Trump Sabotages America

[canpakes]

Trump's campaign, including his own son, met with Russians because they were interested in getting dirt on Hillary. This is an established fact based on the email exchange and no amount of spinning or semantic gamesmanship about "collusion" is going to change that. What the Mueller report concluded is that "collusion" isn't a legal term so it wasn't even addressed. But that doesn't change the fact that collusion happened.

What? You mean that it’s not cool that the son of a Presidential candidate willingly met with Russians of dubious reputation on the hopes that they would supply him with ‘dirt’ on the opposition? : D

[honorentheos]

Yeah, though it was a special council not a court. And the finding was the parties involved attempted to collude but were apparently too incompetent to actually do so.

good, we agree..there was no collusion.

No successful collusion that met an acceptable and applicable definition. Sure. Attempts and desire to collude that ironically failed to meet thresholds of illegal activity because the Trump campaign was incompetent? That, too.

[Res Ipsa]

Ah, how soon they forget. The Mueller Report defined its terms pretty precisely:

A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there
was no evidence of those facts.

In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted
a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of "collusion." In so doing,
the Office recognized that the word "collud[e]" was used in communications with the Acting
Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation's scope and that the term has
frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific
offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal
criminal law. For those reasons , the Office's focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability
was on conspiracy as defined in federal law. In connection with that analysis, we addressed the
factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign "coordinat[ ed]"-a term that appears
in the appointment order-with Russian election interference activities.

Like collusion, "coordination" does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood
coordination to require an agreement-tacit or express - between the Trump Campaign and the
Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking
actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests. We applied the term
coordination in that sense when stating in the report that the investigation did not establish that the
Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

So, no finding whatsoever on "collusion." The investigation did not establish "coordination," interpreted as the law of conspiracy requires. And, the fact that the investigation did not establish coordination does not mean there was no evidence of coordination -- just that the evidence did not warrant the filing of criminal conspiracy charges. Applying "collusion" as used in normal conversation, there was substantial evidence of collusion presented in the report.

[honorentheos]

Eh. Subbie wants to hang his hat on language games as is his wont. It's irrelevant to the much more important issue of a sitting President undermining the foundation of democracy. There is always something that constitutes fraud in practically every election because people are people. A poll worker makes a mistake. A widow fills out her recently deceased husband's mail in ballot knowing who he wanted to vote for. A person sends in an absentee ballot then attempts to vote in person, too. Some conservative consultant in NC hires people to fraudulently fill in people's ballots. But what didn't happen, and what matters, is meaningful coordinated fraud or anything on a scale that would have changed the outcome of the general election. Why subbie doesn't want to admit that is his issue. Maybe he feels good about himself when he plays those games like he learned to do when defending the LDS church. Don't care, either.

[canpakes]

Just more news about Trump preserving his Swamp and rewarding his grifter buddies ...

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller dismissed nine Defense Business Board members and replaced them with 11 new appointments on Friday, the latest shakeup in the Pentagon aimed at installing Trump loyalists.

Former Trump 2016 campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie are among the 11 new members. Bossie was tapped in November to lead President Donald Trump's efforts to contest President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Lewandowski has also helped with those efforts.

Members of the Defense Business Board provide the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense as well as other senior leaders within the Pentagon with independent advice from a private sector perspective.

The organization, created in 2002, is a way for representatives from corporate America to present new ideas to aid senior leaders with management decisions. The appointments are typically held between one and four years. It is not clear if the incoming Biden administration would replace any of the members announced Friday.

"Board members do not receive compensation," a Defense official told CNBC. "However, board members receive reimbursement of travel and per diem during dates of travel for board business," the official added.

Secretary Miller let nine Defense Board members — Michael Bayer, Arnold Punaro, Atul Vashistha, John O'Connor, David Venlet, Paul Dolan, Scott Dorn, David Walker and David Van Slyke — go because they "had been serving in expired positions," according to a Pentagon statement.

The Pentagon statement did not include explanatory details as to why the Trump administration decided to remove them from their roles now, less than 7 weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Trump has not conceded the U.S. presidential election to Biden.

[Jersey Girl]

Just more news about Trump preserving his Swamp and rewarding his grifter buddies ...

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller dismissed nine Defense Business Board members and replaced them with 11 new appointments on Friday, the latest shakeup in the Pentagon aimed at installing Trump loyalists.

Former Trump 2016 campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie are among the 11 new members. Bossie was tapped in November to lead President Donald Trump's efforts to contest President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Lewandowski has also helped with those efforts.

Members of the Defense Business Board provide the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense as well as other senior leaders within the Pentagon with independent advice from a private sector perspective.

The organization, created in 2002, is a way for representatives from corporate America to present new ideas to aid senior leaders with management decisions. The appointments are typically held between one and four years. It is not clear if the incoming Biden administration would replace any of the members announced Friday.

"Board members do not receive compensation," a Defense official told CNBC. "However, board members receive reimbursement of travel and per diem during dates of travel for board business," the official added.

Secretary Miller let nine Defense Board members — Michael Bayer, Arnold Punaro, Atul Vashistha, John O'Connor, David Venlet, Paul Dolan, Scott Dorn, David Walker and David Van Slyke — go because they "had been serving in expired positions," according to a Pentagon statement.

The Pentagon statement did not include explanatory details as to why the Trump administration decided to remove them from their roles now, less than 7 weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Trump has not conceded the U.S. presidential election to Biden.

So tell me. Can't Biden simply dismiss these folks and put in his own? If so, what's the real point of doing this? Or is this just Trump flailing about and throwing his toys around the room?

[Gunnar]

So tell me. Can't Biden simply dismiss these folks and put in his own? If so, what's the real point of doing this? Or is this just Trump flailing about and throwing his toys around the room?

My guess is that Trump is, in part, hoping that if he can replace enough of these highest ranking positions with diehard loyalists to himself, between now and January 20, Trump and his loyalists will be sufficiently entrenched that there can be no successful challenge to his declaring martial law, should he decide to do that. This would effectively make him the absolute tyrant he aspires to be, and Biden would be helpless to do anything about it or replace any of Trump's diehard loyalists.

[Moksha]

Trump and his loyalists will be sufficiently entrenched that there can be no successful challenge to his declaring martial law, should he decide to do that. This would effectively make him the absolute tyrant he aspires to be, and Biden would be helpless to do anything about it or replace any of Trump's diehard loyalists.

This would set in motion the long war of Former America against the World.

[dantana]

Well, I'm not too worried about them actually succeeding at a coup, because as in all things Trump, he is completely immersed in stupidity and incompetency. And so is his crew. He doesn't have any real thinkers on board, because anybody with any real intelligence would see him for who he is, and no Trump promises of money and power would keep an actual intelligent person seated for this coming car crash.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well, I'm not too worried about them actually succeeding at a coup, because as in all things Trump, he is completely immersed in stupidity and incompetency. And so is his crew. He doesn't have any real thinkers on board, because anybody with any real intelligence would see him for who he is, and no Trump promises of money and power would keep an actual intelligent person seated for this coming car crash.

Dantana,

You deeply misunderstand human nature and its ability to make a deal with the devil. I'm sincerely not trying to be offensive toward you. I know we're all sitting around, watching a pants-crapping Adderall-addicted emotionally-crippled imbecile throwing a 24/7 tantrum, commanding his army of flunkies to try anything and everything to get him installed in power again, to include recently having his idiot hair-brained spy infiltrate his own justice department and bully employees to get them to go along with the coup. For her efforts she was rewarded with a federal sinecure - a three-year term on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy. THAT is why people make deals with the devil. THAT is why coups are supported by stupid, self-interested parties.

Trump's behavior is completely seditious and the Trump campaign's claims are knowingly fraudulent, because nothing they say in public is what they're saying in court under oath, but they keep doing it because it's a damned coup and they don't care about the law or actual fraud they're just trying to win. This is what a coup looks like when they parties involved are damned idiots, but in no way should their incompetence or stupidity detract from the seriousness of their crimes.

The problem with coups that look like a farce, but are supported by a base of fools, is they turn to a national tragedy in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes. This is a constitutional crisis. It's real. We're being coup’d by people who know they're coup'ing and have convinced their idiot base that they're the victims, despite being the sole belligerents. It's crazy, but it's happening.

- Doc