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Mueller Investigation pt5

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varwoche

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varwoche
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Fast Eddie B said:
A gross display of willful ignorance.

Someone here may have pointed me to it, but this New York Times article and graphic tell a convincing story of over 100 contacts with Russians during the Trump campaign. To anyone with eyes to see.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html

[qimg]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7886/46168493715_0bb250514f_c.jpg[/qimg]

On the site, it’s an interactive chart where you can click on each contact or denial to see specifics.

Trump must be counting on plausible deniability. But the big question is whether it’s plausible that he knew nothing of any of this Russian involvement. Seems like a mountain of at least circumstancial evidence that he knew. We’ll see what Mueller has soon enough.
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Simple yet highly effective way to view a complex timeline. I've been wanting to develop something like that for years.



Continued from here. You can quote or reply to any (on topic) posts from that thread here.
Posted By: zooterkin
 
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Crossbow said:
It sure amazing at how you can constantly make such inane assertions that are constantly based on a clear lack the most basic data ...

In this case, when Trump made his famous request to Russia for their help in obtaining the Clinton e-mails, there were already quite a few things going on.

First: Trump had already done several million dollars worth of business with Russia.
Second: Trump made it well known to quite a few highly placed Russians that he wanted to build one of his Trump hotels in Moscow, Russia.
Third: there were already several key Trump officials who were working/in contact with various Russians.
Fourth: Trump made it publicly clear several times just how much he loved Putin.
Fifth: only a few days after Trump made his request to Russia, then Trump became the Republican Presidential nominee as opposed to simply being some random person on an Internet Forum.
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None of that alters anything. He is pro russian. The country he petitioned was Russia because he would like them to do it.
 
BobTheCoward said:
None of that alters anything. He is pro russian. The country he petitioned was Russia because he would like them to do it.
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You are wrong again because of course it does alter everything!

That is one of the reasons why the Mueller investigation has been going on for about the last two years.
 
Crossbow said:
SuburbanTurkey said:
Was listening to "All the President's Lawyers" podcast this morning and Ken White said something I found very interesting.

It is very possible that individual examples of corrupt behavior will not lead to Trump. In the example of Manafort, it is very possible that he was conniving with his Ukrainian/Russian benefactors for corrupt purposes totally without Trump's knowledge or approval.

This is not to say that Trump has not committed crimes, nor that he does not engage in corrupt actions for his own benefit that would be impeachable.

I think it's becoming increasingly clear that the Trump white house is a rudderless ship with an absentee leader. The white house is awash in unprincipled, power hungry people, each with their own constellation of conflicts of interest, often in direct opposition with each other. I could easily people like Kushner, Manafort, and others taking advantage of the total chaos and lack of oversight to run their own personal grifts and cons.

Of all the many, many crimes that have been committed, is think it's very likely that many don't reach Trump personally, simply for the fact that he's such a crappy leader that his subordinates are running side-cons when they should be working to advance the Trump org's own cons.

The trump org is a criminal enterprise, but a badly run one where the employees are regularly stealing company time for their own ends.
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Thanks much! This is well said indeed.

From what I can understand about Trump is that he has always been the sort of supervisor who allows his subordinates a great deal of latitude in just how they carry out their various job duties provided that the subordinates do their job duties well and that the subordinates do not do anything which could actually hurt Trump himself.

And considering that Trump has spent his entire life being a lying, double-dealing, swindling POS in order to get what he wants, then one should not be surprised to learn that his subordinates are also a group of a lying, double-dealing, swindling POSs in order to get what they want.

Therefore, even if Trump himself is not actually guilty of Russian collusion but several members of his key staff are guilty of Russian collusion, then such an eventuality does not automatically exonerate Trump of this crime since Trump is morally and legally responsible for everything that his staff does in his name.
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Indeed, why would Trump care as long as his ego is massaged and he gets some payback?

Having a load of amoral idiots around him means that they're not going to have any loyalty to anyone but themselves. Of course they'll be independently grifting as well as the crimes they commit with Trump's knowledge.
 
jimbob said:
Indeed, why would Trump care as long as his ego is massaged and he gets some payback?

Having a load of amoral idiots around him means that they're not going to have any loyalty to anyone but themselves. Of course they'll be independently grifting as well as the crimes they commit with Trump's knowledge.
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So we had it wrong all along. He is playing 72D Chess. If everyone around you are constantly being looked at that means you have a force field of suck around you. No one truly notices how bad he sucks because of how bad everyone else around him sucks.
 
slyjoe said:
Nope. Only federal crimes. Rape is prosecuted by the state.
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Minor quibble: the example was beating to death, not rape.

Major quibble: what state is the Oval Office located in?
 
Crossbow said:
You are wrong again because of course it does alter everything!

That is one of the reasons why the Mueller investigation has been going on for about the last two years.
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We can bet on what we think the report will say about trump's comment at the rally.
 
Delphic Oracle said:
Major quibble: what state is the Oval Office located in?
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I was thinking the same thing. The District prosecutes that type of felony, right? What if the victim was the navy person who brings the coffee - would that make it federal? Do they call in Mark Harmon and NCIS?
 
Although it is not a state, the District of Columbia pretty functions in everything but having voting members of congress as a state does.
 
Delphic Oracle said:
Minor quibble: the example was beating to death, not rape.

Major quibble: what state is the Oval Office located in?
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You are correct - I read the post too quickly and misunderstood. My fault.

However, I believe most murders are also prosecuted at the state level.

Interesting article on 10 ways murder becomes a federal crime.

https://www.wklaw.com/10-ways-murder-becomes-a-federal-crime/

I think the "what state is the Oval Office in" has already been answered.
 
jimbob said:
Indeed, why would Trump care as long as his ego is massaged and he gets some payback?

Having a load of amoral idiots around him means that they're not going to have any loyalty to anyone but themselves. Of course they'll be independently grifting as well as the crimes they commit with Trump's knowledge.
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I commented at the start of the investigation that the kind of crooks and sharpies that populate his business and social cricle are exactly the sort of sketchy lawyers, money-movers and political hustlers that decended on Eastern Europe in the 90's for Grand Theft Soviet. It's inevitable that short-chain connections between Trump and very questionable Russian characters will be found, even if he wasn't aware of them. Unfair, but there it is.


Of course, the Trump Tower Moscow project, and Trump Tower New York meeting, demonstrate that Trump was completely aware of many of them.
 
Trump tweeted

“Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing...which happens in third world countries. You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.” Alan Dershowitz. @TuckerCarlson
 
I'm still deluding myself that Barr is actually a Mueller plant, a double agent who will work to surgically remove Trump in a way that leaves the GOP unscathed.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump tweeted

“Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing...which happens in third world countries. You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.” Alan Dershowitz. @TuckerCarlson
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Only Trump would think that using an amendment to the Constitution for exactly it's intended purpose was unconstitutional.
 
Captain_Swoop said:
Trump tweeted

“Trying to use the 25th Amendment to try and circumvent the Election is a despicable act of unconstitutional power grabbing...which happens in third world countries. You have to obey the law. This is an attack on our system & Constitution.” Alan Dershowitz. @TuckerCarlson
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Clearly, McCabe (a Republican) and Rosenstein (a Republican) were so upset by a Republican winning the election that they sought to enlist Trump's Cabinet members (Republicans) to try to get Trump removed from office, making Pence (a Republican) the new President, as part of a Democrat power grab.

Yes, that makes perfect sense.
 
dasmiller said:
Clearly, McCabe (a Republican) and Rosenstein (a Republican) were so upset by a Republican winning the election that they sought to enlist Trump's Cabinet members (Republicans) to try to get Trump removed from office, making Pence (a Republican) the new President, as part of a Democrat power grab.

Yes, that makes perfect sense.
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You say that like intraparty disputes are impossible. Or that power struggles have to be about parties at all. Neither of these assumptions are correct.
 
Ziggurat said:
You say that like intraparty disputes are impossible. Or that power struggles have to be about parties at all. Neither of these assumptions are correct.
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what is correct is that Republicans display far greater party unity than Democrats.
When many of them don't it means something big is up, something where members have to decide between the well-being of the party and that of the president.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
what is correct is that Republicans display far greater party unity than Democrats.
When many of them don't it means something big is up, something where members have to decide between the well-being of the party and that of the president.
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I think their decisions are always based on what's in their own best political interests first, not the party or the country. Previously, they calculated more damage from abandoning Trump than sticking with him. Now, the calculus has been changed by Trump's failed power grab. He's a Loser.
 
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