Post by WanderingWinoZ on Jul 16, 2018 13:45:02 GMT -5
Statement from Trey Gowdy
“Russia is not our friend. Russia attempted to undermine the fundamentals of our democracy, impugn the reliability of the 2016 election, and sow the seeds of discord among Americans. Our intelligence community, including the current one, concluded this, as did the Majority House Intelligence Committee report, as did our fellow Americans who served on grand juries which returned true bills on two separate occasions. I am confident former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, DNI Dan Coats, Ambassador Nikki Haley, FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others will be able to communicate to the President it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success.”
All these fuckers can stop with statements and tweets that basically say, "I don't really like this and now that I've said that I plan to pretend it never happened." Move on to some action steps or STFU.
I just cannot wrap my brain around how people can continue to support him. The stock market is (currently) up, so simpletons who only care about their money are happy. But how can ANYONE with a shred of information about Russia and its history be OK with what happened today? If anyone sees an article supporting why this meeting was a good thing and why they’re happy with the outcome, I’d be interested in reading it.
That statement from gowdy......it sounds like hes talking about a child.
He might as well be. I was in meetings all morning and was just able to read the transcript that NPR posted. Holy hell, he talks like a big dumb high school jock. It's embarrassing how poor of an orator he is.
I just cannot wrap my brain around how people can continue to support him. The stock market is (currently) up, so simpletons who only care about their money are happy. But how can ANYONE with a shred of information about Russia and its history be OK with what happened today? If anyone sees an article supporting why this meeting was a good thing and why they’re happy with the outcome, I’d be interested in reading it.
As long as Trump keeps locking brown people up, and letting people like Arpaio and the Bundys go free, they give no fucks about anything else. This is about white supremacy.
I don’t disagree with you one bit. I’m just curious how they’re trying to spin this meeting. I wonder if my blood pressure could handle some digging around on FoxNews.
I was having a conversation with DH the other day recalling how, nearly 15 years ago, I had been seriously considering careers at the State Dept., CIA, and FBI (made it pretty far in the interview process with one of them). Ultimately, I decided relocation just wasn't the right move for me/us and pursued a different career, but I told him how I would have bet, had I began my career at any of those divisions, that I'd be there until retirement. And this was during the GWB years, so even with all of his problems, I wanted to commit to serving the country no matter who was POTUS. But there is truly no way I could stomach the thought of working in any of those divisions under this treasonous POTUS, and our lives would likely be dramatically upended because I would have put so much stock on this career and livelihood. I feel awful for all of those people who work in this divisions (and others) who have to grapple with a decision that they never thought they'd have to make that would upend their lives and the lives of their partners and dependents. All because 62 million people (and juuuust the right number of people in WI, MI and PA) thought this was the direction the country should be taking.
I'm currently listening to Ronan Farrow's new book about the gutting of the state department and it's already making me rage, one chapter in.
Trump is too busy screaming “No collusion! No collusion!” to see that there could have been Russian interference in the election but not actual collusion. He just hears “Russia” and blocks out anything else and says “No collusion.”
I’m terrified that our president believes the words of a longtime enemy of our country instead of our intelligence. Dumbfounded.
“Russia is not our friend. Russia attempted to undermine the fundamentals of our democracy, impugn the reliability of the 2016 election, and sow the seeds of discord among Americans. Our intelligence community, including the current one, concluded this, as did the Majority House Intelligence Committee report, as did our fellow Americans who served on grand juries which returned true bills on two separate occasions. I am confident former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, DNI Dan Coats, Ambassador Nikki Haley, FBI Director Chris Wray, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others will be able to communicate to the President it is possible to conclude Russia interfered with our election in 2016 without delegitimizing his electoral success.”
This is why I think 45 will never, EVER, denounce Russia though. Because as mentioned above, he knows he wouldn't have won without Putin, and Putin also knows that. Putin has the receipts, and 45 knows it. I'd wager Mueller is well on his way to having them as well. The pee tape probably factored in to push the 45 team fully on board, but is no longer the primary kompromat they have on him/he's afraid of. Because seriously, he's weathered bragging about sexual assault, affairs with a porn star (and countless other women), overt racism, overt lying....some prostitutes peeing on a bed in front of him is hardly a new level of scandal. But knowingly rigging an election with a foreign government? Yeah, that's serious shit.
45's flailing now to keep that all under wraps, but it's unraveling fast. Kissing Putin's ass is the one thing he can still control, and so he does.
Pence's reaction to the Helsinki press conference: "What the world saw, what the American people saw, is that President Donald Trump will always put the prosperity and security of America first."
Omg, of all of the things I’ve read and seen over the past hour, this might be the worst.
Pence has been in IL campaigning for Roskam today. Anybody local want to help me GOTV for Roskam's opponent?
As long as Trump keeps locking brown people up, and letting people like Arpaio and the Bundys go free, they give no fucks about anything else. This is about white supremacy.
I don’t disagree with you one bit. I’m just curious how they’re trying to spin this meeting. I wonder if my blood pressure could handle some digging around on FoxNews.
I just looked out of morbid curiosity, and surprisingly there's a lot of criticism of Trump right on the front page.
Of course, directly underneath are stories bashing Hillary Clinton as well as Rob Reiner, so *shrug*
Federal prosecutors have unsealed a criminal complaint accusing Maria Butina of conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian Federation without registering, as required, with the U.S. attorney general.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson wrote in a sworn statement that one goal of the alleged conspiracy was to "exploit personal connections with U.S. persons having influence in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation."
Authorities said Butina established contact with an unnamed American political operative in Moscow in 2013 who worked with her to arrange introductions to influential people inside the U.S. and to advance Russian interests. One of the contacts was with an "organization promoting gun rights," which NPR has previously reported is the National Rifle Association.
Pence's reaction to the Helsinki press conference: "What the world saw, what the American people saw, is that President Donald Trump will always put the prosperity and security of America first."
If someone told me they'd give me a million bucks to say this exact statement with a straight face, there's still no way I could do it. Like, physically I could not do this because I would laugh or accidentally say "Trump" instead of "America."
H's reaction to that statement: "Pence is nothing more than a programmable speak and say in a pasty white costume."
it's bad if Fox thinks it's even kind of bad. Am sure 45 will tweet pulling back on everything he said and saying he didn't say it, it's fake news even though it was on live television.
it's bad if Fox thinks it's even kind of bad. Am sure 45 will tweet pulling back on everything he said and saying he didn't say it, it's fake news even though it was on live television.
Nah, he won’t pull back. The Russia stuff is the one thing he has yet to ever pull back on.
And so far there have been no consequences, so why should he (other than a normal person wouldn’t have done it in the first place).
He might twitter ramble about witchhunts and Clinton and Obama though.
Post by 2curlydogs on Jul 16, 2018 14:27:34 GMT -5
From McCain...
NEW from John McCain: Trump-Putin presser "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," and "marks a recent low point in the history of the Presidency."
"No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."
Of particular interest are their overtures to Trump. Butina asked him directly at a campaign event about the future of “damaging” sanctions against Russia. Torshin twice tried to meet with Trump, according to the New York Times, and did meet with Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA event. Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee has heard sworn testimony about possible Kremlin “infiltration” of the NRA and other conservative groups. And the FBI reportedly is investigating whether Torshin illegally funneled money to the Trump campaign through the NRA—which backed Trump with a record $30 million.
Post by WanderingWinoZ on Jul 16, 2018 14:40:55 GMT -5
Wowzers....lots of names mentioned in that mother jones article.
April 2015: Butina posts about 200 pictures from Nashville, including one with Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who she says greeted her in Russian. She notes he’s “one of the possible future nominees for the post of US President,” and ponders the “beginning of a new dialogue between Russia and the US.” Donald Trump also attends, telling the crowd, “I promise you one thing, if I run for president and if I win, the Second Amendment will be totally protected, that I can tell you.” Torshin, also present, later tells Bloomberg that he had a “jovial exchange” with the future president.
LOL, here he goes. 45 tweet: As I said today and many times before, “I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.” However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018
I happened to catch the end of Andrea Mitchell. Analysts are anticipating an exodus of advisors who cannot align with our new foreign policy. One went so far as to say we are essentially seeing a reordering of alliances. A Republican controlled American government is a friend of Putin. That’s where we are now.
fuck you, too, McCain. WE KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO FUCKING HAPPEN.
Yeah, I’m calling out everybody who is fawning over his response (or flakes, or other GOP congressmen who won’t do jack shit, and let it get to this place!).
I really wonder if it's just as simple as Trump being desperate to get a hotel in Moscow, like it's his white whale or something.
Jennifer Palmieri tweeted that she thinks it's as simple as Putin being able to show that 45 didn't actually win the election. I agree with her that it's this that would make him the most terrified and not any pee tape.
Yeah, I agree.
I think a lot of people who are joking about the "pee tape" don't always literally mean an actual tape from that Moscow hotel room, but it's more like shorthand for "whatever deep dark shit the Russians have on this administration." I mean, I'm sure there's an actual pee tape, but I think Putin has amassed tons of compromising information on Trump, Trump doesn't know exactly what cards Putin has, but Trump knows he's done enough criminal shit in all contexts that Putin could weaponize something against him.
If this were just about a pee tape, Trump wouldn't give a fuck. He has no shame when it comes to that sort of thing. I think Trump instead knows he's got a history of criminal shit with the Russians and as a result of the campaign, so do his kids. I think the only other thing that would scare Trump as much as it being released that the election was illegitimate is Trump not being as rich as he says he is. Putin would know about both of those things.
I have a love/hate relationship with the never-trumpers and GOP making statements against this. On one hand, the more GOP politicians, including the talking heads on Fox news, come out against the way that Trump's narrative on Russian interference and Putin, the better. On the other hand, they should all eat shit.
This is where I am. I’m trying to be optimistic that them speaking out stronger than ever is a step in the right direction to actually DOING something. It’s a slim chance, but I feel like today, we’re a little closer to that happening.
Yes, they’re a year+ late and a billion+ dollars short, but continuing to dismiss anything they do now because of what they haven’t done in the past is not going to encourage them to actually do anything. I’m not giving them too much credit, but I hope they can get enough support to put some action behind those words.