Trump and Russia; Spasiba, Harasho!

[Forty Two]

You've given me the impression that you think it's a conspiracy and that the media is in on it. I don't believe you when you say that isn't what you think.

A "conspiracy" is an agreement among people to undertake an illegal or wrongful activity. No. I don't think this is some grand "conspiracy" where people got together and schemed. However, the media is overwhelmingly against Trump, to the point where they proceed in a sort of lock-step. It's beyond accurate reporting of negative things, and into massive spin, even in straight news articles.

There are powerful political figures who are anti-Trump, not the least of which are the never-Trump Republicans - they didn't go away. The Clinton folks loath him. These are powerful interests with media and government contacts. It would be naive to think that there aren't political efforts done to try to bring Trump down, possibly impeach him, and definitely cause him not to be reelected.

[Brian Peacock]

Yeah, it's just the media, and Democrats making trouble. I mean, the Mueller probe is a year old and there's been "no shred of evidence" of any collusion despite 19 people being indicated and 6 of them pleading guilty. Pretty poor show all in all.

Oh, and we won't mention those members of the campaign and administration who've had to backtrack on the things they said they didn't remember and the lies they were caught telling.

[Scot Dutchy]

Some people are never satisfied.

[Seabass]

[JimC]

Sean Hayden wrote:

I think Trump and co definitely knew the Russians were helping them and were okay with it, and they may have even sought to collaborate.

Give this is true (and it seems likely it is), anti-Trump people may have to cope with the fact that it may escape legal sanction for various technical reasons.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The fact is that it's too early to make pronouncements regarding what will come of the investigation, and those who rail about how it's a 'nothing-burger' or point to the fact that it's been going on a year and hasn't produced results (that they find significant) are either spouting bollocks or are ignorant of how such investigations normally proceed.

'How Mueller’s First Year Compares To Watergate, Iran-Contra And Whitewater'

We’ve taken a look at how Mueller’s first year measures up against the initial 12 months of other special counsel and independent counsel investigations. In terms of the number of charges he’s been able to file, Mueller is moving quickly. At one year after the formal appointment of a special or independent counsel, only the Watergate special prosecution force had obtained more indictments and guilty pleas.



But the total number of charges doesn’t tell the whole story. To get a sense of where Mueller’s investigation might go in its second year, it’s worth looking at where the three other highest-profile investigations in modern history — Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater — stood a year after a special or independent counsel came on board and how they evolved in the year or two afterward.

These investigations give us three separate models of what Mueller’s first year could mean for the rest of his investigation, and they show how foolish it can be to predict the end of a special counsel investigation based on its beginning. Watergate lived up to the dramatic promise of its first year: It ended Nixon’s presidency and sent dozens of people to jail. The revelations in the Iran-Contra scandal initially seemed like they might engulf Ronald Reagan, but the scandal began to fizzle when it became clear that Reagan wouldn’t be implicated. And Whitewater, which was sleepy at first, eventually resulted in the impeachment of Bill Clinton — but for reasons that could never have been foreseen after the first year of the investigation.

[Animavore]

[Seabass]

Truer words were never spoken.

[Forty Two]

Yeah, it's just the media, and Democrats making trouble. I mean, the Mueller probe is a year old and there's been "no shred of evidence" of any collusion despite 19 people being indicated and 6 of them pleading guilty. Pretty poor show all in all.

For collusion with Russia? There are indictments for collusion? Who? What were the charges?

Oh, and we won't mention those members of the campaign and administration who've had to backtrack on the things they said they didn't remember and the lies they were caught telling.

Like?

[Brian Peacock]

Really? How are you getting your news - by carrier pigeon or pony express?

[Joe]

Really? How are you getting your news - by carrier pigeon or pony express?

Or Jared Kushner's financial disclosure? That would explain a lot!

[Forty Two]

Really? How are you getting your news - by carrier pigeon or pony express?

Really, yes. I doubt you have particulars that support your very specific allegations.

[pErvinalia]

Really? How are you getting your news - by carrier pigeon or pony express?

He's trying to imply that no one has made the case that all those people lied and backtracked. It's just another case of his biases getting in the way of his reasoning and comprehension.

[Joe]

Really? How are you getting your news - by carrier pigeon or pony express?

He's trying to imply that no one has made the case that all those people lied and backtracked. It's just another case of his biases getting in the way of his reasoning and comprehension.

Either that or his memory's as bad as Don Jr's.

Donald Trump Jr. has no memory of Rinat Akhmetshin attending the infamous June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting, even though he was apparently dressed entirely in pink, and according to at least one attendee, did most of the talking.

Rob Goldstone, the music manager who helped set up the meeting on behalf of his Russian oligarch client, remembers Natalia Veselnitskaya speaking in English, even though everyone else who testified said she spoke in Russian and used an interpreter.

More than one person who attended the meeting told Senate investigators that they remember more Americans in the conference room than has publicly been reported, but they don’t remember any details about who these people were.

These are just a few of the discrepancies in people’s stories that stood out as I made my way through the trove of documents released earlier this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The varying tales, along with Donald Trump Jr.’s severe lapses in memory, and the changing cover-up stories that emerged when the story first broke in July 2017, leave you with the nagging feeling that you still don’t have the complete story about what happened in that conference room in Trump Tower that fateful summer before Donald Trump won the election.

And now the NY Times isn't reporting another meeting too.

Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election

Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security contractor.

The meeting was convened primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.

Damn librul media & their fake news!

[Brian Peacock]

Hey, a new world order doesn't just make itself you know