[nathanbedford]

Incidentally, I also said this in my reply #90:

This revelation has the potential to alter public perception of the Trump presidency on a scale that it changed with the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

It seems to me that Trump has revolutionized the way a president communicates with the people. His exploitation of twitter has been brilliant.

My observation comes from the contents of the these tweets, the absence of specifics, the absence of a charge of specific impropriety but the insistence that we have "Watergate" or "McCarthyism."

It now appears that a FISA warrant was obtained and that is an entirely different matter than naked surveillance. Was the second application for the FISA warrant, which was apparently granted, legitimate? Is this the proper question even to be asked? What did Obama know and when did he know it? These questions are raised by these tweets but they appear that the answers could be a lawful wiretap based on substantial evidence or it could be dirty tricks.

If it is not dirty tricks, Trump will not appear in the best light when the facts are compared to the broad allegations in the tweets. If the eavesdropping was lawful, does that put different cast on the matter than alleged by Trump when he says "McCarthyism" or "Watergate?"

[Alberta's Child]

The best thing about Twitter is that you can only post 140 characters at a time.

The worst thing about Twitter is that you can only post 140 characters at a time.

:-)

[kabar]

If the eavesdropping was lawful, does that put different cast on the matter than alleged by Trump when he says "McCarthyism" or "Watergate?"

It can be legal but still inappropriate. The entire affair smacks of partisan politics. The Obama administration was turned down earlier because the request was too broad and they couldn't make their case, They came back again in October after the DNC was hacked and used the pretext of Russian banks to wiretap Trump Towers.

What McCarthy did was legal, but some believe unethical. This is far more insidious and dangerous. The ability to use the intelligence agencies to go after your political enemies is frightening stuff. We have already had something similar with the IRS scandal with Lois Lerner taking the 5th.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. I hope Trump gets the FISA requests redacted and declassified. The timing of all of this is suspect.

Obama and Hillary started blaming the Russians right after the DNC hack. Hillary used the Russian connection against Trump in the debates. Obama requests an Intelligence Community review of the Russian hacking and the results provided before he leaves office. He expands the uninverse of agencies that can be provided the raw data from NSA eavesdropping. Obama levies additional sanctions on the Russians three weeks prior to leaving office. Why? This is all a setup carefully orchestrated to hurt Trump and complicate any overtures Trump might make to Russia to improve bilateral relations.