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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThese honking memos! Is your intelligence insulted enough yet?
Last edited Tue Jan 30, 2018, 03:18 PM - Edit history (2)
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One memo is pure, contrived, partisan republican-written propaganda, basically a four page list of all of the lies republican defenders of Trump have been trying to insert into the national debate which they hope will discredit the FBI and the investigation of the President of the United States.
The other is a Democratic attempt to keep the discussion in the realm of reality.
Thing is, this Nunes campaign to publicize this self-generated memo only serves to deepen that impression that Carter Page (who a FISA court approved a wiretap on, and renewed it) is complicit in something Russian-related. Most people (who bother to care) aren't going to cast more suspicion on the FBI than on Russian-connected operatives like Page.
I have to stop hollering at the television every time newscasters bring up these 'memos' like they're some kind of bombshell sitting behind some fortress just waiting to explode the second they're revealed. The contents is not only old news, it's a basket of old and widely discredited lies dressed up as a legitimate investigative committee finding, all in the interest of diverting the FBI away from investigating the president and those around him (including from investigating Nunes, perhaps, as a member of Trump's transition team).
The fact that the Democratic rebuttal of the claims in the republican document was not approved for release by the republican-controlled committee makes this a partisan farce, almost identical to the last stunt with Nunes standing in front of the White House with documents they fed to him, looking even more bewildered than the rest of us looking on, trying to distract from and discredit the FBI early on in the investigation.
It was that stunt, in fact, that forced Nunes to recuse himself. Nunes breezed through the compromised House ethics committee, however, which cleared him of wrongdoing in the stunt, despite having been denied access to the underlying documents he was trying to manipulate.
Now he's back with another weak and bizarre diversion. It is absolutely infuriating listening to these media folks giving this dirt-dumb, hamhanded attempt at a smear of our intelligence agencies a whiff of credibility, but here we are, expecting us to be on the edge of our seats to read the contents of what's clearly nothing more than republican spin; most of their party complicit in obstruction of the investigation with this stunt, if you get down to the meat of the matter.
It's a dog and pony show, and it's been an uneven rollout by most of the press, who already have enough information to refute or define every stale point made in the republican document. Still, it's actually a good day for a Trump shitshow, on the day of his SOTU, with Trump and the Russia investigation front and center, thanks, almost entirely, to this simpleton's self-incriminating stunts.
kentuck
(111,085 posts)He has five days to decide to release or not? Whatever is about to happen is probably scheduled to happen in the next 5 days?
bigtree
(85,992 posts)...no one is going to care that the FBI was wiretapping Page.
kentuck
(111,085 posts)If he thinks it will help him, he will release it immediately, regardless of national security concerns.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)and will generate discussion all through while building suspense, so that could simply be a typical propaganda delivery, or in his case reality show, technique.
And, of course, it had to be postponed to past the SOTU anyway to not distract attention from his great performance.
But you've got me wondering now. Also wondering what Mueller's doing and planning. No one can be more aware of how endangered the investigation is than them.
it had to be postponed to past the SOTU anyway to not distract attention from his great performance.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)not just the committed right but also the uncommitted confused and dispirited. Distract, and redirect outrage to the Democrats.
As we're seeing right here even, Hillary's weaponized name still energizes idiocy. Tie a message to it, launch, and it goes straight to the gut, bypassing the guard posts of intellect.
bigtree
(85,992 posts)...he should know those kinds of rating won't keep his show going.
This is a campaign well below the intelligence of most of us. Hollering 'squirrel!' over and over isn't going to hold anyone's attention.
Initech
(100,068 posts)bigtree
(85,992 posts)Initech
(100,068 posts)He probably just scanned looking for key words and immediately assumed it was making all democrats look bad. Just like Franken, this is a hit job.
bigtree
(85,992 posts)...for nudies.
Nitram
(22,794 posts)These memos are nothing new in that universe.