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Donald Trump is the President Mark IV (Read Mod Warning in OP)
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POTUS should be in political s***e if he's trying to peddle that narrative. Sadly, for many he won't.0
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Stallingrad wrote: »I'm beginning to wonder are witnessing the beginning of the end of American democracy. To everyone who says he has achieved nothing and is an idiot and bluffer you've been watching the ball not the player. He has pitted the country against itself, torn the Rupublican party apart and made it a party of 1, neutered the EPA, defunded Planned Parenthood, discredited the media, attacked the judiciary, re-aligned the supreme court, given the wealthy tax breaks, eroded all the markers for what we deem to be acceptable (caged kids?), exposed the myth of a robust democracy, now he's trying to take down the investigation into collusion, I don't need to go on, you all know the score.
He's done little or nothing for the US, but done an astonishing amount in 2 years to achieve what he wants for himself.
There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.
-Lao Tzu
A piece of age-old wisdom, and it was quite mad to watch it come true in such a spectacular fashion during the 2016 US election season.
And what's worse is that people are still saying he's an idiot and a moron, as though if they believe it enough, Trump will simply go away. It doesn't quite work like that, though...
If Trump is an idiot and a moron, then I shudder to think what that makes Hillary Clinton and all the Republican candidates in the 2016 primaries.
I'm not saying he's a man who's shown an astute awareness of the workings of the political machine in which he is now running, but there's a marked difference between ignorance and stupidity. Trump can show incredible ignorance many times, but he seems to instinctively understand how to push people's buttons, and has used those powers to solidify his position with his base and divide his opponents. He's shown a worldliness and brute cunning that has taken his opponents by surprise. Whoever faces off against him in 2020 is going to have to match it while also offering a suitably appealing alternative message.0 -
Was this person part of the Russian government? Did Trump order for the meeting to be held if that person was part of the Russian government? We need to see something showing this.
To answer the second part, the email from Rob Goldstone represented the "dirt" as being provided by the Russian government with the intention of helping Trump's campaign. This only tells us that Don Jr knew. Right now, there is no proof that Trump Sr knew although there is a video of his campaign speech two days prior where he said that he'd have more information on Clinton after the following monday.Trump railed against Hillary Clinton to supporters after he won the New Jersey primary that same week. “I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons,” he told them. “I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.” (He announced the Clinton speech in the video above at 7:08)
That alone isn't proof, however.
Regarding Veselnetskaya, I guess it depends on what you mean by "part of the Russian Government". She's not an MP or anything like that but she gives the impression that she does.During an interview to be broadcast Friday by NBC News, she acknowledged that she was not merely a private lawyer but a source of information for a top Kremlin official, Yuri Y. Chaika, the prosecutor general.
“I am a lawyer, and I am an informant,” she said. “Since 2013, I have been actively communicating with the office of the Russian prosecutor general.”
The Russian prosecutor general is Yuri Cheika. Rob Goldstone mistakenly called him the Crown Prosecutor in his email to Don Junior.0 -
Apparently, Guiliani has also said that there was a meeting two days prior to the actual meeting to discuss strategy for the meeting.
This flies in the face of what Jared said, he said he knew nothing and was simply called in.
It also gives greater evidence of a conspiracy, since Trump Jr was directly talking about potential securing illegal information with Kushner and Manafort.
This meeting has not been brought up before (at least as far as I can recall).0 -
jooksavage wrote: »Can you provide me information that Trump Jr knew beforehand that the meeting was with "Kremlin backed operatives?"
A 30 second search would produce this pre-meeting email from Rob Goldstone to Don Jr.
"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin."
To which Don Jr replies:
"Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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Was Rod Goldstone part of the campaign and what makes him an authority on the matter?
Does it matter? I really don't see what you are trying to get at.
If someone hires a hitman to kill someone and that hitman turns out to be a con artist, it is still conspiracy.
The only important thing is whether Trump Jr thought it was real intel.
And he has never said he didn't.
The fact that had had the meeting at all gives that some credibility, and know Guiliani is claiming that there was actually a pre-meeting meeting to discuss strategy0 -
jooksavage wrote: »Was this person part of the Russian government?
Why do some of you guys keep asking questions that a quick Google search would answer. The laywer, Veselnitskaya works for the Russian government, as thousands of articles like the one below attest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/world/europe/natalia-veselnitskaya-donald-trump-jr-russian-lawyer.html0 -
Was Rod Goldstone part of the campaign and what makes him an authority on the matter?
Does it matter? I really don't see what you are trying to get at.
If someone hires a hitman to kill someone and that hitman turns out to be a con artist, it is still conspiracy.
The only important thing is whether Trump Jr thought it was real intel.
And he has never said he didn't.
The fact that had had the meeting at all gives that some credibility, and know Guiliani is claiming that there was actually a pre-meeting meeting to discuss strategyYou can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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Russian operatives don't go around with a business card with it on it, in their pocket. You well know that, when posing your question.0
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What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?0 -
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I do wonder where the collusion narrative came from. I can't recall when it was first floated as an idea.
But it is telling that Trump and Guiliani are very heavily stating that collusion is not a crime, but never get into conspiracy (which it is more likely to be) and campaign finance violations.
Lithwick @ Slate.com, who is their legal writer (and worth following imo, very insightful woman, usually writes about the Supreme Court), had a piece about why Trump's on about 'collusion' - he's basically controlling the narrative harping on it, when it's not really the issue that'll get him impeached.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/trump-has-invented-his-own-legal-language-to-distort-the-case-against-him.html0 -
What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
Are you aware that the Obama administration no longer exists?0 -
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mcmoustache wrote: »0
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Join Date:Posts: 15303
What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
Because the GOP - McConnell specifically, threatened Blue Murder if they went public with any of the information that they had..Joe Biden said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped the Obama administration from speaking out about Russian interference in the 2016 campaign by refusing to sign on to a bipartisan statement of condemnation.
That moment, the former Democratic vice president said, made him think “the die had been cast ... this was all about the political play.”
From hereIn early September, Johnson, Comey, and Monaco arrived on Capitol Hill in a caravan of black SUVs for a meeting with 12 key members of Congress, including the leadership of both parties. The meeting devolved into a partisan squabble.
“The Dems were, ‘Hey, we have to tell the public,’ ” recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia’s aim of sapping confidence in the system.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went further, officials said, voicing skepticism that the underlying intelligence truly supported the White House’s claims.
From here0 -
Captain Obvious wrote: »What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
Are you aware that the Obama administration no longer exists?You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
On what grounds do you believe there was a witch hunt and where is your evidence for such?0 -
What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
So no opinion on any of it then.
Jeez, if you even try to break out of your bubble and start to question at least some of it.
Instead we are back to conspiracies about Obama! Obama should have to answer questions, IMO, but he didn't actively take part and didn't try to cover it up.
But I would wager that he took the view that without cast iron evidence he would be seen as trying to influence in favor of HC. That we have all this info now and you still won't even question Trumps role in it proves Obama perfectly reasonable in that assumption. Quin_Dub already posted the details of this. Another of your made up stories put to bed.
The most damning piece if that since Trump was told about this in November 2016, he has done nothing but lie about it and claim a witch hunt, when it is clear as day, whether it ended up being useful or not, that Trump was willing to use the Russians to influence his changes of winning the election.0 -
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On what grounds do you believe there was a witch hunt and where is your evidence for such?
Unhinged tweets from Trump's twitter and high energy MAGA geniuses from the_Donald.0 -
Captain Obvious wrote: »
You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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So no actual evidence then! Just some theories. Why do you not have the same level of critical thinking when it comes to Trump?
Sneakily? On what basis?
They are permanent, as in they can never be fired? Really? So like a job for life? So Trump can fire the head of the FBI, the acting AG, but he can do nothing about these guys?
How are they undermining the 2016 election?
Concerns? There are some concerns? Well then that proves it then. I mean we have Trump Jr admitting to meeting trying to intel, lying about, Trump lying about it and now we hear from Giuliani that there was a previous strategy meeting and Trump was probably on a conference call in the meeting.
But if people have concerns, well then, look no further.0 -
What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
On what grounds do you believe there was a witch hunt and where is your evidence for such?You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
On what grounds do you believe there was a witch hunt and where is your evidence for such?
Everything is you believe but you have absolutely no evidence for these beliefs and yet reject far stronger evidence against Trump.0 -
What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
So no opinion on any of it then.
Jeez, if you even try to break out of your bubble and start to question at least some of it.
Instead we are back to conspiracies about Obama! Obama should have to answer questions, IMO, but he didn't actively take part and didn't try to cover it up.
But I would wager that he took the view that without cast iron evidence he would be seen as trying to influence in favor of HC. That we have all this info now and you still won't even question Trumps role in it proves Obama perfectly reasonable in that assumption. Quin_Dub already posted the details of this. Another of your made up stories put to bed.
The most damning piece if that since Trump was told about this in November 2016, he has done nothing but lie about it and claim a witch hunt, when it is clear as day, whether it ended up being useful or not, that Trump was willing to use the Russians to influence his changes of winning the election.You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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Rudy just has his own version of "wouldn't" instead of "would".
Jesus, this is embarrassing
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1023975302765178881?s=190 -
What I’m getting at is nobody should ever be expected to act on every bit of unsolicited advice from anybody who is not an authority on the matter.
Of course not. But you are trying to claim that Trump Jr was right to meet with these people on the basis that they may, or may not have been Russia.
even though he was told they were, and set up a meeting on that basis. If he didn't believe it then why not ask for some evidence?
Taking himself and at least Jared and Manafort away from the campaign to have a meeting with nobodies seem highly unusual for such an experienced businessman. And know we know they had a strategy meeting prior to the meeting. Do you not think anybody even asked if this was legit?
At this still doesn't give any answer as to why Trump, after being informed by the FBI that Russia had been trying to influence the election, would not tell the FBI of this attempt.
In fact he didn't simply not tell them, he actively went out to try to paint the FBI as corrupt and the whole Russia thing as a conspiracy against him. All this whilst he knew that they had been contacted directly.
So I ask you again. What is your opinion of Trump Jr trying to get illegally obtained intel from a Russian Government source?
What is your opinion of Trump lying about what he knew about the meeting>
What is you opinion on Trump continuing to claim a witch hunt when he knew all along that Russia was trying something.
What is you opinion of Guiliani now telling us that Jared has lied to congress as their was a pre meeting?
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
On what grounds do you believe there was a witch hunt and where is your evidence for such?
Everything is you believe but you have absolutely no evidence for these beliefs and yet reject far stronger evidence against Trump.
What far stronger evidence against Trump? (And darned tootin’ I’m going to note everything as ‘In My Opinion’, ‘I Believe’ or ‘I think.’ I don’t want there to be any question that what I post is my opinion, even though based on highly reliable sources and I link them whenever asked, and not stated as fact.)You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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I’ve noted several times that my opinion on the matter to be a witch-hunt because I believe this Mueller investigation all stems from the FISA applications and subsequent spying by Obama's FBI that relied heavily on the salacious and unverified anti-Trump dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
That wouldn't make it a witch hunt though. A witch hunt is a campaign to punish people who have done no wrong. Mueller's investigation is into Russian interference in the election. There's ample evidence, indictments and guilty pleas that there was Russian interference in the investigation. There's ample evidence that people close to Trump have done wrong. You're arguing that it is a witch hunt because it was started based on incorrect grounds but are you actually challenging the findings of the investigation so far?
And can you explain what the deep state actually is? You've named some people with limited influence. What exactly is the deep state supposed to be doing?0 -
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So no actual evidence then! Just some theories. Why do you not have the same level of critical thinking when it comes to Trump?
Sneakily? On what basis?
They are permanent, as in they can never be fired? Really? So like a job for life? So Trump can fire the head of the FBI, the acting AG, but he can do nothing about these guys?
How are they undermining the 2016 election?
Concerns? There are some concerns? Well then that proves it then. I mean we have Trump Jr admitting to meeting trying to intel, lying about, Trump lying about it and now we hear from Giuliani that there was a previous strategy meeting and Trump was probably on a conference call in the meeting.
But if people have concerns, well then, look no further.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/373051-obama-holdovers-at-the-justice-department-still-run-the-showYou can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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Captain Obvious wrote: »I’ve noted several times that my opinion on the matter to be a witch-hunt because I believe this Mueller investigation all stems from the FISA applications and subsequent spying by Obama's FBI that relied heavily on the salacious and unverified anti-Trump dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
That wouldn't make it a witch hunt though. A witch hunt is a campaign to punish people who have done no wrong. Mueller's investigation is into Russian interference in the election. There's ample evidence, indictments and guilty pleas that there was Russian interference in the investigation. There's ample evidence that people close to Trump have done wrong. You're arguing that it is a witch hunt because it was started based on incorrect grounds but are you actually challenging the findings of the investigation so far?
And can you explain what the deep state actually is? You've named some people with limited influence. What exactly is the deep state supposed to be doing?You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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Join Date:Posts: 15303
This is an opinion piece... but just about all our reporting here in the US seemingly are now opinion pieces (whether they admit it or not, IMO) with an agenda rather than journalistic reporting. It lays out some of what you are asking for.
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/373051-obama-holdovers-at-the-justice-department-still-run-the-show
Ok - So they are in positions of authority in the AG office and would be naturally sympathetic to the Democrat view of things , fair enough..
It's not their (or Obamas) fault that they are still in-situ. That's a failing of the Trump Administration and the Senate in not submitting replacements for them and getting them approved..
But irrespective of any of that , how are they "Undermining the 2016 election" ??0 -
This is an opinion piece... but just about all our reporting here in the US seemingly are now opinion pieces (whether they admit it or not, IMO) with an agenda rather than journalistic reporting. It lays out some of what you are asking for.
It would be convenient for Trump if that were the case. All those pesky facts get in the way.
Can you explain what is stopping Trump appointing someone to the four positions mentioned?0 -
I believe, regarding the Trump/Russia collusion matter, we know the Deep State involved a few top level individuals within the FBI and the Department of Justice. They used their power to try to tip a presidential campaign based on their personal politics and harm a duly elected president afterwards. They are people who are dangerous to American liberty, IMO. These individuals apparently conducted a sham investigation of the Democratic candidate and misled federal judges in order to spy on associates of Trump.
Except it was Clinton that was harmed by an investigation.0 -
Captain Obvious wrote: »This is an opinion piece... but just about all our reporting here in the US seemingly are now opinion pieces (whether they admit it or not, IMO) with an agenda rather than journalistic reporting. It lays out some of what you are asking for.
It would be convenient for Trump if that were the case. All those pesky facts get in the way.
Can you explain what is stopping Trump appointing someone to the four positions mentioned?You can ignorantly accuse me of "whataboutism," but what it really is involves identifying similar scenarios in order to see if it holds up when the shoe is on the other foot!
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What illegally obtained intel? I'm still at a loss for this.
I believe there was a witch hunt out to get him by the Obama administration... which continues to this day. And why didn't THEN President Obama do more to stop Russia's campaign of active measures against the 2016 presidential campaign? Shouldn't more of the blame of Russian interference be put on Obama rather than Trump?
So no opinion on any of it then.
Jeez, if you even try to break out of your bubble and start to question at least some of it.
Instead we are back to conspiracies about Obama! Obama should have to answer questions, IMO, but he didn't actively take part and didn't try to cover it up.
But I would wager that he took the view that without cast iron evidence he would be seen as trying to influence in favor of HC. That we have all this info now and you still won't even question Trumps role in it proves Obama perfectly reasonable in that assumption. Quin_Dub already posted the details of this. Another of your made up stories put to bed.
The most damning piece if that since Trump was told about this in November 2016, he has done nothing but lie about it and claim a witch hunt, when it is clear as day, whether it ended up being useful or not, that Trump was willing to use the Russians to influence his changes of winning the election.
The problem arises is that if campaigns start dealing directly with foreign governments for information on rivals, foreign governments might want specific policies implemented or their actions defended by the new government as payback for helping them. Here you now have the case where the government is now not acting in the best interest of the state.
CNN and Fox do not decide policy directly. They will not start trade wars or order them to be ended. Trump jnr. mentioned adoptions being mentioned in the meeting (directly linked to sanctions against Russia) so we can see that Russians wanted to buy a policy change in the US.
Finally Trump jnrs. crime that he needs to worry about immediately is lying under oath. As far as I know none of those publications testified under oath about the podesta e-mails?0 -
Captain Obvious wrote: »Except it was Clinton that was harmed by an investigation.
Horrowitz said during the IG hearing that the FBI hid the Weiner laptop findings and kept them from congress, I believe for a month. They pushed it away and went full out on the Russia investigation. In his own words it was only when the NYPD started to put pressure on them it was brought to light. Many thought that angle was a conspiracy theory but it turned out to be true, so you cannot say well Comey wrote a letter that proves the FBI weren't protecting her, they initially tried to hide the findings.0 -
everlast75 wrote: »Rudy just has his own version of "wouldn't" instead of "would".
Jesus, this is embarrassing
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1023975302765178881?s=19
I just got around to the post-cnn interviews. I'm a bit baffled because I refuse to believe that Giulani is this dumb.
I understand that when you go out there onto the media to lie, it can be a bit tricky. Generally, you'd work with a counter narrative and use that as an anchor to try and keep your lies consistent but this display looked like a guy who woke up with a hangover, got told the narrative and forgot it by the time he got to the studio.
I know that he has little credibility right now so we can't take his words that seriously, but it really looks like he just dropped Junior and Kushner in it. This new information about a pre-meeting about the Veselnetskaya seems to be all from him, unprompted.
And I still don't get why he shifted the talking points to "Collusion isn't a crime" this prematurely. He knows that Trump's base will believe the "No collusion" narrative for quite a while yet. They'll believe anything. I'm still convinced that something got him spooked.
The current Manafort stuff is unlikely to relate much to Trump so I doubt it's that. He mentioned that Rick Gates was in one of those pre-meetings - I say one or more because he was unclear about how many meetings there were. Again, why did even mention that? Another possibility is another round of indictments. Roger Stone is long overdue but I wouldn't expect that to be all that explosive given that it's something so predictable and can be planned for.
It's all really fúcking weird.
https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/10240307419178516480 -
I'm curious, what do you consider Hillary Clinton and the DNC paying for a salacious dossier, with information seemingly coming from Russian operatives, and fed to Obama’s FBI, unverified and used to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign?
Would the truth of the matter colour your view of the "salacious dossier" in any way?
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative Web site that has received funding from the hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer, has acknowledged hiring Fusion GPS to investigate candidates during the Republican Presidential primaries. This precipitated the Steele dossier.
Paul Singer? According to wiki:Singer is active in Republican Party politics and collectively, Singer and others affiliated with Elliott Management are "the top source of contributions" to the National Republican Senatorial Committee0 -
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Horrowitz said during the IG hearing that the FBI hid the Weiner laptop findings and kept them from congress, I believe for a month. They pushed it away and went full out on the Russia investigation. In his own words it was only when the NYPD started to put pressure on them it was brought to light. Many thought that angle was a conspiracy theory but it turned out to be true, so you cannot say well Comey wrote a letter that proves the FBI weren't protecting her, they initially tried to hide the findings.
You mean this delay about Weiners Laptop??
The FBI ignored Anthony Weiner’s laptop. That may have cost Hillary Clinton the election.The laptop was on a list of topics discussed by McCabe and other FBI officials on Oct. 3 and 4. And then … nothing happened. “After October 4, we found no evidence that anyone associated with the [Clinton] investigation, including the entire leadership team at FBI Headquarters, took any action on the Weiner laptop issue until the week of October 24,” says the report. Headquarters followed up only after being prompted on Oct. 21 by the New York office. Not until Oct. 27 did FBI officials brief FBI Director James Comey about the laptop.
By then, the bureau’s technical experts thought there was too little time before the election to go through the emails and determine whether any were incriminating. So Comey sent a letter to Congress disclosing what he could: that “the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” Clinton sank in the polls. More than a week later, just two days before the election, the FBI announced that it had searched the emails enough to know that they wouldn’t change its decision not to recommend her prosecution. But the damage was done. She lost.
That three-week delay arguably cost Clinton the election. In interviews with the IG’s investigators, Comey says that if he had known about the laptop’s contents at the beginning of October, he might have kept his mouth shut and waited for FBI analysts to determine whether any of the emails were incriminating. But the report finds no evidence that the three-week delay was a conspiracy to hurt Clinton. It was a product of neglect.0 -
So much for summits. Trump suspended August war games in Korea after his meeting with KJ-U (he idiotically described defensive maneuvers conducted with his own allies as "provocative"). The BBC reporting this morning that North Korea is building new ballistic missiles. That's not deal-making but it' the inevitable consequence of having someone so unfit for office that they think foreign policy hinges upon his own personal relationships. He wanted a photo-op, he got it and that's the material sum of the whole summit.0
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jooksavage wrote: »So much for summits. Trump suspended August war games in Korea after his meeting with KJ-U (he idiotically described defensive maneuvers conducted with his own allies as "provocative"). The BBC reporting this morning that North Korea is building new ballistic missiles. That's not deal-making but it' the inevitable consequence of having someone so unfit for office that they think foreign policy hinges upon his own personal relationships. He wanted a photo-op, he got it and that's the material sum of the whole summit.
his surrogates certainly must work hard in defending him on Foreign Policy
Trump - KJU is a little rocket man
Supporters - yes, a dictator!
Trump - KJU is an honourable man
Supporters - yes, he is misunderstood
Trump - Iran better not make any threats!
Supporters - Trump is such a strong leader in the face of a tyrant
Trump - I am open to talk to Rouhani with no pre-conditions
Supporters - Trump is right to talk to him.
I'd say they suffer from awful whiplash. Pity Trump is doing his best to destroy Obamacare..0 -
jooksavage wrote: »So much for summits. Trump suspended August war games in Korea after his meeting with KJ-U (he idiotically described defensive maneuvers conducted with his own allies as "provocative"). The BBC reporting this morning that North Korea is building new ballistic missiles. That's not deal-making but it' the inevitable consequence of having someone so unfit for office that they think foreign policy hinges upon his own personal relationships. He wanted a photo-op, he got it and that's the material sum of the whole summit.
The bemused look on Kims face the whole time was hillarious, "The asshat fell for it" was all he was thinking. Now he wants a photo op with Rohani. He's a foreign policy genius.0 -
Stallingrad wrote: »The bemused look on Kims face the whole time was hillarious, "The asshat fell for it" was all he was thinking. Now he wants a photo op with Rohani. He's a foreign policy genius.
Its quite a climbdown.
US had a deal with Iran, which Trump tore up.
Now he is out publicly asking for Iran to request talks, with no preconditions.0 -
Join Date:Posts: 15303
Its quite a climbdown.
US had a deal with Iran, which Trump tore up.
Now he is out publicly asking for Iran to request talks, with no preconditions.
Not a climb-down really , just further evidence that the primary goal of his Presidency is to destroy anything that has Obamas name on it.
Not because they were necessarily bad things , but because they are/were seen as successes for Obama.
He blew up the Iran deal that took multiple countries several years of bloody hard work to achieve and now he's looking to potentially replace it with some half-arsed deal that he and his team will cobble together over a few days/weeks all so he can claim it as "his".
Pathetic.0 -
It's like he wants the Nobel Peace Prize, and he's willing to go to war to get it.0
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Trump ... doesn't react well to perceived slights and betrayal, especially anything that might make him look foolish; if that's true about North Korea I'd be a little worried about his reaction to all.0 -
I see now That Pompeo has come out and contradicted POTUS claiming that any meeting would require Iran todemonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behaviour, can agree that it’s worthwhile to enter in a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said he’s prepared to sit down and have a conversation with him
So they can't even get that bit straight.
And I would argue it is a climbdown. Clearly Trump tore up the agreement on the basis that Iran would come running to him begging for the US to help them out. That hasn't happened. So Trump is left to agree that talking is really the best option. Within that acceptance, one can really only conclude that it would have been better to have maintained the current deal until such time as a new one was being worked on, as Trump was told by nearly all the world leaders and apparently his own administration.0 -
The Iran thing is a curtain thrown up to hide the start of Manafort's trial today.0
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