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Donald Impeachment

“Still, if you're a Republican I get it. It's just so hard to say. Is Trump innocent, or is he guilty?" wondered Meyers.

"I mean, all we have so far is a sixth Trump associate convicted of a crime, two more indicted associates saying they were on a secret mission for him, his lawyer under criminal investigation, Trump himself committing witness tampering, the whistleblower's account claiming the president 'clearly committed a criminal act,' the notes from the call in which Trump mentions the Bidens multiple times, the part of the call where Trump tells the Ukrainian president 'I would like you to do us a favor,' the president's chief of staff literally confessing on national television, Rudy Giuliani going on TV and bragging about what he was doing, and like a bunch of witnesses saying 'Yes, there was a quid pro quo' — I'm sorry, that's not enough to convict!"

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mashab...ers-roger-stone-trump-impeachment-hearing.amp
 
I love when people who fully embraced a bizarre Russia conspiracy theory then call other things crazy conspiracy theories
The bizarre conspiracy theory that the Mueller investigation concluded likely happened but that they didn't have enough evidence to connect all the dots?
 
I’m just glad to see John Solomon, world’s best and most honest journalist according to a former poster on here, is being exposed for the back we all knew he is.
 
Taibbi comes from the Glen Greenwald school of delusional left-wing anarchist conspiracy theory reporting. The comments on his blog looks like QAnon's greatest hits.

Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald?
 
Tintin making a strong push for biggest dumbfuck on the boards. Impressive.

As someone who has literally never agreed with tintin on the boards ever, I think the Taibbi piece is solid and tintin's points are good.

Regardless of the word "coup" and whether you think it fits in the US (probably doesn't, we make it look very proper with investigations and proceedings requiring votes and such), this isn't a conspiracy theory at all. These are all well-reported stories grounded in fact. What Taibbi does with this information does come to conjecture and I don't agree with much of his conclusions, but it's still a better view of things than you'll get from CNN.

Couldn't it be true that:

1) Trump and the intelligence community don't play nice, and have a very contentious relationship
2) Trump does lots of crimes
 
As someone who has literally never agreed with tintin on the boards ever, I think the Taibbi piece is solid and tintin's points are good.

Regardless of the word "coup" and whether you think it fits in the US (probably doesn't, we make it look very proper with investigations and proceedings requiring votes and such), this isn't a conspiracy theory at all. These are all well-reported stories grounded in fact. What Taibbi does with this information does come to conjecture and I don't agree with much of his conclusions, but it's still a better view of things than you'll get from CNN.

Couldn't it be true that:

1) Trump and the intelligence community don't play nice, and have a very contentious relationship
2) Trump does lots of crimes

Isn't it in the job description of said intelligence community to actively investigate and pursue said crimes, especially when they compromise the security of our nation?
 
Thank goodness we have Townie to tell us that the impeachment process that is laid out in our Constitution is "probably" not a coup.
 
As someone who has literally never agreed with tintin on the boards ever, I think the Taibbi piece is solid and tintin's points are good.

Regardless of the word "coup" and whether you think it fits in the US (probably doesn't, we make it look very proper with investigations and proceedings requiring votes and such), this isn't a conspiracy theory at all. These are all well-reported stories grounded in fact. What Taibbi does with this information does come to conjecture and I don't agree with much of his conclusions, but it's still a better view of things than you'll get from CNN.

Couldn't it be true that:

1) Trump and the intelligence community don't play nice, and have a very contentious relationship
2) Trump does lots of crimes

you can't hand waive the use of a word, and a very loaded word, like "coup" though
 
The bizarre conspiracy theory that the Mueller investigation concluded likely happened but that they didn't have enough evidence to connect all the dots?

Because of 10 instances of obstruction also laid out by Mueller.

As someone who has literally never agreed with tintin on the boards ever, I think the Taibbi piece is solid and tintin's points are good.

Regardless of the word "coup" and whether you think it fits in the US (probably doesn't, we make it look very proper with investigations and proceedings requiring votes and such), this isn't a conspiracy theory at all. These are all well-reported stories grounded in fact. What Taibbi does with this information does come to conjecture and I don't agree with much of his conclusions, but it's still a better view of things than you'll get from CNN.

Couldn't it be true that:

1) Trump and the intelligence community don't play nice, and have a very contentious relationship
2) Trump does lots of crimes

Sure. But that’s like saying:

Couldn’t it be true that:

1) Manning and the Wake fanbase don’t play nice and have a very contentious relationship
2) Manning is a bad basketball coach

without acknowledging #2 is the reason for #1.

Isn't it in the job description of said intelligence community to actively investigate and pursue said crimes, especially when they compromise the security of our nation?

Yes. It’s not difficult.
 
You're all missing the forest for the trees in my mind. The impeachment proceedings are definitely not a coup. That it took convincing Pelosi, opposition party leader, the better part of 2 years to agree to move forward with impeachment is reason enough to acknowledge that. The meat of Matt's writing here is suggesting that the intelligence community, who do have plenty of experiences with coups around the world, are stepping up their influence in domestic politics:

It was also a bold new foray into domestic politics by intelligence agencies that in recent decades began asserting all sorts of frightening new authority. They were kidnapping foreigners, assassinating by drone, conducting paramilitary operations without congressional notice, building an international archipelago of secret prisons, and engaging in mass warrantless surveillance of Americans. We found out in a court case just last week how extensive the illegal domestic surveillance has been, with the FBI engaging in tens of thousands of warrantless searches involving American emails and phone numbers under the guise of combating foreign subversion.

The agencies’ new trick is inserting themselves into domestic politics using leaks and media pressure. The “intel chiefs” meeting was just the first in a series of similar stories, many following the pattern in which a document was created, passed from department from department, and leaked. A sample:

February 14, 2017: “four current and former officials” tell the New York Times the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts” with Russian intelligence.

March 1, 2017: “Justice Department officials” tell the Washington Post Attorney General Jeff Sessions “spoke twice with Russia’s ambassador” and did not disclose the contacts ahead of his confirmation hearing.

March 18, 2017: “people familiar with the matter” tell the Wall Street Journal that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn failed to disclose a “contact” with a Russian at Cambridge University, an episode that “came to the notice of U.S. intelligence.”

April 8, 2017, 2017: “law enforcement and other U.S. officials” tell the Washington Post the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge had ruled there was “probable cause” to believe former Trump aide Carter Page was an “agent of a foreign power.”

April 13, 2017: a “source close to UK intelligence” tells Luke Harding at The Guardian that the British analog to the NSA, the GCHQ, passed knowledge of “suspicious interactions” between “figures connected to Trump and “known or suspected Russian agents” to Americans as part of a “routine exchange of information.”

December 17, 2017: “four current and former American and foreign officials” tell the New York Times that during the 2016 campaign, an Australian diplomat named Alexander Downer told “American counterparts” that former Trump aide George Papadopoulos revealed “Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

April 13, 2018: “two sources familiar with the matter” tell McClatchy that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office has evidence Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was in Prague in 2016, “confirming part of [Steele] dossier.”

November 27, 2018: a “well-placed source” tells Harding at The Guardian that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

January 19, 2019: “former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation” tell the New York Times the FBI opened an inquiry into the “explosive implications” of whether or not Donald Trump was working on behalf of the Russians.
 
like the FBI, one of whom's (whomst's'?) specific stated jobs is counterintelligence? it's not a coup if the bureaucracy is doing it's job fighting foreign intelligence operations
 
If this is OK, what’s stopping Trump from withholding funds from Americans to pressure them to help his campaign?

I love when people who fully embraced a bizarre Russia conspiracy theory then call other things crazy conspiracy theories

Because of 10 instances of obstruction also laid out by Mueller.



Sure. But that’s like saying:

Couldn’t it be true that:

1) Manning and the Wake fanbase don’t play nice and have a very contentious relationship
2) Manning is a bad basketball coach

without acknowledging #2 is the reason for #1.

Except this whole thing started before he was in office.

Yes. It’s not difficult.

These agencies are acting well beyond their remit and ostensibly Trump is their boss.

I'll stop because I don't want to distract from the rah rah go team get Trump (he deserves to be in prison, clearly). But I too am terrified with the intelligence community's last few decades up to and including what they're doing here. Clapper lying to Congress about surveillance hasn't done shit to move the needle on public perception of the community, and we're only headed further towards this panopticon future with an absolute lack of democratic oversight. That the intelligence community doesn't like Trump says very little about Trump, who is clearly a dipshit. That they're emboldened to try and play politic says a lot.
 
like the FBI, one of who's specific stated jobs is counterintelligence? it's not a coup if the bureaucracy is doing it's job fighting foreign intelligence operations

Sure, but not the job of the CIA or NSA or DNI.
 
Let's not forget that both Taibbi and Greenwald both accepted Barr's lame characterization of the Mueller report at face value as vindication and were all over the airways doing such including on Tucker Carlson's show. So much for journalistic skepticism I guess when "Cover Up Barr" supported their preconceived narrative. Taibbi was also parroting Trump's ludicrious claim that the FBI never seized the DNC server, which pretty much demonstrates that he has no clue what he's talking about. But maybe he's won a Pulitzer Prize also.
 
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I'll stop because I don't want to distract from the rah rah go team get Trump (he deserves to be in prison, clearly). But I too am terrified with the intelligence community's last few decades up to and including what they're doing here. Clapper lying to Congress about surveillance hasn't done shit to move the needle on public perception of the community, and we're only headed further towards this panopticon future with an absolute lack of democratic oversight. That the intelligence community doesn't like Trump says very little about Trump, who is clearly a dipshit. That they're emboldened to try and play politic says a lot.

In your mind, is any investigation of a politician "playing politics"?
 
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