Donald Fires FBI Director who's investigating Russian Election Hacking

[Harambe]

These losers have always been among us. They consider Eisenhower a commie, deny the moon landing, and think that trump died for our sins. They're white noise and should be ignored. No amount of reporting or facts will change their opinion.

We should however, focus on those democrats, independents, and moderate repubs who were unmotivated by Hillary and are becoming disenchanted with the Trump sleaze and GOP impotence. The POTUS is rolling at a 39 percent approval rating despite a relatively strong economy, no wars, and no real significant civil unrest. That's terrible. Trump is one War or recession away from seeing the bottom fall out.

The dnc should really ramp up their propaganda to win excite the base and pick off vulnerable repub voters.

It's a great time to strike, but I don't think Warren is more concerned with keeping the more liberal(Bernie) of her party in line than pull moderates to the left.

 

[Red]

Mueller's probe has expanded to include Trump's finances:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...o-expand-probe-to-trump-business-transactions

And, in an interview with The NY Times Wednesday, during which Trump trashed his own Justice Department, Trump indicated Mueller would be crossing "a red line" if his investigation expanded into Trump family finances. Which I take to mean he would be delving into areas that Trump very much wants to remain hidden. The closer Mueller focuses on such areas, the more likely Mueller will be fired.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-mueller-red-line-finances-2017-7

And, if you really look closely, Trump's claim that he has nothing to do with Russia, overlooks how much certain Russians have invested in his properties.

Trump's Russian Laundromat:

https://newrepublic.com/article/143...ses-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate

The above link is long and is a detailed look at the extent to which Russia, under Putin, is basically the largest criminal syndicate in the world. If you really want an education on Trump and the Russians, read that link....

 

[Red]

A couple of interesting developments reported Thursday night by the Washington Post and The NY Times.

One, the President is exploring his powers of pardon. Can he pardon family, staff, and can he even pardon himself?

Two, the Presidents lawyers are building a case for undercutting Mueller's investigation. Exploring conflict of interests for both Mueller and Mueller's legal team. Conflict of Interest is one appropriate reason that can be used to fire Mueller. The NY Times interview Wed. night may have been in service toward the aim of eventually firing the Special Council. It's possible Trump may have expected AG Sessions to resign after Trump was highly critical of his AG's recusal from the Russian Probe. White House staff described as "stunned" when Sessions said he was remaining Thursday morning.

A President pardoning himself would seem to be uncharted territory. He definetly seems to be aiming toward firing Mueller, however, and the degree of turmoil that would unleash is unknown. Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. Derailing a Special Council investigation would seem to be placing oneself outside the rule of law. Republicans in Congress would have to decide where they truly stand should Mueller be canned. With the President, or with the rule of law. At least, that would appear to be the choice presented should we get to that point.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.10f456bbeb2a

If you have difficulty accessing the Washington Post report, here is a summary from The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ares-war-on-the-mueller-investigation/534447/

 

[Red]

Trump is mobilizing for a war against the rule of law:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...bilizing-for-war-against-the-rule-of-law.html

"Trump has shown himself immune to widespread warnings that certain steps are simply not done. His hiding of tax returns, firing of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (who was investigating Russian financial crimes when he was let go), and ousting of FBI director James Comey were all steps that would seem to immolate his career. Ordering the Department of Justice to fire Mueller, or pardoning the targets of his investigations, would be an open announcement that Trump considers his financial ties to the Russian underworld and state to be beyond any legal accountability. The ominous threats emanating from the White House are that of an administration mobilizing for war against the rule of law."

 

[Miggs]

Keep it coming, Red. You're crushing this thread.

 

[DutchJazzer]

Repubs like Dutch bashing shep smith is just wonderful. Keep the deplorable tears coming! They're delicious and oh so refreshing!

Can't wait until rush and Sean cannibalize other republicans. Hell, rush is coming pretty close to sounding like a liberal today. He disagrees with trump's proposal to leave Obamacare in place and is bashing congress. Will Sean eat Rush tonight???

I always bash big government RINOS!!

i am a libertarian!


mcain, shep those are not libertarian those are big government cronies!

 

[Stoked]

I always bash big government RINOS!!

i am a libertarian!


mcain, shep those are not libertarian those are big government cronies!

I'd like to see you reconcile this with your support of the President. Coherently please.

 

[Gameface]

I always bash big government RINOS!!

i am a libertarian!


mcain, shep those are not libertarian those are big government cronies!

Republicans are not libertarians. They are not the same thing. And your hybrid libertarian flavored **** is not libertarian.

 

[fishonjazz]

Keep it coming, Red. You're crushing this thread.

This

 

[Deleted member 365]

Spicer just quit. Wow

Sounds like he got sick of being constantly undermined by Trump.

His tell all book sure will be interesting.

The biggest loser today is SNL. How will they survive without Spicey???

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-house-press-secretary-sean-spicer-resigns-n785321

 

[Deleted member 365]

A couple of interesting developments reported Thursday night by the Washington Post and The NY Times.

One, the President is exploring his powers of pardon. Can he pardon family, staff, and can he even pardon himself?

Two, the Presidents lawyers are building a case for undercutting Mueller's investigation. Exploring conflict of interests for both Mueller and Mueller's legal team. Conflict of Interest is one appropriate reason that can be used to fire Mueller. The NY Times interview Wed. night may have been in service toward the aim of eventually firing the Special Council. It's possible Trump may have expected AG Sessions to resign after Trump was highly critical of his AG's recusal from the Russian Probe. White House staff described as "stunned" when Sessions said he was remaining Thursday morning.

A President pardoning himself would seem to be uncharted territory. He definetly seems to be aiming toward firing Mueller, however, and the degree of turmoil that would unleash is unknown. Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. Derailing a Special Council investigation would seem to be placing oneself outside the rule of law. Republicans in Congress would have to decide where they truly stand should Mueller be canned. With the President, or with the rule of law. At least, that would appear to be the choice presented should we get to that point.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.10f456bbeb2a

If you have difficulty accessing the Washington Post report, here is a summary from The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ares-war-on-the-mueller-investigation/534447/

Yep.

Along those lines of money laundering, both Trump and Manafort have been involved with laundering Russian money since the early 2000s. Manaford helped to launder money for Russian oligarchs in order to buy off Ukrainian officials to create a pro-Putin Ukraine. It didn't exactly work out. But it has led to some pretty serious crimes. Maddow also blows up Manafort's "reasoning" that he was merely "serving" the Trump campaign by running it without pay despite owing $17 million to Russian oligarchs. Hmmmm... Get Trump elected and the debts will be forgiven???

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/...ardoning-himself-family-members-1005099587908

This seems consistent with Manafort's own daughter's exposing murders that he caused:

http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3

Manafort did not respond to request for comment from Business Insider. He confirmed to Politico late last month that his daughter Andrea had been hacked, and he corroborated some exchanges while declining to comment on others.

'That money we have is blood money'
In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider that appear to have been sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said their father had "no moral or legal compass."

"Don't fool yourself," Andrea wrote to her sister, according to the texts. "That money we have is blood money."

"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed texts. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."

Andrea did not respond to a request for comment.

Paul was a top adviser to Yanukovych from 2004 to 2014. Ukrainian authorities have said Yanukovych created the conditions that led to the security forces opening fire. Ukraine's interior minister issued a warrant for Yanukovych's arrest shortly after the uprising. He fled to Russia and was granted asylum.

 

[Deleted member 365]

I think we could learn a lot by studying post-Soviet Russian history and how Putin came to power:

The new Russia didn’t get off to a good start. It first had to sell off almost 45,000 businesses that had been owned and run by the communist government. The firms fell into the hands of a few opportunistic men, making many of them billionaires overnight. These men came to be known as the Russian oligarchy — and would later become crucial allies that helped Putin maintain, and expand, his hold on power.

At the same time, Russia’s first president, Boris Yeltsin, was wildly unpopular, with many ordinary Russians seeing him as a weak-willed leader incapable of standing up to the US or protecting his country from terror attacks launched by militants from the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Russia’s economy went into a nosedive, and corruption was rampant.

Enter Vladimir Putin.

The former spy became the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in 1991. He quickly gained favor with the oligarchy by helping them structure monopolies and restricting licenses to their competitors. Criminal organizations also became very powerful during the post-Soviet chaos, and Putin helped them launder money and set up front companies.

He quickly began to remake the Russian state, enriching the oligarchs who supported him and crushing those who didn’t. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, was an outspoken critic of Putin, until he was swiftly arrested for corruption and sent to a labor camp in east Russia.

Putin also began to push his worldview outside of Russia’s borders. As a former Soviet spy, Putin was deeply skeptical and paranoid about the West. He was particularly concerned about the possibility of former Soviet republics like Ukraine, Georgia, and the Baltic states joining the NATO military alliance, since that would bring them out of Russia’s sphere of interest and place them squarely in that of the US and its allies.

Putin has also tightened his grip on his own country. With the continued support of criminal organizations, oligarchs, and the Russian security services, Putin has been able to stifle Russia’s free press while gutting its civil institutions and eliminating any semblance of political opposition. Critics such as journalist Anna Politkovskaya and political dissident Denis N. Voronenkov are murdered, their killers never found.

https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/3/27/15052666/putin-russia-spy-president-vladimir

If you want to read about the countless men he has bullied or butchered and press offices he has taken over to promote Fox News like propaganda, read these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Putin-Country-Journey-into-Russia/dp/0374247722 (a great summary)
https://www.amazon.com/New-Tsar-Rei...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P1NXZGPJFXE72CBVCSY9 (the most exhausting and most detailed)
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MXKY9TV08QKEBSEQ7K5G (this is a great first hand account)