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 love the term. What does that mean?
Indeed, the Dems are still livid at what Comey did just before the election. They will never forgive him. Trump is Comey’s only chance of having a friend in DC.
We may soon find out if he is in the next chapter of A PATRIOT’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
In fact, one really wonders now in private, if the Democratic National Committee realized they’ve been sold a “bill of goods” by Barack Obama and under quiet (but intense) political pressure, Obama announces he’s selling his Washington, DC home and moving the whole family to southern California permanently, with his own two daughters admitted to either UCLA, Pepperdine or USC instead.
Good stuff as always. Thank you!
I have been saying this about Comey all over this site without much avail!! I believe Comey is FLUSHING OUT the traitors I believe he ALREADY knows who they are but needs proof, he is planting information to these VERY FEW to see if it gets to WP and NYT!!! I believe this story about his pushing back to DOJ was PLANTED!!! The story got out to NYT they NOW know WHO the traitors are!!!!
SOMETIMES GOING THROUGH THE BACK DOOR GETS BETTER RESULTS.
JARRETT: Valerie dictates a lot of (maybe all of) Obama's actions, it would not be surprising to find out Valerie dictated the details of the FISA operation. So-o-o-o-o.....did Valerie Jarrett have security clearance high enough to see (or even know about) a FISA warrant request, or that an actual warrant was issued? Now that's an investigation that should begin ASAP.....one that should certainly bear fruit. A bombshell in the making, for sure.
OBAMA: It is also entirely possible that Obama and his legal team may have perjured themselves before the FISA court by willfully withholding material information in order to manipulate the FISA court’s willingness to permit the government surveillance.
FALSIFYING GOVT DOCUMENTS would fall under the Crimes Act of 1958. Moreover, falsifying official documents is the criminal MO to hide larger crimes.
EXCERPT A person falsifying documents can be held criminally liable if they are deliberately acting with the intention of deceiving or defrauding another party.
Falsifying documents is a very serious offense and is generally classified as a felony. This means that a person charged with falsifying documents may be subject to the following legal penalties:
◾Having to pay a monetary fine
◾Incarceration in a prison facility
Depending on the gravity of the offense, as well as individual state laws, falsifying documents can result in a prison sentence of 5-10 years.
Also, if official government documents or govt authorities were involved, the legal penalties may be more severe. Legal penalties may increase with repeat offenses.
Many different types of acts can be considered as falsifying a document, including:
◾Altering or misrepresenting fact-based information
◾Stating false information when requested to provide truthful statements
◾Forging a signature
◾Using official letterheads without authorization
◾Knowingly using or distributing a fake document
The penalty for falsifying government documents is outlined in the Crimes Act of 1958.
And this will make them become more crazy and probably provoke them to recklessness. I fear for Trump’s safety with the intel community, they are not America friendly, they are the epitome of a bureaucratic infestation.
Mushrooms are grown in the dark, and fed “dung”.
They CALLED SNOWDEN a TRAITOR!!!! He warned us, he TOLD US THE DAMNED TRUTH!!! I NEVER DREAMED the NSA, & CIA could actually TAKE OVER our government and spy on the American people ALL American people this is so DAMNED SCAREY EVERYTHING in our lives today is under surveillance our cars, our TV’s, our phones, these BASTARDS can cause a car accident with the tech in your car pretty DAMNED SCAREY!!!!
9YearLurker wrote:
“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.”
That’s why he had meetings with his people at Mar A Lago.
They can go for a stroll outside & nobody can eavesdrop on them.
Yep—notice he hasn’t been to NY since his inauguration.
He has his really serious working meetings in Mar-a-Lago on the weekends.
https://www.aclu.org/map/stingray-tracking-devices-whos-got-them
“Stingray Tracking Devices: Who’s Got Them?”
“The map below tracks what we know, based on press reports and publicly available documents, about the use of stingray tracking devices by state and local police departments. Following the map is a list of the federal agencies known to have the technology. The ACLU has identified 71 agencies in 24 states and the District of Columbia that own stingrays, but because many agencies continue to shroud their purchase and use of stingrays in secrecy, this map dramatically underrepresents the actual use of stingrays...
Again, you hit it out of the ballpark. Great insight. Thanks!!
I love it !
Oh, I get it, and you’re right. Bannon has gone totally dark on communications in last two weeks, I think for that very reason.
This is a reassuring analysis, LS. I’m tempted to say, “as usual”, but given the complexity of this situation, this essay goes above and beyond your usual excellent and spot-on summaries. Thank you.
You know that scene they are touting of the “fight” between Trump & Bannon and there is a shot of Bannon pointing? I think he’s pointing to the camera saying, “Yeah, we know all about you.”
Amen to that!
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