Some people are theorizing that the story was put out by Kushner (and those on his side in the WH) because it says White House advisers as the source. They also had 3 of them. That's not a tiny leak but a coordinated hit. And that Kushner would be one of the few people in the White House with direct knowledge of the meeting and what was in the e-mail.

The theory is it could be his way of either getting out in front of a story that's about to get worse. Or to take the heat off him by passing the buck to his brother-in-law.

Either way it appears someone in the White House has a beef with Junior or needed to throw him under the bus. This is going to be a fascinating story and part of history going forward. Especially if people start flipping.

Trump Jr saying Trump not knowing about the meeting is suspicious and not believable. Sure, right ...

Entirely coincidental, surely.

Another version of the timeline.

But where is all this heading?

The already-split nature of Americans in their view of not only matters of opinion by matters of fact, coupled with the slow drop nature of this story coalescing, seems to make the path ahead clear.

Let's say that in some time - whether it's 3, 30, or 300 days from now - there is assembled basically incontrovertible evidence (to any neutral party) that the Trump campaign illegally conspired with a hostile foreign power, both its government and its agents, to unduly influence the American election.

As many of 40% of people will deny the fact, citing either "fake news" or some other foothold they have been offered in an effort to either redeem their previous choice (a strong psychological phenomenon) or to defend their general political views (and their "team"). On top of that, there will surely be another wave of incremental denials and obfuscations by the sympathetic players in the Trump/Fox/Hannity/Brietbart community who essentially trumpet something like (guessing here, but it's a good guess) Well, they didn't actually go in and alter the vote counts or anything, now THAT would have been wrong, but all they did was hack computers and schedule release of damaging private information at times and in ways to alter voter opinions... but the voters still had to go cast their ballots, so no harm no foul no shirt no shoes no problem. #MAGA

And there you have it. Smoking gun found. Votes for impeachment or whatever actual consequence the rabid left are seeking at that point still elusive. And the band plays on.

Why stop there? If Jared cured cancer that would really change perceptions!

Don't read r/The_Donald then. Their take is that Obama and Clinton set up the meeting to

At least with Jon over here, he doesn't appear to believe any conspiracy is afoot from liberals or that this whole thing is overblown, just that it's better than the alternative. While I can think his views are dumb and dangerous (as I'm sure he thinks mine are), I think he would agree that those people from The_Donald are just as worthless as their equivalent's on the left.

Eventually this probably ends with the independent counsel and/or a Dem majority House in 2019. I agree that the GOP is very unlikely to ever turn on Trump in enough numbers to matter, but if indictments start flying around that will change the situation enough to make it difficult to predict.

Even if the President is indictment free, what happens if basically the entire campaign staff is facing trials and prison? Will enough GOP electeds look to save their own asses at that point or would most of them look at sunk costs and ride the ship to the bottom?

:withstupid:

It sure appears that unless he dies or evidence turns up that could convict him of a felony, Trump is going to remain President until at least 1/20/20, and that the continued missteps, Twitter foolishnesses, etc. will continue to occur.

I think there's the potential of a boiling frog situation here (pun welcome though not intended)... this isn't happening all at once, it's evolving over time, and by the time the case is ironclad we will have already sequentially warmed up to lack of disclosure, ethics violations, emoluments abuse, electoral conspiracy, widespread slander, and eventually treason. By the end of the sequence, there will be some sort of "violation fatigue" that sets in, comparable to the "outrage fatigue" that happened during the campaign, when the longstanding norms of previously disqualifying statements/revelations/events were discarded once we had a candidate suffering not one or two but scores and scores of them.

We are through the looking glass with all this.

...I am always safe knowing I can drop that reference and Ben will have my back.

Hehehe.

The W.H. is functioning perfectly, focused on HealthCare, Tax Cuts/Reform & many other things. I have very little time for watching T.V.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017

Republicans should be terrified of the idea of a Democrat Congress and Trump presidency.

Because I'm golfing so much.

Dola:

What are the odds that a TV clip emerges from the last half hour that has someone blasting him for watching TV?

Effin' dolabusters. :rant:

You forgot your dola.

In response to Kickstand, anything that helps de-legitimize Trump and the current GOP to the American public is a net positive, AFAIC. Even if Trump remains in power.

Plus, I guess I am naive enough to believe there is still intrinsic value in finding the truth to a situation, regardless of consequences.

Who'da guessed this guy would end up being a weasel?

:p

Generally agree with the 'where is all this heading' line. The 2018 election is going to be absolutely brutal--a swing left results in an impeachment vote. It's a good time to be in political media, fake or not.

that might be the biggest lie he's told during his Presidency.

Yes, of course. God forbid we have a President that isn't spawned from the depths of Hell.

We've just endured the 2nd worst President in the history of the nation, I'm occasionally flabbergasted that there are people allowed to roam free that can't grasp that.

Oh well. Flabbergasted is a temporary condition.

Instead of your posts, if you wanted to just post a video or audio of the adults in any Charlie Brown TV special, that would be fine.

Like this:

It appears Steve King (R) from Iowa has a way to pay for Trump's wall-money set aside for food stamps and Planned Parenthood:

Rep. Steve King: Build border wall with funds from food stamps, Planned Parenthood

Mexican food stamps and Mexican Planned Parenthood, right?

You've retweeted 9 clips from Fox News since Monday. https://t.co/mhx2HdIE7G

— shauna (@goldengateblond) July 12, 2017

Speaking of boiling the frog:

Watch Al Franken, David Letterman Talk Climate in Web Series - Rolling Stone

Your mileage obviously varies, but I already miss having a leader who looked at our enemies like this:

So who did you vote for?

Can't speak for albion, but I voted for Obama over Hillary. He was definitely better than her. Good point!

Fucking brilliant, now we can have an expensive wall that still won't stop illegal immigration AND an increase in children born into poverty who won't have enough to eat.

There's a pretty good chance that this is literally true.

Less than two years ago:

Republicans Criticize Obama for Talking to Putin

You're right.

Lincoln was such a pompous, arrogant, asshole for what he turned this county into.

Steve King is the ultimate Welfare Queen. He's never gotten a bill out of committee, much less passed into law. He gets elected and paid to say stupid shit and accomplish nothing.

He's 3rd, at most. His damage was certainly more long-lasting -- led to the rise of an overreaching federal government -- but Carter was actually more inept. Obie made a good run at the title it but at some point there simply wasn't as much worth a damn left for him to damage.

Where FDR fits into the pecking order, honestly, I've never been able to quite figure out. If not for Lincoln then FDR couldn't have ushered in the welfare state in the first place, so I've flip-flopped the two for decades honestly

<-- Actually agree with Jon on his #1, at least in my lifetime.

That said, I'm willing to give Carter a pass for his post-presidential career. I think he's a great man who was an ill fit for the job of President.

I feel like by the end of his term this thread and the Onion thread will be indiscernible from one another.

Carter is weird because he gets trashed by the right for being liberal while they praise Reagan. Both were similar when it came to fiscal policy. Carter just took over during a shittier time.

Reagan was much better when it came to foreign policy of course.

Well this isn't good either.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/12/politi...tes/index.html

Why was Russian money-laundering case settled? House Dems want answers - Business Insider


The US Attorney prosecuting the case (until he was fired for not talking to Trump).... Preet Bharara.

Nothing will likely happen. Maybe the House flips, maybe a new President in 2020. I guess I could see a scenario where he just decides not to run anymore.

Like you said, 40% doesn't care. He found the right marks.

Those 40% that don't care control about 218 house seats. So even winning every single house district that Clinton carried and retaining all of the Trump/Democratic districts doesn't even give the Dems a majority in the house.

And so it begins:

Donald Trump impeachment: Democrat Brad Sherman files impeachment article against US President

1992: Too young to vote, but debated as President George HW Bush at this debate thingy we had. I won, too :-)

1996: Sterotypical lazy college kid who didn't vote and barely paid attention, but supported President Clinton.

2000: President George W. Bush

2004: John Kerry

2008: President Obama (and over Clinton in the primary)

2012: President Obama

2016: Clinton (and over Sanders in the primary)

Don't know what the future holds, but I can't see myself voting GOP again in my lifetime. The changes required of that party are so fundamental that if there is another election in my lifetime where I vote for the conservative party, it will probably be because guys like Evan McMullin were able to create a new one.

I still wouldn't expect a "real" attempt at anything to happen until the Mueller investigation is complete. Even then, unless Dems take control of the house in 2018, I wouldn't expect it to succeed.

yeah I don't expect it to succeed till then either Radii. Just reporting it for posterity :)

As much as I dislike Cruz, at least that guy does the work to pass legislation he favors. All Rand Paul does is sit on the sideline bitching that nothing is ever pure enough. If I were a GOP Senator I'd go out of my way to fuck over that guy.

I've dealt with Kasowitz some previously and I'll just say that his reported behavior today is not really surprising.

Trump is hiring a lawyer named Ty Cobb who looks like this to manage the Russia allegations:

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/...Y/v0/-1x-1.jpg

And apparently, Ty Cobb is really good at crisis management.

I think that the matrix broke about 2 years ago and our robot overlords are just letting it run to see what happens.

EDIT: changed embedded pic to link b/c of size.

The Trump Jr non-collusion meeting was conducted in Russian. So not only are the Russian people the most forgettable people on the planet, their language is so boring that you instantly forget that you had someone translate it for you.

And apparently an (ex) Soviet spy, ie. friend of Putin has confirmed he was also at this nothingburger of a meeting.

Now reports are another dude was in there as well. These Russians spies are really good at their job.

Oh yea. I forgot. I was there too. Trump Jr stole my wine spritzer before I could finish it.

That's Ty "Rollie Fingers" Cobb to you.

And apparently documents were given to Trump Jr by the lawyer.

The adoption paperwork, obviously.

I still can't believe that we haven't heard whether the adoption was successful.

#pizzagatebutforrealthistimeandnotpizzabutrussiankidsthinkaboutit

#andtheyareallnamedSethRich

And now we're up to eight people at the meeting.

It might be better at this point to ask: which Russian spy/Trump election team member wasn't at this meeting.

So maybe he released the emails in hopes that it would end with there?

If I'm going to be fair to Trump, Jr., I have no idea who I talked to on June 9th, 2016. If I had to guess, it would be my wife, dog and daughter, but there could have been a Russian there as well.

He's a dumb guy that thinks he can outsmart everyone.

To be fair this is the entire Trump organization's m.o. including pre-presidency and also most of Washington DC as far back I have been following. Honestly nobody really cared before (at least not at this level) and while the press actually seems to be doing their job with this administration and people seemed outraged I still don't see any real evidence is it having any effect.

So Trump lawyer says the Trump Jr meeting with the Russians was allowed by the Secret Service, so it must have been ok.

Of course those annoying facts spring up again:

1-Secret Service provides physical protection to whomever it was assigned to-they don't vet people to see if they are ok to come into contact with them.

2-The only person who had Secret Service protection at this point was Trump himself. So they would have not been at this meeting.

Trump lawyer suggests Secret Service vetted Don Jr.'s meeting | Reuters

If the Secret Service was there, it'd more or less prove Trump knew about the meeting.

Secret Service has released a statement that DJTjr was not under Secret Service protection at the time of the meeting, and wouldn't have screened anyone that attended the meeting.

U.S. Secret Service rejects suggestion it vetted Trump son's meeting | Reuters

Strange how these people lie incessantly about meetings that are supposedly no big deal.

Perversely, I don't think it's an indication that they have something to hide when they lie about something -- because they lie about almost everything. I wouldn't believe them without independent corroboration if they told me they just ate corn flakes 5 minutes ago.

You would think they would be pretty good now about telling believable/not easily proved wrong lies. I guess they need to be in politics longer.

Even John McCain's blood clots are Maverick in nature.

Classic Emperor's New Clothes.

Yet another win for the Trump Presidency:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/18/politi...art/index.html

So now it looks like the Senate is going to try to repeal the whole thing, you know rather than try to work with the Democrats on parts they can agree on. Because you know that would make the Democrats look good and all.

Whatever, he's passed more bills than any president every.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/u...aws-bills.html

passed more gas and hot air is what he meant :)

How little do people fear Trump?

The GOP senator from WV helped kill the senate healthcare bill and looks to be leading the mob to kill the repeal bill.

The Dem senator up for reelection in 2018 has never wavered on his no vote for the senate bill.

This in a state Trump won by 42 points!

And yet the brogressives are ready to send Manchin packing because "we need a true liberal" in West Virginia.

And just repeal might be dead in the water too:

The Latest: Governors urge Senate to abandon repeal effort - ABC News

It already is as Collins, Moore, and Murkowski have said they aren't going to vote for just repeal, leading to a lack of 50 votes.

yeah it was further down in the article, but that's what I was talking about here.

Looks like it was more than a blood clot for John McCain:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...lot/493807001/

I've never been a particular fan of McCain's...but F*** Cancer

That sucks. The guy is a legitimate hero.

Per the Trump interview, it had not registered to me that Mueller may be looking at Trump finances. I guess its supposed to be specifically about Russia but how would he know without looking at everything?

It'll be interesting (and entertaining). I think Mueller will be much more in depth than IRS audits.

Agree. I'm not 100% with him on policies but there is no doubt he is a patriot and hero.

Good luck to McCain and family. If, as reported, it's the same cancer that took Ted Kennedy, it will be a tough fight.

I saw this nugget in the NYT interview and had a thought:


$12 a year for insurance? Is Trump confusing health insurance and life insurance?

Every Trump interview is insane.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/u...ranscript.html

I wonder if he will get his tax returns then? :)

on Macron

While I wouldn't put that past him, don't look past the other possibility that a rich person has zero idea what a typical person pays for anything.

Nothing to see here!


Access Denied

You mean you don't have $1 monthly premiums?

If you had just pasted the text without the NYT reference, I couldn't have told you if it was real or from The Onion. It's just deluded at times:

And I know I've mentioned it before, but every time I read a Trump transcript I can't help but have it sound like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman :D

A member of Congress told me Democrats big 2018 slogan, which is set to be released Monday. It's: "Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages"

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_Vox) July 20, 2017

BS BJ BW