Political Roundtable Part XIX

[Zonkerbl]

So, just to summarize:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html

It comes out in July 2017 that there was a secret meeting with the Russians who wanted to give the Trump campaign dirt on Clinton in exchange for reduction of sanctions. Trump's team is on airforce one flying from the EU to the states when the news hits, and they concoct a huge whopping lie ("the meeting was about an adoption policy that was popular with Americans that the Russian government ended, nothing to do with us!") about what the meeting was about. Mark Corallo, who was there and is a lawyer (he was the spokesman for the Trump legal team) says, hey wait a minute, emails are forever and the emails telling the truth will eventually come out and we'll be guilty of manufacturing a lie to mislead a legitimate investigation into legit national security risks involving Russia and WE WILL BE GUILTY OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE to which Hope Hicks replies "Don't worry, THOSE EMAILS WILL NEVER COME OUT."

Mark Corallo, not wanting to be involved in a flagrant violation of the law, QUITS. He tells his story to three people.

The email contradicting the lie the Trump team concocted comes out THE NEXT DAY.

Yesterday, Hope Hicks was grilled for 9 hours by the House investigation, where she flat out refuses to answer questions involving any time after the transition, which is when the flagrant obstruction of justice felony was committed. She QUITS immediately thereafter after Trump tears her a new one for admitting she has to lie for him.

Mark Corallo, meanwhile, has recently provided testimony (presumably of what he witnessed on that plane) to Mueller's team.

So to summarize the summaries, we have pretty strong evidence that Manafort, to keep himself from being bumped off by Russian mafiosi, hatched a scheme to work for the Trump administration for free, leverage his position in the admin to get sanctions on Russia dropped, in exchange for temporary breathing room on his debts until he can defraud some other sucker three months later.

The Trump team EMBRACES THIS CONSPIRACY 100%, as evidenced by Trump Jr.'s gleeful response to the Russians offer of HRC's emails, and Trump's mysterious opposition to imposing sanctions on Russia.

Knowing they're guilty of (basically) TREASON, the Trump team commits another series of felonies by concocting an absurd lie about the one conspiracy meeting that's publicly documented, and gets caught out the VERY NEXT DAY.

HOW ARE THESE IDIOTS NOT IN JAIL ALREADY?????

[Zonkerbl]

The sickening thing is Trump legit believes he's above the law. Knowing that he's committed several dozen felonies, he ACTUALLY THINKS it's entirely ok for Sessions to defend him from being investigated. Dude has absolutely no shame.

[Wizardspride]

Never forget.

"Buddy our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this.”----- Felix Sater

[Zonkerbl]

Did I tell you guys about my friend from high school who was bipolar but wouldn't take his meds because it made him feel like a zombie? He was a gun hoarder and at one point for some reason they took all his guns away. Well, two years later they gave all the guns back, and then a year after that he was dead by S.W.A.T. team sniper bullet after he went on a bender, got in a fight with his son and started waving guns around.

I think we do need a one strike and your out policy wrt guns - they took his guns because he pulled one out on a cop while drunk. They shouldn't have given Paul his guns back - they should have reimbursed him for their replacement value, took the guns, and said you may never buy guns again, you crazy son of a bitch. He'd still be alive today if they had. Although given how his alcoholism made his gout worse he'd probably be f@#$ing miserable if he was.

Just a frickin tragedy all around.

http://ysnews.com/news/2013/10/returned-schenck-guns-were-legal

[cammac]

So, just to summarize:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html

It comes out in July 2017 that there was a secret meeting with the Russians who wanted to give the Trump campaign dirt on Clinton in exchange for reduction of sanctions. Trump's team is on airforce one flying from the EU to the states when the news hits, and they concoct a huge whopping lie ("the meeting was about an adoption policy that was popular with Americans that the Russian government ended, nothing to do with us!") about what the meeting was about. Mark Corallo, who was there and is a lawyer (he was the spokesman for the Trump legal team) says, hey wait a minute, emails are forever and the emails telling the truth will eventually come out and we'll be guilty of manufacturing a lie to mislead a legitimate investigation into legit national security risks involving Russia and WE WILL BE GUILTY OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE to which Hope Hicks replies "Don't worry, THOSE EMAILS WILL NEVER COME OUT."
Mark Corallo, not wanting to be involved in a flagrant violation of the law, QUITS. He tells his story to three people.

The email contradicting the lie the Trump team concocted comes out THE NEXT DAY.

Yesterday, Hope Hicks was grilled for 9 hours by the House investigation, where she flat out refuses to answer questions involving any time after the transition, which is when the flagrant obstruction of justice felony was committed. She QUITS immediately thereafter after Trump tears her a new one for admitting she has to lie for him.

Mark Corallo, meanwhile, has recently provided testimony (presumably of what he witnessed on that plane) to Mueller's team.

So to summarize the summaries, we have pretty strong evidence that Manafort, to keep himself from being bumped off by Russian mafiosi, hatched a scheme to work for the Trump administration for free, leverage his position in the admin to get sanctions on Russia dropped, in exchange for temporary breathing room on his debts until he can defraud some other sucker three months later.

The Trump team EMBRACES THIS CONSPIRACY 100%, as evidenced by Trump Jr.'s gleeful response to the Russians offer of HRC's emails, and Trump's mysterious opposition to imposing sanctions on Russia.

Knowing they're guilty of (basically) TREASON, the Trump team commits another series of felonies by concocting an absurd lie about the one conspiracy meeting that's publicly documented, and gets caught out the VERY NEXT DAY.

HOW ARE THESE IDIOTS NOT IN JAIL ALREADY?????

Mueller is very patient in that even though he has had a number of guilty pleas he taking his time on his true target which is Trump & family plus possibly Pence. This has been aided by Trumps unadulterated stupidity and his diarrhea of the mouth. Jeff Sessions who in his own right is a despicable person made a show of having dinner with Rosenstein indicating support for Mueller.

Rosenstein delivered the message to the White House counsel about stalled clearances of senior White House staff. This while an overall message was also directed at a specific target in Kushner who has had his security clearance downgraded. This week also was a message sent by the NY AG that Kushner & Company are being investigated at the State level. (no amnesty)

Mueller has identified Kushner as the weakest link in the "Trump Crime Family" and most likely to roll. He has intimate knowledge of how the campaign was run and financial dealings of the Trump organization. He also know what happens when things go sideways because of his father.

Trumps inner circle is getting smaller & smaller as people are in protect your ass mode. Hope Hicks is a prime example but unfortunately for her she is already caught in the web. Mueller is not going to stop until he has a iron clad case of conspiracy, financial crimes and possibly treason against the Trumpster.

[cammac]

Nunes Conspiracy?

“The integrity and independence of the Committee and Congress’ investigative and enforcement powers are at stake. To be credible, the Russia investigation cannot simply take witnesses at their word, or accept baseless assertions of privilege where none apply. Instead, the Committee must verify assertions made by witnesses in testimony, compel testimony as well as the full production of responsive documents, and, where necessary, move to enforce subpoenas.”

Donald Trump Jr. – refused to answer questions about the June 9 Trump Tower meeting.

Michael Cohen – denied the Steele dossier’s claim that he met with Russian officials… so let’s see the electronic records.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions – refused to answer re obstruction of justice, and didn’t even make an excuse.

Corey Lewandowski – wouldn’t talk about his dealings with Trump after he left the Trump campaign, including a phone call the day before he testified.

Steve Bannon – Bannon would answer “only two dozen scripted, yes-or-no questions” at White House orders.

Hope Hicks – was not subpoenaed when Bannon was—why not? Schiff wants to initiate contempt proceedings against the White House re both Bannon and Hicks.

Deutsche Bank – I quote Schiff: “Deutsche Bank has a history of laundering Russian money and it would negligent of the committee not to determine whether this is a lever the Russians hold over the President and his family.”

Evidence of Comey-Trump Conversations – after Trump tweeted that Comey “better hope there are no tapes” the Committee asked the White House if there are—and has never received a real answer.

Twitter – has DMs between Guccifer 2.0, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange plus other Russian fronts and “a host of Trump campaign personnel.” A host! Twitter won’t cough them up unless subpoenaed.

Encrypted messaging applications – Witnesses have revealed they used encryption in their messages. The app makers should be subpoenaed to reveal what they were hiding.

Phone and Other Communication Records – Junior and other Trump organization people have given the Committee records that “redact phone metadata related to communications with specific phone numbers, including around the time of the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians.” Whose phone numbers are those?

Just to reiterate—this is a partial list.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/1/1745709/-How-to-make-a-House-Intel-investigation-into-kabuki-Schiff-lays-it-out

[montestewart]

So, just to summarize:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html

It comes out in July 2017 that there was a secret meeting with the Russians who wanted to give the Trump campaign dirt on Clinton in exchange for reduction of sanctions. Trump's team is on airforce one flying from the EU to the states when the news hits, and they concoct a huge whopping lie ("the meeting was about an adoption policy that was popular with Americans that the Russian government ended, nothing to do with us!") about what the meeting was about. Mark Corallo, who was there and is a lawyer (he was the spokesman for the Trump legal team) says, hey wait a minute, emails are forever and the emails telling the truth will eventually come out and we'll be guilty of manufacturing a lie to mislead a legitimate investigation into legit national security risks involving Russia and WE WILL BE GUILTY OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE to which Hope Hicks replies "Don't worry, THOSE EMAILS WILL NEVER COME OUT."

Mark Corallo, not wanting to be involved in a flagrant violation of the law, QUITS. He tells his story to three people.

The email contradicting the lie the Trump team concocted comes out THE NEXT DAY.

Yesterday, Hope Hicks was grilled for 9 hours by the House investigation, where she flat out refuses to answer questions involving any time after the transition, which is when the flagrant obstruction of justice felony was committed. She QUITS immediately thereafter after Trump tears her a new one for admitting she has to lie for him.

Mark Corallo, meanwhile, has recently provided testimony (presumably of what he witnessed on that plane) to Mueller's team.

So to summarize the summaries, we have pretty strong evidence that Manafort, to keep himself from being bumped off by Russian mafiosi, hatched a scheme to work for the Trump administration for free, leverage his position in the admin to get sanctions on Russia dropped, in exchange for temporary breathing room on his debts until he can defraud some other sucker three months later.

The Trump team EMBRACES THIS CONSPIRACY 100%, as evidenced by Trump Jr.'s gleeful response to the Russians offer of HRC's emails, and Trump's mysterious opposition to imposing sanctions on Russia.

Knowing they're guilty of (basically) TREASON, the Trump team commits another series of felonies by concocting an absurd lie about the one conspiracy meeting that's publicly documented, and gets caught out the VERY NEXT DAY.

HOW ARE THESE IDIOTS NOT IN JAIL ALREADY?????

Larry Flynt advocating against teen pregnancy? Harvey Weinstein is speaking out against sexual harassment? Both as plausible as the Trumps embracing the cause of adopting Russian orphans with no strings attached. You know people think they're above the law when they put that little thought into the lies they tell. He's not the president. He's the boss. You don't like it? You're fired!

[gtn130]

So, just to summarize:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html

It comes out in July 2017 that there was a secret meeting with the Russians who wanted to give the Trump campaign dirt on Clinton in exchange for reduction of sanctions. Trump's team is on airforce one flying from the EU to the states when the news hits, and they concoct a huge whopping lie ("the meeting was about an adoption policy that was popular with Americans that the Russian government ended, nothing to do with us!") about what the meeting was about. Mark Corallo, who was there and is a lawyer (he was the spokesman for the Trump legal team) says, hey wait a minute, emails are forever and the emails telling the truth will eventually come out and we'll be guilty of manufacturing a lie to mislead a legitimate investigation into legit national security risks involving Russia and WE WILL BE GUILTY OF OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE to which Hope Hicks replies "Don't worry, THOSE EMAILS WILL NEVER COME OUT."

Mark Corallo, not wanting to be involved in a flagrant violation of the law, QUITS. He tells his story to three people.

The email contradicting the lie the Trump team concocted comes out THE NEXT DAY.

Yesterday, Hope Hicks was grilled for 9 hours by the House investigation, where she flat out refuses to answer questions involving any time after the transition, which is when the flagrant obstruction of justice felony was committed. She QUITS immediately thereafter after Trump tears her a new one for admitting she has to lie for him.

Mark Corallo, meanwhile, has recently provided testimony (presumably of what he witnessed on that plane) to Mueller's team.

So to summarize the summaries, we have pretty strong evidence that Manafort, to keep himself from being bumped off by Russian mafiosi, hatched a scheme to work for the Trump administration for free, leverage his position in the admin to get sanctions on Russia dropped, in exchange for temporary breathing room on his debts until he can defraud some other sucker three months later.

The Trump team EMBRACES THIS CONSPIRACY 100%, as evidenced by Trump Jr.'s gleeful response to the Russians offer of HRC's emails, and Trump's mysterious opposition to imposing sanctions on Russia.

Knowing they're guilty of (basically) TREASON, the Trump team commits another series of felonies by concocting an absurd lie about the one conspiracy meeting that's publicly documented, and gets caught out the VERY NEXT DAY.

HOW ARE THESE IDIOTS NOT IN JAIL ALREADY?????

Yes

but

Hillary Clinton did emails

[cammac]

I usually don't quote this part of KOS but today so many good zingers I must!
For those Trump supporters it is long without crayons and pictures! SORRY
Will give you a example.

Yo, Kush. Things ain’t looking so good.
With all the pressure Jared is under, I think we can look forward to his father-in-law peeking out from under that mountain of cheeseburger wrappers on the 15th of this month and mumbling the words “You too, Jared?*”

Daddy-in-law can’t pardon this. New York Regulator Asks Deutsche Bank, Others About Kushner Loans

Reuters) - New York’s state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG and two other lenders for information on their relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family’s real estate company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) made the requests to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank for information on loans and other financial arrangements including lines of credit and loan guarantees a week ago, the person said.

The regulator also asked for information related to other family members, the person said.

The rot from these loans is raising a bit of a stench. Kushner’s Business Got Loans After White House Meetings (NYTimes paywall)

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/1/1745177/-Thursday-s-Good-News-Roundup-And-the-Truth-Is-Marching-on

[Zonkerbl]

What actually worries me the most is, we have billionaires running around all over the place. We're only uncovering Trump's wrongdoings after months and months of hardcore investigation. Are they all as die-hard criminal as Manafort and Trump? Everyone who works for Trump so far has shown an absurd disregard for the law. Is the whole upper class like this?

[cammac]

538 has a couple of interesting articles worth reading

But here’s the thing: The conditions are developing for the U.S. House to be considering Trump’s impeachment less than a year from now, even as Democratic Party leaders are actively trying to downplay this possibility. There are four things that clearly would have to happen for the groundwork for Trump’s impeachment to be set. All four are plausible, but none is guaranteed. And two will largely be determined by this fall’s elections.

Keep in mind that we are talking about impeachment, not Trump’s removal from office. Impeachment, which is the equivalent of being indicted, requires a simple majority vote in the House; for a president to be removed from office, two-thirds of the Senate has to vote to do so after holding a trial. That high Senate threshold makes Trump’s ouster much less likely than his impeachment.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-midterms-could-set-trump-on-a-path-toward-impeachment/

So what does her resignation mean, particularly given her special status in the Trump orbit? We don’t really know, in part because these departures are notoriously opaque. In this case, there are multiple storylines about Hicks’ leaving. Given the complicated circumstances surrounding this key White House figure, it’s worth using the rubric my colleagues Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Andrea Jones-Rooy came up with in their recent piece: “5 Questions To Ask Every Time Someone Leaves The Trump Administration.” As Amelia and Andrea pointed out, some turnover is good and will likely help Trump implement his agenda; some turnover simply sows chaos — and figuring out which is which can be tricky from the outside.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-the-hope-hicks-resignation-could-mean-for-trump/

[Zonkerbl]

Yeah, he'll almost certainly be impeached. And there will be a trial and all this crap will get aired out publicly. Huzzah!

I'm looking forward to a law being passed saying, if you are not willing to share your tax statement, you are not eligible to be President.

[gtn130]

Yeah, he'll almost certainly be impeached. And there will be a trial and all this crap will get aired out publicly. Huzzah!

I'm looking forward to a law being passed saying, if you are not willing to share your tax statement, you are not eligible to be President.

I'm a lot less optimistic.

Mueller will find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but the end result will be a constitutional crisis. Trump and Fox News will call it a witch hunt and the GOP will mostly fall in line.

[Zonkerbl]

Yeah, he'll almost certainly be impeached. And there will be a trial and all this crap will get aired out publicly. Huzzah!

I'm looking forward to a law being passed saying, if you are not willing to share your tax statement, you are not eligible to be President.

I'm a lot less optimistic.

Mueller will find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but the end result will be a constitutional crisis. Trump and Fox News will call it a witch hunt and the GOP will mostly fall in line.

So you're assuming GOP will remain in control of the House in 2018? I'm not. All you need for impeachment is majority vote in the House, which Dems will probably have (knocks on wood).

[I_Like_Dirt]

The sickening thing is Trump legit believes he's above the law. Knowing that he's committed several dozen felonies, he ACTUALLY THINKS it's entirely ok for Sessions to defend him from being investigated. Dude has absolutely no shame.

I don't know if he thinks it or not, but he's clearly trying to evade it.

For everyone who suggested it was a mistake he run in the first place and an accident he won, I suggest that almost assuredly wasn't the case. While the USA doesn't offer immunity from prosecution to presidents the way Russia does (if you ever check who actually runs for president in Russia, it's historically been a who's who of known crime bosses, amongst some others, even if they stand no chance of winning), it does offer a certain degree of cover. I mean, it's pretty clear Trump was known to the FBI well before the campaign happened. Celebrity offers him some degree of legal cover, or at least an avenue to attempt to defend himself, and as a sitting president, not only can he attempt to interfere, but he also creates a situation whereby doing anything more than kicking him out risks tit for tat squabbles with the Republicans whereby every ex president suddenly becomes a target for their successors - which is sadly the case in a lot of countries out there. How well it actually works is up for debate, but as a con man trying to find legal means of cover, everything he's doing makes quite a bit of sense. I'm not nearly as optimistic about the outcome of all of this as others.

[Zonkerbl]

Such a weird thought process. "Man the FBI is really bearing down on me. I know - I'll run for President! That'll give me cover!"

[gtn130]

Yeah, he'll almost certainly be impeached. And there will be a trial and all this crap will get aired out publicly. Huzzah!

I'm looking forward to a law being passed saying, if you are not willing to share your tax statement, you are not eligible to be President.

I'm a lot less optimistic.

Mueller will find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but the end result will be a constitutional crisis. Trump and Fox News will call it a witch hunt and the GOP will mostly fall in line.

So you're assuming GOP will remain in control of the House in 2018? I'm not. All you need for impeachment is majority vote in the House, which Dems will probably have (knocks on wood).

If Dems control the House when Mueller concludes his work, impeachment is much more likely, but removal from office is still unlikely at that point imo

[cammac]

Kelly says " God punished me"!
The Trumpster turned a man of honor into a sniveling sycophant!
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/376234-kelly-i-didnt-want-to-leave-dhs-but-god-punished-me

[I_Like_Dirt]

Such a weird thought process. "Man the FBI is really bearing down on me. I know - I'll run for President! That'll give me cover!"

If you want to synthesize it that way, sure, but the thought process is a longer more complicated game. I mean, there are clearly several factors and suggesting it as you do is sort of like saying "I kinda like this girl so I think I'm going to marry her" when in reality your past history, perception of the future, precise nature of your feelings, and whether or not she will agree, among many other things are all major factors.

In this case, Trump gets himself in trouble financially and then gets tied with the wrong people (who are usually circling situations of large financial problems in order to gain advantage someway through them) who push him in a certain direction, and has lawyers who point out other potential advantages of everything proposed. This isn't nearly such a simple thought process, but the logic follows pretty easily regardless. There are lots of reasons why he might run for president, and this is at the very least another reason why he wouldn't opt not do so.

[montestewart]

What actually worries me the most is, we have billionaires running around all over the place. We're only uncovering Trump's wrongdoings after months and months of hardcore investigation. Are they all as die-hard criminal as Manafort and Trump? Everyone who works for Trump so far has shown an absurd disregard for the law. Is the whole upper class like this?

No, they're the job creators who can't be bought. They're above petty things like money, power, etc. They only want what's best for America. When you're rich and powerful, you don't even realize how smart you are, so consumed are you with only wanting what's best for America. I assume that goes for billionaires in other countries (Russia, etc.), only wanting what's best for America. We should all be as selfless as Ted Leonsis, who models himself after Martin Luther King, Jr. Who was not a billionaire.