***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[IATT]

This is all really bad in the eyes of anyone of any intelligence level but the reality is his backers don’t. They’ve backed known pedo’s with zero hesitation.

#neverforget, these dudes on the right got their panties in a bunch cause obama wore a tan suit..

a

tan

suit



this:

resulted in this:

 

[elpablo21]

 

[IATT]

 

[sonoftony]

**** you and your mug Ajit Pai

 

[Belgium]

Wake me up when he takes a mug shot. Too early to get all giddy.

To be honest nobody should get giddy and expect the walls to come tumbling down in this day and age under this administration. Trump is a pathological liar but him saying he could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose any voters appears to be one of his must truthful claims. He could probably tweet that he personally conspired with the Russians and his base would say "at least the Russians know what's good for Murrica unlike Crooked Killary, the Obummer deep state and all the libruls"

 

[Fozz]

Net Neutrality

 

[Belgium]

The Magnitsky Act, also referred to as "adoptions" by some people, shows up once again.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-got-russian-evidence-from-rob-goldstone-during-transition
Steve Bannon Got Russian ‘Evidence’ From Rob Goldstone During Transition
The man who set up the Trump Tower meeting also delivered a letter to the presidential transition team that sought to undermine U.S. sanctions.
Russian efforts to influence President Donald Trump didn’t end with the campaign. Newly released emails show the man who set up the Trump Tower meeting also sent a letter aimed at undermining U.S. sanctions against Russia during the transition to Trump’s personal assistant, who shared those materials with Steve Bannon.

Rob Goldstone is a British music agent who represented Emin Agalarov, son of billionaire construction magnate Aras Agalarov. Goldstone in June 2016, acting on behalf of the Agalarovs, contacted Donald Trump Jr. about meeting a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower for “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

On Nov. 28, 2016, Goldstone emailed Trump’s assistant, Rhona Graff, with a proposal. Subject line: “For Mr. Trump.”

“Aras Agalarov has asked me to pass on this document in the hope it can be passed on to the appropriate team,” Goldstone wrote in an email released Wednesday morning by the Senate Judiciary Committee. “If needed, a lawyer representing the case is in New York currently and happy to meet with any member of the transition team.”

The case was against Prevezon Holdings, a Russian company charged with money laundering. And the document Goldstone passed along made the case for overturning the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions some Russians for human-rights violations.

“Russia has evidence that the story underlying the act is a lie from beginning to end,” reads the document Goldstone sent Graff.


The document went on to argue that the Magnitsky Act sanctions were part of a plot to undermine Russian economic interests, and that Bill Browder, who was Sergei Magnitsky’s boss before he died in a Russian prison, was a bad actor working for his own financial gain. The letter also suggested U.S.-Russia relations were set to improve under Trump.

“Today, all the conditions required for improvement of relations between Russia and the US, which many of the interested persons have long sought to prevent for some personal reasons, are in place,” the document said.

Graff forwarded the email and document to Steve Bannon, who was working on the transition at the time.

“The PE [president elect] knows Aras well,” Graff wrote to Bannon. “Rob is his rep in the US and sent this on. Not sure how to proceed, if at all.”

Bannon’s lawyer declined to comment for this story.

Goldstone was a tabloid journalist before he started represented musicians, including John Denver and Michael Jackson. In New York, he’s known as a playboy with a penchant for vodka-soaked parties at the Russian Tea Room and documenting his flamboyant lifestyle on social media.

Speaking of Bannon, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower also alleged today that CA shared information with Russia.

Excerpt:
Wylie, a source for news reports indicating that Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained data on tens of millions of Facebook users, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the data firm and its parent, SCL, had the ability to perform “black ops,” including breaking into computer systems to acquire kompromat — the Russian word for "compromising material."

He also said two senior staffers for Cambridge Analytica had connections to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and alleged the data firm had numerous ties to Russia, describing how it used Russian researchers and shared information with Russian companies and executives tied to the Kremlin's intelligence services.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/16/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-544091
Republicans downplay Cambridge whistleblower's 'Cold War' warnings

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie warned senators Wednesday that the data privacy controversy surrounding his former employer, Cambridge Analytica, is the “canary in the coal mine to a new Cold War emerging online,” even as Republicans sought to downplay the significance of the firm's work for Donald Trump.

Wylie, a source for news reports indicating that Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained data on tens of millions of Facebook users, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the data firm and its parent, SCL, had the ability to perform “black ops,” including breaking into computer systems to acquire kompromat — the Russian word for "compromising material."


He also said two senior staffers for Cambridge Analytica had connections to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and alleged the data firm had numerous ties to Russia, describing how it used Russian researchers and shared information with Russian companies and executives tied to the Kremlin's intelligence services.

But many Republicans at the hearing seemed more intent on minimizing Cambridge Analytica's use of the Facebook data for its work on Donald Trump's presidential campaign, suggesting the practice was neither nefarious nor novel.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) brought up former President Barack Obama's use of Facebook data for his campaigns and argued that the use of such data is bipartisan in nature. Tillis acknowledged his own campaign worked with Cambridge Analytica.

"If we're gonna do a thorough, impartial, nonpartisan review of the facts, we should go back about 10 years," Tillis said. "In the Obama campaign ... they actually asked whether or not you were a Facebook user, and if you were willing to share information on all your friends."

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), meanwhile, said lawmakers should move beyond Cambridge Analytica to focus on broader questions about consumer protection and the practices of technology companies.

"Instead of just treating this as a partisan issue to score political points, the important policy discussion we should really have is where tech, consumers and Congress should go from here," Grassley said.

Still, Democrats pressed Wylie about the extent of Cambridge Analytica's reach and activities. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked him if Facebook data harvested by Cambridge could have ended up in Russia, to which Wylie replied he didn't know for sure but "it would have been very easy to facilitate that."

Wylie agreed with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) that some sort of government regulation is needed to promote transparency in advertising and consumer safety online.

"In the 21st century it is nearly impossible for people to be functional in the workplace and in society at large without the use of the internet ... so there should be some degree of accountability and oversight," he said.

Wednesday's hearing marked Wylie's first public testimony in Congress since the data scandal first broke in March, though many of the details he provided have dribbled out in media reports and his earlier testimony to the U.K. Parliament.

Wylie privately briefed House Democrats last month, telling them, among other things, that Steve Bannon, the Cambridge Analytica co-founder who went on to become Trump's campaign manager, had ordered the data firm's staff to test messaging around Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian expansion in 2014.

Facebook has scrambled to respond to the scandal, which raised questions about its commitment and controls around user privacy and renewed scrutiny of its role in the election. The social network's normally press-averse CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, went into damage control mode, putting in a marathon appearance last month before multiple congressional committees and repeatedly apologizing for his company's handling of the situation.

Cambridge Analytica announced earlier this month it was shutting down, along with its parent SCL, and had started insolvency proceedings in both the U.S. and U.K.

Talking to reporters during a break in the hearing, Wylie confirmed a New York Times report that he'd been contacted by the FBI and Justice Department about Cambridge Analytica. After the hearing, he took issue with efforts to deflect attention from the now-defunct data firm's behavior.

“I think the attempt to downplay the Cambridge Analytica story, by saying this happens everywhere and this is normal, actually highlights the significance of the issue I’m talking about," he said. "Because if your response to Cambridge Analytica is, ‘Well, this happens everywhere,’ then it’s a bigger problem."

 

[rillo561]

**** pai!

 

[ksteezy]

To be honest nobody should get giddy and expect the walls to come tumbling down in this day and age under this administration. Trump is a pathological liar but him saying he could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose any voters appears to be one of his must truthful claims. He could probably tweet that he personally conspired with the Russians and his base would say "at least the Russians know what's good for Murrica unlike Crooked Killary, the Obummer deep state and all the libruls"

That is exactly what will happen, Trump wasn’t lying, dude sheltered himself with everything that embodies white supremacy and they will come to his rescue and justify ANYTHING he does, he can go on one of his rallies, finger a hooker on stage and get cheers and applauses, he can go up there wearing a KKK hood and the crowd will love it, as long as he doesn’t denounce his base, he will be ok...and we all know he wont

 

[elpablo21]

 

[blastercombo]

#neverforget, these dudes on the right got their panties in a bunch cause obama wore a tan suit..

a

tan

suit



this:

resulted in this:

Yeah pretty stupid....

















Of him to wear a tan suit


#amIdoingitright?

 

[Belgium]

The tan suit wasn't a big deal. There were plenty bigger personal scandals such as requesting elitist French mustard on his burgers, the infamous coffee salute and the even more notorious terrorist fistbump. If Obummer had the slightest bit of dignity and human decency he would've resigned after the terrorist fistbump.
/s

 

[MalcolmNewton]

He should have worn that suit out to Nevada and whipped Cliven Bundy’s rear end. Bigger scandal.

 

[the qbz]

The tan suit wasn't a big deal. There were plenty bigger personal scandals such as requesting elitist French mustard on his burgers, the infamous coffee salute and the even more notorious terrorist fistbump. If Obummer had the slightest bit of dignity and human decency he would've resigned after the terrorist fistbump.
/s

How they see the fist bump. But not the butt slap

 

[$tatus $ymbol]

Bams look he about to call for offering in that suit. Why they let my mans go out like that

 

[Belgium]

Mueller has issued 2 new grand jury subpoenas last week. The amount of news unleashed today is enormous. I remember a Ukrainian politician was also subpoenaed last week, I think his testimony is scheduled for this Friday. I'll add a link to that below as well.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...dvisers-social-media-consultant-idUSKCN1IH2OB
Mueller issues grand jury subpoenas to Trump adviser's social media consultant
U.S. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued two subpoenas to a social media expert who worked for longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The subpoenas were delivered late last week to lawyers representing Jason Sullivan, a social media and Twitter specialist Stone hired to work for an independent political action committee he set up to support Trump, Knut Johnson, a lawyer for Sullivan, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The subpoenas suggest that Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is focusing in part on Stone and whether he might have had advance knowledge of material allegedly hacked by Russian intelligence and sent to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published it.

Stone appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee last September and denied allegations of collusion between the president’s associates and Russia during the election. “I am aware of no evidence whatsoever of collusion by the Russian state or anyone in the Trump campaign,” Stone told reporters at the time.


According to sources familiar with the ongoing investigation, Mueller also has been probing whether anyone associated with the Trump campaign may have helped Assange or the Russians time or target the release of hacked emails and other social media promoting Trump or critical of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. Russia has denied interfering in the election. President Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded with Russia.


Sullivan told Reuters that he heads Cyphoon.com, a social media firm, and “worked on the Trump campaign serving as Chief Strategist directly to Roger J. Stone Jr.”

“Welcome To The Age of Weaponized Social Media,” said a strategy document Sullivan prepared for Stone and seen by Reuters. He described a “system” he devised for creating Twitter “swarms” as “an army of sophisticated, hyper-targeted direct tweet automation systems driven by outcomes-based strategies derived from REAL-TIME actionable insights.”

For example, at 6:43 a.m. local time on Election Day in 2016, Trump tweeted, “TODAY WE MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN”. Trump’s message soon was retweeted more than 343,000 times, and in an interview last year, Sullivan told Reuters that the swarm helped overcome a surge in pro-Clinton social media postings and boost voter turnout for Trump.

Stone on Tuesday repeated his public denials that he had an inside track to WikiLeaks or others who hacked or published Democratic Party and Clinton-related emails and said no one from Mueller’s team has tried to contact him.


One of the two subpoenas delivered last week requests that Sullivan appear before a grand jury on May 18 at the Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C. The other orders Sullivan to bring documents, objects and electronically stored information.

Edit: Aforementioned link of another grand jury subpoena that was issued last week:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/14/mueller-probe-ukraine-peace-plan-585653
Ukrainian politician behind controversial peace proposal to appear in Mueller probe
A Ukrainian politician who communicated with Trump associates about a controversial plan to resolve Ukraine’s conflict with Kremlin-backed rebels said Monday that he has been called to testify before a grand jury connected to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Andrii Artemenko said he could not provide details of his upcoming appearance before the grand jury, which he said is scheduled for Friday. But he said he assumed he would be asked about the peace plan, about which he communicated with Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, in early 2017.

“I received the subpoena last week,” Artemenko told POLITICO by telephone, adding that he intended to comply with the request. He said he would appear in person.

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.

The Artemenko case is one of the more unusual developments in the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. The New York Times reported in February 2017 that Artemenko had contacted Felix Sater, a former business associate of Trump’s, to find out how he could make his plan for peace in Ukraine known to the Trump administration. Sater introduced Artemenko to Cohen, who left the plan in the office of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn, the Times reported. (Cohen has denied that, saying he threw the document away.)

When the news broke about the peace plan, it caused a scandal in Ukraine. Among the plan’s proposals was the idea of leasing to Russia the Crimean Peninsula — which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014 — for 50 years, in exchange for ending the ongoing war in Ukraine’s Donbass region. The back-channel effort also sought to have the Trump administration drop sanctions against Russia imposed by the Obama White House.

Artemenko was ejected from his political party, and Ukraine's top prosecutor launched an investigation into whether he had committed treason. In May 2017, Ukrainian officials stripped him of his citizenship, ostensibly because he also held a Canadian passport. Artemenko said he was being punished politically for opposing President Petro Poroshenko, whom he also accused of corruption.

Artemenko’s testimony could help Mueller’s team fill in the gaps on the peace plan, which he has been investigating in part because of the roles of Cohen and Sater, who also worked together to try and launch a Trump-branded development in Moscow starting in early 2015.

The plan may also be of interest to Mueller because it reportedly was hatched shortly after Flynn discussed dropping sanctions against Russia in a call with the Russian ambassador that was intercepted by intelligence officials. Flynn was fired from the White House after it became clear that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations about Russian sanctions.

There have been conflicting stories about whether Russian officials were involved in hatching the peace plan.

Cohen told The Washington Post that Artemenko boasted during their January 2017 meeting that the Russian government “was on board” with the proposal. Artemenko denied that, telling the Post that he had not spoken to any Russian officials and that the proposal came about during consultations with Ukrainian officials.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Bams look he about to call for offering in that suit. Why they let my mans go out like that

Bams got that suit out of the Tom Joyner "I Just Made Deacon" Collection.

I just know Chelle was gassing him up that morning too.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Trump just called indocumented immigrants animals. No qualifications. He said they are not people, they are animals.

Anyone that defends this bigotry is a damn clown, morally bankrupt, and most likely a bigot themselves.

 

[IATT]

Trump just called indocumented immigrants animals. No qualifications. He said they are not people, they are animals.

Anyone that defends this bigotry is a damn clown, morally bankrupt, and most likely a bigot themselves.

The right just going ignore or try to justify it..

They'll say something like "he was really talking about ____, _____ and ______".. that's if they say anything at all

 

[elpablo21]

 

[niketalker23]

Guess I was an animal, but now I'm human.

Didn't know a piece of paper was all that stood in the way of being dehumanized. Or was it my skin color?

 

[blastercombo]

Guess I was an animal, but now I'm human.

Didn't know a piece of paper was all that stood in the way of being dehumanized. Or was it my skin color?

When we leave the US are we animals until we get back?

Being an animal a choice?

 

[the qbz]

Trump just called indocumented immigrants animals. No qualifications. He said they are not people, they are animals.

Anyone that defends this bigotry is a damn clown, morally bankrupt, and most likely a bigot themselves.

But animals was a Hit Maroon 5 song

 

[130122]

is trump into beastiality? is his wife an animal? is his son an animorph?

 

[MalcolmNewton]

I really want him killed

If you aren't here tmrw, we know the men in black came and got you