The Long Awaited Democratic Memo is Finally Released

The Democratic response to the Republican “memo” addressed to no one, was allowed to be released today.  Apparently they had redacted enough material to satisfy the Trump administration.  I just hope that people actually read both memos and not just rely on the media summaries.  People don’t take the trouble to read anymore.  Democrats, in a rebuttal to a controversial GOP memo released Saturday, argue that the Justice Department and the FBI did not abuse their powers when they spied on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.  The GOP memo, assembled by the staff of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, alleged the FBI and Justice Department officials relied on an unsubstantiated dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele to get a warrant to conduct surveillance of Page.  The dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign to look into Trump's ties to Russia; the GOP memo alleged that the FBI knew of the partisan agenda behind the dossier but did not alert the surveillance court.  But the Democrats, who have said the GOP document was released earlier this month to divert attention away from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, countered that in their own 10-page, partially redacted memo, saying Page had already been assessed to be an "agent of the Russian government" prior to the FBI receiving the dossier.  Additionally, the memo said the initial FISA application in October 2016 and its subsequent renewals provided the rationale behind surveilling Page, who no longer worked with the Trump campaign.  "The FBI had an independent basis for investigating Page's motivations and actions during the campaign, transition and following the inauguration," the memo said.  It said the Justice Department made "narrow use" of Steele's investigation into Page, specifically about Page's suspected meetings with Russian officials in July 2016.  Additionally, the memo contends that the Justice Department "repeatedly" informed the surveillance court about Steele's background, credibility and potential bias and was transparent about Steele's sourcing.   It also states that the department never paid Steele for the dossier. The Justice Department had used Steele as an informant before, which he had received compensation for, but that was for information "unrelated to the FBI's Russia investigation."  The release comes after weeks of back and forth over how much of the document would be redacted. The White House on Feb. 9 objected to its release, citing national security concerns. That sent the Democrats back to negotiations with the FBI over how much of the memo needed to be blacked out.

I had Leo Le Port on from before noon till two.  Some of that time I was watching curling at the Olympics.  Leo had Scot Wilkinson on who said that a good stereo system now will cost you $170.00 or so.  He talked about how good Google Chrome-books are and now now “the internet if your operating system”.  Time has passed people like me by.   For instance it seems absurd to me that a store would stop selling regular CD’s because they’re too old fashion.  Now of course they’ve stopped using earphone jacks in equipment.  You’re expected to use some form of wireless even though Leo admits Blue Tooth or some of these don’t work very well.  It struck me that the psychic profession has been pretty much supplanted because science fiction and all of this Power Ranger stuff is so advanced.  People have no need of psychic visions for their fantasies because the detail is so much more prolific in producer’s imaginations.  It’s a wonder that religion itself hasn’t been supplanted by “Black Panther” the greatest new movie to come along in ages with an all Black cast.  Of course with all of this stay at home stuff now with home theaters- - - -and people predicting for decades that people would choose to work at home rather than commute, it’s amazing how the traffic on our streets never lets up.  The corporations haven’t gotten the word.   That book I have called “Visions” came out in 1997 and every now and then I look at it.  When people predict the future they do so based on the present.  In some ways people are predicting that “Warfare” of the future will be all cyber-warfare and battles for information rather than the conquest of land.  ISIS hasn’t gotten the word.  There is a horrific war going on in Syria right now that everyone is ignoring.  Trump doesn’t want to get involved because he’s pro Russia even though they are the ones with the barrel bombs bombing women and children.  Or maybe he read the last blog and doesn’t want to start World War III.   When it comes to controlling people there’s no substitute for good old fashioned brute force.  But the Giz Whiz guy on Leo’s show says that there is a “toy device” that enables you to control the muscular actions of another.  This device will echo your own muscular actions such as clinching your fist.  If this were possible they would have discovered it a hundred years ago.