this is so fresh off the presses there's barely anything, but by all accounts: it's a punt. we're going to get two more years of investigations, and expect nothing more or less.
this is so fresh off the presses there's barely anything, but by all accounts: it's a punt. we're going to get two more years of investigations, and expect nothing more or less.
I don't want to gloat since Trump likely getting away with his criminal behaviors (even if "literally conspiring with Russia" isn't one of them) is bad, but after a year of being called a troll,...
I don't want to gloat since Trump likely getting away with his criminal behaviors (even if "literally conspiring with Russia" isn't one of them) is bad, but after a year of being called a troll, bot, russian influence agent, etc for saying that we can't look for salvation in the hands of a Republican career law enforcement agent who helped start the Iraq war and that the fixation on the investigation was primarily a way for democrats to absolve themselves of the 2016 loss and avoid any sort of introspection or change going forward...
This isn't Mueller's report. And personally, if Mueller actually says Trump is clean, I think I'd actually believe him and seriously reconsider all the sources I've been reading the past year or...
I told you so.
This isn't Mueller's report. And personally, if Mueller actually says Trump is clean, I think I'd actually believe him and seriously reconsider all the sources I've been reading the past year or so.
But this is still not Mueller's report. Trump freaking the fuck out over Mueller for 2 years, then suddenly being all like "yay I'm cleared!" when Barr of all people gets to deliver a summary headline makes zero sense other than "damage control".
Edit: I'll add that if the full report actually exonerated Trump, he himself would be pushing to release it.
AG March 24 Letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committees Manafort shared polling data on 2016 election with elusive Russian – Mueller Nothing to see here, just silly nonsense.
I hope the Democrats drop this silly Russia nonsense
The Special Counsel's Investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering in the election.
The second element involved the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election. The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including Wikileaks.
Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data on the 2016 election with a Russian man linked to Moscow’s intelligence agencies, according to special counsel Robert Mueller.
This seems like a really weird spot to place the goalposts. When Nixon beat McGovern in 1972, it was by an absolute landslide - 520 electoral votes to 17. Should the Watergate investigation,...
I have not seen any reporting that has stated or hinted that the efforts by Russians changed the outcome of the election in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, or Michigan.
This seems like a really weird spot to place the goalposts.
When Nixon beat McGovern in 1972, it was by an absolute landslide - 520 electoral votes to 17. Should the Watergate investigation, leading up to Nixon's resignation in 1974, have had as its central question "would this have been enough to sway the election such that McGovern would have won"?
nobody focused on this or ran on this in 2018 and nobody will focus on it or run on it in 2020, so i don't really see what your point here is.
The Democrats have 18 months until the 2020 election, claiming Trump won because Russia stole the election or Trump is a secret Russian Agent isn't going to defeat Trump in 2020.
nobody focused on this or ran on this in 2018 and nobody will focus on it or run on it in 2020, so i don't really see what your point here is.
Basically Manafort gave the Russians polling data to help them target their disinfo campaign. That data is of huge value to campaigns, not something they give away and definitely not to foreign...
Basically Manafort gave the Russians polling data to help them target their disinfo campaign. That data is of huge value to campaigns, not something they give away and definitely not to foreign governments. In exchange the GOP changed their party platform to not oppose Russia's annexation of Crimea and Trump agreed not to enforce the Magnitski act. The Magnitsky act froze assets of Putin and his inner circle around the world, Putin viewed it as the first step towards Libya-style regime change.
because he offered placation to people who felt unrepresented; democrats have gradually lost and run up huge deficits in the WWC vote and with rural voters in favor of running up the score among...
Why so many people voted for a reality TV star, with no experience in government, who confessed to sexual assault, bankrupted multiple businesses and is a pathological lier over someone with Clinton's resume.
because he offered placation to people who felt unrepresented; democrats have gradually lost and run up huge deficits in the WWC vote and with rural voters in favor of running up the score among an urban-suburban-minority coalition; and because he got lucky. that's basically the extent of it. it required literally a perfect storm of events and he still won on a quirk of the system, not because more people voted for him than clinton. this is exceedingly unlikely to happen a second time, and most democrats were never banking on this report to break trump as demonstrated by their massive victories in 2018 on literally everything but trump.
Why Trump continues to be popular in many states, probably enough states to win reelection,
he's not. his national polling is bad, his state polling is worse. he needs to improve somewhere with voters, or he's going to lose, because the three states he flipped he carried by a combined 90,000 votes, and democrats won them back pretty handily in 2018 at almost all levels of government--to say nothing of their advances in other states.
even though his only accomplishments are a tax cut for the rich and 2 Supreme Court seats. In the last two years Trump has openly supported white supremacy, admitted to having an affair with a porn star, caused the longgest government shutdown in US history, lost the majority in the House, failed to pull the troops out of Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan, hasn't built the wall, didn't repeal ACA, didn't drain the swam, gave his family members senior positions in government and his family businesses has profited from his position.
because he has a cult of personality. most people who wholeheartedly support trump do not care about results, and if they do what he's produced already is more than enough. in any case, his base isn't enough to win reelection--he needs to win more people over than what he already has in soft and hard support.
I really don't get what people were hoping for out of this report. If Trump was to get removed from office it would have happened already. And the media screwed up the reporting on this big time...
I really don't get what people were hoping for out of this report. If Trump was to get removed from office it would have happened already. And the media screwed up the reporting on this big time acting like it was a sure thing that Trump was going to get caught in the investigation. Hope more people become jaded with our politicians and justice system and move left though.
This is hugely important. Expect Barr’s imminent summary of “principal conclusions” to be a very BARR document. Highly abridged, expurgated, possibly even spun version of the Mueller report.
The Special Counsel issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 order authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests for foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.
Barr says that the President may have acted to obstruct justice, but that for an obstruction conviction, “the government would need to proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct”.
There must be full transparency in what Special Counsel Mueller uncovered to not exonerate the President from wrongdoing. DOJ owes the public more than just a brief synopsis and decision not to go any further in their work.
Special Counsel Mueller worked for 22 months to determine the extent to which President Trump obstructed justice. Attorney General Barr took 2 days to tell the American people that while the President is not exonerated, there will be no action by DOJ.
it's already being fed through the spin of someone who is a republican appointee who wanted to end the mueller investigation before being appointed, so i don't know that reading it is really any...
Barring Mueller releasing a summary himself, I feel like Americans should read this letter (it's only a few pages in relatively plain language for the important bits) before it starts getting fed through the filters of media.
it's already being fed through the spin of someone who is a republican appointee who wanted to end the mueller investigation before being appointed, so i don't know that reading it is really any less biased than just getting it from the media.
The letter is here: https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/AG%20March%2024%202019%20Letter%20to%20House%20and%20Senate%20Judiciary%20Committees.pdf
excellent point. people should always read these things for themselves. they are not hard to understand and the media will NOT accurately represent the information. God forbid it's tech or science...
excellent point. people should always read these things for themselves. they are not hard to understand and the media will NOT accurately represent the information. God forbid it's tech or science related.
I expect the letter to congress to be the nicest possible interpretation of the full report. I'm sure it will get spun as "no collusion, fully clears the president" by the right as more details...
I expect the letter to congress to be the nicest possible interpretation of the full report. I'm sure it will get spun as "no collusion, fully clears the president" by the right as more details start to emerge from the full report that muddies the waters as to where he truth really is.
already is. despite the fact that it doesn't really exonerate donald in any way other than on collusion according to barr, republicans are already crowing that it ends all investigation--which...
already is. despite the fact that it doesn't really exonerate donald in any way other than on collusion according to barr, republicans are already crowing that it ends all investigation--which is... dubious (to say nothing of the other investigations that are going on!)
this is so fresh off the presses there's barely anything, but by all accounts: it's a punt. we're going to get two more years of investigations, and expect nothing more or less.
I don't want to gloat since Trump likely getting away with his criminal behaviors (even if "literally conspiring with Russia" isn't one of them) is bad, but after a year of being called a troll, bot, russian influence agent, etc for saying that we can't look for salvation in the hands of a Republican career law enforcement agent who helped start the Iraq war and that the fixation on the investigation was primarily a way for democrats to absolve themselves of the 2016 loss and avoid any sort of introspection or change going forward...
I told you so.
This isn't Mueller's report. And personally, if Mueller actually says Trump is clean, I think I'd actually believe him and seriously reconsider all the sources I've been reading the past year or so.
But this is still not Mueller's report. Trump freaking the fuck out over Mueller for 2 years, then suddenly being all like "yay I'm cleared!" when Barr of all people gets to deliver a summary headline makes zero sense other than "damage control".
Edit: I'll add that if the full report actually exonerated Trump, he himself would be pushing to release it.
AG March 24 Letter to House and Senate Judiciary Committees
Manafort shared polling data on 2016 election with elusive Russian – Mueller
Nothing to see here, just silly nonsense.
This seems like a really weird spot to place the goalposts.
When Nixon beat McGovern in 1972, it was by an absolute landslide - 520 electoral votes to 17. Should the Watergate investigation, leading up to Nixon's resignation in 1974, have had as its central question "would this have been enough to sway the election such that McGovern would have won"?
nobody focused on this or ran on this in 2018 and nobody will focus on it or run on it in 2020, so i don't really see what your point here is.
Wait, what?
Basically Manafort gave the Russians polling data to help them target their disinfo campaign. That data is of huge value to campaigns, not something they give away and definitely not to foreign governments. In exchange the GOP changed their party platform to not oppose Russia's annexation of Crimea and Trump agreed not to enforce the Magnitski act. The Magnitsky act froze assets of Putin and his inner circle around the world, Putin viewed it as the first step towards Libya-style regime change.
because he offered placation to people who felt unrepresented; democrats have gradually lost and run up huge deficits in the WWC vote and with rural voters in favor of running up the score among an urban-suburban-minority coalition; and because he got lucky. that's basically the extent of it. it required literally a perfect storm of events and he still won on a quirk of the system, not because more people voted for him than clinton. this is exceedingly unlikely to happen a second time, and most democrats were never banking on this report to break trump as demonstrated by their massive victories in 2018 on literally everything but trump.
he's not. his national polling is bad, his state polling is worse. he needs to improve somewhere with voters, or he's going to lose, because the three states he flipped he carried by a combined 90,000 votes, and democrats won them back pretty handily in 2018 at almost all levels of government--to say nothing of their advances in other states.
because he has a cult of personality. most people who wholeheartedly support trump do not care about results, and if they do what he's produced already is more than enough. in any case, his base isn't enough to win reelection--he needs to win more people over than what he already has in soft and hard support.
I really don't get what people were hoping for out of this report. If Trump was to get removed from office it would have happened already. And the media screwed up the reporting on this big time acting like it was a sure thing that Trump was going to get caught in the investigation. Hope more people become jaded with our politicians and justice system and move left though.
https://twitter.com/page88/status/1109881090339155968
https://twitter.com/page88/status/1109897912295874561
https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1109903081691664385
https://twitter.com/RepJerryNadler/status/1109906469179265026
it's already being fed through the spin of someone who is a republican appointee who wanted to end the mueller investigation before being appointed, so i don't know that reading it is really any less biased than just getting it from the media.
The letter is here:
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/AG%20March%2024%202019%20Letter%20to%20House%20and%20Senate%20Judiciary%20Committees.pdf
For this reason, I think it's excellent HuffPost chose not to put a commentary in this piece. It's just a scan of the letter, plain and simple.
excellent point. people should always read these things for themselves. they are not hard to understand and the media will NOT accurately represent the information. God forbid it's tech or science related.
I expect the letter to congress to be the nicest possible interpretation of the full report. I'm sure it will get spun as "no collusion, fully clears the president" by the right as more details start to emerge from the full report that muddies the waters as to where he truth really is.
already is. despite the fact that it doesn't really exonerate donald in any way other than on collusion according to barr, republicans are already crowing that it ends all investigation--which is... dubious (to say nothing of the other investigations that are going on!)
Here is a link to the most measured analysis of Barr's letter I've come across so far, from the folks at Lawfare.