About The Author

SugarFree

SugarFree

Your Resident Narcissistic Misogynist Rape-Culture Apologist

392 Comments

  1. Old Man With Candy

    “Is there a way for them both to lose?”

    • Chafed

      If only.

    • Number.6

      ::Prays to SMOD::

  2. Hyperion

    The Democrats are going to release their own memo. I mean they have to create it first, then they’re going to release it. I wonder how many times the word ‘racist’ will be in there?

    • The Other Kevin

      I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t start with “I know this looks bad, but I can explain…”

      • WTF

        You likely just summed up their memo, only delivered in a word-salad of bullshit and demagoguery.

      • Mad Scientist

        I love you, HM.

      • WTF

        LOL

      • ChipsnSalsa

        I almost clicked on that, at work.

        *goes to the phone*

      • UnCivilServant

        Okay, but I’m not sure why we’re calling the Ghostbusters.

  3. Animal

    I’m gonna need more popcorn.

    • pan fried wylie

      We’re gonna need a bigger boatpopcorn.

    • Playa Manhattan

      “Committed to making the world better for my trans daughter and autistic son.”

      • Hyperion

        Fox is reporting that, but we know the memo is inaccurate per the FBI.

        OK, I can now start not taking this person seriously, forever.

      • robc

        Come on, the FBI would never lie. Its not like their is memo suggesting that they would.

      • Just Say'n

        The FBI didn’t even dispute the authenticity of what was said. They said that releasing the memo would damage intelligence gathering

      • WTF

        Exactly. The FBI never said the memo was inaccurate, but I guess that lie is all the left has right now.

      • Hyperion

        They said that stuff was omitted. Well, OK then, release that stuff. Waiting… *crickets*

      • WTF

        “We can’t, it’s classified, but it totes exonerates us! Really!”

      • Michael

        That’s like hitting the grievance powerball jackpot.

    • commodious spittoon

      I’m struggling to imagine what “material omissions” might exist that exonerates McCabe, Comey, Yates, or Rosenstein. Ace points out something else: not only was Steele a committed partisan, he was fired for violating agency rules by attempting to shop the memo around to media outfits. His firing was mentioned in none of their applications. Then they shopped it around themselves by briefing Trump (again, without mentioning its origins) so they could leak, not the substantiation of the memo, but the briefing as Serious Business. There is really no spinning or excusing that: it was a cynical effort to shape a partisan narrative around a fanciful, farcical document.

      • WTF

        And the only reason we know about this is because the arrogant fuckers didn’t bother to cover their tracks because everyone knew Hillary was going to win.

      • commodious spittoon

        Yep. I said in the other thread, the hysteria on the left makes a lot more sense when you understand it was fed by insiders credibly concerned about going to jail when she lost., and Democrat pols who understood the hit they’d take when these crimes came to light.

      • Cliche Bandit

        Isnt Steele a foreign citizen? Colluding with Russians? To manipulate our elections? weird

      • Number.6

        Foreign citizen, ex-intelligence officer. The kind of person that you don’t want to have seen hanging around your offices, if you’re “clean”.

  4. Just Say'n

    Good thing both parties reauthorized FISA warrants! That’s what pisses me off the most about this- the Republicans who are now saying “ermahgawd, the FBI used dubious information to attain a FISA” had literally just voted to reauthorize FISA a month ago.

    • Number.6

      We need common-sense warrant control!

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m sure there are tons of instances where the FBI used dubious information to attain a FISA that we’ll never hear about, because they involve us simple peasants.

      • Breet Pharara

        The entire system is set up to remove accountability. It’s shocking when people abuse something for their own gain when there’s no downside to it.

    • Swiss Servator

      Yeah, they will all stand around with the “who farted” look on their faces.

      YOU DID, TEAM RED IDIOTS!

      • Just Say'n

        What a worthless lot. Judge Napolitano theorized that they purposely released the memo after FISA was reauthorized so as not to upset that vote. We’re being played for fools, people!

      • Juvenile Bluster

        It wouldn’t have changed the vote. Without FISA, 3 billion Americans would be killed every day by terrorists.

      • Just Say'n

        50 billion, you bastard! Now you back the badge or you can git tha hell otta ere!

        I love this role reversal of Republicans saying “the police are corrupt!” and Democrats saying “you’re not a patriot for backing the FBI!”

      • Just Say'n

        * you’re not a patriot if you don’t back the FBI

      • AlexinCT

        He was right…

        Rand Paul pointed the same thing out on some talks how I saw him on.

      • Swiss Servator

        The one honest man in the Senate, holding up his lantern…

  5. Juvenile Bluster

    In the end, this looks like … really nothing.

    There was material information left out of a FISA memo regarding the source of the information in the Steele Dossier and the political biases contained therein.

    Every fucking day police get warrants, some of which end up in SWAT raids that kill people that leave out tons of material information (much more material than that), and nothing ever happens to the officers who put the warrant applications together.

    So yeah, it’s something that was done that is likely illegal, but why wouldn’t an officer of the law think he could do that, given that they do it every day?

    • Just Say'n

      That’s the crux of it. You can’t have a problem with bad actions of local police and then shrug-off the bad actions of the FBI and vice versa. Otherwise you become a joke like Balko

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Balko’s take on this has been an enormous disappointment, that’s for sure.

      • Just Say'n

        Anyone who reflexively sides with the FBI can never say that they believe in ‘liberty’.

      • invisible finger

        Balko’s only interested in fucking with the relative peons of law enforcement, he wants the big shots to be left alone.

        Christ, what an asshole.

      • Chipwooder

        Something something DC cocktail parties

      • antisthenes

        In fairness to Balko, when has the FBI been involved in grotesque violations of civil liberties in service to the powerful and authoritarian?

      • invisible finger

        Daily?

      • antisthenes

        Ok, I guess there was that time they burned a building full of children belonging to a religious minority, to make an example of those who do not properly respect the authority of the God-state. And COINTELPRO. And the time they tried convince civil rights leaders to commit suicide. And the time they provided the Clintons with dossiers on their political opponents. And the time they just hung around and trailed a couple of jihadis who were setting out to waste a bunch of cartoonists, not even interceding even after the jihadis got out and started shooting. And the time a material witness in a terrorism investigation was mysteriously shot in their custody. And…

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Ok. But what other Federal agency has been head by, not just 1, but 2 transgenders?

      • ChipsnSalsa

        most progressive agency EVAH

      • Number.6

        I thought Hoover was just a plain common-or-garden gay cross-dresser and otherwise, just like us normies.

      • Rasilio

        Hey, you left out Ruby Ridge and straight up assassinating that guy associated with the ranger station occupation

      • Number.6

        This would be the same FBI run originally by some guy named Hoover?

        Gee, I have no idea.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        According to wiki, the FBI was formed on July 26, 1908.

        So, every day since then.

    • Breet Pharara

      I’m just gonna comment here to break up your and Hyperion’s comment directly below.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      The Democrat spin is that “the FBI says it isn’t true”, which is the part of this that’s pissing me off. How the hell did we get to the point that the left (and Radley Balko) take the word of the FBI as unerringly true? The same FBI that lures mentally challenged people into fake terrorist attacks so they can claim they stopped terrorism, and the same FBI that sends letters to civil rights leaders telling them to kill themselves. That FBI.

      • Just Say'n

        From my understanding the FBI doesn’t even say it’s inaccurate they just don’t want to release it, because they say it would damage intelligence gathering

      • Breet Pharara

        I think the wording is that it omits key piece of information. I have no clue what information could transform that memo, or why I should believe the FBI, but that’s where we are.

      • WTF

        And Nunes said that information was redacted at the request of the FBI and the Democrats on the committee.

      • Hyperion

        #ReleaseRedactedPartsNow!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That would be by design. If there is redacted information, they can claim that it exonerates their actions and the faithful will buy it hook, line, and sinker. That’s all the wiggle room they need.

        Declassify it all. Frankly, I see nothing in that memo that should have been classified in the first place.

      • Hyperion

        It seems that the parts that were removed, was by request from the FBI. So it left out things that they argued should be removed and now they’re using that for an excuse for why it’s misleading. Trump should immediately call for all relevant information to be released. Then watch the FBI scramble to change their tune.

      • Chipwooder

        Yes, that’s what they said – that there are omissions that “affect the accuracy” of the memo.

      • Swiss Servator

        “Summarize those things that were left out”

      • Hyperion

        Release those things and set this all straight. *rolls eyes*

    • WTF

      That they used a phony dossier, paid for by the Clinton campaign, with false information that the FBI didn’t even attempt to confirm, because they knew it was false, to spy on an opposition candidate, and later to form the basis of a phony “collusion” investigation to try to overturn an election, is not really nothing.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        I’m just jaded. Like I said. Police officers lie with impunity on warrants every. single. day. Not only do they not get punished, judges almost never throw the warrants (and the evidence gathered therefrom) out after finding out the lies. Except for heavier circumstances, this is no different.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s no different, but it might not go away for them this time.

      • WTF

        This was an attempt to derail a presidential candidate, and then to overturn the results of a Presidential election. That’s a big fucking deal, in the immortal words of Joe Biden.

      • AlexinCT

        Which is why the left is so upset this is now out and will be in full damage control mode..

        Obama got away with what Nixon only dreamed of doing. And he did it to protect Clinton and himself (because Clinton told him he would go down with her if he screwed her over).

      • WTF

        The Mueller investigation, loaded up with Clinton partisans, is based on the phony dossier, which exposes the whole thing as a no-shit coup attempt by the Democrats. I think people don’t realize just how serious this shit is.

      • AlexinCT

        Some of us do, but we are in the minority because of the media’s campaign to protect that coup for the democrats. Some realize they have been exposed and will go into full damage control mode to protect their coup.

      • invisible finger

        That’s my feeling too. It isn’t a nothingburger, but a significant portion of bureaucrats and their sycophants want it treated as such.

        Basically, the same attitude Nixon had toward the Watergate scandal. But the media wasn’t as compromised then as it is now so Watergate wouldn’t go away.

      • WTF

        Hell, the media are basically just the propaganda arm of the DNC, with few exceptions, so they will work hard to spin this for the Democrats, if they can’t outright bury it.

      • Winston

        The media isn’t compromised they just hated Nixon and wanted him out and hate Trump and want him out.

      • Winston

        Seriously I recall reading an interview with Daniel Ellsberg that the NYT supported him in the Pentagon Papers because they hated Nixon since they lost, in his own words, “privileges” because of him.

      • invisible finger

        They at least had actual dirt on Nixon.

      • AlexinCT

        Not as much as they would have if they actually wanted to investigate Clinton and Obama…

      • antisthenes

        Alternatively, the media was exactly as compromised then, but reporting on Watergate happened to help their ambitions.

      • invisible finger

        The difference is in the former they were trying to expose information and in the latter they were trying to cover it up.

      • Winston

        Exposing Watergate harmed Nixon whom they hated so they did it. Covering up FBI misconducts helps Trump whom they hate so they do not want to do it.

      • invisible finger

        Obviously. But aiding and abetting coverups isn’t what a free press is supposed to be doing.

      • Winston

        *exposing FBI misconduct helps Trump*

      • Winston

        The Free Press have always been partisan hacks and quite willing to aid and abet coverups of their allies.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Hey, when you’re trying to stop The Rooskies from stealing an election on behalf of Literally Hitler so he can destroy the world with global warming, sometimes you’ve got to cut a few corners, you know?

    • Swiss Servator

      Look at the cast of characters…. If you wrote some political thriller with the husband of a campaign worker using a loon who drew something up for cash and you trooped it through a bunch of big wheels who all solemnly nodded that the Piss Hooker memo was right…then fire the guy a month after he spills to the press, for spilling to the press a second time…then trying to hide it all. You’d get the manuscript tossed in your face with a “are you fucking kidding me – too silly”.

      I am going to grow a beard, call myself Prince Kroptkin II, and go anarchist if this does not result in heads rolling.

      • WTF

        Will you be getting a new avatar for your new Prince Kroptkin II handle? Because the Democrats and the media will fight to the death to make sure noting much actually happens.

      • Swiss Servator

        I am not that old, nor am I bald…but this is the best one with full beard!

      • WTF

        Noice!

      • Mad Scientist

        You can’t just let those whiskers do their thing without some sort of top down guidance! This is anarchy!

      • Old Man With Candy

        You would look absolutely frightening in a beard. SP and I are going to encourage you.

      • Breet Pharara

        Can we work in the fact that a huge part of their downfall was the husband of an aid trying to hook up with little kids. That caused the FBI to be forced to keep the email scandal in the public eye for the news cycle directly before the election…because I think Weiner is my favorite character.

      • UnCivilServant

        This whole mess gets more fucked up the longer you look at it.

      • commodious spittoon

        that caused the FBI to be forced to keep the email scandal in the public eye for the news cycle directly before the election

        From what I’ve read, Comey sat on that information for nearly a month until the New York agents who discovered it began complaining about what looked like a slow-roll. He probably would have sat on it for another week and a half until the election was over.

      • Breet Pharara

        Yep, that’s what some places reported. The rank and file non-political guys rebelled to a degree and forced the issue. The point is that email scandal could well have swung the election, and if Hildog were queen, we’d know none of this.

        Really Weiner dick picks saved the Republic. /s

      • WTF

        God truly does work in mysterious ways!

      • AlexinCT

        This is a distinction we need to keep in mind: it looks like the FBI rank and file is the only reason Comey actually did what he did, and the corruption and political partisan behavior originates with the top men. The rank & file knew Clinton was guilty and needed to spend time in the pen, and when they saw the blind eye being turned, they threatened rebellion.

        The greatest success by the Obama administration was to weaponize the fed-gov, by putting cronies in charge of all the important government agencies, and then have them use the power of those agencies to fuck over the enemies of the left. They were hoping to hand over the most dangerous and powerful machine ever to Hillary to destroy the left’s enemies once and for all. Then Trump went and somehow won the rigged election Clinton was supposed to walk away with, and the shit hit the fan when they realized he would use that machine they left him on them.

        At the risk of doing what might amount to overkill, I still think the top brass at every US fed-gov agency should be removed from their post and replaced, just to restore some credibility that there isn’t a deep state running the country (or undermining it like they are doing now) because the left isn’t in charge.

        And for those that still have not had the epiphany can you imagine the shit that would now be going on had the Hildebeast won?.

      • AlexinCT

        Really Weiner dick picks saved the Republic

        The Fredo Corleone of the democratic party..

      • antisthenes

        I just like that whoever’s writing doesn’t even GAF about the obviously silly names of their characters. Sure, the guy who blows the whole thing up by sending out dick picks is named Weiner. Even naming the antihero POTUS character “Trump” is nearly as blatant as Hiro Protagonist. Sure, he’s a wildcard that always comes out on top, he runs casinos, whatever.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        More evidence we’re living in a sim.

      • UnCivilServant

        And who would believe this “Weiner” fellow would use such a lame screen name as “Carlos Danger”?

      • Chipwooder

        Well, Ron Mexico was already taken

      • Juvenile Bluster

        They’ll throw a couple of people under the bus (the Democrats will say this is bad and politically motivated) and nothing else will change.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        There will be no heads rolling, early retirements and reshuffling.

        All hail Prince Kroptkin II

      • wdalasio

        I am going to grow a beard, call myself Prince Kroptkin II, and go anarchist if this does not result in heads rolling.

        Good Afternoon, Your Highness.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        go anarchist

        *sets down milk crate full of Molotov cocktails. Hand Swiss a zippo and a pack of cigarettes*

    • Drake

      Well, it looks really bad, but bad stuff we all knew about.

      • antisthenes

        There are still a few ways it can get worse for the left:
        1) Documenting payments from Fusion GPS to journalists
        2) Being able to prove that Fusion’s work for Russia to remove sanctions and its work to help Hillary get elected crossed streams
        3) Being able to prove that Steele’s intelligence was not provided by random contacts making stuff up for money, but approved by the Kremlin in order to influence the election.
        4) Mounting a major investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation, which would not only include obstruction of justice charges for DOJ officials, but also possibly charging Hillary based on any remaining untainted evidence.
        5) Using the lost faith in the DOJ and intelligence officials to launch a new investigation of either the Uranium One or the Clinton Foundation

      • Number.6

        Item 3. could be permanently obfuscated. All it would take is a “mugging gone wrong”.

      • WTF

        Item 1 is totally unnecessary, They happily do that shit for free.

      • antisthenes

        “If you’re good at something, never do it for free”

      • antisthenes

        But seriously, while they would definitely write anything damaging about Trump for free, articles that undermine sanctions (the job Fusion was hired by the Russians to do) go against the Russia hysteria narrative, and don’t obviously serve the cause, so more inducement might be required.

  6. Hyperion

    I’m hearing people on the interwebs saying ‘meh, nothing there’. Really? Are you fucking kidding me? The Democrats now have to hope they can in some way delegitimize this, because if they can’t… Getting a FISA court order to spy on political foes through knowingly illegitimate means? Fuck, if that is not a big deal. No wonder they didn’t want this released. No wonder they didn’t want Trump elected. No wonder Hillary said they would all hang.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      Why would it be a big deal? Everyone from the FBI down to local police constables get warrants every day that leave out massive amounts of relevant information. But it happens to the proles, so who cares?

      Until we stop THAT, this means nothing. Police officers know they can do this with impunity. I’d hope that this would be the start of a change to that, but I’m no optimist.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, but they do that to us peons. They can’t actually do it to people with power without getting into trouble.

      • Playa Manhattan

        We have a special prosecutor dedicated to investigating interference in the election. Well, here it is.

      • Hyperion

        Exactly, when do McCabe and Rosenstein get indicted?

      • WTF

        Except he is actually dedicated to promoting the collusion hoax that was based on the fake dossier.

      • Michael

        Democrats have been pounding the whole “HE’S UNDERMINING OUR DEMOCRACY!” drum since 11/08/2016 when in reality they’re the ones who have been doing it the entire time. This funny business with the memo and whatnot may not exactly be some sort of divine retribution to avenge us proles, but I’ll take it anyway.

      • trshmnstr

        Progs project, it’s all they can do.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I sincerely hope that’s a misquote.

    • Hyperion

      That has to be satire. Because it does not sound like something Snowden would ever day.

      • WTF

        I also fail to see anything in the memo that is damaging to national security. Other than exposing the FBI’s malfeasance and incompetence.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Which is the damaging part. How can the plebes trust us with national security if they know the truth?

        *flips channel, goes back to watching the Super Bowl*

      • invisible finger

        As if 9/11 didn’t already show how useless the FBI already was.

        I suspect that the attitude is going to be that the FBI needs its funding tripled so that the bad actors can be discovered and removed.

      • Agent Cooper

        Richard Jewell would say hello if he could.

      • Drake

        I thought Mueller already did that during the Anthrax investigation when he brilliantly decided to focus the entire investigation into the bacterial attacks on virologist Steven Hatfill?

      • antisthenes

        Also, because it would have been trivial to RT him if he had actually said it, instead of writing a tweet that claims he said it.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      I doubt it. As far as I can find, this retweet is the only thing I’ve seen Snowden say on the subject

      Edward Snowden Retweeted
      Scary Immigrant
      ‏ @eparillon
      Jan 31

      i’m sure the memo is nonsense, but we are normalizing taking the word of law enforcement on the left in a way that is… bad

      • kbolino

        we are normalizing taking the word of law enforcement on the left in a way that is… bad

        Indeed. The counterculture, anti-establishment left is dead. They’ve gone from revealing and denouncing the abuses of the state to reveling in and encouraging them. The only question now though is, what happens next?

      • Winston

        Considering the French and Russian Revolutions and Cuba, China and Venezuela is that really a surprise?

      • kbolino

        No. It’s always about envy and hatred in the end.

      • WTF

        The only question now though is, what happens next?
        America continues to circle the drain into banana republic status.

      • AlexinCT

        This just feels inevitable with the current political class…

        Anyone here remember the days when the corrupt political class at least felt obligated to do things to keep the plebes happy?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I see a man realizing his position is as stable as Wily E Coyote looking down at a nonexistent ground.

      • Gazunga B.

        There’s more further down in Snowden’s feed.

        Edward Snowden

        Verified account

        @Snowden
        Feb 1
        More Edward Snowden Retweeted ?Jake Laperruque ?
        #TBT: I required the journalists who broke the 2013 domestic spying stories (as a condition of access) to talk with gov in advance of publication as an extraordinary precaution to prevent any risk of harm. Turns out our standard of care was higher than the actual Intel committee.

        Snowden’s point seems to be that he required journalists to talk to the intelligence community prior to release. They had to listen to concerns but didn’t have to abide by them. Whereas the Intel Committee apparently refused to hear some of the concerns before release… not sure that distinction really matters.

        Either way, TDB’s tweet is framed in a super-disingenuous fashion (not surprising).

      • cyto

        Anyone who claims that anything in that memo should be classified should be run out of town on a rail.

        The “Top Secret” designation crossed out at the top should be a burning badge of shame. I’d really like for someone to explain why anything on that piece of paper should be classified.

    • Zunalter

      So…the guy who gave details on a ton of secret intelligence programs is saying someone else is sloppy with state secrets when the state secret is that some political calculations were made regarding FISA warrants?

    • ChipsnSalsa

      That is an impressive amount of stupid in such a short article.

  7. The Other Kevin

    This doesn’t exactly shake me to my core, like that one guy said, but it’s still pretty bad. If they have the evidence to back it up it’s going to be REALLY bad.

  8. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Much of the info presented in the memo is really just a rehash of what people in the know have at least suspected for quite some time. The bullshit dossier was used to get a bogus FISA warrant? Upper level people at the FBI are corrupt and rank partisans? Well no shit! It might wake up some of the normies and at least put a shadow of doubt in the law enforcement worshippers though.

    • robc

      That is my take, it confirms what we already knew.

    • Hyperion

      The worst part is that the same Dossier was used to start up the Mueller clown show. That’s our money being wasted.

      • AlexinCT

        I think this is one of the things the left is most scared about. It basically not only delegitimizes the whole “Russian collusion” fantasy, but destroys any credibility for the Mueller crew, and drastically damages that hack group’s ability to actually manufacture something that would allow the people that are pissed they couldn’t steal the election for Hillary, to make real their impeachment fantasies.

    • Naptown Bill

      Yeah, this isn’t going to result in much, I’m afraid. People who think this is a big deal already suspected most of it, as you say. Then there are people who are going to think, “What’s the big deal? The FBI investigated Donald Trump because some guy had evidence that he was involved with Russian spies.” And then there are people who actually know what a FISA warrant is and understand why this is ethically problematic to say the least who will basically see this as a necessary evil for the greater good of protecting us from a Trump presidency.

      • AlexinCT

        I think the distribution to a broader audience and the following distrust in the fed agencies, will basically massively hamper the lefts agenda to manufacture an impeachment.

  9. Playa Manhattan

    FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN OUR DEMOCRACY!!!!

    “Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.”

    Oh, carry on then.

    • Breet Pharara

      SOOOOO……nuke the UK? I’m down.

      • Hyperion

        Someone has to save them from themselves. Running around in a burka is no way to live. Nuke it from space.

      • Number.6

        The only real remaining vestiges of the “Special Relationship” is the nod-and-a-wink agreement that the CIA and NSA will give the UK money and technology so that GCHQ can spy on US Citizens effectively.

        In return, the CIA and NSA will perform the same upon UK citizens. This is the underlying principle of PRISM and the reality for its two primary members.

      • Breet Pharara

        *nods dumbly*
        So, we can nuke them then?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me, a true one.

      • Playa Manhattan

        It’s not a theory, it’s a matter of fact.

        We route communications intercepted domestically to the UK to circumvent laws against spying on our own citizens.

      • Raven Nation

        Also from GCHQ and the US to the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in New Zealand and probably to ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organization).

      • Number.6

        It’s my understanding that the bulk of the ‘good stuff’ is handled between GCHQ and CIA/DIA. GCSB, ASIO and Canada’s CSE (along with about 20 other countrys’ equivalent agencies) are involved, but it seems as though it’s on a slave/master basis.

        They’re thrown some chum for specific assistance on predefined projects.

        In many ways, there’s nothing in and of itself that is radical about PRISM. It’s information sharing, just as allies (and non-aggressive rivals) have done for decades, except with the electronic surveillance added on the top, it becomes far worse for individual freedom.

    • Chipwooder

      As South Park might say, America’s oldest</em enemy

  10. invisible finger

    TOP MEN SECRETS

    • Playa Manhattan

      SETEC ASTRONOMY

      • Not Adahn

        Who knew that Dan Ackroyd wasn’t acting in that movie?

      • Gustave Lytton

        SEPTIC ASSTRONOMY

      • UnCivilServant

        Beats SEPTIC GASTRONOMY

      • Gustave Lytton

        TOO MANY SNARKERS

      • Not Adahn

        I didn’t know you could do that in Mexico City!

      • Swiss Servator

        Baby, please. I am NOT from Havana!

  11. LJW

    Where is the classified info that was going to destroy our nation as the Democrats seemed to imply?

    • UnCivilServant

      It makes them and their swamp agents look bad.

    • Playa Manhattan

      I feel the way I do when I’m yelling at my 9 year old.

      “And THEN, what did you think was going to happen?!?!”

      • commodious spittoon

        “Subvert the IC and our top investigators and prosecutors, DAD.”

      • Brett L

        If he’s anything like me at 9 — eat a sammich and play video games?

      • Festus

        Eat a sammich, play with the cat, endure some light-weight bullying and dream of Lisa Collicut? That’s me at 9.

    • Hyperion

      They meant destroy their jobs and reputation. The FBI says that their is stuff omitted. Well then, release it. The GOP should suggest that and then watch them scramble and say they can’t because it would further jeopardize national security. Just wait, it’s coming.

    • Winston

      That the FBI might not be incorruptible?

      • UnCivilServant

        The Agency that Ran COINTELPRO? Say it ain’t so!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You’ll regret your cynicism when the Russian tanks are rolling down Flatbush Ave. tomorrow morning.

    • Ken Shultz

      Oh, it’s right there.

      It’s just that the FBI is guilty of doing everything for Hillary the Democrats accused the Russians of doing for Trump.

      • Drake

        The are some projecting motherfuckers.

      • Ken Shultz

        I don’t see how the whack-a-doodles are going to explain this away.

        This might be the point where they all just turn on Hillary. She’s yesterday’s news anyway.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        Hillary could reveal she eats babies to keep up her strength and the establishment dems would still support her running in 2020.

      • Drake

        I sure hope so – that would be incredibly fun.

      • ron73440

        They’re not explaining it away, looks like they are going with the old”it’s old news, there’s nothing new here, and it’s not a big deal” plan

      • Breet Pharara

        moveon.org

      • R C Dean

        This might be the point where they all just turn on Hillary.

        Hillary can take Obama and his team down with her. He knew about her illegal email server. Powers and others in the White House were unmasking Republicans in FISA wiretaps. He issued an order after Trump was elected to make it easier to distribute (and thus leak) FISA info.

      • antisthenes

        I think some people speculated that Powers wasn’t actually behind the unmasking, but that someone else (e..g. Rhodes) was using her name. Following that thread could get interesting.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Now that I would believe. Rhodes is a slimy little weasel.

      • Ken Shultz

        You’re right.

        Now that I think of it, one of the things that came out during the email investigation was that Obama had sent classified emails to her under an alias–suggesting that he knew her server wasn’t legit.

        So . . .

        I guess they’ll go to the wall for her.

    • antisthenes

      They didn’t mean our nation, they meant their nation, ie the corrupt, feckless, self-dealing, socially inbred class of oligarchs that circulate between Big Business, Big Government, Big Para-government, and Big Media. And occasionally swim upstream to maintain the corruption of the Big Universities than spawn them.

  12. Ken Shultz

    The FBI sucked three of Hillary’s five dicks, and now they can suck my dick.

    • commodious spittoon

      Or the Babylon Bee:

      Nation Fondly Remembers Time When Liberals Advocated For Government Transparency

      Also,

      Hilarious: Mike Pence Put Super Glue On Democrats’ Seats Before State Of The Union

      God Rescinds Blessing On America After Learning Of Tide Pod Challenge

      Jordan Peterson Convinces Pile Of Clean Laundry To Sort Itself Out

      • Just Say'n

        That first one is really good

    • Drake

      Their next few tweets are great too:

      The Onion
      ‏Verified account @TheOnion
      16m16 minutes ago

      Breaking: Nunes Memo Exposes Deep Bias, Corruption In Devin Nunes https://trib.al/w03J0Qh

      The Onion
      ‏Verified account @TheOnion
      1h1 hour ago

      Scott Pruitt Orders EPA Employees To Stay In Office Over Weekend While It’s Being Fumigated https://trib.al/pKjPsev

    • Playa Manhattan

      I’m very pinterested.

      • Florida Man

        Yeah you are!

      • Playa Manhattan

        Women’s soccer uniforms should be more like volleyball uniforms.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I like the way you think and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

    • LJW

      Makes since her husband is in Orlando

      • LJW

        Baaa stupid auto correct **sense**

      • Florida Man

        It made since to me.

      • UnCivilServant

        I made cents out of what he said.

      • Number.6

        Yeah, but the whole thing still stinks – but I can’t quite make out the scents.

    • Sour Kraut

      Women’s soccer stars are hot. I’m not sure she’s even top ten material.

      Also, love the name “Orlando Pride” — playing to their core lesbian audience.

      • Florida Man

        Oh there is plenty of lesbian eye candy at the games. Also regular lesbians, but you take the good with the bad.

  13. UnCivilServant

    Oh dear, it’s Groundhog’s Day – does that mean we’re going to be releasing the memo again tomorrow?

    • commodious spittoon

      It’ll be memos and counter-memos until Bill Murray fucks Andie MacDowell.

      • AlexinCT

        NOYCE!

    • Juvenile Bluster

      It will repeat until Donald and Hillary fall in love.

      • LJW

        My God those would be ugly babies.

      • Mojeaux

        Web Hubbell isn’t exactly GQ material, either…

      • Number.6

        Ugly sociopath girls need them some lovin’ too!

      • Playa Manhattan

        *turns Swiss over on his side, cracks another beer*

      • mexican sharpshooter

        While he’s down.

        *Hands Playa a sharpie*

      • Chipwooder

        *SugarFree, Mr. SugarFree, please pick up the white courtesy phone*

      • Lord Humungus

        With a follicle-scraping screech, the Hair launched itself toward the malodorous pit of Hillary’s power…

      • Swiss Servator

        *wakes up, see this, faints gain*

    • antisthenes

      No, it means we have six more weeks of hyperventilating about Russia, while ignore the one actual tangible Russian connection to election tampering.

  14. Lord Humungus

    So was DJT really wiretapped? You know, the statement that just about everyone in the media mocked?

    • UnCivilServant

      They didn’t physically tap his wires, they intercepted his communications.

      • Lord Humungus

        ah – that’s okay then. /s

      • Playa Manhattan

        Well, actually….

      • Chipwooder

        Hah, that was the best bit of obfuscatory bullshit in this whole fiasco – the media en masse snickering at Trump saying “wiretap” just because the surveillance was conducted using other means.

      • Breet Pharara

        God I wish I could remember the phrase. When Trump said something like Hillary”acid washed” her server or something. The entire media laughed. It was bleachbit you moron.

    • Playa Manhattan

      His wires were tapped.

    • Number.6

      The whole need to sneak in and set wires in the walls went away with The Lives of Others. There’s a floor of black boxes sitting in the CO down on 42nd that gets set up with the circuits to tap, and when.

      There’s no real smoking gun here, because in a practical sense, we’re all wiretapped. The only question is whether they’re recording and analyzing what they capture.

    • invisible finger

      Does a gifted Amazon Echo count?

      • Swiss Servator

        “Alexa, Diet Coke…now!”

    • R C Dean

      the statement that just about everyone in the media mocked?

      Even though the NYT had a front-page story on his inauguration day that was about what the wiretaps supposedly uncovered. Even used the word “wiretap” if memory serves.

      • tarran

        [In] the side wall, within easy reach of Winston’s arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

    • UnCivilServant

      It looks like he pissed on the map.

      • UnCivilServant

        “I’d rather not”

        /Bartleby

      • Chipwooder

        I thought it was “I would prefer not to”?

      • UnCivilServant

        I last read that boring story in High School. The only other thing I got out of it was the word ‘Scrivener’

      • Chipwooder

        Same here. I only remember it because my junior and senior year English teacher loved to answer questions with that phrase.

      • Just Say'n

        You made my day, Swiss. Thank you

      • Swiss Servator

        Where on EARTH did you find that?!

      • Sour Kraut

        Palin’s Buttplug’s home page?

      • A Leap at the Wheel
  15. Michael

    CNN would really like everyone to know that the memo is DISPUTED and HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL.

    • Just Say'n

      But the dossier is perfectly legit

    • WTF

      “PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!”

    • Private Chipperbot

      Ugh. Stuck in airport with CNN everywhere. I need a drink.

      • UnCivilServant

        What’s their current spin direction?

        Can we attach a dynamo to them to produce clean electricity?

      • Number.6

        All that spittle flying around would make electricity generation a little dangerous.

      • UnCivilServant

        We use water-driven turbines all the time, we know how to separate the motive force from the generator proper and keep it watertight.

  16. Lord Humungus

    Powerline’s take

    Summary:

    The Intelligence Committee memo obviously outlines a major scandal that indicts principal figures in the FBI, including James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Sally Yates and Rod Rosenstein, unless the latter two officials were unaware of the fraud that was being perpetrated on the federal court. Whether some of those involved should go to prison would require a careful examination of relevant federal statutes.

    The memo leaves much unsaid. The timing is unclear, at least to me. It sounds as though the FBI continued to renew its FISA warrant long after it had terminated its relationship with Steele and knew, or should have known, that his information was bogus. Why? Did the FBI tell the FISA court in these renewal applications that it had terminated its relationship with Steele, or that it had been unable to corroborate his claims? Presumably not.

    Also, we don’t know what was done with the information that was collected about Carter Page–and, of course, about anyone with whom he communicated. This is where the enormous number of “unmasking” requests by Obama officials like Susan Rice come in. Did the Obama administration use the ill-gotten FISA warrants to spy, not only on Carter Page, but on others who had some relationship with Trump, or even Trump himself? Did the Obama administration pass information obtained from improper surveillance on to the Clinton campaign, or leak it to the press after the election?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Whether some of those involved should go to prison would require a careful examination of relevant federal statutes. conviction.

      • Number.6

        It’s a shame that all the actors in this sorry story aren’t held to the same standards as Scooter Libby then.

      • Suthenboy

        Not gonna happen. The reason for all of the cover up is the Chocolate Jesus. Dig into this too much and his name is going to come up, guaranteed. Start pulling that string and a lot more than this will come unraveled. The Obama admin was essentially a criminal organization.

    • AlexinCT

      The dnc operatives with bylines don’t think any of this is relevant and will make sure this story is spun in a way it won’t hurt the democrats…

  17. Hyperion

    I have to ask a question and hope that someone here with more knowledge on federal protocol than I do, can answer. There are people now saying that Trump cannot fire Rosenstein or it would create a Constitutional crisis because it would put Trump as ‘above the law’. So I just have to assume that they are full of shit, but I don’t want to assume. Can anyone fire Rosenstien or is there something in place to prevent him from being fired?

    • Number.6

      He could be prosecuted and jailed. It’s hard to do that job from a prison cell.

      Far easier is to encourage him to resign so he can spend more time with his family.

      • Hyperion

        Ok, but what I really would like to know, is can Trump actually fire him or direct his boss to fire him?

      • WTF

        Yes, Rosenstein and his boss serve at the pleasure of the President.

      • Hyperion

        So how can people be so delusional to think that if someone fires their employee, that is above the law and a national crisis? Oh yeah, the same people who think you can impeach a president because you don’t like that president.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Technically, you can impeach for anything. It’s a political action, not a criminal one.

      • Number.6

        All you need is a plausible “conduct unbecoming” accusation that could pass muster with congress.

        Under the right circumstances, “Deep pan *is* pizza” would qualify.

    • invisible finger

      Don’t have to fire him. Just tell him he should resign if he doesn’t want his family or himself prosecuted.

    • kbolino

      If he works for the executive branch, he can be fired. This was settled back when they failed to remove Andrew Johnson from office after impeaching him.

      • kbolino

        In case you don’t know the history, Johnson was Lincoln’s VP who took over after the assassination. He was a Southern Democrat (this was back when unity tickets were still a thing, although it didn’t do any good in this case, what with the Civil War breaking out and all). Johnson was opposed to much of the Radical Republican agenda and wanted to remove some of Lincoln’s holdovers from his administration (principally Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War). Congress (dominated by Republicans, Southerners being unable to vote at the time) passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required the President to get the Senate’s approval to remove someone whom the Senate had previously approved. Johnson vetoed it, Congress overrode his veto, and he fired Stanton anyway. The House impeached Johnson but the Senate failed to convict him and he remained. The Supreme Court later took the issue up in Myers_v._United_States finding that the President has the power to remove officials from the executive branch without consulting Congress.

  18. Just Say'n

    https://twitter.com/willwilkinson/status/959493542069657605

    Ron Paul can’t speak at the ‘Libertarian’ Party convention, because this idiot is what ‘libertarianism’ is really about.

    “Who cares if a warrant is based on dubious information by biased actors?”

    • ChipsnSalsa

      I looked at it cross eyed as well and it still didn’t make scents.

      • Suthenboy

        OH, it makes scents alright.

    • Breet Pharara

      What?

      “Either partisan motives are generally disqualifying or they aren’t. If they are, everyone is disqualified.”

      Literally everyone is bias about every situation so no one can be believed. Is that what he’s arguing.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        That seems to be it. It isn’t the partisan motivations so much though, it’s letting those influence the investigation and lying based on those motivations. Leaving out info on the FISA applications that is favorable to the target is a lie of omission, it’s that simple.

      • R C Dean

        Literally everyone is bias about every situation so no one can be believed.

        Including him, I guess.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I love his principles are universal if it works for me assertion.

    • Winston

      wouldn’t the fbi have independently investigated and verified or debunked the claims made in the dossier?

      How do we know this?

      It obviously doesn’t matter *why* somebody was motivated to discover incriminating information. The question is whether it’s actually incriminating

      fruit of the poisoned tree?

      • R C Dean

        It obviously doesn’t matter *why* somebody was motivated to discover incriminating information.

        I think he misspelled “manufacture”.

        Meaning comes from context. Information that is “incriminating” in one context is not in another. The motivation of the person providing the information is part of the context, as it determines how they frame the information. For example:

        My hospital pays $700K to a surgeon. If that’s the only fact on offer, we are in big trouble. However, if its paid under a valid employment agreement for services rendered, its a big nothing. I run into this all the time. Something that looks really bad on initial reports turns into a nothingburger when you get the rest of the story.

      • Zunalter

        The ends justify the means? Okay then.

      • robc

        Utilitarians, whether libertarian, or claimed libertarian, or not, always support the ends justifying the means.

    • Chipwooder

      I’m looking forward to Johnny Liberaltarian’s response to this

      Will Wilkinson ?

      Verified account

      @willwilkinson
      11m11 minutes ago
      More
      Totally. It obviously doesn’t matter *why* somebody was motivated to discover incriminating information. The question is whether it’s actually incriminating.

      0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      Reply Retweet Like 1
      End of conversation
      New conversation

      Athena
      @1trueathena
      18m18 minutes ago
      More
      Replying to @willwilkinson
      So you’re fine with trump’s DoJ listening to Kamala 2020 on the basis of some hearsay from Russians and British exspies? Okay then.

      • Lord Humungus

        Well that’s a nice police state you got going there, Mr.Wilkinson

      • tarran

        The Niskanen center promotes soft facism. I’m not joking. If you read their articles – God help me as I do – you discover that they are all about the means of production being in private hands, with dramatic restrictions as to how the owners can use their property to ensure that things are used in a way that is for the benefit of the public.

        Ludwig von Mises famously used the following metric to divide free economies from planned ones, and it was the freedom of capital markets. Guess on which side of that divide the Niskanen center has planted their flag?

      • Suthenboy

        How is that soft? Sounds like run-of-the-mill fascism to me.

      • R C Dean

        They don’t dress well enough to be even run of the mill fascists.

      • Chipwooder

        They would NEVER be stylish enough for snazzy Hugo Boss uniforms.

      • tarran

        The handcuffs are upholstered with soft pink felt and the security services are permitted only to stomp your toes and not any other part of your body, and their boots they wear have to be certified as hobnail free by a near-sighted quality assurance inspector who is only allowed to view them from a distance.

      • kbolino

        restrictions as to how the owners can use their property to ensure that things are used in a way that is for the benefit of the public

        It is always odd to me how the government knows what’s good for the public, but businesses that directly serve the public, don’t.

      • tarran

        Sarcasmic figured it out. The public is everyone else but you.

      • UnCivilServant

        What became of him and his three canned replies?

      • tarran

        I’ve heard the story third hand and I’m not sure my understanding is 100% accurate.

        1) He won’t sign up for glibs because he thinks we are elitists.
        2) He burned some bridges on the reasonid email group and by mutual agreement between him and the group admins is no longer on the group. Nor will he be attending gatherings.
        3) The last time I wandered over to TOS he was actively commenting, so he’s still around.

      • trshmnstr

        He burned some bridges on the reasonid email group

        Do what?? There’s an email group?

      • Tonio

        That group is Reasonoids. Tarran left out the second oh.

        They are good people, but I’ve only logged in once or twice.

      • Number.6

        Elitists? *snort*

        You guys even let me in here.

      • Not an Economist

        Didn’t Sarcasmic have some heavy duty personal issues about the time of the Great Split? I saw on the TOS recently (my work has this site blocked), that he said he was depressed.

      • Breet Pharara

        “Totally. It obviously doesn’t matter *why* somebody was motivated to discover incriminating information. The question is whether it’s actually incriminating.”

        I mean, that is true, but if you know someone is bias it would behoove you to fact check them a little bit harder. There were many factual errors in the dossier as well as no actual verification of any events other than the most trivial. Not to mention the actual thing people are complaining about is hiding the clear red flags to make sure you get the warrant.

  19. UnCivilServant

    Lulz

    .@realDonaldTrump has surrendered his constitutional responsibility as Commander-in-Chief by releasing Nunes’ unredacted, classified memo. His decision undermines our national security and is a bouquet to his friend Putin. pic.twitter.com/kdUgIrCE6l

    — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) February 2, 2018

    Methinks Nancy didn’t read it.

    • Hyperion

      She did, but she forgot what it said a minute later. She thinks it’s about Bush.

      I just had another thought on the memo. Seeing how bad it looks right away for certain people at the FBI, McCabe’s sudden departure does look like he was forced out.

    • Suthenboy

      I never know how to begin critiquing Pelosi. Everything she says is just gibberish.

      Go home Nancy.

    • Breet Pharara

      Hey cunt, I’ll pay you a million dollars if you can explain in detail what national security risks are increased by releasing this memo.

      • Pan Zagloba

        “Ah, but if I explained that, I’d be guilty of the same crime!”

    • Michael

      Is that…real?

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s a real Twit taken from Twitter.

        Beyond that, I can’t say.

      • Michael

        That woman is an honest to goodness bimbo if there ever was one.

    • SugarFree

      Hands were probably shaking too hard and her handlers let her go back to her easy chair to slowly sink back into catatonic dementia.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      a bouquet?

      • UnCivilServant

        *shrugs*

        I didn’t write it.

    • Number.6

      She’s been having her ghostwriters working night and day to craft that, and imprint it in her short term memory.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Memory is often triggered by smell. Maybe that’s why she called it a bouquet.

  20. Juvenile Bluster

    James Comey‏Verified account @Comey

    That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.

    *headdesk*

    • Hyperion

      Sounds like someone needs clean underwear.

    • Drake

      destroyed trust: He ought to give himself some credit.

      doing their jobs
      : Using dirty tricks to destroy Trump and support big leftist government.

    • antisthenes

      I can’t wait to see James Comey spend the rest of his life in prison. What a verminous little turd.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        I would say the same thing, but I doubt they would house him with the general population.

    • Gustave Lytton

      This is the former FBI head? He sounds and writes like a whiny teenager.

      • UnCivilServant

        He literally signed off on misdeeds. His head is on the chopping block, and he’s liable to be at the front of the line of scapegoats.

      • antisthenes

        And since his machinations are the reasoning behind the Mueller investigation, it will basically tank it. And when the investigation is shut down, we will drown in prog tears again, as though it was Salt Day 2016.

      • Hyperion

        I already have my orphans building more tear barrels and stacking them even higher, 24/7. There’s not more time left to give them an hour a day off or let them eat any gruel rations.

      • Drake

        Look at his resume – he has been a fixer on every Clinton scandal for 20 years. Before Hillary and her extreme carelessness…

        – Deputy Special Counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee

        – Prosecutor in the Marc Rich and Sandy Berger cases (kept both from spilling over to point any blame on the Clintons)

        – On the Board of Directors, he fixed the HSBC money laundering investigation so Loretta Lynch and Hillary weren’t named

    • commodious spittoon

      Idiot thinks he can corral media attention through Twitter like Trump. Dude: shut up and talk to your lawyer.

    • kbolino

      Is he really complaining that it’s not his own misdeeds, but rather the revealing of them, that is the problem?

    • Hyperion

      Scum to the very end, apparently.

    • WTF

      Christ, what an asshole.

  21. kinnath

    During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS.

    So did Fusion GPS sign off on the delivery of this information to the FBI? Or did Ohr’s wife leak work products from her employers to the FBI without permission? Or did Ohr steal work products from his wife without her knowing?

    • R C Dean

      I’m pretty sure Fusion hired her because she gave them a back channel to the FBI.

      • kinnath

        Right. Still seems like an important part of the story to me.

      • cyto

        DOJ, not FBI. He’s a Deputy Attorney General. And he was actively coordinating with Steele both before and after the FBI quit working with him because he was talking to the press.

        It is a pretty huge deal. Particularly if the rumors about Fusion GPS being paid not only for creating the dossier, but for publicizing it and marketing it. That would mean that Clinton paid this lady to back door information into the DOJ and push for them to spy on Trump.

  22. commodious spittoon

    Hey, remember when a credulous low-level Trump campaign staffer with no authority or sway was goofed by a Brit about a Russian source who promised election-changing consequences? Remember when that was the Worst Thing Ever and proof of Trump’s collusion? I ‘member.

    • commodious spittoon

      More proof that politics since 2016 is lazy Dan Brown-level fiction.

      • Breet Pharara

        If his name were Patsy Mcgee then you might be on to something.

      • Zunalter

        lazy Dan Brown-level fiction.

        redundant.

      • cyto

        There’s a reason I like hanging around here. That guy is the worst writer I’ve ever read. A friend at work gave me his copy of “Digital Fortress”, thinking that I would like it because it has computers.

        Easily the worst writing I’ve ever slogged through. I hated, hated, hated that book. It was so bad that I subconsciously unfriended that guy,.

  23. Chipwooder

    OK, so the big pushback now regards this sentence from the memo: “The Papadopoulos information triggered the start of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok.” Clowns like Rick Wilson are seizing on that and braying that the memo’s entire premise is false because Nunes is saying that Papadopoulos, not the dossier, was the reason the investigation happened in the first place.

    Correct me if I’m wrong here, though – wasn’t the claim that the spying was prompted by the dossier, not the investigation as a whole? IOW, the point of contention is not that the FBI was investigating Page because of the dossier, but that they used what they knew for a fact to be unsubstantiated oppo research about a rival from a political campgain as a pretext for a FISA warrant to spy on an American citizen?

    • UnCivilServant

      Any quibble in a legal shitstorm.

    • Chipwooder

      Also, just from an Occam’s Razor perspective, if there was such an easy “Ha-ha, you see? It’s all bullshit!” reveal in the memo, why exactly were the Dems so frantic to keep it under wraps?

      • Zunalter

        Yes. It is either a serious breach of our national security secrets, or a wholly concocted lie-fest aimed at protecting our Russian manchurian president. Not both.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    This just occurred to me as I was doing my half-assed deadlifts:

    Trump is going to come out of this smelling like a rose.

    Just like Inspector Clouseau; having tripped and fallen off a roof while leering through the maid’s bedroom window, he lands on a trampoline and is catapulted through an upstairs window to demolish a priceless grandfather’s clock, revealing it to be the hiding place of the stolen diamond tiara.

    • Swiss Servator

      … I’d like to see that in video.

      • Number.6

        You’re more likely to see the footage of ALP with extreme flatulence in video.

    • Number.6

      Accidental Libertarian President strikes again!

  25. ron73440

    I’m starting to really lose faith in the people.

    It started with Clinton when he admitted to lying about sex with Monica and my immediate thought was”He’s done”

    But apparently most people didn’t care.

    I look at this and it’s the same thing.

    I see so many of the same stupid comments that boil down to TEAM, TEAM, TEAM!!!

    What will it take for people to stop and realize how fucked the system is?

    • Number.6

      When they and their immediate families become the fuckees. And maybe not even then.

    • Mad Scientist

      They are more afraid of what will replace it than the fucked system they know.

      • Number.6

        You ascribe a level of awareness to the public which is at odds with ron’s and mine.

      • ron73440

        I’m not even sure that it’s fixable at this point. Everyone loves their team and is sure the other team is evil in the flesh.

        I’m guilty of this a little bit, in general I don’t like Team Red, but I HATE Team Blue.

      • Breet Pharara

        Matt Stone: “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals”

      • Chipwooder

        Words of wisdom

    • The Other Kevin

      There are people complaining because they got a tax break and they are taking home more money every paycheck. I don’t think it will happen.

    • tarran

      First, you are right, those are all evidence that society is fucked. A society where the broad mass of people are happy to tolerate oppression under the color of lies rapidly becomes a dystopia.

      However, the zeitgeist is in the favor of a massive backlash. Look at the Jordan Peterson Channel 4 interview. Look at the reaction. They suppressed the decent people. And the decent people thought they were alone and isolated. They were demoralized.

      And now they are finding each other. They are finding each other in ways that our masters are helpless to prevent.

      The next decade is going to be scary.

      • Swiss Servator

        Everyone – we fight back, the State apparat defends itself…

      • tarran

        For everyone. I’m hopeful that we are in the darkest time before the dawn. I am hopeful we will see a massive social revolution that will end up with greater liberty. But even the best social revolution should terrify everyone. Because the process is going to have some pretty horrific elements. Guys like Lavoy Filicum getting shot while surrendering. Antifa rampaging.

      • UnCivilServant

        Hrmmm…

        Note to self, buy ammo.

      • Pan Zagloba

        Trump won the election. Trump tried to use the mandate of it just like any president before him did. The resistance that arose within and without government is, I’m willing to say, unprecedented. The lesson is “vote all you like, you’re getting what WE want.”

        The only possible response to it is giving up or violence. Giving up is easier. Because violence won’t be “bold individualists vs collectivists” – you live in a multicultural society now. You’ll start understanding how Lebanon or Yugoslavia ended up as ‘everyone vs everyone’ clusterfuck.

      • commodious spittoon

        For me, for one. It goes both ways: socialism used to be a political swear word. Now it’s bandied about by people who should know better to earn the support of people who don’t.

      • ron73440

        True, hell, look at this website. I have never in real life met another person that had freedom as a first principle.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “I have never in real life met another person that had freedom as a first principle.” Well Ron, it seems to me that they have no principles at all then

      • Pan Zagloba

        God’s will. Loyalty to one’s liege. Obedience to the Party. Race first.

        These are all principles. They may not be good, but they can be principles nonetheless.

      • whahappan

        Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.

      • Agent Cooper

        There is liberty, and then there is everything else.

    • Sean

      It started with Clinton when he admitted to lying about sex with Monica

      I really didn’t give a fuck about that. This current situation, however, makes my blood boil.

      • kbolino

        I dunno, it seems kinda relevant.

        Clinton got away with lying.

        Martha Stewart, and a good many people a lot less famous, went to jail for it.

        There is a double standard.

      • Sean

        I get that double standard.

        However, the FBI working to subvert an American election is a whole different kettle of fish. It shows how corrupt and brazen they’ve (bureaucrats & politicians) grown with their unchecked power.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, I never gave a fuck who Willy was screwing in the Whitehouse. That’s irrelevant as far as the rule of the law and justice goes. It’s just moral preening from the right, nothing more.

        But, collusion between the Democrat party, the FBI, the Justice Department, and other players to not only meddle in an election, but then attempting to stage a coup against a duly elected president after it failed to work, is more than a little concerning. We’re too close here to banana Republic type rigged elections.

        Here’s my take on the series of events leading up to this.

        1. The Democrats, the bureaucracy, all lefties at all levels, believed that Hillary could not lose to Trump.

        2. Just to make sure, Hillary and the Democrats, with help from the Obama administration, attempted to rig the election for Hillary.

        3, Hillary lost to Trump.

        4. Everyone mentioned in #1 freaked the fuck out.

        5. Everyone mentioned in #2 colluded to cover up their dealings in same by inventing a Russia conspiracy and then proceeded to attempting to stage a coup to get rid of Trump before they were busted.

        Did I miss anything?

      • Number.6

        See, that’s where I disagree. In a nation of laws, you have to apply those laws consistently – anything else is – unjust. Let’s not forget, Clinton’s impeachment was about far more than *just* who he was getting a blow job from, and that became even less relevant when he committed perjury.

        If you want a Commanding Officer of all the nation’s military to skate on perjury (not a technical lie because he couldn’t remember what he’d said during testimony), then why shouldn’t I? Or You?

        If anything, legislators should be prosecuted to the fullest and most detailed extent of the law to impress on them just how harmful the laws they pass are to the people.

      • ron73440

        You say moral preening, but he actively perjured himself and “encouraged” others to do so also.

        If he would do that for such an insignificant matter, how could you trust him with a big issue?

      • ron73440

        I am not saying the two situations are equivalent, it’s just that the Clinton situation is when I first started questioning the people in general.

        As soon as the perjury revalations came out I had no doubt that it was over for him and noone would defend him.

        How naive was I?

      • ron73440

        *revelations*

        I suck at typing

    • wdalasio

      What will it take for people to stop and realize how fucked the system is?

      What scares the piss out of me is how many people want it to be fucked. A lot of people not only realize what’s happening, they approve of it.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Go on over to the Daily Caller and look at the comments on this story…now Huffpo. You’ll want to hang yourself.

      • commodious spittoon

        Like, more than usual?

  26. kinnath

    I miss Richard Nixon. Innocent times.

    • grrizzly

      The weekend after Trump’s election I visited Nixon’s Presidential Library because I felt bad for him: Hillary Clinton wouldn’t replace him at the top of the list of the most slimy U.S. presidents. While checking their exhibition on the Watergate, I realized that someone like Obama should have replaced Nixon on that list long time ago.

      • kinnath

        Back at TOS, I promoted a bumper sticker during Obama’s second campaign — Obama: Dumber than Carter; Dirtier than Nixon.

    • Breet Pharara

      He had the dignity to resign and never show his face in public again. I see Obama everywhere and everyone still pretends that he didn’t have a single scandal under him.

      • kbolino

        Well, there was that interview with David Frost.

      • Pan Zagloba

        And all those episodes of Futurama.

        What?

      • Agent Cooper

        And, all those Nixon Lemonade commercials.

        “When life gives you impeachment, you make lemonade!”

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Is he really complaining that it’s not his own misdeeds, but rather the revealing of them, that is the problem?

    Of course. They (whoever “they” may be on any given day) want to be the brave and noble freedom fighter breaking through enemy lines with the dispatch which will win the war, but they don’t want to accept the risk of being stood up in front of the firing squad.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I miss Richard Nixon. Innocent times.

    If our progressive betters had anything resembling intellectual consistency, they’d be clamoring for the construction of a massive ziggurat on the Mall to commemorate Nixon’s Great Works.

    • Pan Zagloba

      The EPA HQ?

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Has anybody mentioned Trump’s $24 million refrigerator yet?

    Because that will totally trump(!) this story.

  30. Creosote Achilles

    I’ve long been a ‘Sure, you can trust the gov’t. Just ask an Indian’ kinda guy. (Feather, not Dot). But this is a whole different level. These people are dirtier than a Detroit crack whore.

  31. UnCivilServant

    I’m unhappy.

    I filed my taxes. I’m getting some of my money back, but they’ve still taken in agregate a third of my money.

  32. Festus

    OT but apropos of this situation. Last night instead of taking the trash out to the bin, I decided to take it out the front door because it was snowing and I didn’t want footy prints on my nice clean floors. Come the morn I have to exchange furious text messages between my employer, their employer and all the powers that be. Turns out that someone left a door unlocked when they carded out so that raised hackles at the security firm. I watched the footage of me walking in with a bag, going about my business for an hour and a bit and then leaving with a different, sinister bag. The bag of garbage. So I’m officially a raven now. Five years of scrubbing toilets goes a long way to gain trust, Son. FML.

  33. Festus

    *toward*