US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

real memo is clearly being housed on Hillary’s secret illegal server

they should run the memo by Punxsutawney Phil and see what he says.

if he sees his shadow, six more weeks of release the memo.

“7 more years of bullshit”

ok, so I guess he officially declassified it? If he did, can't the Democrats or whomever now release their own memo with impunity?

starr couldn't be fired by the president; he was an "independent counsel" and that office has subsequently been abolished afaict

despair without emotion
political Nostradamuses
ILX thread grief
wishing dead our nemeses

pundit tweet freak out
morbs & tombot shout it out
dirtbag leftie cash this way
what else do I have to say?

sources who've been briefed on the Nunes memo expect it will be underwhelming and not the “slam dunk” document it's been hyped up to be

Ah, so the previous hype will now be skeptically pooh-poohed by the people who hyped it in the first place, because The Story Needs To Change.

THIS JUST IN: Some officials have claimed that The Memo will cure cancer.

BREAKING: Some have claimed that claims that The Memo's ability to cure cancer is overblown and misleading.

THIS JUST IN: Those who claimed The Memo's anti-cancer properties are overblown are, themselves, known cancer advocates.

BREAKING: Pro-Memo / Anti-Cancer groups have claimed that anti-Memo / pro-Cancer groups are soft on cancer! Film at eleven!!!!!

THIS JUST IN: Our sources are now saying that The Memo has nothing to do with cancer, and that the sinister forces who are arrayed against the release of The Memo are actually rooting for AIDS!

at this point The Memo is simultaneously nothing and everything. It's Schrodinger's Memo.

Never forget: two weeks ago the discussion centered around the FBI's Secret Society of Hogwarts Members. That story's discredited too, which is the point: keep bullshit flying, confuse the public.

It's never unsafe to assume the general formulation 'Trump experienced something > Trump doesn't understand what he's experienced > Trump feels either personally vindicated or victimized based upon the most recent commentary he's heard about the phenomenon, regardless of whether the phenomenon in question even has any direct bearing upon him, because he's the only real person in the universe'.

All this melodramatic talk of "the memo" that we don't actually see is exactly the way Seinfeld episodes are constructed.

he just authorized its release

if it's so underwhelming, this could turn out to be a good thing

Unless Nunes was able to work Pizzagate into the revised draft.

He approved it the same way I agreed to the itunes terms and conditions

lol

he just authorized its release

So it's like national security procedural bukkake, or - dare I say - a pee tape of information?

this is gonna end the same way the first Nunes saga did - with a few hawks screaming for blood, most people saying "this isn't what you said it would be", and Nunes going back to his alternate dimension to fuck off for another 5 months until he comes up with something else.

xpost lol

The House servers are overloaded so here's the memo in its entirety minus the cover letter. https://t.co/hfOXZvgGca pic.twitter.com/qEadHNxgLY

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) February 2, 2018

these republicans would have shaken hands with the bin ladens in the oval office post-9/11. USA

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/read-the-gop-memo/2746/

Skimmed memo, missed bombshells. Carter Page, Fusion GPS, dossier, FISA, blah blah.

Basically "anti Trump dossier formed basis of investigation into whether what dossier said about Carter Page is true" shockah.

Leaving aside the expected Steele-trashing, I am not sure this is how warrants actually work: "This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known to the government." Maybe the standards for FISA are different, but I don't think most warrant applications include "information potentially favorable to the target."

why do i have such a visceral dislike for yashar ali's tweets

John Kelly: Trump wants "everything out"

EXCEPT:

Trump's tax returns

Trump interview with Mueller

Democrats' rebuttal memo

The other FISA warrants

White House visitor logs

Bannon's House testimony

Stormy Daniels' story

The list of foreign customers at Trump properties

— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) February 1, 2018

All this melodramatic talk of "the memo" that we don't actually see is exactly the way Seinfeld episodes are constructed.

Lots of David Mamet movies, too.

So it's discrediting Steele and the dossier... is the whole investigation supposed to be based on or at least kickstarted by the dossier? I honestly don't remember. I thought it was just a piece.

Lol...this is even more underwhelming than even I expected

It's just a piece which is what Schiff has been screaming about

Is that... THE MEMO?

https://cinemathread.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/pulp-fiction-briefcase.jpg

a NROer who was part of #NeverTrump:

Here’s potentially the most important paragraph in the memo. It appears to confirm the NYT’s scoop — which was that the counterintelligence investigation began BEFORE the FISA applications against Page. Papadopoulos was already under investigation. Wow: pic.twitter.com/VadOFVYAUH

— David French (@DavidAFrench) February 2, 2018

FISA warrant for Carter Page begun back in 2013 (iirc) based in intel. FISA has to be renewed every 90 days or something, which it was, up to and including when the dossier was released, except the dossier just added extra credence to suspicions. I guess the GOP argument is ... the dossier is a questionable reason to renew FISA, because Steele didn't like Trump and there was some Dem money involved in hiring him? I don't get it, the Page FISA had been going for years before the dossier was compiled, so who the fuck cares? I mean, I know who, but who cares about them?

Part of this confidential memo (which was declassified against the urgings of the intelligence community) is an attempt to discredit Christopher Steele on the basis of his failure to maintain confidentiality.

Sorry, just have to scoop up the bits of my brain and skull that just showered my desk Scanners-style.

Republicans like when these things are sort of not all there, because it gives them more flexibility to create horrifying conspiracy narratives about "what it all means" and insistently point to something while they do it.

This memo is some weak sauce sophistry. "Christopher Steele was anti-Trump because he dug up dirt on Trump giving him reason to dislike and distrust Trump. This includes intel on Carter Page, who had already been under surveillance for years for being sketchy, but who unfairly had his FISA surveillance ok'd for the umpteenth time because this one guy who didn't like Trump found even more reason to OK it."

I'm not even sure, trying to put myself into GOP mindset, who I should be be mad at. Anyone anti-Trump? Christopher Steele? Clinton?

What Republicans thought they were getting with the Nunes Memo vs. what Republicans got with the Nunes Memo pic.twitter.com/kYTqFk2sLP

— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) February 2, 2018

Like, most of the people "named" have been fired by Trump already! Comey, Yates, McCabe ...

Trump: "I think it's terrible, if you wanna know the truth. I think it's a disgrace what's going on in this country. I think it's a disgrace. The memo was sent to Congress, it was declassified, Congress will do whatever they're going to do, but I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country, and when you look at that, and you see that and so many other things, what's going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that. So I sent it over to Congress and they will do what they're going to do, whatever they do is fine. It was declassified and let's see what happens. But a lot of people should be ashamed. Thank you very much."

Real quote or are you doctor casinoing us?

That's real!

lol I didn't even consider the possibility of that being real

I didn't even consider the possibility of that not being real tbh

Aside from 'whatever they (Congress) do is fine', I agree 100% with President Trump's statement.

Who would've thought that such an inarticulate man could accidentally issue such a damning self-critique.

Be funny if the end result of all this brouhaha is that everyone goes to jail except Carter Page.

so what i'm getting from the memo is:

the fbi was investigating both campaigns before the election, but only told voters about one of those investigations?

is that about the size of it?