How Putin's proxies helped funnel millions into GOP campaigns
Money Talks and Bullshit Walks!
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
GO TO THE LINK TO ACCESS CHART INFORMATION.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia.
Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.
An example is Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen and one of the largest donors to GOP political action committees in the 2015-16 election cycle. Blavatnik's family emigrated to the U.S. in the late '70s from the U.S.S.R. and he returned to Russia when the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late '80s.
Data from the Federal Election Commission show that Blavatnik's campaign contributions dating back to 2009-10 were fairly balanced across party lines and relatively modest for a billionaire. During that season he contributed $53,400. His contributions increased to $135,552 in 2011-12 and to $273,600 in 2013-14, still bipartisan.
In 2015-16, everything changed. Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.
In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund.
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So is this legal?
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democratic leader on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News in September : "Unless the contributions were directed by a foreigner, they would be legal, but could still be of interest to investigators examining allegations of Russian influence on the 2016 campaign. Obviously, if there were those that had associations with the Kremlin that were contributing, that would be of keen concern."
Under federal law, foreigner nationals are barred from contributing directly or indirectly to political campaigns in local, state and federal elections.
Should Blavatnik's contributions concern Mueller's team of investigators? Take a look at his long-time business associates in Russia.
Oleg Deripaska is said to be one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's favorite oligarchs, and he is founder and majority shareholder of Russia's Rusal, the second-largest aluminum company in the world. Blavatnik holds a stake in Rusal with a business partner.
Further, nearly 4 percent of Deripaska's stake in Rusal is owned by Putin's state-controlled bank, VTB, which is currently under U.S. sanctions. VTB was exposed in the Panama Papers in 2016 for facilitating the flow of billions of dollars to offshore companies linked to Putin.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press reported that Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, began collecting $10 million a year in 2006 from Deripaska to advance Putin's interests with Western governments. Deripaska's name turned up again in an email handed over to Mueller's team by Manafort's attorneys. According to The Washington Post , in the email dated July 7, 2016, just two weeks before Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, Manafort asked an overseas intermediary to pass a message on to Deripaska: "If he [Deripaska] needs private briefings, tell him we can accommodate."
Viktor Vekselberg is one of the 10 richest men in Russia. He and long-time business partner Blavatnik hold a 20.5 percent stake in Rusal. (They met while attending university in Russia.)
In 1990, Blavatnik and Vekselberg co-founded the Renova Group for large-scale investments in energy, infrastructure, aluminum and other metals. One of their earliest investments was in Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK), founded in 1995. TNK is best known for its contentious partnership with British Petroleum after the two entities formed a joint venture in 2003. That rocky relationship ended 10 years later when they sold out to the state-controlled energy giant, Rosneft, under pressure from the Russian government.
As for BP, that pressure took the form of growing harassment and intimidation from Russian authorities who at one point, according to Forbes , refused to renew visas for BP employees, forcing BP's joint venture chief Robert Dudley (who is now chief executive of BP) to flee Russia and manage TNK-BP from a foreign outpost in a secret location.
Vekselberg has connections to at least two Americans who made significant GOP campaign contributions during the last cycle. They are among several Americans who also merit Mueller's scrutiny.
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The Americans
Andrew Intrater , according to Mother Jones , is Vekselberg's cousin. He is also chief executive of Columbus Nova, Renova's U.S. investment arm located in New York. (FEC records list his employer as Renova US Management LLC.)
Intrater had no significant history of political contributions prior to the 2016 elections. But in January 2017 he contributed $250,000 to Trump's Inaugural Committee. His six-figure gift bought him special access to a dinner billed as "an intimate policy discussion with select cabinet appointees," according to a brochure obtained by the Center for Public Integrity .
Alexander Shustorovich , chief executive of IMG Artists, attempted to give the Republican Party $250,000 in 2000 to support the George W. Bush presidential campaign, but his money was rejected because of his ties to the Russian government, according to Quartz . So why didn't the Trump team reject Shustorovich's $1 million check to Trump's Inaugural Committee?
Simon Kukes is an oil magnate who has something in common with Intrater. From 1998 to 2003, he worked for Veksel berg and Blavatnik as chief executive of TNK . Redacted CIA documents released in 2003 under the Freedom of Information Act said "TNK president Kukes said that he bribed local officials." The CIA confirmed the authenticity of the reports to The Guardian newspaper but would not comment further. In 2016, Kukes contributed a total of $283,000, much of it to the Trump Victory Fund. He had no significant donor history before last year's election.
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There is no doubt that Kukes has close ties to the Putin government. When he left his job as CEO of TNK in June 2003, he joined the board of Yukos Oil, which at the time was the largest oil company in Russia owned by the richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Four months after Kukes joined the board, authorities arrested Khodorkovsky at gunpoint on his private plane in Siberia on trumped up charges of tax evasion and tapped Kukes to be CEO. This decision could only have been made at the highest levels in the Kremlin. The arrest of Khodorkovsky rattled the nerves of international investors and was the first tangible sign that Putin was not going to be the kind of leader that global executives and Western governments had expected him to be when he first took office in 2000.
Khodorkovksy was given a 13-year sentence in a Siberian prison and served 10 years before being released by Putin in December 2013, a month before the start of the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, as a sign of goodwill. As for the fate of Khodorkovksy's company, its largest oil subsidiary was sold in a sealed bid auction to Baikal Financial Group, a shell company with an unpublished list of officers. Baikal was registered at an address that turned out to be a mobile phone store in Tver, Russia. Three days after the auction, all of Baikal's assets were acquired for an undisclosed sum by Rosneft, the Russian oil giant that went on to buy TNK-BP in 2013.
In total, Blavatnik, Intrater, Shustorovich and Kukes made $10.4 million in political contributions from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017, and 99 percent of their contributions went to Republicans. With the exception of Shustorovich, the common denominator that connects the men is their association with Vekselberg. Experts who follow the activities of Russian oligarchs told ABC News that they believe the contributions from Blavatnik, Intrater and Kukes warrant intense scrutiny because they have worked closely with Vekselberg.
Even if the donations by the four men associated with Russia ultimately pass muster with Mueller, one still has to wonder: Why did GOP PACs and other Trump-controlled funds take their money? Why didn't the PACs say, "Thanks, but no thanks," like the Republicans said to Shustorovich in 2000? Yes, it was legal to accept their donations, but it was incredibly poor judgment.
McConnell surely knew as a participant in high level intelligence briefings in 2016 that our electoral process was under attack by the Russians. Two weeks after the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement in October 2016 that the Russian government had directed the effort to interfere in our electoral process, McConnell's PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings. The PAC took another $1 million from Blavatnik's AI-Altep Holdings on March 30, 2017, just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey publicly testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia's interference in the election.
And consider Steve Mnuchin, Trump's campaign finance chairman. Could he have known that the Trump Victory Fund, jointly managed by the Republican National Committe and Trump's campaign, took contributions from Intrater and Kukes? Mnuchin owned Hollywood financing company RatPac-Dune with Blavatnik until he sold his stake to accept Trump's appointment as the Treasury secretary.
Which PAC officials are making the decisions to accept these donations?
The Supreme Court
The contributions are legal because the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling, Citizens United, and several subsequent decisions, allowed American corporations and citizens to give unlimited amounts of money to PACs and non-profit 501c4 organizations, regardless of how they make their money, where they make their money, or with whom they make their money. The only caveat is that PACs and non-profits cannot coordinate their activities with the political candidates they support.
The man who led the winning fight for Citizens United was David Bossie, president of the conservative non-profit since 2001. In 1996, Bossie was hired by Republican Rep. Dan Burton to lead an investigation into President Bill Clinton's campaign fundraising. Burton fired him 18 months later for manipulating recordings of conversations among law officials and Webb Hubbell, a Clinton confidant who resigned as associate attorney general and pleaded guilty to tax fraud during the Whitewater investigation. CNN reported at the time that Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House, called Bossie's tampering with the Hubbell recordings an embarrassment to the Republicans.
Bossie served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman.
The Super PAC, Make America Number 1, is primarily funded by Trump's largest donor, Robert Mercer. His Renaissance Technologies hedge fund donated $15.5 million to the PAC.
Mercer's daughter, Rebekah, assumed control of Make America Number 1 in September 2016 and is now tainted by her role in the communications between Wikileaks and Cambridge Analytica, the firm that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, hired for $5.9 million to handle the digital portion of the Trump campaign.
Robert and Rebekah Mercer are major investors in Cambridge Analytica. According to The Wall Street Journal, Rebekah Mercer asked Cambridge chief executive Alexander Nix if the firm could compile stolen emails related to Hillary Clinton so that they could be more easily searched. (This suggestion came from someone she met at an event supporting Sen. Ted Cruz, according to The Hill . Cambridge Analytica had worked on digital marketing for Cruz before he dropped out of the Republican primary.)
Nix confirmed that he had asked Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to forward the Clinton-related emails. Assange said he declined the request.
Rebekah Mercer also heads the non-profit Making America Great, formed in March 2017. The non-profit ran a seven-figure ad campaign highlighting Trump's achievements. Bossie is the group's chief strategist.
Erik Prince, brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, contributed $150,000 to Mercer's Make America Number 1 PAC and another $100,000 to the Trump Victory Fund. Prince has recently testified to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about his trip to the remote Seychelles for a secret meeting in December 2016 with a close ally of Putin, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The purpose of the meeting was allegedly to setup a back channel of communication between then president-elect Donald Trump and the Russians, though Prince has denied this allegation. Before the 2015-16 elections, Prince's political contributions totaled a mere $31,800 as far back as 2007, according to FEC records.
The hybrid super-PAC, The Committee to Defend the President, was formed in 2013 under the name Stop Hillary PAC. It is managed by Dan Backer, the lead attorney who won the McCutcheon vs. Federal Election Commission case in 2014. The Supreme Court decision eliminated the cap on how much wealthy individuals can donate to federal candidates, parties and PACs in a single, two-year election cycle.
Like Bossie, Dan Backer helped to open the floodgates to millions of dollars of influence brought to bear on incumbents and their political challengers who are now pressured to kowtow to their donors with the biggest bank accounts, even if their billions are earned in Russian rubles.
Backer was born in Russia and emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1978.
The changes to our campaign finance laws created an avenue for Russia to try to influence our elections. There are holes in our firewall and they aren't on the internet.
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Ruth May is a business professor at the University of Dallas and an expert on the economies of Russia and Ukraine. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning Ne ws. Email: rmay@udallas.edu .
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This will eventually bubble to the surface in the form of a question, i. e., “Why would Orin Hatch and other high profile Republicans, in almost tears-eyed fashion, stand at a public microphone and declare that Trump may well become the best President in American history” ?
I contend, there’s blackmail involved and Russian money and influence are the the elements of a time bomb!
My two cents.
That would require that we as a country have standards. As I see it, our standards have eroded to the point that they are non-existent. Trump lies on a daily basis and the lies come so fast that yesterday's lie is forgotten as we address today's. Rinse and repeat.
Just look at the fact that CREW has to find someone with 'standing' to try to uphold the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Or the fact that they discount Logan Act violations merely because the Act hasn't been used in over 100 years. Although one would think that a prosecutor would relish the idea of getting a conviction under the Logan Act. It sure as hell seems like said conviction would act as a warning.
the counter coup is underway as we speak. every established, globalist prick politician from both left and right of the political spectrum who tried to sell us out into the new liberal world order is not sleeping very well anymore.
Well, someone watches fox fake news.
Here's a nickle back, Mac. Have no idea what all the overly long post up above was about....but, the liberals and Democrats and progressive forum dwellers have yet to explain what, exactly and in great detail, did any Russian influence amount to. If the LWNJ's can't do that, all they are is passing a lot of stinky gas. Why would Putin want Trump in the WH, when he knew that Hillary would be a lay down, roll over simpleton bitch.
Collusion with a foreign adversary to affect an election is a serious offense.
Just so you know. There is no crime of "collusion'" in the US codes.
so the question of the day is...
when is hillary and the entire leadership of the dnc under hillary going to jail for paying Russians to fabricate lies about trump?
True, Trump will be forced out of office for obstruction of justice and money laundering.
hillary, the dnc, and the fbi all should have read the fine print on that strzok insurance policy
those balloon payments are a pain in the backside
Shocking how naive you could be over the reality that you are not privy to an on- going investigation or grand jury proceedings.
Your lack of worldly-wisdom screams out loud.
Just so you know, the charge won’t be collusion, it will be criminal conspiracy,
Educate yourself further by leading the relationship between the two ... which I posted weeks ago.
1) You are suggesting Hillary colluded with Russia to LOSE the election?
Maybe you need to learn the difference between the Ukraine, (ally), and Russia, (NOT an ally).
2) When is she going to jail? Um, maybe you should try charging her with a crime first? Flynn manafort, gates and popadolous will be in prison LONG before Hillary will. Republicans have been after Hillary for 25 years and in all those years and all those investigations she has never been charged with so much as a parking ticket.....but you are saying she needs to go to jail? You better call trumps FBI and let them know what they missed because you know SOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than they do. LMFAO!
3) Mueller was appointed by Rosenstein, who was appointed by TRUMP.
no. I am saying she paid Russia to produce lies about trump so she would win.
do not try to think for me... your not qualified.
Cheers
No one is saying they didn't. Are you going to now tell us that doing opposition research is not ok if the dems do it, but totally ok if repubs do it?
Absolutely no mention of Hillary or the DNC working with Russia to get dirt on Trump. Read that above sentence again, "now president AND Russia", it doesn't say Hillary worked with Russia to get dirt on Trump.. You should REALLY read the article YOU posted. In fact, the DNC was hacked and Podesta's emails were stolen, by russia, and sent to Wikileaks. But you are suggesting Hillary worked with Russia to get dirt on Trump? Do you have ANY idea how stupid that sounds?
Nope, but conspiracy is a crime.
That is bordering on treason.
What collusion and of what kind? What we have seen so far is a lot of the imaginary collusion with no proof of same.
and if hillary paid Russians to help her win the election that is very close to treason also right?
her lawyers admitted she did work with / pay Russians to win an election...
so... now what?
Well, that is downright funny Mac, because all the left wingers on here have said (concerning the investigations) the a lot has been revealed, a lot has been proven true, that the claims of the dossier have been proven true, that collusion and obstructing justice are facts, etc, etc. And as a moderator, should you be making personal attacks by questioning anyone else's knowledge and intelligence, when you own is not all that sharp?
more bs...
the download speeds contradict any internet based hack, that hack went straight to a thumb drive.
here is a very leftwing source for ya...
if Russia actually hacked the DNC they would have allowed law enforcement access to said server, but as always the left is full of schit.
Cheers
I am not moderating in this article and participate as a member instead; learn the rules before you accuse.
1) You are suggesting Hillary colluded with Russia to LOSE the election?
Maybe you need to learn the difference between the Ukraine, (ally), and Russia, (NOT an ally).
2) When is she going to jail? Um, maybe you should try charging her with a crime first? Flynn manafort, gates and popadolous will be in prison LONG before Hillary will. Republicans have been after Hillary for 25 years and in all those years and all those investigations she has never been charged with so much as a parking ticket.....but you are saying she needs to go to jail? You better call trumps FBI and let them know what they missed because you know SOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than they do. LMFAO!
3) Mueller was appointed by Rosenstein, who was appointed by TRUMP.
Get someone for explain it to you ... it connects the dots even for those who want a Jess Willard America.
Your boy is going down ... all the denials and badass talk don’t negate the confessions and where they will likely lead.
Where do you think they will likely lead?
It ultimately doesn’t matter where I think the confessions will lead; what matters is the reality that when confessions and indictments arise at these levels, for those on whom the confessors have flipped, it will lead to nowhere good.
Innoncent people don’t fire or threaten to fire those whose investigative work could show their innocence! The phenomenon associated with Trump’s actions are called “consciousness of guilt.”
I don’t appreciate the mockery and some of the ignorant “arguments” that come with relentless insults. My career experiences tell me who will might have the goods and who thinks they can just shout others down.
Trump is likely headed for impeachment after November, 2018, or resignation. I believe a number of his cohorts will go to prison.
Will you give up all your guns if he does?
Already have four bets here for $200 for the American Cancer Society.
I’ll take $50 of yours if you want in ...
The bet is that he is impeached, indicted or resigns before four years.
In?
Trump has already ADMITTED to obstruction of justice. He fired Comey to end the investigation. He constantly attacks his own intelligence agencies and the free press. Pull your head out.
Are you denying that he admitted to firing Comey to end an investigation? Is this not obstruction of justice to you? He will not be charged with anything until the investigation is complete. Don't you understand this?
Trump has already ADMITTED to obstruction of justice. He fired Comey to end the investigation
Of course he didn't admit to that.
Here's a hint, Comey isn't the FBI, he's a governmental official. Firing Comey wouldn't (and didn't) stop the investigation.
But by all means, point to the interview where Trump admitted to firing Comey to stop the investigation.
You and I both know the only way that would happen is if the Democrats win the house in 2018. Things being exactly as they are right now today, that will not happen.
You're right, it won't, no matter what Trump does. Glad you can admit it.
Are are you in for the fifty or are you going to bluff at the table?
Your bravado is annoying ... and likely a facade.
Are are you in for the fifty or are you going to bluff at the table?
Your bravado is annoying ... and likely a facade.
Impasse.
More bluff; but good for your generosity.
You’re in for Fifty.
But we’ll be happy to see your donor receipts for the others.
Trump stated to Lester Holt on camera, that he fired Comey because of the “Russia hoax.”
And now, the Impasse stays.
You are wrong again.
There are things that Trump could do to get impeached, but nothing he has done so far comes even close.
If the Democrats win the house, then maybe they would go for it, but unless he really does something tangible, I doubt they'd even try, not after the wildly successful year he's had this year.
Public outrage brought Nixon down; but you’re so definitive, I guess we can close the book on this.
Impasse.
Tell me about Wreaths and if it sounds worthwhile I will outright make a donation.
Otherwise we are on for the fifty.
Aye.
Still waiting for any evidence of this..
Gee were you this worrued and upset when bill clinton accepted campaign contributions from the Chinese?
Well, if you were and you’re not now, you’re a hypocrite.
Can’t have it both ways.
Because Trump already is the best president since Coolidge. We are reversing 80 years of marxist fascism from the Democratic party attempt to destroy this country.
At what? Golf?
Quit screaming and yelling, you're embarrassing yourself.
Triggered! LOL
Wasn't Trigger Roy Roger's horse? Otherwise, your comment makes no sense.
Lol, you're the wrongest person in the entire blogosphere, Big Bird, you're so wrong it's pointless to even start trying to straighten you out! Merry Christmas to you and your family, Larry.
Moronic
even our last great President, Ronald Reagan did not have this number of substantial accomplishments in his first year.
The tax cut bill which not only cut taxes, it also
opened Anwar for drilling
killed the individual mandate from Obamacare
Then we have Gorsuch to SCOTUS
record number of federal judges in first year
70% reduction in illegals crossing the border
deportations up
Dakota and Keystone pipelines now operating
22 regulations repealed for every new regulation
VA Accountability law signed
TPP killed
Pulled out of the farcical Paris Climate Accord
restored our relationship with Israel
first sales of coal to China in 9 years
led the world in getting increased sanctions on N Korea
exposed the illegal missile activity by Iran
heavy weapons sales to Ukraine to oppose Putin’s Russian forces (which Obama refused to allow)
stopped funding of overseas abortions with federal funds
“The photograph in question was taken on US President Donald Trump's first day in the Oval Office on Monday, when he signed a ban on federal money going to international groups that perform or provide information on abortions.”
Signed legislation that cutoff Planned Parenthood funding
“WASHINGTON — President Trump signed legislation on Thursday aimed at cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform abortions, a move cheered by conservatives who have clamored to impose curbs on reproductive rights.
The measure nullifies a rule completed in the last days of the Obama administration that effectively barred state and local governments from withholding federal funding for family planning services related to contraception, sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening from qualified health providers — regardless of whether they also performed abortions. The new measure cleared Congress last month with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.”
Merry Christmas
Trump should have just started a "charity foundation" to accept millions from Russians with pending business with the us govmernent as well as just have putins cronies give money directly to Melania for "speeches"
thats how hall of fame level corrupt politicians do it.
Yeah, that would be following Hillary's example.
If you want to learn to shoot a jump shot, learn from Steph Curry
If you want to go corrupt, the Clintons are the example to follow. The faux charity to get around campaign finance laws was next level brilliance in the corruption game.
So... following Hillary's example is good?
Just saying Hillary is guilty of it, and left wingers didn't mind.
So charge her with a crime. We'll wait.
Clinton foundation is up and operating and has an A rating, trumps "charity" is shut down and under investigation for....wait for it......fraud. It was used to pay off the AG's of texas and florida to drop the trump u fraud case, (and before you call, "BS", trump admitted to it). It was also used to pay off lawsuits. Almost literally none of it was ever used for charity.
oops.. LOL
Hillary hasn't been charged, let alone convicted of anything so I guess that's another broken promise by trump.
How many millions of dollars are Putin's friends donating now that she has no power and no prospect of power? Amazing coincidence how that well dried up once she lost power.
Clinton took millions from foreigners and foreign governments with interests before the US government and failed to disclose it. She hired political staffers to her "charity" to keep them employed between campaigns. It was, in fact, unrated because it was publishing false returns. It's rating now, when it's irrelevant, is irrelevant itself.
Clearly there are some here that are confused with one simple talking point.
The Ukraine is an ALLY of the USA. Did Hillary work with the Ukraine? Yes.
Russia is NOT an ally of the USA. Did trump work with Russia? Yes.
You're welcome.
did hillary work with Russia? YES. (her lawyers admitted it.)
Washington (CNN) The law firm for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee has acknowledged its clients' role in paying for opposition research on Donald Trump that helped fund the now-infamous dossier of allegations about the now-President and Russia.
your welcome also
Like I said above.... The article says nothing about Hillary working with the Russians to get dirt on trump. And....again... Why would she work with Russia? Putin hates Hillary with a passion. Saying Hillary worked with the Russians to get dirt on trump is laughable.
Because she is a incompetent pushover and laydown bitch, and her hates her in return. Why would Putin help elect someone who has just offered to help the Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia?
But your buddy surfs-up insists that Hillary worked with him to get dirt on Trump.. LOL Nice to see you have such disdain for an American citizen and defend the leader of an ENEMY nation at the same time.
1) You are suggesting Hillary colluded with Russia to LOSE the election?
Maybe you need to learn the difference between the Ukraine, (ally), and Russia, (NOT an ally).
2) When is she going to jail? Um, maybe you should try charging her with a crime first? Flynn manafort, gates and popadolous will be in prison LONG before Hillary will. Republicans have been after Hillary for 25 years and in all those years and all those investigations she has never been charged with so much as a parking ticket.....but you are saying she needs to go to jail? You better call trumps FBI and let them know what they missed because you know SOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than they do. LMFAO!
3) Mueller was appointed by Rosenstein, who was appointed by TRUMP.
skirting the CoC [ph]
No he didn't and you can't prove otherwise.
I'm talking about proof, not your grocery list.
I don't buy people when I go to the store. And by all means, prove that list wrong?
<crickets>
That, of course, is what the investigation is for.
What part of the government were they working for? It was during the CAMPAIGN, not after the election. I'll just assume that you cannot dispute the list I posted.. Thanks for playing.
What does that have to do with Trump? Other than nothing?
So what? Trump would have been negligent if they weren't meeting with the Russians
I don't remember any leftists complaining when we sent Americans up to the International Space Station in Russian space launches or about us teaming in space with the Russians.
And this too. Why is Citizens United so important to so few?
Russian money? Yeah. Lots of it and all of it dirty.
What Russian money? The funds that went into the Clinton Slush Fund?
That was from the Ukraine, who is an ally. Not a crime.
Neither is money from Russia, if it ever happened. While Russia is not an ally, we are not currently at war with them, thus not a declared enemy.
So the only enemies we have are ones that we are at war with? lol
The money that trump took from Russia?
The slow walk to nowhere always end up in nowhere.
No, we have domestic enemies like the Democrat and Communist parties
SO much time and energy expended this past year catastrophizing legal behavior all to find some way to attack the political opposition. One day, people will look back at all this and shake their heads the way we do today about McCarthy and his crowd.
Closing this article shortly; the ever-emerging pattern of “dialogue” is eroding the NT environment:
• A number of members, whether coordinating this pattern, or, simply sharing the same annoying, obnoxious, offensive tenets, deny factual information not suiting their politics/ideology, demand proof of such albeit the reality, that they, themselves continuously post debunked lies.
• There are way too many pronouncements and declarations ... and while I welcome well-considered opinions and predictions, too many are posted with insults and outright ugliness ...
• Many comments lack any substance or actual content and are nothing more than smack downs; this makes for a most offensive environment.
I am on vacation with my family and have commented in this and other discussions only because I had posted or commented in them earlier and felt the responsibility to maintain my part.
That ends shortly (except for photo articles).
The gangbang, bullying and other phenomena that helped bring down other forums, has taken over here in NT discussions.
”He who troubles his own house ... “
This article will close or disappear shortly.
If you can't actually handle opinions that differ from yours, maybe you should try this one site I know of, it is called Democratic Underground. You seem like your political intolerance would fit right in.
But please keep posting Disney pics, my son works there, my mom and aunt retired from there, and my uncle worked at Epcot.
If you can't actually handle opinions that differ from yours, maybe you should try this one site I know of, it is called Democratic Underground. You seem like your political intolerance would fit right in.
There is a distinct difference between expressing an opinion and repeating an oft-debunked lie as if it were established fact; bad enough, but to do so stridently, obnoxiously and talking down with insults … not on my articles.
As for handling opinions that differ from mine … I did quite well doing so for 32+ years, that in grievances, arbitrations, and, in defense of, or, in opposition to adverse actions. Having an opinion is not especially difficult; supporting an opinion either with verifiable fact or rational argument is what separates intellect from knuckle-dragging bludgeoning of contrary positions.
In the world where I worked, much of the outright crap tossed in these threads would be have been flung back in the faces of those who tossed it; any damned fool can be a badass in the limited-protocol environs of cyberspace, that, without consequence. Cyber muscles are easy to flex …
But please keep posting Disney pics, my son works there, my mom and aunt retired from there, and my uncle worked at Epcot.
Will do; my best wishes to you and your family.
Best wishes to all.