Susan Rice Did Her Job—and Boy Are Republicans Pissed

[Hijinx]

Because they are undermining the foreign policy. Even if they will have the right to change it in the future, if at the time a person was talking to Russia, the sanctions were in place, talking to Russia about ignoring the sanctions would be undermining the current administration. Its the exact same complaint that Trump has now, saying Obama people are undermining his administration through leaks.

In terms of Flynn, I think McMaster was a nice upgrade over Flynn. Flynn got fired by the Obama administration for being a pain in the ass (his subordinates complained about him, he had a reputation for like publicity). He was able to turn that into a positive with the Trump people by creating the narrative he was relieved of his position one year early because he was a dissenter. However, in like a month, he created three problems for Trump, which kind of indicated he was going to be a pain in the butt for Trump. He talked to Russia about the sanctions, he didn't disclose income he received from Russia on his financial disclosures (which because he would have been a huge story with the media, except when that came out he had already designed) and his excessive use of twitter by him and his son was troublesome including his son, who he took as a chief advisor with him, tweeted about pizzagate. So to replace Flynn with McMaster who even most Democrats admit is a good choice was a huge upgrade. Sometimes it takes two tries to get something right.

Obama had no business sanctioning Russia. It was BS to begin with.

 

[GURPS]

I'm still waiting to hear what crime was suspected or conducted to allow the surveillance.

Calling Russians on the telephone .... NSA has any number of programs that vacuum this communication up

 

[This_person]

Calling Russians on the telephone .... NSA has any number of programs that vacuum this communication up

Ok, fine. So, they were doing what they do which is monitor every single call overseas. Got it.

Now, they must have made a transcript of this/these call(s), and delivered this/these call(s) to Rice for some reason. Is it because there was indication of a crime? If not, then unmasking is CERTAINLY a problem. If so, let's hear what the potentially-illegal activity was!

 

[GURPS]

Now, they must have made a transcript of this/these call(s), and delivered this/these call(s) to Rice for some reason. Is it because there was indication of a crime? If not, then unmasking is CERTAINLY a problem. If so, let's hear what the potentially-illegal activity was!

Indeed ... unmasked and why

 

[SamSpade]

Here is something about the entire matter that has me puzzled - and beyond convinced that this was strictly political.

How many people were running for election last fall? How many in the primaries?
Out of all those people - how many of them have frequent contact with Russians?
Clintons? Sanders? Any of a host of Senators and Representatives? Bueller?
Am I to believe that the ONLY PEOPLE in the last year and a half running for election that had anything to with Russia or had anyone on their staff having anything to do with Russia - am I to somehow believe it was and still is ONLY Trump?

What was so singularly important about Trump that made handling HIS material different from everyone else?
Why wasn't his stuff - "re-masked"?

Still think politics wasn't part of it?

 

[littlelady]

Here is something about the entire matter that has me puzzled - and beyond convinced that this was strictly political.

How many people were running for election last fall? How many in the primaries?
Out of all those people - how many of them have frequent contact with Russians?
Clintons? Sanders? Any of a host of Senators and Representatives? Bueller?
Am I to believe that the ONLY PEOPLE in the last year and a half running for election that had anything to with Russia or had anyone on their staff having anything to do with Russia - am I to somehow believe it was and still is ONLY Trump?

What was so singularly important about Trump that made handling HIS material different from everyone else?
Why wasn't his stuff - "re-masked"?

Still think politics wasn't part of it?

I am glad you posted this, and that you are awake; so to speak. Our gov has been so corrupt since Kennedy's death. Trump might not be perfect, but he is a breath of fresh air; even though he is a pompous ass. I do believe his heart is in the right place. He loves America. One president at a time. Go, Trump!

One more thing. I was 8 years old when Kennedy was assassinated and heard it on the school bus, and came home to my Repub parents crying. That was the day that America died. JMO.

 

[GURPS]

Am I to believe that the ONLY PEOPLE in the last year and a half running for election that had anything to with Russia or had anyone on their staff having anything to do with Russia - am I to somehow believe it was and still is ONLY Trump?

What was so singularly important about Trump that made handling HIS material different from everyone else?
Why wasn't his stuff - "re-masked"?

Still think politics wasn't part of it?

Clinton - possibly
Sanders - I doubt it [perhaps]

Other Reps and Senators - could be, depends on business dealings - IIRC some 'Congress Critter' has audio of a Phone call played back 2 yrs after the call was made

Jeb Bush - Why :shrug: for what reason ....


I'm not saying you are incorrect, I am just puzzling it out

 

[PsyOps]

Sure it's legal....let's say it IS incidental.....so, if a legal thing was going on with American Male #1, why did the NSA need to unmask American Male #1? Even if everything is EXACTLY as everyone reports, there is no reason to unmask, because there was nothing to worry about happening.

So, why unmask the masked individual? Was the actual discussion suggesting illegal activity? If not, it seems there's no reason to unmask.

I think I might have misread your post.

The bigger problem is that names were leaked to the press. I heard a lot of talk about whether Rice has to have a good reason to unmask names or not. Some say she has to have good justification to request the names be unmasked. Others said that she has all legal authority to demand the names be unmasked and not really give a good reason. Let's say the latter is true... what does she do with these names after they are unmasked? What was she looking for? What did she see that might have concerned her to unmask them. I don't think it was any coincidence that it happened to be people in the Tramp camp. Then, how did those names to get to other folks to finally leak it to the press?

This is just another one of those situations where we say "they think we're too stupid to see what's going on here". I'm willing to say that her motives were political. Given Rice has given no good explanation for the unmasking, I am okay with saying she is being her usual dishonest self and covering up that this whole Russian thing is nothing more than a political hatchet job.

 

[PsyOps]

Here is something about the entire matter that has me puzzled - and beyond convinced that this was strictly political.

How many people were running for election last fall? How many in the primaries?
Out of all those people - how many of them have frequent contact with Russians?
Clintons? Sanders? Any of a host of Senators and Representatives? Bueller?
Am I to believe that the ONLY PEOPLE in the last year and a half running for election that had anything to with Russia or had anyone on their staff having anything to do with Russia - am I to somehow believe it was and still is ONLY Trump?

What was so singularly important about Trump that made handling HIS material different from everyone else?
Why wasn't his stuff - "re-masked"?

Still think politics wasn't part of it?

Ah yes... but it wasn't just Trump's benign communications with Russian officials... (in my sarcastic voice) Trump was the only one colluding with the Russians to manipulate the election.

What stands out as completely ridiculous to be is... why would Trump need Russia to manipulate our election? You mean to tell me a bunch of communists would rather have the republicans running things than a bunch of socialist democrats? The whole thing is stinks so bad of bull#### that I can't even find a downwind position to get away from the stench.

 

[SamSpade]

Clinton - possibly
Sanders - I doubt it [perhaps]

Other Reps and Senators - could be, depends on business dealings - IIRC some 'Congress Critter' has audio of a Phone call played back 2 yrs after the call was made

Jeb Bush - Why :shrug: for what reason ....


I'm not saying you are incorrect, I am just puzzling it out

Clintons - we KNOW this. For a half mil, they bargained away our uranium. Frankly, knowing they could be bought so cheap, I would think they would WANT her to be elected.
Sanders - maybe not - but he "honeymooned" there, in the Soviet Union (technically, he went there right after he was married as part of his job in Vermont).
I seriously doubt he had ZERO contact with Russians.
Jeb - damn straight.
You know, there were a lot of guys running for the GOP nomination. *NONE* of them nor anyone in their campaign never had anything even innocuous with Russians?

Ann Coulter actually wrote about this yesterday which I read AFTER I posted this - Russia's main export - pretty much their ONLY one - is energy in the form of gas and oil.
You'd think the ONE person they did not want to be President would be the one who wants to frack the hell out of this place.

But the rest - it puzzles ME. Because I have to think that for a year and a half LOTS of people running for office had SOME contact with Russians.
The NSA must have LOTS of redacted files. What in the world was so vital about Trump that his stuff had to be unmasked - and then kept around to - SOMEHOW -
get leaked?

 

[SamSpade]

Ah yes... but it wasn't just Trump's benign communications with Russian officials... (in my sarcastic voice) Trump was the only one colluding with the Russians to manipulate the election.

What stands out as completely ridiculous to be is... why would Trump need Russia to manipulate our election? You mean to tell me a bunch of communists would rather have the republicans running things than a bunch of socialist democrats? The whole thing is stinks so bad of bull#### that I can't even find a downwind position to get away from the stench.

Ann comments on this too, and I have to admit, it hadn't occurred to me.....

Apparently the Russians are SOOOOO much better at manipulating elections, because millions, BILLIONS were squandered by people in the UNITED STATES trying to do the same thing.
In the primaries, millions were lost trying to nominate *JEB*.
And up until Election Day, virtually everyone was giving a 99% chance that Hillary was going to win it anyway.

So people IN THIS COUNTRY spend a billion trying to elect Hillary - but those damned Russians managed to give her so much of a lead that everyone figured she'd win anyway.
I wouldn't call that brilliant, that would be damned lucky. That's winning poker with a pair of deuces.

How is it possible that the *RUSSIANS* managed to pull off something that billions of dollars from *Americans* could not do?

 

[PsyOps]

Ann comments on this too, and I have to admit, it hadn't occurred to me.....

Apparently the Russians are SOOOOO much better at manipulating elections, because millions, BILLIONS were squandered by people in the UNITED STATES trying to do the same thing.
In the primaries, millions were lost trying to nominate *JEB*.
And up until Election Day, virtually everyone was giving a 99% chance that Hillary was going to win it anyway.

So people IN THIS COUNTRY spend a billion trying to elect Hillary - but those damned Russians managed to give her so much of a lead that everyone figured she'd win anyway.
I wouldn't call that brilliant, that would be damned lucky. That's winning poker with a pair of deuces.

How is it possible that the *RUSSIANS* managed to pull off something that billions of dollars from *Americans* could not do?

And let's not forget who really did rig the election; at least for Hillary.

 

[GURPS]

What in the world was so vital about Trump that his stuff had to be unmasked - and then kept around to - SOMEHOW -
get leaked?

the democrat did not win .... doing anything to damage the incoming Trump Administration

IMHO this is just an extension of the Dirty Tricks from the Election Cycle

 

[GURPS]

Apparently the Russians are SOOOOO much better at manipulating elections ....

I guess ..... I just don't see it

Russians were NOT responsible for the information supplied to Wiki-Leaks [IMHO]

I've still see / heard of any real proof

- Russian Assigned IP Address [claimed by some] are too easy to mis-direct or rent / hack / compromise a PC in Russia and hack away]

 

[SamSpade]

I guess ..... I just don't see it

Russians were NOT responsible for the information supplied to Wiki-Leaks [IMHO]

I've still see / heard of any real proof

- Russian Assigned IP Address [claimed by some] are too easy to mis-direct or rent / hack / compromise a PC in Russia and hack away]

If we're just talking Podesta emails - it is MUCH easier to believe that a DNC staffer sympathetic to Bernie leaked them than to believe the Russians got them.
And while I have no clue who killed Seth Rich, I think it is very possible it was political in nature, since he was shot twice in the back and not robbed.
The timing is not only too odd, it's strikingly stupid in its timing.

 

[philibusters]

Ann comments on this too, and I have to admit, it hadn't occurred to me.....

Apparently the Russians are SOOOOO much better at manipulating elections, because millions, BILLIONS were squandered by people in the UNITED STATES trying to do the same thing.
In the primaries, millions were lost trying to nominate *JEB*.
And up until Election Day, virtually everyone was giving a 99% chance that Hillary was going to win it anyway.

So people IN THIS COUNTRY spend a billion trying to elect Hillary - but those damned Russians managed to give her so much of a lead that everyone figured she'd win anyway.
I wouldn't call that brilliant, that would be damned lucky. That's winning poker with a pair of deuces.

How is it possible that the *RUSSIANS* managed to pull off something that billions of dollars from *Americans* could not do?

Russians can do stuff that is plainly illegal. For example they can hack servers and give the information to Wikileaks to post. Which is exactly what they did. That would be illegal in the U.S.. You are not allowed to hack servers. You can say the Russians didn't put out any information that the Democrats didn't say in their email, but they had one embarrassing revelation after other. For example how do we know that the Democratic chairman person gave Hillary the questions to the town hall meeting primary debate before the townhall--the Russians hacked the computers and gave to wikileaks to release.

 

[SamSpade]

Russians can do stuff that is plainly illegal. For example they can hack servers and give the information to Wikileaks to post. Which is exactly what they did.

And how do *WE* know that? Because they left a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to Moscow?
They're smart enough to break into the DNC, but too stupid to cover their tracks? Even our own hackers know how to do that.

I don't believe they had ANYTHING to do with that.
I sure don't believe the RNC was better protected.

I do think it makes a LOT more sense that someone IN the DNC leaked it. Someone WITH access who did not need to "hack" anything.

 

[Hijinx]

Russians can do stuff that is plainly illegal. For example they can hack servers and give the information to Wikileaks to post. Which is exactly what they did. That would be illegal in the U.S.. You are not allowed to hack servers. You can say the Russians didn't put out any information that the Democrats didn't say in their email, but they had one embarrassing revelation after other. For example how do we know that the Democratic chairman person gave Hillary the questions to the town hall meeting primary debate before the townhall--the Russians hacked the computers and gave to wikileaks to release.

You have verifiable proof of this of course.

 

[stgislander]

And how do *WE* know that? Because they left a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to Moscow?
They're smart enough to break into the DNC, but too stupid to cover their tracks? Even our own hackers know how to do that.

I don't believe they had ANYTHING to do with that.
I sure don't believe the RNC was better protected.

I do think it makes a LOT more sense that someone IN the DNC leaked it. Someone WITH access who did not need to "hack" anything.

Occam's razor.

 

[philibusters]

And how do *WE* know that? Because they left a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to Moscow?
They're smart enough to break into the DNC, but too stupid to cover their tracks? Even our own hackers know how to do that.

I don't believe they had ANYTHING to do with that.
I sure don't believe the RNC was better protected.

I do think it makes a LOT more sense that someone IN the DNC leaked it. Someone WITH access who did not need to "hack" anything.

I would be very very surprised if it wasn't the Russians who hacked the DNC. Am I 100% positive? No. But very confident, maybe 95%.

The hacks were huge. A lot of embarrassing stuff, but the one that ultimately changed the momentum was hacking Anthony Weiner's computer that showed he was sextexting minors. When the FBI seized his computer they found more unreported emails which is waht lead Comey to say he was reopening the investatigation on the emails 10 days before the election when Hillary had all the momentum from the debates.

What that the difference in the election? Its really hard to say, but it seemed to crush Hillary's momentum right when it seemed like she was pulling away. However, the pundits still had her winning the election as of election morning so its hard to say if she was ever really in as good of a position as she appeared 10 days out.