a quick poll about Russia and Donald Trump

Leaving the conspiracy stuff aside, it would not have been possible for Trump and associates to operate borderline criminal activities and partner with irl criminals without a system set up to look the other way. The pearl clutching about the construction industry being funded by laundered money is absurd. Everyone has always known it, nobody has cared as long as the money was flowing to US / UK corporations and the appropriate wheels were being greased. The same goes for Manafort claiming he got paid peanuts for his multi-year contract with Yanukovich. It was never credible but nobody minded Ukraine was being looted as long as he was pulling them closer to the US orbit.

Imagine for a moment that the conspiracy is true, could there be any reason for it not to have been discovered other than an assumption that fake corporations, slush funds, opaque trades etc are the way business is always done?

xp plus it seems like the GOP, who have a supermajority right now, is doing everything they can to prevent people from testifying.

the whole thing is just so strange. based on what's publicly known it's hard to say if this is anything but typically shady business practices from the Trump side. in fact an objective look at the facts kinda leads that way. but the admin and top Republicans are acting as though they've all seen the pisstape and it's bad. Trump is speaking the same way and doing the same dumb deflection routine he always does when he's guilty. everyone's trying to distance themselves from people who apparently "did nothing wrong". there's no good explanation for the way Nunes is acting, given that he's the dude who's supposed to be investigating all this. the Flynn thing gets weirder every week. this administration is either guilty or even dumber than we all thought.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-30/fbi-agents-visit-office-of-saipan-casino-run-by-trump-protege

The casino, run by an executive who cut his teeth in Atlantic City casinos then owned by Donald Trump, enlisted a slate of luminary overseers including former leaders of both the Republican and Democratic national parties in the U.S.

Its board members include James Woolsey, who ran the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1990s and was among national-security advisers to Trump’s presidential campaign. Former FBI director Louis Freeh and Ed Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, sit on an advisory committee, as does Haley Barbour, the ex-Mississippi governor and Republican National Committee chairman who’s now a prominent lobbyist.

Woolsey, Freeh and Barbour didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rendell, through a spokesman, said he wasn’t aware of any developments at Imperial Pacific facilities and said an “independent, prestigious account organization” had reviewed the company’s finances and found nothing improper.

In 2015, the company opened Best Sunshine Live in a mall between a laundromat and a cellphone shop. From its sleepy storefront, Best Sunshine Live has posted per-table revenues far greater than those at the largest resorts in Macau, Asia’s gambling capital.

to sum up, the FBI has just paid an unannounced visit to a sketchy casino in Saipan run by a former Trump employee, the "board" and "advisory committee" of which includes James Woolsey, Louis Freeh, Ed Rendell and Haley Barbour

and by sketchy casino we mean "a gambling den in a mall storefront between a Wash N Dry and a Carphone Warehouse that moves more money 'per table' than Sheldon Adelson's Macau joints" what shitty movie is this?!?

idk but Donald Sutherland is in it

joy reid is the best

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/31/the-political-walls-are-closing-in-on-donald-trump.html

More on that casino from last fall:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-13/obscure-casino-run-by-a-trump-protege-is-raising-big-questions

from russia, with love

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/31/michael-flynn-new-evidence-spy-chiefs-had-concerns-about-russian-ties

jesus christ

The Buzzfeed libel trial will be an interesting sideshow to this:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/25/christopher-steele-admits-dossier-charge-unverifie/

Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the infamous anti-Donald Trump dossier, acknowledges that a sensational charge his sources made about a tech company CEO and Democratic Party hacking is unverified.

In a court filing, Mr. Steele also says his accusations against the president and his aides about a supposed Russian hacking conspiracy were never supposed to be made public, much less posted in full on a website for the world to see on Jan. 10.

He defends himself by saying he was betrayed by his client and that he followed proper internal channels by giving the dossier to Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, to alert the U.S. government.

I am surprised Gubarev didn't sue in London - where this would be pretty close to a slam-dunk - though i imagine the sweet, Hoganesque punitive damages would be worth any risk of losing in Florida.

i hope daddy has enough rubles to bail ivanka out of this shit : )

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-amazing-6

enormous untapped resource

It was so weird seeing Taibbi tweet out a Washington Times link yesterday.

maybe he owes putin bigly too? the eXile was not without its fans

curious if comrade combover called to congratulate his fellow putin puppet on the crackdown

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39716631

#MAGA#DUKESTILLSUCKS :)

I'm not saying Taibbi is compromised by Russia or anything I don't really believe that, it's just weird. Has he ever done that before? How often do you see anyone cite the WT?

maybe he owes putin bigly too?

qualmsley is Louise Mensch? or just Mordy?

the krazy kiddie table is over there ---------------->

neither louise mensch nor mordy, morbius. the table for the children of emmy award winning dad stans is probably not the best seat in the house

Shouldn't need pointing out Taibbi and Ames were harassed out of Russia by the government for their work critical of the rich and powerful.

The WT seems to be one of the only semi-legit publications reporting the pre-trial hearings beyond the cute title of the legal submission.

for sure, totally down with sun myung moon's semi-legit unification church. how many edward r. murrow awards did your dad win?

Moonies not over their hammy

god qualmsley's patter itt is rank

it is poorly ranked in terms of socioeconomic background. go trump!

internet kinda goin absolutely bananas over the Flynn thing rn

i hope they keep at it

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/11/forget-comey-the-real-story-is-russias-war-on-america-215245

that was fun to read

that was ridiculous

"An isolationist America that is softer on Russia and more in favor of authoritarian traits in leaders fits right into the narratives that the Kremlin nurtures and spends billions to promote."

Pretty cray

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/12/how-russia-targets-the-us-military-215247

Oliver Stone on his imminent Putin interview series:

http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/oliver-stone-putin-interviews-conversation.html

Russia has had ambitions as a hegemonic power since at least Peter the Great. Under the current US global hegemony, such ambitions mean the USA is your primary foe. It's not complicated to grasp.

read that as Peter the Gabriel

its about as complicated as your average G.I. Joe cartoon

will wonders never cease

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/17/trump-white-house-russia-sanctions-deal-239636

The eight people who voted nothing: where are they now?

still waiting on that evidence

if there is the Russian conspiracy equivalent of the Bill Clinton semen dress let's see it

monica lewinsky was still in college when the whitewater investigation began iirc

Without rehashing the same arguments over again, any sanctions regime that has NATO allies hinting at imposing penalties on the US, rather than Russia, might need rethinking.

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50090.htm

I am 98% against the legislature meddling in foreign policy since they've given up on declaring war but keep appropriating massive war budgets

However, if your argument sounds similar to something Rex Tillerson and Donald J are promulgating you maybe should check that stopped clock and make sure it doesn't read 24:11

sharivari, i get that germany is concerned about their companies' involvements with russian pipelines and such

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-germany-idUSKBN197156

but the ongoing denial of our president regarding russian interference in our election is totally and completely fucked up

I assume the German argument would be that sanctions have already been imposed for the alleged election interference and that putting one over on Trump isn't worth what they see as an unacceptable intrusion into European energy policy.

As a general rule of thumb, for every Euro Russia loses through sanctions, someone else - usually in Europe - is estimated to lose up to two, which is why they have been seen as a necessity, but a painful one. Arbitrarily imposing new ones without consensus with allies, or any clear additional casus belli, isn't going to go down well, particularly given that these are designed to tank a specific deal hugely important to German, Austria and others.

It isn't just Russia, bipartisan support for new Iran sanctions has gone down terribly in Europe.

it isn't alleged, and it isn't about putting one over on trump, no, but proven, and about curtailing future russian interference in sovereign elections?

Punitive sanctions for this specific thing were imposed by Obama. Congress can make the argument that they don't trust Trump to control when they are lifted or eased but there doesn't seem to be a clear reason for imposing additional ones at this time.

If you want to look at it cyncially, you could make the argument that it's being done both as a general power grab and to basically dare Trump into using a veto - reinforcing the idea he is too soft on Russia. Either way, it is a policy with pretty serious potential ramifications for US government allies, US business and three hundred million people across Europe, leaving aside the constitutional questions, so to pretend it boils down to Donald <3 Russia when Tillerson or whoever expresses reservations is silly.

'alleged election interference' wtf?

Feel free to sub in any word that you like, it doesn't make a difference to the issue of whether trying to derail Nordstream 2 against the wishes of half of Europe is an unquestionably good thing.

Do you think Russia interfered with the US election, SV?

And please don't be concern trolling on the part of 'half of Europe', Shari.