Worst conspiracy theory ever.

[Rory]

IMG_20170325_181453.jpg

[brekin]

[kool maudit]

Louise is going to die on this hill for whatever reason.

[seemslikeadream]

Eric Rosenwald‏ @rosenwald_eric Mar 26
More
1- UPDATE: Did Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich meet with the Trump family in Aspen last week? #TrumpRussia

Jonathan Beeley @foreignpolicy77
Roger Stone calls #Trumprussia link Guccifer2.0 'her' & not #Russia agent. Twitter exchange deeper than claimed #theresistance #trump #stone
3:34 AM - 27 Mar 2017

During an on-air interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Roger Stone said the following: “Let’s finish with Grucifer. My communication with her is now entirely public.”

[seemslikeadream]

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States

Donald Trump has an extensive history with Russia. During his decades at the helm of the Trump Organization, he explored and benefited from lucrative business opportunities with Russian oligarchs and financiers in attempts to keep his often-struggling business ventures afloat. Trump, his children, and his business associates paid multiple visits to Moscow over the years, where they became entangled with powerful Russian oligarchs and Kremlin insiders.
Several of Trump’s closest associates are under investigation by the FBI or U.S. intelligence for contacts with Russian officials during the election, including:
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager.
Carter Page, Trump’s former foreign policy advisor.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.
Roger Stone, Trump’s former campaign adviser.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer.
During the campaign, Trump’s own actions were highly suspect:
Trump publicly encouraged Russia to interfere in the election on his behalf.
Trump personally met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump criticized the United States for intervening in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump floated lifting sanctions against Russia.
Trump continuously criticized NATO, America’s best bulwark against Russian aggression.
Throughout his career, Trump has heavily relied on investments from financiers with deep ties to the Kremlin:
The Bayrock Group, a real estate company with offices in Trump Tower and links to Moscow, helped finance several Trump projects, including the Trump SoHo hotel in New York.
Felix Sater—a Russian-born real estate developer implicated in money laundering and tax evasion schemes involving Russian crime syndicates—was a "Senior Advisor to Donald Trump" at The Trump Organization.
In 2013, Trump struck a $14 million deal with Russian billionaire and Putin ally Aras Agalarov to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow. Trump invited Putin to the event.
In 2008, Trump sold his Palm Beach mansion to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, three times Trump’s buying price. Despite occurring at the height of the recession at a time where housing prices were in ”free fall,” it was the most expensive residential property sale in U.S. history.
Beginning in 2008, Donald Trump Jr. visited Moscow six times in 18 months in search of new business deals. He told reporters, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets."

https://themoscowproject.org/the-player ... J.%20Trump

Trump and Russia: A Timeline

Below is a timeline of known incidents before and after the election that reveal a troubling pattern of alignment and possible illegal conduct between President Donald Trump’s inner circle and Russian officials. But the question remains: What don’t we know?

The American people need answers, and that requires an independent, bipartisan commission to fully investigate all aspects of Russia’s operation targeting the 2016 presidential election.
+ EXPAND ALL
1987
Trump's First Trip to Moscow

Early 1990s
Trump Organization is $3.4 Billion in Debt

Mid-1990s
Banks Refuse to Lend to Trump, Citing "The Donald Risk"

1998
Deutsche Bank Props Trump Up

Early 2000s
Russia-Linked Bayrock Group Also Props Trump Up

2005
Trump and Bayrock Find a Site For Trump Tower Moscow

2007–2008
Russians Buy Millions in Trump Real Estate

2008
Trump Jr. Visits Moscow
Trump Sells Palm Beach Mansion to Russian Billionaire

2013
Nov 09 - Trump Hosts Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow

March 2016
Carter Page Announced as Trump Policy Advisor

April 2016
Manafort Has Contacts with Russian-Ukrainian Operative
Apr 27 - Kislyak Attends Trump's First Foreign Policy Speech

May 2016
May 18 - U.S. Intel Finds Evidence of Election Hacking

June 2016
Jun 14 - Washington Post First Reports DNC Hack
Jun 15 - Trump Defends Putin: "It Was the DNC"
Jun 15 - Guccifer 2.0 Admits He's Behind WikiLeaks
Jun 17 - U.S. Expels Two Russian Diplomats

July 2016
Jul 07 - Carter Page Visits Moscow
Jul 20 - Trump Campaign Officials Meet with Kislyak at Republican Convention
Jul 22 - WikiLeaks Begins Publishing DNC Emails
Jul 25 - FBI Announces Investigation into DNC Hack
Jul 26 - Intel Officials: "High Confidence of Russian Involvement"
Jul 26 - Trump Asks Russia to Interfere in Election
Jul 29 - DCCC Announces It's Also Been Hacked
Late July: FBI Launches Investigation of Russian Interference in the Election

August 2016
Aug 08 - Stone Admits He's in Contact with Julian Assange
Aug 12 - Guccifer 2.0 Thanks Stone
Aug 17 - Trump Has First Intel Briefing
Aug 19 - Manafort Resigns as Trump Campaign Chair Amid Scandal
Aug 21 - Stone Predicts Podesta Emails
Aug 24 - Assange Refuses to Criticize Trump
Aug 29 - First Reid Letter: FBI Must Investigate Russian Election Interference

September 2016
"Gang of 12" Recieves Intel Briefings
Sep 08 - Sessions and Kislyak Meet Again
Sep 08 - Trump Defends Putin: "Democrats Putting [Emails] Out"
Sep 26 - First Presidential Debate: "Somebody Sitting on Their Bed That Weighs 400 Pounds"

October 2016
Oct 03 - Stone's Implies He Has a Backchannel with WikiLeaks
Oct 07 - Intel Officials: "Russian Government Directed Hacks"
Oct 07 - WikiLeaks Releases Podesta Emails Hours After "Access Hollywood" Tapes Released
Oct 10 - Second Presidential Debate: "Maybe There is No Hacking"
Oct 11 - Trump Jr. Visits Paris
Oct 20 - Third Presidential Debate: "No idea whether it is Russia"
Oct 30 - Second Reid Letter: Comey Sitting on "Explosive Information"

November 2016
Nov 07 - WikiLeaks Releases More DNC Emails
Nov 08 - Election Day

December 2016
Dec 07 - Trump Defends Putin: Could Be "Guy In His Home in New Jersey"
Dec 09 - Intel Officials: "Russia Was Trying To Help Trump Win"
Dec 29 - Obama Orders Russian Hacking Review
Dec 29 - Obama Announces New Russia Sanctions
Dec 29 - Flynn Has Five Calls with Kislyak
Dec 30 - Putin Doesn't Retaliate for Sanctions
Dec 31 - Trump Defends Putin: "It Could Be Someone Else"

January 2017
Jan 03 - Trump Defends Putin: "Intel briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed"
Jan 04 - Trump Defends Assange: "Why Was DNC So careless?"
Jan 06 - Intel Community Briefs Trump and Releases Report
Jan 10 - Sessions Lies During Confirmation Hearing
Jan 10 - BuzzFeed News Releases Dossier
Jan 13 - Trump: "If Russia is Really Helping Us, Why Would Anybody Have Sanctions?"
Jan 19 - The New York Times: Investigation Widens
Jan 20 - Inauguration Day
Jan 27 - Ex-KGB Officer Found Dead

February 2017
Feb 08 - Flynn Lies About Sanctions
Feb 13 - Flynn Resigns
Feb 24 - FBI Refuses to Deny Allegations of Trump's Russia Ties

March 2017
Mar 01 - European Intel Have Evidence of Contacts Between Trump and Russian Officials
Mar 20 - FBI Announces Investigation of Trump

+ EXPAND ALL
https://themoscowproject.org/timeline.html

[seemslikeadream]

TRUMP: I Met Putin, “Got Along With Him Great”
01/17/2017 04:07 pm ET | Updated Jan 18, 2017


Left: Radio host Michael Savage. Middle: Russian President Vladimir Putin Right: Donald Trump
3.9k

Donald Trump told a nationally syndicated radio host that he has met with Vladimir Putin and “got along with him great, by the way.”

President-elect Trump’s stunning admission happened on October 6th, 2015 on the nationally syndicated Savage Nation radio program during the Republican primary campaign.

Savage: “Have you met Vladimir Putin?”

Trump: “Yes, one time, yes a long time ago. Got along with him great, by the way.”

You can listen to the podcast below, which is published on YouTube by the widely followed account SavageNationLiberty.

Michael Savage is a nationally syndicated, right-wing radio broadcaster and author, who has interviewed Donald Trump numerous times over the years and during the campaign.

The Democratic Coalition recently unearthed the audio file with a 12 minute segment, in middle of which (at the 5:27 mark) Donald Trump admits to having met with the Russian President.

“Over the entire course of his campaign, and even in the days since his election, President-elect Trump has denied that he has had any relationship with Vladimir Putin,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition. “We now have Trump himself recorded twice admitting to knowing Putin. We deserve to know the truth about the person who will be inaugurated as our President on Friday.”

Throughout the campaign and after the election, Trump has denied all connections to Russia.

Trump told MSNBC in a 2013 video that he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/587 ... 4687245894

[Rory]

http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2017/03/s ... house.html

What is truly demoralizing though is the utter transparency of the secret war playing out, the seemingly endless spy vs spy thrust and counter-thrust, and the obvious deceptions. Even more so is the Animal Farm-like metamorphosis of the Democratic Party into a full-blown, funhouse mirror of McCarthy-era Republicans, but with Glenn Beck-worthy conspiracy theories thrown in for good measure.

[seemslikeadream]

It's the republicans who have the power to take down the grifter in chief not the Democrats and they most certainly will. In the end they will not want the slimy stinky illegal corrupt bigoted grifter stank all over them.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy's (R-Wis) at a March 9, 1950 session of a hearing on McCarthy's charges of Communist infiltration in the state department. McCarthy,... AP Photo/Herbert K. White
Steve Bannon believed Joe McCarthy’s crusade was right
03/07/17 10:05 AM—UPDATED 03/07/17 10:09 AM
By Steve Benen
When Donald Trump launched his wiretap conspiracy theory over the weekend, the president took his argument in a curious direction. In his opening salvo, Trump declared, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

It was an interesting choice of words for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that much of the right actually looks back at McCarthyism with fondness. As CNN noted yesterday, among the admirers is Trump’s chief strategist.
Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said in 2013 that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was right in his 1950s campaign claiming widespread Communist infiltration into the United States government.

The Wisconsin senator’s inquisitions of those he suspected of communist ties – which eventually led to his censure by the United States Senate – was a key moment in the Red Scare and led to the coining of the term “McCarthyism.”
While interviewing an author in 2013, Bannon mocked the idea that McCarthy was some kind of “villain.” On the contrary, Bannon argued that the Republican senator and his allies were right in their hunt for traitors.

“The place was infested with either traitors that were on the direct payroll of Soviet military intelligence or fellow-travelers who were kind of compliant in helping these guys get along,” Bannon said at the time. “I mean, there’s absolutely no question of it. How has pop culture so changed it that white is black and black is white?”

Bannon went on to equate his vision of communist infiltration in the 1950s with Middle Eastern influence in contemporary America.

That’s obviously quite nutty, but it doesn’t come as too big of a surprise – because as regular readers know, much of the far-right has made a conscious effort to rehabilitate McCarthyism has having real merit.

A reporter from the Dallas Morning News told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2013, for example, that he’d been compared at times to Joe McCarthy. Cruz said that criticism “may be a sign that perhaps we’re doing something right,” which seemed like a curious response given the context.

Asked specifically, “Is McCarthy someone you admire?” Cruz wouldn’t answer.

In 2016, a Cruz national security adviser said McCarthy was “spot on” about communists infiltrating the United States government in the 1950s.

There’s been a lot of this kind of thinking. In 2008, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) made a memorable appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” telling Chris Matthews that she wanted an investigation into members of Congress to “find out if they are pro-America or anti-America.” Two years later, one of Bachmann’s closest allies, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), voiced support for the revival of the House Internal Security Committee, the 1960’s-era successor to the McCarthyite House Un-American Activities Committee. Missouri’s Todd Akin compared himself to McCarthy two years ago, and he meant it in a good way.

Last year, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) endorsed the idea of a new HUAC for a new era.

It’s not just the Beltway, either. In 2010 in Texas, conservative activists rewriting the state’s curriculum recommended telling students that McCarthy was a hero, “vindicated” by history.

Given all of this, it’s hardly shocking that Bannon is part of far-right’s pro-McCarthy chorus. Should we assume he gave Trump a lesson following the president’s complaint on Saturday?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... -was-right

Trump accused Obama of 'McCarthyism.' But Trump's lifelong mentor had a crucial role in its rise.
Joseph McCarthy, Roy Cohn

Sen. Joseph McCarthy covers the microphones with his hands while having a whispered discussion with his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, during a committee hearing in Washington in this April 26, 1954 file photo. (AP)
Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
The Washington Post
A few minutes before the sun rose over Mar-a-Lago, President Trump was up, thumbing a series of tweets about Barack Obama and some of the darker days of 20th century American history.

In particular, he was making accusations that Obama had tapped the phones in Trump tower just before the 2016 election - tactics Trump said hearkened to the McCarthy hearings and Red Scare of the late 1940s and ′50s.

"Nothing found," Trump tweeted. "This is McCarthyism!"

McCarthyism is something of which Trump should have in-depth knowledge.

His lifelong attorney and mentor - Roy Cohn, one of the men who helped mold Trump into Trump - was, as one author called it, Joseph McCarthy's sidekick.

After World War II, McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, made claims that large numbers of communist spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the U.S. government and needed to be weeded out.

Trump cites no evidence in wiretapping claim; Obama spokesman calls it 'simply false'
The accusations happened during a period of escalating tensions with the Soviet Union and growing fears about the global spread of communism. McCarthy interrogated alleged sympathizers at Senate hearings that came to bear his name. Just an accusation could ruin reputations and careers.

Cohn was the brains behind McCarthy's rise to power and, to many Americans, one of the first real television personalities, according to his obituary in The Washington Post.

"Mr. Cohn, with his slick hair, dark complexion and heavy-lidded eyes," the obit said, "was frequently seen whispering in the senator's ear."

Eventually, though, Cohn's influence in Washington waned as McCarthy and his hearings lost public support.

Decades later, after Cohn returned to New York, he had Trump's ear.

They first met in New York in October 1973, when Trump was 27 and beginning to make his fortune in his family's real estate business. Cohn, then 46, was a high-profile defense lawyer with connections in city government and in the courts. He used his connections to reward friends and punish opponents, according to The Post's Robert O'Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg.

There were, however, legions of Cohn detractors. "He was a source of great evil in this society," Victor A. Kovner, a Democratic activist in New York City and First Amendment lawyer, told O'Harrow and Boburg. "He was a vicious, Red-baiting source of sweeping wrongdoing."

Cohn represented Trump and his dad, Fred, when they faced Justice Department allegations that they discriminated against black rental applicants at the apartment complexes the family owned or managed, according to O'Harrow and Boburg.

On Dec. 12, 1973, Cohn called a news conference saying they were suing the government for $100 million over the allegations. In an affidavit, Cohn said the government was trying to force "subservience to the Welfare Department."

The Trump business associate who led a double life as an FBI informant
The Trumps ultimately settled the case with the government without admitting guilt - and declared victory.

In the late '70s and into the 1980s, Cohn fought efforts to have him disbarred. Through it all, Trump was a loyal friend, trophy client and protege.

"Roy had a whole crazy deal going, but Roy was a really smart guy who liked me and did a great job for me on different things," Trump told The Post, according the story published in June. "And he was a tough lawyer, and that's what I wanted. Roy was a very tough guy."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... story.html

Alleged efforts to wiretap President Trump's phone lines during his campaign could have been conducted as part of a "rogue intel operation," Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday.

King's remarks come days after Trump claimed over the weekend, without offering any evidence, that former President Obama had ordered Trump's phones tapped during the 2016 campaign.

"That doesn't necessarily prove that there wasn't a rogue intel operation going on that wasn't encumbered by, or just decided not to be encumbered by, the legalities," King said in an interview with Iowa's Sioux City Journal.

The Iowa congressman cited a slew of news articles claiming that U.S. officials had obtained a warrant to review contacts between Trump Tower and a Russian bank, according to the Sioux City Journal. But no U.S. news outlets have independently verified the claim that a Trump Tower server was under surveillance.

In a series of early morning tweets on Saturday, Trump compared the unfounded wiretapping to McCarthyism and former President Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal.

King said that the president was not necessarily talking about Obama as an individual, but was more likely referring to the Obama administration. He blamed Twitter's limit on characters for Trump's poor explanation of the allegations.

"Twitter gives you a limited space of 140 characters. But it gives you also a little bit of latitude to double entendres. ... There sometimes can be a secondary or tertiary meaning," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Trump's comments spurred immediate backlash, as Democrats and some Republicans denounced the allegations as unfounded and salacious. FBI Director James Comey privately urged the Justice Department to push back on the president's accusations, according to reports, though the agency has not done so.

King also defended Trump's use of Twitter, saying the social media site gives Americans insight into the president's thoughts and decisionmaking process.

"I am reluctant to say anything that would discourage him from tweeting," he told the newspaper. "There are people who say he shouldn't and there are those who say he shouldn't do so in the middle of the night. ... We always want the freshest thoughts we can get from the president of the United States."
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... ogue-intel

The irony of Republicans complaining about McCarthyism
By Ishaan Tharoor February 28
Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today's WorldView newsletter.


A couple of days before a host of celebrities spoke out against President Trump at the Oscars, Hollywood icon George Clooney was feted at an awards ceremony in Paris. There he warned of the shadow of McCarthyism looming over his homeland.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must not walk in fear of one another. We must not be driven by fear into an age of unreason," said Clooney. He signed off with the famous tagline of late American journalist Edward R. Murrow: "Good night, and good luck."

Murrow, of course, made his name in opposition to the anti-communist witch hunts launched by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) in the 1950s. Liberal cognoscenti see the specter of McCarthy again haunting the country as Trump deems the mainstream media the "enemy" and scapegoats whole communities as potential terror threats.

But some Republicans are invoking McCarthy, too. They see the menace of Beltway conspiracies and government overreach in Democratic calls for an investigation into Trump's reported links to Russia. In early January, Trump himself said that speculation into his Russian connections was part of "a political witch hunt."


House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican lawmaker from California, echoed what seems like the administration's line over the weekend. "This is almost like McCarthyism revisited," said Nunes to reporters in California when asked about the prospect of appointing a special prosecutor to oversee an investigation. “We’re going to go on a witch hunt against innocent Americans?"

On Monday, Nunes once more attempted to shift the focus away from the White House. "There’s been major crimes committed,” said Nunes, referring to leaks from the intelligence community that spurred the Russia allegations. "What I’m concerned about is no one is focusing on major leaks that have occurred here ... We can’t run a government like this. A government can’t function with massive leaks at the highest level."

This rhetorical move is drenched in irony.

First, the cries of McCarthyism from Nunes and other Republicans were first uttered by figures on the American far-left last year. They lambasted liberal supporters of Hillary Clinton for succumbing to Russophobia instead of properly reckoning with the failures of the Democratic candidate. Now two camps from the opposite sides of the Cold War find themselves in the same corner.

Second, the move to quash leaks carries echoes of an earlier era, when former president Richard M. Nixon and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover — both comrades in arms with McCarthy — circled the wagons in the face of Nixon's own political scandal. Things ultimately didn't end well for that Republican president.

Third, as the Atlantic's Peter Beinart wrote in 2015, Trump and McCarthy actually have a fair amount in common. Both their political careers were launched by opportunistically channeling the fears of the moment. "Both men would have happily taken up some other cause had it offered them a path to fame and power," wrote Beinart. "It was their own party, and political elites more generally, who bred the hostility and fear that they exploited."


McCarthy gestures during a Senate subcommittee hearing on March 9, 1950. (Herbert K. White/AP)
According to reports, the Trump administration tried to compel CIA officials and Republican politicians to push back on the Russia story in conversations with reporters. But the White House's attempts to subdue the Russia question appear to be backfiring.

"Efforts by the White House to spin this story their way before the investigation has run its course — and efforts by congressional Republicans to prop up that spin — are already looking like ham-handed political interference," wrote Post columnist Greg Sargent.

While Nunes argued there was nothing much to investigate, his Democratic colleague on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, made clear to reporters that no meaningful investigation has yet taken place. He and other lawmakers are demanding hearings that would compel agencies like the FBI to clarify what they know and don't know about Russian meddling in the elections and contacts with the Trump camp.

As a masterful expose by the New Yorker explains, it's probably certain that Moscow wanted to influence the U.S. elections — 17 different federal intelligence agencies, after all, agreed that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails. The question of direct collusion with the Trump camp, though, is much more complex and uncertain.

"Russia or Putin did not get Trump elected. Americans elected Trump," said Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen in an interview with Slate. "Russians basically played their sort of classic disruptive role of trying to do something that will both delegitimize democratic mechanisms and throw wrenches into the process. They never expected to succeed."

In the near future, you can expect more wrangling and bluster as the tussle over Russia's role continues. If things appear to be going against Trump, you should also expect more denunciations of the press and cries of witch hunts.


If so, at least one Republican politician may call out Trump for his demagoguery: former president George W. Bush.

"I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy," Bush said in a televised interview over the weekend. "We need an independent media to hold people like me to account." He added: "Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse power, whether it be here or elsewhere."

That was true in the days of McCarthy and Nixon — and, yes, Bush. It remains so now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... 8d12b5febe

Top Democrat tears into House Intel chair Devin Nunes: 'This is what a cover-up to a crime looks like'
Sonam Sheth

3h 23,590

Eric Swalwell
Eric Swalwell, the California Democrat. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, laid into committee chair Devin Nunes on Tuesday, alleging that Nunes had breached protocol when he viewed classified documents on White House grounds.

The White House "is not an internet café. You can’t just walk in and receive classified information," Swalwell said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show.

Nunes said Monday that he had been on White House grounds when he met with an unnamed source who provided him with documents that he claims show evidence that Trump and his associates may have had their communications "incidentally collected" by the intelligence community during the transition period.

The next day, he briefed the president on the information he had received before briefing members of his committee.

"I've been around for quite a while and I've never heard of any such thing," Republican Sen. John McCain said Tuesday morning of Nunes on CBS.

Nunes' announcement ignited a firestorm, as Democrats on the committee wondered why he had viewed the documents at the White House instead of the Capitol, as well as why he went to the president before briefing the rest of the committee. Several Democrats on and outside of the committee — including ranking member Adam Schiff — called on Nunes to recuse himself from the committee's investigation into Trump's connections with Russia.

"Because of classification rules, the source could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House Intelligence Committee space," Nunes' spokesman, Jack Langer, said on Monday. "The White House grounds was the best location to safeguard the proper chain of custody and classification of these documents so the chairman could view them in a legal way."

Swalwell disputed Nunes' statement, saying that there were secure facilities at the Capitol where Nunes could have viewed the intel he had received about the president and his associates.

"If this was done the proper way, they could have brought it over, shared it with both parties of the committee," he said, referencing what he said was the bipartisan nature by which intelligence-committee investigations are typically conducted.

Swalwell also expressed disbelief toward Nunes' assessment that people in the West Wing "had no idea" he'd been on White House property.

When a congressional member visits, Swalwell said, "Everyone in the building knows that you’re there in the building.

"This is done because the White House wanted it to be done," he said. "And this is what a cover-up to a crime looks like. We are watching it play out right now."

Democrats on the committee have called for Nunes to step down as chair and to recuse himself from the investigation. Some have called for an independent investigation into the president's ties to Russia.

"After much consideration, and in light of the chairman's admission that he met with his source of information at the White House, I believe that the chairman should recuse himself from any further involvement in the Russia investigation, as well as any involvement in oversight of matters pertaining to any incidental collection of the Trump transition, as he was also a key member of the transition team," Schiff said in a statement.

Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat who sits on the committee, said in a statement that her "fears have been validated" by the developments in recent days.

"Through his bizarre and partisan actions over the last week," she said, "Chairman Nunes has demonstrated to the entire nation why he is unfit to lead our critical investigation into ties between President Trump's administration and Moscow."
http://www.businessinsider.com/devin-nu ... ion-2017-3

[Rory]

Rather than overwhelm this thread with data dump appropriate copy pasta.

Here's a few snippets.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/03/23/d ... carthyism/

This “trading places” moment was obvious in watching the belligerent tone of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Monday as they impugned the patriotism of any Trump adviser who may have communicated with anyone connected to Russia.

Ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, acknowledged that there was no hard evidence of any Trump-Russia cabal, but he pressed ahead with what he called “circumstantial evidence of collusion,” a kind of guilt-by-association conspiracy theory that made him look like a mild-mannered version of Joe McCarthy.

While many Democratic leaders and activists are sliding into full-scale conspiracy-mode over the Russia-Trump story, they are not looking at the party’s many mistakes and failings, such as:

–Why did party leaders push so hard to run an unpopular establishment candidate in a strongly anti-establishment year? Was it the fact that many are beholden to the Clinton cash machine?

–How can Democrats justify the undemocratic use of “super-delegates” to make many rank-and-file voters feel that the process is rigged in favor of the establishment’s choice?

–What can the Democratic Party do to reengage with many working-class voters, especially downwardly mobile whites, to stop the defection of this former Democratic base to Trump’s populism?

–Do national Democrats understand how out of touch they are with the future as they insist that the United States must remain the sole military superpower in a uni-polar world when the world is rapidly shifting toward a multi-polar reality?

Yet, rather than come up with new strategies to address the future, Democratic leaders would rather pretend that Putin is at fault for the Trump presidency and hope that the U.S. intelligence community – with its fearsome surveillance powers – can come up with enough evidence to justify Trump’s impeachment.

Then, of course, the Democrats would be stuck with President Mike Pence, a more traditional Religious Right Republican whose first step on foreign policy would be to turn it over to neocon Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, a move that would likely mean a new wave of “regime change” wars.

[seemslikeadream]

Ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, acknowledged that there was no hard evidence of any Trump-Russia cabal, but he pressed ahead with what he called “circumstantial evidence of collusion,” a kind of guilt-by-association conspiracy theory that made him look like a mild-mannered version of Joe McCarthy.

false..incomplete statement

Schiff: ‘More Than Circumstantial Evidence’ Trump Associates Colluded With Russia
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politic ... ia-n737446

[Rory]

As an aside, I learn that schiff for brains loves the war on yemen, and supports the muslim laptop ban. What a great guy!

[seemslikeadream]

oh have you looked at what your precious trump is doing or not doing in Yemen right now?

After Trump Massacres in Mosul, Campaign against ISIL Halted
By Juan Cole | Mar. 26, 2017 |

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
Candidate Donald Trump called last year for carpet-bombing of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) in Iraq and Syria. It is possible that Trump has loosened the rules of engagement for the US Air Force, which is providing air support to the Iraqi Army. Looser rules could well be producing more casualties.
This allegation is supported by an NYT piece today that quotes and Iraqi officer to this effect:

Dubai’s al-Khaleej reports that after a US airstrike on West Mosul on Thursday that is alleged to have killed over 200 innocent civilians, the Iraqi Army has paused its campaign to take the rest of the Western part of the city. That is, Trump may actually have hamstrung the anti-Daesh fight by policies that led to a civilian massacre from the air.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights is reporting that an Iraqi civilian defense force is reporting that 500 corpses of civilians killed by air strikes have been discovered in Mosul.
Old Mosul is densely populated and it is possible that Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) still has some 300,000 people there under its sway. The Iraqi army and the US-coalition are attempting to dislodge Daesh, but never called for a civilian exodus. Hence, civilians are caught in the crossfire.
The US military admitted to carrying out the deadly strike, but were careful to underline that it had been called for by the Iraqi Army. Trump’s war strategy seems to be so unsuccessful that the US Air Force is trying to pass the blame for it off onto the Iraqi Army!
The Mosul judicial council has called for declaring Mosul a disaster zone. The judges added,
“The indiscriminate strikes on West Mosul by the fighter jets of the coalition must cease.”
They called for a review of military planning for Mosul. They noted that they had been calling since Thursday for civil defense units to help with saving civilians. The coalition planes had been trying to hit three houses used by Daesh.
——-
Related video:
https://www.juancole.com/2017/03/massac ... ainst.html

WORLD
Will Donald Trump Escalate the Devastating War and Hunger in Yemen?
Unless an urgent effort is made to find a political solution, almost 7 million people in Yemen will starve.
By Medea Benjamin / AlterNet March 27, 2017

This week marks the beginning of year three of the Saudi-led military intervention in the civil war in Yemen, an intervention that has resulted in an epic tragedy of destruction and starvation. Tens of thousands of Yemenis marked the occasion by pouring into the streets of the capital, Sanna, to call for an end to the Saudi airstrikes that have been supported by the US military. But instead of pushing to jumpstart stalemated negotiations to end the conflict, the Trump administration seems anxious to get more deeply involved in the war by supporting an attack on the key port of Hodeidah and resuming halted weapons sales.

Greater US support for the Saudis, who intervened in Yemen to try to stop the Iran-friendly Houthis from coming to power, is part of Trump’s “get tough” policy on Iran. But further escalation of the war in Yemen, particularly an offensive to seize Hodeidah from the Houthi rebels, will mean even more death and hunger for the Yemeni people. Jeremy Konyndyk, who was the director of foreign disaster assistance at US AID under Obama, said a serious disruption of the Hodeidah port could well “tip the country into famine.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has requested for US support for the Hodeidah attack, a request that will reportedly come before Trump’s national security advisors this week. The Obama administration, which had been helping the Saudi bombing campaign from the beginning with weapons and logistics, did not support this particular attack because they thought it would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis since Hodeideh has been the main port of entry for humanitarian supplies.

On March 23, a bipartisan group of ten senators, including Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to launch an urgent diplomatic effort to help avert a pending famine in Yemen and three other nations, and included a specific call to keep the Hodeidah port open to humanitarian aid.

Yemen imports 90 percent of its food, and the war, including a Saudi naval blockade and a previous bombing of cranes at the Hodeidah port where all the large grain silos are located, has made it difficult to import sufficient food and humanitarian supplies. Food shipments into Hodeidah have already fallen precipitously, with only a few ships arriving each week, compared to dozens before the war, and more shipping lines are pulling out due to the growing risks.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says speed is of the essence to prevent a tragedy of massive proportions. “Words cannot capture the extent of the suffering of the Yemeni people,” said ICRC Middle East director Robert Mardini. “Their resilience has reached a breaking point.” Twenty people are dying every day, many of curable diseases because only 45 percent of the health facilities are functioning.”

A UNICEF report shows over 400,000 Yemeni children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a child dying every 10 minutes from malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory-tract infections.

Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen put the tragedy in human terms. “Fisherman can’t fish, farmers can’t farm, civil servants don’t get paid…people having to make life and death decisions: Do you feed your children or do you pay for medical treatment for your child? And that’s a daily call for many families.”

UN and private relief organizations have been mobilizing to respond to the crisis. In February, the UN launched a humanitarian appeal calling for $2.1 billion. As of March, however, only 7 percent of the appeal had been funded and the UN Refugee Agency has received less than half the funds it needs.

While the wealthy nations must open their wallets to feed starving Yemenis, the only way to end the humanitarian crisis is to end the conflict. This would mean a ceasefire, a push for negotiations and in the case of the US, an end to weapons sales to the Saudis.

President Obama supported the Saudis with massive weapons sales during his eight years in office. But just before leaving office in December 2016, when faced with increased pressure from human rights groups and lawmakers after a Saudi strike on a Yemeni funeral killed at least 140 people, President Obama put a halt of the sale of precision-guided munitions to the Saudis.

Trump’s State Department already gave notice to Congress that they have approved a resumption of these sales. If there is no objection from Congress and President Trump signs off on the deal, the deal will go through. Amnesty International urged Trump not to sign off on the sales, saying that new US arms could be used to devastate civilian lives in Yemen and could “implicate your administration in war crimes.”

This is not the time to escalate the war. Unless an urgent effort is made to find a political solution and get massive food aid into the country, almost 7 million people in this war-torn nation will face starvation. Stopping on attack on Hodeidah and making sure the port is secure for food shipments is a critical first step.
http://www.alternet.org/world/trump-esc ... nger-yemen

[seemslikeadream]

Rory now who's deleting posts?

I don't care if you do but please from now on cut the accusatory crap

and adding dates from the articles you post sometimes is very helpful

[Rory]

More copypasta no one reads. Is this a data dump thread?

[seemslikeadream]

speak for yourself Rory....I know otherwise