Why The Memo Is Irrelevant
These stories are just from Rawstory alone:
"As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Gowdy wrote on Twitter. “The contents of this memo do not — in any way — discredit his investigation.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/trump-fans-go-ballistic-trey-gowdy-says...
“I left the CIA—same thing,” he continued. “I reported stuff on Russian money coming into the campaign and, as the messenger, I became the target and I resigned from the CIA. It’s as simple as that.”
“What you’re having is an agency we depend upon to stop terrorism, FBI agents are putting their lives on the line,” Baer added. “You look at this—I’m sorry—it’s a piece of trash, this three-and-a-half-page memo. There’s nothing classified in it. It’s a partisan attack on the FBI. It’s going to do our institutions serious damage and I really worry about it.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/ex-cia-officer-piece-trash-memo-stopped...
According to the memo, Comey signed off on three Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants on Carter Page, and briefed Trump “on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was—according to his June 2017 testimony—‘salacious and unverified.’”
(emphasis added)
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/thats-comey-slams-dishonest-misleading-...
Bradley Moss, an attorney who specializes in litigating national security matters, has written a tweet storm in which he shreds the memo and says that he believes it amounts to a “pathetic joke.”
“This is the scandal??” Moss writes incredulously of the memo. “Are you kidding me?”
He then goes on to explain why there is simply no major scandal embedded within Nunes’ memo, and he says that British spy Christopher Steele’s personal biases against then-candidate Donald Trump are completely irrelevant to whether a FISA court should have granted the FBI a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/kidding-national-security-lawyer-tears-...
In the memo itself, House Republicans acknowledge information related to onetime Donald Trump campaign advisor George Papadapolous “triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016.” This admission comes after extensive efforts to link the Steele dossier to FISA applications that targeted former Trump adviser Carter Page.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/gops-memo-admits-george-papadapolous-tr...
“In 2016, the Russians engaged in an elaborate plot to interfere in an American election and undermine our democracy,” McCain said in a prepared statement. “While we have no evidence these efforts affected the outcome of our election, I fear they succeeded in fueling discord and dividing us from one another.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/putins-job-mccain-shreds-gop-partisan-s...
And an Israeli reporter restarts a sideshow:
Trump ‘gave secret information’ to Russians at the White House — and it’s worse than we thought: Israeli reporter
Just a year ago, I published a story that created a lot of controversy,” Bergman told NPR. “I said – and I was surprised to hear that from my sources in the beginning – that a group of American intelligence officers, in a regular meeting with the Israeli counterparts, just before Trump was elected and before the inauguration, they suggested that the Israelis stop giving sensitive material to the White House.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/trump-gave-secret-information-russians-...
Oh yeah. Time to make a burnt offering to The Kush Gods and grab your popcorn.
Comments
Now you've done it
I gotta go pop some corn
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Good Idea
Don't forget:
Peace Out Other Maven
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Does popcorn help with indigestion?
The list of quoted assholes in your diary is competing with my natural balance of intestinal microbes.
Pineapple Kush it is.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Irrelevant?
Irrelevant to what? I'm struggling with why you think the memo, or its release, is irrelevant. Or do you mean unimportant? I think it makes the case that Trump's enemies created false, salacious and unverified claims and made sure they were presented to the FISA court. They left out evidence that was important, like the fact that the dossier was campaign funded and that DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife were both involved in the process of creation of the dossier and of proceeding to investigate the Trump campaign as to possible Russian interference in the election. What they were doing was interference in the election.
I sense I'm misunderstanding you. I'm writing this hoping to read more of what you're seeing that I'm not, with all the respect I have for you.
Irrelevant And Unimportant
The Republican Memo is a bunch of hearsay conjectures. I have no doubt that the Democratic Countermemo is equally irrelevant and unimportant, because we will never see the classified "intelligence" report that both memos are based on.
Both memos are irrelevant and unimportant to accomplishing any fundamental changes in either FISA or clandestine governmental surveillance.
Remember the inauguration day protest prosecutions?
Digital search warrants based on no evidence:
And dressing wrong is being prosecuted:
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/19/dc-prosecutors-dismiss-129-inauguration
Long story short, "Memogate" is irrelevant because the Kabuki Dance will affect neither the size nor scope of continuing government oppression.
My comment from a previous OP:
We Now Have Two Martyrs
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
A Very Deep Pile
At the risk of piling on, more from Common Dreams:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/02/here-are-most-key-smartest-...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Some good responses.
DARKAGESAMERICA5h
The memory hole is filled with the actions of the FBI during decades of unconstitutional programs including domestic spying.
democrats and republicans vacillate either lauding or vilifying the agency depending on whose ox is being gored.
I want to see everything, the democrat memo, the FBI rebuttal, and all information related to this declassified so we the public can make our own assessment.
democrats AND republicans are not to be trusted.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Excatly. And I for one
hold out little hope we really get much of that. They'll divert on the partisan issue and nothing will really get revealed, nothing of substance.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
yep. Just business as usual
for Madcow and the
other talking heads. "As we
expected the Memo proves nothing.
Now the question still remains, when
is all this going to nail Trump to the wall and install Hillary to Her rightful place on the throne? Stay tooned! Be right back... "
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Then where's the evidence that Russia interfered with
the election? After 18 months we have two people charged for something that had nothing to do with the election. Flynn was an unregistered foreign lobbyist and that is what he's being charged for. Did he speak to someone in Russia during the transition? Yes he did. He was asked by Kushner to get Russia to vote against the sanctions on Israel for the illegal settlements.
The reason why the republicans released their memo was because of this.
The problem is that the Clinton campaign got the FBI to spy on her political opponent. This is what people have a problem with.
The articles you used for this have been some of the biggest cheerleaders for the Russian propaganda. You may have well as posted what Rachel has been bleating. There is no evidence that this happened. None nada. IMO.
The reason for this Russian propaganda crap is to re-start the Cold War and this has gotten people into the idea that it has to be done for their reasons. But this country and NATO started building up for this long before the election started.
Yay! Let's play games with a nuclear war. Sounds like fun.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
And why the hell
were the democrats so against it being released?
No more cover for the hoax comes to mind.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
yep. exactly. Without this
memo "investigation"
the DNC has no cover.
And much of this RussiaGate
horse$h!t is about Providing An Excuse
for why Hillary lost to a game show host.
Billionaire donors are expecting more than, "well, we thought we had it in the bag, so we didn't bother campaigning in Blue districts in Blue states that normally vote blue."
They hear that they're going to want their money back. So... so, Russia did it! Russia stole the election! And, and, and Trump colluded with the Russians! Yeah! That's the ticket!
Without a continued investigation - culminating in Trumps departure - Hillary and Her DNC have no cover, no place to hide, are totally hosed. So, Rachel will make sure it continues. After all, if one investigates long enough they're bound to come up with a stained dress.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Business As Usual
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/02/here-are-most-key-smartest-...
The real outrage was bi-partisan renewal of FISA. This memo changes nothing snoopydawg. The damage has already been done and mass surveillance will continue. FISA warrants will continue being issued based on zero evidence and the "suspect" will never know.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I definitely agree with you on that
The democrats have spent the last year bitching about Trump being in Putin's pockets and he's not to be trusted and then they turn around and give him more spying powers. That makes no sense at all. More kabuki shit.
The problem with the FISA warrant is that it gave Hillary the chance to spy on Trump's campaign. That's should be playing dirty in anyone's book.
I stated my opinion on the FISA warrants in a comment to you in another essay.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Agree this "memo" horse$h!t
should be More about
Hillary's role, and the
DNC's role, if any, in the
ongoing investigation. How this got
turned around into investigating a memo,
instead of investigating Trump and Russia! Russia! Russia! is typical of Beltway politics, but it leaves Hillary in the free and clear when Her ass should be on the chopping block.
Memo? Who gives a flip about a memo? There's Real fish to fry!
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
time for Isreal to stop giving sensitive info to the WH?
The neocons are all Israeli spies and for decades the WH has been giving sensitive intel to Israel. Intel that has often wound up in Chinese hands.
I just don't give a shit.
No matter how this memo kabuki theater goes, we'll all still be sucking dick for packing peanuts and stale bread while the capitalists who own both parties continue to laugh their asses off.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
No doubt about that,
. Either way it goes
we're all still sucking hind
tit from some ugly stinky crotch
brown cow.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
This memo is not "nothing"
To understand this whole affair, we must disarticulate the various elements of it. Many commenters have touch on some aspects of the charade/theater/political exercise/farce/gutter-sniping embodied in the need for such a memo.
The following is not exhaustive in listing involved issues, almost all have been alluded to in the above discussion:
1. FISA and the subsequent Patriot Act are unconstitutional, violating the 4th Amendment
2. FISA Courts are rubber stamp outfits, granting warrantless searches/spying on flimsy or no evidence at all
3. The party in power abuses FISA to suit its aims
4. FISA courts are ineffectual, as far as we have proof of preventing terrorism, domestic or foreign
5. Nonetheless, FISA courts, though sham, are real and do have power.
6. FISA courts are simultaneously amoral and immoral. Amoral, because justice is supposed to be about the Law, which may be moral, ethical, or not. Immoral because the FISA court is dependent upon evidence submitted only by the investigator/prosecutor, thus denying the "target" of facing its accuser, to present counter evidence when the charges are brought with minimal supporting evidence (like many NYT stories)
7. The Müller probe is an unjustifiable witch hunt, concocted by embarrassed, sore loser Democrats propounded largely by National Enquirer quality supporting evidence (consider the 4 lawsuits ongoing in the UK by people allegedly wronged by the Piss Dossier)
8. Democratic party, largely of their own doing, are behaving like the cornered rats they are. Shame on you Bernie for your collusion with this hoax
9. Republicans are currently the big cats, devouring the rats
10. Political advantage is the name of this exercise
11. No vital national interests are being served, despite howls of outrage
12. Thus this whole Opera is a perhaps an entertaining diversion from real national/governmental problems
13. There is corruption in the DOJ--does anyone paying attention dispute this? This corruption is not new but has risen to the surface of the cauldron, driven by fanatical anti-Trumpism
14. The same is true of the FBI
15. Most-telling is the Democratic outrage against this memo. Why is that if there is nothing to hide? As the Bard of Avon wrote "methinks they doth protest too much"
16. Except for revealing corruption, the memo itself is relatively banal
17. Of course the memo has omissions. How can it be otherwise when more than 1,500,000 pages of evidence was reviewed. Does anyone really expect that a readable summation of such a mountain of documentation could be constructed to anyone's satisfaction?
18. Referring in part to point 14, why were Mad Adam Schiff and his confederates screaming like banshees that this document were endangering national security?
19. The DOJ and FBI, neither of which are fully under Trump's control, protested the memo release for no other reason that severe violations of Federal law and procedure were revealed--along with SOME names of those involved
20. Nothing in the memo endangered national security, such as it is in a country burdened with FISA courts and a Patriot Act.
21. Real misdeeds were uncovered.
22. Despite a servile Lame Stream Media, internet access has disseminated this filth broadly. It is no longer under wraps.
23. In courts, information obtained under false pretenses and/or in violation of existing are "fruits of the poisonous tree" and therefore inadmissible.
24. The original charge to Herr Müller was to investigate "Russian collusion" with D. Trump to sway the election.
25. After 18 months no such evidence has been adduced.
25. Obstruction of justice is another possible act committed by Trump but exceeds the original mandate of the Müller inquisition
In summary, we have a corrupt, tyrannical government, which for the first time we find knowingly tried to illegally undermine the election of the opposition party. Even if this is a duopoly, which it is, this still undermines the basic pretense that we live in a Representative Democracy and that our right to elect candidates is directly and, more importantly, indirectly negated by such actions.
Nice breakdown
I think the problem is things look like so much business as usual at quick glance. Or there’s just so much partasn team sports/both sides do it/ends justify the means/people still want to believe the dossier/??? that it’s hard to get what’s going on here, if true (and sad I feel the need for that qualifier.)
To me, the tell is #15. If this really was a nothingburger, the Dems would have ignored it or otherwise tried to spin it as just politics as usual or anything else. Instead, they came out against it in a manner we only see when they feel their gravy train is about to be derailed. Hell, we certainly don’t see that much attention to issues impacting the rest of us. That this memo rankled the Dems from their slumber tells me it’s worth a close look.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
#27
At least during Watergate Nixon hired his own private contractors to spy on his opponent. Hillary and Obama used the full might of the Federal security services for their illegal snooping.
THAT to me is the truly Constitution-busting issue. And I truly have no time for any ostrichheaders and their bullshit rationalizations about why this is somehow all irrelevant to a clear case of the government bureaucracy going to Orwellian extremes to rig a Presidential election in favor its preferred candidate.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?