Republicans

[Tero]

Bias toward a collusion. Which there isn’t. Makes no sense either. Check mate! You lose.

[Forty Two]

Bias toward a collusion. Which there isn’t. Makes no sense either. Check mate! You lose.

Bias toward Clinton, which makes perfect sense, given the mention of McCabe in the text messages between two FBI agents working on the investigations, and the obvious bias expressed by those agents. The Inspector General report may show more. Surely you're in favor of this apolitical, nonpartison agency doing its job and fully investigating the conduct of the FBI in relation to these very serious allegations?

[Tero]

Republican congressmen traveling mysteriously by train. Must be some conspiracy!
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics ... index.html

[Forty Two]

Democrats call for Special Prosecutor to investigate, declaring that the discounts offered by Amtrak to federal employees, and Congressmen, constitute either a bribe or an emolument of office.

[Tero]

Congress still confused by how to screw Dreamers, those with insurance and anybody who needs the Government:

With Congress now staring down its fifth short-term spending bill since September, frustration is spreading across the House Republican Conference, particularly as negotiations have stalled over raising stiff budget caps and providing relief to so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

[Joe]

Of course they haven't stopped. They've been doing things try to "subvert" US elections for 50-75 years. They used to fund the Communist Party USA to try to influence elections, and for 50 years they've engaged in propaganda and disinformation. That's the main things they do every year, and of course, they engage in espionage, and have for many decades.

Just like Pompeo is quoted as saying in the article -- "We are going to go out there and do our damnedest to steal secrets on behalf of the American people. And I wanted to get back on our front foot." - lol. So, the US CIA is going to go out there and steal some secrets! But, of course, in doing so they will be sure not to interfere with the theft victims' electoral processes while they're at it.

Back in the McCarthy era, Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, was always the bogeyman for allegations of subversion. The Soviet Union was behind the movement in the US to meddle in our elections and government. They were getting people into the State Department and other agencies to infiltrate our government, too. That was the whole idea behind McCarthy's HUAC.

Yes, and we have responded with counterespionage and sanctions in the past, but today we didn't.

That's not accurate.
There are currently sanctions on Russia, which were not repealed. And, the CIA director just said, above, that the intelligence community is responding with counterespionage. Now, remember, the left used to be very much against espionage, which usually involves illegal activity. That's why spies are often at risk of being disavowed the government, becauase what they're doing is illegal.

Now, of course, the left is pretending to be the greatest patriots to the point of jingoistic support for "intelligence services" and the FBI. We have to believe them, because they are so honorable now, and everything they do is non-partisan and correct. No questions needed.

The Executive declined to do so in the face of a bill passed by Congress by veto proof margins, which is the part your recap of the McCarthy era misses.

Sure, because it was determined by the Executive - including his cabinet people - that MORE sanctions were not needed now. Did Russia do something new that warrants new sanctions. Remember in the early part of the Obama Administration, they not only were not sanctioning Russia - who we and all the intelligence agencies have known for decades have been trying to interfere with our elections - but they tried a reset of relations, so that we would be fast friends and allies. REmember too, that the position of the Obama administration was that the suggestion that Russia was a high level foreign policy threat was laughed at - literally laughed at - despite the Obama administration being briefed all the time about various intelligence issues, and they must have known that Russia was - for decades - and still - trying to interfere with our elections. The "intelligence memo from late 2016 which reported on Russia's "meddling" said exactly that - that Russia has been known to be meddling in our elections for many decades. It's a continuing course of conduct.

So, there are many reasons to not want to increase sanctions on a nuclear power who is busy poking ships near US waters, and flying warplanes aggressively near US borders and such. There are many reasons to do that, one of which might well be that we have to work with Russia in the middle east, e.g. Syria, ISIS, etc.


The goal is not to go to war with Russia. The goal is to resolve our differences, right?

I wonder what Whittaker Chambers would make of the assault on the FBI and the Special Prosecutor. Alger Hiss was five feet from the President at Yalta. Given the resistance to a legitimate investigation of whether Russian efforts met with abnormal success, how close do you think they are today?

Other than statements that the investigation is bullshit and there is no collusion, what "resistance" has the administration given?

The intelligence agencies were investigating for 8 months or more before Trump was even sworn in. And, they've not been hampered in their actions now. What do you think they've discovered?

The act is called the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, it includes new sanctions, and Trump didn't implement them. Those are the facts and your defense of their reasoning and musings (?) about leftists doesn't change that simple fact. A united Congress wanted to smack Russia for messing in our elections and Trump, once again, went easy on them.

You say the Russian actions are nothing new, but the intelligence memo you cite undercuts your assertion.

Russian efforts to influence the 2016 US presidential election represent the most recent expression of Moscow’s longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, but these activities demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort compared to previous operations.

As for resistance, the Comey firing, the reported attempt to fire Mueller, the campaign to discredit potential witnesses, the false statement about the Trump tower meeting, Trump pressuring Comey on the Flynn investigation, and yes, the disparaging remarks count too. But it's not just the White House, there's Devin Nunes' un-recusal, Matt Gaetz calling for Mueller to be fired, and the anti-Trump conspiracy talk too, and I know I'm leaving some things out.

That's a whole lot of push back for a nothing burger.

It's funny how you bring up the McCarthy era, and don't see the parallels.

[L'Emmerdeur]

A succinctly worded statement from the FBI (on the FBI website).

FBI Statement on HPSCI Memo

The FBI takes seriously its obligations to the FISA Court and its compliance with procedures overseen by career professionals in the Department of Justice and the FBI. We are committed to working with the appropriate oversight entities to ensure the continuing integrity of the FISA process.

With regard to the House Intelligence Committee’s memorandum, the FBI was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.

The Republicans on the committee had voted against a motion to have the FBI and Department of Justice review the memo to vet it for accuracy and to advise on the release of classified information.

The Trump lackey Devin Nunes was asked directly by a fellow member of the committee whether his staff coordinated with the White House in drafting the memo. He chose to avoid answering that question, though immediately prior to the question being asked he had been willing to say that he himself had not coordinated with the White House (transcript, pp. 23-24). It can be inferred that the White House was involved in drafting the memo.

The vote by the committee Republicans to publish the memo "in the interest of transparency" despite the fact that it contains classified information that the committee had received from the Department of Justice upon an agreement that it would respect the sensitive nature of the information is rather absurd. If transparency were the actual motivation the committee Republicans would have voted to release the memo drafted by Democrats as well. It's clear that the memo was crafted to present an inaccurate and skewed depiction of events to further a partisan agenda.

It's near certain that the White House will give the go-ahead to publishing the memo. When that happens it will no doubt give Trump and his supporters support for their narrative in which the FBI acted improperly. I don't think that anybody but Trump supporters will actually believe that the memo presents an accurate depiction of events.

However it may give Trump an excuse to fire Rod Rosenstein and appoint somebody to replace him who would be more willing to do Trump's bidding. For instance, by working to quash the Mueller investigation or even dismissing Mueller.

[Tero]

We have a Trump Russia thread!

Meanwhile:
WHITE Supremacist SPRINGS, W. Va. — Vice President Mike Pence is launching one of the most aggressive campaign strategies in recent White House history: he will hopscotch the country over the next three months, making nearly three dozen stops that could raise tens of millions of dollars for House and Senate Republicans, all while promoting the party's legislative accomplishments.

If done right, Pence said in an exclusive interview with POLITICO backstage before his speech to the House and Senate GOP here Wednesday night, Republicans could expand their majority in both chambers.

Tax cuts good! Democrats bad!

“I expect we’re going to spend a fair amount of time in the states that the president carried very strongly — Indiana being one of them, West Virginia here being another, places like Montana, elsewhere around the country, we think represent a real opportunity for us,” Pence said.

Pence’s plan, extraordinary for a vice president, has its roots in a congressional summit at Camp David.

In early January, congressional Republicans leaders projected the risk of political peril to White House staff at the presidential retreat. Pence’s team asked top GOP campaign operatives to compile a political road map to help them keep their congressional majorities.

[Tero]

Democrats! Always after the coal.
Billionaire Koch brothers to spend $400m in attempt to thwart Democrat surge in midterms
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 85906.html

[Scot Dutchy]

Democracy?

[JimC]

Kleptocracy...

[Tero]

Ryan still trying to get welfare bums to work as Wal Mart greeters, bag boys etc. McConnel says no:

But Ryan clearly isn’t giving up. And any discouraging words appear to go in Ryan’s right ear and out his left.

During a Wednesday night retreat session, for example, Ryan was in full salesman mode. He told lawmakers they need to prioritize “getting people the skills and opportunity to get into the workforce,” according to a person in the room. And he insisted the idea is popular.

He emphasized the “jobs” piece of the equation, pointing out that there are 6.6 million people on unemployment and more than 5.8 million open jobs. That skills gap, he said, could be filled by the unemployed population if the government provided the facilities to link the two.

The poor are not going to get to those jobs by bus or Uber. The jobs are NOT in their neighborhood. You need a bus to get to your bed pan emptying job.
Politico

[L'Emmerdeur]

Corey Stewart, the blowhard Republican goon who is running to get the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Tim Kaine in Virginia, wants Gauntanamo kept open.

The U.S. should keep #Guantanamo open just for #Antifa.

First in line: @timkaine 's son, #Antifakaine.

7:17 PM - 30 Jan 2018

[pErvinalia]

Fark. What a piece of work.

[Joe]

A Republican senatorial candidate in Missouri named Rick Hawley had this to say about human trafficking.

We have a human-trafficking crisis in our state and in this city and in our country because people are willing to purchase women, young women, and treat them like commodities. There is a market for it. Why is there? Because our culture has completely lost its way. The sexual revolution has led to exploitation of women on a scale that we would never have imagined.

I guess that's just how it is in Missouri, since his opponent, Courtland Sykes, recently made news for his enlightened rhetoric.

Courtland Sykes, a Republican who hopes to replace Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in the U.S. Senate, called feminists "nasty snake-filled heads," in a Facebook post meant to clarify his stance on women's rights.

"In light of recent questions regarding my views on Women's Rights, attached is my full statement from September 2017," Sykes said on his Facebook page.

In the statement, Sykes said he supports women's rights because his fiancée Chanel Rion has given him "orders" to favor them. But, that support isn't free, Sykes notes.

"Chanel knows that my obedience comes with a small price that she loves to pay anyway: I want to come home to a home-cooked dinner at six every night, one that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn to fix after they become traditional homemakers and family wives — think Norman Rockwell here and Gloria Steinem be damned," he said in the statement.

I'm glad I live in Colorado, but sometimes I think I should sell my house and move into an old missile silo anyway.