Anyone else watching FBI Director Comey testifying on ...

[busymom]

Russian involvement in the 2016 elections?  


Verrrrrryyyyy interesting.      



(I think we need a drinking game for every time he's said "it's not something I can comment on".)

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Whoa!

[ken a.k.a OMK]

Mar 20, 2017 12:19:45 GMT -5 busymom said:

Russian involvement in the 2016 elections?  


Verrrrrryyyyy interesting.      



(I think we need a drinking game for every time he's said "it's not something I can comment on".)

He serves at the pleasure of the POTUS. 

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

We'd all be hammered for sure. Yeah- it's been an interesting day for sure. 8 month long investigation, but no surveillance of Trump or Trump tower (as if they'd admit it- remember, we only know about government spying because of Edward Snowden- the officials questioned under oath by Congress LIED) and not a shred of evidence of any Russian tampering with the election, or collusion with anyone on team Trump. 

Here's all you need to know about Trump's "wire tapping" claim, and the deceptive responses to it thus far:

When Trump says Obama wiretapped him, he does not mean the FBI put an actual wire into a phone box, like they did in the old days, nor does he mean Obama personally did this- and everyone pretending this is what they think he meant by his statements are lying.

He means the Obama Administration (which is Obama) conducted improper surveillance (evesdropping) on Trump and his team. The surveillance also included the FBI secretly searching Trump’s server, reading all Team Trump’s email communications and other documents.
The fact that this was going on has all been reported by the NYT, WaPo, BBC, and all the major news media outlets.
During Watergate, we called denials like this what it was: a cover up.

The NEW YORK TIMES reported that Obama Admin officials used ‘wiretaps’ and ‘intercepted communications’ in their investigations of Trump.


SIDEBAR: Remember that every official that testified about government spying LIED TO CONGRESS while under oath: We later learned the NSA is capturing and storing all of our cell phone conversations, emails, text messages, our internet searches, as well as the websites we are visiting.
They just need to get a warrant to read it and go through it. But they can easily retrieve all your communications whenever they want -- if you ever become a target.
This is modern wiretapping -- but it's much more invasive and complete. And it's happening to every American citizen all the time, 24-7-365.

This is what EDWARD SNOWDEN warned us about -- "turnkey totalitarianism." He should be pardoned, by the way.

The remaining text of this post can be found behind the spoiler tag below. It was just much too long. - mmhmm, Politics Moderator

SPOILER: Click to show

But I digress...

The pretext for this FBI, CIA, and NSA surveillance against Trump was to investigate possible collusion on the election by Team Trump with the Russians – for which not one shred of evidence has been found.
 Obama’s former CIA director Michael Morrell said this:
“On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire at all. There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark.”
Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also admitted there’s no evidence (zip, zero, nada) that there was any collusion on the election between Trump’s team and the Russians.


We can reasonably conclude that this was all a pretext to investigate Trump on collusion with Russia was concocted out of thin air at the highest levels of the Obama Administration (certainly with sign-off by Obama himself and his Attorney General) as a means for the Obama regime to misuse the powers of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to conduct opposition research on Trump -- the GOP candidate for President of the United States. 

Though they found no collusion with Russia, intelligence officials illegally released tidbits of damaging information, such as the transcript of the phone call between General Flynn and the Russian Ambassador.
Obama’s intel team also released that bogus “piss-gate” dossier on Trump to the media that was filled with provable falsehoods.
Apparently, the Obama Administration was also paying this former British spy to come up with dirt on Trump. He produced this bogus "piss-gate" dossier.


This is all they could come up with -- a fabricated "dossier" that was quickly debunked.


How many of us could survive a full-bore investigation by the FBI, CIA, and NSA of all of our communications and documents?


I'm not sure Mother Teresa could have survived this kind of investigative assault.
 

The fact that they could find nothing on Trump actually dispels some of my misgivings about Trump and gives me a lot of confidence that Trump might actually be not only an honest man, but perhaps one of the MOST honest in modern times. Not outlandish of you actually take a minute to THINK about it.

Imagine the outrage by the media we would have seen if it turned out that George W. Bush had used the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA to conduct a secret criminal investigation (opposition research) against John Kerry in the midst of the 2004 Presidential campaign – with the hope of uncovering criminal acts by the Democrat nominee.
We would have had an immediate criminal investigation W.
He would be in prison – and rightly so.


I maintain my original opinion that this is the biggest scandal in our history- it is 1,000 times worse than Watergate.


Remember, one of the counts against Richard Nixon in the Articles of Impeachment is that he talked about using the IRS to investigate his political opponents. He never actually used the IRS for this purpose. But he discussed it as an option. That was one of the counts in the Articles of Impeachment that were drafted.


REMEMBER: Obama actually did weaponize the bureaucracy and used among other agencies, the IRS against the Tea Party and many conservative groups.


And now we find that Obama actually was using the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and other federal agencies to conduct opposition research against the Republican nominee for President -- on the "probable cause" pretext (concocted out of thin air) that Trump might be a Russian agent.

FBI director James Comey (who should be fired) told Congress today that there was an FBI investigation of Trump or his team during the Presidential campaign -- an investigation that was launched in July.


"Probable cause" to launch an FBI investigation cannot be established with just rumor or claims. There needs to be actual evidence of a crime.


We still have not seen this “probable cause” document that got this FBI, CIA, NSA investigation launched against Trump. I’d love to see that document. But we did learn with Vault 7 the CIA among others can hack and mask it to look like another government, and we know from the piss-gate dossier that they have the ability to fabricate "probable cause", so there's that. 

This massive investigation of Trump by the FBI, CIA, NSA appears to have been orchestrated at the highest levels of the Obama Administration (to include Obama himself and his Attorney General) with no facts, no evidence whatsoever to justify such an investigation of the the Republican nominee for President.


This investigation was a political witchhunt, designed to ensure Hillary Clinton would win the election.


And, by the way, they were not just looking to defeat Donald Trump. They were hoping to put Donald Trump in prison, along with his family. That's how evil these people are.


They also never thought Donald Trump would win. They thought Hillary would win the election and that this epic scandal would never be uncovered. But it has been uncovered.


Barack Obama and his henchmen need to be put on trial for these crimes against our Constitutional Republic.


FBI director Comey today hinted they are still looking at Roger Stone. The media will make a big deal about that. But Roger Stone left the Trump campaign in the summer of 2015, after which he had no role with Trump or the campaign. There is no suggestion that the FBI is looking any longer at Trump himself.

So, yeah- I'm watching. With great interest. A lot of people are vested in this Russian conspiracy narrative- and a lot of people have something to lose when it is revealed that Obama & Co. concocted the whole thing to misuse the government against a political opponent. This is the level of scandal that collapses governments, and all of it thus far does not do much to repair the everyday American's jaded view of the Washington establishment...

[Rob Base 2.0]

Longest post ever goes to WCP. He literally puts the "windy" in "Windy" City Paul

[moon/Laura]

AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP - that post is indeed unreasonably long. Please put the majority of it within spoiler tag so that people don't have to scroll for five minutes to get past it all. If you don't do it by the time I get home in about 15 minutes, then I'll do it for you. Thank you

[Rukh O'Rorke]

Mar 20, 2017 16:54:46 GMT -5 moon/Laura said:

AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP - that post is indeed unreasonably long. Please put the majority of it within spoiler tag so that people don't have to scroll for five minutes to get past it all. If you don't do it by the time I get home in about 15 minutes, then I'll do it for you. Thank you

And believe me, we scrolled right past ;P

[Rob Base 2.0]

It's too bad there is not a "counter" so we can see how many people click on WCP's "spoiler".......I am betting it would be a goose egg

[mmhmm]

Mar 20, 2017 17:25:24 GMT -5 Rob Base 2.0 said:

It's too bad there is not a "counter" so we can see how many people click on WCP's "spoiler".......I am betting it would be a goose egg

Thanks! I didn't think about that! I've added an explanation of the spoiler tag so people will know it contains the rest of Paul's post.

[tallguy]

Mar 20, 2017 17:25:24 GMT -5 Rob Base 2.0 said:

It's too bad there is not a "counter" so we can see how many people click on WCP's "spoiler".......I am betting it would be a goose egg

Actually, I did click just to see how long it was.  Not a chance I would waste the time to actually read any of it though.  My "nonsense" limit kicks in MUCH sooner than that.  I didn't even get halfway through the part that WASN'T in the spoiler. 

[NastyWoman]

Mar 20, 2017 12:19:45 GMT -5 busymom said:

Russian involvement in the 2016 elections?  


Verrrrrryyyyy interesting.      



(I think we need a drinking game for every time he's said "it's not something I can comment on".)

Well, there is no election to throw so he will now stick to the rules.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

PARSING COMEY'S TESTIMONY:

So James Comey says there's no evidence Obama was wiretapping Trump's phones.

But . . . he did admit the FBI has been conducting comprehensive surveillance on Trump Tower since July - including secretly going through Trump's server, reading Team Trump's emails, listening to phone conversations coming from Trump Tower, etc.

I guess what Comey is saying is that they did not actually climb up a telephone pole to hook up a wire to a phone box and listen to Trump's phone calls while sitting in a van outside Trump Tower . . . because that's not how the FBI conducts surveillance anymore.

And I guess he's drawing a distinction between Obama and the Obama Administration.

He's saying Obama did not actually do the wiretapping himself.

He's also drawing a distinction between Trump and Trump Tower.

Trump was not the target, just some of Trump's associates.

Trump just got swept up in the dragnet. So if the FBI was listening to Trump's phone calls and reading his emails and all his stuff, it was only because they had to see what his associates were up to.

I see.
Yes, that clears everything up.

Comey admits the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA have yet to find a single shred of evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in any way to hack the election.

In fact, he said there was no evidence the election had been hacked.

Comey also said there was no nefarious purpose to this investigation of the Republican nominee for President by the Democrat Administration, as indicated by the constant leaks to the media of transcripts of the wiretapped phone calls, in violation of federal law.

As further proof there was no nefarious motive behind this investigation, the Obama Administration (presumably the CIA) paid a former British intelligence operative to dig up dirt on Trump.

All he could come up with was that bogus "piss-gate" dossier that contained many provable falsehoods.

Obama's CIA Director John Brennan personally presented this fabricated "piss-gate" dossier to Obama. This dossier was then leaked to the media, in violation of federal law.

So no nefarious purpose behind any of this, obviously.

Just an honest unbiased investigation of the Republican nominee for President in the heat of the election year by an Alinskyite Democrat President who was actively campaigning (often desperately) for his opponent.

[Rob Base 2.0]

If you write a post but nobody reads it, did u really write a post?

Kinda like the tree in the woods thing..,,,

[Rob Base 2.0]

If I put Paul on "ignore" that will make his posts disappear, right? I never did that before because it seems childish to me, I mean just don't look at the post IMO. BUT if this keeps up I may have to block him just for sheer volume.

God forbid anyone quotes/ copies his post and replies to it. That might take up 3 threads ......

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/03/20/the-uniparty-congressional-swamps-meaningless-political-fbinsa-hearing/

This is a good summary.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Sorry. I forgot that giving an issue a thorough run through might involve words and reading.

[tallguy]

True, but when have you ever given ANYTHING a thorough (and fair) run-through?  If we want to read an extreme twisting of one side of an issue, you're our first choice.  I'd bet few of us do though. 

[billisonboard]

Mar 20, 2017 16:24:23 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

...

When Trump says Obama wiretapped him, he does not mean ...

...

Which is why he needs to stop using only 140 characters to communicate.

[mmhmm]

Mar 20, 2017 20:52:05 GMT -5 Rob Base 2.0 said:

If I put Paul on "ignore" that will make his posts disappear, right? I never did that before because it seems childish to me, I mean just don't look at the post IMO. BUT if this keeps up I may have to block him just for sheer volume.

God forbid anyone quotes/ copies his post and replies to it. That might take up 3 threads ......

Yes. You will not see the posts of anyone you include on your Blocked list.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 20, 2017 23:12:16 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Mar 20, 2017 16:24:23 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

...

When Trump says Obama wiretapped him, he does not mean ...

...

Which is why he needs to stop using only 140 characters to communicate.

Pacing and leading.

I disagree. Trump's brilliance is that he slightly misstates what happened. It's in essence true, but it's shorthand and is maybe not technically 100% accurate. This kicks up a media firestorm, brings attention to the matter, and Trump ends up making his point even more powerfully than if he had delivered some milque toast technically accurate description of what happened. Instead, he makes the big claim that's debatable, but substantially accurate. He gets the attention of the American people. And ends up winning in the end. This is the pattern he always uses. It's a conscious marketing tactic designed to get people's attention and get the issue or matter on the radar screen.

[Rob Base 2.0]

Mar 20, 2017 21:07:25 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Sorry. I forgot that giving an issue a thorough run through might involve words and reading.

LMAO. ur a business dude. Clear and concise communication is a must.

Would u send a client a long and droning email?

No one is going to read ur post dude.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 21, 2017 7:14:58 GMT -5 Rob Base 2.0 said:

Mar 20, 2017 21:07:25 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Sorry. I forgot that giving an issue a thorough run through might involve words and reading.

LMAO. ur a business dude. Clear and concise communication is a must.

Would u send a client a long and droning email?

No one is going to read ur post dude.

This is a political, philosophical discussion. It is not a legal or business matter. 

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 21, 2017 6:32:58 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Slightly misstates. heh. heh-heh .


Perhaps when Spicey burns out in a few weeks or months they may consider you as a replacement Paul? 

Deplorable I know. It's not like we're saying it depends on what the meaning of "is" is during sworn testimony.

The Democrats, The Deep State, and the radical Alt-Left DNC Media are STUCK. Either:


1) There was no surveillance of Trump (so Trump was wrong); or . . .


2)The Obama Admin launched an investigation of Trump (that included total surveillance of the Trump operation) during the campaign.


Comey now says there was surveillance (backing up Trump's tweet), that the investigation has been going on since July. And they've come up with nothing (zip, zero, nada) because there was never any probable cause, just baseless accusations.

It was an opposition research operation by a sitting President, Barack Milhous Hussein Obama, abusing his authority to harness the powers of the government's intelligence and investigative resources. That's all it was.


Obama and his henchmen need to be in prison for the rest of their lives for abusing the awesome surveillance powers of the U.S. government (FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS) in a partisan effort to destroy a political opponent. What they tried to do to Trump is Stalinesque

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Mar 21, 2017 6:32:58 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Slightly misstates. heh. heh-heh .


Perhaps when Spicey burns out in a few weeks or months they may consider you as a replacement Paul? 

Who is "Spicey"? I know it's not President Trump, because...
ymam.proboards.com/thread/49961/read-rules-politics-board-updated

1. Regarding name calling of political candidates:

Candidates may be referred to by the names "Trump", "Mr. Trump", "Donald Trump", "Donald", "The Donald", "DT", "Hillary", "Ms. Clinton", "Hillary Clinton", "HC", "HRC", and (because these names are public domain) "President Trump" and "Crooked Hillary".

Public domain, in this case, will be limited to mainstream media sources, not tabloids. (this has been superceded by the addendum to the CoC below)

No other names may be used. Posts that contain any other names for the candidates will be summarily deleted in their entirety. Posts that quote posts containing any other names for the candidates will be summarily deleted in their entirety.

This includes any names, titles, or references to "cankles", stubby fingers, bad hair/toupees, frumpiness, or orange complexion. For example, "I wonder what ol' sausage fingers thinks of that." or "The state of Iowa just got a whole lot more cankley." We don't need to stoop to that level of childish insult.

[swamp]

Mar 21, 2017 6:32:58 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Slightly misstates. heh. heh-heh .


Perhaps when Spicey burns out in a few weeks or months they may consider you as a replacement Paul? 

most importantly, would Melissa McCarthy do a good Paul impression?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

"These hearings today, what happened last week and the week before that, what happened during the transition period… What all of this is can be explained simply by saying, “Look at how terrified they are in the Washington-New York establishment, of Donald Trump and draining the swamp.” The Never Trumpers on both sides of the aisle. There are conservative Never Trumpers today celebrating over the fact that Comey made it official that there’s an investigation of Trump and colluding with the Russians.



That’s the message being sent today: “You either straighten up and fly right or you’re gone.”



“We’re coming for you,” is the message of these hearings today. - Rush Limbaugh

I think he's right about the INTENDED message. I think they've underestimated their opponent.   And his Russian backers. 

[Tennesseer]

Spicer is not a politician nor is he a candidate for elected office.

[swamp]

Mar 21, 2017 9:01:15 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

"These hearings today, what happened last week and the week before that, what happened during the transition period… What all of this is can be explained simply by saying, “Look at how terrified they are in the Washington-New York establishment, of Donald Trump and draining the swamp.” The Never Trumpers on both sides of the aisle. There are conservative Never Trumpers today celebrating over the fact that Comey made it official that there’s an investigation of Trump and colluding with the Russians.



That’s the message being sent today: “You either straighten up and fly right or you’re gone.”



“We’re coming for you,” is the message of these hearings today. - Rush Limbaugh

I think he's right about the INTENDED message. I think they've underestimated their opponent.   And his Russian backers. 

Please tell me which Trump appointments are "draining the swamp" please and thank you.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It took Rep. Elise Stefanik Freshmen Republican to expose Comey...

…”when did you notify the White House, the DNI and congressional leadership”?

BOOM! Watch an extremely uncomfortable Director James Comey outright LIE… by claiming there was no active DNI -which is entirely false- James Clapper was Obama’s DNI.

Watch the exchange- it's extraordinary.  
Watch it again.

Watch that first 3:00 minutes again. Ending with:

…”Because of the sensitivity of the matter” ~ James Comey


theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/03/20/it-took-a-freshman-gop-congresswoman-to-pull-the-mask-from-fbi-director-comey/#more-130253

Director Comey intentionally obfuscates knowledge of the question from Rep Stefanik; using parseltongue verbiage to get himself away from the sunlit timeline.

The counter-intel investigation, by his own admission, began in July 2016. Congress was not notified until March 2017. That’s an eight month period – Obviously obfuscating the quarterly claim moments earlier.

The uncomfortable aspect to this line of inquiry is Comey’s transparent knowledge of the politicized Office of the DNI James Clapper by President Obama. Clapper was used rather extensively by the Obama Administration as an intelligence shield, a firewall or useful idiot, on several occasions.

Anyone who followed the Obama White House intel policy outcomes will have a lengthy frame of reference for DNI Clapper and CIA Director John Brennan as the two primary political operatives. Brennan admitted investigating, and spying on, the Senate Intelligence Committee as they held oversight responsibility for the CIA itself.

The first and second questions from Stefanik were clear. Comey’s understanding of the questions was clear. However, Comey directly evaded truthful response to the second question. When you watch the video, you can see Comey quickly connecting the dots on where this inquiry was going.

There is only one reasonable explanation for FBI Director James Comey to be launching a counter-intel investigation in July 2016, notifying the White House and Clapper, and keeping it under wraps from congress. Comey was a participant in the intelligence gathering for political purposes – wittingly, or unwittingly.

As a direct consequence of this mid-thought-stream Comey obfuscation, it is now clear -at least to me- that Director Comey was using his office as a facilitating conduit for the political purposes of the Obama White House.

[OldCoyote]

Why is it so easy to dismiss what Snowden disclosed, What wikileaks disclosed, even when Comey says I can't comment on that!!

Even Brennan, was caught in a bald face lie when testifying before Congress,  But wiretapping Trump towers could not possibly be true.

Yep, because Paul posted it ,it can't be true!

I will also note those posters that have worked in some capacity of government intelligence,, are quite silent!