Discussing politics and religion

[highup]

My view of Obama was like many democrats view of Trump, but I thought his mission to get Bin Laden was gutsy, .........and he did the right thing. Kudos for Obama even tho I didn't like him at all.
Dems hope Trump loses this negotiation and de-nuclearization thing because if it works out, they worry about losing votes. They worry about votes and hopes Trump loses......... so freekin' sad. Everyone should hope this works, no matter how 'eventually' long it takes.

 

[zannej]

I don't know if anyone sane/decent is actually hoping for Trump to fail with Kim, but they are expecting it. I noticed Kim's body language showed he is not really impressed with Trump & if Trump thinks Kim can be trusted, he's a fool. I feel so sorry for the citizens of North Korea & what they suffer through bc of Kim. I was saying to my mother that I wonder what would happen to NK if something happened to Kim-- who would take over as leader? Would they still stay so oppressed?

Michael Cohen's testimony confirmed something that I suspected since the election: Trump never actually intended to win, he just wanted the publicity & $$ it would bring. I think he doesn't have a clue what he is doing. but then, I don't think Obama thought he was going to win either & he wasn't quite prepared.

Meanwhile, I'm a bit worried about the situation with Pakistan & India. One of my studies in school was the Indian subcontinent & things have been tense between those two for a long time, but the recent attacks and the fact that they both have nukes does not bode well.

 

[Floorist]

Naw, Trump is an idiot.

 

[highup]

Cohen is the most trusted man in Washington.

 

[highup]

Cohen is the most trusted man in Washington.
If Trump had not intended to win it would have been easy for him to do a few things to lower he popularity. Trump looks like he's full steam ahead running for a second term......... why if he wants to lose?
Cohen's mad at Trump for not defending him........ so what's he got to loose by lying more?

 

[Floorist]

Cohen is the most trusted man in Washington.

I would believe him over Trump. Trump has told hundreds of documented lies in his two years.

 

[Nick]

 

[Nick]

 

[highup]

I would believe him over Trump. Trump has told hundreds of documented lies in his two years.

I don't doubt he's lied. The Stormy thing to me is between him and his wife. If he lied about that, it's none of anyone's business.
I thought the Muller report was finally coming out this week. Speculation doesn't mean a whole lot, yet that's what everyone is doing.
I'm thinking Muller is stretching this out s to his retirement date. If there are any charges beyond his non-existing campaign collusion with the Russians, the charges ought to be dismissed because this was all a witch hunt like Trump has described They stared all this from the false dossier . From there, they took every left and right turn they came across finding a bunch of issues totally unrelated to Trump or Russian collusion.
It's like a cop chasing a suspect in a high speed chase, then stopping at every stop light runner and J-walker and parking violation they come across along the way.
Wasn't this all about Trump hob nobbing with Putin ........and asking his best buddy Putin to get him elected? How did we get where we are in 2+ years. .....hell, maybe pushing 3 because this crap started during the campaign. Mullers team takes too many vacations and coffee breaks, This BS ought to have taken a couple months. Six at tops.

 

[zannej]

The Mueller report coming out this week is "fake news". There was a news article about it (I'll have to dig up the link again) and several people who are more "in the know" said it was untrue. Cohen can get a lot more jail time if he is caught lying-- that said, he may have lied about a few things during his testimony bc he fears the Russian mob (and bc Gaetz openly threatened him & then was at the hearing glaring at him while he testified). Cohen claimed he's never been to Prague or the Czech Republic but our allies pinged one of his phones in Prague and IIRC, his passport was stamped as having entered the Czech Republic (I could be mistaken on this one, he either went there or entered an adjacent country in an area that would have been easy to get over to Prague without having his passport stamped). However, even if he was telling the truth & someone else was using his phone there, it doesn't invalidate the Steele Dossier. I think they have verified almost 90% of it and Steele himself said he believed it was about 70% accurate. If he's lying, our CI agents likely have proof. I know I know, some of you think I should put on a tin foil hat.

The thing with Netenyahu being indicted is interesting & I'm not sure how it will affect Israel. Also, with all of the Cohen stuff, the press completely failed to note that Roger Stone already violated his gag order (but it seems it went unnoticed by law enforcement as well).

IIRC, Mueller was already retired. He was brought back as Special Counsel because they asked him to come back for the job. I honestly do not understand how anyone can believe this is just a witch hunt when Trump keeps doing things that Putin wants, alienates our allies & NATO, contradicts 17 of our Intelligence Agencies, sides with other dictators, openly works to obstruct the investigation, & multiple members of his campaign team have been indicted/convicted/plead guilty to crimes-- many of them involving interactions with Russian FSB/GRU/mobsters.

I am curious as to how people are going to react when Mueller's report is finally released (if it is ever released to the public). Will they believe it? Or will Trump's lies to discredit Mueller be effective enough to convince people it's false?

 

[Nick]

 

[zannej]

This cracked me up

 

[Ernesto]

"I don't doubt he's lied. The Stormy thing to me is between him and his wife. If he lied about that, it's none of anyone's business."
It is if he used campaign funds.

 

[Ernesto]

This cracked me up

Love it, so funny.

 

[zannej]

I think my favorite bit was
"You know something Mr. Cohen, I've never even heard of you."
"Your mother has."

IIRC, it was the moron from Louisiana (Higgins) who said he'd never heard of Cohen before-- and the idiot kept going on about boxes of evidence that needed to be collected & examined by law enforcement-- despite having been told by Cohen more than once that the FBI had already seized the boxes & gone through everything.

On Twitter Trump just tried to blame the failed NK negotiations on Cohen. /facepalm

The problem is that KJU will never agree to anything that is actually good for the US bc he's a scumbag. Even if he makes an agreement, he'll just lie anyway. He can't be trusted.

 

[zannej]

The aforementioned moron, Higgin's district director just got arrested & charged with involvement in human trafficking. https://www.bayoubrief.com/2019/03/...the-center-of-alleged-human-trafficking-ring/

 

[highup]

The Mueller report coming out this week is "fake news". There was a news article about it (I'll have to dig up the link again) and several people who are more "in the know" said it was untrue. Cohen can get a lot more jail time if he is caught lying-- that said, he may have lied about a few things during his testimony bc he fears the Russian mob (and bc Gaetz openly threatened him & then was at the hearing glaring at him while he testified). Cohen claimed he's never been to Prague or the Czech Republic but our allies pinged one of his phones in Prague and IIRC, his passport was stamped as having entered the Czech Republic (I could be mistaken on this one, he either went there or entered an adjacent country in an area that would have been easy to get over to Prague without having his passport stamped). However, even if he was telling the truth & someone else was using his phone there, it doesn't invalidate the Steele Dossier. I think they have verified almost 90% of it and Steele himself said he believed it was about 70% accurate. If he's lying, our CI agents likely have proof. I know I know, some of you think I should put on a tin foil hat.

The thing with Netenyahu being indicted is interesting & I'm not sure how it will affect Israel. Also, with all of the Cohen stuff, the press completely failed to note that Roger Stone already violated his gag order (but it seems it went unnoticed by law enforcement as well).

IIRC, Mueller was already retired. He was brought back as Special Counsel because they asked him to come back for the job. I honestly do not understand how anyone can believe this is just a witch hunt when Trump keeps doing things that Putin wants, alienates our allies & NATO, contradicts 17 of our Intelligence Agencies, sides with other dictators, openly works to obstruct the investigation, & multiple members of his campaign team have been indicted/convicted/plead guilty to crimes-- many of them involving interactions with Russian FSB/GRU/mobsters.

I am curious as to how people are going to react when Mueller's report is finally released (if it is ever released to the public). Will they believe it? Or will Trump's lies to discredit Mueller be effective enough to convince people it's false?

The Muller report is never going to get finished.
About being retired. My Aunt retired for SF State College. They loved her. They wanted her back, but they could only do so if she was self employed. So she got her legal license back to be able to be used as a private contractor.
I can't believe that people actually believe they know what the report will say, months ........( and years now) before it comes out. They hope, but they don't know.

 

[highup]

Trump ought to be hailed as a hero for not playing Kim's game. Kim now knows that Trump is serious. I think Trump wants a deal with Kim more than the wall. If successful, he'd get a Nobel Peace Prize. The wall won't get that. Personally I'd rather have him win the prize and a denuclearized NK than get the wall.
........that's for his second term.

 

[highup]

........both would be good too.

 

[zannej]

Trump already played KJU's game by meeting with him in the first place. If Obama had done that, he would have been crucified for it and the criticism would have been justified. I think the only president, other than Trump, who would have been stupid enough to meet with KJU is Jimmy Carter. If he were president now he would have met with him & probably made stupid concessions (well, only if it was popular publicly-- he cared more about public opinion than what was actually right-- that was according to his own SS agents). It wasn't a good move and Trump actually made some concessions by agreeing to terminate military exercises in SK. Don't get me wrong, I wish we could come to some sort of accord with NK, but KJU is a monstrous murderer & there is no real negotiating with him. He can't be trusted.

I saw an explanation for why the Mueller report has not been released yet: it's hard to towel yourself off while standing under a waterfall. The obstruction charges keep racking up and new criminal activities keep coming to light. But, beyond that, there are millions of documents to go through and a number of lawyers examining different aspects. Didn't it take something like 5 years for the Watergate investigation to conclude?

I'm not going to hold my breath on the report, but I'm interested in what the House Intel Committee will uncover. Some members have said that the private hearings have already yielded direct evidence that Trump conspired with the Russians. Then there's this stuff with Kushner's clearance.

Matt Whittaker apparently stepped down already- that didn't take long.