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[BOMBSHELL] "Russian Collusion" - Democrats knew it was a lie from the start

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by El_Conquistador, Jul 23, 2025.

  1. basso

    basso Member
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    I ain't clicking that, but you could include the author's name for this editorial. it's certainly not news.
     
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  2. krosfyah

    krosfyah Member

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    That is incorrect. Thomas Jefferson famously said the voters don't know everything.

    “I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. But... the spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive... The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented... The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them.”
    Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Stephens Smith, 1787

    The constitution is absolutely a living breathing document ...as illustrated right out of the gate with the bill of rights. They are all making things up as they go along, past and present, because a lot has changed in society the last 250 years. The founding fathers never imagined automobiles, F-18s, the Internet, or even AI.

    Ah, the old I justify my bad behavior because you do it too argument.

    The issue at hand isn't the age-old argument of is gerrymandering bad.

    The issue is America, both sides, has been gerrymandering for so long that America is now at an inflection point. The issue isn't what's good for the goose is good for the gander. The issue now is the absolutely consolidation of power, which that outcomes is exactly what the founding fathers were trying to prevent. That was literally the whole point of the constitution. If Trump were to run for president for a 3rd term, it's over. He's fully consolidated power and he and his family will never relinquish it and there is nothing you and I can do to stop it, outside of revolution. This is not hyperbole.

    Petty differences between conservatives and liberals is only a distraction at this point from what is really happening.
     
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  3. Commodore

    Commodore Member

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  4. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    link will work for everyone

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-...d?st=Qehn91&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    Trump Is Right on ‘Debanking’
    Regulators have abused their power to cut off political opponents.
    By The Editorial Board
    Updated Aug. 8, 2025 6:50 pm ET

    Most Republicans and Democrats would agree that nobody should be denied access to financial services because of politics or religion. That’s essentially what President Trump’s executive order on Thursday declares, though preventing “debanking” may require Congress.

    President Trump’s family business sued Capital One this year for allegedly closing the company’s accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and claimed other large banks rejected $1 billion in his cash deposits. We can’t confirm his claims, but people across the political spectrum in recent years have said their accounts were cancelled for unexplained reasons.

    Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen last autumn said he was aware of 30 tech entrepreneurs who were “debanked in the last four years.” The Alliance Defending Freedom keeps a list of de-banked conservative groups. The Blockchain Association has identified “more than 30 concrete cases” of de-banking owing to “involvement in the digital asset industry.”

    Banks admit to de-banking, though they fault their regulators. Much as Biden officials pressured social-media companies to censor dissenters during the pandemic, bank examiners have pressed banks to cut off certain groups, businesses or individuals.

    Starting in the mid-1990s, financial regulators started considering “reputational risk” in grading banks for safety and soundness. If a bank provides services to an unsavory business, examiners could sanction it. During Operation Choke Point, Obama regulators pushed banks to cut off gun retailers and payday lenders by deeming them reputational risks.

    Regulators backed off after Republicans in Congress exposed the pressure campaign, but Biden appointees used the same tactic to clamp down on crypto. Banking regulators this year committed not to grade banks based on reputational risk, and Mr. Trump’s order directs them to remove it from guidance documents and examination manuals.

    But what’s to stop the next Democratic President from reversing course? After the Federal Reserve in June said it would eliminate reputational risk from bank exams, leftwing groups objected. The Fed’s move “seeks to entrench certain companies and industries, such as fossil fuels and cryptocurrency,” said Public Citizen.

    Legislation is the best way to stop another Operation Choke Point. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has introduced a bill to prohibit financial regulators from considering reputational risk, and Reps. Andy Barr and Ritchie Torres have offered a bipartisan companion bill in the House. Perhaps Mr. Trump could broker a bipartisan deal.

    Another reason for de-banking is the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to build profiles on customers, monitor their activity, and file Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network if they suspect illicit activity. Such “know your customer” rules are intended to prevent money laundering.

    But the FBI and Treasury abused the system to conduct a dragnet investigation of conservatives. A House Judiciary Committee report last fall detailed how the FBI “suggested” banks file SARs on “suspicious” people tied to the Jan. 6 riot so they could investigate them without a warrant. There’s no such thing as a “suggestion” from government overlords.

    The Bank Policy Institute explains that “once multiple SARs have been filed, examiners generally expect the account to be closed.” Bank examiners, the outfit adds, may also covertly require banks to designate certain accounts as “high risk,” which effectively forces them to close accounts. Banks aren’t allowed to tell customers the reason.

    Violations of the Bank Secrecy Act can lead to penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars, so banks close accounts to protect themselves. Even Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren acknowledges this problem, saying that banks “may be taking shortcuts when it comes to assessing risks” rather than “identify true criminal risks and shutting down those accounts.”

    Don’t blame the banks. They’ve begged Congress to ease anti-money laundering compliance burdens so they don’t have to file so many reports on customers and close accounts. Reforming the Bank Secrecy Act has in the past drawn bipartisan backing. Do Democrats want Mr. Trump’s appointees pressuring banks to close accounts of his enemies?

    Liberals are ridiculing Mr. Trump’s campaign against debanking as a “personal gripe,” to quote the New York Times. But they have as much at stake as conservatives.

    Appeared in the August 9, 2025, print edition as 'Trump Is Right on ‘De-Banking’'.

     
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  5. basso

    basso Member
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    there's at least one (former?) poster here to whom debanking, and targeting by the IRS, happened during the Obama years. don't recall the moniker, but I remember reading some of the posts.
     
  6. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking

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    ...and now we know why Biden pre-emptively pardoned Adam Schiff... hopefully all can now see the corruption and dishonesty of the attacks against Trump. Unbelievable.

    Democratic whistleblower told FBI that Adam Schiff approved classified leaks to target Trump


    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/de...schiff-approved-classified-leaks-target-trump

    A Democratic whistleblower told the FBI that Adam Schiff approved leaking classified information in order to discredit President Donald Trump, according to newly-released documents.

    The documents, which were obtained by Just The News, were recently handed over to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel.

    The whistleblower reportedly worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for over ten years, and reported Schiff's alleged behavior to the FBI in 2017.

    According to the report, the intelligence staffer called the leaking "treasonous" and "illegal," in addition to being unethical. He was most recently interviewed by the FBI in 2023.

    The staffer also said that he personally attended a meeting where Schiff greenlit the leak.

    "When working in this capacity, [redacted staffer's name] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF," the documents state, per Just The News.

    "In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP."

    "[The whistleblower] stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information," the report added.
     
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  7. basso

    basso Member
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    @deb4rockets, your thoughts?
     
  8. krosfyah

    krosfyah Member

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    My thoughts are the documents were "obtained" by the massively biased Just The News. It was then handed over to Kash Patel, a loyalist. The whistleblower remain anonymous, which is fine, but no other actor in the story is unbiased.

    Meanwhile, this story represents several steps in the Guide Towards Autocracy
    #3: Weaken Congress and neutralize the judiciary — Legislatures become complicit, courts lose independence.
    #5: Install loyalists in key positions — Fill agencies like DOJ, FBI, Defense with personal allies who prioritize loyalty over law.
    #6: Undermine the free press and create propaganda networks — Attack independent media and build an echo chamber of lies.

    The takeover of America is nearly complete.
     
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  9. basso

    basso Member
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  10. basso

    basso Member
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  11. Corrosion

    Corrosion Member

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    You might want to read that last line a few times .... and understand who it describes - to the letter.
     
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  12. krosfyah

    krosfyah Member

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    Exactly. Trump's behavior exhibits all the behaviors that Jefferson was wanting to protect us against. ...and this isn't by accident, it is very clear that it is intentional.

    He's currently deploying national troops nationwide which ensures he can crush any resistance.
    He continuously lies and misinforms ...and he ostracizes anybody that contradicts him.
     
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  13. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    related

    Bank of America finally axes rule that sparked ‘debanking’ of conservative religious groups

    https://nypost.com/2025/08/13/busin...s-rule-that-debanked-religious-conservatives/
     
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  14. El_Conquistador

    El_Conquistador King of the D&D, The Legend, #1 Ranking

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    Excellent piece on how Clapper rushed the Russian collusion findings to smear Trump ahead of his 2017 inauguration. It's astonishing to me that Clapper, Comey, and Brennan could lie about this for so long. This was a real coup attempt, as the Russian collusion hoax was the justification behind the investigations that led to the lawfare and the impeachments. They wanted to overturn the will of the people with their lies. Justice needs to be severe against all of them -- they tried to rip apart our democracy.

    https://nypost.com/2025/08/13/opini...ussiagate-was-a-smear-campaign-against-trump/
    Miranda Devine: Bumbling Obama aides actually admit Russiagate was a smear campaign against Trump
    “That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.”

    It’s hard to believe that the Russiagate plotters are so stupid, but the declassified documents tumbling out of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s files show that, while they had a lot of power and managed to hide their nefarious activities for almost a decade, President Barack Obama’s henchmen were none too bright.

    The latest tranche of declassified emails has Obama’s DNI, James Clapper, telling then-National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers essentially to shut up and put his name to the intelligence community assessment (ICA) that Clapper and then-CIA Director John Brennan were cooking up, at Obama’s direction, to concoct a narrative that Russia had tilted the 2016 election to help Trump win.

    “Understand your concern,” Clapper wrote to Rogers on Dec. 22, 2016, in the waning days of the Obama administration.


    “It is essential that we (CIA/NSA/FBI/ODNI) be on the same page and are all supportive of the report — in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re sticking to it.’ ”

    Compromised
    Rogers had kicked off the conversation by laying out his concerns that normal tradecraft was being compromised and that his team had not had “sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence.”

    “I’m concerned that, given the expedited nature of this activity, my folks aren’t fully comfortable saying that they have had enough time to review all of the intelligence to be absolutely confident in their assessments,” Rogers wrote.

    “I know that you agree that this is something we need to be 100% comfortable with before we present it to the President — we have one chance to get this right, and it is critical that we do so.

    “In addition, if NSA is intended to be a co-author of this product, I personally expect to see even the most sensitive evidence related to the conclusion.”

    But Clapper was unyielding.

    “More time is not negotiable,” he replied, copying Brennan and then-FBI Director James Comey on the email.

    “We may have to compromise on our ‘normal’ modalities, since we must do this on such a compressed schedule.”
    “This is one project that has to be a team sport.”

    Team sport.

    What an unprofessional, idiotic thing to say, let alone write down for posterity.

    As Gabbard said when she released the emails Wednesday: “Clapper’s own words confirm that complying with the order to manufacture intelligence was a ‘team sport.’ ”

    There was no reason for the ICA to be completed under such a compressed schedule — less than a month from the Oval Office meeting on Dec. 9, 2016, when Obama ordered Clapper, Brennan, Comey and others to prepare a new intelligence assessment to replace all the inconvenient others before the election that had found that Russia wanted to sow discord but was not partial to one candidate over the other.

    In fact, previous declassified material released by Gabbard shows that Russian spies possessed damaging material on Hillary Clinton’s “psycho-emotional” and physical ailments that they were withholding until after the election because they were so certain she would win.

    But Obama wanted the cooked ICA to be released before Trump’s transition on Jan. 20, 2017.

    He wanted to do maximum damage to Trump, whose election was a repudiation of Obama’s presidency, and of course to cover up Clinton’s scandals — including her BleachBitted private server, missing emails and alleged pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation.

    Pre-inaugural smear
    And thus, the ICA was released on Jan. 6, 2017, using the discredited and fictional Steele dossier to underpin its findings, with Brennan running roughshod over the objections of the CIA’s top Russia experts by insisting it be included, not just in an appendix but in the main body.

    The ICA “findings” were leaked to the media before the intelligence analysts had even started work.

    On the very day Obama ordered the ICA, Dec. 9, 2016, the Washington Post ran an anonymously sourced story that claimed “the CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency.”

    How prescient of it.

    The framing of Trump as a Russian asset sabotaged his first presidency, in what Gabbard has called a “years-long coup.”
     

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