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[Baffler]

Yo Neo, you looking for a job as one of Trump's mouthpieces? They might well take you, they're pretty severely undermanned at the moment and could use a fresh face to get on TV and tell us how things aren't really the way the public thinks they are, for reasons we won't tell you. I'm not even kidding, they might even do it.


Anyway, there's a legitimate question I think about these Russia things, but at the same time, I have, to be honest: I don't know what there is behind all this Russia conspiracy. Perhaps there's nothng. There are missing pieces that don't really sit right with me, like what Russia got out of all this. On its own, I don't know if there would be nearly as much interest for the scandal itself except for the way he (Trump) has handled it. He acts suspicious. For all we know, isn't it possible that's just because he can't admit to faults? A politico article called Trump "A human smoke machine", and I think that is an entirely apt description. He breathes distraction, deflection, and confusion. He freaking revels in it. That's been clear since literally his first campaign speech on. That man is not only the master of misrepresenting the record, but I'd bet he does it impulsively too.

But where does this Russia investigation end? I don't know, and Trump seems determined to muck the waters. It's possible, in my mind, that he might be genuinely innocent of genuine collusion (although definitely guilty of being shady, alla "I want people to hack Clinton"). But he and his administration are so dedicated to compromising the process that if there isn't a real connection, it would be hard to even believe because it would be so tempting (and reasonable!) to believe that he is hiding the real results. Or put another way, the administration response to the accusation of smoke is to close the windows. The smoke never clears, regardless of whether there's fire. He'd be under perpetual low-level scandal.

Until he goes too far, of course. It's always possible he decides to go Nixon for ultimately trivial reasons. I'd believe it. He's not exactly very far from thinking "Well when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal", after all. He might so thoroughly muck up his handling of this it metastasizes into genuine Nixonian criminality. Not the strangest story we could get from 2017.

The more it goes on, the more I start to think that this is nothing more than the Democrats copying the Republican's (highly successful) strategy of using endless investigations about Benghazi to discredit Hillary Clinton. After all the few cases of appeasement have only led to a pivot to a new line of attack, and it's quite clear that if there was anything of actual substance here it would've been out by now. It's just far too valuable to them to do anything less than milk it until they've got every last drop.

[Greiger]

That's one of the big things here and I totally agree with it.  I did originally think there was some kind of connection between trump and Russia.  I honestly could not believe for a moment that anyone would vote for him, regardless of what people thought of Hillary.  And Russian agents somehow manipulating the results made so much sense.

Of course now I find it doubtful, EDIT:as baffler said, if there was something, it would have been found by now,[/EDIT] but what misko says is pretty much one of my biggest arguments against trump at this point.  He's ACTING guilty, wether he has something to hide or not he's making people very suspicious.  It's like lawyers saying to never let a police officer search your car, or answer any questions without a lawyer present. 

Sure it's good advice, but when you know for an absolute fact that you have nothing to find, nothing to steal, and nothing to be worried about incriminating yourself on, it's a good way to become a primary suspect of whatever they are searching for, and may just mean you have a warrant to deal with farther down the line just because you refused a search.  Trump may or may not have anything to hide, but he's essentially refusing a search, and sure while he may be able to do that.  It looks sketchy as all fuck when there is already a mountain of circumstantial evidence against him.

Trump may not be guilty of collusion of Russia, but I can almost guarantee he's hiding something that might turn up if people keep investigating the way he's acting.

[WealthyRadish]

If we're trading theories, I think the Russia connection was entirely due to Trump putting together a campaign team composed of random goons he found for hire that happened to also be random goons some oligarchs and others in the Putin orbit have hired, with some unrelated and uncoordinated involvement by the Russian government to his benefit. The influence they had on policy during the campaign and the meetings with Russian diplomats are like throwing a sack of dog shit on a burning tire dump for all it matters given everything else, but it's an obvious and persistent problem that gets worse the more he tries to deflect and distract, and for that at least I'm thankful.

[EnigmaticHat]

I really, really think that Trump does have Russian ties.  It would actually blow my mind if he didn't.  Not only have a bunch of his campaign staffers been accused of having ties to Russia and/or engaging in diplomacy prior to actually being part of the government, not only has it been proven for some of them, but he still employs these people until there's no possible way he can't.  On top of that all US intelligence agencies have agreed that Russia tampered with the election in his favor.  So far what we have is a bridgegate scenario; all of Chris Christie's advisors have been found guilty, yet somehow the man at the top didn't know...

What ultimately convinced me (its only a tiny portion of the huge wall of evidence against him, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back) is that the dossier about Trump-Russia ties claims he was offered 19% of Russia's state owned oil company in exchange for lifting sanctions, although Trump didn't make a decision in that meeting.  Guess what fucking happened with Russia's state oil company.  Its not even that they sold some of the company, its that its the same fucking amount.  And before you ask I'm not sure when the dossier was written relative to the oil company sale, it may not be possible to know for sure considering the dossier was kept secret for some amount of time and it was released pre-maturely.  US intelligence agencies have verified pieces of the dossier however and they have stated they consider it to come from a reliable source.

And remember, Comey was fired I believe a day before this happened.  Sources close to Trump all agree he was considering firing Comey before the Clinton revelations came out, that Session's was ordered to come up with reasons to fire him, and that a core reason Trump fired Comey was anger over the Russian investigations.  Oh, what's that, you fired someone engaged in an active investigation against you... a day after he asked a department you have authority over for more resources for that investigation... a day before he would testify against in front of congress... a day before a subpeona was issued for business records that could incriminate you... after unverified information suggested you received a concealed bribe.  No, no, wait, I get it.  Its because he's mad that Comey was unfair to Clinton, that's it.

[Starver]

why are you suddenly discussing star wars in ye ameripol thread

Why do you want to discuss ameripol in our Star Wars thread?!?

Anyway, it's obvious that Han is a force user, even if only subconsciously...

[ChairmanPoo]

why are you suddenly discussing star wars in ye ameripol thread

Why do you want to discuss ameripol in our Star Wars thread?!?

Anyway, it's obvious that Han is a force user, even if only subconsciously...

I agree.  Chirrut too, although Chirrut is clearly more conscious.  Maybe he IS trained but not in the same way as a jedi?  You cant expect a schoolteaching friar and a Knight Templar to have the same training, yet both are technically members of a religious order...

[smjjames]

To those arguing "something would have come of the investigations by now", no, not really. It's just getting started. Investigations like this aren't fast, and they aren't public.

Well, the Comey firing seems to have had the effect of dumping a tanker ship full of oil onto a fire. Maybe not a tanker ship full, but you get the idea.

Trump might be lucky to last even a year.

[Starver]

Well, the Comey firing seems to have had the effect of dumping a tanker ship full of oil onto a fire. Maybe not a tanker ship full, but you get the idea.

Trump might be lucky to last even a year.

Or we'll be luckier, one way or another.

Minded to mention Henry II.


And Chirrut certainly believes... something... even if it's just a compensatory delusion that happens to coincide with mofe mundane 'reality'. It's hard to tell the difference between actual use and Plot Armour, but it seemed somewhat beyond everyone else's 'standard' PA. Like Han, he could escape pretty much any bad situation. Ok, not every one, but there are limits. (Han only had problems where a bonefide Force User was there to be the main belligerent, but then he was otherwise always at least potentially in control of his immediate future.)

[ChairmanPoo]

I think it goes well beyond acute senses and plot armour. Notice how he makes it so that the stormtroopers behind him miss the shots so that they hit other storm-troopers. That's definitely a warning sign of Force stuff at play. It's far more passive-aggro than your standard jedi blaster management skills (eg: bouncing them around with saber or hands, freezing bolts in mid air) though

[martinuzz]

History will call Trump's reign 'the age of investigations'.
Another investigation added to the mound: Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz has asked the justice department to open an investigation into the firing of Comey, to find out if it is related to the Russian ties investigation.

Chaffetz is a Comey critic, and it is believed he has asked for the investigation to have it show that Comey was righteously fired.

[Starver]

Chaffetz is a Comey critic, and it is believed he has asked for the investigation to have it show that Comey was righteously fired.

INB4 the investigation into Chaffetz is told what it will conclude...

(The farce is strong with this one...)

[smjjames]

History will call Trump's reign 'the age of investigations'.
Another investigation added to the mound: Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz has asked the justice department to open an investigation into the firing of Comey, to find out if it is related to the Russian ties investigation.

Chaffetz is a Comey critic, and it is believed he has asked for the investigation to have it show that Comey was righteously fired.

If accurate.... for a second I thought he was doing the right thing and checking if it really is related to the Russia investigation. Chaffetz oughta be impeached (yes, I know it doesn't work that way).

BTW, the acting FBI chief is testifying on capitol hill this morning, whether this was pre-planned or flash planned, I have no idea.

Also, apparently Trump is furious over Russia releasing photos of the Trump-Lavrov (Russian Sec. of State equivalent) because only Russian media was allowed and somehow the WH thought that they wouldn't release photos. *FACEPALM* It's called controlling the message and they just let Russia control the message.

[martinuzz]

Not just photos of Trump and Lavrov, also photos of Trump with ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the person that secretly met with Flynn.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/trump-op-de-foto-met-topspion-rusland-maar-amerika-mocht-het-niet-zien~a4494021/

[Harry Baldman]

Heh, 'topspion'. Never stop being cheeky, Dutch newspaper dudes.

[Starver]

Reporter arrested for asking questions...
For balance, he may or may not have been considered 'threatening', by repeating his unanswered questions as he followed the Health Sec and Kellyanne through the public corridors of the state Capitol... Have to see what evidence gets presented, either way, to support the possibility of jailtime.