SABRES 0311

Not war yet. Show of force. Apparently the front row seat we gave them for the last almost 20 years didn’t work.

Trump wins then the same arguments continue. Same talking points on both sides probably more investigations. Trump loses the other side makes accusations and investigations. I don’t think the divisions will stop when Trump is not the president. They didn’t start when he became president. I think we continue down this road until we hit a breaking point.

And someone else moves in. People on both sides will say the same things only the people saying them will be the opposite of today.

You would have to ask a lawyer who specializes in that area. I would imagine it goes to the Supreme Court. At that point the citizenry will decide how they will react.

I don’t know if you are serious or joking. Hate the guy all you want but give the Generals some credit. The ones I’ve heard speak don’t seem like they do things without thought.

Yes this is America.

I support the guy but like I said I don’t think we are to the point where the military will subject the country to martial law.

It takes more than an accusation considering how decentralized our military is. Firing up a base and making a legitimate case to commanders, subordinate commanders and so on is another thing. I’d relax on that one.

What exactly do people think he will do to not relinquish power? The only way to know is declassification of everything. That includes if the DOJ followed protocol. To make that determination one would have to know the laws governing a CI investigation and criminal investigation.

I have a feeling there will be updates to your opener in the near future. Hopefully one that says Skinner stays and a 2C comes to town.

Because the post was in response to another’s with a link titled “Payback”. The idea being some view the dossier as a major component leading to the FISA warrant. So it depends on how view the last two years. Even if you believe the dossier was not integral to obtaining a FISA warrant Steele is supposedly an FBI informant. Did he begin providing his services to the FBI before or after the dossier? This is important IMO for context. If he became an informant after producing the dossier could it be the FBI believed it was credible information. I would guess so considering the FBI thought Steele was reliable. “That information came from the Steele dossier. At that point in the FISA application, the FBI included a lengthy footnote in which, referring to Steele as a "confidential human source" and "Source #1," it said "the FBI assesses Source #1 to be reliable." It also suggested the people who hired Steele might have had a political motive and were "likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1's [Trump's] campaign." -Washington Examiner If he was already an informant prior to the dossier are we to believe Fusion GPS just so happened to outsource their research to an FBI informant? Could the Ohr’s marriage have led to Fusion GPS getting the idea to use Steele? If so that in itself is another problem. Trump surrounds himself with dumb people probably to boost his ego. To curry favor they broke the law but I do not think at his direction.

Yep and this goes with my earlier post about Papadopoulos. The guy is an idiot through and through. 20 something year old who thinks he knows what he’s doing. Amateur hour on both sides of the aisle.

So if you track the QAnon phenomenon then quite possibly. Outside of that this is a necessary oversight action. FISA warrants are supposed to rely on vetted information. As it seems the Steel Dossier provided a foundation we need to look at the veracity of that information and if it was vetted prior to FISA application signatures. This goes into how the information was presented to the FISA Court. Essentially if it was not vetted but presented as though it was there is a problem. The origins of the dossier stem from opposition research on behalf of the HRC campaign. From what I understand they paid Fusion GPS, possibly through Perkins Coi. GPS then went to Steel who is a former, foreign intelligence personality. If Steel was somehow still tied to a foreign intelligence agency at the time of payments then HRC essentially used a foreign intelligence service to provide information on a U.S. citizen. Apparently the dossier was provided to the FBI from elements within the U.S. Government. If so, it should have stayed within official channels during the conduct of investigation. However that did not happen, hence leaking. Fun Fact, Bruce Ohr who is a member of the DOJ is married to Nellie Ohr who is/was employed by Fusion GPS. Conflict of interest? There is smoke so now we will see if there is fire. If the was any misconduct in the above it is pretty significant.

Can’t remember that far back. I believe it was the year before Columbus came to America.

Skimming through it the report talks about unemployment dropping. Goes into how non supervisory income is on the rise. Essentially we are to the point where employers can raise wages to attract more people to fill increased openings. This includes positions held by people at the lower levels who traditionally don’t make as much as supervisors. Only skimmed through it though.

The summers have a way of making me forget the season prior. Time heals the pain. Looking forward to the draft.

We get what we deserve. An easily manipulated populace gets masters, not representatives. Keep in mind this is my theory and I am not trying to convince anyone. I guess mostly it concerns the motivations. If I had to guess this will be another one of those things we debate for decades like JFK, Roswell and how to fix the Sabres. Edit: Personally I am more concerned about what Russia has on campaign members than I am about what they have on Trump. Specifically Don Jr had that meeting. Now we see China playing hardball and KJU meeting Putin. Just a theory but they may be feeling more confident if Russia has shared their knowledge. Same with recent Iranian actions and Maduro holding out. All of these actors are allies with Russia. This is only a theory as I do not know for sure what is true. Mueller was erroneously called an investigation but in reality was an inquiry. An inquiry only determines if there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation into the subject. I believe the reason he indicted other persons is because their charges were outside of his mandate therefore no impropriety on Mueller’s part. Hence why Don Jr was not indicted. Now the Dems have to choose their route. Try to win 2020 through better policies or win by destroying Trumps support. So far I think they are setting themselves up for failure by going after Trump the person instead of developing more appealing policies for the voters. I would like to see what percentage of voters changed their vote due to Russian troll farms. According to the numbers HRC won the popular vote despite troll farming.

Here is what I think happened. In an effort to curry favor with Trump some campaign members did meet with Russian personalities to acquire information. HRC campaign did the same but through Perkins Coi, Fusion GPS and eventually through Steele. That’s another conversation. Trump has a habit of surrounding himself with dumb people; papadopolous, Bannon, sons. Those individuals specifically require validation for their personalities. Papadopolous in particular tried to build himself as an “international man of mystery” and learned the hard way how that game is played. IMO there may have been attempted but failed collusion of staff members but not at the direction or outright knowledge of Trump himself. Essentially dumb people trying to do things to feed their ego and curry favor with Trump. Russia did use social media to effect the election. I do not think this was done in concert with the campaign. Not because the campaign turned it down but because it was unnecessary and would’ve jeopardized the activity. I do question the effectiveness of their activities. Attempted interference and actually swaying the election are two different things. If their social media activities did sway the election I’ll hang my head at the idea we rely that heavily on Facebook to decide who we vote for. Then again what do I know.

This thread is perfect for @New Scotland (NS).

Those two got theirs by executive order or something. The actual process is let’s say time consuming. I would imagine there is some expedited process though. The actual members likely have high enough clearances but I imagine they leave a lot of the grunt work to staffers. As I think about it more the members likely want the report downgraded so their underlings can read it, share it with attorneys and build a case. You should be concerned about unredacting and potentially declassifying/downgrading some of the info concerning Russia. That’s just my opinion though. I would be willing to bet some of that information is well beyond the need to know of staffers but within the scope of the elected members of the committee.

Sounds like the issue is not with redaction but classification. The public report is not classified because of the redactions. Unredacting would force an upgrade in classification. If the committee members would be restricted in their access it means they do not possess the required clearance and/or kneed to know which are two different things; both required for access. Therefore, it sounds like the committee wants the AG to downgrade the classification of the report to a level equal to that of committee member's clearance. Not everything can be downgraded. I assume the committee members know this. The POTUS has the authority to declassify as he sees fit. However this should not be applied simply at the request of the legislature because national security concerns must be taken into consideration. If the members do not possess the clearance and/or need to know its on them, not the AG to rectify.

The Venezuela issue would be incredibly messy. I see it as another Iraq/Afghanistan situation where we have the Venezuelan military, cartels, probably paramilitary elements, and a civilian populace that would look to us for food and protection. Essentially another nation building campaign. Not to mention third country involvement. I haven’t even thought of the terrain.

Per CNN: Pompeo takes a detour to undisclosed location. I wonder if this has anything to do with the carrier group we just moved. Edit: Trip was to Iraq. He reaffirmed our commitment to Iraqi sovereignty amid heightened Iranian threats.

Thank you very much.

Anyone know of a gun range in WNY? Looking to go shooting this summer and I usually go to Niagara Gun Range. Not a bad place. The occasional younger person shooting a shotgun from the hip. Just looking to see what else is out there. Thanks.