Donald Fires FBI Director who's investigating Russian Election Hacking

[sirkickyass]

From what I’ve read, Putin would like nothing more than to drive a wedge between western allies. He’s never forgotten nor forgiven us for breaking up the Soviet Union. Likewise, he'd like nothing more than to serve some revenge and break up the western alliance.

Trump and the republicans are doing just that.

It's a lot more complicated than that.

Thinking of adversaries as motivated by pettiness only is not a particularly good way to view the world. Russians, in general, also don't think that the United States is responsible for "breaking up the Soviet Union." Many blame Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who generally have the worst retrospective approval ratings of any Russian leaders after the 1917 revolution.

 

[babe]

Not so many communists in Russia anymore. Whatever the warts on Putin, his popularity is largely based on pragmatism. Russians are proud nationalists. And, religious almost. Well, it's part of what it means to be Russian. Orthodox. big painted eggs and iconic relics.

Putin does want to regain some territory. Historical Russia? Cultural Russia?? Where the people have the loyalty still. While some Americans are over-zealous to paint Putin as a thug/KGB killer or whatnot, he is not that. A renaissance man, maybe. But a Russian for sure. Who knows if his religious devotions on camera are sincere, but the people love it. He strikes me as no damn fool.

Here is his personal website.... a sort of political rag....

http://eng.putin.kremlin.ru/bio

Look at all the ordinary professions. He is probably one of the most statist, most oligarchal, most socialist in his thinking and in his personal fortune, on planet earth. But not as rich as China's Xi. Just more of an absolute monarch.

 

[The Thriller]

Ummmm

 

[The Thriller]

It's a lot more complicated than that.

Thinking of adversaries as motivated by pettiness only is not a particularly good way to view the world. Russians, in general, also don't think that the United States is responsible for "breaking up the Soviet Union." Many blame Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who generally have the worst retrospective approval ratings of any Russian leaders after the 1917 revolution.

Additionally, Putin a few years ago was losing support even in the rigged elections they have. He had to find an existential enemy to “rally the troops.”

So he turned to two easy targets, the LGBT community and the United States.

Attacking the West is an easy way to deflect criticism over his regime’s poor economy, quality of life, and declining birth rates and population. It also incentivizes countries nearby, like Turkey and Hungary to reject the west and endorse more authoritarian ways of thinking. It’s their way of “taking back” their sphere of influence.

It’s sad that we have a president so compromised by putin that he refuses to hold his feet to the fire. Putin isn’t in that powerful of a position right now. A unified west, engaged America, and crippling sanctions would be formidable against Putin.

 

[cowhide]

Not so many communists in Russia anymore. Whatever the warts on Putin, his popularity is largely based on pragmatism. Russians are proud nationalists. And, religious almost. Well, it's part of what it means to be Russian. Orthodox. big painted eggs and iconic relics.

Putin does want to regain some territory. Historical Russia? Cultural Russia?? Where the people have the loyalty still. While some Americans are over-zealous to paint Putin as a thug/KGB killer or whatnot, he is not that. A renaissance man, maybe. But a Russian for sure. Who knows if his religious devotions on camera are sincere, but the people love it. He strikes me as no damn fool.

Here is his personal website.... a sort of political rag....

http://eng.putin.kremlin.ru/bio

Look at all the ordinary professions. He is probably one of the most statist, most oligarchal, most socialist in his thinking and in his personal fortune, on planet earth. But not as rich as China's Xi. Just more of an absolute monarch.

We are not over-zealous to paint Putin a thug/KGB killer, rational americans see the fact that is what he is. He presents himself in a different light but behind close doors he is what he has shown. He remains in power because of fear mostly not because people are pragmatic about the reality of life in Russia.

 

[colton]

Ummmm

Complacency is our enemy. So we shouldn't make waves against our current president. Yeah, makes sense.

 

[The Thriller]

Complacency is our enemy. So we shouldn't make waves against our current president. Yeah, makes sense.

That’s the GOP chairwoman and Mitt Romney’s niece if I’m not mistaken! Yikes...

If you eliminate Trump’s name in that it reads very much like a fascist propaganda message. democratic norms are eroding all over the place. The GOP chairwoman is threatening people.

Scary times.

We need a blue wave to get rid of this fascism.

 

[The Thriller]

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has seemingly become to governmental ethics what Three Mile Island was to nuclear safety. A constant drumbeat of questions about his ethical behavior — excessive spending on security and office improvements, allegedly leveraging his personal position for his wife’s private gain, using EPA employees for personal work —

This guy still has a job. Amazing how far we’ve fallen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ump-wont-fire-him-what-penalty-could-he-face/

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Just before he took off for the G7 summit, a reporter shouted out to him, asking if he would pardon Manafort or Flynn. His answer: "It's way to early" to consider pardons. Sounds like a "yes" to me....

Everything Trump says or does sounds like the worst possible interpretation to you. There are other interpretations possible.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Reading things like this puts me in the mood of seeing Trump as a true Manchurian candidate. I'm sure that will be seen as the ultimate overreaction, but I can't help but wonder if this guy isn't in fact a traitor. So far, I've only been willing to believe he and his campaign helped Putin in his intereference in the election, with maybe easing up on sanctions as a reward for that help. Now it's true the sanctions were eventually increased, but only very, very reluctantly, and that might have been an audible Trump was forced to make, while the true goal of breaking up the Western alliance was kept in sight all along, and every effort made to achieve it. I honestly think the man's words and actions are pushing me toward that possibility:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/06/08...with-a-key-goal-when-he-spurns-us-allies.html

Turn off MSNBC. It's rotting your brain. It's amazing that people can understand that if they eat crap food 24/7 the results won't be good, but then they feed their brain poison and believe they are accomplishing something positive.

 

[Zombie]

Everything Trump says or does sounds like the worst possible interpretation to you. There are other interpretations possible.

Any answer to that question other than "no" is the wrong answer. This is really basic **** man.

 

[Gameface]

Turn off MSNBC. It's rotting your brain. It's amazing that people can understand that if they eat crap food 24/7 the results won't be good, but then they feed their brain poison and believe they are accomplishing something positive.

Yeah, it's really way more simple than Trump is an agent of the Russians. He's really just a reality TV star who gained fame as a real estate mogul who has vastly underperformed the real estate market over the course of his real estate career. Had he placed his money in a 401k in 1977 he'd have more than twice the money he has now. Let's not make this whole Trump thing to be more than it is. The United States general public elected a reality TV personality to be our President. That's what we're looking at. That's what we're seeing. Reality TV USA President edition.

 

[Jazzta]

Trump lost all of my respect when he bombed the cookie monster’s Syria

 

[Harambe]

Turn off MSNBC. It's rotting your brain. It's amazing that people can understand that if they eat crap food 24/7 the results won't be good, but then they feed their brain poison and believe they are accomplishing something positive.

I know it's the cool and hip thing to do, especially but not exclusively from conservative leans, but you could do a lot worse than MSNBC.

http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/category/media-bias-chart/

 

[colton]

I know it's the cool and hip thing to do, especially but not exclusively from conservative leans, but you could do a lot worse than MSNBC.

http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/category/media-bias-chart/

Interesting. Here's the chart for those who are too lazy to click:

I have to say that that matches my own experience pretty well. And I'm fairly happy to see that all of the sources I rely on for daily factual news fall directly in the green box (AP, Reuters, NPR, Washington Post, The Hill, and New York Times).

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Any answer to that question other than "no" is the wrong answer. This is really basic **** man.

I agree that no is the best answer. I disagree that any answer other than no is some sort of indictment. If Trump is innocent in this investigation I cannot blame him for not rolling over and getting screwed, because that is exactly what would happen if he didn't fight back. The longer this investigation goes on the more I believe that it's motivated by hate, not fact. There's no question that a large percentage of the people who want to take him down could not care less about what takes him down. Some of these people would do anything possible to obstruct his presidency. It's really quite ugly how these haters wrap themselves in some sort of cloak of morality and contend that their cause is pure.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I know it's the cool and hip thing to do, especially but not exclusively from conservative leans, but you could do a lot worse than MSNBC.

http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/category/media-bias-chart/

MSNBC is a 24/7 hate fest. You could do a lot better.

 

[Zombie]

I agree that no is the best answer. I disagree that any answer other than no is some sort of indictment. If Trump is innocent in this investigation I cannot blame him for not rolling over and getting screwed, because that is exactly what would happen if he didn't fight back. The longer this investigation goes on the more I believe that it's motivated by hate, not fact. There's no question that a large percentage of the people who want to take him down could not care less about what takes him down. Some of these people would do anything possible to obstruct his presidency. It's really quite ugly how these haters wrap themselves in some sort of cloak of morality and contend that their cause is pure.

Which is kind of funny because the longer this investigation goes the more crimes are uncovered and criminals indicted. What from Mueller makes you think he is motivated by hate, rather than pursuit of justice?

Also, presidents shouldn't be in the business of pardoning their campaign managers guilty of everything from laundering money for European autocrats to witness tampering with the aid of former Russian agents. There's really no wiggle room there.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Which is kind of funny because the longer this investigation goes the more crimes are uncovered and criminals indicted. What from Mueller makes you think he is motivated by hate, rather than pursuit of justice?

Also, presidents shouldn't be in the business of pardoning their campaign managers guilty of everything from laundering money for European autocrats to witness tampering with the aid of former Russian agents. There's really no wiggle room there.

As far as I know none of the alleged crimes occurred post campaign. So the big crime we've uncovered here is that political operatives push the envelope? I'm stunned. Bill and Hillary would never have done anything like that, right? Obama either, right?

I'm being facetious. If you climbed up the *** of any politician with a microscope the way they are doing with Trump I am completely confident that they'd find ****. The bizarre thing is that Comey did investigate Hillary and he did find ****, but then he told us that it wasn't **** and somehow the left believed him. The right lost their minds because she was caught red-handed, and then the investigators simply said it didn't matter. The bias is mind-blowing.

 

[Zombie]

As far as I know none of the alleged crimes occurred post campaign. So the big crime we've uncovered here is that political operatives push the envelope? I'm stunned. Bill and Hillary would never have done anything like that, right? Obama either, right?

I'm being facetious. If you climbed up the *** of any politician with a microscope the way they are doing with Trump I am completely confident that they'd find ****. The bizarre thing is that Comey did investigate Hillary and he did find ****, but then he told us that it wasn't **** and somehow the left believed him. The right lost their minds because she was caught red-handed, and then the investigators simply said it didn't matter. The bias is mind-blowing.

Your ignorance is staggering. You know the IG report into the FBIs investigation into Hillary came out today right? And you are very wrong about when Manafort's crimes took place. The crimes he is indicted for span from 2006 to 2017. When they took place is pretty immaterial to whether or not it's appropriate for Trump to pardon him for them.