And it Begins:Special Prosecutor To Investigate Trump And Russia

[JMM]

Then of course, there's this:

 

[JMM]

Benghazi! That alone makes the Oministration the most corrupt, dishonest lying administration in our country’s history.

Don't forget about running guns to Mexico.
Funneling student debt through DC
Funneling Healthcare through DC

He did at least give the go ahead to get Bin Laden so I'll give him that. At least I think he did.. That's what they told us anyway. Still I would have liked to have seen Osama's head on a stake outside Ground Zero after he killed a friend of mine on 9-11, but heh-heh that's just me.

 

[hamster]

You elected a mob boss President.

As soon as you can prove that he ordered gun running to Mexico,and giving it a cool operational name, placing our border guards at risk, then I will admit he is acting like a mob boss. In the meantime, quit monkeying with the facts.

 

[Tibs]

Tim - you simply can't compare Obama and Trump, when it comes to blatant, knowing lies and deceits. It's on a different level, an unprecedented level. You can't try to brush it off by saying all politicians lie, either. Trump purposefully spreads false information, he is knowingly deceitful. He does it willingly and with tact.

On some level his tweets and statements are actually dark and disturbing. Yes, it's that ****** up, in my view. For the single reason that it's manipulative. He carries out disinformation campaigns, spreading false and misleading information and attacks those who criticize him. He does it without hesitation, or any type of common courtesy or decency. We are living under an angry, free-wheeling, hate-tweeting President. That's not normal, nor do I accept it as such.

This is not a tit for tat between Obama and Trump, or Trump and anyone else. I am speaking of an abuse of power, a willingness to mislead the public, from the office of the presidency.

I've read on here it's just Trump 'pushing back' against media attacks. That he only goes after those who come at him first. Even if that was true, that's still not how the leader of a country should operate. He's the President. Yeah, he's in the spotlight and everyone's watching his every move. He's criticized each and every day. On tv, online, in print. It's how the world works in 2018. We live in a media bubble. And Trump is lapping it up, trying to be front and center, being the reality tv star and producer that he is. How is this tough guy act gonna end? How is this two year long twitter rampage gonna end? Not well.

Who respects a President who's red-faced and angry, sending out tweets at 5 am. Wtf? And the reason he's so red-faced and angry is because he's staring down the barrel of multiple federal investigations into his business, his family, his campaign, his presidency.

If you want to compare Obama, wake me up when his campaign manager was jailed, guilty of federal charges. His personal lawyer, jailed, guilty of felonies. His foreign policy advisor, jailed, facing sentencing.

None of us know what Mueller has on Trump or where this investigation will lead. Many people have gotten immunity of late, including the CFO of the Trump organization. Mueller's spoken at length with the WH lawyer Trump just happen to fire yesterday. Trump has a better idea about all this than any of us. That's where all the angry tweets are coming from. That's why he's constantly flustered and prone to lash out. But he's the victim here, don't forget.

For his sake I hope he calms down and gets some sleep. And starts acting normally, like a decent, rational person would. It seems we're worlds away from that at this point.

 

[hamster]

None of us know what Mueller has on Trump or where this investigation will lead. Many people have gotten immunity of late, including the CFO of the Trump organization. Mueller's spoken at length with the WH lawyer Trump just happen to fire yesterday. Trump has a better idea about all this than any of us. That's where all the angry tweets are coming from. That's why he's constantly flustered and prone to lash out. But he's the victim here, don't forget.

First of all, since when does a guy that Trump has fired, stay around until the confirmation of a SC nominee? Get your facts straight.

Let me tell you what Mueller has.........2 months before his removal. After the midterm, Sessions and Rosenstein are gone. They have worn out their welcome, and Trump has the Constitutional authority to remove them. Yeah, the Libs will whine....so what else is new. My pick for Session's replacement is Joe DiGenova. The housecleaning will then begin, in earnest.

So Mueller better play his hand soon, but I don't have high hopes for him. He is doing his best to squeeze some crimes out of what he has. His career is over,and he knows it.

The next two months will be ugly. Very ugly. How we come out on the other end is up for speculation. But this will be a different landscape after mid-terms. The on;y question mark is how much power the Dems will have at that point.

 

[Spike]

CNN IS FAKE NEWS!

BAM!



Even Politico Is Critical of CNN on Its Lanny Davis Story Coverup

Even liberal Politico finds untenable CNN's refusal to correct their July 26 "scoop" fed to them by Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis that President Donald Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting that included his son and a Russian lawyer, which was subsequently denied by Davis' August 22 admission that he did not know if this was true.

Politico writer Jason Schwartz also wondered if Davis can continue to appear on network news shows due his part in knowingly spreading what CNN stubbornly refuses to correct despite the fact that they initiated this fraud on August 29

Lanny Davis, in his role as lawyer and spokesman for Michael Cohen, has copped to misleading journalists, admitted he made false statements on national television and generally caused headaches for reporters who’ve used him as a source.

CNN is also damaged goods. Unless they correct their story supplied by Davis who subsequently denied it was true, the news they broadcasted should be treated as fake news unless corroborated by responsible news outlets

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/n...tical-cnn-lanny-davis-fake-news-story-coverup

 

[SteelerInLebanon]

Tim - you simply can't compare Obama and Trump, when it comes to blatant, knowing lies and deceits. It's on a different level, an unprecedented level. You can't try to brush it off by saying all politicians lie, either. Trump purposefully spreads false information, he is knowingly deceitful. He does it willingly and with tact.

On some level his tweets and statements are actually dark and disturbing. Yes, it's that ****** up, in my view. For the single reason that it's manipulative. He carries out disinformation campaigns, spreading false and misleading information and attacks those who criticize him. He does it without hesitation, or any type of common courtesy or decency. We are living under an angry, free-wheeling, hate-tweeting President. That's not normal, nor do I accept it as such.

This is not a tit for tat between Obama and Trump, or Trump and anyone else. I am speaking of an abuse of power, a willingness to mislead the public, from the office of the presidency.

I've read on here it's just Trump 'pushing back' against media attacks. That he only goes after those who come at him first. Even if that was true, that's still not how the leader of a country should operate. He's the President. Yeah, he's in the spotlight and everyone's watching his every move. He's criticized each and every day. On tv, online, in print. It's how the world works in 2018. We live in a media bubble. And Trump is lapping it up, trying to be front and center, being the reality tv star and producer that he is. How is this tough guy act gonna end? How is this two year long twitter rampage gonna end? Not well.

Who respects a President who's red-faced and angry, sending out tweets at 5 am. Wtf? And the reason he's so red-faced and angry is because he's staring down the barrel of multiple federal investigations into his business, his family, his campaign, his presidency.

If you want to compare Obama, wake me up when his campaign manager was jailed, guilty of federal charges. His personal lawyer, jailed, guilty of felonies. His foreign policy advisor, jailed, facing sentencing.

None of us know what Mueller has on Trump or where this investigation will lead. Many people have gotten immunity of late, including the CFO of the Trump organization. Mueller's spoken at length with the WH lawyer Trump just happen to fire yesterday. Trump has a better idea about all this than any of us. That's where all the angry tweets are coming from. That's why he's constantly flustered and prone to lash out. But he's the victim here, don't forget.

For his sake I hope he calms down and gets some sleep. And starts acting normally, like a decent, rational person would. It seems we're worlds away from that at this point.

Totally disagree again. The only difference is Obama’s ability to sound good lying and honestly I fail to see the proof of all these Trump lies. Please elaborate in detail on what you consider lies. With proof.


Sent from my iPhone using Steeler Nation mobile app

 

[Tibs]

Please elaborate in detail on what you consider lies. With proof.

Trump is acting like a cornered man. Desperately trying to sway public opinion to discredit Mueller and his investigation. It's right there in plain sight, for all to see.

 

[hamster]

Trump is acting like a cornered man. Desperately trying to sway public opinion to discredit Mueller and his investigation. It's right there in plain sight, for all to see.

 

[SteelerInLebanon]

Trump is acting like a cornered man. Desperately trying to sway public opinion to discredit Mueller and his investigation. It's right there in plain sight, for all to see.

Or is it what you want to see just like his so called lies. I really truly believe you are completely blinded by hate for this man to the point that you see things that are not there.



Sent from my iPhone using Steeler Nation mobile app

 

[diver]

Tim - you simply can't compare Obama and Trump, when it comes to blatant, knowing lies and deceits. It's on a different level, an unprecedented level. You can't try to brush it off by saying all politicians lie, either. Trump purposefully spreads false information, he is knowingly deceitful. He does it willingly and with tact.

On some level his tweets and statements are actually dark and disturbing. Yes, it's that ****** up, in my view. For the single reason that it's manipulative. He carries out disinformation campaigns, spreading false and misleading information and attacks those who criticize him. He does it without hesitation, or any type of common courtesy or decency. We are living under an angry, free-wheeling, hate-tweeting President. That's not normal, nor do I accept it as such.

This is not a tit for tat between Obama and Trump, or Trump and anyone else. I am speaking of an abuse of power, a willingness to mislead the public, from the office of the presidency.

I've read on here it's just Trump 'pushing back' against media attacks. That he only goes after those who come at him first. Even if that was true, that's still not how the leader of a country should operate. He's the President. Yeah, he's in the spotlight and everyone's watching his every move. He's criticized each and every day. On tv, online, in print. It's how the world works in 2018. We live in a media bubble. And Trump is lapping it up, trying to be front and center, being the reality tv star and producer that he is. How is this tough guy act gonna end? How is this two year long twitter rampage gonna end? Not well.

Who respects a President who's red-faced and angry, sending out tweets at 5 am. Wtf? And the reason he's so red-faced and angry is because he's staring down the barrel of multiple federal investigations into his business, his family, his campaign, his presidency.

If you want to compare Obama, wake me up when his campaign manager was jailed, guilty of federal charges. His personal lawyer, jailed, guilty of felonies. His foreign policy advisor, jailed, facing sentencing.

None of us know what Mueller has on Trump or where this investigation will lead. Many people have gotten immunity of late, including the CFO of the Trump organization. Mueller's spoken at length with the WH lawyer Trump just happen to fire yesterday. Trump has a better idea about all this than any of us. That's where all the angry tweets are coming from. That's why he's constantly flustered and prone to lash out. But he's the victim here, don't forget.

For his sake I hope he calms down and gets some sleep. And starts acting normally, like a decent, rational person would. It seems we're worlds away from that at this point.

Boy, do I disagree with that, Tibs. Obama lied about the health care plan.. "like your doctor, keep your doctor"...health care is a huge part of the economy. That's a pretty big lie.

The thing is with these arrogant libs, they think they are so smart they can't contain themselves... Ben Rhodes in a NY Times article admitted to feeding information to "27 year old journalists" who "know nothing" and will simply parrot what is given to them. This was concerning the Iran deal.


If the level of lie matters those are a hell of a lot bigger than lying over a payment to a former sex partner. The latter has no impact on me. The former, health care certainly does and Iran certainly could.

 

[Tibs]

History has a strange way of repeating itself.

 

[hamster]

History has a strange way of repeating itself.

Tibs, thanks for the trip down memory lane. Those were the good old days, where you remove 1 or 2 people, and you are back to normal. Today we have systematic corruption that threatens the fabric of our Republic. Ugly days ahead.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Steeler Nation mobile app

 

[Tibs]

Tibs, thanks for the trip down memory lane. Those were the good old days, where you remove 1 or 2 people, and you are back to normal. Today we have systematic corruption that threatens the fabric of our Republic.

Yeah, totally agree Hamster. Including Trump, members of his family and cabinet and a handful of congressmen, it's probably a total of 20-25 people that will need to be removed to get things straight. By getting rid of this cancer plaguing the WH and the federal government, the healing can begin.

Ugly days ahead.

Again, I couldn't agree with you more.

Thankfully a large segment of the population sees right through Trump and his lies. This may be the beginning of the end, as Trump has no other tools in the toolbox, other than organizing even more rah rah rallies for his red meat base and sending out even more frantic, belligerent tweets. Let's just hope he doesn't start bombing some random country to create the ultimate distraction from all that ails him.

This morning, brutal numbers were released for Trump. An overwhelming majority of voters support Robert Mueller’s investigation —by more than a 2-to-1 margin. In another poll his disapproval rating hit 60%, an all time high.

Thankfully nobody's buying his ****; his lies, deceits and non-stop attacks on Mueller and the media. It's all backfiring on him, and deservedly so.

 

[Troglodyte]

So who all believes that the Lester Holt interview where Trumps admitted that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation was edited and what we all “saw and heard were not what was happening”? And if you do believe that, why did Trump wait 15 months to make the accusation?

Let me grab some popcorn, I’ll be back...

 

[Spike]

The witch hunt is on it's last legs, fire them all!



President Trump Warns FBI, DOJ to ‘Do Their Job’ or ‘I Will Get Involved’

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...r-hell-get-involved-during-indiana-rally.html

 

[Steelworth]

Trump is acting like a cornered man. Desperately trying to sway public opinion to discredit Mueller and his investigation. It's right there in plain sight, for all to see.

He asked for proof. What you just offered is mere speculation, plain and simple.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

History has a strange way of repeating itself.

Indeed it does. Save for the fact that dealing with these criminals isn't based on equality.

We should see Obama being investigated for spying on political opponents, for attempting to affect the US election, for using unethical and perhaps illegal means of obtaining FISA warrants to target his political enemies.

We should see Obama using the DOJ and FBI and IRS to go after Conservative organizations go to the courts.

We should see Hillary on trial still for her illegalities regarding the use of classified information and running a private server which is strictly prohibited for the type of information she held on it...a server that was verified to have been hacked, likely more than once.

The Clintons and the Clinton Foundation should be on trial for their proven collusion with Russia.

The DNC should be on trial for affecting the US election and ensuring that Bernie Sanders never had a chance and his voters were disenfranchised.

What is at issue here is only crooks of one flavor are ever targeted...those with the big R in front of their names.

That is scary *** ****.

Oh, and I'll point out again...Nixon is often the scapegoat that you Liberals point to as the biggest example of past Republican corruption. Few remember was that if not for Nixon, one Alger Hiss, proven Liberal Soviet Spy, would never have gone to court - twice - and have been found guilty. It was a young Richard Nixon that ensured that case got exposed and allowed Whitaker Chambers to testify about the deep corruption in our government which was rife with Communists in the 30s and 40s. Funny how Hiss has been white washed from the annals of history, is it not? Because he was a celebrated Liberal elite.

But Nixon's image remains.

 

[Elfiero]

Indeed it does. Save for the fact that dealing with these criminals isn't based on equality.

We should see Obama being investigated for spying on political opponents, for attempting to affect the US election, for using unethical and perhaps illegal means of obtaining FISA warrants to target his political enemies.

We should see Obama using the DOJ and FBI and IRS to go after Conservative organizations go to the courts.

We should see Hillary on trial still for her illegalities regarding the use of classified information and running a private server which is strictly prohibited for the type of information she held on it...a server that was verified to have been hacked, likely more than once.

The Clintons and the Clinton Foundation should be on trial for their proven collusion with Russia.

The DNC should be on trial for affecting the US election and ensuring that Bernie Sanders never had a chance and his voters were disenfranchised.

What is at issue here is only crooks of one flavor are ever targeted...those with the big R in front of their names.

That is scary *** ****.

Oh, and I'll point out again...Nixon is often the scapegoat that you Liberals point to as the biggest example of past Republican corruption. Few remember was that if not for Nixon, one Alger Hiss, proven Liberal Soviet Spy, would never have gone to court - twice - and have been found guilty. It was a young Richard Nixon that ensured that case got exposed and allowed Whitaker Chambers to testify about the deep corruption in our government which was rife with Communists in the 30s and 40s. Funny how Hiss has been white washed from the annals of history, is it not? Because he was a celebrated Liberal elite.

But Nixon's image remains.

List of Reagan administration convictions.

Challenged by a conservative to present evidence that Reagan ran the most corrupt administration of the 20th century, I assembled this list of convicts from Reagan's ranks.

If anybody can provide additional info, it would be appreciated. I do know there were many others convicted, but I'd like to keep it to people who were actually employed by the administration, and to crimes that were actually related to the office they served. I've never been able to find a good list online anywhere, and so I assembled this hoping to provide a resource for others as well. As far as I know, Nixon only had eight staffers convicted of crimes against their office. Clinton, of course, only had one.

"By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever."

1. Lyn Nofziger--White House Press Secretary - Convicted on charges of illegal lobbying of White House in Wedtech scandal. The lobbying would not have been illegal had he not been White House Press Secretary.

2. Michael Deaver, Reagan's Chief of Staff, received three years' probation and was fined one hundred thousand dollars after being convicted for lying to a congressional subcommittee and a federal grand jury about his lobbying activities after leaving the White House. Same as with Lyn Nofziger.

3. James Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior was indicted on 41 felony counts for using connections at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help his private clients seek federal funds for housing projects in Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Watt conceded that he had received $500,000 from clients who were granted very favorable housing contracts after he had intervened on their behalf. Watt was eventually sentenced to five years in prison and 500 hours of community service.

4. John Poindexter, Reagan's national security advisor, guilty of five criminal counts involving conspiracy to mislead Congress, obstructing congressional inquiries, lying to lawmakers, used "high national security" to mask deceit and wrong-doing...

5. Richard Secord pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to Congress over Iran-Contra. Appointed by William Casey to assist Oliver North.

6. Elliott Abrams was appointed by President Reagan in 1985 to head the State Department's Latin American Bureau. He was closely linked with ex-White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver North's covert movement to aid the Contras. Working for North, Abrams coordinated inter-agency support for the contras and helped solicit illegal funding from foreign powers as well as domestic contributors. Abrams agreed to cooperate with Iran-Contra investigators and pled guilty to two charges reduced to misdemeanors. He was sentenced in 1991 to two years probation and 100 hours of community service but was pardoned by President George Bush...

7. Robert C. McFarlane, Reagan's National Security Advisor, pled guilty to four misdemeanors and was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service. He was also fined $20,000. He received a blanket pardon from President George Bush...

8. Alan D. Fiers was the Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Central American Task Force. Fiers pled guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from congress about Oliver North's activities and the diversion of Iran arms sale money to aid the Contras. He was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Alan Fiers received a blanket pardon for his crimes from President Bush...

Thomas G. Clines: convicted of four counts of tax-related offenses for failing to report income from the operations;

Carl R. Channel - Office of Public Diplomacy , partner in International Business- first person convicted in the Iran/Contra scandal, pleaded guilty of one count of defrauding the United States

Richard R. Miller - Partner with Oliver North in IBC, a Office of Public Diplomacy front group, convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Frank Gomez

13.. Donald Fortier

Clair George was Chief of the CIA's Division of Covert Operations under President Reagan. George was convicted of lying to two congressional committees in 1986. George faced a maximum five year federal prison sentence and a $20,000 fine for each of the two convictions. Jurors cleared George of five other charges including two counts of lying to a federal grand jury. Clair George received a blanket pardon for his crimes from President George Bush...

Rita Lavelle was indicted, tried and convicted of lying to Congress and served three months of a six-month prison sentence.

Philip Winn - Assistant HUD Secretary. Pleaded guilty to one count of scheming to give illegal gratuities.

Thomas Demery - Assistand HUD Secretary - pleaded guilty to steering HUD subsidies to politically connected donors.

Deborah Gore Dean - executive assistant to Samuel Pierce - indicted on thirteen counts, three counts of conspiracy, one count of accepting an illegal gratuity, four counts of perjury, and five counts of concealing articles. She was convicted on twelve accounts. She appealed and prevailed on several accounts but the convictions for conspiracy remained.

Catalina Villaponda - Former US Treasurer

Joseph A. Strauss - Accepting kickbacks from developers

Oliver North - He was indicted on sixteen felony counts and on May 4, 1989, he was convicted of three: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents (by his secretary, Fawn Hall, on his instructions). He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on July 5, 1989, to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines, and 1,200 hours community service. His conviction was later overturned.


Let's not even start on Reagan himself , Central America, the traitorous arms for hostages, and on and on. Republicans redefine corruption on a decadal basis, Trump is easily the worst ever.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

List of Reagan administration convictions.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

I recall Tibs using words when describing Richard Steele as "honorable." That the Steel Dossier is truth.

From my good friend Dean. Words of wisdom:

I remember instances in high school or junior high when something bad happened to a notoriously bad actor. One fight in particular I watched. No one wanted to stop it. Instead they cheered it on. It bothered me, deeply. There was a moment of sympathy that I previously didn't think I was capable of possessing for someone I considered so incredibly unseemly. Perhaps it's me, but the idea that someone was disproportionately injured, embarrassed triggered sympathetic tendencies that I've long since carried. To this day, I don't like to see anyone treated to mob rule justice. I'd like to think that most people have an inherent sense of "justice". No one wants to see someone injured in great disproportion. The idea that perhaps I didn't like a person, should never translate to relishing in their defeat or injury.

Sure, a bloody nose for a bully is a good thing as it serves to reorder things. Hopefully, the bully self-corrects and social order re-established. But, that's not the sort of social "harm" I am referring to here. Not trivial, social harm but real injurious harm that besets someone highly disproportional to their "crime". Absent from it seems to be the necessary sense of the collective conscience that would act as a natural governor to such situations. "This is too much, stop hitting him". Its the sense of disproportionally to it all that bothered me, and continues to bother me, and should bother every right thinking, fully formed human conscience. I'm wondering if those tendencies exist anymore. As a corollary, I do think those individual tendencies for human sympathy morph to bloodlust when a mob encircles someone. There are social studies about stuff like that. Do people have the ability to put aside their utter and complete disdain for an individual and their hope for harm to befall upon a person and a nation? I don't think so anymore. I especially don't think so when they find someone unsavory and they are carrying pitchforks and torches. Yes, maybe he deserves the embarrassment that comes with a bloody nose. Maybe he will self correct. But that's not what this FBI stuff is. This is pure, 100 percent, unadulterated bloodlust. All sense of justice, order and the better graces that should consume a fully formed adult conscience have been overshadowed and it's extremely bizarre.

The other day I compared the modern political state to a teenage nation. The petty politics of John McCains funeral have continued to be the stuff of a high school cafeteria. Sarah Palin uninvited. Each side, the Trump folks and the elitist leftist and their allies in the media continue to volley a barrage of insults at one another. Adults, like John Sununu, have been hard to find. Meanwhile, really dangerous stuff like this happens and a blind eye is cast.

While it's unseemly and moderately corrosive to the culture, the gossip and rumor mill to churn on the unimportant stuff, like whos cool, who's not, who's popular, whos not, its an extremely more serious proposition when a legal entity enters the fray seeking to alter elections and destroy people, legally. We are no longer talking about a situation that can simply be repaired with better social graces, No, when the highest law enforcement agency in the land becomes the preferred instrument of one side, we are now talking about an entirely different proposition. This is no longer just about the need for better social graces. Much like the problem that plagues the church, this requires the rank file, the laity to fix.

Well, here you have it, in black and white, on full display. Left, right, and everyone in between should drop their pigs-in-a-blanket and note the seriousness of this and demand some answers. Everything we thought about the dossier was and is true. It was a political rouse crafted by someone with admitted political bias and funneled through an outside agency, Fusion GPS, to the FBI. Everyone at the FBI knew. They withheld information from the FISA court and proceeded to get a warrant.

Now, it's all well and good to chastise Donald Trump for the stupid things he does and says. I've done that. But this is different. This is several degrees more serious. This is losing all sense of proportionality and I find myself wanting it to stop while so many seem to be cheering it on.

What Bruce Ohr Told Congress
He warned the FBI that Steele had credibility problems. The bureau forged ahead anyhow.

To believe most media descriptions of Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, he is a nonentity, unworthy of the attention President Trump has given him. This is remarkable, given that Mr. Ohr spent Tuesday confirming for Congress its worst suspicions about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s abuse of its surveillance and sourcing rules.

If Mr. Ohr is only now under the spotlight, it’s because it has taken so much effort to unpack his role in the FBI’s 2016 investigation of the Trump campaign. Over the past year, congressional investigators found out that Mr. Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS, the opposition-research firm that gave its infamous dossier, funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to the FBI. They then discovered that Mr. Ohr had numerous interactions of his own with Fusion chief Glenn Simpson and dossier author Christopher Steele, and that he passed on information from these talks to the bureau. So the G-men were being fed the dossier allegations from both the outside and the inside.

This week’s news is that Mr. Ohr’s deliveries to the FBI came with a caveat. Congress already knew that Mr. Ohr had been aware of Mr. Steele’s political biases. In notes Mr. Ohr took of a September 2016 conversation with Mr. Steele, he wrote that the dossier author “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” Congressional sources tell me that Mr. Ohr revealed Tuesday that he verbally warned the FBI that its source had a credibility problem, alerting the bureau to Mr. Steele’s leanings and motives. He also informed the bureau that Mrs. Ohr was working for Fusion and contributing to the dossier project.

Mr. Ohr said, moreover, that he delivered this information before the FBI’s first application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant against Trump aide Carter Page, in October 2016. Yet the FBI made no mention of this warning in the application, instead characterizing Mr. Steele as a “reliable” source. Nor does the application note that a senior Justice Department official’s spouse was contributing to the dossier and benefiting financially from a document the FBI was using in an investigation. That matters both because the FBI failed to flag the enormous conflict and because Mr. Steele’s work product potentially wasn’t entirely his own.

No reference to Mr. Ohr—direct or cloaked—can be found in any of the four applications for Page warrants, according to those who have seen them. This despite his more than a dozen conversations with FBI agents over the course of the probe that addressed the content in and sourcing behind the surveillance applications. I’m told Mr. Ohr made clear that these conversations variously included all the heavyweights in the FBI investigation—former lead investigator Peter Strzok, former FBI senior lawyer Lisa Page, and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. So senior people were very aware of his role, information and conflict.

All this is what Republicans are referring to when they hint that the Ohr interview provided solid evidence that the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “Before yesterday, we thought the FBI and DOJ had not disclosed material facts they were aware of in the FISA application. If Bruce Ohr testified truthfully, we now know that to be the case,” Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas tweeted Wednesday. (The Justice Department declined to comment, citing an inspector-general investigation.)

As for Mr. Ohr’s interaction with the FBI, he told congressional investigators this week that while initially he reached out to the FBI, the bureau also later came looking for information about Mr. Steele. That outreach happened after the FBI had terminated Mr. Steele as a source in October 2016 for violating bureau rules about talking to media. So even after having been warned of Mr. Steele’s motivations, even after having fired him for violating the rules, the FBI continued to seek his information—using Mr. Ohr as a back channel. This surely violates the FBI manual governing interaction with confidential human sources.

That Mr. Ohr came shopping the Steele info should have on its own set off FBI alarm bells. Mr. Steele was already in direct contact with the FBI by early July. Why would Mr. Steele then go to work on a Justice Department source, and refunnel the same allegations to the bureau? The likely answer is that the Fusion crowd wanted to exert maximum pressure on the FBI to act. Had the FBI bothered to try to find out what was behind such a pressure campaign, it might have stumbled upon the obvious answer: politics.

Unless it didn’t care. The evidence continues to mount that the FBI didn’t want to know about bias, or about conflicts of interest, or about the political paymasters behind the dossier—and it certainly didn’t want the surveillance court to know. It wanted to investigate Donald Trump.

 

[Steelworth]

I remember instances in high school or junior high when something bad happened to a notoriously bad actor. One fight in particular I watched. No one wanted to stop it. Instead they cheered it on. It bothered me, deeply. There was a moment of sympathy that I previously didn't think I was capable of possessing for someone I considered so incredibly unseemly. Perhaps it's me, but the idea that someone was disproportionately injured, embarrassed triggered sympathetic tendencies that I've long since carried. To this day, I don't like to see anyone treated to mob rule justice. I'd like to think that most people have an inherent sense of "justice". No one wants to see someone injured in great disproportion. The idea that perhaps I didn't like a person, should never translate to relishing in their defeat or injury.

Sure, a bloody nose for a bully is a good thing as it serves to reorder things. Hopefully, the bully self-corrects and social order re-established. But, that's not the sort of social "harm" I am referring to here. Not trivial, social harm but real injurious harm that besets someone highly disproportional to their "crime". Absent from it seems to be the necessary sense of the collective conscience that would act as a natural governor to such situations. "This is too much, stop hitting him". Its the sense of disproportionally to it all that bothered me, and continues to bother me, and should bother every right thinking, fully formed human conscience. I'm wondering if those tendencies exist anymore. As a corollary, I do think those individual tendencies for human sympathy morph to bloodlust when a mob encircles someone. There are social studies about stuff like that. Do people have the ability to put aside their utter and complete disdain for an individual and their hope for harm to befall upon a person and a nation? I don't think so anymore. I especially don't think so when they find someone unsavory and they are carrying pitchforks and torches. Yes, maybe he deserves the embarrassment that comes with a bloody nose. Maybe he will self correct. But that's not what this FBI stuff is. This is pure, 100 percent, unadulterated bloodlust. All sense of justice, order and the better graces that should consume a fully formed adult conscience have been overshadowed and it's extremely bizarre.

The other day I compared the modern political state to a teenage nation. The petty politics of John McCains funeral have continued to be the stuff of a high school cafeteria. Sarah Palin uninvited. Each side, the Trump folks and the elitist leftist and their allies in the media continue to volley a barrage of insults at one another. Adults, like John Sununu, have been hard to find. Meanwhile, really dangerous stuff like this happens and a blind eye is cast.

While it's unseemly and moderately corrosive to the culture, the gossip and rumor mill to churn on the unimportant stuff, like whos cool, who's not, who's popular, whos not, its an extremely more serious proposition when a legal entity enters the fray seeking to alter elections and destroy people, legally. We are no longer talking about a situation that can simply be repaired with better social graces, No, when the highest law enforcement agency in the land becomes the preferred instrument of one side, we are now talking about an entirely different proposition. This is no longer just about the need for better social graces. Much like the problem that plagues the church, this requires the rank file, the laity to fix.

Well, here you have it, in black and white, on full display. Left, right, and everyone in between should drop their pigs-in-a-blanket and note the seriousness of this and demand some answers. Everything we thought about the dossier was and is true. It was a political rouse crafted by someone with admitted political bias and funneled through an outside agency, Fusion GPS, to the FBI. Everyone at the FBI knew. They withheld information from the FISA court and proceeded to get a warrant.

Now, it's all well and good to chastise Donald Trump for the stupid things he does and says. I've done that. But this is different. This is several degrees more serious. This is losing all sense of proportionality and I find myself wanting it to stop while so many seem to be cheering it on.

Both profound and extremely scary. Many I'm sure would have this reaction though (sadly):

 

[Tibs]

Indeed it does.

Obama....Obama......Hillary...The Clintons....Clinton Foundation....Liberals

I thought so. You have zero defense for Trump. Nothing new here at SN, defending Trump for Trump supporters is akin to pulling teeth in the backyard with some rusty pliers. At the end of the day you yourselves can't defend this criminal, mafia boss President. That is clear as day.

Maybe that should give you pause, that you've hitched your cart to a limp, sick horse. A cart that's going nowhere fast. I feel for you, I really do.

 

[Tibs]

To any objective observer of the multiple investigations into Trump's personal, business and poltiical affairs, it's blatantly obvious the skeletons keep dropping out of the closet. The demons that haunt him simply won't go away, regardless how infuriatated Trump is at his rallies and on his twitter feed. It's like an hourglass has been flipped over, and Trump knows he's running out of time. In a way I feel sorry for him. He never thought for a moment he'd actually win the election and become President. He must've thought, no ******* way there are enough fools in this country that'd vote for me. But alas, he was handed the office and all of the exposure that comes with it. Worst thing to ever happen to him, to have the feds all up in his *** sniffing around. Point blank the man is a criminal mob boss. The sooner you come to that understanding, the less painful it will be to witness his downfall. Just trying to help you out here.

 

[hamster]

I thought so. You have zero defense for Trump. Nothing new here at SN, defending Trump for Trump supporters is akin to pulling teeth in the backyard with some rusty pliers. At the end of the day you yourselves can't defend this criminal, mafia boss President. That is clear as day.

.

Defend what? Are there criminal charges that I don't know about?
I certainly don't feel the need to defend him from the merry-go-round of libtard hysterias.