FAKE NEWS
Mike Rogers is some asshole from Michigan. Did seven long hard tours in the House, where he chaired the Intel Committee before Devin Nunes made it look hard. Wrote a book about spies. Goes on CNN lots and bunches. He is NOT the Mike Rogers who directs the NSA and showed up to Congress with James Comey to look around all the time like "you believe these fucking schmegegges?" (That Mike Rogers does not know how to properly use "schmegegge." Probably no Mike Rogers does.)
Well, that Mike Rogers -- former Congressman and Intel committee chair Mike Rogers -- has some stupid thoughts for us, as befits a dumb asshole, and they are: Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the Intel committee (that means he is the boss of the minority party for that committee), should recuse himself from investigating President Trump's ties to Russia and all possible collusion between the two in the 2016 election.
Tell us about it, Mike Rogers CNN op-ed!
(CNN) Representative Devin Nunes' decision to recuse himself from the probe of Russian operations should be applauded. It won't be in today's environment and in the court of public opinion, but it should be applauded nonetheless. The attention was on him, his role and his actions, and not that of the committee or the issues it handles.
Listen to your friend Devin Nunes, he's a cool guy!
Equally, Representative Adam Schiff should consider recusing himself from the probe. For his part, Schiff suggested to the media that he had seen information on Russia-Trump campaign ties that was "the kind of evidence" that would be presented to a grand jury, adding that he had seen additional evidence, but not elaborating further.
Only Devin Nunes gets to tell people what kind of evidence there was ("none" and "none evidence"), while leaking classified information he got from the White House before rushing back to brief the White House on the classified information they'd given him. Saying "oh ho ho, but there IS evidence" is, we don't know, bad we guess?
Both Nunes and Schiff are equally to blame for the Committee's loss of focus. How can a committee, which handles sensitive classified information, conduct its business when the purportedly secret information is discussed -- even by insinuation -- publicly in front of the media?
Everything about this paragraph is too true to comment on, from it being both sides' equal blame for running around like a blind emu (just kidding, Adam Schiff is not an idiot, but in fact is a former prosecutor who's actually prosecuted Russian spies, so he kind of knows the "nat-sec" procedures and also isn't shockingly moronic), to the true fact that only Adam Schiff is not allowed to talk about a matter of great public import that was going to have public hearings all week until Sally Yates wanted to testify at one, and we are guessing that for canceling that, Devin Nunes should be applauded too.
Whether Schiff chooses to do so or not, the committee should seize upon this development as an opportunity to refocus the Committee, get it back on track and carry out this important probe.
Yes, under Mike Conaway (who said the Trump Russia stuff was no different from having a Mexican pop singer endorse you at a concert) and Trey Gowdy (who is Trey Gowdy ), we are sure the committee will "refocus" to exactly what the GOP wants it to "refocus" on. YAY!
Blah blah blah, let us skip toward the end. Dude natters on a bit:
Let us be clear there are real issues that the committee needs to address both immediately related to this probe, but more broadly related to the daily business of intelligence oversight and authorization.
The leaks related to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) actions should be handed over to the FBI for investigation. FISA warrants are amongst the most sensitive operations undertaken by the intelligence community and should never be used as a political tool, for anyone's agenda, or anything beyond what it is meant to be used for -- investigations of foreign intelligence actions.
But ... and we are just spitballing here ... what if a political actor, like just as a total for instance, Donald Trump, did foreign intelligence actions? What if he colluded with the government of Russia, say by trading stolen data or intel back and forth? No? Here, let me try it again. What if it was Hillary Clinton?
Oh, you get me now. Good!
The committee should focus on investigating Russia's intentions, information operations capabilities and Moscow's widespread use of social media as part of its propaganda and subversion campaigns. Make no mistake about it, the Russians are aiming to not only undermine and subvert our political process, but the political processes of our friends and allies in Europe.
BUT NOT TRUMP. NO INVESTIGATING ANY OF THAT. Somebody should tell the FBI.
Oh yeah, PS: Adam Schiff says to eat him.
[ CNN ]
Fuck these fuckers. Give us money.
Thanks Doug! The interview went well - hopefully I can get the job next week!
How did it go Fukui? :)