Fox later this week: 282 million is one thing, but the Clintons made speeches for HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!

They'll do it because it works.

Like many Trumpkins, my mother is emotionally overwhelmed when people say things more loudly with full confidence. She also loses the concept of numbers when they reach past a few thousand, but that's a more unique quality that belongs to the poorer Trump fans.

When you're under the impression that all liars tell their tall tales timidly with a shaky voice and all criminals are black ally hooded thugs with a stolen gun, con artists like Trump seem like national heroes that everyone is just picking on because they're jealous.

(Mother's Day ended a few hours ago, so the gloves are off again)

Only in Trump's America is the team with the porn star on it the clean and ethical one.

Flynn has always been a big threat. Trump didn't freak out bat**** style to both Sally Yates, the IC, and the WH consel over Flynn's need to be removed from office (which took weeks of intense public pressure) and to Comey several times (which led to his firing and the appointment of Mueller among other things) just because he liked the guy. The idea was to keep Flynn close and quiet and loyal, but that didn't happen.

Alright, here's what Abramson is laying out, pared down to the stuff that is backed up by either credible news sources or sources you can all make an informed judgment on (dossier, Avenatti, etc). I'll avoid jumping to conclusions, or connecting stuff that isn't there. As a result, I'm skipping all of his Trump/Russia/Italy/Egypt stuff that appears to be complete conjecture based on a bunch of facts with no strong public evidence that they are connected.

So here's what looks legit...

1. The dossier alleges that Russia offered Trump the brokerage of a 19% sale of Rosneft. This offer was allegedly made by Igor Sechin to Carter Page, and Michael Cohen was allegedly playing a key role in the relationship.

See Page 30: https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...legations.html

2. December 1, 2016 - Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner have a secret Trump Tower meeting with Sergey Kislyak. Afterward, Kislyak tells his superiors that Kushner wants to set up a back channel for secret communications.

This has been reported on by the New York Times, the Washington Post and Reuters.

3. December 10, 2016 - Russia sells 19.5% of Rosneft to the Qatar Investment Authority. I've seen numerous claims that the one-half percent would be the brokerage fee.

This was reported by Reuters, among others: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...-idUSKBN13Z0QB

4. December 8-12, 2016 - Carter Page meets with a Rosneft executive in Moscow. We don't know the exact date, but he admitted to the meeting and based on his travel dates it would have had to occur between 12/8 and 12/12.

"You know, I did have the opportunity to meet with an executive from
Rosneft." - Carter Page on December 12, 2016, responding to a question during a live stream, which is archived here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEmg...tu.be&t=27m04s

Slate says he was there from December 8-13: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...th_russia.html

5. December 12, 2016 - Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, the head of the Qatar Investment Authority, is seen entering Trump Tower with Michael Cohen, then exiting about an hour and a half later.

Source: Michael Avenatti's tweets (here and here) and the C-Span video archive (linked to by Avenatti here) of the transition period at Trump tower. We're trusting Avenatti that the man in question is, in fact, Al-Rumaihi. It looks like him based on a Google search, but the video is not of the highest quality.

6. December 13, 2016 - Jared Kushner meets with Sergey Gorkov, the president of a state-run Russian bank, at Trump Tower. This meeting was at Kislyak's behest, and, of course, Gorkov has ties to Putin.

Source: CNN, citing original reporting from the NY Times, with the Washington Post narrowing down the date to the 13th or 14th: https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/02/polit...now/index.html

I believe Kushner eventually disclosed this meeting as occurring on 12/13/16, so I'm using that date.

Summary of allegations/reporting: Russia offers Trump and his associates, through Carter Page, the brokerage of a 19% share of Rosneft in exchange for easing sanctions. Michael Cohen is involved. Flynn and Kushner meet with Kislyak 12/1/16. Russia sells 19.5% of Rosneft to Qatar on 12/10/16, while Carter Page is meeting with Rosneft execs in Moscow. The head of Qatar Investments meets with Cohen at Trump Tower 12/12/16. Kushner meets with the head of a Russian bank, a Putin associate, on 12/13/16 at Trump Tower.

This looks like a hell of a lot more than Seth Abramson wishcasting.

And of course, Mueller already has Flynn, Papadapoulis, and Page locked down and the FBI raided 3 of Cohen's locations. I would say there's there somewhere there.

Unless I'm forgetting something, we don't know that Page is cooperating although I know a lot of people suspect it.

I'm guessing, since it's still ongoing, that Mueller needs cooperation from some of the key players - Kushner, Cohen and Page on this particular front. Kushner, Cohen, Manafort and Don Jr are probably the most important ones overall based on what we know.

If he had the money trail nailed down all the way to Trump, I think things would be wrapped up by now. My guess is that he's still pursuing the money trail and trying to exert pressure on the people he needs to have cooperate.

If Mueller has DJT dead to rights based on financial evidence, and is not acting on it, that means that he knows the sitting US president is (layman's terms) a traitor who sold out his country for a few hundred million and may continue to do so, but doesn't deem that as critical enough to wrap things up and release the info? Seems unlikely.

lol

I mean the best explanation I can come up with for that grizy post is that thing where conservatives assume that deep down liberals are just as ****ty as they are, and anytime they pretend to care about political issues that don't directly affect them it's just "virtue signaling"

It depends on how much Mueller has and what's at stake. This is more likely a piece of a much bigger puzzle than it is the whole thing.

Trump is probably hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in the hole to Russia. It's not like he gets $282 million for his own pocket, to spend as he pleases. There's still this matter of being bought and paid for years ago. Then there's China. And the Middle East. ****, Jared can try for 500 million in 1 or 2 sittings from one obscure country out of many...and he's just the boss's son-in-law.

So maybe Mueller has an idea of what parts of America Trump has been selling and maybe he doesn't. Does this go beyond just rigging an election in 2016 and stopping there? Most definitely. Is that within Mueller's jurisdiction? Maybe. We'll see as the story unfolds.

They don't consider themselves ****ty at all. They think of themselves as the law abiding, disease free, religiously wholesome, morally and genetically superior part of the country. To them, liberals are worse. They're the petty criminal, baby killing, drug using, sexually perverse, amoral atheists.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...016611329?s=19

Welcome to cable news 2018. Tonight @7pm, bribery and collusion live on CNN.

how many would you say felt the personal effect of hillary doing the emalz

Also covered live on many non-Fox stations over the next 48 hours: Massive Palestinian protests, which will likely turn very bloody.

NPR spent basically the entire morning on the stupid ****ing embassy, god I hate the media

Nope, POTUS says we have to watch it on Fox, then will later send Kellyanne Conway out to claim the other news channels don't cover any of his great deeds.

It's already very bloody in Gaza, but they are part of 'great march of return' which Hamas is organizing. Tomorrow is Nakba day.

Much like every single thing republicans say ever, it's just more projection.

16 dead so far, apparently.

28 dead now.

http://www.bbc.com/news

Guardian has live updates: as of right now 37 Palestinians have been killed, 900 injured, 450 of which have been shot.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/li...m-live-updates

depressing as ****

The BBC news app on my phone has a breaking news notification, which describes this as:

'Deadliest clashes in weeks as nine Palestinians killed by Israeli troops ahead of new US Jerusalem embassy opening'

Made me a) mad and b) think of this excellent article by the generally excellent Adam Johnson, who does a lot of this type of analysis on media language:

https://fair.org/home/snipers-shooti...-isnt-a-clash/

At least 37 dead. More blood on the Deplorables' hands. #SAD

guys stop worrying, jared is on it. middle east peace is right around the corner

All Trump does is lie and break promises, why should we trust him with North Korean diplomacy?

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/14/173438...orea-diplomacy

It's definitely a clash.

Hamas has occupied the Gaza strip, actively fights Palestinian authorities in their controlled zones, bans elections on its turf, runs a private army beyond the control of Palestinian authorities, runs terror insurgencies against civilians (both their own and Israeli ones). They also actively encourage and want these riots, and dead Palestinian teenagers shot by Israeli soldiers are great international ads for their cause.

Hamas popularity always drops in peacetime, because they are of course completely inept at governing. They're pretty good at organized crime, public relations, corruption and extortion however. They thrive on unrest, something they of course realize.

This doesn't mean that Israel is the beacon of all that is good. It has done many mistakes and has violated UN agreements with its occupations and has in many ways behaved in a manner that has given organizations like Hamas the ability to rise.

Still that doesn't change that Hamas carries a lot of the blame in what is happening, especially when they violently suppress dissent and organize the riots. So, yeah. Definitely a clash. A sad and tragic one.

But if you think it is only about soldiers shooting teenagers, then you've fallen for one of the most cold-hearted publicity stunts in history. And if it is about "freedom", then surely the first thing on Hamas' agenda should be to accept the local Palestinian democracy, surrender the zones it has occupied from PNA (Palestinian National Authority) and close down its private military operations.