StrangeSox

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 03:54 PM) I know what the accusations are. I can also take a piece of lunacy and see where the reality in it might come from. Again, tell me where you think all of this information about Russia is coming from? Falling out of the sky? Monitoring of Russian foreign nationals by both US and potentially other Western intelligence services. This is tens of thousands of miles from Obama ordering illegal wiretaps of a US citizen/political opponent.

The accusation from Trump/Breitbart fever swamps is that Obama personally ordered illegal wiretaps on Trump Tower. Accusing the former President of literally doing Watergate 2.0 with zero evidence is a big f***ing deal. e: the contacts with Russia have been documented because it's obvious to anyone who has even a pop fiction level familiarity with the intelligence community that a Russian Ambassador's phone lines are going to be monitored by the US intelligence community (and probably every other major IC in the world). To go from Trump aide's various public links to Russia, off-the-books stuff that came to light in other ways (Manafort being on pro-Russian Ukranian payroll), and conversations with Russian foreign nationals to the President of the United States ordering illegal wiretaps of a political opponent is a gigantic chasm of a stretch.

The US government has definitely spied on foreign government officials including Merkel. Trump is not a foreign government official.

Huh, I definitely messed up my timeline there and thought the FISA stuff didn't come out until afterwards.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 12:22 PM) Say nothing? The last few months of the election was Trump story after Trump story, mixed in with James Comey's crusade. Everything but the kitchen sink got thrown at Trump. His voters just didn't care about any of it. The information about Trump campaign members being under FBI/FISA investigation didn't come out until after the election, and that was a thing that actually happened, unlike this 100% made-up claim that Obama ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped. Trump's always been a paranoid conspiracy guy. Birther nonsense, vaccines cause autism, Ted Cruz's dad played a role in killing JFK, 3-5 million illegal voters, thousands of Muslims cheering 9/11 in NJ, Obama literally founded ISIS, polls are rigged, if he lost then the election was rigged, probably more I'm forgetting. This is who he is and who he's always been.

Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda

New muslim ban signed Iraq isn't on the list, which really seems to undermine the whole "keep out ISIS!" justification they tried. The new ban doesn't include green card holders, and it cuts the annual refugee cap in half. e: they exempt Iraq because reasons (probably Mattis wanted this so Iraqis who help the US weren't screwed like they were with the original ban), but still cite this as a justification: e2: and we're going to get government-compiled lists of all of the "honor killings" happening in this country! More worrying is this part: This is a vaguely defined "immigrant crimes!" list.

"There's no way this doesn't blow up in Trump's face and sink him for good" says increasingly nervous man for the seven-millionth time

Doesn't matter though, Trump said it and now millions of MAGA-Americans take it as the truth. White House spox Sarah Huckabee Sanders is also getting torn apart on the morning shows today

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 09:15 AM) I would be glad that Russia was not behind wikileaks. Means we are still mostly just capable of suicide as a country. But, it's not just wikileaks. It is more likely that a FISA warrant would be granted around the several advisors that came onto Trump's campaign, like Manafort, Page, Flynn, that had recent and significant ties to politicians and oligarchs in Russia's sphere of influence. That Josh Marshall article "Innocent Explanation #2" gets into this, but the investigation in the money and connections between those advisors would very likely lead to an investigation in the investments and connections for Trump himself. Would that show illegal stuff? No idea. But remember when people just shouted "quid pro quo" around hillary. If people gave to her charity "probably for quid pro quo!". Bill on the plane "Quid pro quo!". Everything was a quid pro quo, if not at that point, it had the potential to forever. Trump, somehow, has worse vulnerabilities to stuff like that. He also has a wide net that he likely may not even know all of the connections which could be embarrassing. I mean, at the very least, it's hard to imagine a global real estate developer whose organization did not run into organized crime at some point. There's also the fact that first his campaign and now his administration keeps getting caught blatantly lying about their contacts with Russia.

"Some people don't want health care, therefore we should not even make it an option available to the poors" doesn't seem like the right conclusion to draw though.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 08:37 AM) Play devil's advocate for a second. What if Assange was telling the truth? That Russia or any state was not the source of the leaks. I know minds are already made up, but just as a fun exercise. What would that mean? Not too much I don't think as the wikileaks stuff is really more of a minor subplot in the whole thing.

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 5, 2017 -> 07:56 PM) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ins...m=.21f5188f22ac It's amazing how little actual governing is being done. It's all just a tv show. Related, dysfunction in Congress because of the number of no-compromise relatively new GOP congressmen who don't have experience in anything but 100% opposition. They don't actually know how to pass a law and govern. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/so...m=.d317d00d4c00

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 5, 2017 -> 07:39 PM) I can't figure out Comey. Basically submarines Hillary at the last second of the election, now seems to be driving pretty hard against Trump Ego driven, maybe wants to bag a president. Npr has independently confirmed the story. https://twitter.com/scottdetrow/status/8385...src=twsrc%5Etfw In other news, Muslim ban 2.0 is expected tomorrow. Allegedly won't include Iraq, unsure of other changes.

Trump's sources for his claims that Obama illegally wire tapped Trump tower was right wing media (Levin and Breitbart), not anything from White House sources. https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/83846...src=twsrc%5Etfw Agreed on Mensch, she's extremely unreliable. Eta: nyt reporting that FBI director Comey has asked the doj to debunk Trump's baseless wiretap claims. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/polit...his-phones.html

Oh we see it. Just check out the Republican thread. It is important to keep that in mind though. Meanwhile, Trump's further campaign manager and surrogate Corey lewandowski is claiming without evidence that Obama tapped sessions Senate offices. https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/83842...src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/AP/status/8383911503818...src=twsrc%5Etfw White House demands Congress investigates whether Obama abused executive powers in 2016 election E: seems like this is the best they can come up with to bury Trump's unhinged early morning tweets from yesterday, now they won't comment on an "ongoing investigation" and it'll get dropped like his paranoid voter fraud delusions.

‘Go back to your own country’: Sikh man shot in his driveway in suspected hate crime We need to start treating these right-wing hate crimes as the terrorist acts that they are.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2017 -> 10:17 AM) Both bannon and preibus are on Trump's s*** list. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-flash...ory?id=45908106

Here's a pretty good summary of how this story has developed over the past couple of months. https://twitter.com/justinhendrix/status/838010340579426304

https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/03/roger-m...nsas-obamacare/

our President is a very smart man with a good brain