Former President Donald J. Trump

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Again you ignore the point.

The issue isn't where the information comes from. It's the potential for a quid pro quo.

If I give you $5 to go and get me a Russian nothingburger, its a clear transaction. You get the money, I get the burger. We're done.

If you show up at my office offering me nothingburgers galore and I accept - that's a gateway to influence. I owe you something now.

Neither Jeb! nor Hillary can be presumed to be beholden to the Russian government due to their retention of Steele. He may have complicated relationships with his sources - but they paid to be removed from all of that.

The whole point of collusion is that it's a deal between two parties for mutual gain. Neither Jeb! Nor Hillary had a deal with Russia. Don Jr. On the other hand was clearly exploring one.

That you remain willfully confused about this isn't surprising. Your world view seems to rely on that. But Parry's job is to clarify - and he has pretty clearly failed miserably on that front. He's a propaganda artist and you are the kind of guy he preys on.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

1. There is an investigation into whether the Russians/Kremlin attempted to interfere with our election. We haven't seen the results of that investigation, even Trump now accepts that the Russians attempted to interfere.

2. The Trump organization has shown zero interest or curiosity in this investigation. All of the intelligence agencies appear to agree that something has happened and will happened again. A president relies on these agencies to assist him in guarding the country.

3. The administration/campaign has denied working with or having any involvement with the Russians on this front repeatedly, and when news came out about the meeting, the administration was evasive and peddled in quarter-truths, at best.

4. Now we KNOW that the campaign at the highest levels (including present and former members of the administration), responded swiftly and eagerly to an offer for information, sold explicitly as an offer from the Russian Government as part of their attempt to help Trump win. They jumped at the chance to meet with someone purported to be a government lawyer about this information. This is plainly laid out for all to see, thanks to Don Jr.'s efforts towards transparency.

5. What came out of the meeting is totallt irrelevant, and their eagerness to both consummate this meeting and then cover it up is VERY MUCH news.

6. It is not "fake news" in any regard. The most damaging details came straight from Donald Jr., and those details show that Manafort and Kushner were both in on it and had access to the exact same information.

7. That they responded as they did to the solicitation is the story. That is the news.

[Six String]

Yes, I'm lusting after your wife at this very moment. Sorry Melania, I can't help it, I'm an animal. He can't go a day without lying or saying something stupid. The press doesn't have to work very hard at making him look bad if that is their goal.

[mentalist (slight return)]

Either way this will drag out for 3 more years and Chump will hopefully not stand for another term having built a few kilometers of his see-through solar wall.

[Dr Markus]

at any rate, here's today's article about leching on an Irish reporter

‘I bet she treats you well’: Trump calls over Irish reporter, compliments her ‘nice smile’

I obviously can't speak for her, but I don't think it would be a big deal to her.

Pas grand chose?

She hasn't spoken out about it as far as I know. Then again I haven't gone looking since it happened.

[Jimbo]

Fuck it.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

[sloopjohnc]

Again you ignore the point.

The issue isn't where the information comes from. It's the potential for a quid pro quo.

If I give you $5 to go and get me a Russian nothingburger, its a clear transaction. You get the money, I get the burger. We're done.

If you show up at my office offering me nothingburgers galore and I accept - that's a gateway to influence. I owe you something now.

Neither Jeb! nor Hillary can be presumed to be beholden to the Russian government due to their retention of Steele. He may have complicated relationships with his sources - but they paid to be removed from all of that.

The whole point of collusion is that it's a deal between two parties for mutual gain. Neither Jeb! Nor Hillary had a deal with Russia. Don Jr. On the other hand was clearly exploring one.

That you remain willfully confused about this isn't surprising. Your world view seems to rely on that. But Parry's job is to clarify - and he has pretty clearly failed miserably on that front. He's a propaganda artist and you are the kind of guy he preys on.

I heard last night that the lawyer they met represents a Russian oligarch's family that is very tied to Putin beside's the pop singer's dad. Now, they have info that there was possibly a fifth and maybe sixth person at the meeting too, that believe it or not, no one told us about.

All this HRC talk bugs me. Jimbo, you sound like Trump, she's not President, so why sweat it? Let's focus on who is President and his ties to Putin. Keep your eye on the ball.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

That's the larger point, isn't it?

Even if Hillary Clinton collided with the Russians (she didn't) - it still would not make it any less traitorous for the Trump campaign to have colluded with the Russians.

Personally - the longer this goes, the more I suspect we will never find evidence of meaningful collusion. Not because I don't think the Trump campaign wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity (Jr.'s emails show otherwise), but because I don't think these folks were smart enough disciplined enough to carry out any plan of even minimal complexity.

But I think Putin is capable of that, and I want some answers about what happened in our election, and if needed - some action taken to protect the next one.

Notice Jimbo...I'm not rattling sabers about retribution against your mother Russia.

[Count Machuki]

Republican consultant asked Russian hackers for Clinton emails to give to the Trump campaign for campaign purposes.

They say it better

https://thinkprogress.org/as-white-hous ... dd40849cf5

So does this guy's suicide set anybody's Jimbo senses atingle?
Jimbo?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Republican consultant asked Russian hackers for Clinton emails to give to the Trump campaign for campaign purposes.

They say it better

https://thinkprogress.org/as-white-hous ... dd40849cf5

So does this guy's suicide set anybody's Jimbo senses atingle?
Jimbo?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

Well something's off about it. Does any life insurance policy pay off for suicide?

EDIT: Just looked it up. They won't pay for two years after taking out the policy. After that...they might. So maybe this is legit. Though I can imagine them contesting it based on him saying straight out that he did it for the payout.

You have to wonder if he thought he was going down in the Russia investigations.

[Dr Markus]

I find it funny the idea that if Putin did fuck all to the US elections, that he is sitting there amazed and laughing to himself at all the shit that is happening, and thinking "what if I actually did do something?"

[...]

There's a great story in teh current issue of Private Eye about how beleagured British PM Theresa May was crowing about how important she was after she spent 50 minutes sitting down with Trump recently. The magazine pointed out that the Donald had apparently spent four hours with Ted Nugent when he and Kid Rock recently dropped into the White House on a casual visit.

[Jimbo]

And you call me a conspiracy nut?

Know what? I hope all this bullshit is true. I hope like Colbert said, Trump was fucking Putin up the ass and while they fucked they plotted to get Trump in the White House. "Oh, Trumpy, my orange puppy, I so desperately wish to upset the American way of life, to destroy their pristine election system, not to mention take revenge on that Hilarrrrrry Cleeenton. How could I do it, how could I get sweet revenge? Maybe if I pollute the drinking water in Michigan or addict your people on pain medication or hypnotize the police to think they see a grizzly bear when they see a black man --- Oh, what to do? What to do? Oh, Gucifer?"

"Yes, master?"

And the rest is history.

[Count Machuki]

And you call me a conspiracy nut?

Know what? I hope all this bullshit is true. I hope like Colbert said, Trump was fucking Putin up the ass and while they fucked they plotted to get Trump in the White House. "Oh, Trumpy, my orange puppy, I so desperately wish to upset the American way of life, to destroy their pristine election system, not to mention take revenge on that Hilarrrrrry Cleeenton. How could I do it, how could I get sweet revenge? Maybe if I pollute the drinking water in Michigan or addict your people on pain medication or hypnotize the police to think they see a grizzly bear when they see a black man --- Oh, what to do? What to do? Oh, Gucifer?"

"Yes, master?"

And the rest is history.

Trenchant analysis, there, Jimbo. Astute as ever.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

Jimbo's getting into erotic fan faction. Glad he's taken on a hobby.

[Count Machuki]

Jimbo's getting into erotic fan faction. Glad he's taken on a hobby.

Sure beats Hobby Lobby's Hammurabi robbing jobby.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... f54069139b

[BARON CORNY DOG]

I watched most of that Roger Stone documentary on Netflix last night (pretty innarestin, by the way) and was struck by his unabashed embrace of Nixon and Stone's political birth in Watergate.

Here's something actually decent from Jeffrey Toobin about the political realities that govern impeachment (rather than cleaner legal standards).

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-com ... final-days

[Sneelock]

I get the Katrina vanden Heuvel/Glenn Greenwald argument. they still haven't won me over but I get where they're coming from. Let's not throw US/Russia relations back to the cold war by jumping to any conclusions. okay. fine.

Here's a great article on the New Republic website.
https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/ ... -syndicate
here, the writer wants us to regard TRUMP's business ties in Russia WAY before he was ever running for anything and I think the article makes a good case that there are a WHOLE lot of reasons TRUMP doesn't want us looking into this stuff that don't have diddly dick to do with throwing US/Russia relations back to the cold war.

another matter I need to discuss is all the brain cells I've destroyed by trying to match up the Sean Hannity type reasoning that what Hillary did was just as bad as what TRUMP did. First of all, we all know Sean's head is going to explode if he keeps excusing TRUMP's behavior by comparing it to Hillary & I'm not going to clean that mess up.

furthermore, my head hurts and I just realized that this is a feeling I should get used to. this is the new Normal.

WAY back in the George W. Bush days I got used to the "yeah, well what about...." rhetorical ninja move. I would point out the fact that there were no WMD's in Iraq and my debate opponent would reply with "yeah, well what about Nancy Pelosi's facelifts" or "How's Air America Doing?". After all these years, you'd think they'd be getting better at this sort of thing but they really aren't. They sure think they have though. In fact, they think they get to set the ground rules for every debate they have. I'm not allowed to get mad at what TRUMP did about (something) because I didn't say anything (according to them) when Obama did something else!

Now, after listening to my friendly neighborhood Republicans parroting Sean Hannity that Hillary is just as bad as TRUMP with no intention of admitting TRUMP did something wrong - I am truly tuckered out. It is SO damned normal now for them to bang those square pegs into those round holes and puff out their chests like they sure showed ME a thing or two.

comparing what HRC did in Russia to everybody in this Admin swearing on a stack of bibles that they've never had anything to do with Russia - then us finding out, in one admission after another that they most certainly do -...
it's like they'll never be beaten in an argument ever again because they have a "get out of jail free" card or something.


Get me a couple of beers. Make them nice & big.

[Jimbo]

excusing TRUMP's behavior by comparing it to Hillary.

A pretty good reason why is because much of the hacking and "collusion," etc. happened during the campaign, i.e., the Steele vs the Donald Jr. brouhaha. If Trump is in trouble now for doing something wrong during the campaign then if Clinton did something similarly troubling during the campaign it's fair discussion game.

But my beef is more with how the US is spiraling downward into neo-McCarthyism, blaming/scapegoating Russia for it's woes, such as the reason we now have Trump as president: RUSSIA! And while the people need to check themselves for anti-Russia biases the mainstream media ain't helping.

JULY 13, 2017
Mass Arrests of Protesters: Outrageous in Russia, Barely Worth Mentioning in US
BY ADAM JOHNSON

Major media’s relative lack of interest in the mass arrests by Metro DC police on Inauguration Day is a fact noted by activists and journalists since the incident almost six months ago. One way to measure the dearth of coverage is to compare the attention paid to comparable protester arrests in Russia last month.

On June 12, over 1,700 Russians throughout the country were arrested for “unauthorized protests” in opposition to President Vladimir Putin and government corruption. “Dozens”—including opposition leader Alexei Navalny—were kept in jail longer than a day, but the vast majority were let go immediately. (Navalny, as well as some others, got between 15–30 days in jail.)

More than 200 Americans were arrested on January 20 after “rioting” broke out in downtown Washington, DC, in the hours leading up to and after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Some were let go over the next few weeks, but the bulk of the 200+ still face 10–80 years in federal prison for “felony rioting.”

http://fair.org/home/mass-arrests-of-pr ... ing-in-us/