Which is incredible since it was low enough to step over it.


This is the worst fucking timeline. On Earth-2 the world simply isn’t on fire.

*puts on foil hat*


Putin had that meeting room bugged and will embarrass Trump by letting that audio leak

... for his annual performance review.

De La Soul Dropped Buddy. I've never seen the case better made.

The Bozo Donald Trump visits Russia for the first time in 87 and starts writing Op Ed Pieces about NATO being outdated?!? Paul Manafort disaapears after orchastrating Russia's take over of Ukrane and reappears to...run Trump's campaign!?!?

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

The election.
2016
Two years ago.

Here’s a better article. By her. In 2017
https://thecorrespondent.com/7106/how-trump-fulfilled-a-30-year-fantasy-of-becoming-president-with-a-little-help-from-the-kremlin/2009932931402-52e375f5

With an altogther central thesis which I disagree with. The bobmshell isn't that Trump has spent thirty years planning for the presidency and willing to work with Kremlin to do so. I still don't believe this is all a part of some Trump masterplan.

Chiat's much more plausable scenario is that Trump has been a compromised asset od the Russians since the 80s, and it's an asset that they can now exploit because Trump found himself in the position to be a viable candidate for President and they assisted to make that happen.

But to be clear, I don't think Russia thought 30 years ago that Trump will one day be president, they cultivate many assets and this is just one that is paying off.






**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

before 2016. The Chait article also doesn’t cite the extensive work that’s been publicly researched before it.

The Chait article is the equivalent of someone writing today “Might the earth be getting hotter due to human intervention?”

Additionally the 2017 article has in article footnotes for the numerous people involved. Which are helpful to paint a picture of the entire narrative.

it pulls together all the disparate facts and reporting into one cohesive narrative. It's also an altogether different conclusion than the one in the article you cited like I mentioned in my edited response. The article you cited still presumes this is a Trump driven sequence of events. The Chiat Article shows how this is all part of an age-old practice of Russia to cultivate foreign assets to their ultimate goals, they just may have hit the jackpot with Trump.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

For example here’s Sarah herself in her own words about the 1988 article on Trump.

Yes, it's cited in my article. When Chait wrote there was not much reported about Trump's 1987 trip, he was incorrect. There is quite a bit, some of it in Russian sources. Those additional sources are cited in my piece.
https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/1018327805094973441?s=21


Put another way. John Chait weaved a strong narrative and conclusion based on available public information in the US. It’s a strong hypothesis.
Meanwhile over the past few years a number of journalists independent and non have rifles through older news articles, engaged Russian sources and media, and provided a more full timeline that you can draw your own conclusions from.

>Chiat's much more plausable scenario is that Trump has been a
>compromised asset od the Russians since the 80s, and it's an
>asset that they can now exploit because Trump found himself in
>the position to be a viable candidate for President and they
>assisted to make that happen.

You can’t “compromise” Donald Trump. Not even Putin.
Putin helps him meet his end goal that he’s been fixated with since the 80s
Which is commanding a nuclear arsenal and eventually deploying a nuke

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40879868

>You can’t “compromise” Donald Trump.

Why not? Get him committing a crime on tape. Then you get him to do what you want. How is that not possible with Donald Trump?

Not even Putin.
>Putin helps him meet his end goal that he’s been fixated
>with since the 80s
>Which is commanding a nuclear arsenal and eventually deploying
>a nuke
>
>https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40879868


Wait you think it's Donald Trump's goal since the 80s is to launch a Nuke? And That's why he has been interested in running for president? And that article you cited supports that position?


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Sound fantastical? It’s not: Trump has been obsessed with nuclear weapons for several decades, and has expressed his desire to coordinate with Russia on nuclear policy since the 1980s. In 1984 Trump, backed by Roy Cohn, the political operative who advised Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon, proclaimed his goal of negotiating nuclear deals with the Soviets: “It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles,” Trump said. “I think I know most of it anyway. You’re talking about just getting updated on a situation… You know who really wants me to do this? Roy… I’d do it in a second.”

This rhetoric mirrors Trump’s current rejection of expert advice and conviction that his instinct is enough to guide policy. (“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things,” he said in March 2016 when asked whom he consults on foreign affairs.) During the 2016 US presidential campaign, Trump refused to look at intelligence briefings or collaborate with anyone outside his inner circle. This advisory team is comprised of corporate raiders, warmongers, and white supremacists, some of whom—like his nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, or national security advisor, Michael Flynn—are personally tied to Putin as well.

In 1987, Trump made his goal of Russian collaboration on nuclear power explicit: The Soviet Union and the US should partner to form a nuclear superpower with the intention of intimidating other countries into dropping their own nuclear plans.

“Most of those countries are in one form or another dominated by the US and the Soviet Union,” Trump told journalist Roy Rosenbaum. “Between those two nations you have the power to dominate any of those countries. So we should use our power of economic retaliation and they use their powers of retaliation, and between the two of us we will prevent the problem from happening. It would have been better having done something five years ago. But I believe even a country such as Pakistan would have to do something now. Five years from now they’ll laugh.”

When Rosenbaum suggested Pakistan would not respond favorably to this policy, Trump laughed:

“Maybe we should offer them something. I’m saying you start off as nicely as possible. You apply as much pressure as necessary until you achieve the goal. You start off telling them, ‘Let’s get rid of it.’ If that doesn’t work you then start cutting off aid. And more aid and then more. You do whatever is necessary so these people will have riots in the street, so they can’t get water. So they can’t get Band-Aids, so they can’t get food. Because that’s the only thing that’s going to do it—the people, the riots.”

Trump then suggested that the US and Russia jointly apply the same policy of brutal sanctions on US allies like France.

https://qz.com/871436/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-putin-and-trump-release-statements-that-hint-at-increased-nuclear-armament/

A different link.

I just hope there's more concrete evidence in Mueller's work that takes down the whole admin. Fucking soon.

If not, we are so fucked. Cause this dude's getting elected again in 2020 make no mistake about it.

Nothing.
The 2018 midterms are the last chance for American democracy.
And candidly, without a cyber security director and a partnership with THIS president 2018 may not be a free and clear election.

I hope to god Mueller's got bombshells on top of bombshells to drop just before the midterms. Cause yea, if the spineless co-conspirator Repugs keep control of Congress it's over for democracy.


>RE: If Dems don’t win at minimum one house in October nothing matters.
>Nothing.
>The 2018 midterms are the last chance for American democracy.
>And candidly, without a cyber security director and a
>partnership with THIS president 2018 may not be a free and
>clear election.

I don't think we've seen half of what Mueller has.

Judging by this indictment dump just before the Putin meeting I have to assume he's playing his cards very strategically. Also judging by the fact that Mueller is brilliant and has taken down people far smarter than Trump.


>I don't think we've seen half of what Mueller has.

people need to open their eyes, it's real.

Because this isn’t the first time Putin has “installed” a Russian asset as a president just first time in this country.

dems need to win these upcoming elections, it's never been more important.

On Thursday overnight DC experienced issues with the water pressure.
Randomly.
To the point that we were under boil advisory through the weekend.
Three days ago in the Ukraine
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/money/technology/russian-hackers-targeted-ukraines-water-supply/ar-AAzUIMN?li=AA56Yk

“Quietly, the Kremlin has been trying to map the United States telecommunications infrastructure,” (John) McCain announced, and described a series of alarming moves, including Russian spies monitoring the fiber optic network in Kansas......”

https://www.fastcompany.com/40515682/the-other-scary-foreign-hacking-threat-trump-is-ignoring

“Since at least March 2016, Russian government cyber actors...targeted government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors," according to a joint alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

According to the alert, the hackers succeeded in gaining remote access to energy sector networks, including a nuclear plant.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-hackers-us-nuclear-power-847267

In its July cover story, Wired magazine takes an in-depth look at a years-long string of cyberattacks in Ukraine that could have global implications. It has undermined every sector including the media, military, politics and even people's homes.

Andy Greenberg, who reported the story, and Wired editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the findings and what the implications could be for the United States.

The Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid were extensive. In 2015, electricity was cut to nearly a quarter-million Ukrainians, and about a year later a transmission station was taken down, revealing the attacks were becoming more sophisticated.

"There's a disturbing progression happening," Greenberg said.

The reason, according to Greenberg, was Russia's desire to destabilize Ukraine. What he finds even more worrisome, though, is that the Russians seem to be using Ukraine as a place to test-run their methods.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-hacking-of-ukraines-power-grid-test-run-for-us-attack/

The nation's top voting machine maker has admitted in a letter to a federal lawmaker that the company installed remote-access software on election-management systems it sold over a period of six years, raising questions about the security of those systems and the integrity of elections that were conducted with them.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4ezy/top-voting-machine-vendor-admits-it-installed-remote-access-software-on-systems-sold-to-states

While our weather is fine
http://nbc4dc.com/sp2b7a7
No biggie.

LOL. Of course you did.

this was back in march but gotdamn..

how you meeting with this dude after he does some shit like that?

http://www.businessinsider.com/putin-showed-video-of-nukes-hitting-florida-outraging-trump-2018-7

not to Putin but to Alec Baldwin

to ensure their future, they'd rather assimilate to Russia and it's ways.

The Trumpist wing of the GOP and its alt-right fan base is dedicated to curbing the power of liberals on the world stage, sabotaging U.S. influence abroad in favor of international, radical right-wing alliances, with partners who are explicitly enamored of the Kremlin.
It's hardly surprising, then, that Alexander Dugin, a leading Russian fascist ideologue and nexus for far right activists all over Europe and the U.S., welcomes Trump as the harbinger of a new world order. It's more surprising, and worrying, that the Trump foreign policy pivot is beginning to resemble some of Dugin's unsavory theories.

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-trump-s-foreign-policy-is-making-russian-fascism-great-again-1.6167199

siding with the damn BOLSHEVIKS over their own president

Yet Kouprianova’s connections with the alt-right don’t end with her marriage to the movement’s most prominent face. If anything, Kouprianova may play an outsize role in the internationalization of Spencer’s movement—especially as it pertains to Russia, which Spencer views, bizarrely, as the “sole white power in the world.” In addition to her prominent Twitter persona—offering the types of ironic barbs in defense of Kremlin machinations familiar to anyone who’s recently dealt with high-level officials from Moscow—Kouprianova has devoted her efforts to translating the works of Russian political philosopher Alexander Dugin.

If Dugin’s name is at all familiar, it’s likely due to his neo-fascist screeds, posited as geopolitical analysis, that have begun swirling international trends. As Spencer is to the alt-right, so, too, is Dugin to the modern incarnation of “Eurasianism,” a geopolitical theory positing Russia as the inheritor of “Eternal Rome” and one of the primary ideological bulwarks pushing the Kremlin to carve eastern Ukraine into the fanciful entity of “Novorossiya.” While much of Dugin’s influence on the Kremlin has been over-hyped, Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics remains assigned to every member of Russia’s General Staff Academy. And despite Kouprianova’s claims that “there is no evidence of communication between” Dugin and Putin, Charles Clover, in his masterful history of Eurasianism, noted that Putin and Dugin met a few months after the former ascended to the presidency. “Soon,” wrote Clover, “there were sponsors, contacts, and open doors” for Dugin


https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-moscow-mouthpiece-married-to-a-racist-alt-right-boss

when you look at a lot of social/political alliances springing up now...they really have no strategic benefits other than anti-liberal animus.

so you have threads of mutual anti-liberal interest being woven through orthodox religious groups, ethno nationalists/nativists, online communities of socially displaced anti-liberal personalities and the authoritarian strongmen that keep liberalism at bay.

you even have bonds being formed by people like hard line israeli statists and the alt right (who hate jews lol).

republicans are no longer a conservative party. just an anti-liberal one.

trump is enacting anti-free-market tariffs, weakening our national security by fracturing our alliances, expanding government/executive power via executive order (which repubs criticized obama for), kissing up to russia, attacking the largest law enforcement organization in the country almost daily, attacking the constitutionally-endowed free press almost daily, spending like crazy and piling up the deficit (no fiscal restraint/responsibility), etc.

but as long as you are bashing liberals then you are welcomed and even championed in todays republican party. that is the only real principle they genuinely believe in.

>

45 could survive a pee tape easily
these fools would be out there pissing on each other to own the libs
Paul Ryan would say something about it not being helpful but ultimately a personal matter.

he will go down.

I was losing faith in the Russia investigation up until I read that NY Mag piece last week followed almost immediately by the Mueller indictments. Now I truly believe Mueller's slow playing it so Trump will provide more evidence of his collusion and alliance with Putin, only to drop the bombs strategically when they're most needed.

I mean I only believe that at like 60% but it's all I have hope in at this point. Cause if that's not the case then the world is about to burn.


>RE: i think our own intelligence probably has all the same stuff
>he will go down.

Trump pretty much said Coats and all of the US intelligence community say it's Russia. But Putin says he didn't do it. And I believe him.

You gotta leave after that, right?

what if *gasp!* 45 ACTUALLY BELIEVES AND HAS ALWAYS BELIEVED the shit he's kickin?

white= right
non-white= wrong

What if it's really just that simple?

There's no conspiracy, no Russian master plan, no hold Putin has over him

I mean...

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/07/161007_SLATEST_Trump-Central-Park-5-Ad.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/OHoixPpHvQy_tWdlOmed3BzIM3o=/1400x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CN2J6RFP3UBCVSCEA2AFJDTKHM.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dJGVUvICzhg/VnIkzB6pCzI/AAAAAAAAAGw/L5h5PU3W2Tw/s1600/trump%252C%2Btrump.png

Expecting repugs to do anything other than express "concern" over today's shit show? LMAO

as soon as Trump was elected

ok, not to be a screeching libreral

but

I legit asked myself

"are we gonna have some fucked up ethnic cleansing up in this piece?"

what the kids call "woke" we called "third eye open"
anyway I always thought the FEMA camps and cashless society and mark of the beast microchips and MKULTRA was some
sci-fi can't happen here shit

Now here we are

iphones
cashless tolls
apple/samsung pay
bitcoin
kids in cages
RFID chips in meat

... and thinking, that shit's CRAZY but nah couldn't happen. There'd be too much backlash.

Then we all voluntary allowed it. Wow.


>what the kids call "woke" we called "third eye open"
>anyway I always thought the FEMA camps and cashless society
>and mark of the beast microchips and MKULTRA was some
>sci-fi can't happen here shit
>
>Now here we are
>
>iphones
>cashless tolls
>apple/samsung pay
>bitcoin
>kids in cages
>RFID chips in meat
>

its been steadily getting verified based on public reporting.

notice republicans dont even try to discredit it as false anymore. they just attack the origin of it and its relation to the russia probe now (dnc law firm, fisa warrant application, steele media access, etc).

that of course doesnt mutually exclude trump from being a white supremacist/nationalist. certain types are attracted to vladimir putin as a 'defender' of white christian ethno nationalism. bed fellows usually arent that stranger.

What's the relationship between the point you were making and the articles you cited?


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

and say the shit he says

If Russia put out a pee tape today, it wouldn't change the fact that 45 has always been a white nationalist and real estate hustler
This was always his agenda: advance the objectives of white nationalism and make some money
The fact that he's so deferential and on Putin's dick is that he's 45's role model: an unquestioned leader with absolute authority who keeps "undesirables" out and makes money hand over fist

russia/putin doesnt act without a defined goal/deliverable.

their heavy handed support of trump and the wide ranging operation that ensued to get him elected (and the *ongoing* operation to help him stay there) doesnt get the green light without some assurances.

Platform in 2016 was to change an anti-Russian Pro-Independent Ukraine platform was because....he admires Putin?

Or wrote his first Op-Ed on Global Politics railing against NATO (which of course benefits Russia) in 1987 AFTER a visit to Moscow...is because he admires Putin?

I mean one of the more basic things we know about Trump is he doesn't do anything out of personal warmth for anyone, he is always motivated by self-interest.

Thinking that he admires Putin explains all this shit doesn't do it.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

know by now.

Mueller is saving the best for last. And the Russians don't usually put information out there, they use it to control people.

It mentioned money laundering and cultivation that went back at that point about 5 years
Here’s an article in September of 2017
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/09/a_lot_of_the_steele_dossier_has_since_been_corroborated.html
Since then more has come out.

And he’s dumb. I’m not sure how you can say nothing when what we already know is far from nothing. Little fishies first, then big fishies.

we have no idea what they know.

this idea that 'if we havent seen it then it doesnt exist' is an extremely uninformed/misinformed view point.

its like trump supporters saying theres no evidence of collusion because *we* havent seen any.

people think criminal investigations take place in newsrooms lol.

This dude was basically saying exactly that: oh if Mueller's got all the answers where are they ?

Motherfucker it's called "collecting and evaluating evidence," you dumb sociopath. Strategy. Criminal investigations this big in scope don't just conclude overnight.

People are so. Fucking. Stupid.

And the thing is with most of them it's less that they don't think it's there and more that subconsciously they don't *want* it to be true because then their entire belief systems collapse. And this clown had the nerve to try and convince me that "Trump candidate," too. Oh OK sure man. Then why TF you spending so much time online fighting and scrapping with folks who are criticizing this traitorous piece of shit ?


>we have no idea what they know.
>
>this idea that 'if we havent seen it then it doesnt exist' is
>an extremely uninformed/misinformed view point.
>
>its like trump supporters saying theres no evidence of
>collusion because *we* havent seen any.
>
>people think criminal investigations take place in newsrooms
>lol.

there are things worse than peeing.

He's genuine in his Putin cock blowing because he's achieved 45's dream: total control, no dissent, no questions, no immigration, rules with an iron fist, and a true billionaire.

It's not because Vlad has leverage over him

You nailed the reasons Trump admires Putin and there is plenty of corrupt money flowing. Trump is in the White House as an investment and as an ego trip.

... his financial situation, for whatever reason. Tons of money laundering, etc. I think it's more about that than a pee tape, though that's likely part of it, too. Hence why he won't release tax returns and shit like that.

His supporters would drink bottled piss if it had a Trump logo on it.

I do think Putin has SOMETHING big over him. Trump knows there's a narrative out there that he's Putin's bitch, and he's still kissing his ass. I think it's far more than Putin flatters him, or him aspiring to be like Putin.

he does admire Putin and others like him, because he wants to be powerful like them. but there is absolutely more. I have zero doubt the Russians have damaging information on him.

There is no master plan of blackmail, there is a mutual interest in converting the world into an oligarchy, of making sticky-fingered nihilism the norm. He does Putin's bidding against NATO, the EU, etc, legitimizes them to his base and in return Putin puts him onto a lot of money in the "private" sector. Basically Trump is Maduro with much more expensive tastes and slightly more sophisticated demagoguery.

>There is no master plan of blackmail, there is a mutual
>interest in converting the world into an oligarchy, of making
>sticky-fingered nihilism the norm. He does Putin's bidding
>against NATO, the EU, etc, legitimizes them to his base and in
>return Putin puts him onto a lot of money in the "private"
>sector. Basically Trump is Maduro with much more expensive
>tastes and slightly more sophisticated demagoguery.

Most likely all of this^^^^^^

I am of the camp that there may be blackmail, but we can't depend on a blackmail plot being uncovered to get him out of office and we need to plan and act like a pee pee tape won't be uncovered....but there are several people in this post saying "THERE IS NO TAPE".

How da fuzz yall know?



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Do you think that Trump--a man who withstood "GRAB HER BY THE PUSSY," Stormy Daniels, 20+ sexual harassment allegations, known infidelity, hitting on married women, rape allegations against a 13-year-old and all sorts of other shit--is worried THAT much that the world finds out about his getting pissed on by Petra and Svetlana at the Moscow Double Tree? I think not.

Now, are there business ties and other unsavory things? Sure, but that isn't really leverage as it's in Putin/Russian interest to keep everything low profile also.

What I am saying--can't speak for anyone else--is that the driving interest here isn't Trump saving his reputation. He isn't being held captive. He is willfully doing all he is doing for personal gain.

The pee tape or some other compromising information would only be the beginning of Kompromat and the Russians get it on Trump not because they believe he will one day be President, but because that what they do to everyone worth doing it to.

So they get something compromising and they say hey we won't use it if you publish this Op-Ed piece. That's easy enough and doesn't feel like breaking the law. You do it and they know they have you if they ever need you.

So they cultivate you over the years when they need something and it's a long way in before you realize that they really have you, because you have broken the law. Like when you took that loan to get some real estate deals done you actually broke some international anti-money laundering laws, etc.

So then they can ask more and more of you. Worst of all they don't even put it to you like quid prio qo. They never say to you, if you don't do us this favor, we will publish this pee tape. They just ask you and you feel you have to do it because of not only the pee tape, but all the other stuff you did since the Pee tape. little by little you became theirs.

The thing that makes this so compelling is that we know that the Russians have been doing this sort of thing for decades with tons of different people. And we know Donald Trump is a pig.

We know that Donald Trump has been to parties in the 80s with hookers and drugs in NYC, and we are thinking that the Russians were above setting that up when Trump visited Moscow in the 80s and they wouldn't tape and record that ish?

And why reveal it? As soon as they reveal it they would lose all sway over the most powerful man in the world.


All that to say, it's way more complicated than they have a pee tape which makes DT do their bidding. The pee tape would have been the beginning of turning him into an Asset that they have used at various points throughout the years and turned into jackpot when his (or there) crackpot plan to run for president as a disruptor actually worked too well.


>Do you think that Trump--a man who withstood "GRAB HER BY THE
>PUSSY," Stormy Daniels, 20+ sexual harassment allegations,
>known infidelity, hitting on married women, rape allegations
>against a 13-year-old and all sorts of other shit--is worried
>THAT much that the world finds out about his getting pissed on
>by Petra and Svetlana at the Moscow Double Tree? I think not.
>
>
>Now, are there business ties and other unsavory things? Sure,
>but that isn't really leverage as it's in Putin/Russian
>interest to keep everything low profile also.
>
>What I am saying--can't speak for anyone else--is that the
>driving interest here isn't Trump saving his reputation. He
>isn't being held captive. He is willfully doing all he is
>doing for personal gain.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

>There is no master plan of blackmail, there is a mutual
>interest in converting the world into an oligarchy, of making
>sticky-fingered nihilism the norm. He does Putin's bidding
>against NATO, the EU, etc, legitimizes them to his base and in
>return Putin puts him onto a lot of money in the "private"
>sector. Basically Trump is Maduro with much more expensive
>tastes and slightly more sophisticated demagoguery.

What if Trump is way way WAY the fuck in over his head?
This falls under the Trump-did-not-really-want-to-be-president theory.

Whole time Putin is just standing there with his smirk like "Oh no, you don't want it" and Trump has to backtrack and bend because he knows Putin would bring the pain.

Here’s what someone else wrote elsewhere

“Putin sure does want to get his hands on Bill Browder. While the Russians have gone hard at him over the Magnitsky Act, this exposes Putin's weak point and if we dig a little bit more it just might expose Trump's weakness as well...the amount of laundered Russian funds that got cleaned in Trump laundromats. And I suspect those Russian "orphans" Putin uses as a threat are really part of an international sex traffic scheme for some very wealthy and powerful folks. I have no proof of that but when I look at diversionary tactics against a political opponent I see deliberate Freudian projection. Now I'm hungry for some pizza..”

with Jared working the camera. I dunno, I wouldn't think anything is impossible at this point.

https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/1018967261418344450

im honestly surprised that repubs are all pretty much condemning him. some flat out and some with a thin coat of sugar.

a southeast ohio repub party chairman just resigned because of it.
https://twitter.com/cgagin/status/1018965201364901899

and im seeing some others who are considering doing the same.

im seeing some normally sycophantic repub cult members on my political twitter timeline refusing to defend trump on this.

i think mueller played his hand perfectly. by releasing those indictments at the end of last week, he re-gained the narrative, fended off an effort from house republicans to impeach rosenstein, and drove up public opinion on russia so strongly/acutely that trumps actions with nato and russia look 10x more suspicious and borderline undeniable.

"Whatchu gon do now nigga??"!!



>i think mueller played his hand perfectly. by releasing those
>indictments at the end of last week, he re-gained the
>narrative, fended off an effort from house republicans to
>impeach rosenstein, and drove up public opinion on russia so
>strongly/acutely that trumps actions with nato and russia look
>10x more suspicious and borderline undeniable.

saying mueller was trying to sabotage the summit. i wonder if he wanted to go that route but someone talked him off the ledge.

In some ways I like Rand Paul but in most I hate his guts. Today fell into the latter. He basically tried to impeach the credentials of the top-ranking officials in the FBI and disarm American intelligence. Those are not bad ideas in and of themselves (they were liberal platforms long ago before we got on board with Big Brother, too), but in THIS context? What about literally everyone else inside our government that isn't Trump? In the end he conceded that Russia likely interfered in the elections but that they didn't manipulate the actual vote (they investigated that and possibly tried even if they may not have been successful, which he ignored). He went on and on about how it's good to have direct contact with Russia (which we have always had and no one important is asserting that we should not). Overall he did everything he could to dance around the debacle today and the ongoing shit show. I guess that says he will continue to seek re-election more than anything else.

consistently votes against sanctions, parrots putin talking points on syria, etc.

he's on that treason train.....

https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1019039370903523329

https://gfycat.com/IlliterateFlickeringFish

And I state that not at you but in general.
It’s easy to jokey joke downplay the crisis of humanity we’re in. But there’s definitely something broken about the needs for Americans to soft wash the villains.

Meant to say that "there was no reason to believe that it wasn't Russia"

https://media.giphy.com/media/G4ZNYMQVMH6us/giphy.gif

And then realized my mistake.

So I realized I need to back track"

... but, immediately after saying "I don't see any reason to believe it would be Russia" he said "Putin was very strong and powerful in his denial today."

So like, if he just missed a "not" in between "would" and "be" then how does he explain away the second part of the statement ?

His shit is so transparent but spineless Repugs will live by it anyway.

Had that been the issue (lol lol) they/he could
have tweeted a correction within an hour.

They had 24 hours, and this is the best they could
cook up?

So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server -- haven't they taken the server. Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?

I've been wondering that, I've been asking that for months and months and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?

With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin; he just said it's not Russia.

I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server.

But I have -- I have confidence in both parties. I -- I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They're missing; where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's e-mails? 33,000 e-mails gone -- just gone. I think in Russia they wouldn't be gone so easily. I think it's a disgrace that we can't get Hillary Clinton's 33,000 e-mails.

So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. OK?

I mean to say I didn't fuck her but she meant nothing to me

...to the Emperor of Japan? Always fun times.

The President wrote in sharpie “THERE WAS NO COLUSION” during a meeting with congressional members.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiVTynWWkAE-K57.jpg

https://twitter.com/tom__brenner/status/1019313023893327874



Look closer at what he CROSSED OUT! A sentence about bringing those who meddled, to justice. Crossed out

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiVX8AXU8AAXu5T.jpg

https://twitter.com/TheyWereStolen/status/1019317585039392768

administration for me

couldn't sum it up any better.

https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/1019302161962995712

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senate-hearing-interpreter-trump-putin_us_5b4e4d86e4b0de86f487a4e3

patriotism with these people is only a means to an end.

nothing like this is going to convince them they shouldn't back this guy. they knew this is who he was.

reclaim it if you want, that's on you. shit on him for this election mess and being a russian puppet, cause he is that.

but don't be too gleeful and chill with the pearl harbor references. it's not a strategy, and it's likely to lead to looking foolish as fuck in the future.

this happened: https://www.thenation.com/article/the-temptations-of-militarism-general-john-allen-at-the-dnc/

it wasn't a good thing.

the american values that trump and his party needs to lose on are about justice, equity, true freedom. healthcare, fair wages, climate.

if he loses on putin, it needs to be because putin's a despicable dictator who doesn't care about his people either, not because putin's a vague threat to america.

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1019389905020051456

NOBODY respects a groveler or turncoat. Even if it’s to you. Now we have a debased and embarrassed fragile old white man on our hands.

Literally Kremlin propaganda. Trump did a post Putin interview with Tucker Carlson.
In his defense of his naive opposition to NATO Tucker just "randomly" picked Montenegro as country that he wouldn't want his son to have to fight a war to defend.
And Trump enthusiastically agrees saying Montenegro a tiny country with very aggressive people. Aggressive people? “They may get aggressive, and, congratulations, you’re in World War III”

I was watching and thinking, "How the hell did you even come up with Montenegro as your example?"

Come to find out Russia had been accused of organizing a coup in 2016 to assassinate the Prime Minister of Montenegro and install a pro-Russia prime minister. And Montenegro just joined NATO last year.

You know Trump (probably Tucker too) didn't even know Montenegro existed until a few days ago

no one told him

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-casts-doubt-on-russian-cyberattack-warning-from-dni-coats/

I really don't see this going on much longer

Either we pass legislation that makes him the queen of england

or he is removed

for over almost 2 decades now we've been increasing military spending...in the name of national security...to have our 'leader' be the biggest threat.

This shit baffles me
Their exact same agenda will pass with Pence as POTUS
shit, Pence might get it done faster
no drama, no treason, no need to express "concern" and answer for every tweet

What is it about this guy. Does Trump have dirt on every single Repugnantcan in Congress or something ? Their gutlessness is mindblowing otherwise. Because as you said I don't envision that they'd suffer much, if at all, by getting rid of this treasonous squid and going with Pence who at least has a brain. Added bonus: he can maybe appeal to the LGBTQ demographic if he ever comes out of the closet, giving the Repugs some momentum going into November.

I mean that in both senses of the term

Enough to know that he'll be a reliable loyal repug 100% in lockstep with their agenda
Repugs in Congress have literally nothing to worry about
So why the fear of 45?
Unless they don't trust Pence for some reason?
it can't be the gay rumors
I mean yeah evangelicals will flip
but again, they support a twice divorced thrice married porn star paying off multiple affair dude over an actual "Christian"?
unless...
all the infidelity and sleaze and everything else is excused because
"at least it was with women"
weebay.gif

Also enough as in "shut up, I've heard enough"

>I mean that in both senses of the term
>
>Enough to know that he'll be a reliable loyal repug 100% in
>lockstep with their agenda
>Repugs in Congress have literally nothing to worry about
>So why the fear of 45?
>Unless they don't trust Pence for some reason?
>it can't be the gay rumors
>I mean yeah evangelicals will flip
>but again, they support a twice divorced thrice married porn
>star paying off multiple affair dude over an actual
>"Christian"?
>unless...
>all the infidelity and sleaze and everything else is excused
>because
>"at least it was with women"
>weebay.gif

Yea it can't be the gay thing. Def not. It's mindblowing. Like you said Trump is more a risk to Repugs than ... literally anyone ever. Pence would tow the line faithfully.


>Also enough as in "shut up, I've heard enough"

Hahahahaha definitely. I mean he's no better for regular people with brains, to be sure. Progressives, etc. But for the future of America, he is INFINITELY better than 45*. He may do some shortterm regular old Repugnantcan damage but he (I don't think, at least) ain't gonna sell us out to Russia.

Taking Putin's word over US Intelligence = patriotic

Do I have that right?

Trumpsters are the defenders of all that is patriotic in the US

...how do they rationalize this bullshit...

?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-officials-at-a-fucking-loss-over-latest-russia-sell-out

U.S. Officials ‘at a Fucking Loss’ Over Latest Russia Sell Out

The White House’s refusal to rule out turning over former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul to the Russians has current and former State Department officials seeing red.

SPENCER ACKERMAN
07.18.18 5:36 PM ET

Current and former American diplomats are expressing disgust and horror over the White House’s willingness to entertain permitting Russian officials to question a prominent former U.S. ambassador.

One serving diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was “at a fucking loss” over comments that can be expected to chill American diplomacy in hostile or authoritarian countries – a comment echoed by former State Department officials as well.

“It’s beyond disgraceful. It’s fundamentally ignorant with regard to how we conduct diplomacy or what that means. It really puts in jeopardy the professional independence of diplomats anywhere in the world, if the consequence of their actions is going to be potentially being turned over to a foreign government,” the U.S. diplomat told The Daily Beast.

During President Trump’s press conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Putin pivoted a question about extraditing the 12 Russian intelligence officers whom Robert Mueller has indicted into a quid pro quo for going after longtime betes noire currently beyond his reach.

Putin singled out Bill Browder, whose exposure of widespread Russian tax fraud led to the passage of a U.S. human rights sanctions law Putin hates. Standing next to Trump, the Russian president accused Browder of masterminding an illegal campaign contribution to Hillary Clinton and alleging vaguely that he had “solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers guided these transactions.” Should Trump permit the Russians to question people around Browder, Putin hinted, he will let Mueller’s people be “present at questioning” of the intelligence officers.

On Wednesday, Russian prosecutors escalated the stakes. The prosecutor-general’s office said it wanted to interview Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, another Putin bete noire. McFaul—the Obama-era ambassador to Moscow—replied on Twitter that the Russians know well that he wasn’t even in Russia during the relevant time frame for any case against Browder.

At the White House, however, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to rule out permitting the Russians to question McFaul. Sanders said that there had been “some conversation” in Helsinki about the issue, though Trump made no “commitment.”

“The president is gonna meet with his team and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement on that,” Sanders said.

By contrast, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert called the Russian request for McFaul “absolutely absurd”—which was closer in line with how former U.S. diplomats viewed Putin’s gambit.

“If the U.S. would make a former diplomat avail for questioning by a foreign government without evidence of wrongdoing, then that would be quite horrifying,” said Ron Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan and current president of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Susan Rice, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Barack Obama’s national security adviser, tweeted that the lack of commitment to protecting McFaul was “beyond outrageous. Amb. McFaul served our country honorably and with full diplomatic immunity. If the White House cannot defend and protect our diplomats, like our service members, they are serving a hostile foreign power not the American people.”

McFaul did not respond to a request for comment.

David Wade, who was Secretary of State John Kerry’s chief of staff, said that the White House refusal to disavow Putin on McFaul crossed a line “from demoralizing to dangerous” for American diplomats.

“To even hint that there’s some element of credibility to Russian disruptions and distractions puts a bullseye on the back of any diplomat and invites authoritarian regimes to bully and threaten American public servants for the crime of doing their job. No administration should require a lesson or reminder in why this is reprehensible,” Wade said.

Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and spokesman for the Obama National Security Council, said Sanders’ comments made Trump look “even weaker” than during Trump’s Monday press conference with Putin. “Trump has always been all too eager to cave to Putin, but, as far as we know, it’d been largely in the abstract. He sells out our intelligence community, attacks NATO, shelves our commitment to human rights. But Putin now has specific demands in the form of human beings—one of them formerly our designated representative to Russia,” Price said.

“By failing to reject the idea out of hand – immediately and forcefully – Trump signaled that absolutely nothing is off limits when it comes to Putin. And just as shocking, he’s willing to play Putin’s brand of ball, in which the world is purely transactional and lives are expendable.”

The current U.S. diplomat said the openness to turning over McFaul capped off a shocking week for U.S. geopolitics.

“The president has first and foremost his interests at the top of his mind, as opposed to the government’s. That’s very clear over the past week and a half, between shitting on our NATO allies and kissing Putin’s ass,” the diplomat said. “He cares more about himself than the nation and any of us who serve it.”

The diplomat continued: “Either he’s compromised by Putin or he’s a pussy, in which case he should grab himself.”


—with additional reporting by Sam Stein

a coup/civil war would be justified.

as if we dont know whats going on. this dude is a fucking traitor working in the interest of a foreign government.

everything since 2016 that they say people are overreacting to ends up proving to be true.

last year chuck todd literally said the steele dossier was fake news.
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/819316938811719683

with journalists jailed, immigrants and muslims interned or forcefully deported, political opponents being sidelined by frivolous investigations, and america now aligned with russia and israel in a new authoritarian axis of evil...i can see the media a decade from now finally coming to the realization 'oh yeah maybe trump was like hitler'.

*cue Dipset Anthem*

Ok on the real, not exactly sure but I thought diplomatic immunity means you can't be arrested or questioned or anything having to do with the law in another country

This (alleged) Russian spy that just got locked up
Prosecutors requested (and were granted) no bail because she was a flight risk
they explicitly said if she went to the Russian embassy or jumped into a car with diplomatic plates there was nothing they could do
so again, WTF? an AMBASSADOR????

TRUMP: Now we can talk about Putin. I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. If Russia and the United States got along well and went after ISIS, that would be good.

He has no respect for her. He has no respect for our president. And I'll tell you what: We're in very serious trouble, because we have a country with tremendous numbers of nuclear warheads -- 1,800, by the way -- where they expanded and we didn't, 1,800 nuclear warheads. And she's playing chicken. Look, Putin...

WALLACE: Wait, but...

TRUMP: ... from everything I see, has no respect for this person.

CLINTON: Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

TRUMP: No puppet. No puppet.

CLINTON: And it's pretty clear...

TRUMP: You're the puppet!

CLINTON: It's pretty clear you won't admit...

TRUMP: No, you're the puppet.

CLINTON: ... that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.

So I think that this is such an unprecedented situation. We've never had a foreign government trying to interfere in our election. We have 17 -- 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing.

WALLACE: Secretary Clinton...

CLINTON: And I think it's time you take a stand...

TRUMP: She has no idea whether it's Russia, China, or anybody else.

CLINTON: I am not quoting myself.

TRUMP: She has no idea.

CLINTON: I am quoting 17...

TRUMP: Hillary, you have no idea.

CLINTON: ... 17 intelligence -- do you doubt 17 military and civilian...

TRUMP: And our country has no idea.

CLINTON: ... agencies.

TRUMP: Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it.

CLINTON: Well, he'd rather believe Vladimir Putin than the military and civilian intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect us.

dialogue was about as prophetic as it could possibly be.

... it's so obvious that this was a responsible adult vs. a petulant, ignorant child. It's fucking unbelievable. Hillary didn't come off "likable" which is part of why she didn't appeal or inspire folks but she was clearly head and shoulders above this fucking clown in terms of experience, knowledge, etc.

And I blame the media significantly for spending so much time focusing on the click-bait headlines, the exceptional bullshit, rather than what was at stake. AND THEY'RE STILL FUCKING DOING IT. This is no longer just a funny joke. It never really was. But right now shit is as bad as it's been for this country in nearly 40 years. We're literally being torn apart and sold to a hostile foreign government and nobody cares. WHY

Before election (not taking him seriously), after election (not taking how dire our situation was seriously), first year of presidency (continuing to focus on sensational headlines rather than the big picture), to now ... no matter how hard they try to correct it not, the damage is done.

We expect this shit from Faux News ... but the reputable outlets have not helped.

dems are held to a million different traditional standards.

repubs are basically just judged by how well their actions play to their base.

like fam...they literally lectured dems on civility while children were being intentionally kidnapped by our government and shipped to different states like slaves.

... re: the "biased, leftwing media". Uhhhh no.

But I guess when you set expectations as low as the Repugs have for the last 40 years the media kind of expects it from you. I dunno. It's fucked.


>dems are held to a million different traditional standards.
>
>repubs are basically just judged by how well their actions
>play to their base.
>
>like fam...they literally lectured dems on civility while
>children were being intentionally kidnapped by our government
>and shipped to different states like slaves.

if you ever wondered why we are here.

one candidate got shitted on for knowing too much.

the other candidate never even got pressed to back up his proposals with concrete details.

win. Supposedly woke people STILL arguing they are the same.



**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

... run on a SINGLE PLATFORM, like not a SINGLE IDEA ... and no one took him to task.

I hate this world.


>RE: the media criticized her for being 'over-prepared'.
>if you ever wondered why we are here.
>
>one candidate got shitted on for knowing too much.
>
>the other candidate never even got pressed to back up his
>proposals with concrete details.

he was briefed before he became president, shown hard evidence that we were attacked by Russia and the orders came from Putin. Yet he still lies to the American people every day.

we really have a crisis of disregard for experience/expertise in this country.

being too wise and knowledgeable is actually a negative.

She methodically picked him apart piece by piece, and he looked like the obviously didn't read the book kid trying to wing his report. Except on coke.

Too bad it didn't matter. People who watched had their minds made up. Most people who didn't watch had their minds made up. Everyone else just saw clips of Trump zingers, SNL sketches, and pictures of Ken Bone's sweater.

>She methodically picked him apart piece by piece, and he
>looked like the obviously didn't read the book kid trying to
>wing his report. Except on coke.
>
>Too bad it didn't matter. People who watched had their minds
>made up. Most people who didn't watch had their minds made up.
>Everyone else just saw clips of Trump zingers, SNL sketches,
>and pictures of Ken Bone's sweater.

I think it was more that she had no charisma. Even if everything she said was true and informational and well-read, it came off stiff and rehearsed. To stupid people/undecided voters, that shit matters.

Meanwhile, all Trump HAD was charisma. Like you rightfully said he had no idea what he was talking about, had no ideas, spoke with zero substance ... but he had an answer to everything Hillary said and it worked #becausetheinternet and her pointed attacks didn't land as well as they would've with anyone else.

the debate that got her was the first when her strategy was to let him make a fool of himself, not realizing that millions of voters didn't see him as an incompetent jackass. she definitely should have been much more aggressive on that one. and imagine lester holt wishes he had a time machine.

she was also phased from the deplorables backlash at that point, so she didn't go in until later. she did better with the last debate.

then comey opening up the emails like a week later really fucked up any punch she had in the third debate with regards to being compromised.

>the debate that got her was the first when her strategy was
>to let him make a fool of himself, not realizing that millions
>of voters didn't see him as an incompetent jackass. she
>definitely should have been much more aggressive on that one.
>and imagine lester holt wishes he had a time machine.

I forgot about the disaster that was the first debate. I say "disaster" in hindsight cause at the time I thought it wasn't necessarily a terrible strategy but looking back she should've been all over him from the get go. Because he had already said and done a bunch of shit that should've knocked him out in all of the Repub debates and it didn't hurt him, so what made her/us think that it would happen once it got down to the final two ? Ugh.


>she was also phased from the deplorables backlash at that
>point, so she didn't go in until later. she did better with
>the last debate.

Ughhhhh that was crazy. Cause she was right (again) but she should've known better. And now I can't even use that word to describe how deplorable Trump people are because they'll just throw it back in my face like the idiots they are.


>then comey opening up the emails like a week later really
>fucked up any punch she had in the third debate with regards
>to being compromised.

*cough* Russia *cough*

typed this whole thing then realized you were talking referring to the 1st debate lol

All of this information was out there from day 1

ALL OF IT.

2.5 years later, folks are clutching pearls

When the time to act has passed

I really don't get it...at all

I guess Trumpsters really managed to turn the POTUS elections into a reality game show

HRC didn't lose...she got voted off the island

SMH

>I guess Trumpsters really managed to turn the POTUS elections
>into a reality game show
>
>HRC didn't lose...she got voted off the island
>
>SMH

Yep. That's all it was. A reality game show. So charisma mattered more than substance and experience and brains.

youll be next on that Summer Jam screen

Saw this on twitter, not taking credit for it.

55% of the total population disapprove. That'll buy, I guess, another week of bad headlines for Trump before the news cycle turns to the next thing. Presumably it'll be about Democrats 'overreaching.'

We're still fucked.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-trump-putin-meeting-helsinki-summit-russia-election-meddling/

... ANYTHING ABOUT THE FUCKING MEETING. Repugnantcans voted down an attempt to subpoena the only other person allowed in the meeting, a fucking translator. THEY VOTED IT DOWN. These cunts are ALL complicit. I hope they all get cancer.

Repugnantcan voters are so fucking stupid.

but even the ones who disapprove will still support him no matter what

I can’t find the article. But immediately after the inagutation there was a survey with people to ask about the crowd size. When it came to Republicans, even when shown comparitove pictures they went with the Trump one. They just simply lied, they knew their marching orders and they just said what they were, own credibility be damned. I’ve never let that go. Like they’re just fucking liars and will say whatever needs to be said to support their “team”

Link

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/25/we-asked-people-which-inauguration-crowd-was-bigger-heres-what-they-said/

But what's even more noteworthy is that 15 percent of people who voted for Trump told us that more people were in the image on the left — the photo from Trump's inauguration — than the picture on the right. We got that answer from only 2 percent of Clinton voters and 3 percent of nonvoters.

Even when the photographic evidence was directly in front of them and the question was straightforward, one in seven Trump supporters gave the clearly false answer.

for people who generally don't do well with taking responsibility for themselves...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/vladimir-putin/nation-s-top-intel-official-coats-says-he-wishes-trump-n892846

Nation's top intel official Coats says he wishes Trump hadn't met alone with Putin

DNI Dan Coats told Andrea Mitchell that he also doesn't know what Trump and Putin said to each other in Helsinki.

by Ken Dilanian / Jul.19.2018 / 1:54 PM ET / Updated 3:24 PM ET

ASPEN, Colo. — Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said Thursday he wished President Donald Trump had not met alone with Vladimir Putin of Russia.

In an extraordinary acknowledgement, the nation's spy chief said he had no idea what was said in the Helsinki summit Monday between Trump and the Russian president.

"If he had asked me how that ought to be conducted, I would have suggested a different way," Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana, told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell at the Aspen Security Forum. "But that's not my role, that's not my job…it is what it is."

While Coats was speaking in Aspen, the White House announced that Trump has asked that Putin be invited to Washington in the fall. When Mitchell questioned Coats about the announcement, Coats said he was unaware of the invitation.

Later, Coats added that his office would brief Trump on the intelligence risks of having Putin in the country. And he said he would recommend they not meet alone.

Coats also expressed displeasure over Trump's comments in Helsinki seeming to question the unanimous U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. As DNI, Coats oversees the CIA, NSA and 14 other intelligence agencies.

"I wish he had made a different statement, but I think that now that has been clarified based on his late reactions to this," Coats said.

"It's undeniable that the Russians are taking the lead on this," Coats added. "They are the ones that are trying to undermine our basic values. We need to make sure that we call them out on this, that they are not able to make sure they can do this in elections coming up."

On Friday, Coats said in a speech that Russia continues to seek to undermine American democracy by planting propaganda on American social media. While the U.S. currently sees no evidence of an attempt to interfere directly in the 2018 midterm election, "it's just one click of the keyboard that could change this narrative," he told Mitchell.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/19/trump-russia-putin-second-meeting-732358

I'm down for the shit show that's sure to follow:

-DC shuts down with mass protests
-Mueller indicts Putin, FBI agents greet him at Dulles (pipe dream but just imagine)
-Repugs express "concern" at a murderous dictator getting a state visit
-Mariachi bands perform all night in front of whatever hotel Putin and his entourage stay at (by whatever hotel I mean the 45 international): http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/397813-former-clinton-adviser-hires-mariachi-band-to-play-at-anti-trump

Merkel
May
Trudeau
Macron
Pena Nieto

but his dearest Vlad is a great guy, straight shooter, etc...

LOL

SMH

WTF.

but still, crazy things are happening and I have a feeling things are going to get crazier these next couple months.

I was wrong about all of them.

At this point I doubt nothing when it comes to this vile beast. Someone could easily convince me that he is in talks to sell the USA wholesale to the highest bidder Xi, Jong-un, or Putin.

And wouldn't make the top ten bad things he's done.

The fact that Putin will probably convince him to bomb Georgia or something during the meeting is what's scary.

>And wouldn't make the top ten bad things he's done.

... but that's also true.

The optics of bringing a murderous dictator to DC and being all chummy with him, on top of the inherent risk of allowing a former KGB agent access to the most important house in the country ..... yea it's a big deal.

But again, it's not the worst thing 45* will have done. Just piles on top of all the negative shit.

Has he done anything good ? Trumpsters love to bring up the economy and unemployment, but none of these morons can actually point to a specific action 45* took, or policy he enacted, to effect those things at all. Because he *didn't* take any action, there was no policy that improved those statistics. The upswing was happening for years before he got into office, and simply continued their trajectory. The fact that he's somehow getting credit for that shit now from these stupid people, despite having done literally nothing, is laughable.


>The fact that Putin will probably convince him to bomb Georgia
>or something during the meeting is what's scary.

But admittedly none who had just interfered in our most recent national election, so that would be new.

They still point to the tax cuts as credit for the economy, despite the fact that the "good" economy was in place years before and most of the corporate savings has gone to shareholder buybacks anyway. But these people will die believing trickle-down economics is going to save everyone, we just need to believe in it.

It takes years to determine how taxes affect the economy so that's just some bullshit on its face. Fuck Repugnantcans.

Re: Putin/White House yea ... Russia hasn't been invited because they are fucking spies. They'll bug the WH. Haha. So yea ... other murderous dictators are not the same as THIS murderous dictator but you already said that.

Without any US press and the only reason we found out about it was because of the Russian photographers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/05/10/the-strange-oval-office-meeting-between-trump-lavrov-and-kislyak/?utm_term=.6d8b9daad1b4

Also Donald Trump is still using an unsecured phone and traveling the world

In short
He’s BEEN bugged.

"So I just learned, and a lot of people don't know this, but there's ANOTHER Georgia. And this other Georgia is right next to Russia. A lot of people don't know that.

"Anyway, the bombings we did hardly caused a scratch. It's a sign of just how well prepared our great military is. We needed to test our defenses! What were we supposed to do, just wait for someone ELSE to bomb us? I call it Trump Derangement Syndrome. But the really important story is ... did you hear about where Hillary kept her emails?!"


>The fact that Putin will probably convince him to bomb Georgia
>or something during the meeting is what's scary.

... "you proud Vladdy !!?!"

"Should I specify the . . . no, he'd nuke Macon without a second thought."

Spycraft 101: The number one goal of the first meeting is to get a second meeting.

https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1020141038181089280

NSA John Bolton, just two days after it was disclosed he appeared in a Russian spy's video, has been revealed as the Trump official who extended the "second summit" offer to Putin—while somehow failing to notify (despite being the NSA) the DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1020364466523910144

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/25/white-house-says-trump-wont-meet-putin-until-next-year-740492

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/putin-said-to-have-made-trump-a-new-offer-on-ukraine-at-summit

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/politics/senate-votes-republicans-russia/index.html

98-0

to the 2nd point, looks like the interview exchange is off.

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1022208907593371648

https://shareblue.com/trump-reversal-putin-meeting-paris/

Trump changes plans to meet with Putin after Putin summons him
By Caroline Orr - October 25, 2018

Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin the week after midterm elections — a major change in plans that came after Putin called for it.

Russian and U.S. officials announced this week that Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov. 11, the week after midterm elections and four months after the two world leaders met at the disastrous Helsinki summit.

The announcement, which came while national security adviser John Bolton was in Moscow for talks with Russian officials, marks a sharp reversal from the Trump administration’s previous position on a bilateral meeting between the two men.

In July, Bolton announced that the next meeting between Trump and the Russian president would be postponed until 2019, citing the Russia investigation as his rationale for the delay.

But apparently Putin didn’t want to wait that long.

As investigative journalist Julia Davis reported in late September, Russian state media — the official mouthpiece for the Kremlin— made a bold prediction about a future meeting between the leaders, saying there is a “great probability” that Trump and Putin would meet in Paris on Nov. 11, 2018.

And nearly a month to the day later, Bolton announced that Trump wants to meet Putin in Paris on Nov. 11, 2018.

A Kremlin foreign policy aide delivered a similar announcement, saying Bolton had confirmed a preliminary agreement for a bilateral meeting in Paris.

No rationale was given for the sudden reversal in the Trump administration’s position — perhaps because no rationale was needed, since the move is entirely in line with Trump’s posture toward Putin.

Trump has spent most of his presidency deferring to Putin and following his orders on everything from bashing America’s intelligence agencies, to denying Russia’s election interference, to slow-walking sanctions, and more.

In August, Russian state media warned Trump to “do what we say” if he wants their help in the elections. Judging by this week’s announcement, it appears that Trump heeded the warning.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-putins-useful-idiot-alexander-vindman-says-2020-09-14

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/01/more-evidence-trumps-subservience-putin-we-still-dont-know-why/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-is-putins-useful-idiot-alexander-vindman-says-2020-09-14

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/01/more-evidence-trumps-subservience-putin-we-still-dont-know-why/

"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly