POLITICAL THREAD

[MO_Blue]

For several reasons, I'm thinking that repealing the Johnson Amendment may be the toughest and most important legislative push Trump will have. That's the law that forbids churches from talking politics if they want to keep their tax exemption. I view it as important, because I'm seeing a collapse of values on the left. I'm happy with how things stand now on equal rights, lgbtq matters, etc. I don't think we need to go down the cultural marxiist road any further. We already have enough participation trophies.
To my mind, notions of simple fairness require repeal of the Johnson Amendment. If labor unions can talk politics and keep their exemptions, why not churches? I could go on....
However, with all the left craziness that's going on, churches would become a powerful and loud political voice if the JA is repealed. I can jjust hear churches discussing the masturbation video, and the far left's war on America, etc. For that reason, I think the left will do anything to prevent repeal of the Johnson Amendment. Imagine a black minister at the Valdosta, Georgia A.M.E. church. I'll guarantee you that 90% of his/her congregation would not be voting democratic if s/he were allowed to speak zhir or zhee's mind..
Repealing the Johnson Amendment would change the face of American politics overnight, from school boards to the White House.. After the last few years, I'm ready for the pendulum to swing, and I don't go to church.

 

[warrior-cat]

Yeah just keep on denying it, the treason train is gonna roll right over this whole administration. Those unnamed sources continue to be correct 9 out of 10 times. Maybe you'll get lucky and this is a 'nothing burger'.

But it's starting to look like Trump and his admin absolutely colluded with the Russians. If this email proves to be true, Trump Jr. just committed treason. He definitely broke election laws. The fact that it was Trump Jr. means that Trump absolutely knew this was going on. Absolutely. But you'll keep defending these traitors and call the media liars to protect your Gods.

James Comey is a true American. A soldier for American democracy. He took a bullet for this country so that Mueller can take down this immoral President and his band of losers. The noose is tightening. You'll see this timeline come together showing just how involved this was.

Now it all makes perfect sense why Trump has attacked the credibility of the media and the intelligence community. They are starting to find the bodies and he needs to taint the evidence.

All Hail the King!

Why didn't you attack Hillary for stealing money from Haitians or, selling uranium, or using a private unsecure server letting classified information get stolen or having people killed....the list is endless.

 

[BristolCat]

Right now, I don't trust the NYT as far as I can throw it. There's no sense in even addressing the "facts" until they're corrected this Friday evening.

I'm not going to get into an argument, but isn't the source of this story now Donald Trump Jr.? Has to be assumed he's a credible source on his own emails, right?

 

[vhcat70]

The Trump administration had been saying repeatedly they had no contact with Russia at all. Now Trump Jr is saying he did in fact meet with Russia to get info on Hillary. You're right it's not illegal, but it goes against what the administration had been saying this whole time. It doesn't prove Russia hacked anything, but it's at the very least suspicious and shows the administration was lying. I hated Obama's administration for lying and I'll call Trump's out for lying too. It's certainly not a nonstory.

There was no Trump administration when this occurred. Net, the Trump Admin is correct.

 

[vhcat70]

Trump Jr is an idiot. Yes, this type of information gathering happens, but you send a surrogate to a secret meeting, so you always have plausible deniability. You don't invite them to your personal office in Trump Tower.

Also, if the Russia government was trying to help Trump Jr, then why did they send him some woman, who supposedly isn't associated with the Russian government, who had zero information on Hillary, and had no clue that's why she was at the meeting in the first place? How does that even make sense?

So, the question is, what exactly happened at that meeting? Did someone play Jr and set him up? Or is Trump Jr and this woman lying about what happened, and damaging information actually was discussed/handed over during the meeting?

Nothing illegal about anyone handing over damaging info they obtained whether they did so legally or illegally. Still trying understand what the problem is. Stupidity isn't it.

 

[vhcat70]

Honestly, this was a brilliant move by Trump Jr (actually probably Trump Sr, Little Donnie comes across as a coked up idiot most of the time, he couldn't have come up with this on his own.).

Had to. Much better this way vs. waiting for NYT to do so.

 

[WKBlu]

cardkilla on the left...sensible people on the right

 

[screwduke1]

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/house-gop-allocates-16b-trump-border-wall-2018/

House GOP allocates $1․6 billion for Trump border wall in 2018

 

[ukalumni00]

Amazing how Dems and MSM easily dismiss Hillary deleting over 30k emails on a private server but are already calling for treason the second Don Jr actually releases his emails.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

$1.6B towards The Wall in the next budget?

Look over here while we....

 

[KingOfBBN]

http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/11/house-gop-allocates-16b-trump-border-wall-2018/

House GOP allocates $1․6 billion for Trump border wall in 2018

He gets that wall built before 2020 election, it's over.

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

So a Russian attorney contacts the Trump camp and says she was a representative of the Russian government and had dirt on Clinton that she wanted to share with the Trump campaign. After meeting with her, however, Don Jr, Manafort and Kushner determine that she did not represent Russia in any capacity and had no dirt to share on Clinton. So the meeting is concluded and there are no further communications.

What do we have here? Certainly unseemly, definitely bush league and very amateur, but where's the illegality if she did not in fact represent the Russian government and did not in fact provide any dirt on Clinton? The left is going to scream "treason" and "collusion" among other violations of the law, but it's simply a legal impossibility for their acts to meet the elements of any such allegations without a foreign state actor or any actual information being provided.

The worst thing about this is that it will not lead to any actual criminal wrongdoing, but that it will give the left ammunition to continue the witch hunt for at least a couple more months.

 

[screwduke1]

Proving again Trump literally has a tweet about everything. He also was spot on in judgement again.

 

[screwduke1]

So a Russian attorney contacts the Trump camp and says she was a representative of the Russian government and had dirt on Clinton that she wanted to share with the Trump campaign. After meeting with her, however, Don Jr, Manafort and Kushner determine that she did not represent Russia in any capacity and had no dirt to share on Clinton. So the meeting is concluded and there are no further communications.

What do we have here? Certainly unseemly, definitely bush league and very amateur, but where's the illegality if she did not in fact represent the Russian government and did not in fact provide any dirt on Clinton? The left is going to scream "treason" and "collusion" among other violations of the law, but it's simply a legal impossibility for their acts to meet the elements of any such allegations without a foreign state actor or any actual information being provided.

The worst thing about this is that it will not lead to any actual criminal wrongdoing, but that it will give the left ammunition to continue the witch hunt for at least a couple more months.

This. It was probably not a great idea but nothing illegal about it. IMO they need to look into whoever set the meeting up, and why. It looks to me like someone tried to set Don Jr. up. June was the month the Obama team began spying on Trump, the same month this meeting occured.

 

[moe_schmoe]

says she was a representative of the Russian government

Not even that. She, herself, never claimed to represent the Russian government, only the email sent to Trump Jr claims she did. Even yet, she has since denied ever being associated with the government.

That's the reason for my earlier post about this seeming like a set up. Someone contacts Jr through email, claiming the Russian government has dirt on Hillary, Trump Jr sets up meeting and this woman shows up, who isn't part of the government, who has no dirt on Hillary, and who doesn't even know that's the reason for the meeting in the first place. Something doesn't add up.

Either she's lying about who she is and her and Jr, both, are lying about what took place during this meeting; or, Jr got played and someone purposely had him put into this position under false circumstances for whatever reason.

 

[moe_schmoe]

The worst thing about this is that it will not lead to any actual criminal wrongdoing, but that it will give the left ammunition to continue the witch hunt for at least a couple more months.

My thoughts as well. At worse, legally speaking, Trump Jr violated campaign laws by soliciting from a foreign national. This does way more harm politically than legally.

 

[Marleydogg]

Nothing burger

 

[KingOfBBN]

You see this? Rather interesting, if indeed true.

 

[JohnKBA]

$1.6B towards The Wall in the next budget?

Look over here while we....

Doesn't that cover like 5-10% of the total build? And that's in the 2018 budget?

Should be finished by 2030ish.

 

[screwduke1]

You see this? Rather interesting, if indeed true.

View embedded media

Don Jr. was set up. No doubt in my mind.

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

Doesn't that cover like 5-10% of the total build? And that's in the 2018 budget?

Should be finished by 2030ish.

Nah, brah. We're hiring Mexican migrant workers. Done by the end of 2018 and we'll have a couple hundred million left over.

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

Don Jr. was set up. No doubt in my mind.

I'm not as certain as you, but it sure seems fishy.

 

[JohnKBA]

I'm not as certain as you, but it sure seems fishy.

I'll say this - if he and Kush were dumb enough to fall for that, they shouldn't be anywhere near Washington for the next 8 years.

 

[screwduke1]

I'm not as certain as you, but it sure seems fishy.

I mean, just look at this.

Russian lawyer who got inside Donald Trump’s inner circle had been denied US visa

http://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/...d-trumps-inner-circle-had-been-denied-us-visa

 

[CrittendenWildcat]

I'll say this - if he and Kush were dumb enough to fall for that, they shouldn't be anywhere near Washington for the next 8 years.

All I can think is that they were both green, and both intoxicated by the thought of having some real dirt on Clinton, so much so that they weren't thinking rationally. Don Jr. more so that Kush, I think Kush walked out on the meeting like 7 minutes in because he recognized that the Russian lawyer was FOS.

 

[KingOfBBN]

I'll say this - if he and Kush were dumb enough to fall for that, they shouldn't be anywhere near Washington for the next 8 years.

Can't argue that. Dumb as hell to fall for it and do it through email too. My surprise is why it took so long to come out.

 

[PhattyJ4UK]

Who gives a shit?


I'm waiting on one single person to tel me why this is illegal?

Complete and utter nothing burger.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

Catfish.

At any rate, this is just ratings red meat for their plebe viewers/readers.........but yet again, if they don't kill him (and they won't) that orange son of a bitch will just keep getting stronger. The good folks of WI/MI/PA know a railroad when they see one.

 

[cat_chaser]

We should be sending Jr. thank you cards for doing everything possible to beat that evil beast.

 

[bigbluefattycat]

Doesn't that cover like 5-10% of the total build? And that's in the 2018 budget?

Should be finished by 2030ish.

Come on JuanKBA you know who is gonna pay for that wall. Probably charge tourist to rock climb on the US side. All illegals will get to climb for free and ring the bell on the other side while Trump impersonators cut the rope. All solar powered of course. Enough free energy to light up the Alamo for Christmas that will make Clark Griswald punch a Nazi.

 

[bigbluefattycat]

We in the bottom. Good thing the commie Bernie was here in Covington on Sunday to save the ACA. What the hell does he care he doesn't have to pay for it.

5 Charts That Explain Just How Screwed Your State Is
In fact, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University (GMU) has recently compiled a fairly comprehensive study, based on a number of objective financial metrics, ranking the 50 U.S. states according to their overall fiscal condition. Among other things, GMU analyzed the following metrics:

• Cash solvency. Does a state have enough cash on hand to cover its short-term bills?
• Budget solvency. Can a state cover its fiscal year spending with current revenues, or does it have a budget shortfall?
• Long-run solvency. Can a state meet its long-term spending commitments? Will there be enough money to cushion it from economic shocks or other long-term fiscal risks?
• Service-level solvency. How much “fiscal slack” does a state have to increase spending if citizens demand more services?
• Trust fund solvency. How large are each state’s unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities?

All of which resulted in the following ranking map.

Ironically (which, in case it weren't brutally obvious, we mean in the most sarcastic way possible), the resulting map looks eerily similar to the 2016 electoral college map with the Democrat-leaning states on the bottom end of the "fiscal condition" ranking and Republican-leaning states making out a bit better, on a relative basis.

 

[WayneDougan]

Kentucky is screwed. I'm moving as soon as I can.

 

[MO_Blue]

A wet dream from CNNisISIS twitter

 

[MO_Blue]

Par for the CNN course

 

[PhattyJ4UK]

Didn't click and won't link but:

Washington toast : category 5 hurricane. White House under siege.

 

[cardkilla]

One way to end this would be to start producing info on Hilly. Hard facts about Ukraine, etc. The truth is out there, and it's not gonna take the X-files to find it.

You guys have been on the Hillary witch hunt for decades. I don't know what she ever did to make Republicans hate her so much, but it's derangement syndrome to go on this long. Just like you were gonna get to the truth on Benghazi and have her tried for treason right?

It is not surprising that Trump and his band of misfits bring out the regular cast of boogeymen to try to change the subject.

My favorite article on this thus far:

The other shoe has finally fallen, and the Trump presidency may fall with it.

For months, as evidence has piled up of undisclosed and unexplained meetings between senior Trump campaign aides and Russians, the embattled Trump administration has relied on a simple, if implausible, defense. The White House has insisted the mysterious meetings were about sanctions, better cooperation in the ISIS fight, and a general desire to build closer ties between Washington and Moscow — and not about colluding with the Kremlin to help defeat Hillary Clinton and put Donald Trump in the White House.

That defense now lies in tatters, shredded by newly released emails showing that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Kremlin-linked envoy who explicitly promised information that “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

In case that message somehow wasn’t clear enough, the emails, first obtained by the New York Times, went on to say the information is “obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr.’s response? “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

It’s worth pausing for a moment and rereading both the email to Trump Jr. and his response. The president’s son was offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton that he had been explicitly told was coming from Russia, a hostile foreign power. He didn’t rebuff the offer. He didn’t alert the FBI. Instead, he made clear that he wanted the information — and even pulled Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort into the meeting where it was supposedly going to be provided.

There’s a second clear takeaway, one that raises new questions about the president himself.

Trump has repeatedly stunned lawmakers from both parties by publicly rejecting the US intelligence community’s unanimous belief that Russia interfered in the election with the explicit goal of helping him win the White House. Instead, Trump used a high-profile meetingwith Russian President Vladimir Putin late last week to say that he accepted Putin’s denials of any meddling.

For good measure, Trump said he’d work with Putin on a new joint effort to combat election hacking, a comment that would be laughable if its implications weren’t so dire. As I wrote at the time, that meant Trump — who has since tried to distance himself from the proposal — would have been trying to stop election hacking by working with the man who had weaponized election hacking against the United States.

And that’s where these emails come back in. Trump and his surrogates can no longer say that accusations of collusion are fake news ginned up by Obama administration holdovers and members of a “deep state” of disgruntled US spies. The evidence that his campaign had shady and very likely illegal election-related dealings with Moscow is now on the internet for all to see.

That has enormous legal and political implications for Trump’s top aides, and for the president himself. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller and an array of congressional committees have been looking into whether there was evidence of collusion between team Trump and the Kremlin. Donald Trump Jr. may have done their work for them.

Trump’s Russia connections are looking shadier than ever before
Comparing political scandals to Watergate is normally a very dangerous thing to do. Richard Nixon’s crimes plunged the nation into political chaos, sparked a genuine constitutional crisis, and set the stage for what would have been the first successful impeachment of an American president in history.

We’re not there yet, but we’re getting much closer.

Think of what we already knew even before the release of the new emails. An array of Trump campaign and White House aides like Manafort, Kushner, then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions had undisclosed meetings with either actual Russian officials or purportedly private citizens with close ties to Putin. The Trump aides lied about them, again and again and again. Mueller is now looking into whether those dealings broke the law.


https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953476/donald-trump-jr-russia-collusion-campaign-emails

 

[MO_Blue]

Didn't click and won't link but:

Washington toast : category 5 hurricane. White House under siege.

I won't click, either, I could write it without reading it. They are wrong. The majority will realize that if someone offered you proof of Hilly's corruption, you'd take the meeting. If the meeting poofs, then you have nothing to report. HAS anyone who had the potential of Hillly proof called the FBI in advance of the receiving the proof?? I think that's the common sense analysis. Nothing illegal happened, either So, manufactured drama is BS.

 

[cardkilla]

I won't click, either, I could write it without reading it. They are wrong. The majority will realize that if someone offered you proof of Hilly's corruption, you'd take the meeting. If the meeting poofs, then you have nothing to report. HAS anyone who had the potential of Hillly proof called the FBI in advance of the receiving the proof?? I think that's the common sense analysis. Nothing illegal happened, either So, manufactured drama is BS.

No actually a loyal American doesn't work with a hostile foreign government just to dig up dirt gotten illegally from hacking to win an election. But maybe that's just the snowflake in me. Red blooded Republicans should lie, cheat and steal if it means winning. That's the message I'm getting.

 

[MO_Blue]

You guys have been on the Hillary witch hunt for decades. I don't know what she ever did to make Republicans hate her so much, but it's derangement syndrome to go on this long. Just like you were gonna get to the truth on Benghazi and have her tried for treason right?

It is not surprising that Trump and his band of misfits bring out the regular cast of boogeymen to try to change the subject.

My favorite article on this thus far:

The other shoe has finally fallen, and the Trump presidency may fall with it.

For months, as evidence has piled up of undisclosed and unexplained meetings between senior Trump campaign aides and Russians, the embattled Trump administration has relied on a simple, if implausible, defense. The White House has insisted the mysterious meetings were about sanctions, better cooperation in the ISIS fight, and a general desire to build closer ties between Washington and Moscow — and not about colluding with the Kremlin to help defeat Hillary Clinton and put Donald Trump in the White House.

That defense now lies in tatters, shredded by newly released emails showing that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Kremlin-linked envoy who explicitly promised information that “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”

In case that message somehow wasn’t clear enough, the emails, first obtained by the New York Times, went on to say the information is “obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Trump Jr.’s response? “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

It’s worth pausing for a moment and rereading both the email to Trump Jr. and his response. The president’s son was offered damaging information about Hillary Clinton that he had been explicitly told was coming from Russia, a hostile foreign power. He didn’t rebuff the offer. He didn’t alert the FBI. Instead, he made clear that he wanted the information — and even pulled Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort into the meeting where it was supposedly going to be provided.

There’s a second clear takeaway, one that raises new questions about the president himself.

Trump has repeatedly stunned lawmakers from both parties by publicly rejecting the US intelligence community’s unanimous belief that Russia interfered in the election with the explicit goal of helping him win the White House. Instead, Trump used a high-profile meetingwith Russian President Vladimir Putin late last week to say that he accepted Putin’s denials of any meddling.

For good measure, Trump said he’d work with Putin on a new joint effort to combat election hacking, a comment that would be laughable if its implications weren’t so dire. As I wrote at the time, that meant Trump — who has since tried to distance himself from the proposal — would have been trying to stop election hacking by working with the man who had weaponized election hacking against the United States.

And that’s where these emails come back in. Trump and his surrogates can no longer say that accusations of collusion are fake news ginned up by Obama administration holdovers and members of a “deep state” of disgruntled US spies. The evidence that his campaign had shady and very likely illegal election-related dealings with Moscow is now on the internet for all to see.

That has enormous legal and political implications for Trump’s top aides, and for the president himself. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller and an array of congressional committees have been looking into whether there was evidence of collusion between team Trump and the Kremlin. Donald Trump Jr. may have done their work for them.

Trump’s Russia connections are looking shadier than ever before
Comparing political scandals to Watergate is normally a very dangerous thing to do. Richard Nixon’s crimes plunged the nation into political chaos, sparked a genuine constitutional crisis, and set the stage for what would have been the first successful impeachment of an American president in history.

We’re not there yet, but we’re getting much closer.

Think of what we already knew even before the release of the new emails. An array of Trump campaign and White House aides like Manafort, Kushner, then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions had undisclosed meetings with either actual Russian officials or purportedly private citizens with close ties to Putin. The Trump aides lied about them, again and again and again. Mueller is now looking into whether those dealings broke the law.


https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953476/donald-trump-jr-russia-collusion-campaign-emails

The female lawyer who showed up at the meeting has already said that the email was a fraud. She claims she knew nothing about Hilly's corrupt Russian money, and she claims she never told anyone she did. This dog don't hunt. It reeks of setup. What kind of informant goes to a meeting and says she's not there to inform, she just wants to talk about adoptions? A setup.

 

[MO_Blue]

No actually a loyal American doesn't work with a hostile foreign government just to dig up dirt gotten illegally from hacking to win an election. But maybe that's just the snowflake in me. Red blooded Republicans should lie, cheat and steal if it means winning. That's the message I'm getting.

The only question is whether you call the FBI before you have anything to discuss, or after you have the info. Manafort was the expert, and his judgment was to wait. No crime was committed, and this is all a nothing burger. The Dims have to run with it, though. It's the last gasp. People are smart enough to figure this one out.
SR and JR will not be put to death for treason over this, despite hte Dim claims to the contrary today.