(07-24-2017, 10:31 PM)GMDino Wrote: You mean Sessions? yeah...with a memory that bad he shouldn't be holding any office.
(07-24-2017, 11:09 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: So who'd you vote for in the election, then?
(07-24-2017, 11:27 PM)GMDino Wrote: Clinton.
Despite all her warts she was prepared to handle the office. Trump despite all his shiny gold objects was ill prepared to do anything than be the clown he has been.
Four years of constant GOP investigations and stonewalling her every move would have been better than four years of midnight tweets and a vocabulary smaller than the average 6th grader.
Quote:Hillary Clinton told the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that her concussion in 2012 while Secretary of State in the Obama Administration makes her incapable of accurately remembering if she ever got any briefings on how to handle confidential or classified documents while in office
Sessions learned that "I don't recall" from Hillary, who you voted for despite just now saying someone with that bad of memory shouldn't hold office.
- - - - - - - - -
I voted for Johnson, who was the only non-evil choice. His memory wasn't bad, just his preparedness to speak. Lol
Oh...well she didn't win so now we have to deal with people who didn't have concussions like Sessions, Kushner, Trump Jr, et. al. who "forgot" meetings, and what they talked about...but they know they didn't talk about anything they shouldn't have...unless it was emailed to them before the meeting.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
(07-24-2017, 11:41 PM)GMDino Wrote: Oh...well she didn't win so now we have to deal with people who didn't have concussions like Sessions, Kushner, Trump Jr, et. al. who "forgot" meetings, and what they talked about...but they know they didn't talk about anything they shouldn't have...unless it was emailed to them before the meeting.
They watched people who are career politicians and how they operate on how to get out of crimes. Monkey see, monkey do.
I mean, Kushner and Trump Jr are basically making it up as they go, right?
(07-24-2017, 11:45 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: They watched people who are career politicians and how they operate on how to get out of crimes. Monkey see, monkey do.
I mean, Kushner and Trump Jr are basically making it up as they go, right?
Kushner is a career liar...he just has some political power behind him now without the donations.
Trump Jr isn't even a great liar like his old man. I bet the POTUS is so jealous of Kushner: Young, rich, smart, can speak and he get to be married to Ivanka!
But that's a different discussion...
For the purpose of this discussion Clinton is not involved. Sorry.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
Thanks a lot. Everyone interested in the background of this "Russian adoption" vulgo Magnitzky act dealings and talks should read this. Very insightful.
Being friendly with Putin as a primary goal of foreign policy is just so sickening.
Also refraining from opening another Russia thread, I do feel Russian money laundering is quite an important political issue for other countries as well, hence my interest. Russians fund a lot of parties here. Russian money laundering is, per se, quite a big deal. Not just in the US, also in Europe, many billions of dollars got laundered via European accounts ("allegedly", but it's quite clear at this point). These are quite complex schemes. Some schemes use money loans between offshore companies with russian liability; the money doesn't get paid back (it never existed), the liability is envoked by some (bribed) Eastern European courts, the Russians pay up et voila. This is oversimplifying it, the schemes are more complex, but in principle they are using aware or even unaware helpers in Europe; individuals, companies, corporations and banks. (My sources are in German, so only Belsnickel could make some sense of it. Speaking of, his posting of Mr. Browder's initial statement grazes that and the origin of the vast unlaundered funds inside Russia.)
Now, after what has surfaced in the US including Trump, including Alfa Bank and server connections of said shady bank with Trump Tower, after Deutsche Bank and their alleged role in laundering that incidentally was the only bank loaning money to Trump at some point, after the Kushner meeting with that dubious and sanctioned Russian banker Gorkov, after learning about the people involved in some other meetings (like Veselnitskaya, who of course is a Russian government lawyer and it wasn't a secret in the first place, and company are one example). After all the different oligarchs (it's safe to say most, if not all of them act on Putin's behalf, because those who don't end up in jail or as target of assaults) that pop up in the personal history of Trump himself (Agalarov, Rybolovlev) and his aides (Manafort-Derypaska, Eric Prince's guy,...). After all the lies and non-disclosures that took place. After learning about Mr. Manaforts dealings surrounding Janukowitch and his alleged debts. After the odd and unexplainable initial treatment of Mr. Flynn. After both sons of Trump claiming that they don't depend on US banks because there's so much Russian money flowing in and that their money built all the golf courses and whatnot. After Russian mobsters allegedly renting Trump properties, including Trump tower, in astonishing numbers. And last not least after Trump attacking everything and everyone except Russia in speeches and tweets. After his unexplainably friendly behaviour towards Putin, including that mind-boggling gesture across the room at the G20. After meeting Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval (and looking so happy there, talking Comey and revealing some secrets). After his reaction to the revelation that Mr. Mueller could look at his financial transactions that seemed panicky and aimed at getting rid of Mueller by getting rid of the recused Sessions. After not releasing his tax returns. (And whatever I forgot.)
After all that, I can see no other possible reality as that Trump has been willing part of such a Russian money laundering scheme. It's the only thing making any sense to me. So I'm calling it.
With around 95% certainty (but not calling that too) I'd think he got saved by Russians after driving his business to the ground (the 90s seem to be full of financial disasters for him); threatened with poverty, he agreed to be saved and kept rich in exchange for helping the Russian money launderers out with his name and companies. And with being super-friendly to them as president. (Again, not "calling" that, although to me it seems to make perfect sense, and nothing else does.)
If I am wrong, if all the investigations end up showing nothing of that kind, I will eat crow as you say (do you? And if so, why crows?), I will admit I was so wrong, that my rationality isn't nearly as formed as I thought it to be, that I'm a drivelling idiot, that my personal loathing of Mr. Trump got the best of me. Which certainly is there, for reasons already discussed in great lengths.
But if I'm right, I want to feel the "called it"-feeling (I know I'm not the first person in the world to dare that, but still). We'll see.
(07-29-2017, 09:06 AM)hollodero Wrote: Also refraining from opening another Russia thread, I do feel Russian money laundering is quite an important political issue for other countries as well, hence my interest. Russians fund a lot of parties here. Russian money laundering is, per se, quite a big deal. Not just in the US, also in Europe, many billions of dollars got laundered via European accounts ("allegedly", but it's quite clear at this point). These are quite complex schemes. Some schemes use money loans between offshore companies with russian liability; the money doesn't get paid back (it never existed), the liability is envoked by some (bribed) Eastern European courts, the Russians pay up et voila. This is oversimplifying it, the schemes are more complex, but in principle they are using aware or even unaware helpers in Europe; individuals, companies, corporations and banks. (My sources are in German, so only Belsnickel could make some sense of it. Speaking of, his posting of Mr. Browder's initial statement grazes that and the origin of the vast unlaundered funds inside Russia.)
Now, after what has surfaced in the US including Trump, including Alfa Bank and server connections of said shady bank with Trump Tower, after Deutsche Bank and their alleged role in laundering that incidentally was the only bank loaning money to Trump at some point, after the Kushner meeting with that dubious and sanctioned Russian banker Gorkov, after learning about the people involved in some other meetings (like Veselnitskaya, who of course is a Russian government lawyer and it wasn't a secret in the first place, and company are one example). After all the different oligarchs (it's safe to say most, if not all of them act on Putin's behalf, because those who don't end up in jail or as target of assaults) that pop up in the personal history of Trump himself (Agalarov, Rybolovlev) and his aides (Manafort-Derypaska, Eric Prince's guy,...). After all the lies and non-disclosures that took place. After learning about Mr. Manaforts dealings surrounding Janukowitch and his alleged debts. After the odd and unexplainable initial treatment of Mr. Flynn. After both sons of Trump claiming that they don't depend on US banks because there's so much Russian money flowing in and that their money built all the golf courses and whatnot. After Russian mobsters allegedly renting Trump properties, including Trump tower, in astonishing numbers. And last not least after Trump attacking everything and everyone except Russia in speeches and tweets. After his unexplainably friendly behaviour towards Putin, including that mind-boggling gesture across the room at the G20. After meeting Lavrov and Kislyak in the Oval (and looking so happy there, talking Comey and revealing some secrets). After his reaction to the revelation that Mr. Mueller could look at his financial transactions that seemed panicky and aimed at getting rid of Mueller by getting rid of the recused Sessions. After not releasing his tax returns. (And whatever I forgot.)
After all that, I can see no other possible reality as that Trump has been willing part of such a Russian money laundering scheme. It's the only thing making any sense to me. So I'm calling it.
With around 95% certainty (but not calling that too) I'd think he got saved by Russians after driving his business to the ground (the 90s seem to be full of financial disasters for him); threatened with poverty, he agreed to be saved and kept rich in exchange for helping the Russian money launderers out with his name and companies. And with being super-friendly to them as president. (Again, not "calling" that, although to me it seems to make perfect sense, and nothing else does.)
If I am wrong, if all the investigations end up showing nothing of that kind, I will eat crow as you say (do you? And if so, why crows?), I will admit I was so wrong, that my rationality isn't nearly as formed as I thought it to be, that I'm a drivelling idiot, that my personal loathing of Mr. Trump got the best of me. Which certainly is there, for reasons already discussed in great lengths.
But if I'm right, I want to feel the "called it"-feeling (I know I'm not the first person in the world to dare that, but still). We'll see.
This actually does make a lot of sense. I mean, there is evidence that the Russians were friendly to the idea of Trump as a politician back to the waning days of the Cold War. Nothing would surprise me at this point.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
Quote:A conservative House Republican is calling on special counsel Robert Mueller to resign. He is citing what he says is a conflict of interest because of Mueller's "close friendship" with fired FBI Director James Comey.
The argument from Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, a member of the Judiciary Committee, echoes that of President Donald Trump in an effort to question Mueller's credentials for the job. Mueller, appointed after Trump abruptly fired Comey, is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump's campaign.
Franks said in a statement that Mueller "must resign to maintain the integrity of the investigation into alleged Russian ties."
Quote:A conservative House Republican is calling on special counsel Robert Mueller to resign, citing what he says is a conflict of interest because of Mueller's "close friendship" with fired FBI Director James Comey.
The argument from Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, a member of the Judiciary Committee, echoes that of President Donald Trump in an effort to question Mueller's credentials for the job. Mueller, appointed after Trump abruptly fired Comey, is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump's campaign.
Franks said in a statement that Mueller "must resign to maintain the integrity of the investigation into alleged Russian ties."
A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.
Mueller and Comey, both known for their integrity and self-assuredness, served closely alongside each other in the Bush administration's Justice Department, and Comey has described Mueller as "one of the finest people I've ever met." But there's little evidence that they are close friends.
David Kelley, who succeeded Comey as U.S. attorney in Manhattan and has known Comey and Mueller for years, told The Associated Press in June that the two men have had a handful of meals together but their relationship is professional.
"Jim has never been to Bob's house. Bob has never been to Jim's house," Kelley said.
As president, Trump could demand that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein fire Mueller by citing a conflict of interest, but Rosenstein has said he wouldn't follow any order that he didn't think was lawful or appropriate and that he had seen no legitimate basis to dismiss the special counsel. Rosenstein, who has also known both men for years, appointed Mueller after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe.
Comey was selected by President Barack Obama in 2013 to succeed Mueller as FBI director. At a White House ceremony, Mueller praised Comey as a man of "honesty, dedication and integrity," and Comey repaid the favor minutes later by joking that he "must be out of my mind to be following Bob Mueller."
Years earlier, Comey was acting attorney general and Mueller the FBI director when both were on the same side of a tense faceoff over the renewal of a sweeping domestic surveillance program.
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
The problem is going to be — at the current rate of retention by this administration — finding someone qualified to do a legitimate investigation who hasn't had some semi-close relationship to someone employed or recently employed.
(08-01-2017, 11:32 AM)Benton Wrote: The problem is going to be — at the current rate of retention by this administration — finding someone qualified to do a legitimate investigation who hasn't had some semi-close relationship to someone employed or recently employed.
Did you see Al Franken's take down of the fact that some of the people Mueller hired made donations to democrats?
Quote:President Trump 'weighed in' on Donald Jr. statement 'like any father would,' White House says
WASHINGTON – The White House acknowledged Tuesday that President Trump worked on a disputed statement about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer, in an apparent break with comments made by the lawyers defending Trump in the Russia investigation.
"He weighed in – offered suggestions – like any father would," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of an initial statement on a June 2016 meeting that is now a subject of various investigations into Russia's involvement in the presidential election.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Trump personally dictated a July 8 statement saying his son Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya during the presidential campaign had to do with the adoption of Russian babies – and was not a campaign issue.
That statement, which was originally provided to The New York Times as it prepared a story on the previously undisclosed meeting, were later proved to be incomplete and misleading.
Trump Jr. himself released email correspondence showing that he arranged the meeting in the hopes of obtaining potentially damaging information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton – even after he was told it would be provided by the Russian government.
Yet Sanders said there were "nothing inaccurate" in the original statement, even though it omitted those facts.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators are now looking into the Trump Tower meeting, which was also attended by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as part of the probe into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians seeking to influence the presidential election.
Soon after Trump Jr. released his emails, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow and other aides said Trump had nothing to do with the statement issued in his son's name.
"I do want to be clear, the president was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement," Sekulow said on NBC's Meet the Press on July 16. "It came from Donald Trump Jr."
And John Dowd, the lead attorney for Trump’s outside legal team, on Tuesday characterized the report of Trump’s involvement in crafting his son’s statement as “crap.’’ As Dowd put it: “It is of no consequence. We can back it up if we have to.’’
Dowd declined to elaborate, referring to a statement attorney Sekulow provided to the Post. “Apart from being of no consequence, the characterizations are misinformed, inaccurate and not pertinent,’’ that statement said. Dowd said Trump's legal team stood by Sekulow's statement.
Sanders on Tuesday insisted that while the president was involved with the statement, he did not dictate it. She also insisted that the meeting was "without consequence."
Both Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer, said they spoke only about sanctions on Russia that led to a freeze on adoptions – and not anything to do with Clinton.
Yet Trump's actions in response to the Russia probe are already under scrutiny by investigators, and the latest revelations only add to the controversy.
The Post reported that Trump's advisers wanted to provide a full statement about the Trump Tower meeting in order to be transparent – but Trump directed a different response while on board Air Force One returning from the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
Mueller and various congressional committees are investigating Russian efforts to influence the election by hacking Democrats close to the election, and whether there were any links to Trump's campaigns.
Trump's firing of former FBI director James Comey in May and recent tweets criticizing his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, have also raised questions about whether the president was trying to obstruct or wrest control over the federal Russia investigation.
Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said Trump could face legal exposure if he was involved in the drafting of the statement. "Knowingly drafting a false statement for a person who is a witness in a criminal investigation is itself a crime," said Painter, who is now vice chairman of the group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Obstruction of justice."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on Twitter the Post report, if true, shows "a troubling willingness" and "intention to mislead" on the part of Trump.
In remarks Monday to a group of congressional interns, Kushner said the Trump campaign was too disorganized to be involved in any collusion with Russia.
According to a tape of the off-the-record event obtained by Foreign Policy, Kushner said, "we couldn't even collude with our local offices."
Couple things:
1) I originally said Junior must be a disappoint to his father since he can't lie like the old man can. So does this prove it because Senior helped write it or does it mean Senior is a bad liar too?
2) Trump FINALLY does something with one of his kids and it's this?
Your anger and ego will always reveal your true self.
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