The Dubious Friends of Donald Trump.

a reply to: antoinemarionette

Yes. Sadly true. Russian family members filled me in a few months ago at a family gathering. when I asked how things were in Russia. They relayed how the Russian oligarchs do not put their money back into the Russian economy, which has made it difficult for small businesses to remain in business, making for rising unemployment. Rents have risen, goods are not as readily available. It made me think of the bread lines under Communism.

a reply to: Spider879

Thank you for sharing the video.
It occurred to me, that there really are at least two Russian scandals going on. The Russian govt Cyberwar on America during the election is one. Then there is the other scandal, Trump's possible personal ties to Russian criminal activity. The meld of both scandals can be seen in his campaign, starting with Manafort.

If any other POTUS candidate had been doing possible criminal business with citizens in, oh, let's say, an Arab country, and that candidate surrounded him/her self with both citizens of and Americans who benefited financially from that Arab country (or who had contact with that country's govt intelligence), we might wonder. And especially if that Country had launched not airplanes at property but rather launched a cyberspace war with hacking and propaganda, well, we might wonder.

a reply to: desert

Finally, a poster who watched the video! Wow!



Your comments about Russian family members truly highlights the ignorance many Americans suffer in regards, not only to Russians, but the state of people who live in other countries in general. They have not a clue, yet they are willing to make declarations about it without doing any research into the matter.

OP, I really appreciate your having posted this and I truly hope this video goes viral.

For those of you refusing to watch it, I believe that you are denying yourself information that is going to be extremely relevant in the weeks to come.

a reply to: desert

Thanks but the person you want to give props to is Smurfy for the broaching the subject and the vids...



Yes we have grown accustom to pols being corrupt like well yeah it's called a Tuesday, but it's generally within the bounds of being an American and it does not cross into treason, now I can't say if Donald has definitely cross that line, but dammit that's why we need to look, we need a special independent investigator, folks are beginning to compare Trump to Nixon, but at the end of the day, Nixon was just an American crook not a Russian agent...we need to know Trump.

Oh ok if you were talking about the TYT vid then thanx and ..

originally posted by: antoinemarionette
a reply to: desert

Finally, a poster who watched the video! Wow!

Your comments about Russian family members truly highlights the ignorance many Americans suffer in regards, not only to Russians, but the state of people who live in other countries in general. They have not a clue, yet they are willing to make declarations about it without doing any research into the matter.

OP, I really appreciate your having posted this and I truly hope this video goes viral.

For those of you refusing to watch it, I believe that you are denying yourself information that is going to be extremely relevant in the weeks to come.

You guys also believe 2 icecream scoops are relevant. Blame yourself for people not caring anymore. When your outrage has been at a 10 over anything he does since November 9th people stop listening. Wake me up when he's impeached

a reply to: antoinemarionette

Thanks. I grew up in the 1950-60s. Honestly, Americans in general have not been concerned about personally knowing others or living with others... I mean abroad, but that could be said about at home. But re abroad, travel and living abroad after WW2 generally consisted of staying in tour groups with other Americans and living in American compounds while working overseas. Sights were seen, but direct cultural exchange was minimal. The baby boomer generation traveled the world not in tours and interacted with others at local levels, intentionally getting to know cultures. They followed Pres Kennedy's call to join the Peace Corps. I also had friends who, once they got out of the military and went abroad to work in the mic, or some as they were in the military abroad, made it a point to not live in American compounds and to interact with locals and learn cultures.

Also, Americans cared not for news from outside their country, preferring national news. Americans with short wave radio would often hear news form other countries. It wasn't until satellite tv (the old c-band) came along, that Americans would start to see other country's news. The internet made the world smaller, possible to actually interact with others around the world and to easily read what was going on around the world (but then, still, only if one wanted to).

Now, my generation's children ad grandchildren often hold dual citizenship and are fluent in both parents language and culture (not all, but many). Children of the world. They also work for inter/multinational businesses (or have small international businesses of their own!) and often live and work abroad alongside locals.

The times they are a changin' still. It may be hard for older/some people to grasp the changes and their complexity. It's the young people who must lead.

You guys also believe 2 icecream scoops are relevant. Blame yourself for people not caring anymore. When your outrage has been at a 10 over anything he does since November 9th people stop listening. Wake me up when he's impeached

I won't be the one to awaken you when you're bed is burning.

It's your responsibility to pay attention and know what's going on right now.

a reply to: desert

Yes, there was a time when most Americans cared about their fellow man. The Kennedy era was one of them.

But now we are here in the information age, where we have an unprecedented amount of information available to the common man, and some people simply do not wish to know...

a reply to: Spider879

I did meant your TYT , but I tell you, I was glad to see someone at ATS post ZEMBLA's vids. Here's to you, too, Smurfy!

Synchronicity at work again...My next thought this morning was about the subject of impeachment. Then someone sent me this link

The End Of Trump

I had read something last week, and one line struck me, prompting this thought to finally blossom in my mind this morning. Impeachment might not be over what we assume, as it refers to "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors", but, and I'm no lawyer or Constitutional scholar, those conditions I think refer to only while in office. Unless Trump does "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" in office, there is no grounds for impeachment. .....

however, it sounds like the FBI had been investigating criminality around Trump/those around him, not for treason or even bribery or sedition, but for criminal acts (with Russians) as a US citizen, pre-presidency. Let's say the FBI had and continues to find evidence of criminality of/around Trump pre-presidency, Trump was freely elected with even the limited knowledge Americans had before the election, of Trump's and those around him (Manafort, ex) business dealings/connections with Russians.

Again, FBI investigations pre-presidency may not be for Trump himself acting in a treasonous or seditious way with Putin etal.... or it could be, but even that was done pre-presidency. Americans could very well have elected a treasonous/seditious pres, with such acts committed pre-presidency.

The only way now for Trump to be impeached would be for acts after inauguration. Say, abuse of power, say with a Comey firing. Or, if investigation leads to findings of post-presidency treason, bribery, high crimes, misdemeanors.

Bottom line, whatever further investigations and committees are now or in the future, this ain't gonna end soon. Sure, Trump could very well have been a criminal or traitor pre-presidency, but he may need to be charged with what happened after inauguration. And that could include abuse of power to obstruct a criminal investigation, or any obstruction of justice.

originally posted by: desert
a reply to: Spider879

I did meant your TYT

, but I tell you, I was glad to see someone at ATS post ZEMBLA's vids. Here's to you, too, Smurfy!

Synchronicity at work again...My next thought this morning was about the subject of impeachment. Then someone sent me this link

The End Of Trump

The only way now for Trump to be impeached would be for acts after inauguration. Say, abuse of power, say with a Comey firing. Or, if investigation leads to findings of post-presidency treason, bribery, high crimes, misdemeanors.

Bottom line, whatever further investigations and committees are now or in the future, this ain't gonna end soon. Sure, Trump could very well have been a criminal or traitor pre-presidency, but he may need to be charged with what happened after inauguration. And that could include abuse of power to obstruct a criminal investigation, or any obstruction of justice.

Thanks for the drink...I hope that's a pint of whisky/whiskey!

As for impeachment there are a lot of things still under the radar. The Comey firing has a lot of people rattled, mostly because of the way it was handled by Trump, and although the Republican representation is firmly to Republican advantage, the required '22' that on the face of it should never happen, could end up a stampede even perhaps on the Comey firing alone if anything more surfaces about any wrongdoing prior to Trump's taking office.
We do know for instance about the changes to the Republican stance re Ukraine that resulted in a more favourable stance to Moscow than to what Ukraine would have wanted, and we do know that Trump's men were at that particular part of the convention, and did interfere on the outcome, and that related phone calls were made by them to some entity, likely in Russia or in New York. It is highly likely that the NSA would have all the transcripts of those calls,and many others, and to whom they were made. It's impossible to conceive that those transcripts are not now in the hands of the FBI, (one good reason for the FBI continued, prolonged if you like investigation) that is ongoing, and a possible reason why there have been no directives about any criminality concerning the investigation from the FBI so far if a whole can of worms has been opened, you could even consider that Russian money funded the Trump campaign is another example. The like of BAYROCK and Trump SoHo and laundering only compound things.
All that is going to have the already very nevous conservative Republicans even more nervous, and to make matters worse, is the ultra-right war cult gang from Breitbart ensconsed in the White House, who have their own bastardised Marxist ideas as to who should run a country, in this case, the USA. It didn't work for Marx in Russia, in the USA, there is the two party system..two opposing forces that the likes of Bannon would love to see gutting one another and they would be in charge deferentially of course....aka nutters, and Yes, I have seen a post or two on ATS showing support for that idea.

a reply to: desert

The president can fire anyone else in the exec branch without reason. He's the boss. He does not need to give a reason to fire.



If Comey didn't want to get fired, he should have run for president.

originally posted by: allsee4eye
a reply to: desert

The president can fire anyone else in the exec branch without reason. He's the boss. He does not need to give a reason to fire.

But he did, and made a horlicks of it..enough for the oversight committee to be very concerned that he broke Federal Law. Trump couldn't keep his gub shut, and concentrated on the Russian/Trump affair. Had he stuck to the handling of Hillary Clinton and the E-mails he might have been at least plausible..but he was afraid, since he openly incited Russia to have a go at her..and then it happened. A veritable Richard Head treatise, then he couldn't resist boasting.

a reply to: smurfy

If Hillary didn't accuse him of being a Russia puppet, he would have never asked Russia to hack her. Hillary is the cause. Trump is the reaction. I have the footage.

a reply to: smurfy

smurfy, for you, a bottle of whiskey .... BTW my new Irish whiskey love is 2Gingers.

I will return here, because it is this thread that gave me some thoughts. Too tired to do more tonight.

Perhaps one of the most dubious friend of Trump, off the top of my head, was Jefferey Epstein, the billionaire pedo trash who was also friends with the Clintons. Nothing to do with Russia, but sick nonetheless.

a reply to: smurfy

Ok, online searching yesterday filled in and settled my above thought. To keep this reply to you shorter, here is the link to what I wrote in another thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thread topics that focus on Trump's business ties to Russian money and Russian mobsters and criminal activities seem IMO to be the key to what Trump wants covered up. While he cannot be impeached for pre-presidency acts, he can be impeached for abusing his power to obstruct any investigation into them. .... or other acts, possibly even non-criminal but affect his carrying out of his duties, which hahaha he seems to be quite capable of doing.

Any evidence of criminal activity by the House of Trump would cause the House and its inhabitants to fall. That Fall of the House of Trump is what Trump will try to prevent.

and to make matters worse, is the ultra-right war cult gang from Breitbart ensconsed in the White House, who have their own bastardised Marxist ideas as to who should run a country, in this case, the USA. It didn't work for Marx in Russia, in the USA, there is the two party system..two opposing forces that the likes of Bannon would love to see gutting one another and they would be in charge deferentially of course....aka nutters, and Yes, I have seen a post or two on ATS showing support for that idea.

As an "outsider", you get it.

Some non-Americans, let alone too many Americans, understand neither how US govt or politics works. They cannot see the danger we are in. Our Founding Leaders left us a two-party system expecting the parties to compromise. They warned against devolving into factions. This has worked admirably until now. Twenty years ago the Republican Party started to become a faction, unwilling to comprise (and forcing out members who would compromise). We now have a defacto parliamentary system, but without parliamentary laws and tradition to force compromise. Notice how, under the previous administration, the Republican Party became an opposition party, but unwilling to find compromise. And there was nothing to force them to act otherwise.

People say "why can't the parties compromise". It is because one party is now so ideologically extreme, that there is very little to nothing on which the other party can compromise.

The "nutters" have always been a part of the American landscape, but they were never allowed to be given political power, until 20 years ago. In fact, their party was warned 50 years ago by its own members, to not let this happen! There is a term for this extremism, reactionary. American reactionaries hate all things liberal and will not compromise, and the Republican Party reactionaries forced out any member to their left on the political spectrum, trying to purify the party.

Despite hearing American media refer to Republicans in Washington as "conservative" and "moderate conservative", it is only reactionaries who hold power. And reactionary ideology is the party ideology. Conservative ideas were hunted down ad killed off for 20 years.

a reply to: desert

FBI isn't used for investigating foreign crimes. Interpol might be a better organization for this.

a reply to: allsee4eye

Use this link and for starters search the page for words like "foreign", "overseas", "transnational".

Well,
Now, Flynn comes back to haunt the White house, if the source story is correct, and a first instance of obstruction, with the second being the firing of Comey himself. I can see where it will all go eventually, and it's going to be a direct confrontation between Trump and Comey, and possibly the acting director of the FBI also if it turns out there was a memo, and most definitely there should have been something on paper after the Flynn conversation had it happened as this source is saying. One thing I did hear a woman CNN reporter say tonight when talking about White House staff reactions which were generally kind of what next, she seemed to slip on revealing the gender by saying, "his" and that was enough for the anchorwoman to start a coughing episode, as if a media code warning. Anyway, basically it seems that any Republicans are in the main not very happy if this latest story is true, while some are also going into the White House information blowout as also a crime in itself, which in turn suggests that the source is someone in the White House..this is still only the public face for media, while it's more than likely that the Washington politico know a lot more than we do, but will not talk about it, but it does suggest a whistleblower who has done the full monty, and is determined, for whatever reason, that congress will have to act.