozo was president. Intel seems to know for sure that Obozo knew about it, at least back in 2015 but didn’t want to reveal it because he was sure it was going to fail and Hillary would win in spite of it. I’ll bet he was surprised. Probably still kicking himself.
@Redteam:
Perhaps this little blurb, mainly the bold typed paragraph, that the MSM is burying has something to do with it.
://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/03/omg-russia-threatens-publish-leaks-things-obama-asked-moscow-keep-secret/
What may be happening in their efforts to stage what is looking more and more like a coup, is that there are a lot of people who were in bed with Russia (including team Trump) to make money and what they are trying to do is nail him without outing themselves. It was just reported that “anonymous sources” outed Nunes’ sources to the NYT who in turn published their names. I don’t ever recall this type of a transition going on between Presidents. David and I used to talk about how Obama was doing his best to turn this country into a banana republic. This is about all the proof one could ask for. Make no mistake, we’d be going through something similar regardless of which Republican would have beaten Hillary, including Kasich. They just would have found another angle other than the Russian one and unlike Trump, he wouldn’t have fought back because he is not aggressive enough.
Tell me would 100 years in prison be too easy for Obama?
Perhaps worse than the leftists we had running the government trying to destroy a legally elected President is the way their sycophantic followers cheer on the erosion of our rights and security.
@another vet:
I have seen NO credible evidence that Trump has been or is doing anything with the Russians. I believe the Russians ‘might’ have preferred Trump to deal with, or maybe not, because Hillary had arranged huge Uranium sales to Russia. How much friendlier do they need a president to be. I think the Russians wanted Hillary elected. They had them in their pockets.
@Redteam: Just imagine the trove of blackmail fodder they would have on Hillary and Bill. Did the Russians know something none of the political or media predictors knew and believed Trump could actually win? I hardly think so. Imagine, if the polls had been correct, the monumental amount of effort and affect the Russians would have had to employ to help Trump overcome the hurdle that was shown he had to clear. Had they actually WANTED Trump to win, their involvement would not have been doubted; it would have been overwhelming.
In the end, the Russians must be ecstatic with the results of whatever they did. I doubt they could have imagined the idiotic uproar them being used as an excuse for the Democrats losing has wrought.
@Redteam: I said, “Team Trump”. A number of them have had business dealings with Russia, including Trump, certainly not to the extent of the nine figure dealings Team Clinton had. And those dealings would need to be proven to be criminal in nature.
What is amazing (actually not considering who we are dealing with) is that charges of Russian interference apparently goes back to 2008. Notice that there was never any concern amongst the dems about it back then nor were they very concerned with who Putin wanted in the WH. Ditto for 2012. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out why. If Hillary would have won, none of this would be an issue to the dems.
What needs to happen is someone needs to go on the national stage and call the dems out once and for all. Start with the dems in Congress who are calling this an act of war. Tell them they have one week to introduce a resolution in Congress calling for a Declaration of War against Russia. Make it huge news as the country deserves to know the reasons why the dems are talking war. They’ll either declare it or cower away showing they are sensationalists playing politics. Next up comes Obama’s legacy. Applying the dems’ Russia war charge as the standard, from now on we need to say that Obama committed acts of war against France and Israel since he stuck his nose in their elections.
Lastly, tell the dems they need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that four things happened:
1. There was a conspiracy between Team Trump and Putin to “steal” the election from Hillary.
2. The Russians affected the outcome of the election.
3. Team Trump committed crimes.
4. Trump committed an impeachable offense.
If they can prove three and four beyond a reasonable doubt then the offenders (unlike Hillary, Fast and Furious, and Obama’s IRS) need to be tried, convicted, and sent to jail. In addition, Trump (unlike Obama) should be impeached. If they can’t do this then this needs to be regarded as a coup designed to remove the duly elected POTUS. Those involved from the leakers up to the top need to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison for sedition at a minimum. Of course they can also let those of us who took an oath to protect the country from all enemies foreign and domestic take care of the problem.
@another vet: The one problem with your scenario is also the reason why that scenario is necessary in the first place: the liberal media.
If the media was objective and doing its job (which does NOT happen to be maintaining the smoke screen for the Democrats) our situation would be vastly different right now. There would have been no spying. There would have been no Trump/Clinton election. Hell, there probably would not have been an Obama second term.
But to your point, none of that works without politicians fearing repercussions for their actions. No Democrat fears exposure and denunciation through the media; that’s who is protecting them. So, they can stand up and lie before Congress, lie to the people and lie to the media without fear. Meanwhile, those trying to bring the insurrectionists to justice are besieged by the media and their constituents who are being fed media lies.
Despots cannot exist without an effective propaganda machine and the Democrats have theirs. Somehow, that has to be circumvented and only Trump has managed to accomplish that.
Poor Farkas now is singing a different tune, while on MSNBC she tried to take credit bragging about her part in bringing Trump down with intelligence inside playing ordering them to dig and spread. Then somewhere she gets wind that what she claimed to do is a felony, now the story changes, some where in the last couple of days she is victim of fake news.
Damn these Dems are low IQ. in any event she needs to get hauled into the FBI and questioned about her involvement in spying on the Opposition party during the election.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Without Obama, there would have been no Trump. As for Hillary, I actually think her chances to win the WH would have been better without Obama. She would have been able to campaign more to the slight left of center like Bill instead of having to go way left like Obama and thus turn off independents and working class voters. Of course being corrupt and a felonious handler of classified material didn’t help either.
So, because the Obama administration did not leak something, there is nothing to it.
Nothing to Benghazzzi.
Nothing to Fast and Furious 5.
Nothing to ………
Next in DrJohn logic:
“Just because you don’t see me doing illegal drugs, doesn’t mean I don’t”
By far Obama has was americas all time #1 worst presidents in americas over 240 year history andhe belongs in jail along with quite a few other politicna Two Clintons One Gore and a Keith Ellison idiot along with Eric Holder and tax cheat Al Sharpton
@PhillipMarlowe: Obama and Hillary left personnel exposed in Benghazi then lies about it. Obama and Holder ran guns to Mexico which got Americans and Mexicans killed then lied about it. These are established facts.
Now, where are the established facts showing Trump or anyone in his campaign or transition team colluded with Russians? Where?
This has been investigated and all that has been revealed by the investigations is that the Obama administration exceeded its authority in bugging and revealing the names of Trump personnel.
@Bill- Deplorable Me:Keep making it up, BillyBoy -D.
@PhillipMarlowe: If I am making it up, PROVE IT, little boy.
It’s all fact, all history.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Prove It?
I’ll prove a negative when you tell us when you stopped beating up your partner.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Phulup? LOL
@PhillipMarlowe: You could provide an actual fact to refute my statement. Oh, that’s right… facts are not part of a liberal’s arsenal.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Those statements are false.
You lie!
again
and
again
@PhillipMarlowe: Your stupid opinions based on stupid leftist propaganda is hardly proof. I’ll just take that as a concession to all my points, thank you very much.
While the sh-t piles up deeper and deeper, you keep on pretending nothing is amiss, or that Obama is somehow to blame.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince was part of secret Trump-Russia communication effort, report says
If the report is “a complete fabrication,” why the hell was Prince—a private citizen—even having a meeting with a Putin associate, and what did it have to do with?
There’s got to be an independent probe into the matter of Trump-Russia ties. Nobody with even a smidgen of intelligence is ever going to accept the findings of the Nunes investigation, nor of anyone else who isn’t totally independent of the White House.
McCain: Nunes ‘killed’ bipartisan Russia investigation
Yep. That’s what happens when the head of a supposedly impartial bipartisan investigation goes trotting off to secretly inform the person under investigation of important developments before informing the members of the investigative committee itself.
@Greg: Instead of wasting time and space with more of the straws you are grasping at, why not fulfill the request of the tangible effects of all this Russian interference that turned the election from poor, entitled Hillary to mean old, getting-things-done Trump?
There was FAR MORE real and lucrative connections between Hillary and Russia than all your imaginary collusion of Trump and Russia. Face it.
@Bill- Deplorable Me, #31:
The answer to that question has already been given. The “tangible effect” of Russian interference is Donald Trump in the White House, and all of the benefits to Vladimir Putin’s international ambitions that come along with it. In addition to an impaired, dysfunctional Congress, the United States now has an inept, reality television president, totally clueless about geopolitics and the internal workings of our own government. Knowing nothing himself, he has been busily ridding our State Department of everyone who knew anything.
Of course Hillary Clinton has had her own Russian contacts. She was the nation’s Secretary of State for 4 years. Having contact with highly placed foreign representatives, governmental or otherwise, was her job. Equating such interactions with clandestine connections established by people working with the Trump campaign is absurd.
Was it part of Erik Prince’s job? Maybe someone will clarify what the secret meeting was about, and on whose behalf he attended it. Then we can make some valid comparisons.
@Greg:
Most of that sentence needs corrections and additions.
There now it is close to reality.
Greg, are you under the impression that only government employees are allowed to communicate or deal with the Russians? Then what was Slick Willie getting paid for? and don’t embarrass yourself by saying ‘making speeches’.
@Redteam, #33:
If you’re going to alter my comments to express ideas that are more to your own liking, kindly refrain from placing them inside quotation blocks. The altered statements are no longer quotes.
I’m under the impression that the dealings of private citizens with the representatives of foreign powers are subject to certain restrictions under the Logan Act.
I also don’t like the idea of an adversarial foreign power using disinformation outlets, illegal hacking, and social media manipulation techniques to alter the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. Anyone in the Trump campaign who was aware of and complicit with that effort isn’t fit to serve our country in any capacity. They’ve become unworthy of our trust.
@Greg:
Nah, you only like domestic liberal sources to lie to you.