Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/23/americans-not-russians-are-m.html
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Why do I feel like this will be the GOPs new Benghazi?
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Say it thrice and make it so…
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It’s better, it’s Benghazi squared. Nunez wrote a memo and then announced breathlessly that it would shatter the world, it was bigger than Watergate and so forth. But nobody knows what’s in it. He won’t let the media or any Democrats in on the big secret.
Kind of like saying, “I have in my possession a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that are known communists!” Nobody ever saw that one, either.
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The best resource I’ve found that is actively tracking Russian influence is Hamilton68, which definitely shows that twitter bots linked to russian operations are pushing the #releasethememo narrative. In terms of this supposed memo, republicans have the ability to declassify this information. Why they haven’t done so is an excellent question.
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It’s kind of a heads, I win, tails you lose kind of thing. The basic contention is that the FISA warrant was issued on the basis of Steele’s dossier.
If that’s true, the FISA warrant application can be released and everybody has egg on their face. The other possibility is that the FISA warrant was actually (and in some sense, properly) based on intelligence sources which are more reliable, Sources that the Intelligence Community would rather not burn. Public release of the FISA warrant would be tantamount to writing a death warrant for the GRU’s convenience.
(I have just finished reading Legacy of Spies so my imagination may have been twisted a bit)
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The whole thing is like a promotional campaign for a coming film. They write a memo. Then they suppress the memo. Then they promote the hashtag #releasethememo. All of this is being done by Republicans. They could release the memo whenever they want, but the longer it remains under wraps the more the tension builds and the more people can dream up fantasies of what’s actually in it. And the plain fact is it doesn’t matter what’s in it, even if it’s a bunch of personal opinions and unprovable assertions the GOP base will eat it up like red meat. "SEE SEE it’s a plot to undermine the President! "
Four of Trumps people have been indicted, two have copped pleas, that sounds like a real criminal investigation, not a witch hunt.
As I understand it, the FBI was investigating Carter Page (with FISA warrant) well before the Steele dossier. Then Page started working for Trump. Then Trump starts making all kinds of pro-Russian statements. Then we find all kinds of contact between his staff and Russian officials and businessmen. Then the GOP says “nothing to see here.”
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Remember when the Republicans were billing themselves as the party of “law & order” instead of the party that saw the nation’s biggest law enforcement agency as the enemy?
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It’s Schrödinger’s Memo. As long as it’s not released (or leaked), it could very well implicate the entirety of the Obama Administration, possibly, maybe, perhaps…? If it gets released, it’ll turn out to be pure bullshit and not be useful anymore.
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Ecuador must be making out like a bandit in all this.
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Or the FBI itself.
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Allegedly Alex Jones got a copy and posted it. I have not had time to do more than skim, but it is not obviously false (so far).
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It must be nice for the Russians now that they can afford to sit back a little and watch their American Know-Nothing dupes do the work for them.
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I don’t think anybody’s alleging it’s false, per se. But it’s quite possibly frivolous, like Trump’s claims of his offices being bugged. The only ones allowed to see it are already true believers. Making big claims and then keeping the evidence “top secret” does not spell credibility.
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I’m sure if it were as bad as insinuated Trump would declassify it in a heartbeat.
The fact that everybody is falling all over one another saying how damning it is and how it vindicates them, yet nothing substantive has been done is very telling to me.
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Well if you look at @ficuswhisperer 's link. Well Jones even acknowledged that what he’s put out there isn’t the memo. Not false. Just not at all what he claimed it is. Apparently a publicly accessible court record that’s been out there for a while. Looks like a heavily redacted court memo full of boilerplate regarding the re-authorization of some warrants. So absolutely not the memo Nunez produced. But given it appears to be an actual court record, actually hosted on a government website that exists to release actual court records. Not exactly “false” it just doesn’t seem to contain anything we don’t already know, or anything particularly useful (its 99 pages, I scanned it no names or details popped out it might be for those Trump related warrants. Might not).
As to the memo itself. If it was in anyway useful in bolstering the claims its said to. We’d already be looking at it.
I strongly suspect its entirely bullshit. It may be some incredibly partisan spin on something we’re already aware of. But as was already pointed out. They’re trying to imply that the Nunez memo confirms that the Steel Dossier triggered the warrants and investigation. There’s already information out to the public pretty much proving that’s not the case. The investigation appears to have been triggered by that disclosure from the Australian diplomat. And even if the Steel Dossier had triggered it. That would only be “bad” because the DNC’s role in funding the Dossier would allow Trump’s camp to further their witch hunt by evil Hillary claims.
There’s apparently enough in the Steel Dossier that was corroborated at the time or has since been corroborated. That piss tape or no. It would be perfectly justified to launch an investigation based on it.
That’s what they’re implying the memo is about. But we already pretty much know it isn’t true. So what the hell could it contain? More evidence that people who exist have differing opinions and political affiliations than Trump? The people shouting “witch hunt” are working awfully hard to “expose” people for daring to be a member of another political party.
ETA: When I say suspect its entirely bullshit. I mean I think there’s a fair chance there is no memo at all. Maybe Nunez tossed something together with enough classified shit to make it plausible to not release it. But only the people calling for its release, and the only people who have seen it. Are in a position to release it. WHICH IS ALL VERY WEIRD.
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This is the part the completely baffles me, because it’s completely beside the point. You only found out about my money laundering because a Democrat told you? Really? It’s like the end of an episode of Scooby-Doo.
(It just occurred to me this is like the Platonic ideal of the ad Hominem defense.)
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And of course, nobody in the media is even giving these guys a hard time about having just fucking voted to extend the law that they’re now saying was abused.
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It nicely fits their “HOW DARE you investigate me for doing something wrong!” and “The investigation of the thing I did is the real scandal”. Narratives. They’re stuck on spin. Whatever possible noise they can use to offer an alternate reality and get the echo chamber to buy it.
If we do find a smoking gun it’ll be “Well of course we had to collude with Russia! We had to beat the Dems to stop all these witch hunts about Russia!”
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