George Rebane
Rep Devin Nunes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote a memo that summarized what the committee has discovered about the shady doings of the FBI and the DoJ regarding their investigation of all matters Trump during 2016, and now extending into President Trump’s 2017 year in office.
The national Left, led by its Congressional electeds, has gone apoplectic about Nunes’ intent to release the memo so everyone can see what’s been going on in these ‘non-partisan’ investigations. That, according to every Democrat you ask, is the last thing that their party wants the American people to see. Led by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep Adam Schiff, the memo is characterized as “profoundly misleading”, “political”, and “distorted”, and also too hot for us everyday folks to handle. Why? (Seatbelts please) Because part of its basis is classified or restricted, and therefore not available to the rest of us.
Were that the case for releasing findings on 90% of government activities, then there would be a virtual blackout of information of what the feds are doing, all for our benefit. The obvious solution to avoid such barriers is to provide the verity of such deep backgrounds through trusted agents who are privy to such information. In this case these would be our elected representatives. But the Dems want no such sunlight revealing the now established dodgy manner of what the FBI, DoJ, and Mueller have been doing. You’ll recall it all started with the 5jul16 press conference by then FBI Director Comey peremptorily delivering Hillary an unprecedented absolution of all criminal culpability re her emails and servers.
It is safe to say that over half of America knows nothing of the Nunes memo, and half of the remaining know very little of its importance in the scheme of things developing in Washington. Depending on what outlets you frequent, the news of the memo and its disposition is reported in detail (e.g. WSJ, Fox News), or in the leftwing media is minimized (on page 17), vilified and misrepresented, or just plain omitted. So in response, Schiff and company are now going to publish a counter-memo to fog over the contents of the Nunes memo, should it ever be allowed to see the light of day.
This asymmetrical and ideology-driven reporting by our Fourth Estate is an enterprise that no longer supports a democracy that depends on an informed public. By coincidence, this week saw the publication of How Democracies Die, by two liberal political scientists, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, whose purpose for their essay “is to alert the public about the unique threat President Trump ostensibly poses to democracy.” However, in their analysis of the broader question, these mavens “offer an unintentionally clarifying lesson in how democratic politics unravels.” The following quotes are taken from Jason Willick’s review. (more here)
The problem of competing party-resident ideologies is that the parties now play for keeps, both using tactics intended to wipe out the other as a continuing participant in the national practice of governance. This is not new, other countries have been engaged in “playing for keeps, using every tool at their disposal to force rivals to their knees.” In the US the parties, from time to time, have sought to ‘play by the rules’ whereby they “recognize the legitimacy of each other’s wins and losses”. But this requires “an accumulation of trust and goodwill that only takes place under specific circumstances.” And as we’ve seen, such specific circumstance have not been frequent, and for all intents and purposes are today absent from the national dialogue.
Levitsky and Ziblatt present “historical portraits of democratic dissolution, focusing especially on pre-WW2 Europe and postwar Latin America. They offer that it is “brinkmanship” by one or the other side that starts the unforgiving tit-for-tat downward spiral. The ongoing warfare is then continued by the entrenched party through “mechanisms” such as “capture the referees” by, say, packing the courts; “sideline at least some of other side’s star players” by, say, their gratuitous prosecution; and “rewrite the rules of the game” by, say, changing campaign finance laws.
The authors’ key lesson is that “it is poisonous in a democracy to treat rivals as treasonous, subversive, or otherwise beyond the pale” which produces an “institutional death match that explodes rule-based politics.” And then they promptly launch into a one-sided tirade accusing only the Republicans of doing exactly that, and reveal their chief purpose for writing that book today – “to alert the public about the unique threat President Trump ostensibly poses to democracy.” But the benefit of the authors’ analysis of how democracies die is to make us worry that “our collective decay of democratic norms may open the door to one down the line – perhaps even one of an entirely different ideological persuasion” than President Trump.
In response to such threats to our nation and democracy, there has arisen an organization that is trying to find cohesive solutions to the country’s problems in all major areas of public concern. They advertise themselves as being above and beyond ‘labels’ the attachment of which to various notions and propositions is what they claim is a seminal irritant that leads to what we have seen Levitsky and Ziblatt describe. In response they eschew all labels, and label their organization No Labels. Founded in 2010, NL has a list of distinguished and/or recognized politicians as co-sponsors, chairmen, and what have you. They also employ a team of supposedly non-partisan journalists to handle the day-to-day operations, publishing, and other communications. NL’s efforts are directed to finding party- and ideology-independent solutions, while continuing to recognize their participants’ party affiliations, which are not supposed to enter into the problem solving process.
Looking at their No Labels Policy Playbook, I can find agreement with many to most of them. What concerns me is that, according to my lights, their adopted MO does not seem to recognize or intend to operate in the real world. I am currently trying to understand NL’s chances for success through a detailed dialogue with a longtime dear friend who is a member and serious devotee of NL. I have to admit that it is a hard conversation to have, and I’ll have more to report on it in future commentaries. But I am heartened that at least some people have decided to take a new tack to halt and perhaps heal our widening polarization.
Meanwhile, back in the world of dueling memos which none of us has yet to see … (more here and here)
[31jan18 update] God willing and the creek (pronounced ‘crik’ in the midwest) don’t rise, the Nunes (aka now the GOP) memo will soon see the light of day. In the interval I want to direct your attention to an essay by Hoover Institution’s Victor Davis Hanson on what the FBI and DoJ could plausibly have been doing during the 2016 campaign and election given the EVIDENCE that has been revealed so far. Start with the thesis that has almost become a broadly accepted ground truth as we have witnessed the antics and corruption of Team Clinton over the last 25+ years, which is that –
Most elite bureaucrats understood the Clinton way of doing business, in which loyalty, not legality, is what earned career advancement.
Hanson’s ‘Hillary’s ‘Sure’ Victory Explains Most Everything’ is definitely worth a read if you want to see the most likely way that things all knit together.
[2feb18 update] The Nunes memo is now out and can be read here. A special sandbox has been opened for its extended consideration and debate here.
rebanesruminations.com 
139 responses to “The Invisible Nunes Memo (updated 2feb18)”
What we know about Nunes is that he is a slut for stunts. Occam’s razor applies. MAGA!
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MAGA 222pm – Pray, who are the “we”, and what evidence do have of his proclivity of being a “slut for stunts”, especially since he has been sitting on this evidence for over six months weighing if/when/how the American people should be made aware of it?
And however did we invoke the memory of Father Occam in this regard?
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Dougy is just at wits end.. This is how he lashes out.
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George
Do you believe that the FBI should vet the information because of concerns about classified information before it is released to the public?
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Even Fox News questions the memo:
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith rebuked Republicans in Congress and some at his own network for hyping the release of a memo reportedly detailing surveillance abuses by the U.S. government, calling the memo a “weapon of mass distraction” on his show Thursday.
In remarks Thursday afternoon, Smith dismissed the memo, compiled by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), saying it lacks real substance.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/370778-foxs-shepard-smith-nunes-memo-is-a-weapon-of-mass-distraction
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Paul, why is it that LIBS who refuse to read the memo want it kept under wraps?
The FBI is dirty. They can see it when the rest of us do.
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Yes Paul, the LIBS are scared. They don’t want the truth of the their domestic spying to get out.
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The po’ ol’ fakenewsman clearly lacks critical thinking skills or knowledge of the process. First @ 411- How could high drama shep know what’s in the memo since it has not been released yet???? Second @4pm- The way it works is the house committee votes and then it works its way to the WH for Presidential approval. Remember the President is the final arbiter of declassifying.
Ya right let the FBI decide if their political hacks can stay out of sight! 😉
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The vote to release said memo is reported to be tomorrow.
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How does Shephard Smith know if the Nunes memo lack substance? So many people saying so much about what they cannot possibly have seen.
Smith’s ‘gravitas’ has always been lacking… I’d not be surprised if someone brought him the cutesy “weapon of mass distraction” line and he went with it.
Paul E, if that’s where youv’e been getting your news, your problem is even more obvious than I thought.
https://www.taleas.com/images/memes/your-problem-is-obvious.png
Folks, I’d not get your hopes up but even if the hype is 75% overblown it will be interesting.
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Walt, Don, Gregory
Do you believe that the FBI should review the information because of concerns about classified information before it is released to the public?
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The process is already in place so the question is irrelevant ya po’ ol’ fakenewsman. 😉
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So the guilty can have head start? So,, NO! Paul..
You in favor of weaponizing the DOJ and FBI against political opponents? That’s just what “O” and Hillary did.
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Paul, 507pm
Does the Justice Department or FBI have primacy over the Congress? Who supervises who?
Does the FBI have the right to demand anything of Congress? Does Congress have the right to demand records from the FBI?
If you need help with any of these questions, just ask.
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You know – I could have sworn that Paul Emery was for releasing secret info. Wasn’t Daniel Ellsberg Paul’s hero just a couple of weeks ago? Was that info vetted?
Shine the light and the rats and roaches scurry for the exit.
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So Don you and I agree then that the information should not be released till the FBI takes a look at it.
Daniel Ellsberg acted on his own and was willing to suffer the consequences. Huge difference. This information dump is with the consent of the President and contrary to the FBI need to okay the release after removing sensitive information that may endanger agents and informants.
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I see no national security issues with the little tiny 4 Page memo, and we all know Meuller has been interviewing and investigating all the players, even the outliers and know them all…where they are…trails them. It’s not like somebody will turn rabbit and become a futigive last seen in Tahiti. So, if the President does not object to releasing the memo, then by all means, it will be part of making America better. It’s a civil liberties issue and Congress has oversight. We the people and all that stuff. We the people.
Scott, you beat me to the punchy. I was just reading the comments and thinking, “what was that guy’s name, the one Punchy was driving home to make his point?” and there it was, you said Daniel Ellsberg. Yep.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Libs act exactly the same way when some groups want to poke around to validate the intergerty of the sacred right (reserved for US Citizens only) to vote, and the integrity of bunch of precincts, if not the whole system. They start screaming, “No!, No!, No!!!” as their knee jerk reaction before the words “memo” or “voter fraud investigation” even are finished hitting their ears.
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Well, they slapped Nunes with those trumped up ethic charges when he started digging around and the Dems thought they got the Committee Chairperson to fold like Sessions and recuse himself. Not. Nunes got cleared. Now we know what he was doing when they and their Industrial Media Complex freaked out Nunes told Trump that Comey said behind closed doors the FBI are not investigation the President.
Dunes is relentless, an animal, and he’s looking to the rip the curtain off the hooks off and show us all the man behind the curtain. He is doing it for Daniel Ellsberg, for Tom Joan, and us Deplorables, and the forgotten man fighting against the mob mentality and all those control freak tyrants who would commit all of us political prisoners to the asylum to keep us down and under their thumb. Nunes is doing it for Utah Phillips and Ben Energy and so many unsung hero’s from sea to shining sea.
One voice rises amidst the cacophony of the mob mentality and his name isTruth, Justice, A Bunch Of Ggod Stuff, and his name is Nunes.
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Paul…
Did you know that the Senate Intelligence Committee can declassify anything in their possession?
Did you know that the House Intelligence Committee can declassify anything in their possession?
Did you know that the President can declassify anything he wants?
Did you know that in debate, any congresscritter can reveal anything they want without criminal charges?
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NO mr failure to comprehend @ 702. The process is a discussion between congress (oversight) and the President (executive) who is the boss of the FBI. The FBI has no part in the decisions process as previously noted. What a maroon. 😉
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There needs to be an edit to the po’ ol’ party parrot @702.
instead of; sensitive information that may endanger agents
It should read; sensitive information that may endanger politically corrupt agents careers.
😉
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“Daniel Ellsberg acted on his own and was willing to suffer the consequences.”
Well, gee Paul. Just let me take a huge leap and point out that you thought he was a hero. Are you going to support Nunes if he just publishes the memo and you will support him in that endevor?
Funny how Paul quickly disavows his own thoughts and actions.
Ellsberg a hero? Well, maybe, sorta, kinda. Hey – he acted on his own! Yeah! That’s it! He acted on his own! Now Nunes – well, that’s different! There’s that whole Right-Wing conspiracy thing. That’s different!
You either want to shine the light or you don’t.
Wankers and hypocrites can pound sand.
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Also – answer the question, Paul.
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Posted by: Scott Obermuller | 28 January 2018 at 08:06 PM
Hey mister…..Punch-E will ask the questions around here!
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Saint Paul sez:
“So Don you and I agree then that the information should not be released till the FBI takes a look at it.”
Whoa, wait a minute.
Since when is the FBI the final arbiter in this kind of situation?
While I understand the Green Libertarian concept of the 17 intelligence agencies and their primacy in the US system of government, I don’t accept it.
If the White House wants to let this go, let it go. I doubt there’s any surprises there.
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I think is is rather amusing that the FBI and DOJ has not seen the memo. Boy, if they could get just a look, just a glance or three at the memo. No. No is a complete sentence. No peeking.
Seems to me Nunes has trust issues with those who appear to be deeply and whole heartedly engaged in the Silent Coup…the coup d’état of a legally elected POTUS because they did not like the results of free elections in the United States of America.
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Emery?
Emery?
Emery?
Em………………
😉
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I see Paul isn’t going to say the FBI is getting a bad wrap.
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St Paul’s current position is that the accused gets to decide what should be released to the public. That has been his FIRM conviction for a least a few hours or so.
All other former FIRM convictions are null and void.
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Walt, Gregory, Bessee
In your view has a crime been committed?
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Still won’t answer the question, Paul?
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WHY? WHY? WHY? Why do I fail so often? WHY? WHY? WHY? @943. 😉
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Punchy 9:43pm
Why do you ask, Paul?
Do you?
I have a month’s supply of Orville Reddenbacker’s popcorn ready to pop.
Now, go back and answer the questions I posed for you at 741pm.
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So Don, I assume you agree with Punchy that if you call for the Memo’s release, then you are a Putin cuddler.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/53693-feinstein-blames-russia-for-campaign-to-release-fisa-memo
Despicable corrupt fakenews man.
https://www.facebook.com/lastamericapatriots/photos/a.235087906641439.1073741826.235086849974878/990307387786150/?type=3&theater
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Posted by: Bill Tozer | 29 January 2018 at 04:31 AM
….I assume you agree with Punchy that if you call for the Memo’s release, then you are a Putin cuddler.
Oooh….the most cutting insult of all!
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It’s interesting looking at a teensy bit of a sub-conspiracy in real time.
https://www.scribd.com/document/370009743/Grassley-Text-Message-Release-1-25-18
To really understand something like this would require some work.
I do love this timeline,watching these people crash and burn is a wonderful thing.
It really is a rare situation after all. Just imagine if McGovern had won and the 17 intelligence agencies (or however many existed at the time) had tried to take him down as a result. The countermove would be to dig into those agencies and into the Nixon campaign for numerous illegal deeds. It’s all out there somewhere but the people running the coup d’etat are crafty and are roughly as powerful in the aggregate.
It’s hard to tell how these intra-government wars turn out. Our local Hillary shills are beside the point and sometimes even when you win, you lose. JFK certainly found that out.
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Which begs the question, just what is in Devlin Barrett’s emails and instant messaging accounts? Betcha they’re already erased as best as he could manage.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUeyEyeV4AAH-0K.jpg
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It’s pretty simple if you think about. If the”memo” leads to a reasonable conclusion that a crime has been committed then it should be turned over to the FBI.
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It seems to me the FBI already has it and they want it suppressed. Must be something there that will embarasss them. McCabe out today!
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WOW!! McCabe is running for the hills. The usual boilerplate.
” retiring to spend more time with family”.
The memo isn’t even out, and it’s claimed it’s first victim.
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The memo is based on information the FBI and DOJ already has and knows full well what might be included within the short 4 page memo. The FBI just does not know exactly what information out of the thousands upon thousands pages of information the FBI is holding back will be released. They certainly have been dragging their feet on court ordered FOIA releases.
A nothingburger or Day of the Condor? Maybe is was some rogue ATF agents in Phoenix letting guns walk into the hands of the Mexican Cartel or some rogue IRS agents in Ohio demanding conservative groups applying for non-profit status to list every book they have read in the past and a list of their all friends and associates.
BTW, I heard that one of those Fast and Furious guns made it all the way to some terrorist in France of all places. Interesting times.
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What crimes do you allege McCabe committed Todd?
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Where did I say anything about a crime? You really are a terrible “journalist” You just make sh*t up.
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So Gregory, George, Walt and Scenes. I’m sure that following a consistent philosophy with your desire for openness in government, that you support these documents being released to the public as well.
Mark Warner: ‘We’ve Had New Information That Raises More Questions’
“Congress late last year received “extraordinarily important new documents” in its investigation of President Donald Trump and his campaign’s possible collusion with the 2016 Russian election hacking, opening up significant new lines of inquiry in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s probe of the president, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) says in an exclusive new interview.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/29/mark-warner-global-politico-216545
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Paul Emery you are a total embarrassment here. No one will respond to your ludicrous BS if they are sober. Why did you support Harvey Weinstein last month? Waiting.
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More from Todd the liar::
Never supported Harvey Todd. Show me one time I did.
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So Todd if there is no alleged crime what’s the big deal?
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Bizarre… but Punchy, Sen. Warner isn’t calling for those brand new docs to be released. Just trust him, there’s plenty there to keep him in business for months, looking for signs of Russian collusion.
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But you should want them released under your desire for openness in the so called “memo”
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Warner is part of the mob mentality. Heresay, innuendo, and Russian Collusion! My, my.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/29/mark-warner-steele-russia-dossier-unproven/
Warner ain’t all bad. Have afriend who was an airline stewardess and her brother needed a liver transplant. Long wait on the list, death knocking on the door. She contacted Warner and her brother received a liver within a week up in WA State. After his recovery from the transplant, he got a job playing music in bars around here, which indeed did lead to his death. As a dog returns to its vomit……
Never hurt that my friend the stewardess said she had been screwing Mark for years whenever her flights had her doing stay overs in his neck of the woods and various spots scattered across the globe.
Yes, I know. Some have never heard such talk in all their lives. Distraction! Nevermind that Steele testified under oath that the information provided to him by agents of the Kremlin have not been verified….ever.
Opps, what was the topic????? Oh yeah, a little 4 page memo written by some evil R searching for the rest of the story.
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