He has commented on Nunes:
I required the journalists who broke the 2013 domestic spying stories (as a condition of access) to talk with gov in advance of publication as an extraordinary precaution to prevent any risk of harm. Turns out our standard of care was higher than the actual Intel committee. https://t.co/ATzLQGqkeo
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) February 1, 2018
Yea, whats the deal with that?
The picture being painted here the last few months is fascinating, if you really put the pieces together.
I think it’s obvious at this point that huge swaths of the GOP were complicit in handling/laundering/accepting known-dirty Russian money, both because of the panicky, embarrassing attempts at a cover-up, but also because of the surprisingly under-discussed decision of huge numbers of Republican lawmakers to not seek reelection, including Paul Ryan.
That last part strikes me as suspicious. I think the most likely reason for that is because they expect to be found out as complicit, and the RNC is essentially forcing them out of office so as to avoid special elections with huge Democratic advantages because of the backlash.
Maybe the explanation for so many GOP lawmakers choosing not to seek reelection is the simplest one: they are increasingly uncomfortable with what their party has become, but don’t have the courage to actually stand up to their colleagues or their President.
The Yahoo article part is such bullshit circular logic concern trolling. The guy who made the dossier leaked it, therefore his handlers are at fault for exposing him to danger by outing him? or wait, is it because they are reaponsible for the leak…even though they removed him from the case for it?
It’s the most common explanation, but if these guys were resigning in protest, don’t you think you’d see them displaying that in voting patterns? You would also expect to see a wing of the Republican party working with the Democrats to rein in Trump.
But instead you see spineless cowering and bootlicking, which doesn’t fit your theory very well, so it’s more likely that they’re being forced out as preemptive damage control. It would also explain their attempts to muddy the waters and slow the investigation, also so as to minimize the number of currently-Republican seats that get thrown up for grabs.
Remember that if I’m correct, their primary goal would be to avoid a veto-proof Democratic majority in the House and Senate, because then the Dems could institute broad, sweeping election reform measures over Trump’s head, which would be utterly devastating to the Republicans, who are really only hanging onto power through a ton of dirty tricks and a Civil War-era division of electoral votes, all of which could be fixed if the anti-Republican backlash is as bad as would be expected.
I think my theory genuinely fits the observed behavior much better than the more commonly-cited “they’re just ashamed of themselves, against all historical precedent” one.
They’re not resigning in protest, that would require selflessness and courage. They’re choosing not to continue because they don’t feel happy or comfortable there anymore.
It’s like when a person has a job in a toxic work environment that they gradually come to resent, but they slog through it anyway until they either find a new offer elsewhere or become eligible for early retirement.
Trumplogic: where the allegations are made up and the facts don’t matter.
My guess is a combination of the two. This type of behaviour is rather common in blackmail (i.e. kompromat) situations. People play along until they realise that the eventual lengths that they are expected to go to are untenable.
It’s likely that many of the sudden retirees are realising that this is only the beginning, and what they will end up doing if they continue will be too much even for their rotten consciences. So they are attempting to quit the game (whether or not they will get away with it is yet to be seen), and leaving it to be Someone Else’s Problem.
Long story short: the memo is only captivating to folks who think it’s okay to investigate a pizzeria while carrying a semi-automatic
So have any of the toadying media asked any of these lying shits why they just voted to extend the FISA powers that they’re claiming were abused here?
The only thing I’d change about this paragraph is that my bet would be that the RNC mediated dark money funding of candidates from Russian sources.
Agreed, I didn’t want to get too far afield, but at this point it’s pretty clear that even if the RNC wasn’t actively complicit, they were still aware of it and allowed it to occur, making them passively complicit. And dirty goddamn traitors.
They know they will be out of power at some point, right?
They know the opposition can prosecute them? Or they are sure they are scott free because the bush/cheney/iraq cabal was given blanket immunity by the opposition?
We are paying for that enabling now.
I have come to the conclusion that the real barrier to progress is not the right, they are small and kooky, it is centrist who want everyone to just get along above all else.
plus ça change
So Mr. McGahn, if “Those standards permit declassification when the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information” and there is an EXTREMELY high level of public interest in Trump’s tax returns, I assume the administration will end its resistance to releasing that information or will justify how the need to protect those documents outweighs the public interest?
Yes, I know the tax returns aren’t classified, but that means the need to protect the information should need to be even stronger to resist releasing the documents.
Hopefully that statement comes back to bite them in the ass.
Not sure if this was linked here already but it’s a good read (and HT to @anon48584343 for posting it in the A round up of Trumpian events 🖕🍊🤡 thread):
Also, regarding who the fuck this Carter Page guy is anyway:
I keep going back to Mitch McConnell’s statement during the campaign: “We need a new president, Donald Trump, to be the most powerful Republican in America” He knew then what was happening I just know it.
