(Systemic is the correct term, not systematic as I wrote)
None of them are part of the system except maybe Roger Stone, and most of what they were charged with didn’t have anything to do with the campaign. They were easy targets in an attempt to make Special Council look like it was accomplishing something.
Manafort and Gates were charged with financial crimes that took place years before the election.
Stone is charged with procedural crimes (not cooperating with the investigation) and will probably walk.
Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI about talking to the Russian Ambassador several weeks before the new administration took office - a violation of the Logan act, but it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Lausten - What you just defined TDS as is; Everybody spies on each other therefore when Trump does it, it is okay. If you don’t agree with that, you’re deranged.
Wake up to the real world. Trump did not spy on anyone. My god man, have you not been watching the news for the last two years? There was no spying or collusion by Trump. Digging up dirt and spying are different issues. Digging up dirt and collusion are different issues.
I said digging up dirt is part of the political process that has been going on in America’s political system before you were even born. I have no problem with that.
Spying and collusion is against the law and is not part of America’s political system. If you can’t see or understand the difference, then you have TDS. And if you are against Spying and Collusion and not admitting that it has taken place by the Democrats, then again you have TDS.
Did not Democrats working in the government, lie to be able to spy on Trump? And when caught say that they were spying on Trump for his own good? They were protecting Trump.
Was a law firm paid 10M by Democrats to arrange a spy from a foreign nation to conclude with Russia to be able to change the out come of an American election?
Collusion just means planning something with someone with some bad or unseemly purpose. It is not really a legal term at all. I am only addressing this because the word is now ubiquitous, since “no collusion” has been said thousands of times by our current POTUS in the past 2 yrs. So, technically, (just taking this one example), our POTUS was publicly signaling to Russia to get Hillary’s missing emails and get them released to the public. And the Russians, quickly responded by releasing some Democrat emails. I would say that was a kind of planning with Russia. What is unseemly about it, is that Russia is an adversary that has been shown to have been interfering in our election at the time, with the intent to help Trump and hurt Clinton. So that is undoubtedly, by definition, collusion. So the thousands of times that our POTUS, his cohorts, and supporters have said “no collusion” they has been lying, or in some cases, some of them may have just not known what they were talking about.
So, whatever my motivation, for saying the above, even if it were due to being “butt hurt” as the right wingers love to say, the statement is still valid. Every statement that there was no collusion with Russia by our current POTUS’s 2016 campaign, is technically false.
And to the justifying of the “Russia, if you’re listening…” collusion, not being collusion, because it was “just a joke”. This would require believing that our current POTUS, did not, at the time, want Russia to do what he asked. That is beyond credulity. He wanted to win the election, and Russia doing what he asked, would help him win. Plus some things are still quite wrong, even if you claim you were joking. (e.g., the comedian who posted a picture of herself holding up an effigy of the severed head of our current POTUS, was wrong, even though, as a comedian she obviously meant it to be funny commentary.)
TimB - Every statement that there was no collusion with Russia by our current POTUS’s 2016 campaign, is technically false.
All this base upon a joke by the president. So, what if Trump wanted the Russians, the Vatican or any one else to come up the Clinton emails. So did half the nation. So, don’t blame Trump for what half the nation was saying because that would be really reaching.
Four Americans are dead, and the emails are missing. That is what concerns a lot of Americans. The emails may also show what Clinton did to the Russian elections. We know the State Department involvement in the Ukraine elections started a civil war by the United States getting people that were to far left elected in Ukraine.
Where is the proof that the Russians hacked the emails?
Yes, there has been 12 Russian indicted for hacking. But that is alleged hacking. In America one is still innocent until proven guilty. They are allowed to have their day in court. Is that not correct. Therefore, what you are saying is incorrect. WikiLeaks has always claimed that it was not Russia that gave them emails. We know now that the claim that Roger Stone was involved with WikiLeaks and the DNC emails has turned out to be totally false. The only thing that stopped the prosecution of Roger Stone was the spotlight of the public and Fox News. Being innocent don’t mean a lot when it comes to stopping the Democrat driven goals. Just look at Democrat prosecution of Arthur Andersen and the Supreme Court rulings that followed.
How is Russia an adversary? When were we ever at war with Russia? Don’t we share a space program with Russia? Do we interfere with the Russian elections? Russia says we do. Do you want them to go to war with us? Are you sure what we are seeing with Russia isn’t nothing more than a little reciprocity?
Lausten -Did you have a problem with people breaking into a psychiatrist’s office to “dig up dirt” on opponents? How is that different from hacking a server?
At the time that took place. I followed the news but was to busy working to form an opinion from all the facts that was in the news. Morally it is wrong and very bad for our government.
You call that an attack on America. I call it an attack on the DNC. Don’t confuse the United States of America with the Socialist Country of CalYork.
Lausten, what is the number of spies that were used on Trump? It started out as one. Last I heard it was up to three. But that it had to be kept secret to protect the spies. No good source yet, so cannot be sure. Can’t wait for that to unravel and get open to sunlight.
The FBI’s own guidelines restrict the deployment of informants to spy on Americans.
Clapper said the Trump should be “happy” that the FBI was “spying” on his campaign.
It is believed that Stefan Halper in project crossfire hurricane spied on Trump campaign.
Joseph Mifsud claims to have met with high-level Russian government officials who have “dirt” on Clinton. Papadopoulos told the FBI that Mifsud said, “the Russians had emails of Clinton” and “they have thousands of emails.”
Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian woman he claimed was Putin’s niece. The FBI was able to open an investigation based upon data supplied by their own spy. What does the news say about Mifsud? Nothing, because no one can find him.
The problem is that Mifsud is a spy. Papadopoulos got 14 day in jail for lying to the FBI.
Who is Joseph Mifsud? Mifsud, Alexander Downer and Stefan Halper may have all been contract spies working for the government out of Britain to spy on Trump.
Isn’t it kind of funny how Clinton had missing emails, then missing emails are being used by our spies? And of course, Russia is to blame if anyone starts looking around.
What do want to bet that the Muller report has the Mifsud stuff redacted?
Mike, If half the nation wanted Russia to find and release Hillary’s emails, in order to hurt her campaign and help the Trumpo campaign, and they communicated this to Russia, and Russia responded accordingly, then that would be collusion by half of our nation. (Maybe not illegal, but collusion, nevertheless.) The Trumpo Tower mtg was another example of clear collusion, tho perhaps not rising to the level an illegal conspiracy.
Also, suggesting that there was no Russian interference in the last Pres election because the Russians were never found guilty for it in a court of law is ridiculous. Clear and convincing evidence was found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the intent of helping the Trumpo campaign and hurting the Clinton campaign. If we must wait for the Russians to turn themselves in and be tried, we will be waiting forever. In the meantime, must we pretend that they did nothing, since they have not been proven so in an American court? As a patriotic American I am nevertheless opposed to us interfering in democratic elections anywhere. I don’t know if we have interfered in Russian elections, but I’m pretty sure that their elections are not genuinely democratic, but are rather rigged to insure that Putin gets whatever office that he wants.
Putin has shown over and over that his goals are to sow chaos among the members of NATO, and to re-establish control over as much of the former Soviet Union as possible. As a high ranking KGB member during the cold war he is a master of using disinformation to achieve his goals. Oh yes, we were at war with the Soviet Union. It was called a cold war, but EVERY DAY we faced the prospect of an imminent nuclear holocaust. The Russians are pursuing their goals all around the globe and are having success. They are even now, moving into the western hemisphere and our current courage impaired POTUS is not defending the long held Monroe Doctrine as so many previous Presidents have.
And in regard to Wikileaks, its leader has consistently been aligned with Russia. So they are not credible in denying Russian assistance. Have u ever noticed that Wikileaks often leaks info that embarrasses or hurts the U.S., but NEVER leaks any info that is substantially anti-Russian? So the Russian Kleptocracy a form of govt that is most akin to a Mafia crime syndicate, never has anything negative that is newsworthy. I don’t think so.
Mike, Maybe Mifsud was a double agent. I think it is possible that Putin decided to silence him. So he is probably dead now. The Russians are not shy about killing people who are perceived threats, even if those people are in another country.
I hope that we get to see the unredacted Mueller report but the Trumpo AG (Barr) appears unwilling to provide that even to Congress. Barr has committed to release a redacted version, but it is taking almost 3 wks. That’s a LOT of redacting. A LOT of literal cover-up.
As I have asked many times in the past, what the hell are you talking about? How is Papadopoulos consorting with a Russian help your case?
Anyway, in answer to just about every point you have raised, read this. Take a day or two. Try to refute any one of the points. Not the speculation, the points, the facts. Leave the speculation for a couple years, we’ll probably both be here. We can review it while Trump is in handcuffs.
OK, i read Richard’s predictions and conclusions. A lot of left leaning stuff that has been quoted a million times because nothing of importance can back the claims. Just goes to show, anyone can have TDS.
What do you mean you don’t know if America interfered in Russian elections? Come on now. You’re pulling my leg.
Everybody knows Hillary almost got Putin thrown out of office by her interference in the 2011 Russian elections. And Hillary wasn’t just picking on Putin, she was screwing with countries all around the world.
Don’t tell me next that you don’t understand the whole Ukrainian mess was because of Hillary. But in 2016 the Ukrainians were paying Hillary back by interfering in the US elections helping Hillary. There is a probe going on in Ukraine right now about Hillary colluding with Ukraine. She got them meddling in the 2016 election.
Just look at the mess Hillary did with our relationship with Turkey. Almost got out military kicked out.
Hillary spent more miles that anyone dumping taxpayers’ dollars in these countries to setup the leaders in office. And then the payback was for all these countries to help her when she ran for office.
That can be proven by the emails. Oh, darn, I can’t find the emails. Russia backfired on her when she wasn’t able to get Putin out of office.
How do you think the CIA, DOJ and FBI were able to work together against Trump? Hillary had them all working together long before Trump.
Anyone can have TDS? Even our POTUS? I guess so. Today he was trying to say the word “origins” but kept saying “oranges” over and over instead. He also said (maybe to impress the NATO guy from Germany that he was meeting with) that his (Donald’s) father was from Germany, was born in Germany, in a “beautiful” part of Germany (but did not otherwise specify where). But, of course, our deranged POTUS’s father was actually born in New York.
Mike Y, I tried to find where u got those wild assertions about Hillary interfering in elections all over the world. Nada. You’re going to have to cite some links to that crazy info. I did see where Putin, himself, supported your claim that she interfered in the Russian election. But he was upset that AFTER the election, she was interfering by encouraging protestors, by her saying that the election was unfair. It is common knowledge that Russian elections tend to be unfair, Putin has actually had any serious opponents made ineligible. He even, apparently, made one ineligible, by having him killed in front of the Kremlin.
Of course if you buy Putin’s Cambridge Analytica disinformation about Hillary, she is surely the devil. Or are you getting your anti Hillary conspiracy info from Q anon? Fox News Opinion Commentators?
I thought that the whole, perpetual, “lock her up!” chanting was about her playing fast and loose with her emails on a personal server, that could have theoretically resulted in her exposing something classified. I didn’t know about this whole wild narrative about her doing nefarious interference in govts all over the place. Hmmm.
Thinking more about our POTUS’s word-finding difficulties, today, and his saying that his father was born in a beautiful part of Germany (which could be confabulation, i.e. inserting info to make up for gaps in memory)…
These are possible signs of mild cognitive dysfunction in the elderly and in some cases, this can be a way station on the road to dementia. His erratic behaviors, like suddenly declaring he will shut down the southern border, and pretending that he has a wonderful plan to replace Obamacare are also concerning when considering his mental state. (His own party members have gently pulled him back from those 2 crazy ideas.)
Reagan was well on his way to Alzheimer’s by the end of his second term. Our current POTUS is bad enuf when his mental faculties are fully functioning. If he is gradually slipping towards dementia, we may all be in danger.
OK, i read Richard’s predictions and conclusions. A lot of left leaning stuff that has been quoted a million times because nothing of importance can back the claims. Just goes to show, anyone can have TDS.
I was referring to the facts. Facts are not left or right leaning. Facts that back up claims. Unlike you who makes up emails, then makes up a story about how Hillary deleted emails. They've looked at everything. If they wanted to see any email they could. Rather than just waving your hands and saying "stuff", pick just one fact you call "left leaning stuff" and show me how it can't be backed up. Tim tried looking up the vague references you make and couldn't figure out what you are talking about. I've done that enough times to know that's how you operate. You owe us at least one internet search.
Really Lausten. Your saying what this guy is saying is all facts? You need to tell the DNC they are facts because the DNC has been looking everywhere for even one fact no matter how small or weak to start impeachment against Trump with.
The DNC is just the committee that governs the Democratic Party. It is not involved in impeachment. That would be Congress. The Democrats in Congress are also not going to begin impeachment because it would not work, unless or until there is something that 2/3 of both houses would agree is something that our current POTUS should be impeached for. That would take a good number of Repub congressmen. And Repub congressmen cannot go against our current POTUS for fear of being primaried. I don’t know what horrible egregious act or crime our current POTUS would have to do to be successfully impeached, as things stand. He is, essentially, above the law in many respects. Maybe if he went on a public killing spree…