https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/po...fined&_r=0

Quote:Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

Quote:WASHINGTON — Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

Even Watergate did not involve selling out to the Russkis!

But the FBI decided to announce they were "reopening" the investigation into Hillary's fucking emails two weeks before the election.

Didn't hear about this investigation, did we? Didn't hear about the fact that a major presidential candidate's staff and aides were in contact with intelligence officials from a foreign power who meddled with our election.

I can't wait to hear the rationalizations from the pro-Trump side.

Guys, it's okay. These were honest Republican patriots, after all.

And if you're a murderous, Russian plutocrat with despotic control over a failed communist country you deserve the status of best ally and most favored trading partner in a Trump administration.

(February 15, 2017 at 2:14 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: I can't wait to hear the rationalizations from the pro-Trump side.

It's pretty simple.  
There is a shadow government within the government that Obama set up.
They are working to undermine Trump.
So...anything bad the government says about Trump, is a conspiracy against him and no longer valid.
MSM is in on the conspiracy, and are also no longer valid news sources...

This isn't a joke.  That's an actual response I got from some pro-Trump people.
Breitbart told them that.

So basically 
Breitbart claims there is a shadow government -- "Okay seems legit"
Intelligence claims they have an ongoing investigation of Trump aids speaking with Russian intelligence officials during the campaign -- "Bad source, can't trust."

Put another way.
I claim that I am doing something, and you call bullshit.
Someone else unrelated to government claims that there is a massive government conspiracy , and you take it at face value

It's an insane stance to have even before you consider that Flynn just resigned for having an illegal diplomatic conversation with the Russians.

Also, Fox news and other right wing media are consistently more concerned with finding out why there are so many leaks and stopping them.  Right now the tactic used to handle leaks about the new administration is to basically briefly report it and then start shit talking the people who made the leak public.  #shadowgovernment

Here comes da judge!

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/.../97893248/

Quote:Republican Painter: It's time to impeach Trump

Quote:Mark P. Painter, a lifelong Cincinnatian, served as a judge for 30 years.
As Charles P. Pierce said in Esquire last week, “I swear, it's like we elected the Clampetts, if the Clampetts were grifters.”
A president of the United States, on the official POTUS Twitter feed, assails a department store for dropping his daughter’s merchandise. On the same day, the Pentagon is looking to rent space in the Trump Tower. Trump’s son travels to Uganda to make a Trump business deal. And, of course, foreign diplomats will stay at the Trump Hotel. The cash comes marching in.
The phony legalisms Trump has said he used to “separate” himself from his businesses – though he still owns them and his sons are running them – will be cited to make this all acceptable. Horsefeathers. No ethical expert could say with a straight face that this is not a classic conflict of interest.

If I remember right, Republicans in the US were more concerned with the content of Mrs. Clinton's emails than the Russian hacking. The rationalization went something like, ' The Russians exposed Mrs. Clinton's bad character and illegal behavior.'

There now seems to be a double standard in play, as Trump wants people to focus on the source of the problem (leaks and investigative journalism) and not the problem itself (members of his campaign communicating ((and possibly colluding)) ) with the government of an adversarial nation.

Three weeks in, and the Trump crowd is adding a whole new dimension to the word 'clusterfuck'.

Boru

A double-standard?  By our precious republicunts?  Why hush your mouth, boy.  This be 'Murrica.

---

Stakes just got raised, it seems.

Quote:‘He will die in jail’: Intelligence community ready to ‘go nuclear’ on Trump, senior source says

Quote:U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to “go nuclear” after President Donald Trump’s latest attack on the intelligence community.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the “real scandal” was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, the president blasted what he said were “un-American” leaks that led to Flynn’s ousting.

You know what would be really ironic?  If the NSA spying apparatus that we democrats hated and the republicunts loved were ultimately what brings down the WLB and his Band of Bullshitters.