Patterico's Pontifications

5/22/2018

It’s Coming: Obama TV

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:59 am



We thought Trump TV was going to be the next thing, until we were handed a 4-8 year reality show on all the networks. Now you can remind yourself why you didn’t particularly care for, or perhaps despised, the guy Trump replaced. “Miss him yet”? Why, soon he’ll be only a click away again! Allahpundit explains:

Obama TV: Netflix Signs Deal With Barack And Michelle To Produce Original Content

Their first film: Drumpf: The Secret Wiretaps.

Nah, sounds like the political stuff here will be broadly political rather than explicitly partisan, e.g., global warming and voting rights, plus maybe some feelgood elite-left cultural pap. “The Joy of Composting,” etc.

I’m psyched for a documentary explaining why it makes sense to trust the nuclear promises of a government full of Shiite fanatics.

. . . .

“Why the Palestinians Are Right” should be a humdinger.

Allahpundit says that people on the right are boycotting Netflix over this. LOL. Smash your Keurig and abandon your cheap and plentiful entertainment. One day, you’ll be able to use only products untouched by any leftist influence. I hear cabin life is tough, but refreshing.

Me, I’ll keep my Netflix account but simply won’t be tuning in. Although having the show around sounds like a nice thing — a reminder of the good old days when people on the right liked each other, because they could come together in their hatred of a guy in power from across the aisle. Now all we have is our hatred of one another. (Although, to be fair, I don’t hate you. You just hate me.) It’s not the same. Maybe we do miss you, Barack. Maybe we do.

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

Nah.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

309 Responses to “It’s Coming: Obama TV”

  1. i don’t hate you.

    Charlie Davis (e0d495)

  2. I haven’t seen a Netflix original yet. But I am watching A Dame To Kill For ten minutes at a time, and wondering if it’s sexist to cast solid male actors but the females are all B-list cheesecake.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Netflix has some excellent documentaries. I watched Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary in its entirety in two sittings. Other than that, I mainly stick to old TV shows. Star Trek, Arrested Development, Etc.

    Gryph (08c844)

  4. obama should be in jail soon for sending the slutty men and women of the corrupt fbi to do illegal spying on americans

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  5. I bought True Detective season 1 on Amazon Prime. Pretty good. A few parts felt off, but in general very well produced and a fun watch.

    I also bought and binge watched all of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Both good once you get into them. Although each were slow at times until you get hooked on the soap opera.

    I have also enjoyed Silicon Valley. Been pirating, but I buy the season after.

    A strange thing, I was wondering. If you are under a FISA warrant, would they go after you for watching pirated movies? Youporn?

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  6. Netflix is good, just can’t wait for this one. After the Final Year, should be a real tearjerker.

    Luckily, I have the Amazon Prime membership, care of my shopaholic numbah 1 – not numbah 10 – son.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  7. Can I wipe this Netflix like with a cloth?

    AZ Bob (9a6ada)

  8. If Obama were smart, and wanted to stay relevant, he’d join FoxNews as a contributor and become one of the voices inside Donald Trump’s head.

    Dave (445e97)

  9. While I’m sure i won’t have time to watch this (still working on Punisher) i look forward to reading the hot takes.

    Are those out yet or are people waiting on it to actually be released before they tell me how great a job it does “Totally exposing conservatives hypocrisy” / “proving once and for all that Obama is a secret Muslim?”

    Time123 (b4d075)

  10. Honestly, Patterico, this is no big deal. How is such a arrangement any different than the usual programming?

    It’s just more honest in its cheerleading.

    I haven’t had broadcast or cable for fifteen years. I just use Netflix for a few shows, and iTunes.

    Simon Jester (e077dd)

  11. I was thinking of dropping Netflix because there isn’t enough high quality content.
    This isn’t exactly improving my assessment.

    Filmstruck is pretty good. It’s pretentious I guess but they have tons of movies I actually want to watch. Also Ted-turner stuff now, including MGM classics. Fred and Ginger aren’t too highbrow for anyone and they have them from Rio to that one with the monkey.

    SarahW (3164f0)

  12. I didn’t really like Stranger Things 2, did anyone?

    SarahW (3164f0)

  13. liked each other, because they could come together in their hatred of a guy

    The divide in this country has been growing and growing ever since we lost Howard Cosell.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  14. WASHINGTON, May 21 (Yonhap) — The upcoming summit between North Korea and the United States will go on as scheduled despite fresh tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul’s top security official said here Monday.

    Chung Eui-yong, chief of the presidential National Security Office, made the remarks aboard Air Force One bound for Washington, where President Moon Jae-in is to hold a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday…

    …Chung rejected a recent New York Times article that said, citing administration and foreign officials. Trump had begun pressing his aides about whether going ahead with the summit with Kim Jong-un was worth the risk.

    “During phone calls between our two leaders or talks between our National Security Councils, I never got such an impression,” Chung said.

    Chung also denied the article’s claim that Trump asked Moon during their phone conversation on Saturday why the North’s statements contradicted Moon’s private assurances following the South-North summit in late April.

    http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2018/05/22/0301000000AEN20180522003200315.html

    So the NYT was wrong? I am shocked.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  15. i did like Stranger Things 2 but you know why

    i would’ve hated Winona’s character to have had to stay where they left it – I thought they really didn’t do right by her as an actress in that season –

    she took the risk of playing such an unglamorous character and they really didn’t give her a role worthy of her talent in fact her character was monotonous and annoying in the first series

    but they let her character breathe a bit more in season 2 and that was nice

    and beyond that i like how they have legitimately dark awful things happen to people

    that’s the fun thing they’ve created i think

    the evocation of goonies-type 80’s family fare juxtaposed with post-columbine darkness and nihilism

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  16. That was meant for the Raining On My Nobel thread. I will post it there. My mistake.

    BuDuh (fc15db)

  17. The obama’s own the old Magnum P.I. Property so I envision a maxwell smart, 99 type show.

    mg (9e54f8)

  18. First offering will be a series called “Me, Myself and I.” About how a humble black leftist rose to power in this awful, terrible, horrible nation.

    They probably won’t produce a thing; it’s just a vanity credit and a contribution to the Cause.
    //

    On Netflix, watch Occupied, about a soft takeover of Norway by Russia aided by the EU. Narcos is good too.

    Patricia (3363ec)

  19. I envision a spin off of Empire meets the Housewives of Atlanta. I’ll watch the episode where Michelle fends off an avalanche of her husband’s groupies

    Steveg (fe2a1f)

  20. on Netflix i been watching 15-20 minutes of Riverdale every night just for a bedtime story

    i can’t binge on it but it does the trick in small doses

    that french zombie movie ravenous was a good watch

    not much else to report though

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  21. The two stooges, has a ring to it.

    mg (9e54f8)

  22. I think most everyone who isn’t a nutcase can admit the Obama administration had plenty of failures. A great documentary with an honest analysis of their administration would be fun to watch.

    There’s the nutcases on both sides, the birther Trump guys and the Obamagirl fans, and hopefully Netflix knows both of these options are simply very boring.

    Generally, I’ve really liked Netflix’s original content.

    Happyfeet, I didn’t even realize Wynona was a good actress until I watched Stranger Things (both seasons). She’s very talented!

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  23. love her more than pickles i hope she’s having a nice summer

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  24. Patterico,

    what happened to trying to be more civilized and humble?

    Mocking people who choose to boycott. Sad.

    NJRob (b58d3c)

  25. The left deplatforms and shadowbans conservatives at the drop of a hat.

    Heaven forbid we refuse to support that behavior and give it legitimacy.

    NJRob (b58d3c)

  26. it’s humorous to expect susan ‘it’s a video’ rice, to show integrity, while they shutter Cambridge analytica, when Lachlan sells out the last dissident voices to abc and comcast

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. what happened to trying to be more civilized and humble?

    Mocking people who choose to boycott. Sad.

    In the heat of a conversation, in response to slights or perceived slights, the mocking is understandable. Excusable even. But to start in, right off the top of a post, kind of belies the sincerity of calls for civility.

    Skorcher (5b282a)

  28. Skorcher, I read that as mocking the idea of boycotting…and pointing how much, if you wanted to be consistent, you’d need to boycott.

    Kishnevi (121377)

  29. 8/Dave, he could pretend to be a red-pilled Drake (the rapper, former DeGrassi High reboot star) and get onto Fox News that way.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  30. I think there is a difference between mocking the behavior of an anonymous class of people (which in practice means ridiculing an idea or act), and being uncivil to an individual you are having a discussion with (which is a personal insult).

    And what he said was hardly intemperate – he just said that if you are determined to extirpate all forms of culture touched by the left, you might as well try draining the ocean with a teaspoon (i.e. it is a wildly unrealistic project).

    Dave (445e97)

  31. Eh….it’s no skin off my nose if people don’t want to boycott. Your mileage may vary. I just would rather not spend my money, limited as it is, bankrolling people who hate me. Simple as that. Besides, Altered Carbon was the only Netflix original that I *really* liked. I can live without the rest of them.

    radar (2334a0)

  32. The left deplatforms and shadowbans conservatives at the drop of a hat.

    Heaven forbid we refuse to support that behavior and give it legitimacy.

    Yes, we need to become more like the left and ape every small-minded and petty thing they do.

    I suggest we start by nominating a serial lying, race-baiting narcissist and electing him president.

    Oh, wait…

    Dave (445e97)

  33. I don’t remember the woe is me from the blog 10 years ago. Then again, I wasn’t here for the election. Then again, I don’t have a good memory.

    I wasn’t even planning on voting. Sat it out in 2012. Voted Libertarian or some such in 2008. But I had a really persistent never Trumper boss at work, who kept talking about how awful Trump was, acting like anyone with brains would automatically vote against him. Pissed me off that he was doing that in the workplace (felt there had to be some people biting their tongues). So I looked him in the eye at a team dinner and said, “hey…I hear this from you all the time…so I am going to vote for Trump…and that’s a vote he wasn’t even going to get if you hadn’t been so assuming.” (I was crushing my project so golden at work, anyways.)

    I really think a lot of America got sick of the creative class attitude that nobody would vote for Trump. So…they went and bashed the donkey with a 2 by 4. Lot of silent majority…yeah I know he lost the popular…still way outperformed.

    Hmm…too dreary to read the whole campaign threads, but maybe I will see if there was an election night thread on here, avec fun caterwauling.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  34. For me Netflix is played out after binging Dexter and Mad Men, they are way too fond of the Wet Hot American Summer platform. I will likely swap out for Sling which will at least give me a chance to have that TV always on buzz I have missed since cutting the cord earlier this year.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  35. I imagine programming will be about as popular as the school lunch program. Netflix is probably thinking they’ve be bilked.

    Bruce (6f45b5)

  36. I don’t like the recent trend of post office payola. Feels like graft. Also the recent move of huge amounts of money going into left wing politicians (not their campaigns, but their checking accounts).

    FWIW, I didn’t like HW at Saudi Arabia, either.

    You should have some actual job skill, not just be a politician. Go back and work after leaving office and just earn a salary based on what you do on the free market. Not all this book/speech cashing in graft.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  37. here are the website i use on the internet for when i want to watch stuff it lets you search filter the amazon and the netflix catalog at the same time

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  38. but he was an oil man before he got into politics, with some expose with the gulf states, by the early 60s, dresser industries was eventually merged into Pennzoil if memory served,

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. The Babylon Bee is on it, lol.

    “We talk a big talk when it comes to wealth inequality in our nation, and it’s time for us to start walking the walk,” Obama said, speaking to reporters in front of his newly purchased $8.1-million home in an exclusive neighborhood in D.C. “That’s why we’ll be giving every dollar of our ridiculously profitable book and film deals to charities that help the less fortunate.”

    Obama also confirmed the millions of dollars he makes from speaking engagements with large Wall Street banks and other private sector firms will be donated to help the poorest of the poor in our nation. “It’s time we redistribute the exorbitant fees these Wall Street scumbags gave me to the people they oppress the most.

    “It’s only the right, consistent thing to do,” he added.

    At publishing time, the Obamas had released a video in which they committed to allowing refugees and undocumented immigrants to stay in their new mansion.

    http://babylonbee.com/news/obamas-promise-to-donate-all-proceeds-from-multimillion-dollar-book-netflix-deals-to-combat-wealth-inequality/

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  40. “I suggest we start by nominating a serial lying, race-baiting narcissist and electing him president.

    Oh, wait…

    Yep, 2008.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  41. it’s a hot take right off the griddle,

    narciso (d1f714)

  42. Thinking past stage one. President Obama’s legacy will consist of fluffy, Netflix documentaries and the election of Donald John Trump.

    That’s hilarious.

    Carlton (ce186b)

  43. really consider road to 9/11 and abc’s censoring of it, because it infringed on Clinton’s man of action claims, btw, hasting was Clinton’s fcc chair,

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. Thinking past stage one. President Obama’s legacy will consist of fluffy, Netflix documentaries and the election of Donald John Trump.

    That’s hilarious.

    Carlton

    A lot of truth to this. Obama wasn’t the uniter he posed as in that 2004 speech. Obamacare wasn’t a deal made between the parties. The IRS was weaponized. As a response, the democrats lost the electoral college and Trump is president.

    In a lot of ways, this is clearly a loss for the democrats. The judicial appointments will be a lasting impact.

    In a lot of ways, it’s not so clear. Trump could define a pendulum swing back in the other direction, and having lost the vote by millions to Hillary, a truly weak candidate, it’s not like he is much of a uniter or has a mandate.

    And then there’s Obamacare. All Trump and the GOP needs to do is pass a one line bill that the Affordable Care Act is repealed. By failing to do this, Obama has a pretty strong legacy. It’s a bigger act of legislation than Trump has passed, or probably will pass. It’s not even clear that Trump will run for re-election, let alone that he will win, so if he never wins the popular vote, he will always be one of those presidents with an asterisk by his name, whereas the voters of this country actually did want Obama to be president, they did not want Trump to be.

    If Trump wishes to outshine Obama beyond twitter and birther stuff and nobel peace crap, he needs to balance the budget, cancel Obamacare, and stop being Mr. Amnesty on immigration. He needs to live up to his campaign pledges. I actually want him to do this and be successful, to prove me wrong when he campaigned and I noted a Hillary supporter is probably not sincere about all these grand promises. Unfortunately, time has proven Trump’s critics to be largely correct, and proven his fans to be largely frustrated, unhappy, and reduced to personal attacks.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  45. narciso

    Did they finally take Obama out of the Homeland intro? I boycotted this season. I’m catching up on Chicago PD. It’s like the new NYPD Shield.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  46. Don’t know I’ve heard trump broke them as with quantico, get it past Murkowski, we won’t have flake or corker to worry about.

    narciso (a3accd)

  47. Unfortunately, time has proven Trump’s critics to be largely correct, and proven his fans to be largely frustrated, unhappy, and reduced to personal attacks.

    Trump’s critics insured everyone that he could not be elected, no way, no how. And lots of the criticism was hateful and unreasoned personal attacks on those who would vote for Trump.

    Hard to be more largely incorrect than that.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  48. Giancarlo Esposito was on the short lived show Revolution and he looked eerily like Obama.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  49. Yes New York and California provides the margin had she racked I those numbers in the Midwest it would be a different story.

    narciso (a3accd)

  50. We already have madam secretary for that.

    narciso (a3accd)

  51. There’s a really good show called Unearthed that takes apart something like The Great Wall or Stonehenge with exploding animation. It’s pretty interesting.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  52. There’s also ministry of time, that timeless ripped off

    narciso (a3accd)

  53. Larger millstone yes probably, that’s why mccain keeps getting in the way.

    narciso (a3accd)

  54. narciso

    In Shondaland twenty percent of the population is gay and married with a kid they never see because they have interesting high paced careers.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  55. here’s also ministry of time, that timeless ripped off

    narciso (a3accd) — 5/22/2018 @ 12:22 pm

    The ABC show Deception got cancelled. Too on the nose.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  56. and Designated Survivor was the hail mary of a Tom Vilsack presidency, which was not that far fetched had Hillary outlasted Obama in ’08 and then rotted in office.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  57. That’s why Joe Morton was my favorite on that series.

    narciso (a3accd)

  58. Yes but they had the happy ending to jericho.

    narciso (a3accd)

  59. “Yes, we need to become more like the left and ape every small-minded and petty thing they do.

    That’s easy to do when people mock those who boycott and in the next instant declare they won’t be watching.

    Also pretty good is assigning hate while absolving oneself as not hateful.

    The projections are getting pretty rich.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  60. The Beast needs fed; this ain’t even a snack.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  61. All Trump and the GOP needs to do is pass a one line bill that the Affordable Care Act is repealed.

    It seems naive to suppose that this would be sufficient.

    If Romney had been elected in 2012, before most of it had gone into effect, then sure.

    But since it did go into effect, I don’t think you can pass a bill saying it never happened and call it a day.

    Or rather, you can, but it would be extremely irresponsible and politically costly.

    Dave (445e97)

  62. Ncis did get around to mentioning fast and furious although messed up the timeline, even their la branch glimmer into benghazi and the gitmo coonection.

    narciso (a3accd)

  63. McCabe wrote to Comey, Rybicki, and two others. “The trigger for them is they know the material was discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment.”

    So according to what McCabe wrote contemporaneously the trigger was BOTH the written and the oral briefing.

    More interesting of course is the issue of Stefan Halper being a would be “spy”

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  64. Juche dave in particular:

    Old news, and I replied at length above.

    Dave (445e97)

  65. They did repeal Obamacare, because the individual mandate is repealed as January 1, 2019. The employer mandate still remains.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  66. Would people STOP calling Halper a spy!? He’s just a guy who arranged meetings and brought up topics to try to get information and brought that info back to report to CIA/FBI and didn’t let the people he was collecting intel on know who he was and what he was doing. That is totally different from being a spy. Sheesh!

    [That is if he really did those things…we’re speculating. Although I would “Bayesian bet” on it.]

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  67. What they didn’t do is REPLACE Obamacare – they didn’t even really try and have no good ideas (that any substantial group can agree on)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  68. But since it did go into effect, I don’t think you can pass a bill saying it never happened and call it a day.

    Or rather, you can, but it would be extremely irresponsible and politically costly.

    Dave

    Why? I simply do not have to buy insurance if I don’t want to anymore (whether through my employer or otherwise). Yes there will be a ton of problems that the market, rather than our government, can resolve over time, imperfectly but freely.

    I am quite confident that the lack of an entitlement program would be politically costly in the short term, but the real problem the GOP has is that it has lost its purpose by trying too hard to avoid political costs in the short term. People who seek freedom and limited government really have nowhere to turn these days. Over time, that’s the reason we’re in the situation we are in politically.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  69. Comey testified a year ago that they discussed it. He also related the information about CNN to Trump on January 6, 2017.

    Just more disinformation to convince the rubes in TrumpWorld that something known for over a year is new and scandalous. Because undermining the rule of law requires keeping the faithful in the proper state of mind.

    Dave (445e97)

  70. 71. I have the perfect prescription for enhancing freedom and limited government. The problem is, no one around me seems to really want to hear it.

    Gryph (08c844)

  71. 72:

    a. How did CNN learn what was covered in a private intel briefing of the President Elect?

    b. How did McCabe know two days before publication what CNN was planning to report (not just the dossier, but the briefing)?

    c. Why was McCabe relaying CNN’s planned reporting to others in the administration? [And his emails lacking any outrage/surprise about how CNN had learned the briefing contents or efforts to find the leaker.]

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  72. d. Had McCabe made any other prominent leaks to the press in the months before?

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  73. One thing was wrong with the earlier leaks:

    The Papadopoulos trip (ostensibly to write a paper about energy in the eastern Mediterranean region, which was his field of expertise) for $3,000 came in September and had nothinng to do with the meeting in May with the Australian High Commissioer to the United Kingdom, Alexander Dowling. That was being mixed up, maybe on purpose.

    Once Papadouplous was there (in Sept) Halper tried to pump Papadopoulos for information, and when that didn’t work, his young female assistsnt tried, but that also didn’t work.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/politics/trump-fbi-informant-russia-investigation.html

    Mr. Papadopoulos accepted the offer and arrived in London two weeks later, where he met for several days with the academic and one of his assistants, a young woman.

    Over drinks and dinner one evening at a high-end London hotel, the F.B.I. informant raised the subject of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails that had spilled into public view earlier that summer, according to a person familiar with the conversation. The source noted how helpful they had been to the Trump campaign, and asked Mr. Papadopoulos whether he knew anything about Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

    Mr. Papadopoulos replied that he had no insight into the Russian campaign — despite being told months earlier that the Russians had dirt on Mrs. Clinton in the form of thousands of her emails. His response clearly annoyed the informant, who tried to press Mr. Papadopoulos about what he might know about the Russian effort, according to the person.

    The assistant also raised the subject of Russia and the Clinton emails during a separate conversation over drinks with Mr. Papadopoulos, and again he denied he knew anything about Russian attempts to disrupt the election.

    This was probably because Papadopoulos knew nothing, and the emails he had been told about by Joseph Mifsud he naturally, if anything, supposed to be Hillary’s deleted emails, not what Wikileaks had released.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  74. Anonymous,

    I agree he was a spy if he arranged with the FBI (or, given his history, more likely the CIA) to do those things. I think he was an informant if he did them on his own and reported them after-the-fact. I think the terminology matters but we don’t know enough to say which is correct.

    DRJ (15874d)

  75. It could be he acted in with the CIA and the FBI was only told after-the-fact. The CIA has far more latitude to act in counterintelligence on foreign soil, while the FBI is more limited.

    DRJ (15874d)

  76. Iknew a woman whose husband was the local head of a union.
    She always was ready to jump in and say “don’t go here, don’t buy that, they are non union”
    Then one day she said she was going to Trader Joe’s and I said “I thought they were non union?” She answers “I like their cookies”

    Steveg (fe2a1f)

  77. “that french zombie movie ravenous was a good watch”

    We’re they big on sauces in that one?

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  78. Why? I simply do not have to buy insurance if I don’t want to anymore (whether through my employer or otherwise). Yes there will be a ton of problems that the market, rather than our government, can resolve over time, imperfectly but freely.

    Do you suppose congress could just pass a law repealing Medicare tomorrow, and just tell people that the market would sort everything out eventually?

    I am quite confident that the lack of an entitlement program would be politically costly in the short term, but the real problem the GOP has is that it has lost its purpose by trying too hard to avoid political costs in the short term.

    I don’t disagree, but the real problem is when the leaders promise people miraculous solutions with no sacrifices or trade-offs:

    “You’re going to have such great healthcare at a tiny fraction of the cost and it’s going to be so easy.”
    – Donald Trump, October 2016
    (bonus LOLs for the “LGBTQs 4 Trump” sign right behind him at the end)

    You’ll note that what’s promised wasn’t simply “we’ll go back to the status quo ante“; rather, it was “I’m going to give you EVEN MORE, EVEN BETTER goodies, FOR EVEN LESS!”

    This is a classic example of how to get yourself elected, but it’s also a classic example of how NOT to effectively lead.

    Having set completely unrealistic expectations, is it any wonder the actual, realistic proposals that finally came up for votes looked like a dog’s breakfast in comparison?

    Dave (445e97)

  79. Ransom followed the gitmo connection but had to chalk jihadist to islamophobia and,alienation, re west side story.

    narciso (a3accd)

  80. 75a Somebody told CNN, probably based on the written material or a plan for the briefing. This is not to say that somebody didn’t plan the whole thing, briefing and all, as a means to get the contents of the Steele dossier out in public for the purpose of ensuring that Trump did not shut down the FBI investigation.

    75b CNN probably called the FBI for comment.

    75c. McCabe stated in the emails: “Just as an FYI, and as expected,”

    76d. Yes, as detailed in the Inspector general’s report. That was what he lied about. He had claimed to have been tough on Hillary.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  81. He was an undercover informant an asset he didn’t choose which contacts to run, but he was dangling bait

    narciso (a3accd)

  82. Do you suppose congress could just pass a law repealing Medicare tomorrow, and just tell people that the market would sort everything out eventually?

    Yes.

    But that is a pure entitlement and isn’t really like Obamacare. Just tell us we no longer have to buy insurance for ourselves or our employees. And whatever stipulations are placed on insurance companies are no longer in place. Just cancel the ACA.

    Trump is a fan of universal health care, hence his grandiose promises. His fans think he’s going to make ‘such great deals’ for them, but really he’s trading their intense loyalty for lefty initiatives (we already see this on immigration, but I think it’s also the case with his waffling on Obamacare to a lesser extent).

    By all means, put some sunset provisions in so that this whole thing is cancelled in two years or something, but it needs to be cancelled, not modified. The original deal was passed over the objections of the GOP so the GOP is under no obligation to fix it.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  83. More like turtle soup, but it was a plan that had to satisfy Collins and rand, which ended up doing neither.

    narciso (a3accd)

  84. “Then one day she said she was going to Trader Joe’s and I said “I thought they were non union?” She answers “I like their cookies”

    Sort of like the CA public employees I know who left the state after they retired to escape the “unreal taxes”.

    Some of them retired in their early 50s with extremely generous benefits packages, which happens when both sides of the bargaining table are the same side.

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  85. 77.

    Reminds me of that book I read about the Mossad, By Way of Deception (apologies if it is BS, just sharing something I read). Talks some about how Mossad would use overseas Israelis, often people not full spies or even paid, but just sort of ad hoc and a loose type network.

    There is also the issue of him just wanting to be in the mix and keep getting contracts. Even if not a specific quid pro quo.

    Guy kind of has an intel background too.

    I’m sure that there was some aspect of him being on his own initiative as well. Or possibly paid for by Fusion, Brit Fusion equivalent, DNC, etc. After all, Steele was interested in getting paid for by both FBI and Fusion. These guys all have their hands out a little. It’s not like they are running an oil rig or doing real work. They rely on beltway bandit “consulting” to pay the bills. CIA has a very bad habit of revolving door with contractors as well (paying people you worked with before).

    But yeah, it could have been all at his own initiative. Could see someone with experience and beliefs doing that. However, if he’s specifically arranging meetings, flying Papa out and pushing a woman at him (and Papa is NOT a big oil/gas expert…I know that field and even some of the fly around to conferences talking heads types). But it would have been active gathering by Halper, not just garden variety passive collecting.

    And spies will definitely opportunistically collect. In Stuttgart, there was a definite threat just from business intel spies busy collecting on Mercedes! But they would be happy to collect on US military as well if you wanted to tell stories in a bar–just to pass their time and for the value of it. Have you done a tour at EUCOM?

    So the more I think about it, Halper was pretty proactive. That was not just passive collecting–like he did all the time just from conferences and such. It might have been on his own to start though. Seems like FBI was looped in, using him after July though. Strozk had made his big London trip and the operation was officially underway. And the Papa September meeting was after that.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  86. a. How did CNN learn what was covered in a private intel briefing of the President Elect?

    Clearly somebody told them. According to CNN’s reporting, multiple people.

    b. How did McCabe know two days before publication what CNN was planning to report (not just the dossier, but the briefing)?

    This one is easier. News agencies often call people prior to running a story, and ask for comment or confirmation. In the process, they may reveal when they plan to run the story, or why they haven’t run it yet, or what information they want confirmed in order to run it.

    c. Why was McCabe relaying CNN’s planned reporting to others in the administration? [And his emails lacking any outrage/surprise about how CNN had learned the briefing contents or efforts to find the leaker.]

    Why is this a mystery? If McCabe had the information, why wouldn’t he keep his colleagues informed?

    Dave (445e97)

  87. “Do you suppose congress could just pass a law repealing Medicare tomorrow, and just tell people that the market would sort everything out eventually?”

    Medicare (and Social Security) are as entrenched as they are unsustainable. By all means add another scam?

    harkin (2fa2ca)

  88. What do you fancy replacing Medicare with, are you nutz.

    narciso (a3accd)

  89. More from the Saturday May 19, 2018 front page New York times story about Hlper that deosn’t give his name: (This is at the very end of the story, where important things are sometimea buried)

    The informant also had contacts with Mr. Flynn, the retired Army general who was Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser. The two met in February 2014, when Mr. Flynn was running the Defense Intelligence Agency and attended the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, an academic forum for former spies and researchers that meets a few times a year.

    According to people familiar with Mr. Flynn’s visit to the intelligence seminar, the source was alarmed by the general’s apparent closeness with a Russian woman who was also in attendance. The concern was strong enough that it prompted another person to pass on a warning to the American authorities that Mr. Flynn could be compromised by Russian intelligence, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    Two years later, in late 2016, the seminar itself was embroiled in a scandal about Russian spying. A number of its organizers resigned over what they said was a Kremlin-backed attempt to take control of the group.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  90. 75a. The CNN story said that Trump was given the two-page document which in the end did not happen, so it was based more on what was planned rather than what actually did happen, or maybe the word didn’t get back.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  91. 83-75a: Whether it was pre-planned to have the meeting and leak it (sounds Machiavellian) or if someone decided to leak it afterwards, that is still very serious. Private intel meeting for President Elect being shared with the Press. That is not something that is done in service of the executive. How can you trust them to brief on intel for a war danger or the like?

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  92. Ostrovsky yes I read him, he needs to be taken with a grain of salt, yes those are called Sayan I think.

    narciso (a3accd)

  93. 93:

    Interesting. Nunes probably dodged a bullet by passing up the briefing (demanding documents instead) the day before [what seem to have been executive branch or previous executive branch] types leaked a lot of info on Halper. In a very evident effort to shape the narrative.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  94. 86. Dustin (ba94b2) — 5/22/2018 @ 1:25 pm

    but really he’s trading their intense loyalty for lefty initiatives (we already see this on immigration, but I think it’s also the case with his waffling on Obamacare to a lesser extent).

    That would be ness to many leftists, unless by that you mean amnesty for dreamers. But he’d guaranteed taht can’t become law.

    The ACA also regulated insurance contracts, at least those that last over one year. One provision, alllowing childdren to remain on their parents insurance until age 26, will now be maintained by the force of competition.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  95. The point is they might as well be briefing about leprechauns, this why they probably got the top about al rimis whereabouts in the seychelles from nader or prince.

    narciso (a3accd)

  96. 89, OK, but on c, why no negative reaction to a very serious leak (privileged, private, intel briefing to the President Elect)? Why no efforts to figure out the source (evidently the group he was communicating were possible sources of the leak, it was a small group that would have known of the briefing).

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  97. b. How did McCabe know two days before publication what CNN was planning to report (not just the dossier, but the briefing)?

    Also, regarding this point, news agencies need to create a sense of urgency to convince high-ranking officials that’s it’s worth their time to talk to them.

    One good way to do that is if you tell them you have an explosive story that is about to run. In that case, the official might want to find out what you are going to say, so the agency can prepare a response.

    If the story is mostly correct but has a key error that will cause problems (for instance, suppose CNN was going to report that the information about Trump came from Israel – you wouldn’t want a reporting error to jeopardize relations with a friendly country), you might correct the error without agreeing to confirm the story as a whole.

    In other words, talking to the press is a two-way information flow, because the press uses the information they have as an enticement.

    Dave (445e97)

  98. The CNN story said that Trump was given the two-page document which in the end did not happen, so it was based more on what was planned rather than what actually did happen, or maybe the word didn’t get back.

    The CNN story conflated the briefings of Obama and Trump, which presumably both occurred on January 6, the day the ICA was released.

    Since Trump wasn’t president yet, it’s unclear whether they would have physically transferred classified briefing documents to him, as opposed to giving him a verbal summary.

    Dave (445e97)

  99. 104.

    The President Elect starts getting highly classified briefings at the beginning of his transition. It is normal and is done so that he is up to speed on operations, situations, concerns around the world.

    The leak of an intel brief to the serving President is even worse.

    That specific details (2 pager) were known is even more concerning. Implies either someone in the meeting or who drafted the materials leaked it. And it was pretty hush hush stuff. Have to seriously wonder why they leaked it as well–the obvious implication is to hurt Trump. That happening so fast in time does not sound like someone just shooting off telling some sea stories and being careless.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  100. 101 b.

    Yeah. I had already thought of this possibility as well. Also, that you would bring it up.

    It is still strange, the lack of surprise or reaction to the leak. No email saying (got contacted by the press…they found this out). No concern about the leak. I will give you that he doesn’t also confirm an on purpose leak. Still mild strange though. As a betting person, I would say that something wasn’t 100% kosher in his lack of reaction to the briefing having leaked (and the briefing having triggered reporting of a dossier that had been shopped by the attack PR firm since October and the media wouldn’t bite). No oh sh&$ reaction at all.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  101. Both Richard Pipes and Bernard Lewis died within the last few days.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  102. 89, OK, but on c, why no negative reaction to a very serious leak (privileged, private, intel briefing to the President Elect)? Why no efforts to figure out the source (evidently the group he was communicating were possible sources of the leak, it was a small group that would have known of the briefing).

    Your characterization does not match even the very brief excerpt of the email cited in the Johnson letter.

    The letter says (emphasis AND elision in original):

    Andrew McCabe sent an email to senior FBI leadership with the subject line “Flood is coming.” Mr. McCabe wrote “CNN is close to going forward with the sensitive story … The trigger for them [CNN] is they know the material was discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment.”

    The subject line “Flood is coming” certainly communicates a “negative reaction” to me, LOL.

    Moreover, it is clear that the excerpt is not the complete text of the email, so you don’t know what else it said. If McCabe did want to initiate a leak investigation, presumably he would need to contact some other office, like the one that eventually busted him, rather than the director.

    It is kind of hard to believe that the FBI has the resources to investigate every unauthorized disclosure of information, and unclear how they could do so in the absence of any evidence. There were at least four agencies involved, plus Trump’s henchmen and the White House.

    Dave (445e97)

  103. 95. Anonymous (d41cee) — 5/22/2018 @ 1:35 pm

    83-75a: Whether it was pre-planned to have the meeting and leak it (sounds Machiavellian) or if someone decided to leak it afterwards, that is still very serious.

    Comey has stated that the reason for briefing Trump about the dossier was:

    https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf

    [in part because] we knew the media was about to publicly report the material

    So it wasn’t leaked afterwards. Or at least some basic facts weren’t leaked afetrwards. Maybe confirmation of the briefing was leaked afterwards.

    Comey also said (this is in his prepared statement)

    The IC leadership [that’s more than one person – SF] thought it important, for a variety of reasons, to alert the incoming President to the existence of this material [that particular material is the entire report about Russia, which Obama wanted to make sure was released before he left office – SF]

    AND

    The Director of National Intelligence [that’s Clapper – SF] asked that I personally do this portion of the briefing [that’s the Steele material – SF]

    Comey also indicated he didn’t want Trump to think that the FBI was conducting a counter-intelligence investigation of his personal conduct.investigation of his personal conduct. ‘Personal conduct” would seem to refer to the salacious material.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  104. 109: I’m open to different explanations and did not say things were clear cut. But I still got a bad vibe. Agreed that I don’t have the full email. We’ll see, I guess.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  105. 110:

    Yes, I know the dossier was out there. And had been since October. I am talking about the leaking of the briefing. Which unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for someone) ended up being a “trigger” for publication.

    As far as the end part, Comey still gave an incomplete briefing. He did not tell Trump what was/wasn’t being investigated. And the rationale (that it was going to leak) would seem to have indicated he should brief on the entire document–after all, we did end up having the whole thing come out and a big rationale for the meeting was “this is coming”. To the extent that he did not tell Trump it was an incomplete briefing, he was deceptive. And he was not serving the executive–remember this is the President Elect. He needs intel. He needs people not to give him biased and diliberately partial intel (without even telling him something was held back). The only way to justify that is if you are investigating Trump. Or you are just a biased apparatchik who doesn’t serve your legal superior.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  106. “A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE SAYING they had spies in my campaign.” (President Trump – today.)

    OMG OMG OMG

    “A lot of people”

    noel (b4d580)

  107. 77 — DRJ you have to come to grips with the fact that Halper approached Page in mid-July. And he approached Papa in mid-Sept, 60 days later.

    Do you really hold out the possibility that the approach to Papa was something he did on his own, and that he was not directed to?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  108. 100 – that’s an interesting point. If this leak had been considered unacceptable and outrageous, you would expect there to have been a flurry of emails among senior DOJ and FBI officials demanding that the ID of the leaker be identified.

    Instead, its pretty much a non-event to them all — fully expected, the only question was how long it would take after the briefing for the press to run with it.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  109. In contrast, to Halper, this is maybe somebody whose identity did need to be protected by the New York Times:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/world/asia/tibetan-activist-tashi-wangchuk-sentenced.html

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  110. Way back when Obama was President, the signs were there. Remember the “rigged election”? If Donald didn’t win, the election was rigged!

    Forward to today…. The FBI is rigged. The CIA is rigged. The Justice Department…. ditto. (All run by Trump appointees, but still.)

    “A lot of people say so.”

    noel (b4d580)

  111. swc 113,

    I don’t know if he acted alone or was coordinating with other people or a government entity, although in my next comment I said that if he was acting with government sanction then I would guess it was with the CIA. Is that “grippy” enough for you?

    DRJ (15874d)

  112. 77. 114. Front page New York Times story, Saturday, May 19, 2018:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/politics/trump-fbi-informant-russia-investigation.html

    In fact, F.B.I. agents sent an informant to talk to two campaign advisers only after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign. The informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, made contact late that summer with one campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, according to people familiar with the matter. He also met repeatedly in the ensuing months with the other aide, Carter Page, who was also under F.B.I. scrutiny for his ties to Russia.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  113. 104 — BS Dave.

    The CNN story said Trump was given the 2 page synopsis that was attached to the Assessment.

    Comey testified that he orally briefed Trump on only the salacious aspects of the Steele memos – the hookers part. He said in an interview a couple weeks ago he didn’t brief him on the other materials because it wasn’t part of the plan.

    He did NOT give Trump the 2 page synopsis.

    You’re full of sheet trying to pedal revisionist history to cover-up a gaffe that has exposed Clapper as the most likey leaker to CNN — his current employer.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  114. 118. The New York Times reported it was the FBI. (that may not be the full story)

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  115. 104 – and you need to read more. The Obama brief was on 1/5, and the Trump brief was on 1/6.

    Susan Rice wrote a very nice memo to file on her last day at the White House recapping the 1/5 brief, emphasizing that Obama told everybody to make sure they did things “by the book”.

    “See, I wasn’t involved in them breaking the law like they did. I always told them by the book” — ask Susan, she’ll tell ya. Don’t blame me.”

    Actually, I think I got that last part from the letter he left for Trump in the desk in the Oval Office.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  116. 119… ConDave wouldn’t do that.

    But don’t bet the farm.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  117. Even when it happened, there was a sort of palpable sense of “why did that briefing leak”. I remember thinking it at the time.

    The further leaking on Halper (by former or current exec branch) is a problem as well. Regardless of all the kerfuffle about him, wanting to shape the story, you don’t confirm/deny things like that. [Nunes was sooo lucky he didn’t go to that briefing…they would have tried to nail the leak on him.] And if you do give intel…man up and do it openly, not secretly.

    Anonymous (ea5569)

  118. “Do you really hold out the possibility that the approach to Papa was something he did on his own, and that he was not directed to?”

    Highly unlikely… highly improbable… but possible.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  119. 123… you can just bet Mueller is beside himself with anger that these leaks have been occurring

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  120. 112… he must read PP.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  121. Trump wrote, on Twitter:

    Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president. It took place very early on, and long before the phony Russia Hoax became a “hot” Fake News story. If true – all time biggest political scandal!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018

    Trump was referring to another accuation: A claim that Halper made contat in March, 2016. But I cannot really find a good source for this claim.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  122. 117 — Well, maybe my “BS” meter is simply tuned different than yours because I spend too many years unwinding crap like this when given stories by CIs about how things came to happen.

    Halper is paid $200,000 by a DOD agency that doesn’t do much (Office of Net Assessment — ONA — or as some called it “Office of No Assessment” since it didn’t produce much), IN SEPT. 2016!!!

    I will say this in favor of your view — IMO Halper (for reasons I think should be obvious) didn’t need any direction. Once he knew who the target was — and he could have gotten that from MI6 — and when he knew what the nature of the info was that was being sought, he was fully capable of engineering the entire approach totally on his own.

    When you are working for the Bureau, it doesn’t work that way.

    When you are working for the CIA, that’s the way they want things done.

    So, if you think he did this on his own, IMO that simply means he was working with (or for???) the CIA.

    If he did so only after being directed to do so, he was working with the FBI.

    Which is worse in your view?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  123. You know Adam Schiff is dissembling when his lips are moving.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  124. Halper may have been working for the CIA and was also an informant for the FBI. Only the FBI coiuld investigate things that happened in the United States or that involved U.S. persons

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  125. @127 The Marchm 2016 meeting involved Mifsud and Papadopoulos. http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/22/george-papadopoulos-trump-collusion/

    pete (a65bac)

  126. He was paid just over a million, for what exactly, who else was paid by the office of net assessment, their lack of performance is what got lovinger blackballed.

    narciso (d1f714)

  127. I think it is in the purview of the CIA to conduct foreign intelligence investigations in foreign countries, even if it involves American citizens, so I am much less concerned if this was a CIA operation than if it was an FBI investigation. But I also think he may have done this on his own, given his history, experience, and my guess as to his political opinions.

    DRJ (15874d)

  128. Recall Howard hunt was paid out of the office if mullen & co, that was the contact number on the burglars persons.

    narciso (d1f714)

  129. 118 – Something in that story stood out to me, and when you marry it with your highlighted language you can see a better outline of what I saw originally.

    That first story was clearly written from the perspective of the FBI. And the IG is about to crater the credibility and integrity of a few former members of the FBI. The story is sourced to “current” and former members of Obama Administration. The “former” members are pretty easy to guess at — Comey, Yates, her Dep., McCabe. The “current” person IMO is Strzok, and I say that because a couple places in the article, Strzok is defended as someone who pushed for a more aggressive posture on the Clinton email case, which is an effort to show he’s just a zealot about investigating, and it didn’t matter which party was the target.

    BUT, the part that struck me was the reference where the article said “At least one informant” made contact with Trump campaign officials. What??? The FBI sources on this article don’t know???? How could that be????

    Well, as the article says — in the language highlighted in your post at 118 — the FBI sent the informant at 2 campaign officials AFTER it received evidence they had suspicious contacts with Russian persons.

    What completes this issue is the point that the FBI has no idea what the CIA did with regards to using an informant — maybe Halper, maybe someone else — prior to the FBI getting involved. That’s why the story has the qualifier “at least one” so it doesn’t look dishonest when a 2nd or 3rd CI is uncovered.

    Corn and Isikoff say Brennan formed a inter-agency “working group” to look into the Trump-Russia intel info the CIA was recieving IN MARCH 2016, and the group worked out of Langley. Strzok was the FBI contact for this group.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  130. So who paid mifsud he had at least three ties, UK general intelligence and even Italian sismi.

    narciso (d1f714)

  131. What I remember most about Adam Schiff was that he said on Face the Nation on October 25, 2015 that Hillary Clinton was right to lie about Benghazi. (or would have bene justly criticized had she contradicted what the CIA was putting out,)

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-october-25-trump-christie-nunes-schiff/

    And we did an investigation, that Devin was a part of that, in the intelligence committee, that looked at, frankly, each of these conflicting streams of intelligence as they came in. The early claims by Ansar al-Sharia responsibility that were very quickly followed with human intelligence, signals intelligence, open source reporting, that there was a protest. It wasn’t until about eight to ten days after the events where we actually got the tapes from the compound that we could see quite demonstrably on those tapes that there had been no protests. But it was the — the considered judgment, the assessment of the intelligence experts for that week until we got those tapes, that there had been a protest. And that turned out to be wrong.

    But to criticize Secretary Clinton for relying on the best of intelligence that we had at the time seemed to be wholly inappropriate. Had she had spoken, frankly, in contradiction of what our intelligence agencies were telling her, that might be something to criticize. But the fact that, as she related, and as Ambassador Rice and others related, the information at the time, it was the best information we had. And the fact that that was wrong initially doesn’t change the fact that they were reflecting the best that we knew at the time.

    Of course, that was not the BEST INFORMATION but the MOST HIGHLY RATED information – which is not the same thing.

    And because they’d bene in contact with the ambassador they knew there had bene no demonsdtration.

    What Adam Schiff is talking about is mostly SOOPER SEKRIT intelligence. It was disinformation.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  132. 131 — almost correct Sammy.

    Only the FBI is SUPPOSED to investigate things like this inside the US or involving US Citizens.

    You think it always works that way with group who think an existential threat to democracy, in the form of a closer relationship with Russian, might be in the cards from the upcoming election?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  133. In theory, the CIA does not target US citizens and it would be the FBI that investigates citizens. The CIA seems to confirm that:

    Myth: The CIA spies on US citizens.

    Reality: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has the lead on intelligence matters in the United States, especially those directed against US citizens. However, the CIA and the FBI work together as needed to protect the interests of US national security. The CIA does not collect information concerning the domestic activities of US citizens, but its foreign intelligence collection mission can be conducted anywhere.

    Sort of.

    DRJ (15874d)

  134. That seems improbable they didn’t know, but it would be interesting to know if he had contacts with the legal attached in London, and seeing the preponderance of Russians there did he have contacts with steele.

    narciso (d1f714)

  135. Which makes ne wonder if mifsud was represented a source in the dossier, which would be awkward.

    narciso (d1f714)

  136. 137. I think I have your 118 as 119. (that’s the one that references 77 and 114)

    BUT, the part that struck me was the reference where the article said “At least one informant” made contact with Trump campaign officials. What??? The FBI sources on this article don’t know???? How could that be????

    The New York Times doesn’t know that it has the full story and it has heard of more than one informant.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  137. 140. The CIA or FBI can easily bring in the otehr agency as the official investigator.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  138. Irs not a crazy conjecture, considering every thong we’ve seem in year in a half. After all Malta is a crossroads for all sorts of activities, recall the Panama papers.

    narciso (d1f714)

  139. “Margot Cleveland
    @ProfMJCleveland
    Old Washington Post: FBI providing classified briefing to Congressional oversight committee would risk the life of FBI source.
    New Washington Post: Here’s the FBI source’s name & bio that FBI leakers provided us.”

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  140. 140 — and in both instances that Halper made contact with Page and Papa, part of that engagement was to bring them to London.

    So who do you think he was working for/with?

    Do you think the FBI regulations on working Confidential Human Sources allow them to use “honey traps”?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  141. Its not UN heard that one asset would serve more than one agency, consider south Florida in the 70s there was one fellow who served CIA Fbi dea and venezuelan (disip) he mostly served himself.

    narciso (d1f714)

  142. Funny. You all are so afraid that someone was keeping an eye on the Russian spies meeting with a Presidential campaign, which was denied by that campaign for so long.

    Pathetic.

    noel (b4d580)

  143. If a million dollars is the prize, what wouldn’t they do. mifsud provides the dangle, which is played back to downer.

    narciso (d1f714)

  144. “The timing of the informant’s initial encounter with Page proves significant because that meeting occurred before the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane. That detail proves the raison d’etre for the Washington Post’s Friday article because, with reporters already cracking the identity of the informant from the Post’s earlier articles, it would not be long before someone highlighted that early July meeting. For the last several weeks, the few members of the press bothering to report on the Obama administration’s targeting of the Trump campaign have questioned the FBI’s contention that it first launched its investigation into the Trump campaign in late July 2016.

    The Washington Post gives cover to the revelation that the sting began earlier: “The FBI commonly uses sources and informants to gather evidence and its regulations allow for use of informants even before a formal investigation has been opened. In many law enforcement investigations, the use of sources and informants precedes more invasive techniques such as electronic surveillance.”or the last several weeks, the few members of the press bothering to report on the Obama administration’s targeting of the Trump campaign have questioned the FBI’s contention that it first launched its investigation into the Trump campaign in late July 2016.

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/21/public-evidence-crossfire-hurricane-demands-full-investigation-stat/

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  145. Eva green is b list, Shirley.

    narciso (d1f714)

  146. NOEL THE republican

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  147. 151 — FBI regulations allow the use of an informant on 3 efforts to secure information before there is a requirement to open an investigation with an EC. This simply acknowledges that not all informant operations are effective in obtaining information necessary to believe that criminal conduct might be taking place. So the agent gets 3 tries. If still unsuccessful after the 3rd try, they have to deactivate the informant, and need new information before the informant can be re-activated again.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  148. Colonel, can you debate? Or is name calling pretty much it?

    noel (b4d580)

  149. Her part in casino royal was tame compared to her debut in the dreamers,

    narciso (d1f714)

  150. Like I say, red sparrow was entirely miscast.

    narciso (d1f714)

  151. Ot, why haven’t they done a single Nate heller adaptation. They did road to perdition’s and quarry.

    narciso (d1f714)

  152. People in the Trump campaign are now starting to put 2+2 together about things that happened to them in the campaign, now that its clear they were under active surveillance and efforts were being made to draw them into doing something criminal.

    Michael Caputo just stated that he was approached by an intermediary, on behalf a a government contractor, offering him Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    He didn’t bite, and the intermediary is apparently willing to come forward and explain how it was the intermediary was approached by the contractor.

    It looks like an elaborate scheme to get something purported to be Hillary’s emails in the hands of a Trump campaign official.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  153. this is gonna end up being a big black mark on the treasonous and cowardly men and women of the dirty corrupt fbi

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  154. Do you think the FBI regulations on working Confidential Human Sources allow them to use “honey traps”?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591) — 5/22/2018 @ 3:31 pm

    Do you think Papadopoulos and/or Page were lured to London by an attractive person with a promise of sexual activities? If so, you’ve gone far beyond thinking this is solely about Halper, haven’t you?

    I understand the desire to be the first person online to spin a tale that turns out to be true, but at some point isn’t it important to stick to facts?

    DRJ (0280d9)

  155. When did this story come within a parsec of the truth, I don’t think its needs to be blatant but perhaps a little flirting, probably not 2hen mangiante was around.

    narciso (d1f714)

  156. Certainly a Nobel effort, but remakes are seldom as good as the original, although Melania in a sarong would top Dorothy Lamour. Captain Custard is a natural; but can Kim croon?!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJK7PTNIWQM

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  157. Selective boycotts can be very effective. Cancel Netflix for 9 months, binge for 3. You don’t miss any content and deprive them of 75% of their revenue.

    Same with HBO, no need to watch their shows one week at a time, except GoT, subscribe, binge, cancel, repeat.

    Nate Ogden (223c65)

  158. slobby fat-ass Stefan Halper brought a turkish slut with him to one of his meetings with Mr. Papadopoulos

    that’s the only honey trap we seen for sure so far i think

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  159. Let me say this in a way that even a graduate of Trump University will understand. If you meet with Russian spies, someone will be watching you.

    noel (b4d580)

  160. Selective boycotts can be very effective. Cancel Netflix for 9 months, binge for 3.

    i let my prime lapse and went as long as i could before renewing and i think that was 8-9 months, so it was a worthwhile endeavor, especially cause when i came back i’d completely broken my habit of buying musics from them

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  161. 104 — BS Dave.

    The CNN story said Trump was given the 2 page synopsis that was attached to the Assessment.

    Comey testified that he orally briefed Trump on only the salacious aspects of the Steele memos – the hookers part. He said in an interview a couple weeks ago he didn’t brief him on the other materials because it wasn’t part of the plan.

    He did NOT give Trump the 2 page synopsis.

    Not sure what you’re on about. I *explicitly said* that Comey didn’t give Trump the 2 page synopsis (emphasis added to point out the utter falsity of your attack):

    I don’t think “discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment” means what you think it means.

    “discussed in the brief and presented as an attachment” means it was on paper in the president’s daily brief or some equivalent official document. Comey’s private talk with Trump does not satisfy that “trigger”.

    In fact, the original CNN story got several details wrong. It said:

    Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN.

    The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The allegations came, in part, from memos compiled by a former British intelligence operative, whose past work US intelligence officials consider credible. The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.

    The classified briefings last week were presented by four of the senior-most US intelligence chiefs — Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers.

    In fact, there were no classified or other documents presented in Comey’s private meeting with Trump (Comey sat at a table and described the stuff to Trump verbally), and the material was explicitly NOT included in the main briefing by all four IC chiefs.

    So the McCabe email is interesting in one respect: CNN had told them what was necessary, and that was exactly what CNN claimed, in their story, had happened. But in fact the “trigger” did not actually occur in the January 6 briefing. There were no documents about hookers “discussed in the brief and presented as an attachment” – with Trump.

    *If* CNN’s trigger was really met as they claim, it was met by a briefing of Obama, not Trump.

    A one-line apology for completely misrepresenting my words will be fine, swc.

    The statement @104 that made you go postal (“The CNN story conflated the briefings of Obama and Trump”) is completely accurate. The CNN story said the documents were “presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump,” as if they were each handed a set of identical printed documents, when they did not.

    That Obama received his briefing on the 5th instead of the 6th is good to know, but irrelevant to the point I was making.

    Dave (445e97)

  162. Honey traps are a venerable FBI tradition. That’s how they got John Dillinger.

    I personally know of a case where a female FBI agent was not above flashing a little thigh and cleavage to get a suspect to “cooperate” and spill the whole conspiracy. Along with promises of “We’re after the big boys, not you. Play ball with us, and we’ll play ball with you.” Then she personally served the arrest warrant on him. At 3:00 am. “Took him downtown” in his pajamas. When he protested, “But you told me that if I played ball with you, you’d play ball with me”, she said: “The ball game is over.”

    So, yes, I think the FBI would use a honey trap and the honey could even be a sworn FBI agent.

    nk (dbc370)

  163. “They were accompanied by Halper’s assistant, a Turkish woman named Azra Turk. Sources familiar with Papadopoulos’s claims about his trip say Turk flirted with him during their encounters and later on in email exchanges.”

    stefan’s never gonna dance again guilty feet ain’t got no rhythm

    plus he’s super fat and everyone knows he’s a traitorous anti-American p.o.s. now

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  164. Colonel, can you debate? Or is name calling pretty much it?

    noel (b4d580) — 5/22/2018 @ 3:43 pm

    I called you a republican and you were offended? I think we’ve got you sussed.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  165. Colonel, can you debate? Or is name calling pretty much it?

    You must be new around here.

    Dave (445e97)

  166. Well the lead witness against Ted Stevens, William Allen got special handling do much so they didn’t notice he presented any documentary evidence of bribes but needs must.

    There were aspects of the big sleep that certainly were echoed in the big Lebowski.

    narciso (d1f714)

  167. 163 — did you miss the reporting on Azur Turk — Halper’s young female assistant who continued with efforts to get information from Papa after he told Halper he didn’t know anything about Clinton’s emails and the Russians??? That she took him out for drinks alone? That she continued with flirtation emails after he came back to the US?

    The FBI doesn’t allow that. But the FBI doesn’t operate on British soil.

    Who does?? The CIA. Does the CIA use “honey traps”? Yes, as a matter of fact, they do.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  168. Allegedly there wee two against Fidel, marital Lorenz, and June Cobb, in different capacities. In fact you remind me that part of the campaign against sukarno was a fake film of ill repute.

    narciso (d1f714)

  169. 171 — FBI agents acting in an undercover capacity are not a “honey trap.” But even in that circumstance there are very clear guidelines for what they can and cannot do.

    A “honey trap” is using the promise of sex — or actual sexual activity, usually by a non-official operative — to obtain information.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  170. The interesting thing about DOD’s Office of Net Assessment paying Halper on CIA’s behalf (if that’s what the payment was for) pulls the Pentagon into this. Even if they paid him out of the black budget that’s still the wrong color money. I guess maybe DIA could have been involved but they have other ways pay him besides this.

    crazy (5c5b07)

  171. 174… mark this as official post #174 on 05222018, ConDave. It can be an “official record”… one of those thingees you proved to be totally unfamiliar with about a week and one half ago.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  172. @111

    As far as the end part, Comey still gave an incomplete briefing. He did not tell Trump what was/wasn’t being investigated.

    He told Trump (truthfully) that he, Trump, was not being investigated.

    As far as I understand, that is not only the limit of his obligation, but the limit of what he was allowed to tell him. The FBI normally would not discuss on-going investigations of other people with the president, or the president-elect.

    Or would you have been OK with Obama being regularly briefed on the status of the Clinton investigation?

    Dave (445e97)

  173. @173. =Haiku!= Gesundheit!

    Rest EZ, Colonel. Are we not entertained?! If our Captain manages to play through the Mueller melodrama he’ll ride a blue wave to any wins he can claim and on to a 2nd term. His numbers are rising; you don’t cancel a popular show and 8 years is a good run for any series. There’s nobody close to challenging him, either, save Oprah, and she’s increasingly corpulent of late.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  174. President Trump’s the cream of the cream

    he’s so creamy i love it!

    he’s got the best retorts to all the jibes!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  175. @172… plus he’s super fat…

    Superfat? Oh my, Mr. Feet, don’t give Marvel any ideas.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  176. ugh did you see any cloak and dagger promo stuff?

    i guess you have to wait and see but ikes it looks kinda slapdash

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  177. “A “honey trap” is using the promise of sex — or actual sexual activity, usually by a non-official operative — to obtain information.”

    Much different than teh “honey badger trap”, with a guarantee of blood loss and a good chance of no longer being a “man in full”…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  178. 184.President Trump’s the cream of the cream… he’s so creamy i love it!

    Rich and white, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  179. whoa you made a metaphor! good work Mr. DCSCA!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  180. Gosh, I enjoy reading SWC’s posts. He willingly shares his knowledge based on years of experience and does it in a way that avoids the self-puffery and preening that befalls so many in his profession. And he is also gentle with a stiletto, as Dave and others have painfully discovered.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  181. So they fed enough of the narrative to make the story sticjpk, but they left out all the ill sitting bits how fusion was a tool of oligarchs yet they contracted steele

    narciso (d1f714)

  182. As I said in the other thread, the Comey tete-a-tete with Trump looks like a red herring, in terms of reporting on the kompromat.

    If CNN is to be believed, what really enabled the story to go forward was the decision to include a two-page synopsis of the kompromat allegation as an attachment to the ICA, which the president was briefed on.

    It seems to me anyone determined to pursue conspiracy theories about the CNN story needs to look at the process by which that decision (to attach the kompromat synopsis to the ICA) was made. The decision to privately tell Trump about it seems entirely incidental to the CNN story coming out.

    Dave (445e97)

  183. And how they try to cover it with pillow:
    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/trump-russia-investigation-w520536

    narciso (d1f714)

  184. jakey tapper had to wait for his pimp-daddy clapper to say it was ok to print the story his pimp-daddy had dictated for him

    simple as that

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  185. 182 — Dave, you are an absolute dope.

    This isn’t just an “investigation” — its a national security investigation using counter-surveillance means and methods.

    The FBI doesn’t have the authority to withhold information from the President, and they should not have withheld information from the President Elect.

    This isn’t a Police State. The FBI isn’t an “independent” agency.

    Let’s assume that Trump had an actual former KGB mole, living in the US for 30 years undercover, who had worked his way up GOP political circles, and then inserted himself into the Trump transition through an acquaintance. Let’s assume Trump didn’t know him, and didn’t know anything about him. But the FBI is 100% certain he’s KGB mole.

    Do you think the FBI would have no obligation to tell the FREAKING PRESIDENT-ELECT that he’s got a KGB mole in a position to get his hands on sensitive information???

    What is the purpose of keeping info from Trump in Jan after he had won, and in the weeks leading up to the inauguration? Do they think that if they could show Trump was in-bed with the Russians in efforts to win the election that the results from Nov. 2016 would somehow be changed?? What was the law enforcement objective of the secrecy in not briefing Trump on Jan 6 about the other parts of the Steele memos — the parts about Carter Page, and claims that Trump was dependent on Russian financiers in this personal empire?

    There was no LAW ENFORCEMENT purpose to withholding that info – but there was a potential big political advantage to be gained if the worst parts of the Steele memo turned out to be true.

    So, were the FBI and DOJ officials engage in a law enforcement operation? Or an operation that had politics as its aim point>

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  186. 183: BS. If so, why wasn’t there a full briefing on what WAS being investigated.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  187. I’m the one who first raised the CIA in comment 78, swc. What is your problem?

    DRJ (15874d)

  188. @182 As has been explained over and over (even by Comey), the initial investigation before being taken over by Mueller was a “counterintelligence investigation.” The Clinton investigation was a “criminal investigation.”

    Your statement “As far as I understand, that is not only the limit of his obligation, but the limit of what he was allowed to tell him. The FBI normally would not discuss on-going investigations of other people with the president, or the president-elect” is incorrect as it concerns a “counterintelligence investigation.”

    To quote Andy McCarthy (and this column was written to chastise those who were upset that Obama had been briefed on the counterintelligence investigation):

    “Counterintelligence investigations, on the other hand, are not criminal investigations. They are not a rule-of-law issue or a judicial matter. The objective is not to prosecute someone who has violated the penal law, so we are not worried that political officials, rather than legal principles, control the outcome. That’s because counterintelligence is national security work, which is the principal duty of the political branches under the Constitution.

    Counterintelligence is an information-gathering exercise undertaken for one purpose and one purpose alone: to inform the president, through his subordinate intelligence officials, of information about threats to, and opportunities to advance, American interests.

    The president is never supposed to resist “interference” in counterintelligence. To the contrary, informing the president is the reason the FBI has a counterintelligence mission. Indeed, the information derived from counterintelligence operations is often included in the president’s daily intelligence briefing.” https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/lisa-page-obama-fbi-text-shows-trump-obstruction-claims-absurdity/

    pete (a65bac)

  189. if the worst parts of the Steele memo turned out to be true.

    i’m curious about how stormy and her obscenely large tits come into it

    the dossier said President Trump like to make hookers pee on obama stuff

    but dirty hooker stormy doesn’t report anything like that at all she says it was all very vanilla yogurt – she didn’t have to pee on obama’s face even a little!

    of course this was so long ago – before obama, so it would have had to have been some other democrat she had to make tinkle on but you get the point

    stormy didn’t have to urinate at all on nobody political!

    so did the dossier people and the ones financing stormy and her pimp not get their stories coordinated correctly?

    sure looks like it

    unless the whole point of the stormy daniels hoax is just to get people associating President Trump with dirty hookers so when they hear about the urinating russian hookers they’re maybe a little more primed to believe it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  190. Yes everybody forgotten Sharyl Atkisson? I think she has more than few things to say about the DOJ and the FBI conducting illegal investigations and electronic surveillance — in her case, her work computer.

    nk (dbc370)

  191. Seeing as steele had been contracted by the bureau re FIFA, that it was happening in London, which is the enclave of the bratva, that mifsud had connections left right and center, that his home country was also a party to dubious money flows. How likely is it that everything is connected.

    narciso (d1f714)

  192. I’m the one who first raised the CIA in comment 78, swc. What is your problem?

    Why don’t you tell us what you think his problem is?

    (Your rules)

    BuDuh (896261)

  193. Trump was in a spanking mood, not a golden shower mood, with Stormy. It seems that it was the current vogue in 2006.

    nk (dbc370)

  194. hmmm wheels within wheels

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  195. palomino

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  196. By the time Netflix gets it done, Obama will have as much appeal as Nixon had after Watergate. $85 million down the drain.

    Corky Boyd (8dfada)

  197. more news about how the filthy criminal men and women of the sleazy fbi habitually lie to the american people

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  198. 182 — Dave, you are an absolute dope.

    Mandatory insult out of the way…

    Let’s assume that Trump had an actual former KGB mole, living in the US for 30 years undercover, who had worked his way up GOP political circles, and then inserted himself into the Trump transition through an acquaintance. Let’s assume Trump didn’t know him, and didn’t know anything about him. But the FBI is 100% certain he’s KGB mole.

    Do you think the FBI would have no obligation to tell the FREAKING PRESIDENT-ELECT that he’s got a KGB mole in a position to get his hands on sensitive information???

    Of course not, if there was very strong certainty, and a reason for the president-elect to know.

    Obviously the situation on January 6, 2017 was far different, so your argument is a strawman.

    There was no LAW ENFORCEMENT purpose to withholding that info – but there was a potential big political advantage to be gained if the worst parts of the Steele memo turned out to be true.

    I disagree. The information implicated multiple current and past close associates of the president and much of it needed to be investigated further. There was no law enforcement or intelligence purpose to providing it to Trump.

    And you’ll have to elaborate on what you think the political advantage was, nevermind that the FBI isn’t supposed to be governed by political considerations either way. Truth of the worst parts of the Steele memo would have harmed Trump whether he knew about them in advance or not.

    This is all much ado about nothing. The IC community did its job conscientiously, and even went out of its way to try to spare Trump embarrassment (as if he’s capable of it). Now they’re being traduced to keep TrumpWorld in a blood frenzy against the rule of law.

    Dave (445e97)

  199. What happened to Stormy, anyway? She hasn’t been on the news (that I’ve seen) for a week. Do you think the FinCEN investigation might have made her pimp ahem I mean lawyer go into silent mode?

    nk (dbc370)

  200. her pimp-daddy’s worried about Michael Cohen leaking tapes of stormy saying hooker stuff

    he went to the judge and said oh my goodness you have to make it stop

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  201. And ishtar is a classic film, unverified Russian sources paid for by a Dnc connected lawfirm were funneled toward a visa warrant and an official intelligence estimate, along with other sources provided from defense dept secured funds and assets of British intelligence.

    narciso (d1f714)

  202. Now trcomey was questioned about that by trump, and he kid in public, the memos were leaked in such a way as to enable a special counsel, through the persons of witless and richman, he lied in memoir and Mueller knew he had yet they coordinated their statements.

    narciso (d1f714)

  203. Someone threw a wallet at her, and she fled, or so I’m given to understand.

    narciso (d1f714)

  204. There’s that too, cue Dr. Evil pinky move.

    narciso (d1f714)

  205. Counterintelligence is an information-gathering exercise undertaken for one purpose and one purpose alone: to inform the president, through his subordinate intelligence officials, of information about threats to, and opportunities to advance, American interests.

    And it would be detrimental to that mission if the accuracy of the information provided to the president were only, say 30%, wouldn’t it? Because there would plenty of useful information, but it would be swamped by false or misleading information.

    With a dim-wit like Trump, it would be bad to provide low-quality information even with appropriate caveats, since he likely wouldn’t understand them (having a black/white view of the world) and he would wrongly discount future, high-quality information that is important for him to take seriously.

    The president is never supposed to resist “interference” in counterintelligence. To the contrary, informing the president is the reason the FBI has a counterintelligence mission. Indeed, the information derived from counterintelligence operations is often included in the president’s daily intelligence briefing.

    I don’t doubt it, but that information represents the end-product of analysis, not the raw, unverified data.

    I’d still like to know what you think would have changed if they’d handed Trump the entire dossier on January 6? What great harm was done because the guy who wasn’t even president yet had to wait four more days to read hear the full extent of the allegations?

    It’s remarkable – it seems like only yesterday, it was inexcusable for Comey to take Trump aside and tell him about the worst of it. Now, today, it’s supposedly inexcusable that he didn’t tell him even more

    Dave (445e97)

  206. I’m curious and concerned why swc is resorting to sarcasm and calling a commenter a dope, BuDuh.

    DRJ (15874d)

  207. Thank you, DRJ

    BuDuh (896261)

  208. Well John Kerry had been carrying Kremlin water from say 1971 to around 2001, pannettaofficially for a shorter interval, (although his intervention in uranium one makes one wonder) strobe talbott, for maybe 25 years according to tretyakov, his son in law continues the tradition, that’s the fellow tied to George Nader back in the 90s

    narciso (d1f714)

  209. 198 — my “problem” is the idea that there was a “limit” to the “obligation” that Comey had to Trump on January 6.

    He’s the incoming President. There are no “limits” on what he’s entitled to.

    AND, the biggest gripe I have with the defenders of the FBI’s conduct in this regard – i.e., withholding information — is the idea that it’s the prerogative of executive branch functionaries, who work for POTUS, to DECIDE for themselves what are their “limits” and “obligations” with regard to not informing the person who just won 30 out of 50 states in a nationwide election that there is a national security counter-intelligence investigation being carried out of people close to him.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  210. 211 — in national security matters, there is ALWAYS “a reason for the president-elect to know.”

    He’s the President, and the people withholding information are not. That means they don’t have that choice.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  211. “This is why I’m so happy to have this opportunity to speak with you [Tucker Carlson] tonight, because I know Robert Mueller and I know John Brennan, and this is what they do, they set out to ruin people.”

    —- former CIA officer John Kiriakou

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  212. 219:

    Justify Obama being told in 1/5, and Trump not being told in 1/6, if the concern is over the fact that maybe the accuracy of the information is only 30%.

    Is that what you want to stand on as the basis for making a decision to withhold information about a national security investigation from the President or President-Elect?

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  213. I am not defending anyone. We are speculating. It’s not worth getting upset over.

    DRJ (15874d)

  214. Hmmm. The “upset” charge.

    I didn’t see that coming.

    BuDuh (896261)

  215. After the Bush Administration dropped charges of leaking and exonerated Kiriakuo, and Obama’s won the election, John Brennan asked Eric Holder to secretly reopen the investigation of Kiriakuo, he was convicted of leaking (Brennan was said to have demanded that charges of espionage be filed) and the father of 5 children was sent to prison.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  216. I have known swc online a long time, BuDuh. He told Patterico he wanted to focus on the arguments and not the emotions, and now he is upset. I am concerned for him. I know you don’t feel that way about people here so you question my motives so you can score rhetorical points. Consider your points scored.

    DRJ (15874d)

  217. BuDuh, why don’t go take a flying jump at a rolling MAGA hat? Your comments by and large are a waste of pixels and your intrusions into grownup conversations nothing more than noise.

    nk (dbc370)

  218. Mr. shipwreck’s a treasure he understands the issues and explains them for so I can have more better insights

    this is good for so i don’t go off half-cocked

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  219. You seem upset, nk. No need for that.

    BuDuh (896261)

  220. Yes, I also appreciate shipwreckedcrew’s comments. Trumpkin trolls not so much.

    nk (dbc370)

  221. Well did leAk to the times Scott Shane as well as to the detainees atty which meant his colleagues lives and that of their families was in danger, it’s suspected hevmisled propublica about haspel time in thailand, but that deserves more Mitch Rapp treatment.

    narciso (a3accd)

  222. Eat it, BuDuh. I’m not nice like Dustin and DRJ.

    nk (dbc370)

  223. You sincerely think there is something to be concerned regarding swc’s well being? I am sorry I questioned your motives, DRJ.

    I haven’t known swc long enough to make the same kind of judgments you do. My bad.

    BuDuh (896261)

  224. I knew that, nk.

    You can be pretty mean. Sometimes, I understand, that can be caused by something going on in your life. Right, DRJ?

    Are you ok, nk? Problems?

    BuDuh (896261)

  225. nk and I are friends, BuDuh. It is upsetting to see friends hurt. Rest assured BuDuh isn’t hurting me, nk, but he certainly enjoys trying!

    DRJ (15874d)

  226. See, nk, you flew off the handle for no reason.

    Better?

    BuDuh (896261)

  227. It seems like you try to bait people, BuDuh. Is that your intent?

    DRJ (15874d)

  228. I know you can take care of yourself, DRJ. On my part, it’s no chore calling a jerk a jerk. In fact, it can be fun.

    nk (dbc370)

  229. it’s time to reflect on what we learned today

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  230. It seems like you try to bait people, BuDuh. Is that your intent?

    That’s what trolls do. Bait people and derail conversations.

    nk (dbc370)

  231. Not at all, DRJ.

    I had no idea that nk could be triggered off of something so tame.

    BuDuh (896261)

  232. He has decided to focus on me for some time. I expect it now.

    DRJ (15874d)

  233. OT but nod to history of an often overlooked and long forgotten spaceflight– 49 years ago today, Apollo 10’s LM ‘Snoopy,’ w/Tom Stafford and the late Gene Cernan aboard, swooped low and “down among’em” to about 50,000 feet above the moon, filming the approach to the Apollo 11 landing site to be used in landing sims by Apollo 11’s Armstrong and Aldrin. Cernan had a keen eye and imaged many of the finest photos of the Apollo program. He didn’t disappoint. And Stafford fought hard to carry a color television camera aboard– a first back then– to beam back some stellar images of our Earth and the moon; he firmly believed the public deserved to share in their experiences.

    Apollo 10 was the ‘dress rehearsal’ flight for the first moon landing, refining the systems and procedures for first moon landing and the late John Young was the third crewman, piloting the CM, named ‘Charlie Brown.’ Interesting note; their LM ascent stage was jettisoned into a solar orbit and remains the only intact one flown. NASA stopped tracking the relic decades ago. But it’s out there, somewhere. Interest among some amateur astronomers has grown and w/technical advances, some are trying to find it again as it tumbles along, year after year.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  234. I did enjoy part of BuDuh’s exchange with Dustin in the other thread in which Dustin asked BuDuh if he was mentally ill and BuDuh commented that he liked Trump and had voted for him in the primary. Snorfle.

    nk (dbc370)

  235. Well, to tell the truth, DRJ, it did catch my attention that you were worried about swc when he said something derogatory but you let Dave slide when he said “Just more disinformation to convince the rubes in TrumpWorld.”

    But it makes sense now. You probably haven’t known Dave as long.

    BuDuh (896261)

  236. Someday I would love to know why you love spaceflight so much, if you can tell us without revealing anything personal. It’s obviously genuine and something meaningful to you, DCSCA. Comments like this make me see it through your eyes.

    DRJ (15874d)

  237. And eventually people like DRJ embraced my mentally ill choice and propelled my correct Primary choice on to victory in the General.

    Snorfle?

    BuDuh (896261)

  238. Dave does a good ‘otto’ from fish called Wanda, he hasn’t mentioned Belgian Aristotle yet.

    narciso (a3accd)

  239. I’m glad you are enjoying yourself, BuDuh.

    DRJ (15874d)

  240. But seriously you ask why trump did just zoom out of the gate, with all this carp just pouring out from seemingly official sources.

    narciso (a3accd)

  241. No need to worry about me, DRJ. 🙂

    Goodnight. It has been a long day.

    BuDuh (896261)

  242. @250. DRJ, could go on and on, but probably like you, you can see it is simply good. It brings out the very best in us. We are so lucky to be alive to have experienced it at the start; think about what we’ve seen that others before us for thousands of years could only imagine. And generations to come will experience that same wonderment as new horizons unfold for them. There’s nothing bad about it.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  243. I sat glued in front of the TV (a black and white Zenith), for hours, watching a small flame on a black background which was Apollo 8 on its way to the Moon’s orbit. Yes, it was exciting and wonderful.

    nk (dbc370)

  244. Anyways good noir is,nearly impossible because there is,little awareness of light, Miller’s is fairly conversely with the tropes, but sin city 2 was uneven.

    narciso (a3accd)

  245. It is ridiculous than nearly 50 years after the anniversary we haven’t been back.

    narciso (a3accd)

  246. Halper had come up empty, so Brennan’s group at Langley went with Downer’s tale, as feeble as it was. But it at least had the advantage of coming from a “diplomat.” Yet if Congressman Nunes is right and the originating document for the FBI probe doesn’t even contain a reference to an official intelligence product passed to Brennan from the Australian government, Downer’s hearsay must have been exceedingly flaky, so flaky no one would want to be on the record treating it as “evidence” for something as momentous as a probe into a presidential campaign.

    the australians tried to do a coup on america to do hillary all up in it

    they’re dirty nasty unamerican people and I abjure them, these australians

    except for i like toni collett

    and heath ledger

    but he’s dead like steve irwin except he drugged himself to death with drugs (not stingray)

    but the rest of them can suck it i hate them

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  247. Like I say madam secretary we can trust the mullahs the saudis,not so much, its,a more saccharine west wing, the interesting thing about Quantico is,the villain orchestrating everything

    narciso (a3accd)

  248. It is ridiculous than nearly 50 years after the anniversary we haven’t been back.

    there’s nothing new there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  249. Was the speaker of the house, what a twist, who talked Bout the need to confront global warming and mass incarceration tantamount to slavery.

    narciso (a3accd)

  250. I remember his American debut with Julia styles in ‘ten things i hate about you’ what ever happened to julia.

    narciso (a3accd)

  251. i just remember she played sneaky girl in one of the bourne movies

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  252. oh. she was in all the matt damon ones

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  253. President Trump at Susan B. Anthony List Gala: I Have Kept My Promise to Stand for Life

    yes yes!

    i love how good he does on LIFE cause this is how we stop the scourge of abortion

    all things are possible through President Trump

    and that’s why I stand with him, cause he stands with those who can’t stand for themselves (cause they have teensy undeveloped fetus legs)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  254. Well, to tell the truth, DRJ, it did catch my attention that you were worried about swc when he said something derogatory but you let Dave slide when he said “Just more disinformation to convince the rubes in TrumpWorld.”

    I can explain why I think them different. As I said before, when somebody criticized Patrick for (mildly) making fun of Netflix boycotters, there is a difference between mocking an anonymous class of people (which is really like attacking an idea or an act they hold) and mocking a named individual you are interacting with (which is a personal insult).

    In this specific case, I think the ceaseless, baseless and frankly illogical attacks on the FBI, DoJ, Special Counsel, etc are just a Pavlovian mechanism for maintaining support for Trump’s assault on the rule of law. What else could explain the mad attempt to portray something that has been known and acknowledged by every party concerned for over a year as some kind of new and sinister revelation?

    Every corrupt despot needs a scapegoat to target peoples’ hate against and “save” them from. For “Chairman Un”, it’s us. For Trump, it’s law enforcement and the free press (who, coincidentally, have the annoying habit of asking him about stuff he doesn’t want to talk about) and Mexicans (but that’s a different Tweet).

    Dave (445e97)

  255. You’re pro-life now, happyfeet? Now, that is one for the books. And by “for the books”, I mean Trump’s Book of Sins and Virtues kept by the Karma Kings. It will be to his credit if he is the one who converted you.

    nk (dbc370)

  256. @262. there’s nothing new there.

    Don’t bet on it, Mr. Feet: ‘the LRO camera team has discovered more than two-dozen new [lunar] impact craters – including an 18-meter-wide crater caused by a bright flash on March 17, 2013.’- nasa.gov

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  257. I stand with President Trump that’s for sure Mr. nk.

    He’s my compass and my north star and he knows what the best policies are.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  258. impact craters are same ole same ole

    look we did one of your things now it’s time to do one of my things

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  259. @271. He’s my compass and my north star and he knows what the best policies are.

    A magnetic personality that wobbles and flips every now and then, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  260. 257… “I sat glued in front of the TV (a black and white Zenith), for hours,“

    I was the service mgr for a pool table manufacturer when I was in college. We delivered new tables, also moved or recovered them. We used cans of a 3M spray adhesive to glue the felt to the slate. They would’ve worked wonderfully for your application.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  261. He’s all I got. It’s like he’s Mr. Alden and all of us we’re all boxcar children.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  262. AND, the biggest gripe I have with the defenders of the FBI’s conduct in this regard – i.e., withholding information — is the idea that it’s the prerogative of executive branch functionaries, who work for POTUS, to DECIDE for themselves what are their “limits” and “obligations” with regard to not informing the person who just won 30 out of 50 states in a nationwide election that there is a national security counter-intelligence investigation being carried out of people close to him.

    Did Trump ask to be briefed on the specific information that was omitted, and was he refused?

    Should they have come prepared to brief him on *every* currently open intelligence investigation?

    If the answer to both of those questions is “no”, then somebody other than Trump had to decide what was worth his time to hear. Particularly since he demonstrated almost no interest in hearing any of it:

    Trump turning away intelligence briefers since election win

    I think another problem may be that you are over-estimating the significance the IC attached to the Steele dossier at that time, as opposed to other sources. Isn’t it possible that the parts they could verify had been superseded by other, more reliable sources of information, and that the rest had been discounted? If the Steele dossier was simply a hodgepodge of stuff they already knew from different means, and stuff they had determined didn’t merit follow-up, why waste time briefing Trump on it?

    I am also skeptical that the president-elect is entitled to the same level of access to all information as the president. Nobody in the executive branch works for the president-elect and he has no power to order or direct anybody to do anything.

    Dave (445e97)

  263. Love nk’s comments. I never say so because that’s a really boring comment, but I’ll go ahead and second his “eat it” comment to buduh (Cruz supporter?).

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  264. No General flynn knew a,snow job when he saw it, the miniaturized warheads that the Kim dynasty had been provided 5 years ago, was in the filler notes.

    narciso (a3accd)

  265. Julia went, well, “Julia” and ended up in a web series playing a call girl (Blue).

    urbanleftbehind (d15944)

  266. I never thought of it that way, DCSCA. We are very lucky to have lived in those special times.

    DRJ (15874d)

  267. I had to do it. I had to go and watch Videodrome.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  268. Dave @ 268 — again, you are speaking from the perspective of someone who really doesn’t understand what you’re are looking at, and you likely have no idea why I have a different perspective.

    I was an AUSA for 23 years. You give me 2 FBI agents, an empaneled GJ, and the names and social security numbers of everyone on this board tonight, and I can guarantee you that in 6 months I can half of them indicted on some federal crime. half of those might be only for having lied to my investigators, but what the heck, its a crime so why not charge em?

    I’m not attacking the FBI and DOJ based on what they have done.

    I’m attacking the FBI and DOJ — I continue to have close associations with both — based one what political actors in each agency did 24 months ago, based on my view of the “evidence” they had.

    Initiating a federal criminal investigation should never be done lightly — for the reasons I set forth at the outset — given enough time, a federal prosecutor can get something on just about anyone.

    So what’s important to the integrity of the process IMO is what was the nature of the EVIDENCE in front of them at the time they started??

    This case DID NOT begin because some agent in the Washington Field Office got a tip from a citizen about Russian involvement, and ran with it.

    This investigation began IMO because political actors decided they wanted to investigate Donald Trump, and Carter Page’s past involvement with Russian operatives, and Paul Manafort’s history of doing political work in the Ukraine, was their EXCUSE.

    Neither one of those factors were evidence of criminal activity.

    The Feds went LOOKING for criminal activity when they had no evidence at that time they started that criminal activity was afoot.

    THAT is an abuse of power.

    Think its not? Give me your name and social security number. I’ll pass it along to some colleagues. Then consider how well you might sleep at night.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  269. 276 — That’s just so functionally dishonest as to paint your face in shame. “He didn’t ask”. Sheesh.

    I think another problem may be that you are over-estimating the significance the IC attached to the Steele dossier at that time,

    Have you just blocked out the fact that the Steele dossier information on Carter Page was used to get the FISA on Carter Page????? Not significant? LMAO.

    Have you ever taken the time to read the memos that Steele prepared?

    What parts of the dossier were more significant than the information alleged about Carter Page?

    I’m completely discounting the hooker story — I don’t think the FBI even believed that. Comey didn’t brief Trump on it because he thought it was “truthful” information about to be made public. He just wanted Trump to hear from them that it existed, the press had it, and there was a likelihood it was going to be published by someone.

    Re the transition — tell you what. When Trump leaves office, lets just have it work in such a way that nobody from the incoming administration, if its a Democrat, gets so much as a phone call returned before Jan. 20. They can figure things out when they settle into their seats.

    Better yet, lets do away with the 10 week transition.

    Outgoing Admin out 3 days after the election. New guy in. Here’s the keys. Good luck.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  270. Simply proves that MPC had him PEGGED long ago

    In the end it was Obama who was the celebrity president: hollow, arrogant, bored, and easily controlled by the Washington apparatus, clutching a token peace prize while involving himself in more violent conflicts than his predecessors. Not much different than you’d expect of a junior senator who lucked into the job because he ran against bewildered stuffed shirts (and pantsuits) and looked the part. A celeb for all seasons.

    As a result he has no legacy, and serves as a reflection of an amoral and empty pseudo-liberalism that supports global capitalism and reactionary pandering. His base are people who say they feel hurt and sad yet can show no injury–adult children waving their hankies at a human muppet who read sentiment off a TelePrompTer for eight years. “Love Wins” and “Refugees Welcome”–affirmations of solipsistic morons trapped in a self-hug–are now the corporate branding of selfishness. They are slogans to help you forget Chinese factories with suicide nets and the ugliness of addiction and hedonistic lifestyles that this pseudo-liberalism reduces to.

    Scrub away the airbrushing and you have a glib warmonger, a clumsy and careless policymaker, a passive-aggressive egotist, and a first class presidential golfer, a man who entered politics in hock up to his eyebrows and who retires a multi-millionaire. But doesn’t he just look the part?”

    Tellurian (b07080)

  271. Think its not? Give me your name and social security number. I’ll pass it along to some colleagues. Then consider how well you might sleep at night.

    If they don’t understand that, they should consider WHY it is unlawful to target IRS “compliance” audits. Not that people cheat, exactly but, well, how many people report unpaid sales taxes to their state?

    Kevin M (752a26)

  272. Joe diGenova today:

    “There are agents all over this country who love the bureau and are sickened by [James] Comey’s behavior and [Andrew] McCabe and [Eric] Holder and [Loretta] Lynch and the thugs like [John] Brennan–who despise the fact that the bureau was used as a tool of political intelligence by the Obama administration thugs,” former federal prosecutor Joe DiGenova told The Daily Caller Tuesday. “They are just waiting for a chance to come forward and testify.”

    This is a bold statement by diGenova.

    If its false, he’s going to be laughing stock.

    But imagine the implications if its true.

    I’ve never taken a lot of time here to explain the division that exists between FBI Field Agents and FBI Managers — but its very real, its cultural, and its bitter.

    Very brief outline:

    In almost all respects, “promotion” into the ranks of FBI management is done on the basis of volunteerism — there is little or NO merit involved. If you want to be a manager, you “raise your hand”, and they send you off to FBI HQ for 2 years of training. Once you’re done, you get to apply for open Squad Supervisor positions at offices across the country. “Career Boards” interview the applicants, and make the selection. If you’re a superstar, you get hired by a great office that does high profile work. If your a slug, you end up in a branch office in Diluth.

    But are FBI managers ever really “Superstars?”

    That goes to the question of why they become managers.

    FBI managers give up doing FBI casework in order to process paperwork that makes sure everyone has enough pencils and paper, and to makes sure everyone’s paperwork gets sent to all the right places. They no longer “make cases.”

    For that reason, nearly all the FBI agents who “make cases”, and are good at it, never go into management. Its not why they joined the Bureau.

    So, who does go into management? For the most part, its the agents who sucked at making cases.

    In other words, volunteering to be a manager is how a crappy FBI agent saves his career.

    The functional result of this arrangement is that crappy FBI agents end up as the supervisors of the good FBI agents.

    You can imagine how that works in practice.

    So, when diGenova says FBI agents are lined up wanting to tell Congress about how screwed up things were under Comey and McCabe, that’s pretty much why.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  273. Louis Freeh was beloved by the rank and file case agents. Why? Because he was a case agent. He left to become a prosecutor and later a Judge. But he was never in FBI management.

    He remains far and away the most popular former Director.

    One of the most despised is Mueller.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  274. Re: argument from authority @284

    I don’t dispute that you know better than I the details of what *could have* happened. But you have no more knowledge of the specific facts than the rest of us. And the specific facts are what matter.

    Re: 285

    Have you just blocked out the fact that the Steele dossier information on Carter Page was used to get the FISA on Carter Page????? Not significant? LMAO.

    I think you are distorting the facts. The FISA application “carefully outlined a multi-pronged rationale for surveilling Page” and “made only narrow use of information from Steele’s sources”.

    Further,

    “While explaining why the FBI viewed Steele’s reporting and sources as reliable and credible, DOJ also disclosed:

    * Steele’s prior relationship with the FBI;
    * the fact of and reason for his termination as a source; and
    * the assessed political motivation of those who hired him.”

    Have you ever taken the time to read the memos that Steele prepared?

    Yes, I have read the PDF file “cover to cover” twice, and referred to selected parts at other times.

    What parts of the dossier were more significant than the information alleged about Carter Page?

    The fact that the information about Page in the dossier was significant (in isolation) doesn’t mean that it was the only source, or most important source, for that information, or that the information had not been independently verified by January 2017. The same document says (emphasis in original):

    “DOJ told the court the truth. Its representation was consistent with the FBI’s underlying investigative record, which current and former senior officials corroborated in extensive Committee testimony. Christopher Steele’s reporting which he began to share with an FBI agent [redacted] through the end of October 2016, played no role in launching the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference and links to the Trump campaign. In fact, Steele’s reporting did not reach the counterintelligence team investigating Russia at FBI headquarters until mid-September 2016, more than seven weeks after the FBI opened its investigation, because the probe’s existence was so closely held within the FBI. By then, the FBI had already opened sub-inquiries into [redacted] individuals linked to the Trump campaign: [redacted] and former campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page.”

    To summarize, your theory seems pretty inconsistent with what the House committee was told.

    I’m completely discounting the hooker story — I don’t think the FBI even believed that. Comey didn’t brief Trump on it because he thought it was “truthful” information about to be made public. He just wanted Trump to hear from them that it existed, the press had it, and there was a likelihood it was going to be published by someone.

    Well then we agree on something. Hurrah!

    Re the transition — tell you what. When Trump leaves office, lets just have it work in such a way that nobody from the incoming administration, if its a Democrat, gets so much as a phone call returned before Jan. 20. They can figure things out when they settle into their seats.

    Better yet, lets do away with the 10 week transition.

    Outgoing Admin out 3 days after the election. New guy in. Here’s the keys. Good luck.

    Right, because my suggestion that the president-elect’s prerogatives are necessarily more limited than those of the sitting president means I think there should be no transition at all…is this really the best you can do?

    Dave (445e97)

  275. Dave,

    You’re making a silly argument of sophistry. Given a deceptive, partial briefing to the President Elect is not something done because there is some shortage of briefing person time and you need to spend more with the President. Both the President and President Elect are more the time bottleneck, not the briefers. And both of them need UNBIASED, HONEST, REVEALING intelligence. Not the Comey-McCabe gamesmanship.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  276. I never said shortage of briefers was the problem. In fact, I explicitly suggested just the opposite (that Trump’s lack of interest in intel briefings of any kind could have been a factor).

    I asked you before, and never got an answer: what horrible consequences ensued from Trump finding out about the rest of the dossier on January 10 instead of January 6? How was anyone or anything worse off because of it?

    This is all just agitprop to keep TrumpWorld in a state of ferment.

    Dave (445e97)

  277. The damage is he can’t trust his people to give him good intel! Read what Harry Truman said about the responsibility of intelligence delivered to the President to be unbiased. Now I’m understanding why you get beat up so much around here.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  278. The damage is he can’t trust his people to give him good intel! Read what Harry Truman said about the responsibility of intelligence delivered to the President to be unbiased.

    Trump wasn’t the president. Nothing biased was presented to him. You didn’t answer my question.

    Now I’m understanding why you get beat up so much around here.

    *yawn*

    Dave (445e97)

  279. Trump didn’t seem to care about having to wait 4 days for the rest of the Steele dossier. There is no record he ever complained about the delay, and he isn’t exactly shy about complaining on Twitter about anything and everything that bothers him, is he?

    Only two and a half weeks later, on January 28 he invited Comey for a private dinner at the White House, and the two had a wide-ranging 80-minute conversation which touched on many subjects, including the kompromat, but (unsurprisingly, considering its unimportance) the four-day delay in learning about the rest of the dossier didn’t come up at all.

    Total red herring.

    Dave (445e97)

  280. pete posted this above (quoting Andrew C. McCarthy, who I have previously caught playing loose with the facts while pontificating about what is and isn’t “policy”):

    “Counterintelligence investigations, on the other hand, are not criminal investigations. They are not a rule-of-law issue or a judicial matter. The objective is not to prosecute someone who has violated the penal law, so we are not worried that political officials, rather than legal principles, control the outcome. That’s because counterintelligence is national security work, which is the principal duty of the political branches under the Constitution.

    Counterintelligence is an information-gathering exercise undertaken for one purpose and one purpose alone: to inform the president, through his subordinate intelligence officials, of information about threats to, and opportunities to advance, American interests.

    The president is never supposed to resist “interference” in counterintelligence. To the contrary, informing the president is the reason the FBI has a counterintelligence mission. Indeed, the information derived from counterintelligence operations is often included in the president’s daily intelligence briefing.”

    It appears to be at odds with Jim Comey’s understanding, as related in the memo of his conversation with Reince Priebus on Februrary 8 (emphasis added):

    He [Priebus] then asked me if this was a “private conversation”. I replied that it was. He then said he wanted to ask me a question and I could decide whether it was appropriate to answer. He then asked, “Do you have a FISA order on Mike Flynn?” I paused for a few seconds and then said that I would answer here, but that this illustrated the kind of question that had to asked and answered through established channels. I said the answer [redacted] I then explained that the normal channel was from DOJ leadership to the WH counsel about such things. [Redacted] I would normally make sure the AG and DAG were aware and they would likely inform the WH Counsel and he could decide whether to inform the COS [Chief of Staff]. I explained that it was important that communications about any particular case go through that channel to protect us and to protect the WH from any accusations of improper influence.

    This is essentially the same as my original statement above, that both swc and Pete derided:

    As far as I understand, that is not only the limit of his obligation, but the limit of what he was allowed to tell him. The FBI normally would not discuss on-going investigations of other people with the president, or the president-elect.

    But it seems the FBI Director had substantially the same understanding, and explained it clearly to the WH Chief of Staff, and it explains pretty clearly why Comey would not have divulged information about on-going investigations of other people to Trump, especially before he had taken office.

    Dave (445e97)

  281. Because the fisa warrant involved everyone three hops down, there was a Steven cannell novel along those lines

    http://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5758333/Former-Trump-campaign-aide-says-FBI-tried-use-informant-create-reason-FISA-warrants.html

    narciso (d1f714)

  282. Trump tweet…. “SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!”

    Ohhh. It “could be”. I see.

    Yet, somehow, this enormous scandal was missed by his own appointees at the FBI and Justice Dept. And yesterday, he indicated that he has to rely on what “many people say” to come to this conclusion.

    noel (b4d580)

  283. Unbelievably irresponsible. Even by Trump standards.

    noel (b4d580)

  284. “ANDREW MCCARTHY: “The Trump-Russia investigation did not originate with Page or Papadopoulos. It originated with the Obama administration.”

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/trump-russia-investigation-obama-administration-origins/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  285. Have a sardine, ConDave.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  286. Its sad isn’t it coronello.

    narciso (d1f714)

  287. If it ain’t, it’ll do until the real sadness comes, narciso.

    Colonel Haiku (e208fd)

  288. 298:

    It was a counter-intelligence investigation and the PE was already getting intel briefs.

    So, if the issue was him not being in office on 06JAN, did Comey call a meeting on 21JAN and give him full reporting on the investigation into his campaign? What was done, what was ongoing, and what findings to date were? Yeah…I didn’t think so. You are just throwing out chaff.

    Anonymous (d41cee)

  289. good thinking, Patterico. Buy tickets and just don’t go in. That will teach them.
    I quit visiting your site because you are so unreasonable. So today I tried it again. EVEN MORE UNREASONABLE. Wow.

    sd harms (7d2955)

  290. The boycott on the NFL seems to have been effective.

    NJRob (b58d3c)

  291. Like I said, I have yet to watch a Netflix original. For sure I’m not going to watch the “Troy” with a black Achilles or the “Monkey King” with a female Tripitaka. That’s just ridiculous political correctness to an obscene degree. It doesn’t mean I won’t watch “Captain America” or “Godfather II” or “Sin City” or “Minions” or “Despicable Me 3” or “Phineas and Ferb” or ….

    nk (dbc370)

  292. 306. I think you define “unreasonable” differently than I do.

    Gryph (08c844)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.2075 secs.