Trump II

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

 Speaking to a biographer in the 1960s, less than 20 years after signing the National Security Act of 1947, Truman...

Merle Miller: Mr. President, I know that you were responsible as President for setting up the CIA. How do you feel about it now?

Truman: I think it was a mistake. And if I'd know what was going to happen, I never would have done it.

the President needed at that time a central organization that would bring all the various intelligence reports we were getting in those days, and there must have been a dozen of them, maybe more, bring them all into one organization so that the President would get one report on what was going on in various parts of the world. Now that made sense, and that's why I went ahead and set up what they called the Central Intelligence Agency.

But it got out of hand. The fella ... the one that was in the White House after me never paid any attention to it, and it got out of hand. Why, they've got an organization over there in Virginia now that is practically the equal of the Pentagon in many ways. And I think I've told you, one Pentagon is one too many.

Now, as nearly as I can make out, those fellows in the CIA don't just report on wars and the like, they go out and make their own, and there's nobody to keep track of what they're up to. They spend billions of dollars on stirring up trouble so they'll have something to report on. They've become ... it's become a government all of its own and all secret. They don't have to account to anybody.

That's a very dangerous thing in a democratic society, and it's got to be put a stop to. The people have got a right to know what those birds are up to. And if I was back in the White House, people would know. You see, the way a free government works, there's got to be a housecleaning every now and again, and I don't care what branch of the government is involved. Somebody has to keep an eye on things.
​
And when you can't do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damn secret, why, then we're on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn't have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix. And if what happened at the Bay of Pigs doesn't prove that, I don't know what does. You have got to keep an eye on the military at all times, and it doesn't matter whether it's the birds in the Pentagon or the birds in the CIA...

Source: http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/truman-was-right-about-the-cia#comments

https://www.amazon.com/Plain-speaking-biography-harry-truman/dp/0425094995

[Alan Klein]

Because there is zero evidence of the wire tapping.  None.  Not one single tiny little bit.  If there was, it would have been presented.

The question of collusion was not unreasonable given the actions of the Russian state and the meetings and pro-Russia rhetoric coming from Trump and his team.  Circumstantial, of course, but not an unreasonable question to be asked.

There's the big difference.

Long after Clapper and Comey said there was no collusion with Russia of the Trump campaign to swing the election, the Democrats just a few days ago had to  walk back their phony charges again.  A sitting Senator Coons, a Democrat, was the latest one accusing Trump of violating Federal law that could get him in jail, impeached, etc.  This is all part of the Democrat plan to delegitimize him.   Of course, you don't think this is a big deal, BECAUSE YOU HATE TRUMP!  The Democrats are playing sleaze ball politics with support of the liberal media.  But they're dealing with the counter-puncher Trump who knows how to play sleaze ball politics right back.  His supporters love it. 

Here's the Senator's comments regarding his accusation about Trump.  Of course you only read liberal news outlets so you wouldn't know this happened. 

==============================

Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, on Sunday walked back his bombshell declaration about transcripts showing Russia-Trump collusion, saying he had no proof such documents exist and apologizing for any “hyperventilating.”

“I have no hard evidence of collusion,” Mr. Coons told “Fox News Sunday.”

He said he was sorry for any misinterpretation of his comments, which blew up on social media after a Friday interview on MSNBC.


“So to the extent of those comments, they might be in some way misinterpreted as leading to sort of a hyperventilating attitude here in the Senate about this, I apologize for that,” Mr. Coons said. “That’s not what I was trying to do.”

At the same time, he said, “I am confident that intelligence exists that is relevant to this question. Not that says there is collusion, and proof of it, that’s not what I was trying to say.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/5/chris-coons-walks-back-talk-of-russia-trump-collus/

[Alan Klein]

Slobodan:  Thanks for posting the Truman quote about the CIA "black state".  Henry Stimson, US secretary of state, sniffed in 1929 as he closed down his department’s code-cracking outfit., "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail."    Obviously, no one listen to him. 

America did not have a national intelligence service until 1946, when the wartime Office of Strategic Services morphed into the Central Intelligence Agency. Today, the US has 16 agencies spying on literally everybody – including, apparently, the German chancellor.  Now I learned that the NSA is listening in to my conversations through my smart TV.  I wonder if they're tracking the arguments I have with my wife?

[Otto Phocus]

HR 1275

Long title

"To eliminate the individual and employer health coverage mandates under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to expand beyond that Act the choices in obtaining and financing affordable health insurance coverage, and for other purposes."

Short title

"World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017"

That's hubris.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Further to my profile motto, I've come across this visual representation: seeing things only one way is a sure dead end

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Further to my profile motto, I've come across this visual representation: seeing things only one way is a sure dead end

Nice one.

Cheers,
Bart

[Alan Klein]

Further to my profile motto, I've come across this visual representation: seeing things only one way is a sure dead end

Well seen.

[Schewe]

Long after Clapper and Comey said there was no collusion with Russia of the Trump campaign to swing the election...

Actually, what was said was there was no evidence–at that time–of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia...pretty sure the investigation is ongoing and more and more instances of unusual circumstances keep coming out...

Republicans adopted pro-Russia stance on Ukraine as Trump officials met with Russian ambassador

Donald Trump appears to have pushed for the Republicans to adopt a pro-Moscow policy over Ukraine just as his senior aides were meeting with Russia’s US Ambassador.

At the Republican National Convention last summer, the party agreed to insert language into its platform that opposed arming or providing Ukraine with weapons to take on pro-Russian rebels. At the time, Mr Trump told an interviewer he “wasn’t involved in it”.

But now, a former adviser to Mr Trump has revealed that the push to change the platform came after the direct intervention of the New York tycoon. Mr Trump had hinted as to his views on Ukraine during a speech in the spring of 2016, where the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, was among the guests.

It just keeps dribbling in drop by drop...kinda like Podesta's emails.

Even if Trump and Putin are not in cahoots, it sure looks like they are and even that appearance of impropriety hurts America. But, since Trump made the really STUPID mistake of claiming that Obama wiretapped him, he has incentivized Congress and the media to keep investigating and his AG is on the sidelines because he recused himself because, well he did meet with Russians after he said he didn't and since he was part of the Trump campaign he couldn't be part to any investigations of the campaign...and be sure there will be continued campaign investigations...

[Alan Klein]

Actually, what was said was there was no evidence–at that time–of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia...pretty sure the investigation is ongoing and more and more instances of unusual circumstances keep coming out...

Republicans adopted pro-Russia stance on Ukraine as Trump officials met with Russian ambassador


It just keeps dribbling in drop by drop...kinda like Podesta's emails.

Even if Trump and Putin are not in cahoots, it sure looks like they are and even that appearance of impropriety hurts America. But, since Trump made the really STUPID mistake of claiming that Obama wiretapped him, he has incentivized Congress and the media to keep investigating and his AG is on the sidelines because he recused himself because, well he did meet with Russians after he said he didn't and since he was part of the Trump campaign he couldn't be part to any investigations of the campaign...and be sure there will be continued campaign investigations...

Let them investigate both the tap and the collusion.  But there is no evidence currently that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to swing the election.  All you're doing is continuing the insinuations without proof.  You don't seem to have any compunctions to call Trump a traitor, in effect.   Yet when Trump insinuates that Obama tapped him also without evidence, you get all upset.  He has the same non-evidence of a tap as the Democrats have of a collusion.  Both sides are playing politics, accusing the other side of dastardly deeds with out evidence or proof.  It's BS on both sides. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Ground for impeachment...finally!

[Farmer]

I don't hate Trump. I just think he's a moron.

[Alan Klein]

I don't hate Trump. I just think he's a moron.

Dumb like a fox.

[Schewe]

You don't seem to have any compunctions to call Trump a traitor, in effect.   Yet when Trump insinuates that Obama tapped him also without evidence, you get all upset.

No, I've called him a malignant narcissist that was willing to do anything to win...to tell any lie and to collaborate with anybody to win–even though he clearly wasn't expecting to win. Naw, I don't call him a traitor...YET...

I call him a lying, cheating, misogynistic xenophobe that doesn't have a friggin' clue how the United States government works. He gets his foreign intelligence from Fox & Friends in the morning and took the bait that radio host Mark Levin was dangling on Breitbart about wire taps and the “silent coup” by the Obama administration...

Yeah, you go right ahead and buy that whole Obama is out to get Trump crap if ya want...

Me? Not so much...but there is already substantial evidence of Russian involvement in trying to impact our election–which is pretty friggin' bad and Flynn has already resigned and Sessions put him out of the loop in the investigations and suddenly, a whole bunch of other Trump people have been shown to meet with Russians.

So...why is Trump so soft on Russia? Why did Trump people push to have the GOP platform changed from advocating arming the Ukraine to protect them from Russia? Why did Trump pick Tillerson a long time friend of Putin and recipient of Russia's Order of Friendship award as Secretary of State?

What are the connections?



This is from an article Swalwell Launches Pages Diagraming Trump’s Ties to Russia
"California Rep. Eric Swalwell has set up web pages to show connections between President Donald Trump’s team and Russian government officials and business interests."

So, there isn't any direct evidence of Trump/Russian collusion on the election...yet. But there's plenty of evidence that Russia impacted the election and that a lot of people around Trump are involved with Russians and they've been lying about it right up till when they get caught in a lie.

So, we'll see...there's a big congressional hearing set for March 20th...wonder what will come of Trumps connections to Russia and the alleged tapping of Trump by Obama.

P.S. if you want to know who all those folks are with Russian ties, Google is your friend...interesting reading in a scary bad wreck on the side of the highway sort of way. But hey, Trump will "Make America Great Again" right?

[Schewe]

Obama Admits to Wiretapping Trump









:~)

[Alan Klein]

Obama Admits to Wiretapping Trump









:~)

See?  Trump was right. 

[Otto Phocus]

I don't hate Trump. I just think he's a moron.

Perhaps we can take solace in the words of Groucho Marx from Duck Soup

“He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.”

[Alan Goldhammer]

Speaking to a biographer in the 1960s, less than 20 years after signing the National Security Act of 1947, Truman...

Source: http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/truman-was-right-about-the-cia#comments

https://www.amazon.com/Plain-speaking-biography-harry-truman/dp/0425094995

Thanks for quoting the Miller biography which is highly underrated and worth the read.  I was on a panel at MIT a number of years ago with Senator Moynihan on the topic of secrecy.  I think it was about the time he wrote his book on the topic.  He always maintained that the US government keeps too many things secret and that we really should move towards much more openness.  Secrecy allows those that keep the secrets to run amok from time to time.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I wonder if all these trademarks issued to the Trump Organization the other day will raise questions.  It was rather curious that they were stuck in the system so long and now bingo they are all granted.

[Alan Klein]

...So...why is Trump so soft on Russia? Why did Trump people push to have the GOP platform changed from advocating arming the Ukraine to protect them from Russia? Why did Trump pick Tillerson a long time friend of Putin and recipient of Russia's Order of Friendship award as Secretary of State?...

Trump and many experts see China as the main threat to us going forward.  Russia, not so much. Those islands China built up into military bases are no joke to us or our allies there.  Plus getting Russia with us would put a friend of sorts on the northern border of China.  China would have to defend itself there, tying up many Chinese soldiers.  Imagine where we would have to put our American forces if Canada was Russia or China.  So, a friendly Russia and peace in Europe would allow us concentrate our forces in the Pacific.  Russia has also become very dominant in the Middle East.  We could work with them to damage or destroy ISIS and other crazies there that are a threat to America.  Too many old-time Americans think we're still fighting the Soviet Union and the Cold War.  That's not to say Russia is not a potential threat to Europe.  But many think it's worthwhile to see if we can work out things with Russia as it could be very advantageous to us and world peace.  We can become more hostile to them later if we have too.

Having Tillerson as Sec of State is an advantage.  First, Tillerson, as CEO of the world's largest oil company, had a lot of experience dealing with heads of state throughout the world including Putin.  He's no slouch.  He's a tough negotiator.  Second, in future discussions with Russia, Putin will treat him as a friend, or at least as someone he could do business with and trust.  After all, he gave him a Russian medal.  So there has to be a good level of trust between them.  And they know each other.  It's easier to work things out with people you know and trust.  I understand you don't like Trump and many of his policies.  That's OK.  You may have many valid reasons to believe that.  But with Tillerson, I think you ought to wait and see.  You might be very surprised.     

We'll be making a big mistake if we allow our own national politics effect how we handle international affairs. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Russia should be our best frenemy.