Posted on 03/07/2017 7:08:28 AM PST by LS
Up until two weeks ago, the Russians were being accused of manipulating the U.S. presidential election, providing the Trump campaign with evidence, and virtually everything else up to landing cosmonauts on Jupiter.
Was there anything the Russkies can't do? (Well, besides win the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey game).
Then, in 140 characters, Donald J. Trump, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (hehe--I love saying that)---changed the universe. Let's be clear, outside of the White House and a couple of cubbyholes in the DOJ, no one, including myself, has absolute knowledge of the FISA taps, who was the target, and what they found, if anything.
But logic tells us Trump is right over the target.
Let's review. In the past 24 hours, two different neverTrumper analysts, Andy McCarthy at the largely irrelevant National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445522/russian-election-hacking-fbi-not-investigating-trump-campaign, and Stephen Hayes, at the much more irrelevant Weekly Standard http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps-wiretap-claims-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont/article/2007096, both show that the Russian narrative insofar as it applies to Trump is dead. Indeed, fake news media sources are literally saying "No, we never said that." Chris Coons, for example, has completely backed off from saying he "believed" such evidence of Russian collusion existed to pleading that he was "hyperventilating" and that he had "no evidence" (NOR DOES ANYONE ELSE, SENATOR!)http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266024/russia-trump-campaign-collusion-narrative-joseph-klein.
Here's the problem with McCarthy and Hayes: they are so dismissive of Trump's innate genius they cannot possibly conceive of him actually employing strategy. To them, tweets are impulsive explosions, shoot-from-the-hip gunslinging. No, guys. These are perfectly targeted cruise missiles.
Then there's Comey, who no one seems to get. I admit, explaining him is harder, but I think he does play a strategic part in this. So here goes:
The first central question is not "Was Trump bugged/surveilled?" but "WHEN was Trump first bugged and/or surveilled?" Most sources concede that foreign governments may have been trying to spy on him since he became the front runner for the GOP nomination. Other sources hint that, "Gee, maybe the DOJ didn't spy on him but merely asked, say, Britain for their spying transcripts."
While it's clear many tried, I'm skeptical they got any further than they did with the GOP servers. Before he was the nominee, Trump had his own skilled security teams. I'm sure he has had these guys for business reasons for many years, and after dealing with NY City government, Exxon, foreign governments where he was building hotels, these guys were probably every bit as good as anyone the Feds have. So, if there were attempts to bug Trump Tower or Air Trump One, or any other Trump facility, I'm betting they were discovered early.
After July 2016, Trump inherited a second layer, the Secret Service, who routinely swept for bugs and other surveillance. No, DOJ could not tell the SS not to do this. SS answered to the Treasury. It's possible that DOJ could have had Zero tell Treasury to cooperate, but now you are really expanding the circle of potential criminals to a lot of agencies and departments that really wouldn't want to "go there." So, possible, but I doubt it. At any rate, between the SS and Trump's security team, I'm sure they found anything directly bugging him.
A bigger question is, "IF THEY FOUND SOMETHING, DID THEY DELIBERATELY LEAVE IT IN PLACE, KNOWING THE INFO WOULD GO TO CANKLES?" For example, one could imagine a conversation, which Team Trump knew would go to the Cankles campaign, like this:
Trump: "You know, we aren't getting anywhere in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania or Michigan. We better focus everything on Ohio and Iowa and hope for the best."
Cankles' team (listening in): "Quick, redirect us into Ohio and Iowa. We don't need to go to Pennsylvania or Wisconsin."
As former Clinton aide Lanny Davis would say, "We have no pwoof" of this, but it certainly is plausible, and given how pathetic the Cankles campaign was, not unlikely.
So, here we are in 2017. Trump is president. As we know from numerous articles, Zero has set up a shadow government. However, as everyone from Rush to "John Wick of Politics" on Twitter has pointed out, Zero never thought Trump would win and therefore didn't destroy evidence. In fact, since he didn't know, until last Saturday, that Trump knew, Zero and his black bag team planned to roll out little bomblets for the next six months, driving down Trump's approval numbers and undercutting his support with the public and Congress.
Rush Limbaugh has been exceptional at pointing out that Trump is safe as long as his voters stay loyal, because even Congress has to be brought kicking and screaming into victory.
So Trump decides enough is enough. With one tweet, he completely obliterates the Zero timeline, and nullifies months' worth of undercutting and sabotage. But here's where the McCarthys and the Hayeses and all the other "conservative" pundits completely miss the boat:
BY MAKING PUBLIC THE FACT THAT TRUMP IS AWARE DOJ/ZERO/TRAITORS HAD BUGGED HIM, TRUMP MAKES ALL FUTURE USE OF ANY MATERIAL IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT SOMEONE KNOWING IMMEDIATELY WHERE IT CAME FROM. He cut the legs out from under the resistance in a couple of sentences.
While the fake news media might not ask such questions, any information leaked from such sources would be obvious to everyone else. This is important because of how I started this essay: the "Russians" meme has collapsed. The fake news media is not invincible, and even when they are lock step on a story, like a pearl inside an oyster the truth can be pried out with pressure.
Trump knows he's in a war. I'm told he only has two guys in place at DOJ other than Sessions. Sessions' deputy is to be confirmed tomorrow. Likely, given the Trump twitter charges, you'll see a little more urgency on the part of some Republicans to move others through.
Now, Comey: it is popular here and among conservatives to bash Comey, to demand his resignation. First, keep this in mind: Trump kept Comey for a reason. John Wick of Politics says his DOJ sources tell him it was because he was still investigating Cankles. I don't buy that.
This fellow (https://youtu.be/Yeie7j2RSts) I think, "gets it." Comey was extremely angry that he couldn't recommend indicting Cankles, so he laid out the best case he could against her, then made up crap about intent. Given his superiors, short of resigning---and I know many people think that's what an honorable man would do---he had no other options. So here comes the Trump tweet.
Comey pretends to be outraged. "This is terrible. This is wrong . . . . guys? Isn't it wrong? Tell me this is wrong."
Understand this process: Yes, Trump can declassify anything, but it must first go through review of the spy agency in question---CIA, FBI, whomever---for redaction of key sources, names, etc. Those agencies, if they are truly out to get Trump, would redact the hell out of any declassification making it entirely meaningless and unusable by Trump. So he has to get someone else to do it and at the same time ensure that key material isn't redacted. Congress can do this in secret session. The DOJ can do this (in this case).
Therefore, I agree with the youtube fellow that, in fact, Comey is running interference for Trump because he has no other options. He's hated by Dems, and Trump is is only friend. I return to the key question: "Why did Trump keep Comey?" (Beyond that, if Trump is as smart as we say he is in everything else, he wouldn't be so stupid as to keep a traitor this close.)
So there you are. Trump cut the insurrection/silent coup off at the knees, simultaneously destroying the entire "Russia-did-it" storyline, and, oh, by the way, did you notice, Trump just keeps doing what he's doing while the media is chasing it's tail on this.
Yesterday Exxon announced major hires in TX and LA, "some" version of Obamacare repeal was announced, Trump issued new anti-terrorism executive orders, etc., etc.
I still doubt that Zero or Cankles will go to jail, and a week ago I said we'd have to choose between Trump's agenda or revenge.
Now, I'm not so sure. These are such major crimes that I will be surprised if some high-ranking members of Zero's administration don't get indicted. I'll still stand by my prediction that it won't be Zero or Cankles or Jarrett . . . yet.
But who knows? Trump may yet tweet again.
I apologize for the length but to make some of these arguments requires going deep.
did the CIA take out a contract on Seth Rich?
Thanks for that article...hope things are going well for you in all of this...
Never under estimate President Trump...and never try to out guess what he will do next...the man doesn’t let people know his thoughts...
President Trump is still gathering information on the ‘swamp’ and those ‘snakes’ that reside in it...he will drain it when the time is right...
Thanks Larry.
I believe a big “sting” is in motion and Comey is wearing a white hat.
man doesn’t let people know his thoughts...
The tweets throw them off and I love that.
Thanks for the write up LS!
Great analysis...
Thank you.
I agree that it was a critical and good move for Trump to get this stuff tweeted out before his team managed to smother it.
But I think you overestimate the ability of his team to keep his communications and computers from being tapped—the best national governments and corporations can’t stop that at this point, let alone Trump’s personal security team.
Great post, thanks.
ping
A good read! If anybody give you crap about the length of your post, ignore them!
BINGO!.......................
We all need to keep praying for President Trump. He is on track to save our country from ruin, but can only do it if he stays alive. Enemies, foreign and domestic, of the citizens of the United States are vast and have a lot to lose if patriotic Americans prevail.
/s
You and the libs under estimate Admiral Mike Rodgers and the other good white hats capabilities at the NSA!
AWESOME!
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