Politics And Current Events

[Morkle]

I've been busy with work all morning. Has anything of consequence actually happened?

Nope.

[NailedPenguin]

I've been busy with work all morning. Has anything of consequence actually happened?

Not really. But Tifstradamus Attorney at Law has yet to weigh in to spell it all out for us.

[grunthy]

You have no problem with Barr holding the press conference or anything in the press conference?

It was like 10 minutes. WTF was harmed by it or anything he said? Please at least acknowledge that if it didn't say anything he'd be accused of ducking the media. None of it mattered.

I already said what I thought the point was. Whether or not that's harmful is up for interpretation. How would it be considered "ducking the media" by doing a press conference about something that hadn't been released yet? You duck something after the fact.

The guy is in a no win situation. Whatever he does will be perceived negative by some.

Weird that you're following the same narrative NP put out that doesn't really make sense. If Barr hadn't held a press conference before it was released, no one would have said anything.

Wtf? People were screaming that they wanted it the entire time the investigation was ongoing. Sorry that facts get in the way of an argument.

[MWB]

This line originated with Barr holding a press conference today, right before the release, and the purpose of that. It's not about holding press conferences during the investigation.

[CBear3]

"According to Gates, by late summer of 2016 the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks. [redacted] ...while Trump and Gates were driving to LGA [redacted], shortly after the call candidate Trump told gates that mor erleeases of damaging information would be coming."

Confirmation that, most likely, Stone was in communication with WikiLeaks and carrying that information to Trump. So you have Trump associates in communication with the provider of stolen personal information to further Trump's election efforts.

[Morkle]

This line originated with Barr holding a press conference today, right before the release, and the purpose of that. It's not about holding press conferences during the investigation.

Add to this, they wanted the person who actually investigated to do the conference. (feasibility aside)

[Viva la Ben]

"According to Gates, by late summer of 2016 the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks. [redacted] ...while Trump and Gates were driving to LGA [redacted], shortly after the call candidate Trump told gates that mor erleeases of damaging information would be coming."

Confirmation that, most likely, Stone was in communication with WikiLeaks and carrying that information to Trump. So you have Trump associates in communication with the provider of stolen personal information to further Trump's election efforts.

But Stone didn’t hack the emails....not a crime.

[CBear3]

Good section about DJT Jr and WL, too. No big conspiracy or help, but a lot of hanging out and back scratching the undesirables.

[CBear3]

"According to Gates, by late summer of 2016 the Trump Campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of Clinton emails by WikiLeaks. [redacted] ...while Trump and Gates were driving to LGA [redacted], shortly after the call candidate Trump told gates that mor erleeases of damaging information would be coming."

Confirmation that, most likely, Stone was in communication with WikiLeaks and carrying that information to Trump. So you have Trump associates in communication with the provider of stolen personal information to further Trump's election efforts.

But Stone didn’t hack the emails....not a crime.

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

[Viva la Ben]

I saw some reporting that the redacted report says there are 14 additional ongoing investigations that were sent out to other jurisdictions.

[Morkle]

So early predictions, do the democrats - Subpeona the full report, does Trump only serve one term? Does Trump get re-elected? Wonder where the betting lines open.

[Troy Loney]

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

[tifosi77]

https://twitter.com/grynbaum/status/1118877441861279747

Chris Wallace on Fox: "The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General, talking about his motives, his emotions... Really, as I say, making a case for the president."

Barr is a hack. He was sold as not a hack because he was a hack for Bush Senior, but people just sort of forgot that Bush had lots of problems that required a hack, and just remember him as a not-trump president.

When Barr was put forward as the AG nominee, I was in the group of people (here and elsewhere) who saw it as somewhat surprising. "Huh, in the midst of this shitstorm Cheeto actually found someone with integrity and proper qualifications for a super important job. How unlike him."

Flash forward a couple months, and Barr has done everything possible to turn that on its head. The William Barr that appeared before the press this morning is not the William Barr I expecting to have as AG.

[Troy Loney]

So early predictions, do the democrats - Subpeona the full report, does Trump only serve one term? Does Trump get re-elected? Wonder where the betting lines open.

I think congress will subpoena the whole report. Trump is going to run again for sure, he wants to run out the clock on the SOL on his campaign finance violations.

As for whether he serves another term? No clue, I think he's a 50-50 right now, but should the recession that the banks are predicting occur next year, then he's more likely to be a one term flop.

[grunthy]

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

Like the Clinton campaign accepting a dossier from foreign nationals or foreign countries like Ukraine?

[tifosi77]

[NailedPenguin]

https://twitter.com/grynbaum/status/1118877441861279747

Chris Wallace on Fox: "The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the Attorney General, talking about his motives, his emotions... Really, as I say, making a case for the president."

Barr is a hack. He was sold as not a hack because he was a hack for Bush Senior, but people just sort of forgot that Bush had lots of problems that required a hack, and just remember him as a not-trump president.

When Barr was put forward as the AG nominee, I was in the group of people (here and elsewhere) who saw it as somewhat surprising. "Huh, in the midst of this shitstorm Cheeto actually found someone with integrity and proper qualifications for a super important job. How unlike him."

Flash forward a couple months, and Barr has done everything possible to turn that on its head. The William Barr that appeared before the press this morning is not the William Barr I expecting to have as AG.

So you were wrong??

[tifosi77]

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

Like the Clinton campaign accepting a dossier from foreign nationals or foreign countries like Ukraine?

Fusion GPS is US company and anything their employees or contractors do would be work-for-hire.

[CBear3]

Peter Smith stuff is interesting. He claimed to be working with Russia to produce the deleted Hillary emails. He had contacts with Flynn and Clovis (Flynn had been assigned the task by Trump of retrieving the emails).
So here we have Trump associates working with a middle man they believed was working in tandem with Russia to produce stolen information, but it was all a shell game, he never in reality was working with them, and the emails never were found.

Side note:
Everybody thinks the emails were most likely breached. Even producing a single authentic email would undermine Hillary's position, because even if it was about Chelsea's catering bill for the wedding it would have proved that foreign adversaries had access to Top Secret information. Despite Trump sending Flynn and Clovis to find them, an authentic email was never produced.

[grunthy]

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

Like the Clinton campaign accepting a dossier from foreign nationals or foreign countries like Ukraine?

Fusion GPS is US company and anything their employees or contractors do would be work-for-hire.

So it’s ok that they knew that they were getting info from foreign nationals because they were using an intermediary?

[CBear3]

... but should the recession that the banks are predicting occur next year, then he's more likely to be a one term flop.

I was just talking to business owner about their future, and they said right now it'd be best to rent a second space then to build. So they're trying to hold off because they also predict an upcoming recession and their building estimates will get much better as demand decreases.

[tifosi77]

No argument from me. I thought Trump's finances might be criminal worthy, but I find it difficult to police flowing information. Now if Guccifer 2.0 or a GRU front was still doing the disseminating and they'd talked then you have espionage issues.

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

Like the Clinton campaign accepting a dossier from foreign nationals or foreign countries like Ukraine?

Fusion GPS is US company and anything their employees or contractors do would be work-for-hire.

So it’s ok that they knew that they were getting info from foreign nationals because they were using an intermediary?

That's not how that works. In other circumstances, I'd add "but you know that", but here I honestly can't be sure.

[Nittany Ned]

So there was Russian Interference in our election.

There was no collusion or obstruction by Trump

That tells me that the interference, Collusion, and obstruction was all done by Hillary.

I hope the Russians trick me into voting for Trump again in 2020!!!

[grunthy]

Yeah, and I think it's also important to remember the real time context of this stuff. The campaign was publicly dismissing the reports that Russia was trying to influence the election. That people are willing to accept a campaign outright soliciting assistance from foreign countries like this is hard to wrap the head around.

Like the Clinton campaign accepting a dossier from foreign nationals or foreign countries like Ukraine?

Fusion GPS is US company and anything their employees or contractors do would be work-for-hire.

So it’s ok that they knew that they were getting info from foreign nationals because they were using an intermediary?

That's not how that works. In other circumstances, I'd add "but you know that", but here I honestly can't be sure.

Correct. They didn’t explicitly hire Fusion to get to Steele, yet they knew it was he and others that were gathering the information. So it isn’t a true intermediary per se, but in loose terms it is. We all know your “knowledge” of the law.... Oh and your amazing track record in this thread of being correct...

[tifosi77]

Two Tifstradamus jokes on one page. Good day, Tater.