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Hello. Hell meet Hand Basket.

Submitted by EdMass on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 1:13pm

The Memo.

https://doc-0c-60-apps-viewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer/secure/pdf/38...

The memo claims that on Oct. 21, 2016 the DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order authorizing electronic surveillance on Page. The FBI and DOJ obtained three FISA warrants targeting Page and three FISA renewals, according to the memo. Then-FBI Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one, according to the memo. The memo says then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of the DOJ.

And HRC FTW

That's where the "dossier" — information compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Democrats — comes in. The memo says neither the initial application for the warrant in October 2016 or any of the renewals reference the roles of the Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton's campaign in funding of Steele's efforts — even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nunes-memo-declassified-today-gop-despite-f...

This is gonna leave a mark. Howling and rageous indignation to follow.

What happened to all the names that Shiff, Wray and Rodenstien were so concerned with?

There is way more interesting details than highlighted here.

You should read it.

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Memo

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Comments

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 4:08pm

I just now realize....

....that I have come to expect some reassuring level of corruption in all my dealings with the government, both Federal and local. Especially in the course of a criminal investigation. Police, politicians, publicists — these are not people I would go to for truth and justice.

So, it's a little hard to feel the outrage over a corrupt FISA warrant that happens to ruin the political life of any self-important multimillionaire who pursues a policy of privilege with complete indifference to the number of humans he kills with his selfish negligence. If you know what I mean. Now that I need some old-fashioned blind partisan bias to guide my so-called sense of justice, it seems to be in short supply.

Burn it all down.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 4:46pm

I voted

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic

to support your comment because it is so well written, another gem to enliven the discourse here, but not because I agree with you. It matters. It matters to me that the Democrats used the Justice Department to mislead the American people with horseshit for the purposes of power and war-mongering. I want their imaginary get-out-of-jail-free cards to be exposed as non-existant fantasies. I want them to go to jail.

Submitted by EdMass on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 5:21pm

Pluto is awesome

@Linda Wood

I agree with your post.

I have to admit, that before I pass, I just want to have a Clinton go to jail.

Any Clinton - sexual abuse, lying to Congress, running the Foundation. That's 3. I'll take anyone of them.

Am I bitter? Of course.

My Bad.

—

Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 7:27pm

Heh. Well, in my own head, I sound like Lennie Bruce.

@Linda Wood

Knowing full well that dark humor doesn't zing online. But, you know, I was thinking the same thing you were:

It matters to me that the Democrats used the Justice Department to mislead the American people with horseshit for the purposes of power and war-mongering.

But there is one thing more that set me on a slow burn. While the Congressional betrayers were discussing this very reality behind closed doors — just days before the Memo broke — they ALL scurried down the hall like rats to pass an even slimier version of the same evil corruption of FISA 2.0. Even the writers of the Memo. They ALL knew the people would be too dumb to connect those dots, and the media monopolies sure as hell aren't going to point that out.

Nobody's going to jail. The DOJ works for them, not us. But, we did actually destroy the Democratic Party. Just watch that hot mess unfold this year and you'll see what I mean. We burned it down and created some space for a new future to take root. I think we need some more of that. I'm counting on the markets to kick the Republican Party to death, especially now that they've taken full credit for the fool's-gold bubble.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 7:33pm

After thanking you

@Pluto's Republic
from my heart for getting me to laugh in week in which I have started to contemplate Daniel Ellsberg's book on nuclear war planning, I still have to say that I don't believe the Democratic Party is dead yet and that it's not even about the Party or FBI party partisans. It's about the industry of war underwriting this whole death machine fiasco. I want the stupidity of the high flying DOJ operatives who concocted this nightmare to be exposed for what they are. I'm searching for a word to call them, but I'm struggling.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 8:33pm

Now this is true:

@Linda Wood

...it's not even about the Party or FBI party partisans. It's about the industry of war underwriting this whole death machine fiasco.

I think it is important to contemplate that the enemy within is not the elected government. The elected Temps and their billionaire friends come and go. They provide the kabuki for the People.

Our real Overlords never ever talk to the People. To them, we are human garbage. They are the Neocons, the permanent authorities who oversee the government, the guns, and the money and execute their global strategy. They run the strategic think tanks and generate the classified documents that preserve their authority. They and their strategic corporations decide whether we stay in Afghanistan or Syria. They arrange the sanctions. They provoke Russia and China. They spend the tax money. They destroy nations. They are Empire.

The American people generally interact with the Temps. Very rarely do Temps matriculate up to the Overlords, although that was Hillary's dream. God knows, the girl tried. She was a good handmaiden for them and she learned their tricks, which is what inspired the Russian Hoax. But, she is dead to them. Useless. They have a deep bench and she's not on it, nor is the monied riff raff. It is career Intelligence operatives and strategists who become Overlords. Descendants of Americanized German Nazis. The Think Tank crowd.

This is not the time to discuss it, but I find that solutions are so much easier when the gameboard is well understood. Especially when you want revenge.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 10:41pm

Too dumb or not paying attention?

@Pluto's Republic

I'm going with option two. Everyone has been distracted by the stupid things that Trump tweets or this stuupid Russian shit. The things that some alternative websites used to cover have been snuffed up with the propaganda crap.

Our ole friends used to cover wars and other important issues, but now it's just Russia Russia Russia all damn day. They didn't say a word about increasing Trump's power to spy on us after the democrats had spent a year telling us that he's not to be trusted because he is Putin's pawn. Or that they voted to roll back banking regulations, let the payday loan people walk all over poor people and haven't played along with saving net neutrality. This has been a year of watching the Washington Generals play the Harlem Globetrotters. The game is never going to change. The Generals will always lose.

—

The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 6:42am

This is how that should read:

@snoopydawg

They all [BELIEVED] ~~knew~~ the people would be too dumb to connect those dots, and the media monopolies sure as hell aren't going to point that out.

I'm pretty sure the people do know what's happening because they are blaming the right people for their troubles. All the Dems seem to do is block tax cuts, and ignore their plight. Democratic policies do not put more money in their wallets, but the Republican tax cuts just might. So they'll take it. They don't care about deficits. Or Russians spies. They sure don't care about macroeconomics. They're all about "Show me the money."

It was the People who deliberately derailed the last election. They were the real Democrats and they were the ones betrayed by the Party. No one told them what to do, but in 2016, they each rebelled independently and voted for a populist message coming from a different party. On an election map they turned almost every county red. The negligent leaders promised them jobs but that's not what they want. They have multiple jobs. What they want is for full time wages to support a family, like it did before capitalism ran amok and turned the US into an insecure feudal dystopia. Acting together, instinctively, they toppled the Party. I'm in the mood to trust that.

Naturally, Trump's outsider message was largely bogus. I believe he meant to deescalate the wars, but by April, he lost control of the military and foreign affairs, and the People are completely passive toward such matters. I doubt they will ever return to the Neoliberal Nest. They're fed up with the brand. Even after the markets tank they will keep their distance. We're inching closer to Puerto Rico every day.

Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 4:49am

So right...

@Pluto's Republic This is exactly the point where I go the memo matters, and means something, but it is also irrelevant and more kabuki:

just days before the Memo broke — they ALL scurried down the hall like rats to pass an even slimier version of the same evil corruption of FISA 2.0. Even the writers of the Memo. They ALL knew the people would be too dumb to connect those dots, and the media monopolies sure as hell aren't going to point that out.

You can’t still be trying to convince the world Trump is dangerous, a Putin Puppet, etc. and then grant him even more secret spying powers. You also can’t paint the DOJ as out of control and corrupt and partasin and give them more spying powers either. To me, it’s an inconsistency so glaring, everyone should be pointing it out.

It makes me wonder what the point of this whole excersize was. The only thing I can see is it maybe solidifies partisan prejudices on both sides. Maybe that’s the point. But if you look too long, you start to see the context and both sides look a lot more alike than not.

—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 7:44am

Perhaps they are thinking that they must all hang together

@Dr. John Carpenter

...by reaffirming the authority of this totalitarian device — or they surely might all hang separately.

It makes me wonder what the point of this whole excersize was. The only thing I can see is it maybe solidifies partisan prejudices on both sides.

I was wondering what was the big secret that, once revealed, would threaten national security.

Using a FISA warrant to bring down a US administration and destroy a presidency is something that should never be done secretly. It's good that the Neocon traitors pulled that rabbit out of the hat early on. Now we know what we are becoming.

Submitted by SnappleBC on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 11:07pm

Heh, not so sure about the Dem Party

@Pluto's Republic

Power like that is like a viscous weed. It's going to take several goings-over before it's really eradicated.

—

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 02/02/2018 - 5:39pm

You have a hand basket?

Well la de da!

No one gave me a hand basket.

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 02/03/2018 - 11:04am

But our ‘betters’ are ensuring you and your

@gjohnsit

Descendants inhabit a country that is becoming a living Hell so don’t be such an ingrate. /s

How many countries hate us?

Polls: U.S. Is ‘The Greatest Threat to Peace in the World Today’

It has happened again: yet another international poll finds that the U.S. is viewed by peoples around the world to be the biggest threat to world peace.

But, to start, let’s summarize the first-ever poll that had been done on this, back in 2013, which was the only prior poll on this entire issue, and it was the best-performed such poll: “An end-of-the-year WIN/Gallup International survey found that people in 65 countries believe the United States is the greatest threat to world peace”, as the N.Y. Post reported on 5 January 2014.

On 30 December 2013, the BBC had reported of that poll: “This year, first [meaning here, ‘for’] the first time, Win/Gallup agreed to include three questions submitted by listeners to [BBC’s] Radio 4’s Today programme.” And, one of those three listener-asked questions was phrased there by the BBC, as having been “Which country is the biggest threat to peace?” The way that WIN/Gallup International itself had actually asked this open-ended question, to 67,806 respondents from 65 countries, was: “Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?” #1, 24% of respondents, worldwide, volunteered that the U.S. was “the greatest threat.” #2 (the second-most-frequently volunteered ‘greatest threat’) was Pakistan, volunteered by 8%. #3 was China, with 6%. #4-7 were a four-way tie, at 5% each, for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, and North Korea. #8-10 were a three-way tie, at 4% each, for: India, Iraq, and Japan. #11 was Syria, with 3%. #12 was Russia, with 2%. #13-20 were a seven-way tie, at 1% each, for: Australia, Germany, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Korea, and UK.

*

However, now, on August 1st of 2017, Pew Research Center has issued results of their polling of 30 nations in which they had surveyed, first in 2013, and then again in 2017, posing a less-clear but similar question (vague perhaps because they were fearing a similar type of finding — embarrassing to their own country, the U.S.), in which respondents had been asked “Do you think that the United States’ power and influence is a major threat, a minor threat, or not a threat to (survey country)?” and which also asked this same question but regarding “China,” and then again but regarding “Russia,” as a possible threat instead of “United States.” (This wasn’t an open-ended question; only those three nations were named as possible responses.)

On page 3 of their 32-page pdf is shown that the “major threat” category was selected by 35% of respondents worldwide for “U.S. power and influence,” 31% worldwide selected that for “Russia’s power and influence,” and also 31% worldwide said it for “China’s power and influence.” However, on pages 23 and 24 of the pdf is shown the 30 countries that had been surveyed in this poll, in both 2013 and 2017, and most of these 30 nations were U.S. allies; only Venezuela clearly was not. None of the 30 countries was an ally of either Russia or China (the other two countries offered as possibly being “a major threat”). And, yet, nonetheless, more respondents among the 30 sampled countries saw the U.S. as “a major threat,” than saw either Russia or China that way.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.globalresearch.ca/polls-u-s-is-the-grea...

America the Beautiful my ass.

—

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa