All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Iron Maiden]

"The Trump campaign lied to cover up the uses of stolen electronic data to mold their strategy using a Russian proxy." -- Robert Mueller. July 24th, 2019

That's impeachment right there folks.

Holy Smokes! He really went there!!! Bravo!

[worstblogever]

But "non-whites" are the individuals who get profiled, even when American citizens, as the conviction of Joe Arpaio verifies.

Since you name-dropped that fascist, bigoted old f***wit, I'll also throw in that even outside his federal contempt charge for racist practices goes.... Joe Arpaio was sued multiple times for inmates dying in his correction facilities, and he also lost Arizona's prison systems their federal accrediation for inhuman treatment of inmates.

He also was advising the Trump campaign on immigration, and has been a frequent guest at Trump's rallies, inside and outside of Arizona.

CSGOPOTD: Joe Arpaio 2018

[worstblogever]

"The Trump campaign lied to cover up the uses of stolen electronic data to mold their strategy using a Russian proxy." -- Robert Mueller. July 24th, 2019

That's impeachment right there folks.

[Jack Dracula]

It was redacted. In fact, Mueller unmasked 3 areas during GOP questioning. It's why the Rs changed questions because Mueller was in the right when it came to revealing redacted parts. Those other 2 areas were Junior was in constant contact with Trump and a Russian spy in Trump Tower, and that they arrested 2 Russian spies leaving Trump Tower that worked for the NRA, one agreed to testify for immunity (we already talked about her).

The talking point with GOP mouthpieces over the last few days has been "Why are we having these hearings? Mueller already said all he's needed to say in the report!"
The fact that Mueller is revealing some of the redacted information during questioning is all the reason needed.

[BeastieRunner]

Holy Smokes! He really went there!!! Bravo!

He also blew up Nunes by saying his outlying of events with Pappado was incorrect.

Himes is getting all of the Mueller investigation ties between Russian and Trump on record.

Mueller is also correcting Himes about intent ... which hurts the impeachment case.

Mueller also set the record on that nobody asked him to exclude items from the report.

[Kal-El Summers]

"The Trump campaign lied to cover up the uses of stolen electronic data to mold their strategy using a Russian proxy." -- Robert Mueller. July 24th, 2019

That's impeachment right there folks.

Even Pelosi can't ignore this, can she?

[Jack Dracula]

2009, by my estimation. They stopped having even the desire to govern or work with the other party, and began fomenting conspiracy theories as a standard tactic around this time with Birtherism and lies about the ACA. It then became practice, and they've kept it up for the past decade. It escalated more and more until by 2013, they wanted to shut down the government, but didn't know what they wanted to leverage out of it, and by 2016... well, they wanted power back so desperately they were willing to have Russia start getting in bed with the Trump campaign and the NRA and not even blink about it. Even when the FBI started to throw flags to cut it out. The funding kept coming from the Kochs, the Mercers, the DeVos family, the Adelsons, and other wealthy donors who are only now starting to balk at funding the madness beyond even the plutocracy they desired.

As someone who's been documenting how the fringe became the norm... those were the moments.

Another thing that I thought was pretty glaring at the time but seems to have been forgotten is how Jared was looking for some back channel communication with Russia. He does it to this day. No one knows how often or when he talks to MSB for example, do they? Probably some Russian contacts too and AFAIK he has no official title. Neither does the indicted Roger Stone.

Lest we forget that it was Nancy Devos' brother and ex-CEO of Blackwater, Erik Prince who helped facilitate that back-channel meeting in the Seychelles in 2017.

[BeastieRunner]

Ratcliffe wants the record cleared.

Mueller corrected Ratcliffe's conspiracy charges.

Mueller referred Ratcliffe to the facts of Steele, Page, and others are under a separate investigation, ongoing currently.

[BeastieRunner]

Sewell is pushing on the Junior/Manafort thread.

Mueller said (which we already knew from his report):
- the Trump campaign did not contact the FBI when Russia contacted them with aid, which is a crime
- Trump campaign covered up their electronic and in-person meetings with Russian spies
- characterizing that Trump could be immune as POTUS is correct

[aja_christopher]

Even Pelosi can't ignore this, can she?

Assuming she's "going by the book" it was important to get Mueller to state these things for the public record before moving forward, especially after Trump was able to get Barr to run interference from the Justice Department.

The jury is still out on whether playing the long game is the smart move in this situation given Trump's unpredictability, but it makes sense to build a solid case before officially initiating the process of impeachment, especially considering that other elements are being played out in court as we speak.

Equally importantly, I like that Mueller is focused on reminding the public to focus on protecting our elections against outside interference -- it's also a reminder that Trump is only the symptom of a much larger problem with regards to Republicans repeatedly subverting our democracy to their own benefit.

[BeastieRunner]

Turner wants to establish that AG or Mueller or anybody can't exonerate anybody.

Mueller said he put that in because the current AG Barr does not know that.

Turner disagreed.

[BeastieRunner]

Carson is focused on establishing that GRU and other Russian intelligence targeted 4 specific states, the 4 that gave Trump the electoral win.

Mueller agreed.

Oligarchs are brought up, Mueller attests, as in the report, that Trump does owe large sums of money to known Russian oligarchs.

Mueller generally agrees that Trump is compromised enough to be subject to blackmail.

Mueller does not agree Trump did this to harm the US, but that doesn't mean he didn't.

[BeastieRunner]

Wenstrup wants to establish that Trump is not a Russian agent.

Mueller agreed.

Wenstrup wants to establish that Trump is not part of a network of Kompromat.

Mueller agreed that they did not determine that in their investigation but had evidence.

Wenstrup wants on the record that Rod or Mueller pushed to expand the scope of his investigation.

Mueller said that's internal and could not be discussed.

[BeastieRunner]

Mueller established the intent of the report was to warn the public about Russia's ongoing involvement in attacking the US.

Mueller established the report was intended to galvanize the people that could do something about this, since it has been going on for years, to prevent this from ever happening again.

The integrity of the report is key.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Just so you know, no impeachment is happening, stop getting your hopes up over every little thing