Random Politics & Religion #27

How to Read Bob Mueller’s Hand

Based on what we know so far, here’s a former federal prosecutor’s expert read on where the Russian investigation is heading.
CNN

Good read on what is possible or likely to happen.

Openers:

Isn't that the show where a bunch of famous people pat each other on the back while alienating half of the country more and more every year?

I can't figure out why the ratings would be dropping, though. Maybe 15 minutes in Marketing 101 would solve the riddle.

Cnn yet again proove trump right on his wiretapping claim.

What a time to be alive.

They did. But I wouldn't go crowing about that as a win yet.

I'm sure it's going to be spun that way by Trump and his cadre.

But a few things about that. They weren't tapping him, but rather one of his associates. The approval for these types of surveillance are quite difficult to obtain. Meaning that the target of the surveillance is, while innocent until proven guilty, under high suspicion for serious illicit activity.

If Trump is, in fact, present in the information documented in this surveillance, that does not necessarily bode well for him from a legal standpoint, all things equal. Especially depending on the content of any conversations or other correspondence collected.

That said, all things are not equal, of course. Trump has made his entire career hiring aggressive lawyers that don't so much finesse the law as bludgeon it until they choke loopholes out of it they can use to his advantage. It works quite well, obviously.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Good for the country? Bad? Who knows.

But at least it's not boring!

Still no evidence of Trump Tower being wiretapped, nor Trump himself, this is all about Manafort, soooo what was Trump "right" about?

ummm manafort had an apartment in trump tower at the time they were wiretapping him...and I'm going to speculate he and trump talked occasionally...

According to the CNN thing that I watched last night it basically said Manafort was under high scrutiny and he has a residence in Trump Tower, ipso facto, there was surveillance at Trump Tower.

Trump isn't "right," in that they were observing him specifically but in that he may have been observed incidentally because he was in conversations/communications with Manafort, who was being observed.

Which is more than enough for his supporters.

Now, keep in mind this isn't a situation I've been keeping particularly close tabs upon; I watched a few videos last night because I was looking up something else entirely more relevant to me and this video began autoplaying and for the one time out of 600 that happens I went "Huh. Why not listen to this?"

But that's the gist of what I got. Trump may hate CNN something fierce but they were pretty straightforward in the video I saw, saying that while Trump may not have been 100% correct in what he said, he wasn't entirely wrong either about being observed in one fashion or another.

I love movies and television. I like actors. I think they're generally talented and pleasant to look at much of the time.

I didn't even *** realize this ***happened over the weekend. I remember being like 7 and watching the Oscars and Grammys going..."This is ***."

Milli Vanilli was catchy as hell, sure, but even if they weren't lip syching I knew it wasn't exactly the pinnacle of the songwriting arts...

In other words, you are hoping?

Vic. That funny feeling you're experiencing is your brain dusting off its critical thinking skills.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish here.

Do you want to win an internet argument or potentially have serious dirt on the President you dislike?

Because I'm not sure you understand that suggesting he *wasn't* recorded in some fashion talking to Manafort about this stuff is giving *him* plausible deniability.

This is one of those situations where I don't think people understand what they're arguing for, exactly.

Just a reminder. Listening in on your political opponent's campaign conversations is what they claimed (but couldnt prove) nixon wanted to do in watergate.

This scandal is huge.

no I just find it uncomfortable walking around with my head up ***.

I suppose that we could pretend that the fbi went to all that trouble to get the fisa warrant and then didn't run taps on his phone... or apartment... they are government workers after all.


right... I watched it this morning and thought about posting the link. but it's more fun this way...

You can always apply this to nausi.

The CNN article went out of its way to emphasize two things, everything that was done was completely legal, (debunking Trump's tweets) and there was no evidence anything happened at Trump Tower (also debunking Trump's tweets). Trump's own Justice Dept. has said nothing happened at Trump Tower, so again, what is Trump "right" about?

We have always known the two individuals that are in the most trouble are Manafort and Flynn (Flynn is probably going to jail), and to a lesser extent, Carter Page. They have been on Manafort for 3 years now, but Trump still brought him on, not very smart at all.

I was going to read the CNN article truly I was but I got distracted by hot asians next door.

You keep saying Manafort I read it as Manafont and think that we are talking about FFXI...

Maybe Manafort is a black mage working on behalf of the Russians to make FFXI great again.

one of key aspects of secret wiretaps under secret court orders is that nobody, and especially the person under scrutiny, know that they are happening to them...

What was going on with him and the Ukraine was easily discernable, all it would have taken was a vetting process. But then again, the same could be said about Mike Flynn, but Trump brought him on as well, despite very clear warnings from Congress.

I think I have dyslexia but with spell check it isn't that big of a deal !

'The Justice Department and the FBI have denied that Trump's own "wires" were tapped.'

which reminds me a lot of the Hillary Clinton on wiping email server: ‘Like with a cloth or something?’

maybe they mean they never tapped on them with their fingers...

'While Manafort has a residence in Trump Tower, it's unclear 'to vic' whether FBI surveillance of him took place there.'

The FBI also eavesdropped on Carter Page, a campaign associate that then candidate Trump once identified as a national security adviser.

I found how who Vic really is here you go:

https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

So you are saying when I take a cloth and wipe my hard drive it still has stuff on it...damn I'm going to had to hide all my midget porn some other way !

The best part about that Olberman book is that people think he is a joke. So him writing a book and saying it's not a joke is some sorta of meta. A meta that I can't even comprehend !

I mean I knew Vic was someone familiar but I didn't know we were in the presence of a semi famous person.

And I'm going to spill the beans I'm Rachel Maddow not a man not quite a woman.

and therein lies 'the rub' because it's not illegal to talk to Ukrainians...or Russians...as dastardly as they may seem on tv....

'A secret order authorized by the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) began after Manafort became the subject of an FBI investigation that began in 2014. It centered on work done by a group of Washington consulting firms for Ukraine's former ruling party, the sources told CNN.'

the surveillance was discontinued at some point last year for lack of evidence, according to one of the sources.

The FBI then restarted the surveillance after obtaining a new FISA warrant that extended at least into early this year.
Sources say the second warrant was part of the FBI's efforts to investigate ties between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives.