[TheZookie007]

technical question: If a US president is violating the US constitution, especially the First Amendment, can I call him a criminal subject?

You can call him anything you like but while I'm not a lawyer, I think it's fair to say that (until we as a country dispense with the "innocent until proven guilty" concept) until he is brought up on charges, tried and convicted, he shall remain a non-criminal.

[rtpoe]

HIGHLIGHTS FROM JAMES COMEY'S TESTIMONY:

"The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI by saying the organization was in disarray, it was poorly led, and that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple."

---

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes."

---

On AG Jeff Sessions, and why it was expected that he'd recuse himself from the Russia investigation:

"We were also aware of facts I can’t discuss in an open setting that would make his continued involvement in a Russia investigation problematic."

(Uh-oh! Sessions is in on it, too?!?!?)

---

And finally, why the investigation is important and worth seeing through to the end:

The reason this is such a big deal is, we have this big messy wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time. But nobody tells us what to think, what to fight about, what to vote for except other Americans. And that’s wonderful and often painful.

But we’re talking about a foreign government that, using technical intrusion and lots of other methods, tried to shape the way we think, we vote, we act.

That is a big deal. And people need to recognize it. It’s not about Republicans or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally. They want to undermine our credibility in the face of the world. They think that this great experiment of ours is a threat to them. So they’re going to try to run it down and dirty it up as much as possible.

That’s what this is about, and they will be back. Because we remain — as difficult as we can be with each other, we remain that shining city on the hill. And they don’t like it.

---

Meanwhile, on Comey's statement issued the day before the hearings:

This document is about ... whether we can trust the President — not the President in the abstract, but the particular embodiment of the presidency in the person of Donald J. Trump — to supervise the law enforcement apparatus of the United States in fashion consistent with his oath of office. I challenge anyone to read this document and come away with a confidently affirmative answer to that question.

Initial Comments on James Comey’s Written Testimony by Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare, 6/7/17

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Paul Ryan's response to the testimony:

"He’s new to government," Ryan said. "And so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses. He’s just new to this."

So you're claiming Ignorance as the excuse??? Good luck with that...

"This isn’t a reality show, and it’s not a pulp novel. This is the most powerful country the world has ever known being run by a man singularly unqualified to run it. Our president lacks legitimacy, our government is paralyzed, our problems are going unsolved. As we abdicate global leadership, both our allies and our enemies step into the void we leave unfilled. Meanwhile, at home, we are discussing whether the president obstructed justice within his first 100 days in office, and anxiously awaiting the Senate’s questioning of former FBI Director Comey.

"America is not being made great. It is being made weak, and it is only getting worse.

Ezra Klein, Donald Trump’s Presidency is an American Crisis, Vox 6/7/17

[TheZookie007]

---

Paul Ryan's response to the testimony:

"He’s new to government," Ryan said. "And so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses. He’s just new to this."

So you're claiming Ignorance as the excuse??? Good luck with that...

And yet when Pres. Obama was running things, this man had no compunction about trying to demean him because of his supposed lack of experience. I hope the Steele dossier nails Ryan as well.

[andrat2000]

There is one good thing about the election in Great Britain. These masters of desaster (Trumpels best friends) from UKIP didn't get any seats. Those irresponsible extremist right wing nationalistic imbeciles are history right now for the british house of commons (parliament). Very good!

[Hiram]

There is one good thing about the election in Great Britain. These masters of desaster (Trumpels best friends) from UKIP didn't get any seats. Those irresponsible extremist right wing nationalistic imbeciles are history right now for the british house of commons (parliament). Very good!

They were always a protest party. I'm not surprised they lost.  They only had one 1 out of 650 seats to start with.  I still feel there is EU resentment present in the UK, so I wouldn't bury UKIP just yet.

Interestingly, the Labour leader has always been pretty EU sceptical, the labour campaign stated we'll definitely be leaving the EU, consequently this chimed with voters and took votes away from UKIP. I'm not sure much has changed on the Brexit front to be honest.

British politics is complex, and the reason for the result is complicated, not all to do with Brexit.  But voter turn out has been higher this time, and more young people have voted, this is a good thing. Democracy is the winner.

Mind you, British politics is a mess right now.  We'll be back to vote again in a few months I suspect.

[andrat2000]

There is one good thing about the election in Great Britain. These masters of desaster (Trumpels best friends) from UKIP didn't get any seats. Those irresponsible extremist right wing nationalistic imbeciles are history right now for the british house of commons (parliament). Very good!

They were always a protest party. I'm not surprised they lost.  They only had one 1 out of 650 seats to start with.  I still feel there is EU resentment present in the UK, so I wouldn't bury UKIP just yet.

Interestingly, the Labour leader has always been pretty EU sceptical, the labour campaign stated we'll definitely be leaving the EU, consequently this chimed with voters and took votes away from UKIP. I'm not sure much has changed on the Brexit front to be honest.

British politics is complex, and the reason for the result is complicated, not all to do with Brexit.  But voter turn out has been higher this time, and more young people have voted, this is a good thing. Democracy is the winner.

Mind you, British politics is a mess right now.  We'll be back to vote again in a few months I suspect.

That's why I limited it to "one good thing".

[Hiram]

That's why I limited it to "one good thing".

In fairness to UKIP - they were anti EU, not anti world.  Nigel Farage has a German wife called Kirsten Mehr. Maybe he has a German passport!

[Hiram]

This is a little harsh - I thought we got over fascism.

An elderly German woman was fined 1,350 euros for sharing and liking an anti-migrant joke on FB.

[andrat2000]

This is a little harsh - I thought we got over fascism.

An elderly German woman was fined 1,350 euros for sharing and liking an anti-migrant joke on FB.

Well there is a speciality in German laws since after WWII. As a concequence of the mass murdering Nazis the incitement of the people which is an extreme form of hate speech against other religions / ethnos in the direction of annihilation might be a crime. Since the rise of the extremistic right winged haters in the last years also these laws are more often used again. But it only works against the worst hate speeches.

[StrikezOne]

The alleged leaker is a young woman named Reality Leigh Winner. She's a 25-year-old Air Force veteran, and is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a federal facility in Georgia.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/06/who-is-reality-winner-accused-leaker-wanted-to-resist-trump.html

Her name is literally Reality Winner. Sounds like a CIA psyop to me. But who the hell am I anyway.....

Um - No. It wasn't staged.

http://www.snopes.com/cnn-muslim-protests-london/

Did you even watch the full video? If thats not staging a protest, I dont know what is. To refute, you simply say "no" and link Snopes - a leftist blog that receives funds from George Soros.

Thats equivalent to me simply saying "no" and linking InfoWars as my source. I dont do that to you, so why do you do that to me?

This is a little harsh - I thought we got over fascism.

An elderly German woman was fined 1,350 euros for sharing and liking an anti-migrant joke on FB.

Well there is a speciality in German laws since after WWII. As a concequence of the mass murdering Nazis the incitement of the people which is an extreme form of hate speech against other religions / ethnos in the direction of annihilation might be a crime. Since the rise of the extremistic right winged haters in the last years also these laws are more often used again. But it only works against the worst hate speeches.

Drat seems to blame pretty much everything on the right wing.

[andrat2000]

This is a little harsh - I thought we got over fascism.

An elderly German woman was fined 1,350 euros for sharing and liking an anti-migrant joke on FB.

Well there is a speciality in German laws since after WWII. As a concequence of the mass murdering Nazis the incitement of the people which is an extreme form of hate speech against other religions / ethnos in the direction of annihilation might be a crime. Since the rise of the extremistic right winged haters in the last years also these laws are more often used again. But it only works against the worst hate speeches.

In summary the extremist right winged are to be considred Nazis and those laws where made to prevent Nazis gaining power again in Germany through spreading hate. I can only applaud the allies that stood against the 3rd Reich that Germany had to implement such laws. Would be good these laws are used more frequently to sweep the extremist right winged out from the public.

[StrikezOne]

MORE HIGHLIGHTS FROM JAMES COMEY'S TESTIMONY:

**President Donald Trump is NOT under investigation and Congress leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, have known that for weeks.

**Loretta Lynch, AG under Obama, successfully pressured Comey to mislead public by having Hillary Clintons email investigation referred to as a "matter" and not an "investigation."

Comey said that when he asked Lynch if she was going to authorize him to confirm the existence of the Clinton email investigation, her answer was, “Yes, but don’t call it that. Call it a matter.” When Comey asked why, he said, Lynch wouldn’t give him an explanation. “Just call it a matter,” she said. Comey then says he thought to himself if he should have resisted harder but then concluded that "this isnt a hill worth dying on." Hmm...

-The Federal Bureau of Matters. Not investigations.

**James Comey leaked a memo himself to a friend who then leaked it to a news outlet. Comey is one of the leakers.

[rtpoe]

1. AT THE TIME Comey told Trump he was not under investigation, that was true as far as Comey knew. That does NOT mean that Trump isn't being investigated NOW.....

2. Clinton isn't the president. Loretta Lynch isn't the AG. No one cares - or should care - about that nonsense now. And OH NOES! Comey is a human being!

3. OH NOES! Comey leaked things that he himself wrote! LOCK HIM UP! 

There are three things that we MUST keep in mind:

1. Russia tried to fuck with our election. They hacked into the DNC and used what they got to influence the campaign, and tried to hack into voter registration databases and voting machines. Fortunately, they didn't get anywhere with the latter. But we KNOW that they've tried to hack the French election, and it looks like they planted bogus news stories about Qatar that have wound up causing a serious kerfuffle in the Middle East. This ought to be of vital concern to every American, regardless of their politics. We need to know how they did it, and take steps to keep them from doing it again, and share that knowledge with our allies. This is a new type of war, and we need to get ahead of it.

2. To what extent did the Republican Party and Trump campaign collude with Russia on the hacking of the election? There's far too much "smoke" to blithely ignore. It goes back at least to the campaign during the summer, when language supporting Ukraine's fight against Russia was mysteriously dropped from the GOP platform, allegedly at the behest of the Trump campaign. Then there's all those meetings between Trump campaign officials and Russian "businessmen"..... It *might* be all innocent coincidence, but if not.....

3. Is the Trump Administration actively obstructing the investigations of the alleged collusion? From what we've seen so far, it looks like they (at least Trump himself) is trying to.... Speaking of which, mark June 23 on your calendars. The House committee investigating the Russian Affair has sent a formal request to the White House for any records, including tapes, of the meetings between Trump and Comey. White House counsel Don McGahn was specifically requested to produce those records (to the extent that they exist) by that date....

Look, I understand there are reasons people voted for Trump. And there are reasons people still support him. I don't think they are good reasons, but they are there.

But at some point, it's got to become obvious that Trump cannot be allowed to occupy the White House any longer. He seems singularly unconcerned with even the basic duties of the office, still lagging way behind on even nominating people for positions that require Senate confirmation, crippling the basic functioning of the federal government. He contradicts his staff, and even his Secretary of State in the first diplomatic crisis of his administration. He can't even get good legal help, because top law firms don't want to work with him. I'm not even going to bring up the ongoing financial shenanigans (skimming funds from a charity fundraiser for a children's hospital?) involving him and his family....

And no one in his own party is willing to stand up to him.

Honestly, I hope they DO take him up on his offer to testify under oath......


And we need to keep repeating this: Russia tried to fuck with our election.

[StrikezOne]

Russia tried to fuck with our election. They hacked into the DNC and used what they got to influence the campaign

False. No proof, just assumptions based on allegations. There is proof however that the DNC colluded with CNN.

..and tried to hack into voter registration databases and voting machines.

Nope, but the DHS did try to meddle with the state of Georgia.

This is a new type of war

Fearmonger much?

2. To what extent did the Republican Party and Trump campaign collude with Russia on the hacking of the election?

None.

2. Clinton isn't the president. Loretta Lynch isn't the AG. No one cares - or should care - about that nonsense now. And OH NOES! Comey is a human being!

What's next, proof that John Kerry murdered five US soldiers who attempted to vote Trump and liberals defending that with "who cares? Kerry is not Secretary of State anymore. No one should care. Russia!" ?

And we need to keep repeating this: Russia tried to fuck with our election.

Russia didn't do shit. The mainstream media fucked with our election and there's actually proof of that.

[andrat2000]

Once Russia's president claims ownership over Trans East Siberia after the puppet Trumpel is gone some US American people will realize how much he meddled with their elections.

LOL.