Law prof. Lawrence Tribe: Falsely accusing Obama of wiretapping ‘qualifies as an impeachable offense’

[AUDub 11,153]

:michaeljacksonpopcorngif:

[japantiger 4,051]

On 3/13/2017 at 6:10 PM, AUUSN said:

He accused Obama of committing a felony. He specifically wrote that he 'tapp' his phones. That is not off the cuff, that is a declarative statement.

• So let me see if I have this straight....the entire democrat and liberal apparatus of the US accuses Trump of committing treason (a felony last time I checked) for colluding with the Russians to manipulate the US election (that would be Senators, Congressmen, the defeated democrat candidate, Judges, Reporters, et al).  You find this a non-issue and even proudly parrot the widely debunked lie (called a lie by both the former DNI and the current DCI)...and it's all good...
• Trump makes a claim regarding the former administration wiretapping; the word used by the NYT in it's article ascribing surveillance activity of Trump aids; the word surveillance used by other sources...the word surveillance is almost 100% true based on information releases....and now you are concerned someone is committing a felony against the previous administration?  Really?  I wish I was a democrat...it would be so much easier....

And don't even get me started on Obama calling everyone that disagreed with his Obamacare approach a "terrorist" back in 2010....man, let me help you:

 

 

  

[AUUSN 823]

5 hours ago, japantiger said:

• So let me see if I have this straight....the entire democrat and liberal apparatus of the US accuses Trump of committing treason (a felony last time I checked) for colluding with the Russians to manipulate the US election (that would be Senators, Congressmen, the defeated democrat candidate, Judges, Reporters, et al).  You find this a non-issue and even proudly parrot the widely debunked lie (called a lie by both the former DNI and the current DCI)...and it's all good...
• Trump makes a claim regarding the former administration wiretapping; the word used by the NYT in it's article ascribing surveillance activity of Trump aids; the word surveillance used by other sources...the word surveillance is almost 100% true based on information releases....and now you are concerned someone is committing a felony against the previous administration?  Really?  I wish I was a democrat...it would be so much easier....

And don't even get me started on Obama calling everyone that disagreed with his Obamacare approach a "terrorist" back in 2010....man, let me help you:

 

 

  

That's some hard core spin.

He accused Obama of a felony, full stop. (As Shep Smith would say)

[AUUSN 823]

But. but. but. the New York Times...

 

 

[japantiger 4,051]

11 hours ago, AUUSN said:

That's some hard core spin.

He accused Obama of a felony, full stop. (As Shep Smith would say)

Come down off your high horse squid....you personally,  and the entire left, falsely accused Trump of  treason.....you want to share a cell with him in the interest of equal application of your primcioles?

[AUUSN 823]

9 minutes ago, japantiger said:

Come down off your high horse squid....you personally,  and the entire left, falsely accused Trump of  treason.....you want to share a cell with him in the interest of equal application of your primcioles?

I accused Trump of treason? You'll have to show evidence. 

And why do people associate me with the 'left?'

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

2 hours ago, AUUSN said:

I accused Trump of treason? You'll have to show evidence. 

And why do people associate me with the 'left?'

You hate President Trump would my guess as to why you are assumed left. I strongly dislike Barry and Hillary. Do you assume I am right? Or Alt Right?

[AUUSN 823]

14 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

You hate President Trump would my guess as to why you are assumed left. I strongly dislike Barry and Hillary. Do you assume I am right? Or Alt Right?

I am and will forever be Never Trump. That doesn't make me left. I don't prescribe to silly labels because my life experiences define me, not dumb as$ labels.

[TitanTiger 20,498]

9 hours ago, AUUSN said:

I am and will forever be Never Trump. That doesn't make me left. I don't prescribe to silly labels because my life experiences define me, not dumb as$ labels.

 

It's some sort of default switch with people.  Complete inability to see any ground between the extremes.

[homersapien 11,383]

15 hours ago, japantiger said:

Come down off your high horse squid....you personally,  and the entire left, falsely accused Trump of  treason.....you want to share a cell with him in the interest of equal application of your primcioles?

What happened to you? 

You weren't crazy before. 

[TitanTiger 20,498]

The FBI has spoken:

 

Quote

 

‘No Information’ To Back Trump’s Claim Obama Wiretapped Him

...The FBI director also dealt the president's credibility a blow when he said he "has no information that supports" Trump's allegation from two weeks ago that President Obama ordered surveillance of his communications in Trump Tower during the campaign.

Comey did not say, however, that no Trump associate was ever picked up by American surveillance. [which is what I said multiple times - Titan]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-s-comey-testifies-house-intel-committee-russia-n735696

 

 

[AUUSN 823]

5 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

The FBI has spoken:

 

 

What a complete embarrassment. A true facepalm moment.

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

13 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

 

It's some sort of default switch with people.  Complete inability to see any ground between the extremes.

 

13 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

 

It's some sort of default switch with people.  Complete inability to see any ground between the extremes.

Not a default switch TT. What extremes are you referring to? 

[AUUSN 823]

Whoops...

Fox News pulls Judge Napolitano over his Trump wiretap claims

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-napolitano-fox-news-20170320-story.html

[TitanTiger 20,498]

1 hour ago, SaltyTiger said:

Not a default switch TT. What extremes are you referring to? 

The automatic assumption if you criticize or oppose Trump/Republicans, you must be a Democrat/liberal/Hillary supporter.  That one must be one thing or the other.

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

23 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

The automatic assumption if you criticize or oppose Trump/Republicans, you must be a Democrat/liberal/Hillary supporter.  That one must be one thing or the other.

A two way street. Much of the response you hear from trump/republicans is due to the more than pathetic post election reactions from the left.

  

[TitanTiger 20,498]

15 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

A two way street. Much of the response you hear from trump/republicans is due to the more than pathetic post election reactions from the left.

  

That's always the excuse.  "The behavior of those Democrats is deplorable and an affront to democracy!"  And then four years later you're doing the exact same thing.

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

7 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

That's always the excuse.  "The behavior of those Democrats is deplorable and an affront to democracy!"  And then four years later you're doing the exact same thing.

Nope TT.  I like the quote. 

 

[TitanTiger 20,498]

8 hours ago, SaltyTiger said:

Nope TT.  I like the quote. 

 

Yep, Salty.  I've lived it.  Regardless of how the Democrats act, I've seen it in action both here, on Facebook, in person, in other message forums.  A large portion of the GOP base cannot handle anyone criticizing the party or their candidate and when they do, there is zero consideration given to the notion that a person can be a conservative and yet be fed up with the Republican party and think that Trump is a terrible and ridiculous choice to lead it and this country.  The knee jerk assumption (and often the persistent one, even after the person has been corrected on the matter) is that anyone who'd dare oppose, criticize or be upset with the GOP/Trump is a liberal.  It's the mirror image of those on the other side who assume/insist that if you stray to any degree from full acceptance and even celebration of all things LBGT that you are a hate-filled bigot.  

The two groups are like kissing cousins but neither will admit it.

[Strychnine 1,802]

24 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

Yep, Salty.  I've lived it.  Regardless of how the Democrats act, I've seen it in action both here, on Facebook, in person, in other message forums.  A large portion of the GOP base cannot handle anyone criticizing the party or their candidate and when they do, there is zero consideration given to the notion that a person can be a conservative and yet be fed up with the Republican party and think that Trump is a terrible and ridiculous choice to lead it and this country.  The knee jerk assumption (and often the persistent one, even after the person has been corrected on the matter) is that anyone who'd dare oppose, criticize or be upset with the GOP/Trump is a liberal.  It's the mirror image of those on the other side who assume/insist that if you stray to any degree from full acceptance and even celebration of all things LBGT that you are a hate-filled bigot.  

The two groups are like kissing cousins but neither will admit it.

 

In all honesty Titan, I have a really hard time considering you a conservative.  I have seen you adopt conservative/Republican positions, and I have seen you adopt liberal/Democrat positions on various issues.  If anything, your perspective is guided by your rationality rather than ideology, and that is a good thing.  I would call you a rational moderate.  That said, your point is indeed valid.

[TitanTiger 20,498]

19 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

In all honesty Titan, I have a really hard time considering you a conservative.  I have seen you adopt conservative/Republican positions, and I have seen you adopt liberal/Democrat positions on various issues.  If anything, your perspective is guided by your rationality rather than ideology, and that is a good thing.  I would call you a rational moderate.  That said, your point is indeed valid.

I consider myself a conservative because I am one socially (if we're going to compartmentalize things) and some of these issues factor heavily into my voting.  And these views are not only unwelcome in the other major party, but castigated as hateful, bigoted, and unacceptable in the public arena.  I've never voted for a Democrat for president and I've only voted once for a Democrat in a Senate race.  And my fiscal/economic views are a mixed bag.  So long as something isn't immoral or unethical, I just want to choose policies that I think will work best, no matter which side of the political spectrum it comes from.  

I still use language like "conservative" or "liberal" because it's easy shorthand, but the truth is, I'm just a Christian trying my best to navigate modern American politics under the realization that I have no party to truly call home.

[Strychnine 1,802]

43 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

I consider myself a conservative because I am one socially (if we're going to compartmentalize things) and some of these issues factor heavily into my voting.  And these views are not only unwelcome in the other major party, but castigated as hateful, bigoted, and unacceptable in the public arena.  I've never voted for a Democrat for president and I've only voted once for a Democrat in a Senate race.  And my fiscal/economic views are a mixed bag.  So long as something isn't immoral or unethical, I just want to choose policies that I think will work best, no matter which side of the political spectrum it comes from.  

I still use language like "conservative" or "liberal" because it's easy shorthand, but the truth is, I'm just a Christian trying my best to navigate modern American politics under the realization that I have no party to truly call home.

 

That is exactly what I meant.

[TitanTiger 20,498]

Some writers absolutely nailing how stupid a move this was by Trump, and just as importantly, how ridiculous it is to be defending him over it:

 

Quote

Every administration gets knocked off its game early on by something. What makes the furor over President Trump’s wiretapping claims so remarkable is how unnecessary it is. The flap didn’t arise from events outside of the administration’s control, nor was it a clever trap sprung by its adversaries. The president went out of his way to initiate it. He picked up his phone and tweeted allegations that he had no idea were true or not, either to distract from what he thought was a bad news cycle, or to vent, or both.

The fallout has proved that there is no such a thing as “just a tweet” from the most powerful man on the planet. Trump’s aides have scrambled to find some justification for the statements after-the-fact and offended an age-old foreign ally in the process (White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested it was British intelligence that might have been monitoring Trump); congressional leaders have become consumed with the matter; and it has dominated news coverage for weeks. Such is the power of a couple of blasts of 140 characters or less from the president of the United States.

The flap has probably undermined Trump’s political standing, and at the very least has diverted him and his team from much more important work on Capitol Hill, where his agenda will rise or fall. In an alternative and more conventional universe, the White House would be crowing over Judge Gorsuch’s testimony before Congress. Instead it is jousting with the FBI director over wayward tweets.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445936/donald-trumps-tweets-are-creating-unnecessary-problems

 

 

Quote

The tweets, however, are exposing something else in many of Trump’s friends and supporters — an extremely high tolerance for dishonesty and an oft-enthusiastic willingness to defend sheer nonsense. Yes, I know full well that many of his supporters take him “seriously, not literally,” but that’s a grave mistake. My words are of far lesser consequence than the president’s, yet I live my life knowing that willful, reckless, or even negligent falsehood can end my career overnight. It can end friendships instantaneously. Why is the truth somehow less important when the falsehoods come from the most powerful and arguably most famous man in the world?

I’ve watched Christian friends laugh hysterically at Trump’s tweets, positively delighted that they cause fits of rage on the other side. I’ve watched them excuse falsehoods from reflexively-defensive White House aides, claiming “it’s just their job” to defend the president. Since when is it any person’s job to help their boss spew falsehoods into the public domain? And if that does somehow come to be your job, aren’t you bound by honor to resign? It is not difficult, in a free society, to tell a man (no matter how powerful they are or how much you love access to that power), “Sir, I will not lie for you.”

...The truth still matters, even when fighting Democrats you despise.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/445957/its-not-worth-sacrificing-anyones-integrity-defend-trumps-tweets

 

[SaltyTiger 7,816]

11 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

Yep, Salty.  I've lived it.  Regardless of how the Democrats act, I've seen it in action both here, on Facebook, in person, in other message forums.  A large portion of the GOP base cannot handle anyone criticizing the party or their candidate and when they do, there is zero consideration given to the notion that a person can be a conservative and yet be fed up with the Republican party and think that Trump is a terrible and ridiculous choice to lead it and this country.  The knee jerk assumption (and often the persistent one, even after the person has been corrected on the matter) is that anyone who'd dare oppose, criticize or be upset with the GOP/Trump is a liberal.  It's the mirror image of those on the other side who assume/insist that if you stray to any degree from full acceptance and even celebration of all things LBGT that you are a hate-filled bigot.  

The two groups are like kissing cousins but neither will admit it.

Good stuff above TT. Most of us have lived it. Good and true comment about "kissing cousins". I consider myself conservative.

One of my closest friends in college at Auburn was openly gay and a  duplex neighbor of my wife of 35 years now. He was in a related curriculum as myself and we shared a lot of information ( plus piggybacking cable television). He did not flaunt his lifestyle nor me mine. He did have one party once a spring and informed the wife and i that we may prefer to take a weekend trip. We did and never questioned or had a problem with him. Kept in touch for years after graduation.

Closest friend after college was a flaming liberal and is this day. We actually made it a point to go vote together at Dean Road Parks and Rec knowing we would offset each others vote. He also as liberal, introduced me to Rush Limbaugh's show. The guy went on to make fortune rebuilding in Miami after Hurricane Andrew and claims he knew how to work the system as liberal ( never understood).

One of the toughest days I have ever had was letting a crew of Hispanic illegals go. They had what appeared to be proper credentials and worked for months. Good genuine people that knew their job and easy to endear.     

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

To continue the discussion of labels and what side you identify as, I'd like to add my own view of things. The term 'conservative' no longer means anything. It's just a label to try and manipulate the base of the right who don't like moderates and liberals. A lot of so called 'conservatives' are really moderates who legislate as moderates. There's very few real conservatives in Washington D.C. who are interested in going along with their constituents instead of going along with the party elite instead. 

Never-Trump arguments from Republicans are that Trump's not a conservative. It's awful convenient for those 'conservatives' to make exceptions for their own views and the views of the other candidates they voted for in the GOP primary to explain why they themselves don't tow the party line yet turn around and rebuke Trump for not being conservative enough. It's ok for all the other candidates to not tow the party line and have different views on issues than the rest of their party. The other GOP candidates flip flopped on issues as well but only Trump's been given a conservative litmus test because those who were more comfortable with the status quo felt he was too different and that he didn't espouse traditional conservative views on key issues. The bait and switch tactics of the GOP the last 10 years have bastardized the 'conservative' label. It no longer carries the weight it once did. The GOP nominated a moderate in 2008 and a northeast liberal Republican in 2012. They haven't been churning out conservatives for us to vote for. Yet they suddenly wanted to pitch to us that Trump isn't a conservative so that's why we shouldn't have voted for him.

Trump's as conservative as everyone that he beat in the primaries and who the conservative base rejected, with the exceptions of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. The McCain's, Romney's, Rubio's, Bush's, and Kasich's were all rejected in 2016 because they all represented the status quo of the last 10 years. Ted Cruz was the only other candidate who was close enough for the conservative base to get behind besides Trump during the election.. Everyone of the other candidates besides Cruz and Rand Paul were more interested in gaining favor of the GOP elite. They didn't care about the conservative base and in some cases have shown disdain towards them. Like Hilary Clinton, the GOP establishment can't blame anyone but themselves for their defeat to Trump in 2016.

If there's one thing I'm disappointed in with Trump so far is that he's too reliant on the likes of Paul Ryan. He shouldn't be trying to go along with Ryan and the GOP establishment because they're aren't going to help him. They will just as quickly turn on him if he does or says something they don't like. Trump needs to go along more with Rand Paul who is actually wanting to change things and not just go along with the party to keep the status quo going.

I don't like litmus tests to prove how ideological one is but I have absolutely soured on many of the so called 'conservatives' of the last 10 years for flip flopping on issues. A lot of them are now conveniently going against Trump after years of railing for issues that Trump has proposed. John McCain is exhibit A of what is wrong with the current GOP. He's not a maverick, he's as much an opportunist as Trump is. He was one of the biggest proponents of building a wall/fence all the way back in 2010 and used the issue to help get him re-elected. Now that building a wall even has a possibility of happening, McCain turned an about face on the issue during the 2016 campaign.

 

John McCain 2015:

Quote

Trump has tapped into “some anger” in the state over the conditions at the border, McCain told The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in an article published Thursday.

“It’s very bad,” the Republican senator said. “This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain said. “Because what he did was he fired up the crazies.”

Read more at: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/john-mccain-donald-trump-immigration-phoenix-120216

 

John McCain 2010: