As Poe once sang “You can’t talk to a Psycho like a normal human being.” People we are over the edge of the falls and spinning down the rabbit hole. It doesn’t matter what lunatic theory Drumpf exposes and sputters, his fan base with come charging out to defend, excuse, justify and rationalize it without hesitation, remorse, shame or a lick of common sense.
Trump himself isn’t the heart of the cancerous rot eating away at the soul of America. They are.
And there are far, far too many of them.
For example there’s not only the vicious sonavabitch who tweeted an epilepsy inducing graphic to Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald because of his criticism of Trump who was arrested by the FBI, there’s other 40 people who following in his path attempting to the same thing as soon as Eichenwald complained about it.
According to Eichenwald, the man faces federal charges and will be indicted by the Dallas District Attorney on other charges in the coming days. After the news came out that someone did this and harmed Eichenwald, online copycats sent him similar graphics.
He tweeted that the information of those 40 people who did the same are also in the hands of the FBI. He encouraged people to stop sending them, since they’re probably going to get a visit from the police as well.
Say something harsh about their hero and they’ll try to induce a violent seizure that could incapacitate someone, cause them brain damage and even death. That’s an assault and a perfect example of who these people really are. One guy does something shitty, then 40 more leap up to chase behind him at the drop of a hat. Great going people.
You have people like Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Idiotville) who thinks considering a first strike on North Korea is a good idea and that maybe Drumpf still “has a point” with his ridiculous Trump Tower wiretap claims despite what James Clapper, Michael Haden, Paul Ryan and both the House and Senate Intel Chairs have said. He thinks it’s a bigger deal that they had a transcript of Michael Flynn’s conversation with Ambassador Kislyak, not the fact that he lied about that conversation or what he said during it that induced him to lie in the first place.
“I have a concern, and I’m pivoting a little bit, about what our intelligence community is doing with surveillance of Americans and releasing that information publicly,” Duffy said. “That’s absolutely wrong. That’s a little bit different from Donald Trump making a claim that he was surveilled.”
“It’s a little bit different?” Cuomo said. “It’s a little different from him saying that Barack Obama wiretapped the tower, and not only accusing him of a felony, but calling him bad and sick with no proof?”
Duffy conceded those two scenarios were, in fact, different, but then pointed out that disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador were recorded.
“That’s not what the president was talking about, Sean Duffy,” Cuomo said. “You know that.”
Cuomo correctly points out that the surveillance wasn’t of Flynn it was of Kislyak, and going further it wasn’t that it was “released to the public” the then active Attorney General Sally Yates personally informed Trump that Flynn had lied days before the Vice President went out on TV and repeated those lies. Trump’s administration didn’t admit that Yates had given them the transcript until 3 weeks later when Flynn was finally fired.
Even worse than Duffy is the tiny dancer of Goebbels Kayleigh McEnany who was just whirling like a dervish yesterday as she tried to spin her wiretap nonsense. You can see how maddening it is by the lines in Kirsten Power’s forehead as she tried to make sense of McEnany’s inane claims.
“Whether you think it’s right or wrong, it’s not something that specifically happened to him,” Powers continued. “A lot of the leaks were happening, frankly, I think, because the intelligence community is so concerned about what they believe was going on. So, I think that — I can’t quite follow the logic of it.”
McEnany explained that spying and snooping on Americans is wrong and that’s what the FBI was doing.
“But who was spied and snooped on?” Powers asked.
“Mike Flynn,” McEnany said.
“No he was not,” Powers said.
“I want to know why his conversation was transcribed,” McEnany said.
“Kayleigh, this is –” Powers said rubbing her eyes. “The New York Times reporter has been on here saying this was not — this was collected, it seems, while they were surveiling the Russian ambassador.”
“What crime was Mike Flynn committing when –” McEnany continued talking over her. “When you stumble upon an American citizen conversation, you stop unless there’s evidence of a crime.” She went on to demand evidence of a crime.
By negotiating an issue with a foreign policy with a foreign official while — at the time — being a private citizen Flynn may have violated the Logan Act, which is a felony.
The Logan Act is a 1799 statute that bars private citizens from interfering with diplomatic relations between the United States and foreign governments. It makes it a felony, punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to three years, if an American citizen, without government authorization, interacts “with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”
So that’s a crime. The Russia government hacking the emails of the DNC and John Podesta was a crime too. Both apply. Also she’s completely wrong about NSA minimization protocols because they don’t have to “stop” just because there’s an American on the line, and a crime doesn’t have to be committed either.
The top secret documents published today detail the circumstances in which data collected on US persons under the foreign intelligence authority must be destroyed, extensive steps analysts must take to try to check targets are outside the US, and reveals how US call records are used to help remove US citizens and residents from data collection.
However, alongside those provisions, the Fisa court-approved policies allow the NSA to:
• Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;
• Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;
• Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;
• Access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.
Before they know if what they’ve picked up on a call with a foreign national meets these criteria, they have to listen to whole call, transcribe and analyze what they have. They can’t know if there’s usable intelligence or a potential crime until then. She’s got the cart before the horse here, they don’t need a crime first — or a criminal warrant — when their goals is picking up intelligence information.
Flynn’s lie and vulnerability to the Logan Act while stating the Trump administration might undue Obama’s sanctions for Russia’s hacking attack on our nation was certainly worth sharing with Trump himself. It’s actually more telling that Trump didn’t warn Pence, and that they didn’t even react to that news for 3 weeks.
And of course you had Chief Spokes-Shill Spicer’s completely unhinged performance trying to keep Drumpf’s paranoid rambling tweets alive as he argues with CNN’s Jim Acosta.
“Are you saying that the president still stands by his allegation that President Obama ordered wire tapping of Trump Tower despite the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee says they see no indication that it happened?” Karl said. “They said they see no indication.”
“He stands by it!” Spicer replied. “The bottom line is the president said last night that there will be additional information coming forward. There’s a ton of media reports out there that indicate that something was going on during the 2016 election.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta noted that Spicer was “citing Sean Hannity” over lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee and FBI officials.
“How do you seem to be such an expert?” Spicer snapped.
“I’m saying this has been looked at,” Acosta said.
“How do you know that it’s been looked at?” Spicer shot back.
“There have been hearings,” Acosta noted.
“I’m sorry, can you tell me how you know that all of this is — quote — being looked at?” Spicer asked.
“You have a Senate and House intelligence committee, both leaders from both parties on both of those panels saying that they don’t see any evidence of any wiretapping,” Acosta pointed out.
Trump said that he said what he said based on News reports from the New York Times, but that report doesn’t claim they were wiretapping anyone in Trump Tower, they were talking about Russians talking to each other about associates of Trump.
It is not clear whether the intercepted communications had anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts to disrupt the elections in November. The American government has concluded that the Russian government was responsible for a broad computer hacking campaign, including the operation against the D.N.C.
The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect’s past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia’s Federal Security Service, one of the officials said.
Right wing sources on this story like Louise Mensch and Mark Levin don’t back up his story either.
And now, since there’s no evidence this was done by NSA or CIA, Trump says that Obama had the Brits do it form him. Yeah, uh hell no.
LONDON — British spy agency GCHQ has issued a rare and angry denial of a "ridiculous" allegation, repeated by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, that it eavesdropped on President Donald Trump during the election campaign.
The signal intelligence agency went public after Spicer quoted a Fox New analyst to support Trump's so-far-unfounded claim that he was wiretapped by President Barack Obama.
A British government official went further, saying Friday that White House had promised not to repeat the claim — further undermining Trump's insistence that he is correct.
It's possible that Trump is just making up bullshit here — or more likely failing to comprehend what he’s hearing on Fox News by their wing nuttiest judge, even when Fox themselves denies this is true — because there are reports that the Brits have picked up the same thing about Russian nationals talking to each other about Trump that the NSA has been finding.
As part of intelligence operations being conducted against the United States for the last seven months, at least one Western European ally intercepted a series of communications before the inauguration between advisers associated with President Donald Trump and Russian government officials, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.
The sources said the interceptions include at least one contact between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian official based in the United States. It could not be confirmed whether this involved the telephone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that has led to Flynn’s resignation, or additional communications. The sources said the intercepted communications are not just limited to telephone calls: The foreign agency is also gathering electronic and human source information on Trump’s overseas business partners, at least some of whom the intelligence services now consider to be agents of their respective governments. These operations are being conducted out of concerns that Russia is seeking to manipulate its relationships with Trump administration officials as part of a long-term plan to destabilize the NATO alliance
So yes the U.S., the Brits and apparently the Netherlands are all investigating the Russians. For various reasons some of those investigations are leading to the web of associates of Donald J. Trump.
None of that proves that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, but it does mean where going to continue to see ever more wild and crazy bullshit from Drumpf and his pack of sycophants that are going to simply point fingers in every possible direction and be more and more lunatic with these allegations. Even Shep Smith thinks this is bullshit.
Shep Smith: Fox News can not confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary. Fox News knows of no evidence, that the President was surveilled at any time in any way.
They’ve gone this low so far, all in what appears to be an elaborate attempt to distract attention away from Jeff Session’s lies during his confirmation, Al Franken saying he committed perjury and the call by over 100 House Democrats for him to resign.
These people are a cult, they have no idea which way leads to fact and reality. And they don’t care, all they want to do is make their opponents look bad and paint themselves as some kind of “victim.”
Saturday, Mar 18, 2017 · 2:06:09 AM +00:00 · Frank Vyan Walton
Ok, the DOJ has weighed in and the answer is still “Nope”.
The U.S. Justice Department on Friday said it delivered documents to congressional committees responding to their request for information that could shed light on President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama ordered U.S. agencies to spy on him.
The information was sent to the House and Senate intelligence and judiciary committees, said Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Devin Nunes, said in a statement late on Friday that the Justice Department had “fully complied” with the panel’s request.
A government source, who requested anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said an initial examination of the material turned over by the Justice Department indicates that it contains no evidence to confirm Trump’s claims that the Obama administration had wiretapped him or the Trump Tower in New York.
Well, duh!