Donald Fires FBI Director who's investigating Russian Election Hacking
- Thread starter The Thriller
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Red
Well-Known Member
I just came across that story. Unfortunately, it's coming from the Wall Street Journal, and they have a paywall. This story may be behind that statement from Michael Flynn's lawyer a few months ago, requesting immunity for his client, and that Mr. Flynn had a story to tell, and wants to tell it.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slat...th_russian_hackers_to_get_hacked_clinton.html
"Harris’ reporting is presumably the opening salvo in this line of investigation that, for the first time, implies explicit collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A Trump campaign official said Smith didn’t work for the campaign and Flynn, if he was involved, was participating in a personal capacity, not as a campaign official. The fact that Smith didn’t officially work for the Trump campaign seems like a no-brainer for obvious reasons, but doesn’t mean he wasn’t acting at the behest of someone on the campaign. Whether Flynn was acting in a personal or professional capacity, at the moment, is a distinction without a difference. Yes, at some point it would be important if he was relaying orders, or acting on behalf of someone higher up on the Trump campaign—of which there weren’t many—presumably Steve Bannon, who was leading the campaign at that point, or even the president himself.
What the Journal story does indicate, however, is that a GOP operative who presented himself as working with Mike Flynn, a top Trump adviser with numerous dodgy Russian ties himself, actively solicited Clinton emails from hackers he believed to be Russian and assumed to be affiliated with the Russian government. Once he obtained a stash of unverified emails presented as the deleted Clinton emails, this operative then suggested the hackers release the cache to WikiLeaks one month after the DNC WikiLeaks dump and a month before the Podesta WikiLeaks dump."
yah know, Red, about the principle of diminishing returns?
It's like bubble gum. you blow it up a little, and it's cure. Blow it up some more, and it's amazing. But there comes a point where it just blows all over your face.
I think Trump played the media pretty good during the election, and I think he's doing even better now. Five years from now, these media players, and political opponents, will be so discredited no advertisers or deep pocket players will be supporting them anymore.
It just doesn't pay to overplay your hand in a card game with an opponent who can read your face.
It's like bubble gum. you blow it up a little, and it's cure. Blow it up some more, and it's amazing. But there comes a point where it just blows all over your face.
I think Trump played the media pretty good during the election, and I think he's doing even better now. Five years from now, these media players, and political opponents, will be so discredited no advertisers or deep pocket players will be supporting them anymore.
It just doesn't pay to overplay your hand in a card game with an opponent who can read your face.
Red
Well-Known Member
Relax, babe. It's only History. Live it. We're all gonna be judged, or not, by the stand we take. Take an existential leap and make it a good one anyway, judge or no judge. That's all anybody can do.
It remains to be seen where the Peter Smith/Michael Flynn story goes. I think Flynn will make for interesting testimony. He hasn't opened his mouth to the media. Sen. Whitehouse might be right that Flynn is cooperating with the FBI. In the meantime, here's someone else who talked to Smith:
http://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians
And here's a Lawfare podcast interview of Shane Harris on the WSJ's collusion story:
https://lawfareblog.com/lawfare-pod...e-harris-wall-street-journals-collusion-story
Enjoy....
It remains to be seen where the Peter Smith/Michael Flynn story goes. I think Flynn will make for interesting testimony. He hasn't opened his mouth to the media. Sen. Whitehouse might be right that Flynn is cooperating with the FBI. In the meantime, here's someone else who talked to Smith:
http://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians
And here's a Lawfare podcast interview of Shane Harris on the WSJ's collusion story:
https://lawfareblog.com/lawfare-pod...e-harris-wall-street-journals-collusion-story
Enjoy....
Red
Well-Known Member
BTW, the first link above has a link to an earlier piece by Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He's a friend of Comey, and in this piece from this past May, he describes what Comey told him about Comey's relationship with Trump. It's pretty revealing. Part of the historical record for posterity to judge. Exciting times we live in. Would not change this era I live in for anything at this point. Enjoy...
https://lawfareblog.com/what-james-comey-told-me-about-donald-trump
Red
Well-Known Member
I do agree with you, babe, that Trump has played the media like a fiddle. Well, they're driven by ratings, and the $$$ ratings bring, so they have nobody to blame but themselves. But, here's the thing. By establishing and promoting his Fake News meme, Trump is basically trying to make reality itself irrelevant. After all, once you've brought the entire electorate into a post truth era, the ability to ever return to a point where any authority, on any subject, can ever be trusted again, will be as hard as putting toothpaste back in the tube. And, personally, I find that to be a worrisome trend, a dangerous trend. Or, as Hannah Arend put it:
"A people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-trump-fake-news-cnn-huppke-20170628-story.html
I'd rather not see my country arrive at that point. Is that the point where you've arrived? We live in an era of conspiracy theory, of that I believe there is no doubt. You yourself have rejected the consensus on climate change. And there is evidence that Scott Pruitt of the EPA is going to help spearhead an effort to spread doubt regarding that consensus beyond his own agency into other federal agencies. Witness his decision to create Red Team/Blue team debate teams.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/epa-intends-to-form-red-team-to-debate-climate-science/
Despite the fact that the peer review process is more fully involved in science based judgements then the political based judgement of science that Pruitt's debate team process could ever produce. And that's just one of this administration's fronts in the war on reality. In the past couple of days Trump has asked "what are the states trying to hide?" where complying with the federal request for information on every American voter is concerned? Well, since his effort here is to further voter suppression, maybe those states have nothing but the integrity of our elections to defend. It's truth that suffers as we move headlong into this so-called post truth era.
What my voting record is is none of the federal government's business. Who the heck does Trump think he's kidding?
http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...nying-voter-data-what-are-they-trying-to-hide
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-wants-all-your-voter-data-what-could-go-wrong/
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/01/trump-voter-fraud-panel-hackers-240168
Red
Well-Known Member
babe, if Mr. Trump(I hate to call him President Trump, only because he reminds me more of a mob boss, and I've known a couple, then a President)is playing the media, it seems like he's taking it up a notch almost every day:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...is-testing-twitters-harassment-policy/532497/
Now, I know laughter can be one response to this Sunday morning tweet, but to conclude that it promotes violence can be another response....
https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...is-testing-twitters-harassment-policy/532497/
Now, I know laughter can be one response to this Sunday morning tweet, but to conclude that it promotes violence can be another response....
DutchJazzer
Banned
so the russia thing is dead?
Indeed.
It is dead. Cold dead.
The investigation started turning up stuff the Russians colluded about with Obama, Hillary, and even US media gamers like CNN. Now all they want to do is bury the whole thing.
Never did, really, touch the unfathomable depths of British interference in US politics......
Or Israeli......
Or Chinese. I bet no US politicians ever colluded with any of the Chinese Nationalists we helped in WWII. And the Clinton era Lincoln bedroom scandals where virtually every foreign national who wanted to buy influence with the Clinton Administration paid handsomely for the privilege. Mainland Chinese really got a leg up in the Lincoln bedroom.
I detest my congressman Chaffetz for getting scared of where his Benghazi investigation was heading and dropping it cold. I think he mightta got beat up a little, what with his alleged foot operation a while back. But hey, maybe I'm more of a chicken than he is..... I wouldn't even try to get involved in our crooked government.
The reality is "birds of feather fly together", and none of any of these varied governments or officials thereof, really has American principles per the US Constitution. It's always a matter of the Bigs working out deals to help one another somehow, and the field of play is the whole wide world.
By far the most adroit world interest manipulators have been the British. Can you imagine the genius involved in still having a "House of Lords" or a royal family? And still being the most influential power brokers on planet Earth?
hmmm..... well, really, I'm glad it's not the Germans, or the Japanese, or the Chinese or the Russians with all that influence..... Something about the holdover notions of the British common law and Magna Carta seems to have made "management" a bit more judicious in the Am/Brit world.
Now, can I please just have the President we voted for? Can we please just let him do everything he promised to do, to get our votes???????
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What, build a stupid ****ing wall? Repeal the ACA? Some vague notion of making America great still, er I mean, again? Bring back king coal?
You think CNN and the Brits are stopping these wonderful accomplishments? This imbecile President has both the House and the Senate. If he can't get **** done it's on him, 100%.
Zombie
Well-Known Member
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/politics/trump-russia-kushner-manafort.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-ab-top-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
So what's the line of defense for today's breaking news? Yet another meeting during the campaign with an individual close to the Kremlin that wasn't disclosed by Trump and company. Only this time Don Jr makes a statement admitting the purpose of the meeting was to collect dirt on Hillary! Of course he had to lie about it first and claim the meeting was totally innocuous and about adoption.
I'm starting to get the impression that these guys aren't very sharp...
So what's the line of defense for today's breaking news? Yet another meeting during the campaign with an individual close to the Kremlin that wasn't disclosed by Trump and company. Only this time Don Jr makes a statement admitting the purpose of the meeting was to collect dirt on Hillary! Of course he had to lie about it first and claim the meeting was totally innocuous and about adoption.
I'm starting to get the impression that these guys aren't very sharp...
DutchJazzer
Banned
I think you are thinking of all the Benganzi investigation.
Red
Well-Known Member
Just a brief heads up this morning. How a misleading Fox News and Freinds report on the Comey memos caused Mr. Trump to post a tweet Monday morning that is nothing but wishful thinking bs on his part....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ading-fox-news-report/?utm_term=.9435021b4434
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ading-fox-news-report/?utm_term=.9435021b4434
Quoting this. Just.. you know. Because the Russia thing is "dead cold"...
"Donald Trump Jr admits attempted collusion with Russian sources"
"But it was really about adopting Russian Children in the Magnitsky Act"
"Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent."
lololololololol
November: "It never happened"
December: "It never happened"
January: "Whew... it never happened"
February: "Eff Comey. He's out. Look what I did with jobs just in two weeks! Russia? lol never happened"
March: "Nope, my wife doesn't hate me, and the Russia thing never happened"
April: "The Russia thing never happened"
May: "Comey? He's a liar. I'll testify under oath. Russia never happened"
June: "Ok, I didn't mean in front of congress. This Russia thing is overblown"
July: "... The Russia thing happened, but we didn't get anything out of it"
December: "It never happened"
January: "Whew... it never happened"
February: "Eff Comey. He's out. Look what I did with jobs just in two weeks! Russia? lol never happened"
March: "Nope, my wife doesn't hate me, and the Russia thing never happened"
April: "The Russia thing never happened"
May: "Comey? He's a liar. I'll testify under oath. Russia never happened"
June: "Ok, I didn't mean in front of congress. This Russia thing is overblown"
July: "... The Russia thing happened, but we didn't get anything out of it"
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
It's becoming harder and harder for trumpanzees to deny their collusion with Russia. Today might've been the worst day in the Dump administration so far. Don Jr. is dumber than rocks.
Zombie
Well-Known Member
I can not believe how stupid these men are. I mean, I never expected there to be a smoking gun like this, in writing admitting to collusion and yet from the NYT:
"Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email"
"Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email"