The story is here with actual quotes from Nunes
Trump team ‘incidentally monitored’ after election - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39358363
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The most interesting comment from Nunes, which isn’t in the BBC report, is that “The NSA are cooperating, but so far the FBI has not told us whether or not they will respond to our March 15 letter” (asking them to hand over intelligence reports). This after Comey testified to congress there was no surveillance of Trump. Nunes also confirmed the surveillance was not related to Russia.
It’s all getting very interesting.
Mr. Nunes really has made an awful fool of himself here.
Already seen as a shill for Trump, he’s just gone and confirmed that view spectacularly.
He’s also:
i) Undermined the other members of the House Intelligence Committee by not telling them his “information” and instead going to the press.
ii) Destroyed any credibility he had as chairman of that committee by doing same.
iii) Undermined the credibility of the committee as a whole as an independent investigate tool.
His performance in front of the media was utter car crash stuff, reminiscent of Trump himself. He couldn’t get his story straight, kept giving contradictory answers, and really didn’t seem to have a clue what he was alleging, even admitting that everything he is alleging, whatever that is, was lawful. And whatever it is he’s alleging, nothing whatsoever in it backed up Trump’s idiotic tweets about Obama placing a “wire tapp” on him.
Like with Trump’s utterly demolished tweets about the supposed Obama “wire tapp”, there can only be two possibilities.
i) That he is revealing classified information, as any information he’s talking about that may or may not exist can only be obtained under a FISA warrant.
ii) That he’s talking bollocks.
Neither are good for him.
Also, by going to share his “information” with Trump before his intelligence committee, he’s both told Trump what the House Intelligence Committee knows, and things he hasn’t even shared with the committee he chairs.
Imagine a prosecution barrister going to a defendant in a case and telling them what the prosecution knows, and things the rest of the prosecution team doesn’t even know, so as the defendant can get their story straight.
Mind-boggling incompetence that even Fianna Fail would blush at. Incompetence is being kind.
Then this came out.
Shortly after this came out:
But it’s alright, Spicey says Manafort only had a “minor role” in Trump’s campaign.
Campaign Chairman being a “minor role”, apparently.
Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to “greatly benefit the Putin Government,” The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates.
Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse.
Manafort pitched the plans to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work.
“We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success,” Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, “will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government.”
Fascinating battle going on within the GOP on the proposed Health Care bill. The Freedom Causus (Tea Party) has been making noise all week and have the votes to defeat it, but the compromises offered to them are now pissing off moderate Republicans. The proposed bill is now not much better than the ACA existing bill, in terms of controlling spiraling health care costs. As always, politicians run away from reality and kick the can down the road. The cost of healthcare is the problem, 37% of overall government spending is on Medicare and Medicaid, rising at 10% per year. In five years, spending will be $2T a year, adding at least $1T more to the annual deficit, with debt already above $20T.
Of the $1.4 trillion spend by these programs, more than a third is treating obese people with diabetes type II and other obesity related conditions. The health care industry is a complete scam in the US, charging what they like, as essentially they have a monopoly and an endless source of funding (the government). A good start in controlling health care costs would be to only offer one form of treatment to the obese, a diet. Diabetes type II and most other obesity related diseases can be reversed fairly quickly by stopping filling your pie hole with junk. The same for junkies who wear out their heart valves and need $200K cardiac surgery, what exactly is the point when statistics say they all remain junkies and die quickly anyway?
My prediction. Republicans will not reach an agreement and Obamacare will remain the law. Five years to an insolvent USA.
Nunes to hold another press conference tomorrow on Trump surveillance.
Quite possible on the first part, unlikely on the rest. Running a ridiculous deficit is nothing new.
I understand countries have higher debt to GDP, specifically the PIIGS and Japan, but they don’t have the escalating health care cost issue the US has. One small example. In Japan I can walk in off the street and get an MRI for the equivalent of $200. That, because of competition. In the US it is $5000. Personally I could fly to Narita airport, take the train into Tokyo, and have an MRI and then do it four more times to get to the cost here.
but what are the real alternatives, do you agree with the idea of universal healthcare? Bubba and JT are never gonna be persuaded to put down the twinkies
The real alternatives are 1) people take responsibility for their own health, and 2) ( a harder proposition) people accept that death is inevitable and stop prolonging life unnecessarily. End of life costs are a huge percentage of the cost problem, keeping people alive for a few more weeks.
I am in favor of universal healthcare for conditions that people have no control over, genetic diseases, cancer, etc.
Or force them all to have the gastric band op.
what?
letting people die isnt healthcare you crank
Keeping people alive who have zero quality of life and zero awareness they are alive isn’t health care either. It’s also completely unethical, for two reasons, 1) the vast majority of people who go to the bother of making a living will stipulate they don’t want to be kept alive artificially, and 2) the enormous costs involved are being passed on to future generations.
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Of course it is, you oddball. Physician-assisted suicide is a standard part of healthcare in several countries around the world, including a number of American states. This is the US politics thread, mate. Keep up.
And anyway, do you honestly mean to say that if you sustained an injury on the tennis court that left you roaring in pain with only 6 months to live, herself wouldn’t hold a pillow over your face to put you out of your misery? (Local laws permitting, of course)
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Her only path to freedom. She wouldn’t do a day in the slammer.
Fixed that there for you chief
[quote=“anon7035031, post:92, topic:10941, full:true”]
My prediction. Republicans will not reach an agreement and Obamacare will remain the law. [/quote]
As predicted, can kicked down the road. Spineless fuckers.
Luckily for them, as spinelessness is a pre-existing condition, they can still get health insurance cover under Obamacare.