Former President Trump Thread

Sure, if you think this administration's statements on anything Russia-related, which they have lied about almost too many times to count by now, mean anything. That's like trusting a spouse that you've caught cheating multiple times because they said "This time we're just friends, I swear" though.
Star Trek predicted the Trump administration 50 years ago...
 
I'm sure it also means nothing that there's video of Trump meeting with the people who brokered Jr's meeting with Natalia. It's from 2013 and Trump was making a deal to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow. http://americannewsx.com/crooks-crime/trump-s-ties-to-russia-cnn-video/

http://www.politico.com/magazine/st...ies-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868 - diagrams showing all the connections between Trump and his people and Russian officials / corporations.
So it's confirming what the emails said, that he knew them via the Miss Universe Pageant? And?

Also, I'm 3 degrees (possibly 2) from powerful Russians. And anybody who's wealthy in that country now has the "blessing" of Putin. So any dealings whatsoever look suspicious. Which indicts anybody doing business at all there.

Is that a reason to just not do business with that country? Maybe it is, but I don't think it shows anything more sinister.
 
After eight years of conspiracy theorists (and Trump) scrutinizing Obama's handshakes, clothes, and food preferences for any connection with terrorists or a secret Muslim fifth column, it's so nice to see the Mango Messiah get a taste of his own medicine.
 
Yeah, turns out there was another person attending that meeting with Trump Jr, Manafort, Kushner, and Natalia Veselnitskaya: Former KGB Counter-intelligence officer Rinat Akhmetshin, who now works as a Russian-American lobbyist and is suspected of still working for the Kremlin.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...unter-intelligence-officer-trump-team-n782851

But hey, still a nothingburger, right Eriol?
From your article:
The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.
Fascinating. An immigrant from post-soviet Russia who is in the USA long enough to become a citizen, then lobbies on behalf of Russia. And is on the same side Clinton on one key piece of anti-Putin legislation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinat_Akhmetshin#Washington.2C_D.C.-based_lobbying He lobbies against the Magnitsky Act which Hillary tried to NOT get passed as Secretary of State. And that's what Trump Jr. said the whole meeting was about too. So we actually have 3rd-party reports from long before that this guy has a history of arguing for repeal of the exact thing Trump Jr. said the meeting was about.

Link + quote on that btw: Russian Lawyer Was Lobbying Against Sanctions Clinton Opposed After Paid Speech Gig
In December 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hillary Clinton opposed the Magnitsky Act while serving as secretary of state. Her opposition coincided with Bill Clinton giving a speech in Moscow for Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank—for which he was paid $500,000.
Tell me again how Clinton wasn't pro-Russia and pro-corruption?

Yes meeting with these guys under the pretense of dirt on Clinton was a bad decision on how much it might have (and is now?) blown up in their faces, but everything points to that it was about exactly what Trump Jr. (and the lawyer) say it was about.
 
If any of this had come out during the primaries, he would have been toast. In any previous generation, the charge would have been treason, semantics be damned.

But the opponent was Hillary. And anything was acceptable if it meant beating HER. Trumpkins have gone on record lately arguing that to a point, murder was on the table if it meant beating HER.
 
If any of this had come out during the primaries, he would have been toast. In any previous generation, the charge would have been treason, semantics be damned.

But the opponent was Hillary. And anything was acceptable if it meant beating HER. Trumpkins have gone on record lately arguing that to a point, murder was on the table if it meant beating HER.
I mean this in the nicest way, but I don't think you quite understand the charge of treason or how it has been applied in the history of the United States. Treason, as an actual charge is rarely used in the United States, and throughout its entire history there have been less than 40 cases, and even fewer convictions, or so what I've read up on it indicates. In previous generations, you had cases likes this:

In 1952 Tomoya Kawakita, a Japanese-American dual citizen was convicted of treason and sentenced to death for having worked as an interpreter at a Japanese POW camp and having mistreated American prisoners. He was recognized by a former prisoner at a department store in 1946 after having returned to the United States. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. He was released and deported in 1963.
This is magnitudes greater in aligning with the conventional definition of treason, and that didn't even stick.
 
Anyone find it a bit ironic that Trump is in France celebrating Bastille Day?





The country is celebrating chopping the heads off fuckers like him.
 
I mean this in the nicest way, but I don't think you quite understand the charge of treason or how it has been applied in the history of the United States. Treason, as an actual charge is rarely used in the United States, and throughout its entire history there have been less than 40 cases, and even fewer convictions, or so what I've read up on it indicates. In previous generations, you had cases likes this:



This is magnitudes greater in aligning with the conventional definition of treason, and that didn't even stick.
I'm using it in the same manner the politicians have been using it for years. That doesn't stop them from throwing the word around when the cameras are rolling. I mean Rick Santorum flat out called Obama a traitor the weekend before the election.
 
Why does the argument against Trump and Russia always devolve into "well Hillary did..."

Hillary isn't president. I don't care what she did. If she was president and did these things then absolutely investigate her, but you can't impeach her because she's not the president.

It feels like Hillary Clinton is being used as a Boogeyman to scare away people from criticizing Trump, as if they think finding any wrong doing on Trump's part means she will suddenly come in and take over. That's not how this works.
 
Why does the argument against Trump and Russia always devolve into "well Hillary did..."

Hillary isn't president. I don't care what she did. If she was president and did these things then absolutely investigate her, but you can't impeach her because she's not the president.

It feels like Hillary Clinton is being used as a Boogeyman to scare away people from criticizing Trump, as if they think finding any wrong doing on Trump's part means she will suddenly come in and take over. That's not how this works.
I like what you said. But I think it is in large part about reveling in observed hypocrisy. "How come you don't care about this when Hillary did the same thing?" The short answer to that question is that most people voted with their noses upturned in the last election.
 
Why does the argument against Trump and Russia always devolve into "well Hillary did..."

Hillary isn't president. I don't care what she did. If she was president and did these things then absolutely investigate her, but you can't impeach her because she's not the president.

It feels like Hillary Clinton is being used as a Boogeyman to scare away people from criticizing Trump, as if they think finding any wrong doing on Trump's part means she will suddenly come in and take over. That's not how this works.
I'm not going to speak for everybody here, but I'll speak for why I'm bringing her up in this case.

1. She's been heavily involved with similar things with relations to Russia. As previously mentioned, her links to pay-for-access and being against the Magnitsky Act, which are directly linked to this lawyer.

2. Most importantly is when posters on here say things like this:
If any of this had come out during the primaries, he would have been toast. In any previous generation, the charge would have been treason, semantics be damned.
and yet don't set the same standard for politicians they have supported. So I give examples of people they have supported (Clinton works well on both fronts on this issue) and they don't agree that the same standard should apply.

But overall, as I said above, this entire incident is trying to turn a minor gaffe into treason. Which is tiring, because nowadays everybody is trying to say that every gaffe is treason from the other side. When somebody actually does something "holy shit that's bad" few will recognize it as different, because their opponents were always screaming at them, and everybody's tuned everybody else out entirely.
 
A minor gaffe? Agreeing to a meeting with someone working frequently for a foreign government which for decades was the prime antagonist to the United States in order to obtain supposed information On an opponent to influence a national election.

Sir, you and I have a vast difference when it comes to the definition of "minor".
 
A minor gaffe? Agreeing to a meeting with someone working frequently for a foreign government which for decades was the prime antagonist to the United States in order to obtain supposed information On an opponent to influence a national election.

Sir, you and I have a vast difference when it comes to the definition of "minor".
We just had a Prime Minister pay out over $10M to a convicted terrorist (who has also been shown on film constructing roadside bombs, so who knows how many people he killed THAT way), and is publicly defending the payout.

Ya, it's minor, but I'm extra-cynical these days.
 
We just had a Prime Minister pay out over $10M to a convicted terrorist (who has also been shown on film constructing roadside bombs, so who knows how many people he killed THAT way), and is publicly defending the payout.

Ya, it's minor, but I'm extra-cynical these days.
You should probably expand that to explain to people what this actually entails, because here you make it sound like he did it for kicks. I was super confused until I looked it up and thought "Oh, yeah, I guess that actually makes sense." You don't have to like it how Trudeau tried to fix this, but your country seriously fucked up. Laying this on him seems a bit silly.
 

Zappit

Staff member
Honestly, "But Hillary..." is just the new, "Thanks, Obama!"

Bring up all the Hillary shit. If she was in office, we would not have this unhinged, clusterfucking shitshow of an administration we're stuck with now. We'd have better standing in the world, we wouldn't have alienated out allies. We wouldn't be embarrassed on a daily fucking basis by our Commander in Chief, and we wouldn't be at the mercy of groups hellbent on taking healthcare and net neutrality.

Throw out all the Hillary shit right out into the open, and she's still far, far superior to Trump or any of the other major Republican candidates. One Clinton is worth more than a million Trumps.
 
Yeah. Nobody's saying Hillary was the Second Coming of Christ. Heck, she wasn't even popular with her own demographics. She definitely has her problems. She'd sell out to big companies, she'd cave on some issues, and so on and so forth.

But with Clinton as president, the general feeling in the world wouldn't be that Merkel is now the Leader of the Free World. She'd be doing "okay", not "great", certainly. But she might actually have a vision of where hse wants to go, and how to get there. She might be able to sit at a G20 and not have literally every major newspaper in the world say it was the G19+1.
 
A minor gaffe? Agreeing to a meeting with someone working frequently for a foreign government which for decades was the prime antagonist to the United States in order to obtain supposed information On an opponent to influence a national election.

Sir, you and I have a vast difference when it comes to the definition of "minor".
This. Because I don't recall Obama going to our traditional enemy to get dirt on Romney or McCain. Or Kerry to get dirt on Dubya. Or Gore to get dirt on Dubya. Or Bill to...

You get the picture, Eriol. Or maybe you don't. One of the biggest rules in politics from the end of WWII to now is DON'T COZY UP TO THE RUSSIANS. It's as set in stone as DON'T BET ON BASEBALL is to MLB. The Trumps did. Doesn't matter what Hillary may or may not have done, Trump got in bed with the Russians just the same.

If teh Donald shot somebody, you can't call him innocent because Hillary shot someone too. It doesn't work like that.
 
So it's up 8 people in the room now with an exchange of financial records regarding Clintons link with Russia.

But on to Kushner, after the reveal of the meeting he updated his security clearance forms with 100 additional foreign contacts. How gas he not been stripped of his clearance?
 
So it's up 8 people in the room now with an exchange of financial records regarding Clintons link with Russia.

But on to Kushner, after the reveal of the meeting he updated his security clearance forms with 100 additional foreign contacts. How gas he not been stripped of his clearance?
Simple, the republicans declared that attempting to revoke his security access was simply a political stunt and that there was no reason for someone to need to be honest on their security clearance forms, so he can keep it as long as he wants.
 
Simple, the republicans declared that attempting to revoke his security access was simply a political stunt and that there was no reason for someone to need to be honest on their security clearance forms, so he can keep it as long as he wants.
My husband is a senior NCO. I asked him what would happen if he'd lied on his security clearance forms. At the very least his security clearance would be revoked, busted down to A1C, and probably a dishonorable discharge (the equivalent of a felony). Possibly a trip to Leavenworth for a few years, especially if he'd lied about meeting Russians and left 100 foreign contacts off the list.

But obviously the rules don't apply to politicians and their cronies.
 
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