British intelligence officials were formally exonerated on Monday by the director of the US National Security Agency from an extraordinary accusation of improper surveillance of Donald Trump.And
Under questioning from the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, the FBI director also publicly contradicted a series of tweets from Trump that declared the Republican candidate's phones had been ordered tapped by President Barack Obama during the campaign.But they are investigating Trump's ties to Russia:
"With respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," Comey said. The same was true, he added, of the Justice Department.
Comey also acknowledged the existence of a counterintelligence investigation into the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, and said that probe extends to the nature of any links between Trump campaign associates and the Russian government.Meanwhile, Spicer the Liar is doing what he does best: Lying through his teeth.
Comey said the investigation is also exploring whether there was any coordination between the campaign and the Kremlin, and “whether any crimes were committed.”
Meanwhile, this is not terribly far-fetched.
An investigation. Yet no smoking gun yet.
ReplyDeleteand they've had all that time to investigate. And found nothing
Yet they area sure that they never tapped his phones so early.
Odd, that.
And really, can any rational being believe anything Comey says?
And yet, all the Trumpettes cheered mightily when Comey came out right before the election stating that an investigation into Hillary's mails was underway. Now that the shoes on the other foot, it seems to be causing a little pain.
ReplyDeleteInteresting they my guy good, your guy bad perspective. I believe in the my guy bad, your guy bad too. Just amounts to what kind of "bad" one can tolerate. Both were lying millionaires, with one able to act presidential and the other act like a howling shrew. Myself, I can't take someone who won't admit they made a mistake. Just the way I feel.
Dale
Nixon: I am not a crook
ReplyDeleteTrump: I absolutely have no ties to Russia
Notice that he goes batshit ballistic when his involvements with Russia/Putin/the oligrachs gets suggested. Methinks he doth protest too much.
And as Schiff pointed out, Trump rabidly attacks and insults our neighbors and allies...but there is one country he doesn't say Thing One about...except that he really admires its leader, thinks its actions in extreme prejudice aren't so bad, etc. Funny that.
How is it odd that a review of phone taps has been completed and found none relevant. Also, we have an investigation, one that has expanded radically in the past month because of the now public actions of certain Trump associates. I prefer a complete investigation versus a rushed job...a rushed job like the great email revelation letter is dangerous.
ReplyDeleteIf you listened to the House hearing today, you saw a timeline that had data coming out as recently as March 12, 2017...with more whispers swirling around. If you rush, the whispers will become conspiracy theories, the facts will be at risk of being found to be less than complete, and you may miss things. With the election over, there is time to look it over carefully. Any obvious red flags can be brought forward to the Select Committee, under executive session, to determine if immediate action is needed.
The more amusing thing I see is that the push for investigation of "leaks" is as likely to sink the Administration as the "civil servents" Donnie likes to blame.
Odd, Barry wasn't a Millionaire until he became President. Now he is worth something like 40 million.
ReplyDeleteHow'd that happen?
They are, as you say, both bad. Just in different ways. Barry wanted to damage the country. Trump wants to profit from it...
I just object to the double standard. If the MSM (and folks here) would have looked at Barry half as hard as they are looking at Trump, well, things might have been different. Barry might have been in jail.
What did I miss during Obama's eight years? How did he 'want to damage the country?' Really, maybe I'm missing something. Please tell me.
ReplyDeleteBTW, by using bing to find how Obama's net worth grew, it seems he got most of it from book deal advances and mutual funds, later US Treasury funds. Seems like a shrewd business man to me. Maybe better than the current president.
Dale
Or he was bribed with the "book deal advances" while he was still president.
ReplyDeleteAnd his investments did about 200X better than the rest of the countries citizens could do. Odd, that. Really really shrewd, or really really lucky. Funny how that works. Wasn't that good until he became president.
Obama did his damnedest to try and make things better, in the face of all out scorched earth obstruction from before day one, and actually achieved things presidents have been trying and failing at for most of a century. And all of those economically marginalized WWC voters in the rust belt? The ones who voted for Trump because they felt left behind in today's economy? Well guess who did more to try and foster and save manufacturing jobs there than anyone ever? Barack Obama.
ReplyDeletehttp://driftglass.blogspot.com/2016/12/on-subject-of-listening-to-people-of.html
And with all of the supposedly favorable press he enjoyed, it seems like more of us would know about all of the work he did on those folks' behalf, but it seems that programs aimed at saving manufacturing businesses from closing when their owners/founders retire just don't get the kind of ratings that made up scandals do.
And from those hearings:
Rep. Conaway: "And then the conclusion that active measures taken specifically to help president Trump's campaign, you had that by early December, you already had that conclusion?"
Comey: "Correct, they wanted to hurt our democracy, hurt her, help him, I think all three we were confident in at least as early as December."
"...hurt our democracy, hurt her, help him..."
Funny how well those three things line up, especially the first and last.
-Doug in Oakland
Lots of pretty words there, D....But the words failed to become actions....the economy failed to rebound. People still didn't have jobs because they were still sent to other countries and because the regulatory burden prevented people from being able to actually do any manufacturing or start new enterprises.
ReplyDeleteWords mean less than actions. Actions mean little if they fail to produce results.
And results are all that matter.
Will Trump do any better? I dunno. I doubt it, really. Not until we curtail Commerce and EPA and others. Not eliminate, just get these regulatory agencies under control. They ahve gone from doing good work to being an impediment....
And Hillary wanted to help Coal? Please. That single statement removed any credibility.
B, you feel that Obama hurt the country. I get that.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, I feel he couldn't help the country due to the obstructionist Republican controlled congress for most of his eight years. (Remember Mitch McConnell stated the goal was to make Obama a one term president).
As far as Commerce and the EPA, I would like to see clean water and air. The current gutting of environmental restrictions by the current administration does not sit too well with me. I'd rather pay now than have my grandchildren succumb to illness due to polluted air and water.
I readily admit I am not as sharp on the Commerce department rules and regulations that inhibit businesses. But it has been my experience that rules usually are made because of one entity trying to exploit another. All to make a few bucks more. But then we could get into the argument of how much profit is enough, does one deserve a fair wage, what role should government play is promoting business/protecting workers, etc. We'd have to take at least a week with beers in front of us to discuss that.
Dale
Once we turned the corner on the recession, a record setting string of months of job growth ensued. And recently wages were growing too. The workers that Trump pandered to were in economic trouble dating back to the 90's. Those are industries that are not going to be reborn, at least not with the sort of employment they enjoyed in their glory days.
ReplyDeleteI'm really beginning to wonder which Secret Service guy has been issued the tranquilizer gun. And I'm really not joking here.
ReplyDeleteB: In other words you didn't read the post I linked to and still want to deny the difference between Obama working his ass off to help those people get and keep their manufacturing jobs, and making actual progress without which a lot of those people wouldn't be employed at good paying jobs right now, and Trump and his Republican toadies working their asses off to kill the funding for hospitals in rural areas that are often the largest employers in those areas and the only source left of living wage, recession proof jobs there.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the forties or fifties any more. The economy has changed, just as it had in the forties and fifties to make them what they were.
Lies and insanity don't pay and have zero benefits, from a worker's perspective.
-Doug in Oakland
D: Actually, I did read the blogpost. It wasn't terribly full of verifiable facts, mostly quotes. Those quotes were nice words, but they didn't translate into actual, you know actions.
ReplyDeleteAll the pretty words (and one thing Barry could do is make a GREAT speech) don't amount to anything unless they translate into actions and, ultimately, results.
DWTND:
I too want clean air and water. But the EPA accomplished that in the mid 90's or before.
Since then, they have been effectively tightening the screws on industry and aiming for stuff so clean that in the 80's, we couldn't even DETECT those levels of pollution. We have air now that is cleaner than in the 20's.
At some point the EPA has got to level off. They have lost the idea of science and have gone to environmentalism.
Cars are cleaner, industry is cleaner, the air and water is cleaner. Yet they don't stop, and are never satisfied.
B., so 8 years of bull market is hurting the country? So, I guess, conservative hero Donnie will now spill us into a recession to show he loves the country? Given his known worth before and after office, where do you get 200x from?
ReplyDeleteLooking at multiple sources, his wealth in Nov. of last year was right about $12.2 million. Now he started with about $1.5 million...got $3.2 million in Presidential salary...made $800k from his teaching retirement...that's $5.5 million. The stock market is up roughly triple, so if it was all invested, he'd have $16.5 million. Looks like his blind trust was a bit conservative...and this ignores his previous book proceeds.
So, care to explain YOUR math?
Closer to thrice your number. He's worth a bit closer to 40 Million.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is odd that he made all that cash in a mutual fund when the average person's funds didn't. Even if it had DOUBLED it would take better than 7% gain per year.
The numbers don't add up unless he got money somewhere else.
B., please provide a source, preferably multiple sources, for Barack Obama's net worth. I located about 10 sites that placed it in the $11 to $14 million range, with a mean of about $12 million. I selected the most reputable one (Forbes), close to the mean, as my number.
ReplyDeleteBeware conflating Barack Obama's and Michelle Obama's net worth, which is (I suspect) part of your error. (Mean for her wealth is $11 million, so even there, your (possible) total number is of by almost 100%.
As for the returns, with the stock market having tripled since his assets were placed in a blind trust, then 7% a year is LOW, the return rate on that is 14.72%. Such a return discrepancy is consistent with a managed trust with a mandate to protect principle while sharing in market gains. A standard 50/50 or 60/40 allocation would easily make those returns, even in the low bond return environment.