James Comey's Testimony Before Congress

[grinreaper]

 

 

You feigned ignorance about Obama cracking jokes and I posted a video of Obama cracking jokes. It wasn't tit for tat, it was a direct smack down case closed.

But he was once a practicing republican so he has street cred.

[4merper4mer]

 

 

The Democrats were feckless as hell when it came to Russia. Prior to 2008, one of the pillars of the Bush administration’s foreign policy was closer ties with Eastern Europe. This included the controversial deployment of the US ABM system to Eastern Europe, and the addition of several Eastern European and Baltic states to NATO. These were rightfully seen as attempts to contain a resurgent Russia, and were viewed as direct threats by Russia itself.

In the summer of 2008, when South Ossetia and Abkhazia tried to break away from Georgia, Georgia responded militarily, leading to Russia invading Georgia. Before this, tensions between Russia and Georgia had been high enough that NATO countries were strongly considering the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO, again to further contain Russian expansionism. The invasion, prompted by both the Georgian attack on their breakaway provinces AND the threat of NATO membership being granted, was condemned world wide, including by the Bush administration, and led to significant decline in relations between the US and Russia, including economic sanctions against Russia.

One of the key foreign policy points that Obama ran on in the early fall of 2008 was to improve relations with Russia, believing that the Bush administration policies were irresponsible, and indeed that the Bush administration was responsible for the breakdown in relations. When Obama took office, this led to: the “reset” button, indicating the “reset” of relations to a more cordial and cooperative footing, the cancellation of the ABM system in Eastern Europe, and the cancellation of the sanctions imposed on Russia for the Georgian War by the Bush administration.

Notably, in response to that, and in violation of the cease-fire agreement, Russia did not withdraw from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They did, however, annex the Crimea and invade Ukraine (not coincidentally, the other country being considered for NATO membership). And have undertaken military operations in Syria, in direct challenge to and at risk of military conflict with the US. And this, the Russians have done and continue to do despite the current regime of sanctions, which seriously calls in to question their effectiveness. And that, from the administration that once responded to observations that Russia was the top geopolitical foe of the US with the pithy statement “The 80's called, they want their foreign policy back.”

That's pretty much feckless as hell. And most of that was under Clinton's State Department. And it's all far more enabling towards Russla than anything Trump has so far done.

 

Did you not read that he doesn't want to get in to tit for tat?

 

Trump is in their pocket?

 

[boyst]

 

 

The Democrats were feckless as hell when it came to Russia. Prior to 2008, one of the pillars of the Bush administrations foreign policy was closer ties with Eastern Europe. This included the controversial deployment of the US ABM system to Eastern Europe, and the addition of several Eastern European and Baltic states to NATO. These were rightfully seen as attempts to contain a resurgent Russia, and were viewed as direct threats by Russia itself.

 

In the summer of 2008, when South Ossetia and Abkhazia tried to break away from Georgia, Georgia responded militarily, leading to Russia invading Georgia. Before this, tensions between Russia and Georgia had been high enough that NATO countries were strongly considering the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO, again to further contain Russian expansionism. The invasion, prompted by both the Georgian attack on their breakaway provinces AND the threat of NATO membership being granted, was condemned world wide, including by the Bush administration, and led to significant decline in relations between the US and Russia, including economic sanctions against Russia.

 

One of the key foreign policy points that Obama ran on in the early fall of 2008 was to improve relations with Russia, believing that the Bush administration policies were irresponsible, and indeed that the Bush administration was responsible for the breakdown in relations. When Obama took office, this led to: the reset button, indicating the reset of relations to a more cordial and cooperative footing, the cancellation of the ABM system in Eastern Europe, and the cancellation of the sanctions imposed on Russia for the Georgian War by the Bush administration.

 

Notably, in response to that, and in violation of the cease-fire agreement, Russia did not withdraw from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They did, however, annex the Crimea and invade Ukraine (not coincidentally, the other country being considered for NATO membership). And have undertaken military operations in Syria, in direct challenge to and at risk of military conflict with the US. And this, the Russians have done and continue to do despite the current regime of sanctions, which seriously calls in to question their effectiveness. And that, from the administration that once responded to observations that Russia was the top geopolitical foe of the US with the pithy statement The 80's called, they want their foreign policy back.

 

That's pretty much feckless as hell. And most of that was under Clinton's State Department. And it's all far more enabling towards Russla than anything Trump has so far done.

oh stop. K9 had good intentions with what he said.

 

What struck me the most is that Romney would answer questions while Obama would simply reply to Romney. This is what trump did to Clinton. And Obamas campaign and q&a is what set the tone for ignoring any issue and dividing it.

 

Obama winning a Nobel Peace prize was the biggest joke of it all. He oversaw so many death as a result of his action that OT is embarrassing.

[K-9]

 

 

You feigned ignorance about Obama cracking jokes and I posted a video of Obama cracking jokes. It wasn't tit for tat, it was a direct smack down case closed.

You win, you win! You are the greatest link poster ever! Looking forward to watching you perform in the next Romper Room Olympics.

 

 

 

The Democrats were feckless as hell when it came to Russia. Prior to 2008, one of the pillars of the Bush administration’s foreign policy was closer ties with Eastern Europe. This included the controversial deployment of the US ABM system to Eastern Europe, and the addition of several Eastern European and Baltic states to NATO. These were rightfully seen as attempts to contain a resurgent Russia, and were viewed as direct threats by Russia itself.

In the summer of 2008, when South Ossetia and Abkhazia tried to break away from Georgia, Georgia responded militarily, leading to Russia invading Georgia. Before this, tensions between Russia and Georgia had been high enough that NATO countries were strongly considering the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO, again to further contain Russian expansionism. The invasion, prompted by both the Georgian attack on their breakaway provinces AND the threat of NATO membership being granted, was condemned world wide, including by the Bush administration, and led to significant decline in relations between the US and Russia, including economic sanctions against Russia.

One of the key foreign policy points that Obama ran on in the early fall of 2008 was to improve relations with Russia, believing that the Bush administration policies were irresponsible, and indeed that the Bush administration was responsible for the breakdown in relations. When Obama took office, this led to: the “reset” button, indicating the “reset” of relations to a more cordial and cooperative footing, the cancellation of the ABM system in Eastern Europe, and the cancellation of the sanctions imposed on Russia for the Georgian War by the Bush administration.

Notably, in response to that, and in violation of the cease-fire agreement, Russia did not withdraw from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They did, however, annex the Crimea and invade Ukraine (not coincidentally, the other country being considered for NATO membership). And have undertaken military operations in Syria, in direct challenge to and at risk of military conflict with the US. And this, the Russians have done and continue to do despite the current regime of sanctions, which seriously calls in to question their effectiveness. And that, from the administration that once responded to observations that Russia was the top geopolitical foe of the US with the pithy statement “The 80's called, they want their foreign policy back.”

That's pretty much feckless as hell. And most of that was under Clinton's State Department. And it's all far more enabling towards Russla than anything Trump has so far done.

 

A lot of what you allude to here is pre-Obama administration but that's beside the point.

 

I don't see Obama's reset as being feckless but rather exactly what it was; an attempt to repair relations as a result of Bush administration policies. No doubt Putin took advantage of that perceived weakness. But don't tell me Obama's sanctions, as a result of Putin's machinations, didn't have an impact. Part of those sanctions was convincing Saudi Arabia to increase supply, and that, along with increases in shale output here and in Canada severely impacted the Russian economy and thoroughly pissed off Putin. Clinton's criticisms of his domestic and foreign policies did as well. Lastly on the subject of Obama and Russia, Russia has been an ally of Syria for decades and has armed and trained them the entire time. Obama was stupid with his line in the sand bullschit, but don't act like he opened a door for Russia in Syria when they've already been there for so long.

 

But this is a sidetrack issue. This is about Trump's continued coddling of Putin and Russia, both in rhetoric and in practice, that is happening NOW. What he said and did in the Oval Office when he was making himself a propaganda tool for the very country that his campaign is being investigated about, was embarrassing.

[boyst]

its all Bush's fault. Obama fixed it. Trumps at fault.

This is in order to save everyones time. I fixed it to be concise to your point as you evidently don't understand Obama is to blame for what happened under his watch

[K-9]

This is in order to save everyones time. I fixed it to be concise to your point as you evidently don't understand Obama is to blame for what happened under his watch

Total douche bag move when posters enter text under another poster's banner and attribute false quotes in that fashion. So glad you're trying to bring class to and restore the honor of PPP.

 

Obama is history. Stop living in the past and watch what your boy is doing now.

[ExiledInIllinois]

I almost believed in Bernie sanders and wanted to.

 

But, my god intuition sucks when you're right and so let down.

With me it was with Trump. Unfortunately we have him and him only... Goofball McGee Pence waiting in wings.

 

I was almost sucked into the hack job... The breakdown of the blue collar firewall from Iowa to PA.

 

To capitalize on your typo of the word "good", God played a part in my intuition. That's so phucking idiotic I know!

 

How can one not see this scandal ridden train wreck of a snake oil salesman not coming... Oh yeah, he wasnt a politician.

 

Crooked Trump is now worse than crooked Hillary. It's always the bigger crooks who call the other crooks out.

 

Our President is a crook.

 

I was never sold on Bernie. The Trump of the left.

 

Status quo and Obama Lite (Shillary) was unfortunately the only moral option till 2020.

 

We launched nuclear waste to the sun with Trump... Now it is blowing back on us.

 

"The same sun that warms our hearts will suck that good earth dry."

 

So sad, the swamp is even deeper now!!!

 

Americans are absolute idiots with a vindictive moral understanding

 

Tom, your royalty check is in the mail.

Edited June 15, 2017 by ExiledInIllinois

[boyst]

You're handsome. smart. Funny and charming Boyst. Exemplified class, my buddy.

 

Obama killed Jesus.

you take life to seriously. Maybe we should get drinks. Will you be my friend? My cats breath smells like cat food. Boy I sure want some Chinese now that I think of cats. Ever have goat meat? I've seen goatse and love it but never had goat.

 

Nonetheless I forgot what you said. Something about class? Maybe you're in high school. Shouldn't you be studying? I love summer. Fresh cashiers just graduated. New meat.

 

Hmm OK. And its only an issue to replace someones text when people are too stupid to read the original text. On tsw that happens. Here it doesn't. Joe will read every word of this and this is an indictment and as reading proves, he and Mr AGS are lovers.

With me it was with Trump. Unfortunately we have.

 

I was almost sucked into the hack job... The breakdown of the blue collar firewall from Iowa to PA.

 

To capitalize on your typo of the word "good", God played a part in my intuition. That's so phucking idiotic I know!

 

How can one not see this scandal ridden train wreck of a snake oil salesman not coming... Oh yeah, he wasnt a politician.

 

Crooked Trump is now worse than crooked Hillary. It's always the bigger crooks who call the other crooks out.

 

Our President is a crook.

 

I was never sold on Bernie. The Trump of the left.

 

Status quo and Obama Lite (Shillary) was unfortunately the only moral option till 2020.

 

We launched nuclear waste to the sun with Trump... Now it is blowing back on us.

 

"The same sun that warms our hearts will suck that good earth dry."

 

So sad, the swamp is even deep now!!!

 

Americans are absolute idiots with a vindictive moral understanding

 

Tom, your royalty check is in the mail.

way too much to read. But thanks for making it raised to start by hanging it line by line

[4merper4mer]

You win, you win! You are the greatest link poster ever! Looking forward to watching you perform in the next Romper Room Olympics.

 

 

 

 

It's not so much me winning. It's that the entire informed world knew about that quote and you either didn't know about it or think it means the opposite of what it says. It's a bit strange.

[ExiledInIllinois]

way too much to read. But thanks for making it raised to start by hanging it line by line

Sorry. I know. I get that way with OC. I don't blame you. I will learn to keep it under 140 for the Millennial Snowflakes/Deplorables.

 

No worries.

[K-9]

 

 

It's not so much me winning. It's that the entire informed world knew about that quote and you either didn't know about it or think it means the opposite of what it says. It's a bit strange.

It's always about you winning.

 

A bit strange indeed.

[4merper4mer]

It's always about you winning.

 

A bit strange indeed.

 

You being ignorant of a very well known Obama quote or simply ignoring it to build a false point has nothing to do with me. That is what is strange. It would have been strange whether I posted or not.

[K-9]

you take life to seriously. Maybe we should get drinks. Will you be my friend? My cats breath smells like cat food. Boy I sure want some Chinese now that I think of cats. Ever have goat meat? I've seen goatse and love it but never had goat.

 

Nonetheless I forgot what you said. Something about class? Maybe you're in high school. Shouldn't you be studying? I love summer. Fresh cashiers just graduated. New meat.

 

Hmm OK. And its only an issue to replace someones text when people are too stupid to read the original text. On tsw that happens. Here it doesn't. Joe will read every word of this and this is an indictment and as reading proves, he and Mr AGS are lovers.

way too much to read. But thanks for making it raised to start by hanging it line by line

I'm honored to be insulted in the exact same fashion you insult others. You need more original material, though. Your shtick here and in other forums is growing stale. Good luck with that.

[DC Tom]

 

A lot of what you allude to here is pre-Obama administration but that's beside the point.

 

1) Those weren't allusions, they were facts. That is what actually happened.

2) What predates the Obama administration in that post was the Bush Administration's Georgia policy...required to set the context for Obama's feckless Russia and Eastern Europe policies. Obama's "attempt to repair the damage of the Bush administration" was a rollback of policies implemented to contain Russian aggression, that ended up being reinstituted more strictly later on to contain further Russian aggression enabled by the rollback of the original policies. If that's not the definition of "feckless," it would have to be the definition of "obtuse."

 

 

But this is a sidetrack issue. This is about Trump's continued coddling of Putin and Russia, both in rhetoric and in practice, that is happening NOW. What he said and did in the Oval Office when he was making himself a propaganda tool for the very country that his campaign is being investigated about, was embarrassing.

 

Though I think it's a stretch to call it "coddling," I'll grant you "irresponsibly and impuslively blabbing intelligence." Name another instance where Trump has coddled Putin and Russia. It's not on Syria...and it's not on sanctions concerning the Ukraine...and it's not on Eastern Europe or the Baltic States.

[B-Man]

 

1) Those weren't allusions, they were facts. That is what actually happened.

 

Name another instance where Trump has coddled Putin and Russia.

 

It's not on Syria...

 

and it's not on sanctions concerning the Ukraine...

 

and it's not on Eastern Europe or the Baltic States.

 

 

Obfuscation..........

[Tiberius]

 

1) Those weren't allusions, they were facts. That is what actually happened.

2) What predates the Obama administration in that post was the Bush Administration's Georgia policy...required to set the context for Obama's feckless Russia and Eastern Europe policies. Obama's "attempt to repair the damage of the Bush administration" was a rollback of policies implemented to contain Russian aggression, that ended up being reinstituted more strictly later on to contain further Russian aggression enabled by the rollback of the original policies. If that's not the definition of "feckless," it would have to be the definition of "obtuse."

 

 

 

Though I think it's a stretch to call it "coddling," I'll grant you "irresponsibly and impuslively blabbing intelligence." Name another instance where Trump has coddled Putin and Russia. It's not on Syria...and it's not on sanctions concerning the Ukraine...and it's not on Eastern Europe or the Baltic States.

Driving a wedge into our relations in Europe by asking for payments. Failing to initially agree to support article V even though all his advisors had specifically put it in his speech, but Trump dumped that very part. Giving back those compounds Obama had kicked Putin's boys out. There is also the fact that Trump is a pro-democracy crusader, which is the exact reason--or one of them--Putin hated Hillary. Putin won't have any problems from Trump further damaging democratic institutions in that country. There is also the fact Trump can care less the Russia attacked our election.

[K-9]

 

1) Those weren't allusions, they were facts. That is what actually happened.

2) What predates the Obama administration in that post was the Bush Administration's Georgia policy...required to set the context for Obama's feckless Russia and Eastern Europe policies. Obama's "attempt to repair the damage of the Bush administration" was a rollback of policies implemented to contain Russian aggression, that ended up being reinstituted more strictly later on to contain further Russian aggression enabled by the rollback of the original policies. If that's not the definition of "feckless," it would have to be the definition of "obtuse."

 

 

 

Though I think it's a stretch to call it "coddling," I'll grant you "irresponsibly and impuslively blabbing intelligence." Name another instance where Trump has coddled Putin and Russia. It's not on Syria...and it's not on sanctions concerning the Ukraine...and it's not on Eastern Europe or the Baltic States.

More Trump's operatives during the campaign perhaps, but the changes in the GOP platform language concerning Russia and providing weapons to the Ukraine, the cooled relations with NATO allies, the reassuring phone call by Flynn regarding the sanctions, giving back their two properties, and openly dismissing the findings of the intelligence community as a "hoax." But the topper was the meeting in the Oval Office where he called Comey, to the faces of Russian diplomats, a "nut job" and made himself a propaganda tool for an adversary.

 

I'll give him, or at least McMaster and Mattis credit for making sure he stuck to the original sanctions and made reassuring remarks to the Baltics. It's a start I suppose. But I remain to be convinced.

[Chef Jim]

Sorry. I know. I get that way with OC. I don't blame you. I will learn to keep it under 140 for the Millennial Snowflakes/Deplorables.

 

No worries.

 

I'm neither a millennia, snowflake or deplorable. But if you can cut it even further that would be great. How about 5 words one emoji?

[Tiberius]

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said his country is ready to offer James Comey asylum if the former FBI director should face political persecution.

“If Comey will be under the threat of political persecution, we are ready to accept him here,” Putin said, speaking at the president’s annual, televised question-and-answering session with the Russian people. “It sounds very strange when the head of the security services writes down a conversation with the commander-in-chief and then leaks it to the media through his friend.”

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/15/putin-james-comey-asylum-239589

[K-9]

 

1) Those weren't allusions, they were facts. That is what actually happened.

2) What predates the Obama administration in that post was the Bush Administration's Georgia policy...required to set the context for Obama's feckless Russia and Eastern Europe policies. Obama's "attempt to repair the damage of the Bush administration" was a rollback of policies implemented to contain Russian aggression, that ended up being reinstituted more strictly later on to contain further Russian aggression enabled by the rollback of the original policies. If that's not the definition of "feckless," it would have to be the definition of "obtuse."

 

 

 

Though I think it's a stretch to call it "coddling," I'll grant you "irresponsibly and impuslively blabbing intelligence." Name another instance where Trump has coddled Putin and Russia. It's not on Syria...and it's not on sanctions concerning the Ukraine...and it's not on Eastern Europe or the Baltic States.

They weren't illusions. The fact that you alluded to them made them allusions. I accept them as facts. Doesn't change the other fact that the previous administration levied sanctions against Russia that severely hurt them. Is it possible that Obama and people in his administration evolved their position over time? Is it wrong for politicians to evolve their positions as conditions on the ground dictate? Seems that is a desirable trait in leadership.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/15/putin-james-comey-asylum-239589

Vlad, like many here, lacks appreciation for nuance. Once Trump threatened the existence of tapes, Comey had to take him at his word that it was true and making his memo part of the public record established corroborative evidence. Oh, and unlike Snowden, none of what Comey provided to the public was classified, let alone highly classified.