Nunez did not read the FISA application; Trey Gowdy was the only Republican lawmaker who has read it. On CBS's interview program "face the nation", Trey Gowdy said that the alleged FBI abuses of its surveillance authority does not have "any impact on the Russia probe, and even without the Steele dossier, there would be a Russia investigation. Further, Gowdy said "To the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, The dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower, has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica, Trump campaign's data firm, whose the chief executive sent an email to several people including top Trump donor Rebekah Mercer, relaying that he had emailed Wikileak's Assange seeking access to emails from Clinton's private server to turn them into a searchable database for the campaign or a pro-Trump political action committee, has nothing to do with hPapadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain, and doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice." Gowdy is one of several lawmakers who, over the weekend, has said the Nunez does not vindicate DJ Trump. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/04/politics/trey-gowdy-memo/index.html
Meditating more on this over the weekend, I still think the memo is partisan claptrap. But, it is quite possible that the criticism will eventually be proved correct that the FBI cut some corners and didn't play it completely straight on getting the warrant. That's my intuition because that is the gravitational pull on the justice system -- nominally innocent until proven guilty but the apparatus gives law enforcement and prosecution lots of rope to make their cases. There's lots of pressure to get the bad guys, and not a lot of pressure to respect the bad guys' civil rights. Most of the time people look the other way because it's some brown hoodlum or mafia heavy on the losing end of it. Usually, politically powerful people don't start coming down on law enforcement or the courts for pushing the envelope on dirty tactics. If anything the pressure will be the other way -- why didn't you do more to get this scum off the streets? So, I won't be too surprised if more digging proves tactics employed by the FBI fall a bit short of the written requirements of the law. I am bothered though by capricious and uneven application of the law. We wouldn't demand this sort of rigor for surveilling Barney Bellomo. If the FBI could pull a clever, potentially-unethical trick to pin him to the wall, everyone would celebrate. But because some other crook does business with the president, now we have to take his civil rights really, really seriously? Civil rights are serious, but so is equal application of the law. That's what makes me scoff at these ethics arguments. They might even be right, but I think they are proving the wrong thing. I don't want them to prove that the tactics were illegal or unethical; I want them to prove they were abnormal and uncharacteristic of the FBI. If the FBI departed from their usual MO, then that might indicate some witch hunt. (But, I know it's not a witch hunt, because they already got multiple indictments and confessions.)
Perhaps the fact that Sarah Huckabee Sanders and trump are liars is not new news (or even news at all), but the recent attacks on the FBI have created an opportunity substantiate the reports at the time that FBI rank and file were very supportive of James Comey and were that he trump attacks on FBI is having a significant effect: http://www.lawfareblog.com/i-hope-i...ureaus-real-reaction-trump-firing-james-comey
You can't get a worse indictment of character than a strong compliment from the Slimy One. I find the "may someday" ominous -- as in, "when I'm an authoritarian leader, we will build a statue to Nunes. Right after all my enemies are in concentration camps." ****wad. [EDIT: I am being hyperbolic here. 45 could never assemble people with enough project management skill to run concentration camps. LOL.]
Do you even realize how silly and conspiratorial you sound? Its strange that a majority of liberals here sound like the republican crazies that thought Obama was a muslim conspiring to take over the government. Trump has really discombobulated all of your minds. Its also ironic as Trump's policies have reduced the governments power in virtually every industry and given power back to states. Don't think most authoritarian takeovers happen by reducing government power.
Like going back on equifax probe? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ts-equifax-probe-on-ice-sources-idUSKBN1FP0IZ It would be nice if government was watching our back. What can an average person do against equifax despite it holding a lot of data about us?
No... most authoritarian takeovers happen by attacking the core foundations of the government itself, and in doing so, take power away from the people. They attack the press. They attack the judicial system. They attack law enforcement. They attack the very democratic processes that govern us. trump has done all of this.
Yeah, I hear you. I really do. But I've studied too much history, in too much detail, and he's hitting too many of the notes of the old song perfectly. If I end up looking a little crazy, so be it. But if we slip out of democracy, even a little, and I sat on my hands, I'd feel pretty shitty about it. I think we're already more in an oligarchy than a democracy, based on the data. And I really don't want to move toward a strong-man regime, like so many countries in the world are doing or have done (Poland, Turkey, South Africa, Russia, Philippines, etc.) I guess Two Scoops would "discombobulate" me less if GOP leadership would call him on it, forcefully and consistently. For example, the party should not let its leader get away with (just today) suggesting that it's treasonous to not stand and applaud him. That's dictator nonsense. You know it. Ryan knows it. The Turtle knows it. But yeah, let's make fun of powerless liberals instead. Tee hee.
Exactly. And more. I don't recall Obummer doing any of that ****. But let's just call them the same. SMDH.
Well, that whole trump-defender story about the FBI not mentioning the dossier funding? *poof* Republicans concede key FBI 'footnote' in Carter Page warrant https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/05/fbi-footnote-carter-page-warrant-390795
And they call a lack of clapping (from Dem) to his state of the union speech unAmerican and treasonous. Yes, Trump went off script and state that today.
yeah if that's unAmerican and treasonous, then what you call trump sucking Putin's dick at every chance he gets then?
Obama's administration expanded governmental power through executive order in an extraordinary manner in education, healthcare, the restaurant industry, banking, financial, energy created new bureaus like the CFPB that had no system of checks and balances. His administration was able to through these measures pick winners and losers in an industry like what occurred in for-profit education etc. Obama was also pretty negative on news networks (Fox) that did not treat him well at times expelling them until the rest of the press pool pushed back. While he may have said a lot of the right things, I fundamentally believe he SIGNIFICANTLY expanded the government into the lives of Americans. I don't think there is any doubt of that, the only argument seems to be whether it is for the better or worse. Trump on the other hand has significantly REDUCED the governments power in the private sector. So he plant on taking authoritarian control by not being in control of industry and then quickly taking it all? Either way this is looney toones talk and I'll make a $1,000 tipjar bet with anyone will even give 3 to 1 ($300 if you lose) odds that when Donald Trump loses the election or finishes his term(s) he will go just like every other President has. I just want to remind everyone here how CRAZY you all sound.
You literally just list platitudes. Now back it up with some nuance. Name me an example of the CFPB being government expanding it's power at the detriment of the common citizen. What was Obama admin's intent. You seem to leave intent out. See the intent of programs like the CFPD is to actually help you, an average American citizen. Making it out to seem like it's big crony government is an oxymoron to the actual intent and tangible actions of the CFPD. The intent of Trump admin's government shrinkage is two fold but both are connected: 1. To reduce regulation due to corporate lobbying and campaign donation influence. You might believe their is merit to deregulation and shrinkage but understand the GOP will shrink the government regardless of whether it at the time is appropriate because they will always abide by their lobbyists and camapign financiers and those campaign financiers who think in terms of quarterly profits couldn't give a don't about the tangible negative long term of effects of deregulation. 2. The second and more current reason is the GOP just passed a tax bill that even by recent White House admission has generated a worrying added amount to our yearly deficit(1.5 trillion dollars) and since that spike in the future deficit is a direct result of tax revenue loss due to the most wealthiest entity in mankind history receiving massive tax cuts, that loss in tax revenue must be offset somewhere. Obviously it's not going to be the military. It's going to be social services and programs that affect us, the average American. Those are the programs that are going to be slashed first and that is obviously happening as we speak .
The problem isn’t Trump becoming a quasi dictator. It won’t happen because the institutions of our country will not allow it. The problem is that Trump is such a habitual liar (he and his minions are caught lying on a day to day basis) that it undermines the citizenry’s confidence and expectations of the President. Donald Trump has lowered the bar for who can be President.
