“Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton dropped a bit of a bombshell on Saturday when he said the FBI may have also lost Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s text messages.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” Fitton told host Jeanine Pirro there is “gamesmanship going on” at the bureau and that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should send the US Marshals over to secure the evidence.
“We sued back in September for the text messages of the number two at the FBI, Andrew McCabe,” Fitton explained. “And they just told us this week, they gave us everything they’re going to give us, and not one text message was turned over.”
“Have they lost all of Andrew McCabe’s text messages?” he asked. “I don’t believe it. There’s still gamesmanship going on.”
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“McCabe headed up the Clinton private email server investigation that resulted in no charges being filed.
“Were are Andrew McCabe’s text messages,” Fitton asked. “Where are [former FBI director] James Comey’s text messages?”
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“A year into office, Donald Trump remains something of an unlikely figure: a self-promoting and well-heeled demagogue who leads a bedraggled coalition of piratical capitalists, southerners, and people from the has-been or never were towns of Middle America. His fiercest opponents largely come from the apex of our society: the tech oligarchy, a rabidly hostile press and the cultural and academic hegemons.
These sophisticated people see Trump as responding crudely to his sans-culottes base. To them, he threatens everything from the free press to the rule of law and common decency. Yet Trump as peasant leader matters more than his ego-driven persona. He and other wannabe populists in Europe represents a modern version of the kind of peasant rebellions that rocked the Europe of the Middle Ages and China, highlighted by the 1850 Taiping rebellion.
Autocrats against autocracy
Such bottom up uprisings, usually elicit strong opposition from the established institutions. Today they span the gap from corporate liberals to establishment conservatives. For all their surface differences, these groups tend to share similar class experiences and perspectives; they both see Trump and his supporters as inveterate racists and fascist shock troops. Retiring GOP Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake even has denounced him as a new Stalin.
To be sure much of Trump’s media commentary is intemperate but its significance, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is often “a tale of an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” In contrast many believers in a free press had little problem when President Obama threw journalists in jail and abused the surveillance instruments of the state. Real Stalinism may be less of a threat today — despite Trump’s authoritarian posturing — than under his more polished predecessor.
Similarly, across Europe, informed opinion almost universally denounces, the rise of anti-EU, anti-immigration parties, some with suspiciously fascist flavor. The Brexit movement has been widely characterized as the rude attempts of provincial rubes — “old, racist and stupid” — to undermine the cosmopolitan character of “cool Britannia.”
To be sure there is much to lament about Trump, and his European counterparts, but it’s ironic that many of those who charge him with autocracy are often themselves not great fans of democratic control. For the most part the anti-populists favor not a more vibrant democracy but, in the words of Harvard’s Yascha Mounk “rights without democracy,” dominated by bureaucracies like the EU or the EPA. Some are even open admirers of China’s authoritarian dictatorship; others swoon at French President Emmanuel Macron’s almost laughable yearning to reinvent himself as a modern day Louis XIV.”
“It’s not Comey. Or Mueller. Or the Russians. Or Stormy Daniels.
It’s the economy, stupid.
And right now, the Trump economy is blasting off.
Davos Man likes.
In conversations with business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there is almost zero mention of the controversies which consume coverage of Trump in America.
Instead, people talk about the real possibility now that growth in the U.S. economy could hit 4 percent this year — a positively Clintonian benchmark. The impact worldwide would be tremendous.
We forget what that kind of economy means. Clinton averaged roughly 4 percent GDP growth. Record budget surpluses. Record job growth. Real household incomes up across the board. A skyrocketing stock market.
Money in peoples’ pockets—for college, for retirement, for vacations. Businesses booming. New ones starting. And the USA once again the engine pulling the world economy.
We’re a long way from that, for sure.
And there are analysts who say the world’s economies are simply being boosted by all the easy money central banks pumped into them for years — and that’s a bubble that will burst.
But business types here disagree. And they give a lot of credit to Trump for the renewed strength and vigor they sense in the sinews of the global economy.
Deregulation is the first thing they mention. The cost of doing business has come down fast. That means margins will go up. That’s why so many investors see American companies as such good bets.
“Legal Insurrection readers will recall the California legislature’s attempt to create a special government fund as a “charity” for taxpayer donations to mitigate the loss of state and local tax (SALT) deductions in the recently passed GOP tax plans.
The politicians must have realized the approach was full of fail, so now leaders of several blue states are planning a lawsuit to block the entire overhaul package. California may join in.
New Jersey and Connecticut are joining New York in planning to file a lawsuit to block the Republican-led federal tax overhaul, the Democratic governors of the three states announced Friday.
And California could join them.
Andrew Cuomo of New York, Dannel Malloy of Connecticut and Phil Murphy of New Jersey announced Friday that they’re talking to leaders of other states that stand to be hurt by the federal tax plan that’s expected to cost taxpayers in their states billions of dollars.
“We’re going to be working together to form a multistate coalition to challenge this in court,” said Cuomo, a potential 2020 White House contender who announced his intention to fight the tax overhaul earlier this month.
I am a little shocked the the Golden State generals in the War on Trump are not leading this charge. The suit is expected to be launched shortly.
Murphy said he expects the suit to be filed within weeks. No decision has been made on where the action will be filed, Malloy said.
The new tax code passed by Republicans in Congress and signed into law last month by Republican President Donald Trump caps a deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000. That deduction had been popular in high-tax, Democratic states like New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, where many homeowners now face big increases in their federal tax bill.
“This is an assault on those states,” Malloy said.”
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“Bloomberg offers a humorous and in-depth look at the Blue States’ desperation at the loss of the SALT deductions and all of their proposed solutions. The assessment of the legal experts consulted on this particular proposal is that the governors’ case is dead-on-arrival:
…[The lawsuit] is an intriguing strategy. But alas for the citizens of New York State, probably a doomed one.
I spoke to Michael Dorf, a law professor at Cornell who recently outlined the possible lines of attack that such a suit could take. For one thing, they could argue federalism, a tack that even conservative judges should find appealing. “There’s an argument that the Sixteenth Amendment does not empower the federal government to treat money that is owed to state and local governments as part of the tax base,” he said. “If you go back to the Sixteenth Amendment it’s clear that states were concerned about this at the time of the drafting.”
The problem? “The hard part there for the plaintiff states, while that was a concern for the people who adopted the Sixteenth Amendment, it’s not anywhere in the amendment.”
…Jonathan Adler, who teaches law at Case Western, was even more pungent, and succinct. While we don’t know what form the complaint will eventually take, since the states haven’t yet drafted it, “What we have seen [so far] would suggest that there is some sort of constitutional right to a SALT deduction. To state the claim is to refute it.”
Imagine, if you will, that this lawsuit is successful. Then, ponder the likely response of a voting age, tax-paying American who receives his first paycheck after the block.
The election commercials practically write themselves.”
Ricky @ 7:49. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the WashPost assessment of the situation.
However, as I’ve said before, the prophetic battle of Zech. 12 disturbs me.
This battle has never been fought.
And it can’t happen with the Sixth Fleet in the Med.
It seems that Israel is all alone.
And, regardless of what all the politicians say, there is only one way to get Israel out to it’s hoe base.
My son has predicted that the Democrats may have too many candidates in 2020. He may be right. However, the Mainstream Media will winnow down their candidates even as Fox did ours in 2016.
Kizzie, I would like to add to the discussion on the verses about government. We have to always keep in mind the time period and circumstances that the first readers would have to those verses. In Jesus’ time there were those who wanted the battle to be in the government realm. They were advocating revolt and a refusal to pay taxes. This was true in Paul’s time, as well. Paul points out the purpose of government. This is something set up by God for keeping peace and doing certain things that cannot be done by just the family or even the church. As far as possible, therefore, we are to support government and “give to Caeser what is Caeser’s.”
We only have to look as far as the first Christians to realize they did not just obey every law or order given them. In Paul’s case, he used the government (and the legal system) to stay alive at one point and further the gospel.
In Germany to obey every government order would have been sinful. It was no longer an intellectual discussion, but a matter of life and death. Not every Christian made the same choices and some were maligned for their choices and to be found to have been secretly saving lives.
In our form of government, WE are suppose to be the government. WE are given a voice through representation. In reality that choice is limited by the powerful. We saw that with the pitiful choices for president. Partly, though, it is because of many not willing to engage in the system or really think beyond twenty second soundbites or even pray for our leaders. At any rate, it makes for some real prayer for what God would have us to do in both obeying and disobeying government.
This was my Utmost Response today. I see the political Tweets and posturing all through this post. You can read the My Utmost for His Highest post here:https://utmost.org/kP/
Here’s my response:
The January 29 reading, as usual, provides plenty to think about.
“Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.”
Our circumstances tend to catch our attention better than God’s voice–even for those who seek to hear God’s voice.
Of course, the only sure place to hear God’s voice and direction is in the Scriptures.
But He uses our circumstances to turn us back to the Bible to search for the real answers.
Why?
“We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him.”
Ponder that line as you consider some of the things you hear purported Christian leaders say.
“The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13.”
We know this very well. Love is patient, kind, not envious, thoughtless, seeks not its own way, never fails and never returns evil for evil.
We can always check what we think God is telling us to say against 1 Corinthians 13–and often as not, shut our mouths and say nothing.
Christians are supposed to be known by their love.
“Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty.”
K & Kizzie, I have lived in a country where the government was corrupt and the leader a dangerous megalomaniac. Nevertheless, it was still possible to live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, as Paul said to pray for in I Timothy 2:1-2 and it was still possible to spread the Gospel. Despite the fact that one had to tread very carefully when it came to dealing with the government, the government still provided protection to well doers and punishment to evildoers. The justice was severely flawed of course and sometimes innocent people were punished while the guilty went free; but it was still there, enough so that the place was not teeming with murderous bandits. Paul and Peter were describing the purpose for government, not just an ideal. That purpose may be severely flawed among certain regimes, but it is still there.
Recall the respect Paul showed to Felix the governor, even though Felix was corrupt enough to leave Paul in prison just to please the Jews, and he was equally respectful to Festus, who was appointed by Nero. Under every functioning government, no matter how corrupt, there are still laws against theft and murder, which are enforced to some extent, because every government knows that it has to keep some sort of semblance of law and order, or it is no longer a government. It is those basic laws, laws which are also found in the law of Moses, which Christians can follow in any country with a clear conscience. Notice, further, that Paul and Peter are not speaking to the government, but to Christians. They are warning Christians to not be troublemakers, to not use their freedom in Christ as a cover for evil – to make sure that if they are persecuted, it is because they are Christians, not because they are lawbreakers. The New Testament is a manual, not for earthly government, but for the members of the kingdom of God while they live on earth. From the Epistle to Diognetus:
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity… But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.
They marry, as do all; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.
They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Christian_Library/Epistle_to_Diognetus]
Christ told us to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). We are to be as He was, laying down our lives for others, not seeking our own things, but the things of others. That means, in relationship to whatever form of government we have – even in a democracy, the people invest authority and power in the government officials which is denied to individual citizens – that we behave as law abiding citizens. If there is a law which demands an allegiance from us that we can only yield in good conscience to God, then we must firmly and respectfully refuse to obey that law, but that does not mean we then proceed to rebel against the other laws of the government. Paul even apologized for cursing the high priest after the high priest ordered him to be unjustly struck, because he knew it was unlawful to curse the ruler of the people (Acts 23:2-5). Giving honour to flawed secular authorities may be galling, but it is part of taking up our cross and following the One who, when he was reviled by both religious and secular authorities, reviled not again.
By the way, reviling, a word which means ‘to criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner’, is a serious and deadly sin. It is one of the sins listed in I Corinthians 5:11 as being a reason for excommunicating someone who claims to be a Christian. Paul goes onto to warn in I Corinthians 6:10 that those who rail and revile (the word for railer and reviler is the same in the Greek) will not inherit the kingdom of God. The reason for this is apparent from John and James’ writing. John warns that the one who says he loves God but hates others is a murderer and a liar who does not have eternal life; while James indicates that the one who blesses God and curses those made in the image of God is a hypocrite and warns that those who have bitter envy and strife in their hearts have only a earthly, sensual, and devilish kind of wisdom (John 3:11-15, 4:20; James 3:9-15). To revile with the tongue is to seek to murder someone with words, as Jesus warned in Matthew 5:21-22. Part of being blameless and harmless, the children of God in a crooked and perverse world (Philippians 2:15), is to refrain from reviling not only the authorities, but also everyone else.
Yes, Roscuro, but sometimes the law of love does mean breaking laws of a government. That is a fact. Corrie Ten Boom, for example, struggled with this in hiding Jews. Her family and many struggled with when they should outright lie. Some Christians refused to lie and people died; some fudged the truth or carefully spoke to skirt the questions and some had no compunction about lying to uphold the higher value of acting in love.
We do sometimes refuse to obey the laws of our government and then accept the punishment. Christians have done so since the beginning. The further from God’s natural law any government is, the more true that would be so.
Roscuro – I agree with what you have written, and have not argued otherwise (not saying you said I did). I will amend my comment to: “I would guess that perhaps what Paul and Peter were describing was the ideal purpose of what God instituted government to be.” However, I think it kind of went without saying.
Good reminder about being careful not only about how we speak/write of our government officials and authority, but also about each other. I have tried to write of my disappointment and disapproval of some of President Trump’s words and behavior without straying into railing or reviling. I may have strayed over the line a time or two, for which I have asked God’s forgiveness.
K, Corrie Ten Boom and others like her are perfect examples of what I was talking about. They obeyed all that they could in good conscience and where the government demanded an allegiance to the state, requiring that they should hate and seek to destroy their neighbour, that they could only give to God, who said to love one’s neighbour, they firmly and respectfully refused to obey that law – Corrie, in her interactions with officials of the Nazis occupation, was always respectful. They did not wantonly break the laws for their own benefit. There were war profiteers who did do those things for their own profit who were punished by the Nazis, some of them in the same prison camps as Corrie and her sister; but Corrie and Betsie knew that their consciences were clear – “For what glory is it, if, when you be punished for your faults, you take it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God” (I Peter 2:20).
Kizzie, Jesus once described Herod as a fox, which was an accurate assessment of the character of the man; and he had some blistering words of reproof for the Pharisees. Being respectful to rulers doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to their faults, and those who are in a position so to do may have occasion to reprove leaders to their faces, but always maintaining a respect for their office. Jesus reminded his audience when he lit into the Pharisees, that the scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat, so that they should still be listened to, although their example of hypocrisy should not be followed. Jesus didn’t say anything at all to Herod, because he knew the man who had executed his cousin John on a whim, after all John had said to him, was incapable of hearing anything Jesus had to say; and in remaining silent he both respected Herod’s office and reproved the man. On the other hand, Jesus both spoke the truth to and was respectful to Pilate. We are to be both wise and harmless.
“My goodness. The timing of this announcement on Memo Day, when McCabe reportedly features in the memo, is mighty interesting.
What are we about to find out that might make Andrew McCabe’s continued tenure at the FBI untenable?”
———————
NBC News: Multiple U.S. officials say that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is stepping down from his post today and taking "terminal leave" meaning that he will stay on until his retirement in March (that was always his plan) so he can receive full retirement benefits.
** BREAKING ** McCabe OUT at FBI Source familiar says that, in advance of the IG report, McCabe was told to begin what is referred to as “terminal leave.”
From our Justice team One source said FBI Deputy Director McCabe's departure was not in the plans as of Friday. The source said McCabe was told this morning to step down. A second source described McCabe’s departure as being “removed”.
Aj: It’s happened before that employees on terminal leave were indicted and never drew a dime of their retirement. I hope that McCabe is added to that list.
“A little-noticed section in the $1.5 trillion tax cut that President Trump signed into law late last month is drawing attention from venture capitalists, state government officials and mayors across America.
The provision, tucked on page 130 of the sprawling tax overhaul, is an attempt to grapple with a yawning hole in the recovery from the Great Recession: the fact that, in huge swaths of the country, the economic recovery has yet to arrive.
The law creates “Opportunity Zones,” which will use tax incentives to draw long-term investment to parts of America that continue to struggle with high poverty and sluggish job and business growth. The provision represents the first new substantial federal attempt to aid those communities in more than a decade. And it comes as a disproportionate share of economic growth has been concentrated in so-called “superstar” metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and New York.
If the zones succeed, they could help revitalize neighborhoods and towns that are currently starved for investment.”
A little prediction: In 2021, the newly elected Democrat President will select Adam Schiff to be the Attorney General. It has helped his case that his opponents (Nunes and Trump) are dunces. However, his performance as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has been nearly flawless.
Schiff is a partisan hack still providing cover for the last Democrat admin and their many crimes. He’s still whining Russia, Russia, Russia despite no evidence of crimes. He’s a joke.
Besides, he claims to have his own memo, so let’s see both and let the cards fall where they may.
“It will be the first time the committee has invoked an obscure committee rule in its 40 year history to make public a classified memo. This rule will allow the committee “to bypass the executive branch’s declassification process” and if they do, then President Donald Trump has five days to decide to release it to the public or deny it.
CNN reported:
The Nunes memo alleges that the FBI abused the FISA surveillance law over its use of the opposition research dossier on Donald Trump and Russia as part of the case to obtain a FISA warrant for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. It cites the role of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe for their roles in overseeing aspects of the investigation, according to a source briefed on the matter.
The memo also appears to show that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved the application to extend surveillance on Page. From The New York Times:
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein’s actions in the memo — a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start — indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.
The memo’s primary contention is that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials failed to adequately explain to an intelligence court judge in initially seeking a warrant for surveillance of Mr. Page that they were relying in part on research by an investigator, Christopher Steele, that had been financed by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The committee has not told the media if they will bring up the memo in this business meeting, but the leadership did provide information to members about the obscure rule just in case they do vote.
They may also vote on a memo from Ranking Member Adam Schiff (R-CA) that counters the one from Nunes while “other Democrats say Nunes’ memo skews the intelligence it’s based on and is an effort to try to discredit special counsel Robert’s Mueller’s investigation.””
If he’s that flawless, why not put Schiff at the top of the ticket. They don’t seem to have a serious contender for 2020. I think our non-serious contender just may take it again. He’s even getting better about the tweets. ; –)
“I’m glad — and relieved. It would have been intolerable after all the hype for Republicans to go on whispering to the media about the alleged Russiagate surveillance abuses recorded in the memo and then never quite getting around to sharing it and letting the public judge for itself. That would have been gaslighting at the highest level, with the credibility of the Justice Department a casualty. Instead they’re going to show their work. If the DOJ’s behaved as badly as they claim, we deserve to know and there need to be consequences. If they haven’t and this is just a cynical Republican ploy to redirect heat away from Trump, we deserve to know that too.
Three cheers for total transparency.
Are we getting total transparency here?
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, apparently disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate…
The memo, which was made available to all members of the House, is said to contend that officials from the two agencies were not forthcoming to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge. Republicans accuse the agencies of failing to disclose that the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign helped finance research that was used to obtain a warrant for surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. The research presented to the judge was assembled by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele…
People familiar with the underlying application have portrayed the Republican memo as misleading in part because Mr. Steele’s information was insufficient to meet the standard for a FISA warrant. They said the application drew on other intelligence material that the Republican memo selectively omits. That other information remains highly sensitive, and releasing it would risk burning other sources and methods of intelligence-gathering about Russia.
The House Intelligence Committee does indeed have the power to declassify information if it deems doing so would be in the public interest, but it’s never done that before. Ever. Under the rule the White House now gets five days to decide whether to try to block the release on national-security grounds, which means we’re in for a week of even more tension between Trump and the DOJ. Trump wants the memo out, of course, since it serves his interests by discrediting the Russiagate investigation. The DOJ, however, said last week that it’d be “extraordinarily reckless” to put the memo out there without letting the Department scrutinize it first. Chris Wray reportedly got to read the memo this past weekend; presumably other DOJ personnel have either read it or will soon read it too. If the DOJ legal team declares that releasing it as-is would compromise natsec “sources and methods,” what does Trump do? What does Jeff Sessions do?
But wait. Isn’t there a Democratic counter-memo that’s been prepared, purporting to rebut Nunes’s version of events. Indeed there is, and that too was voted on this afternoon. The Committee voted to release Nunes’s memo … but not Adam Schiff’s counter-memo. Partisan hackery at work, or is there something more to it?”
————————————–
Same process they took with the Nunes memo. So it’s coming.
House Intel voted unanimously to make Dem countermemo available to all House members — same process initially followed with GOP memo.
Debra, I had that same thought, but then I read Frum’s Tweet and was reminded that we live in an Idiocracy. Maybe if Schiff had a lobotomy, he could compete with Trump and the likely Democratic contenders.
I’m afraid only a far left Democrat can compete with Trump at this point. Never Trumpers are doing the country a disservice by using up their credibility in ridicule when they might use their abilities to help find solutions. Most are content to sit smugly on the sidelines instead.
“South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, who helped write the four-page memo, said Sunday he wants it made public.
He also suggested the memo indeed addresses whether the FBI relied at least in part on the dossier — paid for partially by Democrats and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election — to apply to a secret federal court to get a surveillance warrant, purportedly on then-Trump adviser Carter Page.
“If you … want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used. … If you are interested in who paid for the dossier … then, yes, you’ll want the memo to come out,” Gowdy told “Fox News Sunday.”
The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and contained opposition research on Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Steele was hired by the U.S. firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the research with funding from the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. At the same time, the firm was allegedly doing work to help the Russian government fight sanctions.”
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I found this article in American Affairs Journal interesting. It’s very dense, but it does demonstrate that there are still serious people on the Conservative spectrum trying to move forward in a productive fashion. I found it encouraging.
Another prediction: Andrew McCabe will receive a Presidential or Congressional medal in the next seven years. When the history of this pathetic time is written, he will be regarded as one of the biggest heroes. When the New Democrat President takes office, expect Chris Wray to be asked to resign. Who knows? McCabe could be the new FBI Director in three years.
I don’t think people appreciate Adam Schaff’s incredible talent to sound above the fray, non partisan and more in sorrow than in anger, while being hyper partisan. He’s better than Harry Reid was and almost as good as Tom Daschle.
Debra @ 7:43 The NeverTrumpers were active last year proposing ideas on healthcare. Unfortunately, the President never took the time to learn anything about that very important issue. They have also been active on immigration. Very little is going to happen this year as the Congress will be increasingly focused on the election and Trump will be largely focused on Mueller. Next year (and for a long time thereafter) the views of the NeverTrumpers and Trumpkins alike will be irrelevant. The Democrats are going to be in control of Congress.
Special Agent Andrew McCabe stood tall over the last 8 months, when small people were trying to tear down an institution we all depend on. He served with distinction for two decades. I wish Andy well. I also wish continued strength for the rest of the FBI. America needs you.
FBI Directors and their teams are expected to serve long terms to ensure independence from the politicians they hold accountable. Firing Comey, forcing out McCabe, and reassigning others is a purge of independent law enforcement leaders and an effort to place Trump above the law.
That was post-1960, Debra, so I have no personal knowledge of the movie. However, one of the 20-somethings who I coached said it was basically about some girl deciding whether to practice bestiality or necrophilia.
By your description, I pegged Comey as the vampire and McMullen as the werewolf. Maybe never Trumpers are the starry-eyed girl. It’s your sequel, so that’s up to you. :–)
Wandering Views 
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before….
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2018/01/28/breaking-fbi-hiding-deputy-director-andrew-mccabes-text-messages-lost-594684
“Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton dropped a bit of a bombshell on Saturday when he said the FBI may have also lost Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s text messages.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” Fitton told host Jeanine Pirro there is “gamesmanship going on” at the bureau and that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should send the US Marshals over to secure the evidence.
“We sued back in September for the text messages of the number two at the FBI, Andrew McCabe,” Fitton explained. “And they just told us this week, they gave us everything they’re going to give us, and not one text message was turned over.”
“Have they lost all of Andrew McCabe’s text messages?” he asked. “I don’t believe it. There’s still gamesmanship going on.”
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“McCabe headed up the Clinton private email server investigation that resulted in no charges being filed.
“Were are Andrew McCabe’s text messages,” Fitton asked. “Where are [former FBI director] James Comey’s text messages?”
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Good question, but all you hear is crickets…….
LikeLike
Peasant Rebellion….
Sounds about right. 🙂
“A year into office, Donald Trump remains something of an unlikely figure: a self-promoting and well-heeled demagogue who leads a bedraggled coalition of piratical capitalists, southerners, and people from the has-been or never were towns of Middle America. His fiercest opponents largely come from the apex of our society: the tech oligarchy, a rabidly hostile press and the cultural and academic hegemons.
These sophisticated people see Trump as responding crudely to his sans-culottes base. To them, he threatens everything from the free press to the rule of law and common decency. Yet Trump as peasant leader matters more than his ego-driven persona. He and other wannabe populists in Europe represents a modern version of the kind of peasant rebellions that rocked the Europe of the Middle Ages and China, highlighted by the 1850 Taiping rebellion.
Autocrats against autocracy
Such bottom up uprisings, usually elicit strong opposition from the established institutions. Today they span the gap from corporate liberals to establishment conservatives. For all their surface differences, these groups tend to share similar class experiences and perspectives; they both see Trump and his supporters as inveterate racists and fascist shock troops. Retiring GOP Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake even has denounced him as a new Stalin.
To be sure much of Trump’s media commentary is intemperate but its significance, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is often “a tale of an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” In contrast many believers in a free press had little problem when President Obama threw journalists in jail and abused the surveillance instruments of the state. Real Stalinism may be less of a threat today — despite Trump’s authoritarian posturing — than under his more polished predecessor.
Similarly, across Europe, informed opinion almost universally denounces, the rise of anti-EU, anti-immigration parties, some with suspiciously fascist flavor. The Brexit movement has been widely characterized as the rude attempts of provincial rubes — “old, racist and stupid” — to undermine the cosmopolitan character of “cool Britannia.”
To be sure there is much to lament about Trump, and his European counterparts, but it’s ironic that many of those who charge him with autocracy are often themselves not great fans of democratic control. For the most part the anti-populists favor not a more vibrant democracy but, in the words of Harvard’s Yascha Mounk “rights without democracy,” dominated by bureaucracies like the EU or the EPA. Some are even open admirers of China’s authoritarian dictatorship; others swoon at French President Emmanuel Macron’s almost laughable yearning to reinvent himself as a modern day Louis XIV.”
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It’s the economy stupid….. still.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/analysis-economy-stupid-now-trump-economy-blasting-off/story?id=52632659
“It’s not Comey. Or Mueller. Or the Russians. Or Stormy Daniels.
It’s the economy, stupid.
And right now, the Trump economy is blasting off.
Davos Man likes.
In conversations with business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there is almost zero mention of the controversies which consume coverage of Trump in America.
Instead, people talk about the real possibility now that growth in the U.S. economy could hit 4 percent this year — a positively Clintonian benchmark. The impact worldwide would be tremendous.
We forget what that kind of economy means. Clinton averaged roughly 4 percent GDP growth. Record budget surpluses. Record job growth. Real household incomes up across the board. A skyrocketing stock market.
Money in peoples’ pockets—for college, for retirement, for vacations. Businesses booming. New ones starting. And the USA once again the engine pulling the world economy.
We’re a long way from that, for sure.
And there are analysts who say the world’s economies are simply being boosted by all the easy money central banks pumped into them for years — and that’s a bubble that will burst.
But business types here disagree. And they give a lot of credit to Trump for the renewed strength and vigor they sense in the sinews of the global economy.
Deregulation is the first thing they mention. The cost of doing business has come down fast. That means margins will go up. That’s why so many investors see American companies as such good bets.
And that’s all Trump.”
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Sure, because the entire country should pay when liberal Democrats are in charge and ruin the states finances. Not.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/01/democrat-governors-planning-lawsuit-to-block-gops-tax-overhaul/
“Legal Insurrection readers will recall the California legislature’s attempt to create a special government fund as a “charity” for taxpayer donations to mitigate the loss of state and local tax (SALT) deductions in the recently passed GOP tax plans.
The politicians must have realized the approach was full of fail, so now leaders of several blue states are planning a lawsuit to block the entire overhaul package. California may join in.
New Jersey and Connecticut are joining New York in planning to file a lawsuit to block the Republican-led federal tax overhaul, the Democratic governors of the three states announced Friday.
And California could join them.
Andrew Cuomo of New York, Dannel Malloy of Connecticut and Phil Murphy of New Jersey announced Friday that they’re talking to leaders of other states that stand to be hurt by the federal tax plan that’s expected to cost taxpayers in their states billions of dollars.
“We’re going to be working together to form a multistate coalition to challenge this in court,” said Cuomo, a potential 2020 White House contender who announced his intention to fight the tax overhaul earlier this month.
I am a little shocked the the Golden State generals in the War on Trump are not leading this charge. The suit is expected to be launched shortly.
Murphy said he expects the suit to be filed within weeks. No decision has been made on where the action will be filed, Malloy said.
The new tax code passed by Republicans in Congress and signed into law last month by Republican President Donald Trump caps a deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000. That deduction had been popular in high-tax, Democratic states like New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, where many homeowners now face big increases in their federal tax bill.
“This is an assault on those states,” Malloy said.”
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“Bloomberg offers a humorous and in-depth look at the Blue States’ desperation at the loss of the SALT deductions and all of their proposed solutions. The assessment of the legal experts consulted on this particular proposal is that the governors’ case is dead-on-arrival:
…[The lawsuit] is an intriguing strategy. But alas for the citizens of New York State, probably a doomed one.
I spoke to Michael Dorf, a law professor at Cornell who recently outlined the possible lines of attack that such a suit could take. For one thing, they could argue federalism, a tack that even conservative judges should find appealing. “There’s an argument that the Sixteenth Amendment does not empower the federal government to treat money that is owed to state and local governments as part of the tax base,” he said. “If you go back to the Sixteenth Amendment it’s clear that states were concerned about this at the time of the drafting.”
The problem? “The hard part there for the plaintiff states, while that was a concern for the people who adopted the Sixteenth Amendment, it’s not anywhere in the amendment.”
…Jonathan Adler, who teaches law at Case Western, was even more pungent, and succinct. While we don’t know what form the complaint will eventually take, since the states haven’t yet drafted it, “What we have seen [so far] would suggest that there is some sort of constitutional right to a SALT deduction. To state the claim is to refute it.”
Imagine, if you will, that this lawsuit is successful. Then, ponder the likely response of a voting age, tax-paying American who receives his first paycheck after the block.
The election commercials practically write themselves.”
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An article about the relationship between Israel and American Evangelicals:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-long-uneasy-love-affair-of-israel-and-us-evangelicals-may-have-peaked/2018/01/27/6d751bd0-0051-11e8-86b9-8908743c79dd_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_israelevangelicals-710pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.d4ca887c4e72
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A challenge for youth workers and youth ministers:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/january/youth-group-leaders-generation-z-atheist-lgbt-teens-barna.html
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Ricky @ 7:49. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the WashPost assessment of the situation.
However, as I’ve said before, the prophetic battle of Zech. 12 disturbs me.
This battle has never been fought.
And it can’t happen with the Sixth Fleet in the Med.
It seems that Israel is all alone.
And, regardless of what all the politicians say, there is only one way to get Israel out to it’s hoe base.
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My son has predicted that the Democrats may have too many candidates in 2020. He may be right. However, the Mainstream Media will winnow down their candidates even as Fox did ours in 2016.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/29/democrats-2020-contenders-blue-states-373767
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Kizzie, I would like to add to the discussion on the verses about government. We have to always keep in mind the time period and circumstances that the first readers would have to those verses. In Jesus’ time there were those who wanted the battle to be in the government realm. They were advocating revolt and a refusal to pay taxes. This was true in Paul’s time, as well. Paul points out the purpose of government. This is something set up by God for keeping peace and doing certain things that cannot be done by just the family or even the church. As far as possible, therefore, we are to support government and “give to Caeser what is Caeser’s.”
We only have to look as far as the first Christians to realize they did not just obey every law or order given them. In Paul’s case, he used the government (and the legal system) to stay alive at one point and further the gospel.
In Germany to obey every government order would have been sinful. It was no longer an intellectual discussion, but a matter of life and death. Not every Christian made the same choices and some were maligned for their choices and to be found to have been secretly saving lives.
In our form of government, WE are suppose to be the government. WE are given a voice through representation. In reality that choice is limited by the powerful. We saw that with the pitiful choices for president. Partly, though, it is because of many not willing to engage in the system or really think beyond twenty second soundbites or even pray for our leaders. At any rate, it makes for some real prayer for what God would have us to do in both obeying and disobeying government.
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I would guess that perhaps what Paul and Peter were describing was the ideal of what God instituted government to be.
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This was my Utmost Response today. I see the political Tweets and posturing all through this post. You can read the My Utmost for His Highest post here:https://utmost.org/kP/
Here’s my response:
The January 29 reading, as usual, provides plenty to think about.
“Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.”
Our circumstances tend to catch our attention better than God’s voice–even for those who seek to hear God’s voice.
Of course, the only sure place to hear God’s voice and direction is in the Scriptures.
But He uses our circumstances to turn us back to the Bible to search for the real answers.
Why?
“We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him.”
Ponder that line as you consider some of the things you hear purported Christian leaders say.
“The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13.”
We know this very well. Love is patient, kind, not envious, thoughtless, seeks not its own way, never fails and never returns evil for evil.
We can always check what we think God is telling us to say against 1 Corinthians 13–and often as not, shut our mouths and say nothing.
Christians are supposed to be known by their love.
“Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty.”
Does anyone see anything else?
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Ricky,
Yeah….. about those “young, college educated” anti-Trumpers you’re so fond of…………..
As I said. Parrots. Sheep would work too. They’re all so in the know. Prophetic even. 🙂
——————–
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10442
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K & Kizzie, I have lived in a country where the government was corrupt and the leader a dangerous megalomaniac. Nevertheless, it was still possible to live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, as Paul said to pray for in I Timothy 2:1-2 and it was still possible to spread the Gospel. Despite the fact that one had to tread very carefully when it came to dealing with the government, the government still provided protection to well doers and punishment to evildoers. The justice was severely flawed of course and sometimes innocent people were punished while the guilty went free; but it was still there, enough so that the place was not teeming with murderous bandits. Paul and Peter were describing the purpose for government, not just an ideal. That purpose may be severely flawed among certain regimes, but it is still there.
Recall the respect Paul showed to Felix the governor, even though Felix was corrupt enough to leave Paul in prison just to please the Jews, and he was equally respectful to Festus, who was appointed by Nero. Under every functioning government, no matter how corrupt, there are still laws against theft and murder, which are enforced to some extent, because every government knows that it has to keep some sort of semblance of law and order, or it is no longer a government. It is those basic laws, laws which are also found in the law of Moses, which Christians can follow in any country with a clear conscience. Notice, further, that Paul and Peter are not speaking to the government, but to Christians. They are warning Christians to not be troublemakers, to not use their freedom in Christ as a cover for evil – to make sure that if they are persecuted, it is because they are Christians, not because they are lawbreakers. The New Testament is a manual, not for earthly government, but for the members of the kingdom of God while they live on earth. From the Epistle to Diognetus:
Christ told us to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). We are to be as He was, laying down our lives for others, not seeking our own things, but the things of others. That means, in relationship to whatever form of government we have – even in a democracy, the people invest authority and power in the government officials which is denied to individual citizens – that we behave as law abiding citizens. If there is a law which demands an allegiance from us that we can only yield in good conscience to God, then we must firmly and respectfully refuse to obey that law, but that does not mean we then proceed to rebel against the other laws of the government. Paul even apologized for cursing the high priest after the high priest ordered him to be unjustly struck, because he knew it was unlawful to curse the ruler of the people (Acts 23:2-5). Giving honour to flawed secular authorities may be galling, but it is part of taking up our cross and following the One who, when he was reviled by both religious and secular authorities, reviled not again.
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By the way, reviling, a word which means ‘to criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner’, is a serious and deadly sin. It is one of the sins listed in I Corinthians 5:11 as being a reason for excommunicating someone who claims to be a Christian. Paul goes onto to warn in I Corinthians 6:10 that those who rail and revile (the word for railer and reviler is the same in the Greek) will not inherit the kingdom of God. The reason for this is apparent from John and James’ writing. John warns that the one who says he loves God but hates others is a murderer and a liar who does not have eternal life; while James indicates that the one who blesses God and curses those made in the image of God is a hypocrite and warns that those who have bitter envy and strife in their hearts have only a earthly, sensual, and devilish kind of wisdom (John 3:11-15, 4:20; James 3:9-15). To revile with the tongue is to seek to murder someone with words, as Jesus warned in Matthew 5:21-22. Part of being blameless and harmless, the children of God in a crooked and perverse world (Philippians 2:15), is to refrain from reviling not only the authorities, but also everyone else.
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Yes, Roscuro, but sometimes the law of love does mean breaking laws of a government. That is a fact. Corrie Ten Boom, for example, struggled with this in hiding Jews. Her family and many struggled with when they should outright lie. Some Christians refused to lie and people died; some fudged the truth or carefully spoke to skirt the questions and some had no compunction about lying to uphold the higher value of acting in love.
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We do sometimes refuse to obey the laws of our government and then accept the punishment. Christians have done so since the beginning. The further from God’s natural law any government is, the more true that would be so.
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I basically agree with you that we do not rebel for rebellion’s sake or our own selfish interests.
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Roscuro – I agree with what you have written, and have not argued otherwise (not saying you said I did). I will amend my comment to: “I would guess that perhaps what Paul and Peter were describing was the ideal purpose of what God instituted government to be.” However, I think it kind of went without saying.
Good reminder about being careful not only about how we speak/write of our government officials and authority, but also about each other. I have tried to write of my disappointment and disapproval of some of President Trump’s words and behavior without straying into railing or reviling. I may have strayed over the line a time or two, for which I have asked God’s forgiveness.
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K, Corrie Ten Boom and others like her are perfect examples of what I was talking about. They obeyed all that they could in good conscience and where the government demanded an allegiance to the state, requiring that they should hate and seek to destroy their neighbour, that they could only give to God, who said to love one’s neighbour, they firmly and respectfully refused to obey that law – Corrie, in her interactions with officials of the Nazis occupation, was always respectful. They did not wantonly break the laws for their own benefit. There were war profiteers who did do those things for their own profit who were punished by the Nazis, some of them in the same prison camps as Corrie and her sister; but Corrie and Betsie knew that their consciences were clear – “For what glory is it, if, when you be punished for your faults, you take it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God” (I Peter 2:20).
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Kizzie, Jesus once described Herod as a fox, which was an accurate assessment of the character of the man; and he had some blistering words of reproof for the Pharisees. Being respectful to rulers doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to their faults, and those who are in a position so to do may have occasion to reprove leaders to their faces, but always maintaining a respect for their office. Jesus reminded his audience when he lit into the Pharisees, that the scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses’ seat, so that they should still be listened to, although their example of hypocrisy should not be followed. Jesus didn’t say anything at all to Herod, because he knew the man who had executed his cousin John on a whim, after all John had said to him, was incapable of hearing anything Jesus had to say; and in remaining silent he both respected Herod’s office and reproved the man. On the other hand, Jesus both spoke the truth to and was respectful to Pilate. We are to be both wise and harmless.
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The plot thickens….
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/29/breaking-andrew-mccabe-quits-deputy-fbi-director-effective-immediately/
“My goodness. The timing of this announcement on Memo Day, when McCabe reportedly features in the memo, is mighty interesting.
What are we about to find out that might make Andrew McCabe’s continued tenure at the FBI untenable?”
———————
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Interesting timing.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/29/house-panel-poised-to-vote-on-surveillance-memo-release-as-fbi-boss-pays-visit-to-hill.html
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But a long time coming.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/01/29/new-book-mccabe-initiated-white-house-meeting-that-led-to-leak/
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Aj: It’s happened before that employees on terminal leave were indicted and never drew a dime of their retirement. I hope that McCabe is added to that list.
The memo should be released post haste…
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Ricky,
“A challenge for youth workers and youth ministers:”
Again, I blame the education/indoctrination system, and the poor parents who enable it. Very sad.
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Wait for it…..
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/01/wait-for-it-house-intelligence-committee-on-cusp-of-vote-to-release-allege-blockbuster-fisa-memo/#more-240728
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It’s a start. And at least an attempt.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tucked-into-the-tax-bill-a-plan-to-help-distressed-america/ar-BBIpy4w?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout
“A little-noticed section in the $1.5 trillion tax cut that President Trump signed into law late last month is drawing attention from venture capitalists, state government officials and mayors across America.
The provision, tucked on page 130 of the sprawling tax overhaul, is an attempt to grapple with a yawning hole in the recovery from the Great Recession: the fact that, in huge swaths of the country, the economic recovery has yet to arrive.
The law creates “Opportunity Zones,” which will use tax incentives to draw long-term investment to parts of America that continue to struggle with high poverty and sluggish job and business growth. The provision represents the first new substantial federal attempt to aid those communities in more than a decade. And it comes as a disproportionate share of economic growth has been concentrated in so-called “superstar” metropolitan areas like Los Angeles and New York.
If the zones succeed, they could help revitalize neighborhoods and towns that are currently starved for investment.”
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A little prediction: In 2021, the newly elected Democrat President will select Adam Schiff to be the Attorney General. It has helped his case that his opponents (Nunes and Trump) are dunces. However, his performance as the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has been nearly flawless.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mediaite.com/tv/adam-schiff-reacts-after-house-intel-committee-votes-to-release-nunes-memo-very-sad-day/amp/
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Please Ricky.
Schiff is a partisan hack still providing cover for the last Democrat admin and their many crimes. He’s still whining Russia, Russia, Russia despite no evidence of crimes. He’s a joke.
Besides, he claims to have his own memo, so let’s see both and let the cards fall where they may.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/01/wait-for-it-house-intelligence-committee-on-cusp-of-vote-to-release-allege-blockbuster-fisa-memo/#more-240728
“It will be the first time the committee has invoked an obscure committee rule in its 40 year history to make public a classified memo. This rule will allow the committee “to bypass the executive branch’s declassification process” and if they do, then President Donald Trump has five days to decide to release it to the public or deny it.
CNN reported:
The Nunes memo alleges that the FBI abused the FISA surveillance law over its use of the opposition research dossier on Donald Trump and Russia as part of the case to obtain a FISA warrant for former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. It cites the role of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe for their roles in overseeing aspects of the investigation, according to a source briefed on the matter.
The memo also appears to show that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved the application to extend surveillance on Page. From The New York Times:
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein’s actions in the memo — a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start — indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.
The memo’s primary contention is that F.B.I. and Justice Department officials failed to adequately explain to an intelligence court judge in initially seeking a warrant for surveillance of Mr. Page that they were relying in part on research by an investigator, Christopher Steele, that had been financed by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The committee has not told the media if they will bring up the memo in this business meeting, but the leadership did provide information to members about the obscure rule just in case they do vote.
They may also vote on a memo from Ranking Member Adam Schiff (R-CA) that counters the one from Nunes while “other Democrats say Nunes’ memo skews the intelligence it’s based on and is an effort to try to discredit special counsel Robert’s Mueller’s investigation.””
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Meanwhile, Trump can always go lower:
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If he’s that flawless, why not put Schiff at the top of the ticket. They don’t seem to have a serious contender for 2020. I think our non-serious contender just may take it again. He’s even getting better about the tweets. ; –)
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And to investigate the DoJ?
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/01/29/breaking-house-intel-committee-votes-releasethememo-investigate-doj/
“I’m glad — and relieved. It would have been intolerable after all the hype for Republicans to go on whispering to the media about the alleged Russiagate surveillance abuses recorded in the memo and then never quite getting around to sharing it and letting the public judge for itself. That would have been gaslighting at the highest level, with the credibility of the Justice Department a casualty. Instead they’re going to show their work. If the DOJ’s behaved as badly as they claim, we deserve to know and there need to be consequences. If they haven’t and this is just a cynical Republican ploy to redirect heat away from Trump, we deserve to know that too.
Three cheers for total transparency.
Are we getting total transparency here?
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, apparently disregarding Justice Department warnings that their actions would be “extraordinarily reckless,” voted Monday evening to release a contentious secret memorandum said to accuse the department and the F.B.I. of misusing their authority to obtain a secret surveillance order on a former Trump campaign associate…
The memo, which was made available to all members of the House, is said to contend that officials from the two agencies were not forthcoming to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge. Republicans accuse the agencies of failing to disclose that the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign helped finance research that was used to obtain a warrant for surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. The research presented to the judge was assembled by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele…
People familiar with the underlying application have portrayed the Republican memo as misleading in part because Mr. Steele’s information was insufficient to meet the standard for a FISA warrant. They said the application drew on other intelligence material that the Republican memo selectively omits. That other information remains highly sensitive, and releasing it would risk burning other sources and methods of intelligence-gathering about Russia.
The House Intelligence Committee does indeed have the power to declassify information if it deems doing so would be in the public interest, but it’s never done that before. Ever. Under the rule the White House now gets five days to decide whether to try to block the release on national-security grounds, which means we’re in for a week of even more tension between Trump and the DOJ. Trump wants the memo out, of course, since it serves his interests by discrediting the Russiagate investigation. The DOJ, however, said last week that it’d be “extraordinarily reckless” to put the memo out there without letting the Department scrutinize it first. Chris Wray reportedly got to read the memo this past weekend; presumably other DOJ personnel have either read it or will soon read it too. If the DOJ legal team declares that releasing it as-is would compromise natsec “sources and methods,” what does Trump do? What does Jeff Sessions do?
But wait. Isn’t there a Democratic counter-memo that’s been prepared, purporting to rebut Nunes’s version of events. Indeed there is, and that too was voted on this afternoon. The Committee voted to release Nunes’s memo … but not Adam Schiff’s counter-memo. Partisan hackery at work, or is there something more to it?”
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Same process they took with the Nunes memo. So it’s coming.
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Debra, I had that same thought, but then I read Frum’s Tweet and was reminded that we live in an Idiocracy. Maybe if Schiff had a lobotomy, he could compete with Trump and the likely Democratic contenders.
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I’m afraid only a far left Democrat can compete with Trump at this point. Never Trumpers are doing the country a disservice by using up their credibility in ridicule when they might use their abilities to help find solutions. Most are content to sit smugly on the sidelines instead.
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Ricky,
I can’t help but notice how you keep ignoring the actual crimes here, you know, the ones Schiff keeps trying to keep hidden..
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/29/house-intel-votes-to-release-controversial-surveillance-memo-to-public.html
“South Carolina GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy, who helped write the four-page memo, said Sunday he wants it made public.
He also suggested the memo indeed addresses whether the FBI relied at least in part on the dossier — paid for partially by Democrats and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 presidential election — to apply to a secret federal court to get a surveillance warrant, purportedly on then-Trump adviser Carter Page.
“If you … want to know whether or not the dossier was used in court proceedings, whether or not it was vetted before it was used. … If you are interested in who paid for the dossier … then, yes, you’ll want the memo to come out,” Gowdy told “Fox News Sunday.”
The dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and contained opposition research on Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Steele was hired by the U.S. firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned the research with funding from the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. At the same time, the firm was allegedly doing work to help the Russian government fight sanctions.”
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I found this article in American Affairs Journal interesting. It’s very dense, but it does demonstrate that there are still serious people on the Conservative spectrum trying to move forward in a productive fashion. I found it encouraging.
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/11/progressive-neoliberalism-trump-beyond/
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Another prediction: Andrew McCabe will receive a Presidential or Congressional medal in the next seven years. When the history of this pathetic time is written, he will be regarded as one of the biggest heroes. When the New Democrat President takes office, expect Chris Wray to be asked to resign. Who knows? McCabe could be the new FBI Director in three years.
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They heard you talking about Schiff, Ricky. :–)
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Debra @ 7:43 The NeverTrumpers were active last year proposing ideas on healthcare. Unfortunately, the President never took the time to learn anything about that very important issue. They have also been active on immigration. Very little is going to happen this year as the Congress will be increasingly focused on the election and Trump will be largely focused on Mueller. Next year (and for a long time thereafter) the views of the NeverTrumpers and Trumpkins alike will be irrelevant. The Democrats are going to be in control of Congress.
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Debra @8:02 It feels like almost everyone else has turned into zombies and we have to cluster together in small groups and discuss things rationally.
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I think I’ll wait for the book.
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Three cheers for Walmart!
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Comey is to Trumpkins as sunlight is to vampires:
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Evan McMullin is garlic:
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Sounds like Ricky is trying to put together a sequel to the old Twilight Saga. Kind of juvenile for my taste, but to each his own. :–)
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Says the leaker of classified info, Comey, which Schiff is seeking to hide the truth about….. 🙄
Nice to see McMuullin and Never-Trumpers all working from the same script, in unison, as expected.
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That was post-1960, Debra, so I have no personal knowledge of the movie. However, one of the 20-somethings who I coached said it was basically about some girl deciding whether to practice bestiality or necrophilia.
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By your description, I pegged Comey as the vampire and McMullen as the werewolf. Maybe never Trumpers are the starry-eyed girl. It’s your sequel, so that’s up to you. :–)
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Look at this! It Happened One Night is playing on TCM in 12 minutes. Talk to y’all tomorrow.
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