The FBI and the 2016 Election

[Iamwhomiam]

This video will seem misplaced, but it belongs here, although it would as well be fitting elsewhere.
Comey's testimony is why I posted it here.

[Morty]

#irony

The newest version of the National defence Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalise the use of propaganda on the American public, reports Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed.

[Morty]

Watergate reporters are evenly split so far on the PissTrump dossier.

"Watergate reporter Bob Woodward calls ex-MI6 Trump dossier a "Garbage document.""

[seemslikeadream]

I reject your suggestion that I shut the fuck up ...

The SILENCE will be far more valuable than 1M 'thank you' notes

I take that suggestion that I be silent and throw it in the toilet where it belongs

.


SLAD:

It troubles me to say this, but it appears you have been completely overtaken by the AD virus, given your prolific and near-inhuman acts of copy/pasting across myriad threads of late.

I am fearful for your health, SLAD -- and ours: we simply cannot endure another AD-like epidemic!

You needn't worry, Doc Savant is here to cure your ills:

1. Shut off your wifi connection and laptop immediately.
2. Avoid any periodicals and/or print media in your vicinity
3. Unplug your TV set, and most importantly
4. Step outside, breathe the air, sit under a tree.. let the leaves fall on you. Look up at the sky. Daydream.

This nightmare -- at least the fabricated selection process -- will all be over soon.
(alas, to be promptly rep‎laced by other hysterical mania, surely)

NOTE: anyone reading this can proceed with the steps outlined above. I urge y'all to consider them earnestly the next time any of you are tempted to copy/paste or SUBMIT a contribution that in any way relates to the utter circus-satire pantomiming as a national election.

No need to thank me. The SILENCE will be far more valuable than 1M 'thank you' notes.

I am now off to follow my own advice.

[seemslikeadream]

and you know where you can put that comment

Monsieur Savant:

Many who are overly occupied with the echo chambers within their own minds typically have little consideration for others when offering their output.

An outstanding comment - from an excellent, studied observation overall.

[seemslikeadream]

you know what I think?

I don't care what you think.

You're trying to force the shallow mainstream political narrative down our throat, Slad. I think you should stop doing that. We're here at RI after all.

And if you can't interact with me without getting all snooty and personal, then don't bother trying to interact with me, thanks.

Where is Manafort these days?

[seemslikeadream]

Guess what Mac ..it was true...I will never take advice from you again ....once was a BIG mistake...at one time I thought you were someone different ...I think it is you that should leave me alone from now on ..you were wrong about that half dozen...there are only three other people here that think like you do. The other three have been banned

EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia
Home WORLD
By Louise Mensch | 10:18 pm, November 7, 2016

SLaD... Do you even know who Louise Mensch is? Do you care? You have now posted this article torrent of bullshit - in full - in at least two separate threads. It's not quality. It's just quantity.

First line:

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that [...]

Sic. Sic. Sic. Sic.

Please stop spamming the board, SLaD. How many regular posters have asked you politely by now? At least half a dozen.

Please.

Briebart.com is owned by this zillionaire Robert Mercer

remember that fact ..it is important

[MacCruiskeen]

Guess what Mac ..it was true...I will never take advice from you again ....once was a BIG mistake...at one time I thought you were someone different ...I think it is you that should leave me alone from now on ..you were wrong about that half dozen...there are only three other people here that think like you do. The other three have been banned

EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia
Home WORLD
By Louise Mensch | 10:18 pm, November 7, 2016

SLaD... Do you even know who Louise Mensch is? Do you care? You have now posted this article torrent of bullshit - in full - in at least two separate threads. It's not quality. It's just quantity.

First line:

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that [...]

Sic. Sic. Sic. Sic.

Please stop spamming the board, SLaD. How many regular posters have asked you politely by now? At least half a dozen.

Please.

Briebart.com is owned by this zillionaire Robert Mercer

remember that fact ..it is important

SLAD, since you chose to address me with this today, I am going to reply to you. OK? I am going to disagree with you, but disagreement does not constitute personal insult. OK?

I do not know now, and I certainly did not know on November 8th last year, whether the FBI had ‘Granted [a] FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia!' My objection was not to the assertion itself but to the quality of the publication and the author of the piece -- Louise Mensch, a really nasty right-wing English Tory and a notoriously stupid person -- and, far more importantly *, the quality of the evidence she adduced to support her claim:

Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that [...]

If it now turns out, two-and-a-half-months later, to be true ** that the FBI did indeed grant such a warrant, then that in no way invalidates what I said on November 8th 2016 about Louise Mensch and about the quality of that article.

Guess what Mac ..it was true...I will never take advice from you again ....once was a BIG mistake...at one time I thought you were someone different ...I think it is you that should leave me alone from now on ..you were wrong about that half dozen...there are only three other people here that think like you do. The other three have been banned

I note the barely-camouflaged threat, and I would be pleased if you would stop trying to get me banned. And I assure you that there are more than three people left here who care about the quality of the articles posted, or re-posted, at RI.

.I think it is you that should leave me alone from now on ..

This makes no sense at all. It is you who are dropping my name all over the board (such as here), trying to provoke a response from me, even in threads I haven't commented on for weeks or months (such as this one!) or in threads I haven't commented on at all. If you really want me to "leave [you] alone", then please just stop doing that. This is a Discussion Board, and anything posted to it may be rationally disagreed with or even refuted, or at least politely and honestly addressed, especially by the posters you choose to address by name, such as me here and now.

-----------------

* Of course, even a really nasty rightwinger might publish something true, or at least persuasive, about anything. That wasn't the case with that particular article by Louise Mensch from November last year.

** Has it turned out to be true? Maybe someone would be kind enough to post the evidence that it is true here, or at least to direct me to it with a link. Thanks.

[seemslikeadream]

it was in no way a threat to you...it was in response to your remark lie about a half dozen members here who agree with your assessment of me. That is it. Your assessment is wrong and that is all I was saying. The reason I brought up the three banned members is because I thought you might have included them in your count. I am in no way trying to get you banned.


I have nothing more to say to you


hopefully this will be our last contact here I will not address anything you post here again ...this was just one remaining conflict that I wanted to address

[MacCruiskeen]

That is a very disappointing response to what I wrote, SLAD. And now you call me a liar.

.it was in response to your remark lie about a half dozen members here who agree with your assessment of me.

I would almost certainly be suspended without warning if I said you had lied, especially without strong evidence to back it up. I did not lie, and what I said was in any case not about an "assessment of [you]".

Also, which three members have been banned? (Really banned, or just suspended?) I didn't get that memo. Maybe someone would be kind enough to let me know who they are, or were, and exactly why and when they got banned.

[seemslikeadream]

I apologize to you ..I should have not replied to an old post of yours. I don't want you banned. That's it. Hopefully we will have no contact in the future and avoid causing Womby any more problems

[seemslikeadream]

GOP Senator Calls for Investigating What FBI Did About Russia-Trump Intelligence

Lindsey Graham also slams Donald Trump for his "forgive-and-forget" stance toward Vladimir Putin.

DAVID CORN
JAN. 20, 2017 3:40 PM



The night before Donald Trump was sworn in as president, the New York Times dropped a bombshell: intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been examining intercepted communications and financial transactions in an investigation of possible contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials. This report seemed to confirm previous indications that the US government has collected sensitive intelligence about interactions between Trump insiders and Russians. And hours before the inauguration, I ran into Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been one of the few Republicans to call for a special investigation of the Russian hacking that helped Trump, and I asked him about this latest development.

Graham, a member of the Senate judiciary committee, said that he didn't know anything about the intelligence intercepts. He remarked, "I want to learn and investigate all things Russian, wherever it leads." He noted that it was clear that Vladimir Putin's regime had "tried to undermine our election" and "succeeded in creating discontent and discord." He added, "I want to know what they did and who they did it with." He went on: "I want to see all of it...I want to know what Russia did...If there is campaign contacts, I want to know about it."

Graham said he hoped to examine what the FBI knew about any Trump-Russia contacts and what actions the bureau had taken. (Before the election, FBI Director Jim Comey talked rather publicly about the bureau's investigation of Hillary Clinton's handling of her email at the State Department. But Comey has declined to say anything in public regarding whether the bureau has probed links between Trump associates and Russians.) "I hope to be able to work with Sen. Grassley [the chair of the judiciary committee] to look into the FBI's role," Graham said, "in terms of what they did, what they know, and what they can provide to Congress."

At the moment, the Senate investigation of the Russian hacking and possible contacts between Russia and the Trump campaign is being conducted by the Senate intelligence committee. So it's unclear whether Graham will get his wish for a judiciary committee inquiry into the FBI end of this matter.

Before darting off to inauguration business, Graham, who often tussled with Trump during the 2016 campaign, criticized the incoming president for trying to downplay Russian meddling in the 2016 election. "Trump," he said, "seems to be in the forgive-and-forget mode." He noted the "biggest mistake" Trump could make would be "forgiving Russia...for what they did in our election."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... telligence

[seemslikeadream]

Flynn puts FBI director back in spotlight
BY KATIE BO WILLIAMS - 02/15/17 06:00 AM EST 5,065

The spotlight is back on FBI Director James Comey thanks to Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser.

Comey, whom Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign blamed for her loss in last year’s presidential election, is now reportedly presiding over an investigation that appears to have implicated one of President Trump’s top aides.


Republicans and Democrats alike are watching closely, putting pressure on the bureau for a public accounting.
Democrats want to know exactly what Flynn said to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — and on whose orders — amid ongoing scrutiny into a widespread influence campaign by Moscow intended to help install Trump in the White House.

“The much bigger issue is, what is the connection with Russia and the Trump administration? It’s not only how far up does it go — was the campaign in collusion?” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

Republicans have been more muted about a probe into a Republican president and instead have attempted to shift focus to the wiretap that reportedly exposed Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak to the FBI — and the subsequent press leaks that revealed the wiretaps.

“I expect for the FBI to tell me what is going on, and they better have a good answer,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who was a member of the Trump transition team executive committee, told The Washington Post.

“The big problem I see here is that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded,” said Nunes, who announced Tuesday that his committee would probe the leaks.

Comey was perhaps the most controversial figure in Washington in the weeks surrounding the 2016 election — but he has been conspicuously quiet since Nov. 8, both on and off the Hill.

Democrats blamed Comey for costing Clinton the White House after he announced the FBI was looking at new information related to her use of a private email server just a little more than a week before Election Day. Days before the election, Comey said the FBI had found no information to change its earlier decision.

But Republicans have also expressed displeasure with Comey.

He won GOP ire when over the summer he announced the FBI would not be recommending any charges against Clinton.

Comey’s presence has been in the background in recent weeks.

The FBI director briefed Trump about Russia’s involvement in the election in early January at a meeting at Trump Tower.

During the meeting, Comey also let Trump know of a dossier of memos prepared by a former British spy for political rivals to Trump. The memos included claims that Russia was seeking information that could be used as leverage against Trump.

Trump in late January reportedly decided to keep Comey on as FBI director. The decision ensured that Comey, a Republican, would be involved in any probes of Trump related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Flynn’s activities — which also include a paid speech he gave in Moscow in 2015 — will almost certainly be examined by the FBI. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that the FBI interviewed Flynn in the first days of the Trump administration.

Following a deeply contentious classified briefing on the Hill in January, furious Democrats accused Comey of a double standard — and in some cases, called for his removal.

Asked if he had faith in the FBI to conduct the reported Russia investigation in good faith, Nadler on Tuesday answered: “I don’t know.”

Lawmakers are divided on whether they believe that Comey set his own precedent with the Clinton disclosures and will therefore be forced to go public with details of the Russia probe.

“He twice made the decision that in light of the high public awareness, to try to clear the air — and no air got cleared,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said.

“I’m not going to disagree that he will live by that experience of, no matter what his reasons, it did not advance the trust in the FBI when he was honest and forthcoming.”

But Comey has long been known as a maverick — he has described himself as “tone deaf” to politics. Facing down fierce demands from Democrats to confirm the Russia probe in January, he was described as unflinching and defiant.

“I have a sense that the man is trying to do what he thinks is right — because he has made everyone mad. To me, that’s a sign of a guy who really believes he is trying to affect his office in a way commensurate with his oath,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... -spotlight