RedSpawn

The issue I've read is the claim that Simpson also was hired to lobby for Russian interests unrelated to the Steele dossier but he claims he was working for an attorney and was not lobbying. READ THE PURPLE QUOTATION MARKS. Winston, stop playing around. If Trump is susceptible to blackmail (for business reasons) and he is also allegedly susceptible to ENTRAPMENT for acts of sexual misconduct, then it can be said that the such acts can used as a form of blackmail. What type of entrapment of sexual misconduct are YOU thinking about, because the one I am thinking about involves someone suggesting payment for keeping things on the down low. You honestly think think that Russia would have proof of Trump's sexual misconduct as per the purple quote but wouldn't blackmail him for it. . . only the business dealings (money laundering)? Seriously? Let's not forget that our own FBI threatened to expose Dr. Martin Luther King's adulterous acts if he didn't commit suicide and stop the Civil Rights movement, so how deep is the rabbit hole, really? Isn't that a form of black mail by an investigation/intelligence agency? The only thing missing from the letter below is the "enclosed pictures" of adulterous sexual acts and/or orgies that the FBI had of Dr. King which were obtained through illegal surveillance. Granted, this type of blackmail occurred under J. Edgar Hoover's administration, but let's stop acting like it is a "conspiracy" thought for a governmental authority to blackmail LEADERS for adulterous acts (sexual misconduct). Our own FBI used such methods to try to stop the Civil Rights Movement, so Russia's intelligence community is ALSO quite capable of such low handed tactics. http://media.pennlive.com/nation-world/photo/fbi-letter-to-martin-luther-kingjpg-0a1ddde41fb12ced.jpg Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html

The issue I've read is the claim that Simpson also was hired to lobby for Russian interests unrelated to the Steele dossier but he claims he was working for an attorney and was not lobbying. Interesting, Russia is all of a sudden this vicious enemy under Putin who could potentially blackmail President Trump for acts of sexual misconduct (see purple quotation for sexual misconduct blackmail conspiracy). However, it is absurd to suggest that the same Russia would blackmail President Clinton for his Monica Lewinsky peccadillo (acts of sexual misconduct) to obtain very desperately needed IMF loans over which the US President has very strong influence. That could NEVER happen under Yeltsin's rule. His Russian administration and intelligence community is beyond reproach, right? We will accept one form of conspiracy for Trump but not the other for a Democratic President. It's the same corrupt RUSSIA!

Do you honestly believe the shade of gray you made between 5 & 6? Politicians are notorious liars on both sides of the aisle. I think to try to qualify one party as less of a liar than another is a useless intellectual exercise. They lie when it is politically expedient and when they perceive minimal fallout from doing so.

This preemptive suit has 2 honors and a 9 in it unlike our prior example which was headed by a strong 10 and had a dubious side queen of diamonds trapped in a doubleton. The queen is in the right place! Any open less than 5♣ would be uncivilized as you want the opposition to work extra hard to find their major fit at the 5 level.

Not only that....they have spent 7 months of kabuki theatre. We don't have a passable health care bill. There aren't any public hearings about possible solutions for the health care concerns. And somehow politicians found an extra $90 billion for our military for the House version spending bill. Politicians are also trying to further deregulate Wall Street through the Financial CHOICE Act. Ugh!

Are you serious? If one of his children vies for the Presidential nomination in 2020, we might as well suggest that the White House has been co-opted.

Agreed. America is not in the business of removing disliked Presidents through Constitutional Amendments. Let the Trump/Russia collusion investigation continue and file charges or articles of impeachment when a solid case can be built.

You do realize that some politicians would claim "entrapment" with such policy questions. Ambiguity is a politician's best friend. We would hope politicians have a higher standard for health care in America but you see they tried to pivot with "Repeal" and "Replace Later". No deal!

It's a risk when the business and legal domains give preferential treatment and legal status to robots over the natural person.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/07/20/trump-new-york-times-jeff-sessions/494298001/ No one told Trump that Sessions was a bad choice....just review his work history. You can see that he was jockeying and lusting after a federal pension and position for a while. Good luck with that.

And the campaign slogan of his opponent was Together Stronger. And Trump's campaigns slogan was Make America Great Again. I'm not impressed by either one....which is how I have always felt about the illusion of choice in the 2016 Presidential campaign.

I think this is less of a reflection of Trump and is indicative of the "dumbing down" of the American constituency and our toxic political environment rife with incendiary language. We live in a microwave society with microwave attention spans. We prefer convenient sound bites instead of interesting discourse over weighty complex issues.

Isn't this already mentioned in the Trump topic stream? What does Trump and Putin have to do with affordable and quality health care? {grinning devilishly}

I prefer confrontational. It's good for that $700 billion military budget we just approved for 2018. It's time for some saber rattling with our enemies.

Very good article. The theme of this article ties in directly to the other topic I resurrected. Republicans (and Democrats) create their own political reality which usually does not reconcile with the sentiments of Main Street. And the spirit of intelligent public discourse and compromise has been lost.

If Congress can only be this adamant about military spending bills which are $93 billion more than Trump requested for 2018. I like the repeal and replace later idea. It's built on a foundation of trust that politicians haven't earned.

If he has to cheat to dominate this sport, then he must really question his ability as a player. Just sad testament.

So why don't we start impeachment proceedings for Trump and waste more money and government time in a political process where Republicans own the House and Senate. Republicans are going to vote NOT GUILTY on the articles because impeachment is a political proceeding and not a criminal one.

How can I hijack a discussion group responding to quotes from this very discussion group topic? I haven't changed the content of the quotes I am responding to. By the way, you didn't answer the question. If someone came to you and said they think the government is covertly keeping telephone metadata on millions of US Citizen's because of 09/11, would you think said person was paranoid, a nutjob, a conspiracy theorist, or a dissident? Chances are, at a minimum, you would at least think they are paranoid EVEN WHEN the federal government is doing the very act that you think it would not do. Somehow, we believe that our own government wouldn't betray our trust until a brave person like Snowden shows us a very inconvenient truth. Again, I am not suggesting Edward Snowden is a traitor or a hero, the courts can decide that matter. However, Snowden is a courageous person for showing us "REALITY" and the inconvenient truth we don't want to believe. I believe a good measure of citizens prefer to believe the comfort of partisan based propaganda (courtesy of fingertip technology) than to have to hold our government accountable to the Constitution.

One has to wonder. . . .exactly what reality has our U.S. government created from 2000-17 and while we are busy trying to reconcile its reality back to the one we live on Main Street, It is off to the races to create another reality. I think a solid case can be made that America of 2017 is not the same America of 2000 in terms of freedoms. Aye Yai Yai! And here is the philosophical rub: If the government is in the business of creating its own reality, is it a conspiracy when one presents fact-based evidence that dispels the underlying principles of that reality? Does sovereignty give the government permission to create political realities that knowingly violate the Constitution and undermine the rights of Man? And if someone questions said violation are they labeled dissident, unpatriotic or a nutjob?

So, the ransomware attack in China, was it really executed by North Korea, or could it be Operation "Turbine" perpetrated by any partners of the Five Eyes global surveillance program as a false pretext to war or military action? Or could it have been a preemptive move to get bad actors like China to (1) curtail its ubiquitous software piracy (2) encourage its citizens and businesses to destroy bootleg copies of Microsoft Windows and (3) recommend that all users purchase legal software licenses with appropriate security patches to avoid future malware attacks. This would protect Western intellectual property rights and promote the U.S. economy. Snowden already said the NSA had attacks like these in the pipeline. As citizens of a constitutional Republic, we must determine how much of our Constitutional freedoms we are willing to sacrifice to help our government provide more security. I am surprised that our nation doesn't appear to be extremely disturbed by the revelations of Edward Snowden's actions. It appears we have officially entered the era of "thought police". Note: I am not suggesting Edward Snowden is a hero or a traitor. He just pulled back the curtain to reveal how Western intelligence services can abuse their powers and violate the Constitution if their powers remain hidden, unchecked and unquestioned. That is not what I call a conspiracy. It is just an inconvenient truth of our journey towards a surveillance state. Makes me wonder what exactly is the endgame of the surveillance state as the freedoms of citizens get chipped away one Amendment at a time.

With respect to the metadata of telephone call details the US government holds on millions of its US citizens without probable cause: And therein lies the paradox of the surveillance state. How dare anyone suggest that the government would covertly collect meta data on its citizens' telephone calls as a precautionary measure and violate the Constitution. You would have to be paranoid or a nut job to consider, think, or suggest such things. . .until Edward Snowden whistleblows and shows how big our Big Brother has gotten.

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I said per federal law Trump Jr should be investigated for solicitation of a "contribution" (a thing of value) from a foreign national which is expressly prohibited by the Federal Election Campaign Act. Also, I asked a very poignant question about the Russian-American lobbyist who was previously a Soviet counterintelligence officer. Who granted him Americanh citizenship? We need to be equally suspicious of how this man's government background was approved for US citizenship when he emigrated from Russia in 2009. Who vetted him and what was found? Look at the timeline in this article and tell me that I should chalk it up to mere coincidence. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/15/loretta-lynch-must-testify/

Close the military bases we don't need! How does Congress include language in military spending bills that prevents the Pentagon from closing bases it no longer needs? Just shady. http://time.com/4261276/military-budget/?iid=sr-link3