Burring questions since Donald Trump’s jaw dropping, surprise election 6 months ago weren’t limited to what he might do on foreign policy, what steps he would take on domestic issues healthcare, bathroom bills, the environment, the economy; rather for stunned democrats, progressives, democratic socialists already wanting Bernie Sanders to run in 2020, and any sane person perplexed at the popular vote versus the final election outcome, frightened by what this meant for our country they still had questions about the legitimacy of 2016’s election process; did the Russians solidly interfere and to what degree, is there any shred of truth to swarming allegations Trump, president elect to sworn in president of the United States’ campaign, transition members colluded with Russians to effect election outcomes, is so called collusion, mutual backscratching going to continue in shaping, changing American foreign policy? Questions spurred on by staffing choices and a steady stream of revelations regarding people like former national security advisor Michael Flynn whose extreme views on Muslims and existing American conflicts raised red flags along with his appearance sitting next to Vladimir Putin at a Russian dinner. Unease pertaining to Rex Tillerson going back the days when his name was on the short list for secretary of state being both the CEO of oil giant Exxon-Mobile responsible for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, having no experience in foreign diplomacy, on video saying he doesn’t represent American interests merely that of his business and his having previously received Russia’s order of friendship thanks to a massive oil deal greatly benefiting the soviet country. Russian ties and work as a foreign agent laid out in a Ukrainian money ledger linked to pro-Putin forces having paid Paul Manafort millions behind his firing as campaign manager; just the beginning long sordid tales known under the broader umbrella Russia collusion, the Russia investigation. Of all the people you would think would latch on to the Russia story as something worth paying attention to independent media should be at the top of the list, and to their credit most are, Cenk Uygur and his section of The Young Turks, David Packman paralleling so called mainstream media giving their audience, unlikely to view their national television news, named liberal, democrat cable sources MSNBC, CNN an understanding of what the both factual breakdown and investigative consensus is on the topic. About how Russia attempted to influence then hack America’s 2016 election, the impetus behind authorities’ Trump collusion inquiry into what his campaign and perhaps Trump himself did with a foreign power to win an election, allowing themselves to be used by a foreign power to their own ends i.e. helping put someone in power here on U.S. soil to the advantage of a foreign power. But others have consistently ignored developments in the Russian investigation, ignored top print news sources, they regularly quote when they wish to, when using it as a comment platform, front page, bombshell stories unearthing potential reasons for Trump Russia collusion on either side, money trails and money incentives involved, at bare minimum clear attempts by Russian entities to leverage wanted power, money, prestige exc. in exchange for Trump campaign officials, advisors and related associates doing what they wanted, a process known in spy craft as dangling. Kyle Kulinski has a particularly peculiar coverage pattern when addressing Russia on his show, opposite of the other key holdout Jimmy Dore who continually shows, in his mind, how the media and everyone is getting it wrong, what a mistake is being made by talking about it so frequently; he refuses to talk about it mostly unless he’s mocking it. Fond of calling it the democrats’ Benghazi, throwing out relentless reminders not singularly on how tone deaf, disorganized and unprepared and thus likely to lose democrats are ahead of 2018, but admonishing them they can’t win on being anti-Trump and what he calls Russia, Russia, Russia, implication unjustified hysteria, calling it bad MSNBC is now enjoying top billing among the 3 media giants while Fox News came in 3rd for ‘the first time ever,’ in a long time, salaciously stating ‘Russia is good for ratings.’ Until certain persons or points are brought up, then he agrees with that portion, only that portion being deliberately obtuse acting as though it exists on an isolated island unrelated to anything else and says succinctly ok guilty, lock them up. Quoting almost verbatim his comments on former national security advisor Michael Flynn after it was reported he did work on behalf of Turkey sans registering as a foreign agent suggesting American foreign policy aligned with what the Turks wanted; what he missed there is who was behind those payments, Russia. He said identical things about Paul Manafort when a ledger was revealed detailing payments to the former Trump campaign manager by pro Russia, pro Putin forces in Ukraine he references reports putting the figure at millions of dollars worth. Kulinski talked about himself also being from New York saying he could totally see Trump doing what fired FBI director James Comey said he did asking if he could let the Flynn investigation go, behaving like he did back in the 1970’s big apple, forging real-estate deals where, at the time, mob entities were always involved; admitting if that’s true, despite there being no ‘there, there’ on Russia he’s “not allowed to do that,” meaning he is indeed guilty of obstruction of justice. Unanswered is why he would obstruct justice if there is no substance to the Russia collusion allegations; analysts highlighting Trump is not exceedingly loyal to his people referencing his bullying humiliation of attorney general Jeff Sessions, his belittling of republicans on capitol hill, his transition shake up tossing aside Chris Christie as head of his transition team, metaphorical ‘torture’ of Mitt Romney when it came time to pick a secretary of state. Leading to the next logical question, what does Michael Flynn have on Donald Trump he feels like he must keep him in his good graces? He, the Secular Talk host, was surprised special counsel Robert Mueller started to scrutinize Trump’s finances saying it just got serious, excited an investigation was going after Donald Trump for plain old, standard corruption not Russia itself; why this is surprising remains a mystery considering the easiest way to both ascertain corruption and provide plausible motive for alleged collusion is to, reviving the tried and true cliché: follow the money. His ‘linchpin,’ as he calls it, reason for initially mimicking Sebastian Gorka, of all people, in calling Russia a big fat nothing burger, the Trump administration’s rejection of Exxon-Mobile’s petitions to bypass Russian sanctions complete opposite of what democrats insisted would happen thereby giving them ironclad proof, their salivated after ‘smoking gun’ president Trump, cabinet members, Whitehouse persons were actively working with the Russians both past and present. However the aforementioned premise comes from an essential failure to connect 2 very significant dots, democrats were so convinced their outlined scenario would become reality namely A- because of Rex Tillerson’s previous work with Russia netting the country a huge profit between their Rosneft and Exxon-Mobile, the latter lining their pockets substantially too, B-Mr. Tillerson, friend of Russia and oil CEO was made secretary of state; a former Russian energy minister did call Tillerson a gift to Putin elaborating his conflict of interest was “written on forehead.” Never confronted, if it’s remotely possible democrats were correct in their assumptions about, at the very least how Trump views his relationship with Putin, how Putin views his existing/future relationship with Trump, merely wrong on how evidence supporting that view would manifest itself; keep reading for more on that thread. Kulinski’s ongoing stubborn resistance to the very idea of Trump collusion, as it’s now shorthanded in news segments, media articles, being anything other the ‘corporate democrat’ hyperbolics seems to be lagging comprehension motive behind a Russia investigation is not to declare president Trump guilty before gathering proper facts, although the drip, drip, drip litany of front page stories, exposed information strongly indicates guilt on the part of Trump’s so called inner circle, if not Trump directly. The ‘Russia investigation’ instead was designed to determine firstly, was there collusion and in a way that constitutes criminality, laws broken by which people can and should be prosecuted, not just on collusion but under the written mandate of America’s deputy attorney general “anything directly arising from the special counselor’s inquiry.” Hopefully by the end of the piece hold outs will have come to the solid conclusion the only thing to be answered is finer details illuminating how collusion took place and how much of it exactly went on. Secondly, if there is evidence of criminal level collusion, wrongdoing, which campaign, transition, sitting staff members were involved, on the other hand, which ones weren’t; thirdly, assuming 1 and 2 are thoroughly proven to legal standard, what role, if any, did candidate, president elect or president of the United States Donald J. Trump play in discovered collusion? The old what did he know, when did he know it line with a side of what should he have known by virtue of paying attention, vetting campaign, transition, Whitehouse staff properly in concordance with positions they were to hold. Fourthly, is there evidence to support obstruction of justice in conjunction with unfolding cover-up attempts, lies, obfuscations, document destructions, withholding information either for Trump himself or Trump staff current/former? Neither Trump ‘factions’ nor Kulinski/Dore ‘factions’ can have it both ways; example Michael Flynn, if you believe he is guilty, his work with a foreign power compromised him into doing what another country wanted, not in the best interests on his own, which at least one of the Russia skeptics does, there’s your collusion. Only thing left to explore is was there any more, did it go to influencing the election, could it still be going on, the purpose of the investigation. Killing 2 birds with one stone addressing the latest scandal puzzle piece talk programs like Secular Talk, The Jimmy Dore Show want to refute, dismiss for things they see as the moral high ground, reports the DNC hack did not come from Russia but was in fact an inside job further imploding the Russia story in their minds. Yet again if there is no there, there, the DNC was hacked by someone else why can other independent media sources a-la David Packman put together a timeline making it certainly look like quid pro quo between Russia and the campaign garnered via leaked memos al-la that time period? For instance why did candidate Trump’s own language on Russia change right after hiring Paul Manafort circa April, why then did he demand and engineer things so that the GOP/RNC platform altered their stance on Ukraine to a more pro Russia position, happening July, directly following reporting on the shift in the LA Times 1 day later people saw the first round of WikiLeaks e-mail dumps on Hillary Clinton? Why does it coincide with a repeating pattern, October Trump denies accusations against Russian hacking post formal declaration statements, publicized warnings from the Obama administration (ultimately eclipsed by pussy-gate in the media cycle) a set of revolving denials still not completely stopped, 2 months later Michael Flynn is caught in phone conversations about sanctions, just imposed, with the Russian ambassador and finally Rex Tillerson was appointed secretary of state in the same month. Why was Trump confidant Roger Stone, another individual with connections to Russia, caught admitting a backchannel to WikiLeaks, what else would he have been using it for if not to discredit Trump’s lone election rival Hillary Clinton, especially considering at the time of his admission we’d already seen damaging information rumored to come from there? Why was a Russian lobbyist the person who wrote Trump’s campaign foreign policy speech; and to be absolutely, crystal clear 17 intelligence agencies are listed as agreeing Russia interfered with our election, interference taking on a variety of formats including social media bots and misinformation campaigns, later disclosed attempts to hack both voting machines and voter personal data, the latter one successful; that may or may not have encompassed specifically the DNC hack. Moreover, this is one report why does one report so sway these leaders in independent media toward ‘Russia didn’t hack the DNC/Podesta e-mails therefore they didn’t hack/interfere with the election either’ if they are telling viewers/listeners not to be swayed by the one report citing 17 agencies they say that paper has admitted was untrue? Dore’s chief evidence for that claim is a printed correction in the New York Times, noting they are thus following the tenets of journalistic ethics providing such a correction and director of the CIA James Clapper’s own words; video obviously began playing in the middle of his answering a question or giving summary of his departments’ findings, and stopped just after he apparently says 3 agencies determined reported conclusions not on 17, nothing else he said, date stamp given to the PolitiFact analysis calling the statement true when quoted by Hillary Clinton, but not Clapper’s testimony given to presumably one of the investigatory committees scrutinizing Russia, no clarification there either. Conveniently omitted, like things on Jared Kushner’s security clearance application or financial disclosure form, the 3 agencies listed are paramount agencies you would expect that kind of information to issue from the CIA, NSA and FBI versus oddities listed like the coast guard, in favor of a smear against Clapper’s character and the agencies mentioned going back 2 administrations to George H.W. Bush and bad intel on Iraq. Returning to the DNC cyber-attack, one of the primary reasons to believe it was Russia apart from candidate Trump’s open directive, invite to please hack and try to find her 30,000, he incorrectly called them lost e-mails, on the evidence side is Cyrillic alphabets, computer time settings matching the Russian time zone; if Russia didn’t do this someone went through an awful lot to make it look like they did. Plus coupled with the social media bots, the misinformation, propaganda, fake news planted, distributed, their later exposed to the public hacks on voter software, attempted intrusion into 39 state’s voter machines, voter data succeeding in gaining access to millions of names, addresses, thereby capable of making changes, deletions, it blowing the Kyle Kulinski brand of ‘hacking is a misleading term,’ combined with unabashed recruitment tactics, previously mentioned dangling; it all fits the Russia playbook of undermining elections, democratic processes successfully achieved throughout Europe. Neither is it any sort of secret Vladimir Putin hates/hated Hillary Clinton and the thought she would put even more sanctions on his country; conversely, at best in Donald Trump he saw someone he liked, respected and could work with opposite former president Obama, at worse for us, he saw someone easily manipulated, a pawn, a tool. If the DNC hack was an inside job, president Trump was partially right when he said it could be ‘a 400lb. person on their bed someplace,’ why does it appear they turned around and tried to do the exact same thing in France, where French officials stepped in and alerted journalists there no, you won’t be printing hacked, unsubstantiated material. Donald Trump infamously, promoting his border wall, said you don’t have a country without borders; well you also don’t have a country without full faith, unmolested, tampered with elections people can be absolutely certain represent their choices. Why Russia and potential collusion matter enough to match the ‘hysteria’ generated about them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkgJi9EK_hM
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clinton-putin-226153
Putting aside theories on the DNC hack, whether or not it was Russia momentarily, recently revealed was the inner workings, struggle of the Obama Whitehouse, arduous process involved in getting the intelligence community, those 17 agencies, fellow lawmakers, GOP members to trust each other’s intel, to grasp Russia, a foreign power was doing something, trying to impact our elections; consternation of the 44th president as he tried to decide what to do, how much to divulge to the American people without influencing the election himself, appearing bias should Hillary win. You comprehend how tied his hands were if he didn’t want to escalate us into Putin waging an attack on either voting machines, voting data after the fact in an attempt to change results, didn’t want him to launch an infrastructure cyber war attacking our electricity, water treatment, banks, hospitals exc.; cognizant Russia did similar things in Ukraine calling it a failed state giving them reason to move in and take it over, hints Crimea. Terrifying written specifics saying Russia did this in signs anyone who knew what they were looking at could read; top government agencies marking an increase in temporary visas for Russians with technical skills to work temporarily at Russian facilities, logical reason for taking those 2 compounds seized by the Obama administration as punishment for interference, credible belief part of the attack on our elections was facilitated from there by Russians already in the United States. Bringing us back around to additional evidence making experts believe Russia was behind DNC hacking, reality Russian intrusion goes well beyond that singular hack, past noted Cyrillic alphabets and time zones; there was information disclosed a Russian general with Putin’s ear gave him the idea of a cyber campaign to sow chaos and instability into otherwise stable, sovereign nations and governments, sound familiar? There was the hacking group Fancybear and matching correlations between them, the DNC hack and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s e-mails, many using the same e-mail service where, in Moscow, proceeding attacks on Belingcat an independent website trying to counter pro-Russian state run media; first to expose the Malaysian plane shot down over Ukraine was done by Russian separatists, prompting assault on their systems. Important to ask if this is a democratic distraction, if this is nothing what are operators of Belingcat, pro-democracy entities in Russia getting out of it; do we really think it was a ploy for publicity on their part when they already have our support, or did under the Obama Whitehouse? Juxtapose that against the mysterious Russian deaths occurring around the time of our elections, just after; scarily accurate supposition Putin is killing, locking up anyone involved in the U.S. hack, interference effort including Russian compilers of the dossier to hamper Trump. Back here at home, details just described knowledge, information candidate Trump had regular access to since becoming the nominee and being given daily intelligence briefings, ongoing developments he was told expanded portions of as president elect over the transition period, or would have been had he not shirked said briefings telling interviewers “he was like a smart person, I don’t need to be told the same thing every day.” If you’re still inclined to say there is no there, there, the DNC was an inside job reveal of corrupt inside baseball, what’s happening in Russia is Russia’s problem, affair, if you want to concede ok Russia did what it did but that has nothing to do with president Trump apart from his distraction candidacy and wining the Whitehouse made it easier; want to assume Trump’s ties to Russia have nothing to do with the campaign and everything to do with his decades of business deals alone, explain his litany of campaign staff with active ties to Russia and simultaneous things happening just before and while named individuals worked for the Trump campaign. Explain how so many of those ‘business transactions’ were coincidentally going on parallel to the campaign but seem to have dried up currently; why was a Russian oligarch flown into Concord North Carolina the same night of a Trump campaign rally, why was Erik Prince seemingly sent as a representative of Trump the business man, if not the Trump campaign, Trump the candidate, to a meeting in the Seychelles Islands with representatives of Vladimir Putin set up by the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates UAE? (We’ll come back for more on him later.) Why do an inordinate number of his closer campaign, transition public names and current Whitehouse staff have nearly endless ties to Russia; explain Paul Manafort, lesser known to Russia developments watchers, Manafort pitched himself to Trump for a job within the campaign initially hired on as convention manager, as he promised he could secure him enough delegates; roughly a month later he was promoted to campaign manager shortly after which the candidate’s language drastically changes on Russia and the Crimea issue according to the David Packman timeline linked above. Paul Manafort Donald Trump hadn’t previously known from Adam, as the common expression goes; digesting those facts, chronology of events it is thus not democratic hysteria, hyperbole, overreaction, wild leftist conspiracy theories to ask if Paul Manfort is a Russia plant, was told by Russia to approach Trump considering they have mutual business interests and friends going back decades as chronicled beautifully on Bill Moyers website giving an interactive timeline from Trump’s first forays into Russia decades ago right up to present day investigation questions. Why Paul Manafort’s statements about no Russian involvement between the Trump campaign and the soviet country are several times more insidious than they would have been originally, he said those things to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and others knowing full well his own ties to Russia, payments from Ukraine pro-Russian forces, foreign agent work he should have registered for. Rationalize Cater Page, a second person Trump previously didn’t know before hiring him with connections to Russia, really Donald Trump’s entire foreign policy team, whom no one had ever heard of; justify how come they conducted a half dozen to double digit numbers of meetings with Russian persons, business men to ambassadors, diplomats, known spy maker a-la Sergey Kislyak during the campaign, throughout the transition, why did Russia confirm the ongoing contact with Trump associates, campaign members corresponding with aforementioned time periods? Playing devil’s advocate these were nothing more than coincidence, a case of useful idiots unknowingly falling into Russian hands blissfully ignorant of unsuccessful attempts to suborn them into doing their bidding, why did contacts between Trump personnel and Russia so concern officials campaign foreign policy advisor Cater Page’s trip to Russia triggered an FBI probe and a FISA warrant? Cater Page who before ever working for Trump was employed at Russian branch of an internationally known bank, Merrill Lynch, Mr. Page who had already been part and parcel to another FBI investigation attached to a Russian spy ring out of a New York Bank having given information to said Russians; Cater Page, according to FBI documents leaving a lasting impression on Russian agents, operatives them saying he flies to Moscow more than they do, obviously wants to make a lot of money, indications his desire to make money was a sufficient means by which to recruit him. Why was yet one more member comprising Trump’s campaign foreign policy team, George Papadopoulos, likewise bragging to fellow campaign members he could get meetings with Russian leaders; a campaign volunteer no less, why would they want them and how would he know they wanted them, why did he think he could get them? Breaking information indicates still another unearthed person trying to initiate contact with Russia during the Trump campaign, this time his deputy chief of staff on the receiving end of a probing e-mail; timing that lines up with the infamous Trump Jr. meeting and arouses investigatory interest because it could explain Jeff sessions meetings with Russian ambassador Kislyak (read further down for more on Sessions.) If people are merely being manipulated, used to someone else’s ends without their knowledge or limited knowledge of what is happening to them, why was Michael Flynn doing work on behalf of foreign countries absent adequate registration, possessing both a memo and having been given a warning upon retirement not to do the exact kind of work he was doing without approval? If Donald Trump wasn’t directing him when he was caught on surveillance talking about lifting sanctions the very day sanctions were issued, who was? Why did he then lie to Trump, his boss, boss’ officials, the vice president about it; why did he recommend a foreign policy strategy better suiting Turkey than America except for the fact he was getting paid to lobby on behalf of Turkish interests and carried that to the Whitehouse? Backing up further, why was Trump lawyer Michael Cohen handed an envelope containing a Russian peace plan hallmark of which was removal of, you guessed it, Russian sanctions passed on to, can you compete that sentence, Michael Flynn; again if not directed by Trump, at minimum encouraged with a wink and a nod, then who? If Donald Trump is above board, uninvolved in collusion, not doing some, he’s too naïve to know it’s illegal quid pro quo for Russia, why does it appear acting attorney general Sally Yates wasn’t simply fired over refusal to enforce Trump’s unconstitutional, in her view, travel ban but also ousted for warning Trump about Michael Flynn, the fact he had unequivocally been compromised, was susceptible to blackmail due to his foreign agent work; her dismissal came about because he was angry at being informed about what one of his staff had done? For that matter why was Flynn lying on his security clearance renewal, lying to the FBI; here is where you can’t divorce Michael Flynn’s obvious guilt and the rest of the story, keeping in mind the accusation is Trump campaign personnel, transition entities or serving Whitehouse staff did collude with Russia to help him win the election, to benefit Russia in exchange for aid in winning the election, did do favors for Russia by which Russia would do something to aide Donald Trump in his personal/business ventures, Michael Flynn this time purposefully recruited for the job National Security Advisor. It again not preposterous to ask if Michael Flynn is also a Russian plant, who ingratiated himself to the Trump campaign, became a special advisor to the candidate and finally put himself into a position to be hired on in the administration. Possible personal motive for candidate, president elect, lastly president Trump, relief of debts owed by Mr. Trump, Trump family members, Trump businesses; possibility Trump himself personally colluded with a foreign power, Russia to achieve these ends, why his tax returns are so important. Might that better decipher the previously odd meeting between Jared Kushner and a Russian banker employed by a bank under US sanction; he either stupidly thought father in law Trump had already lifted the sanctions giving him the green light to move ahead with the meeting or so desperate to save his troubled 666 5th avenue property he didn’t care? Latest reporting chronically he’d been shopping the globe for financing of this sinking tower of high end apartments. Is this why Jared Kushner was seeking to set up a backchannel for communications with Russians, if not the Kremlin itself in a United States Russian embassy; is it as simple as having jumped the gun, acted too soon he wanted to bypass standard monitoring talking about this business deal before he was financially sunk leaving father in-law to iron out the details, a backchannel so bizarre, abnormal, so brazen veterans were asking is this a prank, another said it took their breath away? His then failure to disclose said meeting and said attempt at a backchannel on his application to receive a security clearance credibly being called possible espionage. Before or after he and his sister used EB5 visas trading green cards and residency for a $50,000 investment that creates at least 10 jobs, to entice wealthy Chinese to invest in a family business project directly using his name post becoming aide to the president, known in the legal world as possible influence peddling; how Russia and run of the mill corruption feed back into each other. Throwing us head long into why were a whole fleet of U.S. attorneys general fired including the perplexing dismissal of Preet Bharara no one could understand, originally asked to stay on; could it be his investigation of Trump finances, Trump family finances, and you start to see a loose patterned framework as to how Russian collusion fits in with all the cumulative information we know about Trump’s decades long history of bad, shady, failed business dealings? Oh but that’s ordinary corruption so we’ll believe it and discard the rest; not so fast when it establishes motive, when it provides a key why, when it embodies glue holding the whole otherwise disjointed set of stories together. Likewise tempted to think the removal of Paul Manafort, ouster of Carter Page, resignation of Michael Flynn successfully cleans house, eliminates probability what these people did was grievously illegal mandating prosecution to uphold the integrity of our elections, want to point to it saying he (Trump) did the right thing getting rid of bad, subpar people from his campaign, transition and staff, think again; enter attorney general Jeff Sessions who met with Russians then lied about it at his confirmation hearing, having to recuse himself from Russia election interference, potential collusion investigations his job title mandated he lead, then potentially violated that recusal weighing in on the firing of James Comey, later caught on reviewed phone conversations talking to Sergey Kislyak about the Trump campaign, readers now aware of what he does for a living. Propelling us to walking on stage right, Wilbur Ross largest shareholder in a Cyprus bank known to be where Russian oligarchs launder their ill-gotten money, specific bank having quite literally more ties to Vladimir Putin and Putin longtime friends than there are hair follicles on the average person’s head. Connections we’ve heard before including the king of fertilizer flown to that North Carolina rally who was looking to park his billions into expensive assets going through a nasty divorce, buying a gaudy property off now president Trump for twice what he paid for it at auction; Cyprus also having ties to Paul Manafort where he put money paid to him by pro Putin forces in Ukraine. Moving from money to actions, more sharply lack thereof, if Trump isn’t, as Mr. Kulinski so colorfully put it ‘Putin’s bitch,’ why has he had next to no response to documented Russian interference in our election, why has he been working to remove sanctions from day 1, planning to give back the compounds seized by the Obama administration consequence for Russian meddling? How does Rex Tillerson’s state department reject previously allocated 80 million dollars in funds to fight propaganda not limited to ISIS but Russia as well, propaganda and misinformation campaigns the Secular Talk host has not trouble believing took place; take the Russia element out of it, cyber warfare is a real thing with serious consequences demonstrated by malware like wannacry, Petya, we don’t want anyone attacking our infrastructure: electricity, water treatment, banking, hospitals, exc., we don’t want anyone influencing our elections in any way, using people/computers to launch propaganda, spreading fake news, no matter who it is Russia, ISIS, China who has a reputation for business espionage, North Korea, globally recognized hackers Guccifer, known American hackers like Anonymous, the next group or individual on the cyber scene. Leaving the money there simply unused only makes sense if Tillerson is worried about Russia’s reaction when he goes ahead with usage plans and he, the Trump administration was supposed to be on their side. Why was there at least 1 secret meeting between Trump and Putin while attending the G20 summit in which Trump floated the idea of partnering with Russia on cyber security at a time when there are already worries Russian anti-virus software Kaspersky and its required total control of your computer to do protection work along with its widespread proliferation could facilitate an even bigger intrusion into America’s critical systems? Why has his position on Russia evolved first it was I have no ties to Russia, then it was they’re standard business ties- I don’t know maybe 1 or 2, to there was not collusion, to if there was collusion it was perfectly normal, nothing illegal; why has Russian president Vladimir Putin’s own stance changed almost as much as Trump’s from Russia, the Russian government did not hack, attempt to hack US elections, had no part in what he clearly saw as a conspiracy, a concentrated effort to smear Russia to paralleling Trump as time went on, as intelligence officials here started to say he, Putin directed the whole operation, gave his people goals and objectives to maybe Russian patriots acting alone did attempt a hack? The only believable reason to do that is to get ahead of, counter irrefutable facts showing Russia did something constituting election interference. Following the information, people and money, if there is no there, there, if there is nothing to see and it’s either a ploy to distract from a horrible democratic loss and a still scattered, divided, leaderless democratic party hoping to continue selling corporatist ideas post the progressive surge and shift galvanized by Bernie Sanders, why did Russia do it again with the #SyriaHoax to deflect away from Assad for his chemical attack on civilians carrying the same similarities as what infiltrated our elections? Explain the positive foreign interventions, why were U.S. allies investigating Trump alongside his campaign for president, why were they the first to spot Trump campaign Russia ties and sound the alarm, why was Donald Trump, his campaign simultaneously under investigation by the FBI for suspicious ties to Russia, unusual trips to Russia, other location overseas meetings with Russian intermediaries at the same time they were also investigating Hillary Clinton for her e-mails, private server? Speaking of Clinton and e-mail-gate, privative server-gate, now fired FBI director James Comey had an interesting tidbit on his extraordinary, unorthodox press conference; turns out he came out publically counter to FBI and DOJ policy because of fake documents roaming around stating attorney general Loretta Lynch had assured Clinton the investigation into her private server wouldn’t get too far, documents suspected to be from Russia he feared would compromise his findings. But Russia is a go nowhere topic of conversation, debate or scrutiny; whether they were behind the Loretta Lynch subject fake documents or not, it doesn’t change the fact 2 foreign agents in Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, whose work was on behalf of Russia, had Russian origins, were operating in the Trump campaign with or without his full knowledge, that a foreign agent, Paul Manafort was for a critical time running the Trump campaign, had actively maneuvered himself into running the Trump campaign. Lastly this segment, Britain was the first to notice Trump campaign Russia ties except that wouldn’t be the Steele dossier would it, then that’s pee-gate and doesn’t count would be the Secular Talk host’s probable response. Lock step with Mr. Kulinski’s answer to Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘Russia meeting,’ voluntarily released e-mails about that meeting in which an intermediary wanted to set up a conference with an individual describing themselves as working on behalf of the Russian government to help his father Donald Trump senior win, whose spontaneous reaction was to call it a wash; because, A- it doesn’t appear they actually got anything and B- to deflect to Hilary Clinton saying she did the same thing with Ukraine, pivoting to the Steele dossier’s ‘utterly illegal collection’ laid at the feet of democrats. Next delegitimizing it by its nickname the pee-pee tape; alternating between disinterest in his (Donald Trump’s) merely alleged, though not entirely unbelievable, sexual proclivities and naming the rest of the information things we probably needed to know. One problem, The Guardian article outlining British intelligence’s uncovering of Trump, Trump campaign connections to Russia doesn’t mention the name Steele or the word dossier until the very end as something U.S. committees investigating would be interested in exploring further, unclear if said dossier was sole grounds for their discovery, the piece’s tone implies not; moreover it doesn’t just detail Russian connections in business, philanthropy, financial management, banking, interactions you might anticipate from business people, from someone working for a Russian affiliate of Merrill Lynch, Carter Page’s former/concurrent gig, but alarmingly known members identified as Russian intelligence. Plus given breakdown doesn’t stop with what British intelligence noticed rattling off other European allies who came across something suspicious in their routine intelligence gathering protecting their respective governments, including Germany, Estonia and Poland, Australia, possibly Dutch and the French spy agencies as well. Their (largely Britain’s) scathing, few word description of American intelligence on the subject calling them asleep and ‘very late to the game’ serves to offer no comfort, assurance, or evidence Russia as a political topic and subsequent investigations to determine if election hacking, meddling or interference are legitimate, asked and thoroughly answered yes by now, how deep their machinations went, determine the validity of collusion allegations pertaining to Trump and/or the Trump campaign are glorious phantasms exaggerated by democrats. Quite the opposite, European intelligence, at minimum The Guardian, seems to implicitly state everyone was paying attention to this except American intelligence, exactly who needed to be the most, likely no shortage of put out, irritated at having to clean up something perceived as our mess.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/19/trump-putin-discussed-russia-adoption-g20-240741
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia
Blowing huge holes in Jimmy Dore’s, catching onto a theme here, theory, ‘evidence’ Clinton and cohorts invented the Russia story, not the DNC hack, but the entire Trump Russia story to cover their failures; to quote of all people Vladimir Putin borrowing American phrases, read my lips no, European allies ‘started the Russia story’ to alert us to suspicious activity. And before the Dore-ites can conjure a comeback, ask yourself where the UK theoretically may well maintain the status quo inventing or going along with Trump/Russia hype, what do Estonia and Poland get out of manufacturing Trump Russia ties, non-existent sightings of Trump campaign personnel if they weren’t where they said they were with who they said they were, photo or video probably included? Which has been refuted anyway because more and more of the publically verifiable information has been sufficiently conformed putting the people mentioned in the places mentioned on the dates mentioned, ruling out people with identical first and/or last names as key players. True to an emerging pattern, Dore’s evidence consists of forthcoming book quotes about a story Clinton’s team would engineer (after her loss) about the election not being on the up and up, thoughts echoed by many sans conspiracy considering she got 3 million more votes yet thanks to the electoral college Trump won the presidency, the primary dustup over Bernie Sanders and the long held feeling the DNC conspired to shut him out when closed primaries were truthfully responsible. And a purported internal memo from 2015, easily faked considering this taping was July 2017 months post the DNC hack, citing Hillary Clinton’s sale of American Uranium to Russia after donations to the Clinton foundation according to poll results; except mainstream media fact checked Trump on this one back in March answering why media refused to talk about it, uncomplicated answer, there is no credible source linking the 2. Kernel of truth, secretary of state Clinton did co-sign off on the legitimate uranium to Russia deal between them and the U.S. government with no less than 8 other appropriate agencies likewise approving; CBS remarking, even had she refused to sign she would have been powerless to stop the deal, not remotely the same thing, also having nothing to do with the Clinton foundation or husband Bill. Those realities brought to light why should readers believe the DNC hack was conversely a leak by disgusted insiders not part of ‘Russia-gate’ beginning with looking at the age of his story, the source an ex-British ambassador turned WikiLeaks operative perhaps angry another British government type (Mr. Steele) was getting all the U.S. attention, possibly seeking to clear WikiLeaks’ ‘good’ name, apart from Dore’s opinion, comprehension it fits his hate Hillary, hate the DNC narrative the former he shares with who, Assange founder of, did we forget, WikiLeaks. But it precedes Kyle Kulinski’s trust of Julian Assange, because he’s never been wrong thus far, utterly dismissing bimbo poll t-shirts asking about the sexually inappropriate exploits of Bill Clinton once available on the advertised news site; Salon.com correctly articulated their exposed bias, his or Kulinski’s for that matter, hatred of Hillary Clinton hardly secret. Addressing, properly disputing what can only be named conspiracy theories and going forward, no, Trump Jr.’s previously secret Trump Tower meeting with a hand full of Russians, no matter their origins (business, humanitarian, political) isn’t a wash, even if Kyle Kulinski maintains he also believes Hillary Clinton did the same thing; evidence presented here will seek to prove she did not. Focusing on Trump Jr., firstly processing above gathered intelligence from agencies embarrassingly more on the ball than our own, plainly reaching out is part of a much bigger plan to do something to our election, them having definitively picked their preferred candidate, allied intelligence corroborated by statements made in their own introductory e-mail; understanding with up to the minute developments regarding Trump’s deputy chief of staff and an e-mail he received stating explicitly said entity, unnamed in either article or original document, was looking to connect the Trump campaign and Putin, as in Vladimir Putin president of Russia, Trump Jr.’s correspondence was logically not the first, decidedly not the only, attempt to communicate directly with the Trump campaign. Plot intrigue dial increasing several notches when you trace back Trump’s deputy chief of staff was now attorney general Jeff Sessions chief of staff who came along with him onboard the Trump campaign; remember from the previous paragraph perhaps explaining Jeff Sessions’ meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, most especially the one in his senate office, investigators too want to know. Met with skepticism by Rick Dearborn that now embroiled deputy it’s conceivable they moved on to other parties either more gullible or more likely to act on what they were told; enter Donald Trump Jr. and the meeting we now known took place. Secondly, whether information can be classified as something of value under campaign laws laying out you are not allowed to take that from a foreign entity, government, whether information was actually exchanged it holds as a crime labeled conspiracy to commit and, added bonus, proves his allusive collusion, bare minimum attempted collusion; going step by step through the confirmed events of that strange Trump Tower convergence of unlikely persons, Trump Jr. received an e-mail boldly announcing a desired meeting and not only did he meet with people who expressly said they worked for a foreign country hoping to help his father win, he dragged 2 or 3 other top Trump campaign persons with him, tacking on a layer of dubiousness Trump Jr.’s purported response: “I love it.” Contrast his response to a Gore campaign staffer who suddenly received an envelope, booklet of Bush debate prep; immediately he called the FBI and detached himself from the Gore team for the duration of the election season; if that guy thought debate prep might be stolen what did Donald Trump Jr., admittedly characterized as stupid in the media based on his actions here, at other key moments during the campaign and after, think what they were offering could be, probably was considering they enticed him with supposed dirt on election rival Hillary Clinton? And you don’t call the police department asking for the local branch of the FBI if you don’t know how to contact them yourself, contact the lawyer Trump senior’s campaign predictably had on their payroll, you minimally don’t call your personal/family attorney asking what you should do, think there was anything remotely wrong with receiving such an e-mail down to the criminally innocuous explanation it could be a prank, aware of the DNC hack, contemplate such an e-mail could be infected with spyware, malware, if nothing else call dad and ask him about it, but you maintained for Fox News your father knew nothing. Keeping in mind Trump Jr. also told Fox News he hadn’t met anymore Russians, the details out there were it, all of it, only for a string of other names to come out as having also attended; careful reading of the e-mail’s suggesting additional phone calls to iron out meeting specifics; news consuming public only having Donald Trump Jr.’s word he has released all the e-mails, his word demonstrated unreliable. Same savvy news reporters highlighting when told supposedly to be provided info was part of the Russian government’s effort to help his father win he didn’t respond what effort, like it was an already known thing; not only supporting the collusion theory but strongly suggesting, providing circumstantial proof collusion was known about by Trump campaign members, if not Trump himself. Breaking news fills in yet more details on one person in that meeting, a lobbyist with deep Kremlin ties newly divulged information on Rinat Akhmetshin, who is in truth a Washington D.C. fixer fond of bragging about his affiliation with Russian intelligence; Akhmetshin simultaneously appears to be the go to guy for Russian oligarchs wishing to arrange hacking of their opponent’s data to then be used against that opponent. Sound familiar, it should since it mirrors attacks on the DNC/Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, media able to tie Akhmetshin to 2 Russian instances openly wondering if the hacking fingerprints, prep work would match traceable tells indicating what happen to the DNC and Podesta; if they have to ask the question, the answer is usually yes, Akhmetshin having given testimony to Mueller’s grand jury. Mounting stand out meeting questions, none of the other people invited gave you any words of caution ideally from Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort whose previous Russia work should have meant he knew better, unless obtaining said information was the goal; spelling even bigger trouble for attendee Jared Kushner as it represents another ding to his troubled security clearance form housing so many inaccuracies and omissions he’s looking at perjury, collective summation it was throw Jr. under the public relations bus to protect Kushner form greater legal jeopardy. Continuing next to nobody seriously believes all they discussed in that meeting was adoption; not singularly because Trump Jr.’s story kept changing from yes he met with a Russian lawyer (could have been anything business related) to I met with a Russian lawyer to get undisclosed information sourced to the Russian government, oh but it was a meeting about Russian adoption, to yeah it was really to get proffered dirt on Hillary Clinton. Rather because the heart of the issue isn’t American adoption of Russian children but the Magnitsky Act client of Sergey Magnitsky, for whom the Magnitsky act is named reverence and reference to the Russian lawyer battling corruption, who died for his endeavor explained, thereby leading to freezing Russian assets deposited in America belonging to purveyors of that corruption, causing the suspension of Russian adoptions wanted by American families. Client confidently stating for Joy Reid they were indeed talking about sanctions, lifting sanctions. Jimmy Dore takes it an exaggerated step beyond Kulinski’s mocking high pitched voice describing democratic reactions as: ‘they said/handed over mean things on Hillary Clinton’ in dissecting the Trump Jr. meeting, opening with how we fixed Russia’s election so Yeltsin would win roughly 4 presidents ago whatever happened; another interpretation we supported their bid for democracy. Next he fixated on there is no crown prosecutor in Russia forget the e-mail writer is British and got his terms confused, trying to hang the media for calling the ordinary Russian lawyer Kremlin linked; except, she is tied to Yuri Chakia prosecutor general in Russia handpicked by Putin for his brutal regime, falling back on he (Trump Jr.) never got anything therefore how can simply meeting with a foreign lawyer, or as his commenters put it, a foreigner be illegal? Except again, that meeting happened, estimation 1 month after 2 Russian intelligence officers were caught in taped conversations by American intelligence intercepts bragging about a plan to sow chaos, where have we heard that before; moreover, random meetings with Russian lawyers about standard international business, for which the Trump family is known, doesn’t prompt comments for daddy Trump normalizing it the same way he did collusion allegations up to the point of drafting a blatantly untruthful statement to be given to the media saying the meeting was misleadingly about adoptions, especially against your advisory team’s directive to get everything, whatever that is out in the open, hopefully supplying a definitive final answer to Dore’s over simplified question, now if only it could be assured Dore and Kulinski would read. Bringing us to that infamous and much maligned dossier, ignored about the Steele dossier virtually evaporating the Secular Talk host’s implication it was collected illegally is its full history which he may not know completely; that it was originally commissioned by establishment republicans from a legitimate Washington D.C. opposition research firm, AKA who you go to when you want specific kinds of information i.e. on political opponents without breaking any laws, using professionals who know what the laws are correlated to such information, as opposition research on Donald Trump prior to him securing the republican nomination and abandoned thereafter. Fusion GPS the aforementioned frim responsible for hiring former MI6 agent Christopher Steele because of his extensive work, experience in Russia; Steele running his own opposition research facility out of London, target goal for republicans: find out if front runner, possible nominee Donald Trump had any business ties to Russia and how extensive were they should they exist, indicating you would almost have to send someone to Russia to do that thoroughly wouldn’t you? Yet this alone constituting the whole of collusion Kulinski believes everyone, subsequent players likewise guilty of, should the interpretation be found accurate impugning on Fusion GPS’ reputation as a legally reliable opposition research firm, perhaps grounds for them to face shutdown of their business, jail time, but neither republicans nor democrats who took over payments to Fusion once republicans lost interest, saw no point in continuing the effort, because they had no way of knowing it was potentially obtained through illegal means, had no reason to suspect same. Mr. Steele upon finding what he found, noting it was so provocative it didn’t belong in the hands of any singular political party took it upon himself to complete his work sans payment from anyone channeling it to proper authorities, first reaching out to an old contact that the FBI, frustrated that was taking too long submitted it to entities in both his and the American governments. Interestingly idea its existence is a problem, could represent a crime helped along by republican senator Chuck Grassley’s guest appearance on Fox News to deflect from Jared Kushner being implicated in the social media arm of Russian election interference through the Trump campaign’s digital operation, which he ran, or was it to distract from the personal implosion, drunken ravings of Mark Kasowitz, Trump’s personal lawyer? Analytically compare that to Clinton’s supposed collusion interactions with Ukrainian officials trying to hedge the election for her similarities stop at both worked with foreign entities, which is not unusual on its face reputable journalists are quick to distinguish; immediately pointed out is hacking and disinformation were ordered by none other than Vladimir Putin opposed to Ukraine where “a variety of actors on the Ukrainian side responded to American queries and provided public documents.” Next the difference in collection of purported info, cyber-attacks, hacks versus documentation product of a legitimate government investigation and a singular lone telling document at that; “there’s a difference between dealing with the embassy and dealing with a covert intelligence operation,” Wittes said. “Are you dealing with government records, or are you dealing in stolen dirt; Wittes being Benjamin Wittes, lawyer and author of the Lawfare blog whom PolitiFact spoke to in order to write their comparison breakdown article. Elaborating about the perfect legality of the information found on then campaign manager Paul Manafort ultimately forcing his resignation he said; “taking that difference one step further, there was nothing inherently illegal in the quest for information on Manafort and how that might link Donald Trump to Russia. Wittes noted that from a research perspective, since Manafort’s work took place in Ukraine, “you pretty much have to go to the Ukrainians to get that,” almost verbatim theory given above on the legality if not total legitimacy of the Steele dossier belying further its criminal element attached to vital information shorthand nicknamed ‘pee-gate.’ Assuming his work, the dossier was the British basis for the intelligence they submitted to their U.S. counterparts warning about Trump, further supporting its legality and discrediting its illegality, it at that time ceased to be about any political campaign and crossed over to being about investigation of nefarious, illegal activity; additionally no U.S. campaign leaked the dossier to the media, those parties remain unknown. Closing by reiterating Ukraine is an American ally Russia at best a competitor more often than not seen to be an enemy; veering away from PolitiFact, perhaps just adding to their analysis, if you want to call what they did collusion, the illegal kind you must concurrently acknowledge they stood to get less out of it ‘criminally’ backing Clinton because she and the U.S. both held pro-Ukraine stances and intended to carry out existing foreign policies in that direction. One of the scarier questions revolving around Trump Russia collusion is the possible influence they, could, can potentially are exerting over American policy; especially when secretary of state Rex, there was nothing double sided about my appointment with my Exxon-Mobile, Russian connections past, Tillerson failing upwards, who like his boss, can’t muster a defense of an American reporter while in Russia. Commenters reading an identical Newsweek piece quickly noted the low level staff allegedly involved in said meeting versus the top level staff in the Trump meeting, underscoring facts chronicled also by Politifact the Ukrainian American woman working for the DNC at the heart of that collusion story merely continued work she’d previously begun and on Manafort exclusively. Too putting directly what Politifact only mentioned briefly seemingly for the sake of article space, the Ukraine story no matter how many times opponents try to raise the specter, remains static, doesn’t change placed beside the iterations of Donald Trump Jr.’ e-mails, Russia meetings, Michel Flynn and Paul Manafort’s repeated lies on Russia alone, Jeff Session’s evolving answers, to president Donald Trump’s own flip flopping; Hillary Clinton, her team made no effort to cover up the Ukraine story, downplay it, lie about it, in fact Kyle Kulinski’s biggest argument for democrats did it too, democrats did it too, sure lock him up, but lock her up too is a Politico article with a bating headline about Ukraine hurriedly making amends after Trump was elected, ‘their interference effort to elect Clinton’ failed. Keeping in mind even if they are guilty of “quietly working to boost Clinton” to directly quote the latter half of the aforementioned byline that doesn’t translate to using illegal tactics; circa 2012 the entire western world waited expectedly hoping, praying Obama won re-election, voiced their support when polled as there were citizens in Russia backing Trump voicing their support for him, other countries Clinton in 2016. When all the headline could really mean in a tangible, practical sense is people, top officials there had to adjust their attitude, devise a strategy for how to work with Donald Trump now that he has been named president, however surprising. Mr. Wittes had it right, “At the end of the day, information emerged from Ukraine that disrupted the Trump campaign. Taking the Politico report at face value, at least some Ukrainian officials helped in that process. By contrast, private emails acquired by the Russians and distributed through Wikileaks and DCleaks, in conjunction with a false news disinformation campaign, disrupted the Clinton campaign.”[Sic.] Meaning at the end of the day the Steele dossier is about legally garnered information through legitimate channels of opposition research free to use by political campaigns if they chose, that choice eventually removed by the compiler of the dossier’s recognition of explosive material needed to be handled by proper authorities. Wasn’t that your argument to democrats Kyle Kulinski when discussing WikiLeaks admonishing us we should be more concerned, upset about the embarrassing stuff Hillary Clinton did, not that it was leaked; again you can’t have it both ways. Lastly putting to bed the Hillary Clinton did it too mantra, the proliferators, revivers of the Hillary Clinton Ukraine collusion story are from Cyber Berkut the latest incarnation of FancyBear AKA Russian military intelligence, arm of the Russian government proliferated to right wing media by none other than just ousted Sebastian Gorka who not even Trump knew what his role was. Also glaring evidence the ‘hacking’, misinformation campaigns haven’t stopped; facts that follow the debunked conspiracy theorist reviving another Clinton story about her e-mails, her e-mails was paid by a recurring name, none other than Michael Flynn who was doing convoluted work tracing back to a recurring country its leader, Russia and Vladimir Putin. GOP operative Peter Smith who gathered persons onto the purpose of obtaining Clinton’s 30,000 e-mails rumored stolen by the Russians freely dropped Flynn’s name, his contact with Flynn while recruiting said persons to his endeavor, but Hillary Clinton lost because she was a bad, the worst candidate, and there is no collusion; stories at best are individual, at worst, unimportant. Russia had nothing to do with it other than being a hysteria scapegoat; honestly a kindergartener could put this together by now, would know better at this juncture.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-jr-emails-obama-russia-republicans-democrats-635112
Remembering the crux of the Steele dossier was never ‘golden showers,’ a ‘pee-pee tape’ solidifying Donald Trump reality star, business tycoon, then presidential candidate as a pervert potentially susceptible to blackmail, his Access Hollywood tape had already done that; that information was merely an added ding to his failing moral character most Trump supporters, later voters, chose to ignore conveniently forgetting the blackmail part. No the crux of the Steele dossier after getting past oddities making you slightly nauseous was about Russia didn’t need to blackmail him because the cultivation of Donald Trump had been executed for up to 5years with Putin’s blessing; it was about just how extensive his Russian ties were and what they meant for the fact he was running to be president of the United States. The crux of the Steele dossier was definitive proof of yes overt, knowing collusion between Trump and the Kremlin, their mutual efforts to hurt Hillary Clinton, Trump being fed a steady diet of intelligence on business/political rivals; definitive proof yes Russia was behind the DNC hack, distributing embarrassing e-mails through WikiLeaks, chosen for plausible deniability and Trump, senior campaign persons were fully aware of their actions. A dossier American founder of Fusion GPS Glen Simpson, who gave 10 hours of congressional committee testimony on the contents, sourcing for said dossier so stands by he’s beseeching congressional investigators to please use it as a roadmap for their investigation. Recalling here is the candidate, now president, who said I don’t have any ties to Russia, I don’t have any ties to Russia, haven’t called Russia in years when his own lawyers contradict his statements confirming his tax returns disclose Russia ties/Russian income; who insisted he hadn’t met with any Russian officials only to find out he met with, familiar recurring name, Sergey Kislyak jumping all the way to being invited to a Trump foreign policy speech, conversing moments before that speech where Trump gushed over positives of better relations between America and Russia. Mr. I have no ties to Russia’s connections to Russia have produced head scratching headlines puzzling even the journalists reporting on them from the Trump computer server communicating with a Russian bank, Jared Kushner’s meeting with a Russian banker wasn’t singularly eyebrow raising because that bank was under U.S. sanction but because VEB bank, the bank in question is bluntly an arm of Russian intelligence further embroiled in a Russian money laundering scheme via the New York chapter where Cater Page was caught up in an FBI investigation having given Russian, turned out to be spies, information. Sberbank, another Russian financial institution bizarrely hired a new American lawyer representing them in a giant civil case here, familiar headlined name Mark Kasowitz. Anchor absolutely correct in the pondering out loud rhetorical question if Mr. Kasowitz, at that time, was Donald Trump’s top lawyer on matters pertaining to Russia, you would think him too busy to take on new clients; lending credence to it only makes true sense if they were looking for a source of information on the Trump investigation conveniently covered on both ends by attorney client privilege. To his relationship with Deutsche Bank though German increasingly known for 2 things, the Russian money laundering scheme operated out of its affiliates across the globe and being exceptionally generous to Donald Trump pushing the traditional bounds of financial institutions since he hadn’t paid his previous loans, hubris fully on display, thus suing them. And those are just the banks, moving us toward his potential exposed mob ties largely responsible for his decades of business success; suspicion he’s been laundering money for Russians just as long, Russian oligarchs buying and living in Trump properties by the droves. Rolling into just released documents showing during the 2016 election cycle Trump business persons sought to build Trump Tower Moscow to the point of him signing a letter of intent; coordinating persons: Trump lawyer Micheal Cohen and longtime business partner Felix Sater, possessing his own criminal record including, wait for it, Russian mob ties. Sater added to the growing list of known names in the Trump Russia saga confirming the ‘Russia peace plan’ ultimately delivered to Michael Flynn because he was there when Michael Cohen picked it up from a rouge Ukrainian pro-Russian separatist (what a mouthful). Sater commenting about the Trump Tower Moscow deal (incidentally to be financed initially by Russian bank VTB another openly understood arm of the Russian government AKA Vladimir Putin stating candidly 60.9% of the shares are owned by said government) wrote in published e-mails, “Buddy- our boy [meaning Trump] can become president of the USA, and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this. I will manage this process.” [Sic] Cohen who reached out to Putin’s spokesperson for help because A that’s how things are done in Russia and B the project had reportedly stalled, Kremlin confirming the contact though the spokesperson never responded. Countering both Trump lawyer Ty Cobb and readers determined to believe Russia is BS essentially remarking an international business man doing an international business deal whoop–de–do, even Morning Joe’s panel didn’t come at it from ‘how weird is it a business mogul tried to do a business deal with sanctioned Russia no less,’ they came at it from you said you had no ties with Russia, so this couldn’t have happened during the campaign, ho wait it did! Another admitting his ignorance of international business transactions but doesn’t know many Americans who would reach out to Putin’s spokesperson, no matter how generic the drop box. Assuming Michael Cohen isn’t playing it off and Felix Sater is little apart from a bragging big mouth vastly overstating his abilities or connections, it is still and odd thing to say coupled with other parts of exposed e-mails related to Trump Tower Moscow: “according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence. The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump’s election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange. Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?'” Why would either man think a business deal would help Trump get elected or that Vladimir Putin could aid in an election unless they intended to do something flagrantly illegal; why would Sater think they (implication alone) were going to get Trump elected, and we’re not talking about by crafting campaign slogans, calling people about their candidate, manning campaign offices, launching the best campaign, but a foreign deal with an American adversary, implying corruption. Interesting if Sater is little apart from a bragging loudmouth, the business deal didn’t go through, was put on hold seeing as Trump Tower Moscow .com’s website domain was recently renewed, but the Trump presidency happened. Absorbing collusion is defined as secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others under google dictionary and illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially between ostensible opponents in a lawsuit, when in the criminal sense; remember collusion on the criminal level, on par with what will get you sent to jail doesn’t have to be pretty, elegant, graceful, all things we can agree Donald Trump and most of the people he surrounds himself with are not. When David Packman can off the cuff come up with a more plausible rational for Jeff Sessions’ ‘accidental’ meetings with Russians, writing Trump speeches an innocuous explanation for his being in the center of the action but not directly part of it, when anyone who has looked at an SF86 security clearance form can see you must sign it 4 times before submitting it which rules out his explanation an aide hit send too soon and your only defense for being at a meeting constituting collusion just by showing up is you didn’t read the full text of said mail but the subject line read Russia, Hillary Clinton, confidential, leaving the room, not because you expediently ascertained the whole thing was inappropriate but because the woman didn’t have what she claimed therefore wasting your time. When you fabricate unbelievable, implausible stories the topic of a controversial, suspicious meeting was adoption instead of a Trump business transaction, standard opposition research of which there turned out to be nothing usable; acknowledged, none of this is good spy craft, good criminal tradecraft, it’s obvious these people were going to get caught, a matter of when not if. Contrary to Russia skeptic’s notions, it (collusion) just has to be present it can even be sloppy, obvious, unsophisticated, clumsy, nor do you have to get something from it for it to be a criminal act under the law. That falls under conspiracy to commit, attempted collusion prohibited in the penal code; we know the famous saying it’s not the crime it’s the cover up. Kulinski frustratedly early on saying he didn’t know what they would be able to impeach Donald Trump for over Russia; well they would be able to impeach Donald Trump pertaining to Russia if it is proven he himself colluded with the Russians either to win election or was enticed to do things to benefit Russia upon reaching office in exchange for loan forgiveness, favorable decisions on business ventures. President Trump could be impeached regarding Russia if the investigation discovers credible evidence he was aware of his campaign/transitions’ collusion yet turned a blind eye to it; if he knowingly hired campaign, transition or Whitehouse staff cognizant of their current work on behalf of Russia to either influence the election or gain favors for Russia from a ‘sympathetic’ president. He can be indicted under articles of impeachment if his sloppy vetting of personnel led to the hiring of foreign agents (which it did) penitential spies; later you would say yourself should what Trump said/asked of James Comey before being fired prove true he was guilty of obstruction of justice. He can also be impeached for lying under more than penalty of perjury but for telling significant lies to the public; while not a criminal statute it is relevant under articles of impeachment, part of the charges drafted against Nixon in Watergate, how, if convicted, you lose your job as president before the end of your term, 2 terms if reelected. Therefore enlighten us ‘mainstream media brainwashed’ citizens, name 1, 2, several things major print media, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal have gotten wrong in their reporting, granted certain sections are pending more information revealed through the ongoing investigation far from finished, some were open speculations clearly labeled such. On the contrary it’s explaining what key developments like the appointment of a special counsel means, indications to be drawn from investigation of Trump’s finances, details about Mueller’s staff consisting overwhelmingly of white collar crime fighters, money laundering, fraud, exc. that provide glimpses into the direction of his investigation, inquiries into, forthcoming subpoenas interviews, who’s testifying before his or the congressional committee hearings, analysis of anything made public. In fact it was ‘unhinged’, ‘fallen’ Rachel Maddow, her show’s research team who put together the information on Rinat Akhmetshin and his habit of arranging to have people’s computers hacked, she was the one who put together details on the 2 Russian agents caught on tape before the Trump Jr. meeting and a thousand other case details besides; solidifying her earned journalistic reputation and integrity, she’s also who warned fellow media about fake documents her offices received, telling all her fellow journalists and media outlets nationwide within the sound of her voice beware. Recounting why Dore and Kulinski believe Maddow ‘fallen,’ ‘crazy,’ ‘losing her mind and people are starting to notice,’ it stemmed from calculated percentages on how much of her show is dedicated to Trump/Russia versus say the healthcare fight, the Muslim ban, Whitehouse blunders; going back further it was ‘her smearing of Bernie Sanders,’ her blaming persons, entities like Jill Stein and the FBI for Hillary’s loss, everyone but the worst candidate, to how she hyped the single page of Trump’s tax return from over a decade ago. But it wasn’t overhyped from a president who has used every excuse the routine audit he provided no proof of and the IRS statement an audit does not preclude the release of said returns, to there’s no law that says I have to, to avoid releasing his standard tax information every president has since Nixon got caught doing criminally creative taxes. Nor was her tax return exclusive an epic fail, it expediently became relevant in rumored policy to give yet more tax breaks for rich people, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, an idea he floated during the campaign to the tune of putting it in writing that would ensure he paid less taxes as a person with millions in declared income than the bottom half of the country i.e. the poorest people, while championing he’s for the middle class, the little guy it might be added. And paramount to the Russia in investigation answering does he have Russia ties, his lawyers already say he does, VTB bank was scheduled to back Trump Tower Moscow, have Russians financed any other Trump projects recently, over the years, who/what are his sources of income, will he craft tax policy to benefit not only himself but his benefactors, who is he beholden to financially, particularly anyone international, all things absent the Russia component covered in the Maddow segment revealing his tax return and the subsequent discussion with the reporter those crucial 2 pages were delivered to; turns out through time and investigation ‘the girl who cried Russia’ was right. Bolstering the credibility of the Trump maligned media (reaching new heights in that regard) standard CBS news cautioned news consumers that recent revelations about attorney general Jeff Sessions and conversations with former Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak could have been everything from bragging to purposefully planted misinformation and in the lone instance where 2 CNN reporters were caught embellishing a Russia story, printing things unverified, making things up, they were promptly fired— a predictable, sought after outcome when people like journalists responsible for giving the public news and information betray the public trust. Dan Rather, Brian Williams and 60 Minutes post Benghazi all had to rebuild the reputations and re-earn the public trust after their egregious blunders belying the idea media doesn’t police itself, there are no consequences for false, shoddy reporting. Further if you look at the sourcing for both Dore and Kulinski’s independent media colleagues you find longstanding print media added to staples like the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, Reuters, The Hill, McClatchy, accepted newcomers like Axios known, respected journalistic names who have a reputation for getting it right. Independent media is widely known for commitment to truth, voicing unpopular, justified stances, instead it is Kulinski who remains consistently hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil, head firmly in the sand on the subject of Russia; Dore who stands by his and others own conspiracy theories ‘Russia’ the story was invented by Clinton to cover her devastating loss, WikiLeaks dumps were in inside job by fed up DNC/Clinton campaign persons, Bernie supporters mad he was getting screwed by close primaries more than bad DNC/Clinton strategy ideas no one can prove were ever implemented, despite overwhelming evidence something is there, Russia did engage in a cyber-attack on our elections absent the DNC hack or collusion either one. Steady argument has been if there was Russia collusion, coordination of the nefarious kind Russia isn’t getting anything out of it, wrong. They got to sow chaos many believing it was a distraction by which to carry out Putin’s global agenda while we’re talking about nothing other than what they did to us, crippling faith in our democracy so strongmen like Trump and himself can turn a thriving republic into a dictatorship or oligarchy themselves firmly ensconced as authoritarian tyrants. They got a hollowed out state department, a plethora of hollowed out government agencies in truth, less effective at countering many global negatives from human rights abuses to corrupt criminal activities where America was leading the offensive, for want of staff. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson Russian order of friendship recipient cut back state department human rights support; Rachel Maddow again pointing out a curious phenomenon with Trump staff people he never met before find themselves in key government positions, prompting the next logical questions A if Russia did interfere in our elections was it to diminish the state department, the most annoying facets of U.S. democracy, government to people like Putin, B was secretary of state Tillerson put in place to be a smiling figure head while this happened under our already very occupied noses? And where there are staff many seem partial to Putin or want improved relations with Russia, have business interests there, their beliefs align with those of Putin on issues; beyond his/their previously detailed changing the RNC platform to something more Russia friendly, bashing NATO that neither like, taking America out of the Paris climate agreement which neither like, throwing the stink eye at the EU is an added bonus, early, early plans to lift sanctions, whomever was or wasn’t involved in what Russia did, Putin’s government has succeeded in getting a half a dozen or more Americans currently serving in politics to work on removing sanctions and that doesn’t count the lobbyists beseeching capitol hill to revoke the Magnitsky act directly. Trump, Trump surrogates and prominent Whitehouse names have convinced the American people we need to be friends with Russia; they reasonably stand to have their U.S. compounds returned to them moves supposed to be independent, non-biased, public good agenda media, persons like Kyle Kulinski support because to them Russia is BS. Another example Donald Trump ends CIA program arming anti-Assad rebels, now while the mainstream media and fellow independent media are doling out constructive criticism and, while they may agree with the policy, reminding watchers Putin wanted this and if there was collision, Trump/Russia quid pro quo this is very much what it would look like, Jimmy Dore went one flew past the cuckoo’s nest suggesting there was a Syrian cease fire negotiated at the G20 summit between the 2 leaders and the media just didn’t cover it tied in here because Trump’s choice on rebel armaments came roughly a month thereafter. Kulinski is reluctantly agreeing with Trump advising his viewership to see how ‘insane’ mainstream media is for even bringing Russia into it let alone questioning Trump’s motivations. The you agree with it so it doesn’t matter why it happened argument precisely when morally, criminally, intent matters; almost everyone is familiar with the phrase possession with intent to distribute as it pertains to illegal drugs, controlled substances, it’s counterpart conspiracy to commit. Go back up to the top of the paragraph talking about Jared Kushner’s defense of his presence at that meeting with a Russian lawyer; why his defense of leaving the room is so bad, his claim he didn’t read the full body of the e-mail, neither hold up, is because the e-mail heading said Russia, Hillary Clinton and confidential, 3 lines into the forwarded message it states this is part of Russia’s plan to help Trump establishing conspiracy to commit collusion, and that’s the ballgame folks. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop with the Trump campaign, transition staff or family who shouldn’t be working at the Whitehouse, reenter Jeff Sessions’ justice department who abruptly settled a case against a Russian real-estate company Prevezon for $6 million on $230 million of alleged tax fraud and reappearing topic, money laundering; 3 guesses who the lawyer was Natalia Veselnitskaya at the center of the Trump Jr. meeting controversy. On top of minute by minute revelations Paul Manafort wasn’t on his phone in the all-important meeting, as in not paying attention, paying haphazard attention, he was on his phone taking cryptic notes that included words/phrases such as RNC and references to political donations which would be illegal coming from a foreign government, said notes now in the hands of either the special counsel or congressional committee investigators. But Russian collusion is bogus because they’re getting nothing out of it; to reiterate, who needs the Exxon-Mobile deal when you’re getting all these other much bigger things?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y_JS2kgWBc
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57240/felix-sater-trump-tower-moscow/
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/12/what-is-collusion-215366
http://www.salon.com/2017/04/30/the-vindication-of-rachel-maddow_partner/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUXBs388RqQ
Nevertheless let’s say, for the sake of argument at this point, president Trump either didn’t collude in the illegal, prosecutable sense, or his campaign did so without his knowledge, forget permission, then why has his every move toward Russia been conciliatory, been acts of what every independent/progressive, objective observer would call appeasement, why are sane people voicing the question ‘why is Donald trump afraid of Vladimir Putin?’ Why has he seen fit to badmouth every other nation on the globe doing something he doesn’t like, conducting contentious phone calls with U.S. allies straining relations as leaked transcripts show, but have only kind words for Russia; our commander in chief’s actions cannot all be chalked up to the latest variation of a Russian reset, actually speculatively attributed to a wanted hotel in Moscow, rumored to be the biggest throughout the region’s continental area, substantiated by mutual flattery from both sides. Not leaving out consistent talks about sanction removal, that deductively reasoned to be what the Trump Jr. meeting was about rather than the flimsy story regarding adoption, Micheal Flynn’s conversation, the document passed from Cohen to Flynn identified as a Russian peace plan detailing the recurring sanction easing, workings to give back the Russian diplomatic compounds; stated in the introduction we’d get back to how the ‘Trump’s in Putin’s pocket’ proof might manifest itself, who needs the Exxon-Mobile deal when you’re doing all that, when the deal could be back on at any moment? Why did he give up code word level classified intel in the oval office news agencies were reluctant to reveal the source of fearing it would compromise the operative who gathered it, though fact it came from Israel made it to the media; why were the Russian ambassador and the Russian foreign minister in the oval office at all, American media kicked out of the room, Russian media allowed to stay? Same day, he hosted the crown prince of the UAE, identical crown Prince who set up a meeting between Eric Prince and Russian president Vladimir Putin; Eric Prince coincidentally brother to now appointed education secretary Betsy DeVos, gee wonder how she got her job, but that’s standard corruption part of a separate conversation. Again, not so fast, seeing clearly now how standard corrupt back scratching, quid pro quo repeatedly comes full circle headlong into Russia, Russia, Russia. But, if we’re all being cynics and Erik Prince’s work was aboveboard business meetings, dido son in-law Jared Kushner’s meeting with Russians about financing property owned by Kushner, if these were indeed legitimate business cultivation, why didn’t someone overseeing operations for the campaign, if not Trump himself, tell them to suspend foreign transactions, particularly with Russia considering the rumors going around, at least until the senate and house investigations were completed, his father in law’s campaign, his father in law had been exonerated of any wrongdoing? If there are legitimate, benign reasons, explanations behind everything you’ve done why not say so from the beginning; saying yes you have/had deals with Russia as the international businessman you are, you continue to pursue business ventures at least until it is determined if you will be the republican nominee or until election results are in after which you plan on divesting your businesses, turning them over to your sons avoiding, by your estimation, impropriety. Couldn’t you have smoothly said yes I met with Sergey Kislyak ahead of my foreign policy speech because I believe that for the better of America, the global community we have to have an increasingly functional relationship with Russia, if not outright friendly; to that end I wanted to meet with Mr. Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United States, underscoring his title and adding legitimacy to your actions, ensuring I understood the dynamics of Russia and America’s long history and could map out a path toward mutual benefit and cooperation, at minimum suspension of current hostilities should I become president. Ok the meeting your son took with a Russian lawyer was about obtaining credible, believed legal at the time, opposition research, he brought along his bother in law advisor to the campaign and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort; the woman arrived with her translator, a representative for the family with the information, also present the intermediary who made contact, going through who was there, doing one better, advising your son to do the same in place of you who did not attend? Though if the meeting is A so innocent and B you initially knew nothing about it until after it broke in the media and everyone needed a way to respond, why does it correspond to hints you gave in a rally speech teasing a reveal of something explosive about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails that never materialized? Why did both you and your son via your lawyer blame the secret service for not preventing this cast of characters entrance into Trump Tower, why did you suggest the secret service had vetted these persons before the meeting, when that summer the secret service’s job was exclusively the candidate alone? If he is not complicit in what his campaign blatantly did do, then why hire Michael Flynn ignoring multiple warnings from varying sources about his behavior, prior ties, disregard contents of a background check? Returning to Kushner, national security experts illuminating thanks to president elect Trump’s campaign rhetoric on bettering our relationship with Russia, fact he got elected signaling America’s weren’t diametrically opposed to that, administration personnel could have done the proposed communication set up plainly, out in the open, yet he didn’t making it smell criminal; still after all the things come to light, Kushner maintains his security clearance, or at least the Whitehouse refuses to talk about his security clearance. For that matter why does Kushner still hold a vast job duty portfolio impossible for one person to do anyway when bullet pointed items include overhaul and streamlining of the federal government, reform veteran care, solve the opioid crisis, serve as primary contact for 2 dozen countries, and that not so proverbial kitchen sink, establish middle east peace; after making such a bumbling mistake with the clearance form, the backchannel, adding 77 things to his financial disclosure form such naiveté proving he’s unfit to work in the Whitehouse, ill-suited for the work you assigned him? Why has he, president Trump virtually committed obstruction of justice on multiple occasions and counting from firing Sally Yates and Preet Bharara to trying to block her congressional testimony on Michael Flynn blowing the Whitehouse narrative to bits, aided by the house intelligence committee canceling all hearings that week? Obstruct justice in telling James Comey he expected loyally at a meeting he originally told press Comey requested while he had to cancel dinner with his wife to appear at a meeting suddenly alone with you, our commander in chief essentially begging the FBI to come forward and say there was no collusion exposing a pattern of, could be called, investigation interference in that he did the same thing just after his inauguration with published stories highlighting his Russia contacts; identical president Trump who came out repeating FBI director James Comey has assured him he was not personally under investigation when the investigation was in its infancy? Why did he blatantly appear to unquestionably further obstruct justice in telling other top staff to leave the room while speaking to director Comey credible testimony stating he subsequently asked him if he could see his way to letting Flynn go; making Comey so uncomfortable he beseeched his boss, attorney general Jeff Sessions to please not leave him alone in a room with the president, a request seemingly blown off, thickening the plot by, when Comey rightfully said no to the president’s probably criminal asking, mulling it over a few days and firing the FBI director over a, proved bogus, mishandling of the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal? Sidebar, one step on the road to how we ended up with a special counsel investigating what if anything there is to Russian collusion allegations; the other being Devin Nunes’ cloak and dagger trip to the Whitehouse claiming he had information to corroborate asserted by the Trump administration stories campaign personnel had been caught on accidental, incidental surveillance that turns out he got from inside the Whitehouse night before and ran back during the day to ‘inform the president’ annihilating his credibility and spearheading his resignation from the Russia probe. Then telling NBC’s Lester Holt, contrary to the story concocted by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, he had Russia on his mind when he did it followed by leaked Whitehouse conversations during that jaw dropping oval office meeting with Russians where he called Comey a grandstander, showboat, nut job saying a great deal of pressure had been lifted off him related to Russia? And now Robert Muller has a copy of the original letter Trump drafted detailing Comey’s firing press say reads like a screed, another word for long, winding rant with several references to the Russia investigation including director Comey’s unwillingness to come forward publicly saying he personally wasn’t under investigation. Dragging more people into the Russia investigation and exposing more people to greater legal jeopardy because Whitehouse counsel Don McGahn found several things problematic with draft 1 but passively seemed to go along with draft 2’s erroneous excuse he was being fired due to being too tough on Hillary Clinton, Trump on the campaign trail berating Comey for being too soft. Whitehouse policy adviser Stephen Miller having drafted both perfectly ok with the obvious lie; most significantly Mike Pence who heard, read or saw both drafts then told the media James Comey’s firing was unrelated to the Russia investigation knowing from draft 1 it was the opposite, leaving him wide open for the following charges conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting obstruction of justice and misprision of a felony, giant multiple syllable word for knowing about a felony and not reporting it. Complicating things should president Trump be impeached because Mike Pence could find himself subject to similar impeachment proceedings on the aforementioned obstruction with an added side of lying to the public, if the Nixon precedent is anything to go by. But again for the sake of hypotheticals let’s assume the few constitutional scholars are right and you can’t indict a sitting president particularly on obstruction of justice, why then is he hiding, if this is all he has to worry about and there are legal arguments saying he can’t be touched, at least while in office, why does it seem he’s covering up his campaign members’ current Whitehouse staff members,’ working for him family members’ actions; every analyst, pundit, political commentator to news anchor covering unfolding information (even a select few at what independent media is now half seriously calling state run media, Fox News) has gotten around to asking why hasn’t he gotten all his staff, involved family members in a room and said I want to know every Russian contact, possibly Russian contact you have, could have ever had right here on the table now, passing out pens/paper, telling people to open their laptops/tablets? If you are innocent why have you been caught in so many lies, stretches of the truth, omissions; plainly deduced is he was protecting his children, son in law why he drafted the statement regarding Trump Jr.’s meeting, why he correlated what his eldest son said and talks he had with Vladimir Putin while interviewing with the media trying to give them legitimacy, provide cover for any wrongdoing. Precisely why we have anti-nepotism laws in government, especially the Whitehouse whether they’re taking a salary or not, because doing anything else lends itself to situations like these; proving the paramount necessity of specific ‘Washington norms’ despite our haste to throw them all under the bus. Likewise, if the goal for Trump associates was clearly to collude for their own benefits, to hold positions in the Trump Whitehouse, achieve financial gains and get away with it, or perhaps for select higher ups in key agencies, prove they had nothing to do with this mess, why then did Mike Rogers and Dan Coats come to congressional hearings unable, unwilling to answer the most basic questions sans their own names? Admitting they had no legal basis for their tight lipped refusals, executive privilege had not been invoked, they had not been asked by either the FBI, or special counsel to refrain from testifying or answering specific questions that would hamper either investigation, alleging classified material or confidential conversations with the president; their refusal to answer to some spelling out the pressure to lie, to refute established Russia contacts with Trump, say he wasn’t under personal investigation reported by the press or, at minimum, the asking that might constitute speculated obstruction. Their word salad answers, using words and saying nothing causing pundits, analysts to ask if they had been coached on how to give answers, one lawyer saying they clearly had been. Why did Jeff Sessions pull the same series of stunts going beyond Coats and Roger’s tap dancing to fabricate a fantastical protection of the president’s executive privilege holding zero legal standing to avoid answering questions he mainly responded I don’t remember, I don’t recall, I don’t believe so anyway; on top of committing perjury, AKA lying, in his confirmation hearing leading to his recusal of anything to do with Russia investigations regarding the Whitehouse he likely violated weighing in on the decision to fire FBI director James Comey? As Richard Burr said, it’s not ok to come to congress without an answer. Interesting he doesn’t remember meetings for which he used Trump campaign funds to attend in the first place; again, for that matter why does Jeff Sessions still have a job, after finding out he lied in his confirmation hearing, used campaign dollars to meet Russians either poorly covering his tracks for something Trump knew about or using money meant for something else to serve his own ends, and listening to his congressional committee testimony, forget the obfuscations, any objective employer would say if you really can’t remember that much material you are unfit for the job and need a medical cognitive evaluation. Any objective employer would look at his fantastical invoking of executive privilege not his own and say you are not fit for this job by virtue of incompetence, especially a lawyer looking for a person to fill the position of top lawyer in the country and you don’t know you can’t do that, you’re fired. Instead it seems like you, president Trump, Mr. Trump fired him because he recused himself, because he did the lawful thing for the situation he was in, because you think the attorney general for the United States of America as a whole is your attorney general whose job it is to protect you from investigation, legal scrutiny, consequences, prosecution, in this case the Russia investigation. If you’ve done nothing wrong, firmly believe you’ve done nothing wrong why attack everyone and anyone connected to the Russia investigation as opposed to cooperate, let the process take its course, find themselves unable to bring charges and move on; instead president Trump hinted at the possibility of firing Jeff Sessions, hinted at firing Robert Mueller almost the moment he was appointed, post threatening ‘he better not go after your tax returns,’ though he already was. Claiming it beyond the scope of his (Mueller’s) investigatory mandate when the allegations are you/your campaign colluded with Russia to win an election, in exchange for monetary favors for you and political gains for them, toward policies they like and you have Russian income sources listed on your taxes according to your own lawyers. Next our beleaguered commander in chief asked his staff then talked on twitter about pardoning himself, those around him, the absolute pardon power he has then tried to backtrack and say no one was/is talking about pardons; many astute analysts looking at such talk, his subsequent controversial pardon of Joe Arpio, convicted former Arizona sheriff found guilty on contempt of court charges related to his refusal to stop racially profiling Latinos who might be illegal, as a message to his inner circle, those at the heart of the Russia investigation don’t cooperate with authorities and don’t worry I’ll just pardon you. Followed by the public being made aware he called up 2 members of congress to complain about drafted Russia sanctions and proposed legislation preventing the firing of Mueller without copious cause, followed by a profane shouting match with senate majority leader Mitch McConnell about the Russia investigation and his failure to protect you from it; ahead of your son’s appearance before congressional committee you called up Chuck Grassley to tell him how pro ethanol you are and that he way free to tell his constituents, hardly veiled implication I’ll support ethanol in Washington for your state if you go easy on my son in the congressional questioning. Amounting to obstruction, obstruction, obstruction and proceedings, investigations, inquiries aren’t over yet, far from it; imagine what we might have heard he’s done tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month, 2018 if not fully next year . All these instances adding up to a key ingredient investigators look for in deciphering intent, determining if they broke the law was there willful effort to do so or more hapless ignorance, that key ingredient being consciousness of guilt; because, critics will doubtlessly raise just how many times democrats, progressives, independents, fellow republicans who should treat a member of their own party better than that, have called this president mentally unwell, incapable of learning, stupid, going as far as idiot, blustering you can’t have it both ways, he can’t be a roving, undiagnosed dementia patient and a criminal mastermind. Ignoring there is nothing masterful about any potential criminal activity done by the literal cast of characters operating in the Trump campaign, transition or administration, it most certainly can be ‘both ways’ on 2 distinct fronts; unflattering as it may be, think of your dog’s behavior when they’ve chewed your shoes, the newspaper, gotten into things they know they shouldn’t, they know what they did something that will get them punished and try to appeal to your good graces. Think children too, president Trump oft compared to a child based on behavior, when they do something wrong, something they know will get them in trouble they try to hide their actions, cover their tracks, lie, pretend they don’t know what you’re talking about, pretend they didn’t hear the entire list of chores or not to do something, go a certain place, sound familiar? Or if he truly is a dementia case, he’s perhaps in the early stages and reverting back to what he did closing business deals back in mob ridden 1970’s New York; how many times has he commented running a country is like running a business? Consciousness of guilt which president Trump has demonstrated in spades regarding himself and involved staff, family members, independent of if his support of Flynn was based on what Flynn knew versus say the love for his son, his namesake in crafting that statement for Don Jr.; Trump and those around them are already perceived guilty because of the mountains of evidence uncovered by basic journalistic reporting and the fact Trump and so many others are continually acting guilty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtuqyBMt8Ac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9__eUnyH73g
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/mueller-may-have-new-evidence-of-trump-obstruction-1038078531817
https://shugerblog.com/2017/06/07/reactions-to-coatsrogers-testimony/
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/336748-gop-chairman-admonishes-intel-chiefs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-sealed-records_us_5786778fe4b03fc3ee4edf55
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/russia-still-honing-fake-social-media-tactics-1042020419847
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/where-does-the-russia-investigation-go-from-here-1039418947683
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/22/neck-deep-in-russkis/
You would think Trump voters apoplectic about the 3-5 million illegal voters they firmly believe to this day voted on Election Day, based on social media memes of buses appearing at polling places (captions about possible illegals added by posters) would be equally apoplectic at the very idea of another country trying to influence, interfere with our election outcome. You’d think they would be just as angry, up in arms predictably more so understanding Russia tried to hack both voting machines and voter data, succeeding in compromising voter personal information in select states 80,000 Illinoisans alone; intrusions far greater than we thought including 2 more voting software companies than we thought, slightly altering names and addresses so people appearing at their polling place couldn’t vote, saying they had voted already either by absentee ballot or early voting when they had not, happenings in Durham North Carolina. You would think as much as they echo president Trump when he shouts fake news, as much as democrats, progressives and independents regularly complain about how biased and bought ‘corporate’, mainstream, said as if it’s a bad thing, media is they would be far readier to believe information on Russian bots, propaganda and completely made up stories pushed to the top of social media feeds. Instead Trump voters are continuing to parrot the Trump narrative it’s a witch hunt, they clamor Russia collusion supporters have no evidence, but ironically don’t know the name Robert Mueller, can’t recognize his picture, one person when asked about the Russia investigation given Mueller’s name said he should go home to the open mouthed shock of Ari Melber. Because they watch Fox New, Newsmax and Info Wars, they don’t hear perhaps their state and their information was jeopardized, it would make both emotional and logical sense, many sociologists pinpointing Trump supporters reliance on emotion, if Hillary Clinton was unfit to be president due to her e-mail scandal they should be particularly upset at world leaders still calling president Trump’s mobile phone, cold calling Trump Tower during the transition, the days it took to secure his a@ POTUS twitter account, how often he tweets policy snippets, critical information from his personal twitter account not his government one. If Hillary Clinton’s’30,000 missing emails’ that weren’t actually missing rather recovered by the FBI, made people wonder what she was hiding Mike Pence’s having his congressional record placed under seal should have raised equal red flags yet it didn’t; if her private sever represented a security concern for voters the reality vice president Pence’s e-mail was hacked while governor of Indiana should have been, still be jarring contrasted to the attempts made on Clinton’s server with no success, but it’s not. On the contrary, everyone seems fine with Trump and republicans using a private e-mail; everyone who voted for them that is, reinforcing the mantra it’s only bad when the other side does it. They should be equally as upset a republican analytical firm, Deep Root Analytics, leaked the information of 198 million registered voters, virtually every eligible voter in the country seemingly through careless negligence with people’s personal information storing it where, on an unsecure server; sounds vaguely familiar, as in exactly what Hillary Clinton was lambasted for, investigated by the FBI for, hers the result of an incompetent IT manager, a malfunctioning state department and outdated rules. What’s their excuse especially in light of Clinton’s server and what ultimately happened to it, attempts to gain its contents? Contemplating these are the same people in staggering percentages who scream fake news, adamant it didn’t happen when asked about Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer even though Donald Trump Jr. himself admitted there was indeed a meeting and released e-mails he authenticated as his own with an intermediary about that meeting with a Russian lawyer; as stubborn as the likes of Kyle Kulinski are on the subject of Russia, he doesn’t deny there was a meeting, he just disagrees on the significant of it, finds it equal to the hopefully by now debunked Hillary Clinton Ukraine story. On the other hand he kvetches about the 50% of democrats who, when asked, believed Russia hacked vote tallies thing is, not only did this blog explain back when these poll results first came out all aspects of Russia were conflated into that question reaching the ears of participants, translation did Russia somehow interfere in our election their answer yes; they were intuitively correct evidence would soon reveal, because next we found out about vast intrusions into voting machines 2 days before people appeared at the polls, successful accessing of voter data and Durham North Carolina, curiously a democratic district, democratic districts the only ones effected by what initially looked like a software SNAFU. Followed shortly thereafter by admissions from Facebook it sold ads to Russian bots amounting to $100,000 of provoking issue content, media again ahead of the curve reporting it for months before Facebook finally came clean, understood this is indeed what happened; alarming too is the sophisticated nature surrounding what they did, efforts in making the dummy profiles look like real people, fellow Americans sharing these opinions pointing them to sites like DC Leaks to discredit Clinton, hints why democrats are so upset it goes far beyond a lost election. Reality if you believe millions of illegals voted on election day, the Hillary Clinton uranium story, pizza-gate you were influenced by fake news; if you think Russia was a concoction by the Clinton campaign after her loss you believe a conspiracy theory, yet Trump voters/supporters either continue to believe Russia investigations are witch hunt level nonsense or the sanest of the group find the investigation meandering in the wrong direction stating it should be to enhance defenses against the intrusions they believe were attempted but unsuccessful, not to put people in jail heartily laughing when asked if propaganda influenced people’s thinking about their vote, changed their vote that way, adamant that too didn’t happen. However ‘the democrats are going berserk,’ as Kyle Kulinski titled his video on the Trump Jr. Russian lawyer meeting, because that’s an appropriate response to something with so massive a set of implications as turning an election without changing vote counts after the fact; what’s abjectly terrifying to democracy is how early Clinton was talking about Russia, Russian interference and how much of what the Clinton team was trying to make people understand came up as fact versus ‘opponent conspiracy theory, outlandish political explanation’ even seasoned media thought it was. Connections between Guchifer and the Russians, timeline comparisons between when the Russians hack the DNC/Podesta e-mails and when they appeared on WikiLeaks held up against Trump confidant and campaign advisor Roger Stone’s contact with both Julian Assange and Guchifer, the backchannel to the latter Stone accidentally admitted to they were talking about in real time only to be ignored. People are talking about treason with Trump Jr. and his meeting with a Russian lawyer because it is a valid question even if the answer is no, he is not guilty of treason, rather a lesser charge; step back and think seriously about what if Chelsea Clinton had had a meeting with Russians and her mother had gone on to win the Whitehouse, republicans would have been screaming impeachment from day 1 even if the meeting were 1,000% benign. Think too when was the last time any politician had to take a translator to a campaign meeting, the only ones Salon could find, of the few people who had ever worked in campaigns at any level, were those in Latino outreach, naturalized Muslim American immigrants and variations on Arabic, middle eastern languages would be another logical one in terms of outreach, but also not the type of meeting we’re comparing it to with Donald Trump Jr. And according to his congressional testimony, press reporters/speculations were again correct in positing there were phone calls before or after that infamous meeting because he’s still disclosing new contacts to authorities. The reason people are questioning why officials like Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner still are attorney general and possessing a security clearance respectively is because legal, ethical experts unanimously agree had anyone else done what these persons had done in any other administration this side of 50 years wouldn’t hold their clearance or job; former U.S. ambassador to Russia correctly reading what happened when he told CBS Evening News Sergey Kislyak was definitely not showing up to Sessions’ office for a meeting to discuss what his committee was doing rather to feel out candidate Trump’s foreign policy, and if you don’t know what, it’s an added reason you don’t need your then current job let alone your present one and should vacate national politics immediately. Both Kulinski and Dore on tape laughing at the legal assessments of persons such as former Whitehouse ethics lawyer under George W. Bush Richard Painter, seen by them as the guy who got us into 2 ‘illegal wars,’ oversaw the passage of laws like the patriot act, detaining supposed terrorists at facilities like Gitmo, meaning he has no ethical credibility in their eyes; yet it’s telling that the man who did all that, ‘blithely’ permitting these ethical and constitutional violations, sees Donald Trump’s ties with Russia, campaign activity, evidence for potential obstruction of justice and his response includes words like treason and impeachment, violations of various acts, charges all of the above could face. One of the scariest parts of the Russia story is how pervasive it is not just the links Russia went to, to hack things, change minds, misinform us, manipulate who could vote, almost how they voted after casting their ballot, but the complacency of everyone American public, the intelligence community on up to Trump administration members; how much enabling to straight aiding and abetting, putting aside rank incompetence, is going on in the Trump Whitehouse. The sheer number of untruthful statements, concocted stories, wide periphery of aides, support staff involved going all the way back to Sean Spicer and crowd sizes, how many times and persons who said candidate, president elect Trump had no contacts with Russians, vice president Mike Pence who swore to media Michael Flynn had no foreign ties after Sally Yates had made her emergency rendezvous at the Whitehouse to warn them of his susceptibility to blackmail, his work for Turkey; why he was left on for nearly 3 more weeks, until the media got hold of the story is apparently gaining the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller. Bluntly asserted to quote Rachel Maddow Michael Flynn had not talked to the Russians about sanctions, when he most certainly had, Spicer also saying Flynn contacted the ambassador to express holiday greetings. Counting how many staff we now know drafted, read, saw, heard the screed Donald Trump originally tried to use to fire James Comey, that he made that decision consulting only his daughter, son in-law and domestic policy advisor Stephen Miller, encompassing deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, mentioned above Mike Pence center stage once more saying Comey’s dismissal wasn’t connected to Russia rather on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general. Exactly who was on Air Force One during that whole Donald Trump Jr. drafted statement mess eventually dictated by the president, persons who beyond will have to retain a lawyer, face intense legal questioning were repeatedly fine with falsehoods, spreading those falsehoods to the American public ala Whitehouse spokesperson Hope Hicks, aides to Jared Kushner, Whitehouse counsel Don McGahn responsible for drafting these materials. Paralyzingly horrific for our republic is those people outside the Whitehouse, campaign, transition, who never had anything to do with any of those organizations in positions of authority as senate or house judiciary committees, intelligence committees, oversight committees who are more than apathetic, uninterested or even believe collusion or Russian interference to be concocted nonsense for whatever reason, rather seem to actively want to help Trump circumvent investigation, surpassing Devin Nunes, and not for the good of the country, passing legislative agendas, seeing to the business of governing but because Trump is their guy, a fellow republican their president; proposing legislation that would choke of funding for the Mueller investigation and limit it to 6 months, shortening it’s reach to eliminate anything before the campaign, never mind his Russia ties go back decades and possible incurred debts prompted 2016 collusion. Height of hypocrisy considering the duration of the 9/11 commission, the years spent delving into Benghazi, Whitewater that was the definition of a nothing burger apart from a married man lying about a blow job; this is so much bigger than a blow job. It’s Kulinski himself, his own disregard for the law comparing the Trump Jr. meeting with the Clinton staffer who researched Paul Manafort making use of information available through the Ukrainian embassy on U.S. soil, calling both ‘meetings,’ instances a wash unworthy of legal action because both sides do it, not because we the people need to know, because the law is ineffectual, redundant; commenter putting it perfectly “kyle your opinions are irrelevant to the laws of the nation. There is good reason to set laws that prevent campaigns from working with foreign nations during US elections. If it can be proven Donald trump jr broke election laws, he should go to jail, whether you think its serious or not does not matter at all.” [Sic] Ponder momentarily what would have happened had Hillary won election night, she would have taken the 80 million dollars to fight ISIS, Russian propaganda and used it to counter what happened to us on that front, funneling some toward filtering real news to the North Korean people to effect the eventual regime change needed to prevent the 2 ‘man baby’ leaders from taking us to, we can stop calling it nuclear war and start calling it nuclear fallout, nuclear winter from which the only thing left alive on earth will be cockroaches. She would not have hollowed out the state department, key government agencies; she would have expediently sent cyber forensic investigators down to places like Durham North Carolina to conduct the in depth professional investigation, still not done, into what went so horribly wrong with their voting software, electronic voter check-in system. There would have been a much freer flow of information on the Russia investigation, what happened, how it happened from the Whitehouse on down; there likely would have been a day of reckoning scenario in the intelligence community based on recent reporting they waited until as late as Trump’s presidential victory to follow human intelligence in finding out if these bot, troll farm propaganda launches done through Facebook, making up what the New York Times called ‘fake Americans,’ American looking profiles then buying polarizing issue ads, had help American confederates who told them how to use the hacked raw data stolen from the DNC, where to put it, who to target, those kinds of things. Because the other singularly deeply scary thing about 2016, the legitimacy of 2016 is how deep does this go, who/what was involved, questions we don’t have anything close to definitive answers to yet. Clinton would unquestionably be calling on the tech community to enact policies, improve polices making sure foreign entities aren’t buying political ads and that stories deemed news are held to more than the barest standard of journalistic accuracy, alongside pushing congressional legislation to better balance freedom of speech and eliminate wholesale propaganda mascaraing as news on social media. She absolutely would not have stayed silent as 700 plus diplomats were expelled from anywhere let alone Russia and she would not have taken a month to respond in kind expelling Russian diplomats from American embassy compounds, just a few of the things that would have been different had almost anyone else won the Whitehouse November 8. Final question for folks like Kulinski and those willing to buy his spin on things, do Bolsheviks have to be marching down main street, marching through his neighborhood for him to grasp we should have, should be paying attention to Trump/Russia, the Russia investigation?
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