Fascist#45 Linked To Corrupt Azerbaijan Oligarchs and Iranian Terror Group

Watched this entire piece in real time earlier tonight at it was quite damning.

The trouble is, so many of Rachel's reports get me all interested, even excited, and then nothing ever happens. We'll see.

The headline on this thread is much better than the one I used to cover the same topic. Let's go with this thread so as to not have to split the comments? Here's the link to the article in the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal
 

With the congress controlled by Republicans it will be a heavy lift to get an independent investigation going but now that people are getting more used to demonstrations in the street and making calls to congress it is possible to influence them. I don't really see how this can be ignored.

It is just one of the pieces. I still don't understand how so many people could have ignored his multinational business involvements. This was all known before he was even the nominee. How the party let it get this far is beyond me. How could his business NOT have been a conflict of interests? Is Pence their real president? Are they expecting #45 to resign under threat of imprisonment? Is there a long game here or are they flying by the seat of their pants?

If you're expecting accountability... you apparently weren't paying attention to that issue under Obama.

othershoe1030 wrote:The headline on this thread is much better than the one I used to cover the same topic. Let's go with this thread so as to not have to split the comments? Here's the link to the article in the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/donald-trumps-worst-deal
 

With the congress controlled by Republicans it will be a heavy lift to get an independent investigation going but now that people are getting more used to demonstrations in the street and making calls to congress it is possible to influence them. I don't really see how this can be ignored.

It is just one of the pieces. I still don't understand how so many people could have ignored his multinational business involvements. This was all known before he was even the nominee. How the party let it get this far is beyond me. How could his business NOT have been a conflict of interests? Is Pence their real president? Are they expecting #45 to resign under threat of imprisonment? Is there a long game here or are they flying by the seat of their pants?

Thank you four your important contributions to this and other threads Othershoe.

Telstar wrote:Thank you four your important contributions to this and other threads Othershoe.

I'll second Tel's expression of gratitude here for Othershoe's invaluable input.

And as to Azerbaijan, I'll just add that, as with other involvements of Trump, one of the concerns could be foreign blackmail of a sitting president. It's all very disturbing, and calls for an independent investigator are getting stronger and louder.

Thank heaven for the enemy of the people.

And Rachel is only too right in saying that, since both the (former Trump transition team) heads of the Congressional committees supposedly "investigating" all this don't even want to bother interviewing the British author of the infamous summary and detail now that he's re-surfaced, "We" (the American people and the media) may have to do it all ourselves.  Not sure how, without subpoena powers, but somebody's gotta try a lot harder than Congress is doing -- and FAST.

RealLindaL wrote:And Rachel is only too right in saying that, since both the (former Trump transition team) heads of the Congressional committees supposedly "investigating" all this don't even want to bother interviewing the British author of the infamous summary and detail now that he's re-surfaced, "We" (the American people and the media) may have to do it all ourselves.  Not sure how, without subpoena powers, but somebody's gotta try a lot harder than Congress is doing -- and FAST.

Now we see what America is like under republican rule and it isn't pretty.

Telstar wrote:Now we see what America is like under republican rule and it isn't pretty.

Have to say I'd take my chances with almost anyone else but Trump (not a Republican, by most definitions) in the Oval Office. Pence runs a close second in the radical looney department, but I'm beginning to believe even he would be an improvement, although -- amazing myself to say -- right now I'd welcome an establishment Republican over any of these guys. At least they're reasonably sane for the most part. Of course, we could get a rabid Repub, and I could name a few....

So yeah, scratch all that rambling, Tel -- you're right. Not pretty at all.

othershoe1030 wrote:The investigation into all 45's Russian and other Slavic and illicit dealings must be independent of the DOJ and Congress. There are too many Trump appointee's in all current government positions to give any credibility to an investigation by them.[/color]

Absolutely!

Given current dem access to federal powers... and the reactionary unsubstantiated nature of your complaints... what exactly do you propose that is realistically and practically attainable? Setting your hair on fire isn't a valid answer.

PkrBum wrote:what exactly do you propose that is realistically and practically attainable?

Here's a guide ...

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web

Sal wrote:

PkrBum wrote:what exactly do you propose that is realistically and practically attainable?

Here's a guide ...

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web

Thanks for posting that Sal.

Sal wrote:

PkrBum wrote:what exactly do you propose that is realistically and practically attainable?

Here's a guide ...

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web

Basically create a tea party. Good luck. I doubt the leftists can sustain an organized thought... much less an effective movement that produces real change. It usually turns into a reactionary chaotic mess.

It doesn't appear that the righties have an organized thought either. Look at the swamp all of them running around DC trying to put bills together. It looks as though Ryan wants his bill to be defeated. It's the same ole shit in DC a comic book. The right has had plenty of time to put a constructive replacement together but no they are too disorganized.

Everyone has bitched about Obama for eight years, as well as congress, but when it came election time nobody drained the swamp. Damn near the same people today as 8 years ago not to mention 12 years ago. So I'm wondering it wasn't so much Obama but the swamp, because the swamp continue's on.

Besides his and adviser's lack of any kind of organization in the White House Trump may have made it if he had experienced adviser's and a true draining of the swamp had happened at election time. If you voted for the same people at election you are part of the problem.

Sal wrote:There's no getting around it, we are in a really bad spot.

Pence truly is a radical, but he's focused and competent.  With him at the helm, you'd undoubtedly see more of the Republican's toxic agenda come to fruition.

Trump's clownish buffoonery is much less productive, but he's so unbalanced and erratic I genuinely fear an existential crisis under his watch.

Pick your poison.

One of the most depressing but accurate nutshell summaries I've ever read.

RealLindaL wrote:

Sal wrote:There's no getting around it, we are in a really bad spot.

Pence truly is a radical, but he's focused and competent.  With him at the helm, you'd undoubtedly see more of the Republican's toxic agenda come to fruition.

Trump's clownish buffoonery is much less productive, but he's so unbalanced and erratic I genuinely fear an existential crisis under his watch.

Pick your poison.

One of the most depressing but accurate nutshell summaries I've ever read.

#45 is the annoying sloppy drunk at the bar. Pence is the bartender that keeps serving him drinks. One is more composed but they both suck.

RealLindaL wrote:

Sal wrote:There's no getting around it, we are in a really bad spot.

Pence truly is a radical, but he's focused and competent.  With him at the helm, you'd undoubtedly see more of the Republican's toxic agenda come to fruition.

Trump's clownish buffoonery is much less productive, but he's so unbalanced and erratic I genuinely fear an existential crisis under his watch.

Pick your poison.

One of the most depressing but accurate nutshell summaries I've ever read.

It could be worse... the president and Congress could be shoving an unknown edict down our throats.

At minimum... there will likely be debate and we'll know what's in the law.

So there's that... radical... I know.

Sal wrote:

PkrBum wrote:
At minimum... there will likely be debate and we'll know what's in the law.

It can't be said enough ...

... you are an enormous ignoramus.

You prefer edicts crafted behind closed doors by your beloved ruling elite... we know.

This must be very upsetting. Spend some quiet time reciting rules for radicals.

‘Is the operation that Russia started during the campaign over?’: Maddow sounds the alarm on Trump-Russia ties

NBC’s Rachel Maddow has spent several nights on her show walking viewers through the mounting ties between Russia and President Donald Trump, his campaign, his companies, members of his administration and former members of his administration. Tonight, she took it to a new level.

“What’s getting to be, I think, particularly unsettling, is that simultaneously, we are … number one, nailing down more direct connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government at the time the Russian government was influencing our election,” Maddow began. “Number two, at the same time, we are also starting to see what may be signs of continuing influence in our country. Not just during the campaign but during the administration. Basically, signs of what could be a continuing operation.”

She began with the campaign’s ties, specifically Carter Page’s ties to Russia, his trips to Moscow and his affiliation as a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. Maddow explained that just a week after Page was authorized to go to Moscow by the Trump campaign, the campaign pushed the GOP platform committee on a single issue: “They wanted language about Russia significantly softened in the Republican Party platform,” Maddow said.

The language that was going to be in the GOP platform was about supporting Ukraine in the Russian invasion and advocated sending military support for it. But the Trump campaign got that language softened.

Maddow noted that the infamous “golden showers” dossier essentially said that this was what Russia wanted, a quid pro quo as part of their intervention on Trump’s behalf in the election. The GOP and the U.S. had to soften on Ukraine. She said that there is no evidence to prove that Trump received help from Russia to win the election but that we do have evidence that the Trump campaign sidelined attempts by the GOP to side with Ukraine over Russia.

A campaign official has now admitted that the Trump campaign was behind the softening of the language around Ukraine and that it was done at Trump’s request. Around the same time as the Republican convention, a Russian staffer of Paul Manafort’s in Ukraine visited the U.S. and claimed credit for getting that language softened. The Manafort protege was Konstantin Kilimnik, who it turns out admitted in an August Politico profile that he was Russian Intelligence.

At the time he applied for the job, it was explained that it wasn’t a big deal because he wasn’t doing anything sensitive. “But then he turns up in a U.S. presidential campaign?” Maddow asked. “At the Republican National Convention? Changing the Republican Party’s platform on Russia to make it more pro-Putin? And he’s a GRU guy? He’s a Russian military intelligence guy?”

Maddow explained that Russia wasn’t doing Trump a solid, they weren’t doing it for free or out of friendship, “they expected payback. And who thinks they’d be satisfied with a weakening of the position on Ukraine in their party platform as payment?”

Now, in Trump’s administration, the longest serving senior members of the U.S. Foreign Service who have worked for the State Department under six or more presidents are now being let go. These people, Maddow says, are the ones who would know what was happening in Russia and would probably notice the ties between Trump and Russia. “That’s a dream for the Russian government,” Maddow continued.

She noted that just one week after the GOP convention when the party softened their platform on Russia, the first WikiLeaks data dump occurred. At the end of August, Roger Stone tweeted that it would soon be Podesta’s turn. Sure enough, WikiLeaks next dumped Podesta’s hacked emails just hours after the Access Hollywood tape surfaced of Trump saying he could grab women by their genitals. Today it was announced that the FBI has records of Stone communicating with the Russians that were behind the DNC hacks.

More and more Podesta emails dropped and Maddow noted that Russian state television even tweeted that another WikiLeaks release was happening even before it happened.

“You knew it was released even before it was released!” Maddow exclaimed. “How’d you know it was coming? How’d you know it was coming, Russia Today?”

She also noted that Nigel Farage was having dinner with Trump in his hotel in Washington, D.C. two weeks ago, but yesterday, he was at the WikiLeaks headquarters in London right before they gave their big press conference announcing their latest hit against the CIA. Maddow noted that those in the State Department, the FBI and the CIA are not fairing well in Trump’s new administration.

“The Russian government attacked our election,” Maddow said. “The Russian government was in contact with multiple campaign sources while they were doing it. Russian nemeses in the American government, U.S. State Department, the CIA, are not fairing well since Donald Trump came to power. Is the operation that Russia started during the campaign — is it over? Or are they still running it? Are we still in this now?



http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/is-the-operation-that-russia-started-during-the-campaign-over-maddow-sounds-the-alarm-on-trump-russia-ties/

Plain dumb. Slightly less intelligence than a cat chasing it's tail.