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...they're very concerning.

I'm going to assume that readers of this thread are familiar with the Donald Trump Jr. / Manafort meeting with a Kremlin connected lawyer, lying about it, lying about it some more, and it eventually breaking today that the purpose of the meeting involved discussing producing damaging information on Clintons and US sanctions related topics.

And these developments of course are occurring against a backdrop of Trump again trying to downplay Russian interference into the election while proposing a US/Russian partnership on cybersecurity.

My two-cents here is while there's been enough smoke on the collusion story for me to think it is a plausible possibility, I've consistently thought that is too narrow a focus. There are plenty of illicit things associated with the Russian interference story, some of them already right out in the open, to not think that it's collusion occurred or there's no problem. So, while I've thought it reasonably possible, I also have taken a wait and see, let's not jump to conclusions approach.

With that said, even on the collusion story it just gets worse and worse almost literally week to week.

Have a link? Sorry I've been on the lake all day so haven't been keeping up with latest developments.

Kevin Graham wrote:Have a link? Sorry I've been on the lake all day so haven't been keeping up with latest developments.

First this story broke:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/p ... afort.html

Then, to same some link effort, Trump affiliated people have offered a series of defenses that went, to quote Sam Stein, - We never met w/ Russians -> Ok. We did but it wasn't campaign related -> It was about adoption -> Russians set us up -> It was Democrat operatives.

Then this story hit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/us/p ... afort.html

How is this NOT collusion?

Donald Trump Jr. responded to the second story by admitting the core substance of it. He was promised dirt on Clinton, attended with Kushner and Manafort, and the subject eventually switched to sanctions. He said no dirt was actually revealed and the sanctions talk was dismissed, but given his extensive record of lying about the story, even that's not believable coming from him.

This means conservative pundits are going to switch to "there's nothing wrong with collusion" as their first prong of defense.

It does appear that Donald Trump Jr. initially remembered the meeting was about the frozen Russian adoptions. Funny he doesn't remember that Russia freezing the adaptions was in retaliation to the sanctions initiated by Obama against human rights abusers in Russia.

But now that his memory has been refreshed by the lidless eye at the center of the Fake Media Evil Empire, The New York Times:

But on Sunday, presented with The Times’s findings, he offered a new account. In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The 2012 law so enraged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he halted American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

In summation, Donald Trump Jr. arranges the meeting with the Russian lawyer, and asks Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner to attend, without telling what the meeting is about. So...she had some wacko information about Hillary Clinton that made absolutely no sense. Then they talked about the adaption problem.

Oh, and Democrats set up the whole thing, according to Reince Priebus.

So you see? It wasn't the Russians setting up the Trump campaign. It was the Democrats all along. Now if we can only figure out how the Democrats got Michael Flynn to work for the Turks and Manafort to work for the Ukrainians...

Super-smart of Democrats to set this up, then hold onto the information in case Trump was elected so they could break it out in July of the following year.

EAllusion wrote:Super-smart of Democrats to set this up, then hold onto the information in case Trump was elected so they could break it out in July of the following year.

They are an inscrutable people, the Democrats.

MeDotOrg wrote:It does appear that Donald Trump Jr. initially remembered the meeting was about the frozen Russian adoptions. Funny he doesn't remember that Russia freezing the adaptions was in retaliation to the sanctions initiated by Obama against human rights abusers in Russia.

But now that his memory has been refreshed by the lidless eye at the center of the Fake Media Evil Empire, The New York Times:

But on Sunday, presented with The Times’s findings, he offered a new account. In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
He said she then turned the conversation to adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act, an American law that blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers. The 2012 law so enraged President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that he halted American adoptions of Russian children.

“It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

In summation, Donald Trump Jr. arranges the meeting with the Russian lawyer, and asks Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner to attend, without telling what the meeting is about. So...she had some wacko information about Hillary Clinton that made absolutely no sense. Then they talked about the adaption problem.

Oh, and Democrats set up the whole thing, according to Reince Priebus.

So you see? It wasn't the Russians setting up the Trump campaign. It was the Democrats all along. Now if we can only figure out how the Democrats got Michael Flynn to work for the Turks and Manafort to work for the Ukrainians...

Sounds like a contrived story of disinformation. Something the Russians are famous for. And now Donald Jr who is a mini me of his father. What really happened at that meeting who knows?

It was said on news today by the time Manafort, Trump Jr and Kushner get subpoened and forced to testify they're going to offer conflicting stories and at least some of them will be found to have committed perjury.

It just gets better and better. Daytime soaps couldn't ask for a better running soap opera than this three ring circus.

Hey MeDot!

MeDotOrg wrote: by the lidless eye at the center of the Fake Media Evil Empire, The New York Times:

That's awesome!

I really appreciate, value and enjoy your artistic writing ability.

Peace,
Ceeboo