Donald Trump colluding with Russia sounds like the plot for a terribly 80's movie, and at first the story seemed almost too much to believe even for the strongest trump opponents, but with Flynn's resignation and the latest story that he discussed sanctions with russia its gaining more and more credibility.I thought I would highlight and summarize all the various claimsIn July 2016 Carter Page visits Moscow (fact) and reportedly receives an offer to lift sanctions in exchange for 19% of Rofsnet (claim) among other discussions.https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-30/trump-russia-adviser-carter-page-interviewhttps://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.gw5nG13V7#.uforV7valLater that month, Trump made his only significant change to the RNC platform: it gutted the GOP's anti-Russia stance regarding Ukraine (fact)https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-campaign-guts-gops-anti-russia-stance-on-ukraine/2016/07/18/98adb3b0-4cf3-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html?utm_term=.f614f9575fb7In July wikileaks dumps the DNC emails and claims immediately start that they are from Russian hackers (claim, corroborated by intelligence agencies), and in Trump's last press conference he said he would consider lifting Russian sanctions and joked that they should continue to hack Clinton (fact)https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/07/trump-crimea/493280/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-orders-review-of-russian-hacking-during-presidential-campaign/2016/12/09/31d6b300-be2a-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.ce05f4c86744Carter Page, Trump's advisor, was being investigated for his ties to russia and continued to visit moscow throughout the investigation (fact). Page has deep ties to Gazprom (fact) an office near trump tower (fact) and may be involved in shady deals (claim)http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/world/europe/carter-page-donald-trump-moscow-russia.html?_r=0https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-30/trump-russia-adviser-carter-page-interviewhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-advisers-public-comments-ties-to-moscow-stir-unease-in-both-parties/2016/08/05/2e8722fa-5815-11e6-9aee-8075993d73a2_story.html?utm_term=.ac474c2f7b38In December, Igor Schefin, who is discussed in the steel dossier (the golden showers report) was shot twice in his car in an alley that the russian state media reported as a heart attack (fact). Per the dossier shefer was the one who may have authorized the deal to page (conjecture)https://cgrozev.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/tower-of-cards-part-1/Paul Manafort was under investigation for his ties to Russia, he was very likely paid by a pro-russian ukrainian political party (claim, somewhat corroberated) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.htmlRex Tillerson, Trump's Secretary of State, has extensive ties to russian oil and lobbied for reductions in sanctions while at exxon (fact). He has ties to the company that reportendly offered Carter Page the rosfnet deal (fact), he may be hiding oil assets offshore (claim) and has been awarded the russian order of friendship honor by putin (fact). Tillerson also negotiated a $500 Billion deal with Sechin between Rosfnet and ExxonMobilhttp://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/12/15/trump-russia-exxon-tillerson/&refURL=&referrer=#662ae3e63a63http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-rosneft-idUSBRE83H0UE20120418https://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/12/18/20563/tillerson-directed-offshore-company-used-russia-dealshttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/18/leak-rex-tillerson-director-bahamas-based-us-russian-oil-companyRoger Stone, another Trump adviser, is a former business partner to Paul Manafort (fact), has a history of dirty campaigns and influence peddling going all the way back to nixon (fact), was the communicator between assange and the trump campaign (fact) and is under investigation by US intelligence (fact)https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/06/16/the-rise-and-gall-of-roger-stone/d8ce308b-7055-4666-860e-378833f46e17/?utm_term=.9dad13b06cechttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/02/trump-adviser-clinton-emails-wikileaks-roger-stonehttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.htmlRussia has also recently arrested two high ranking cyber intelligence officials, potentially because or their role as us spies (fact and conjecture)http://wccftech.com/fsb-official-us-spy-russia/Mike Flynn resigned because it was confirmed that he had discussions with Russia about sanctions and he lied about this to VP Pence (claimed now confirmed)https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/politics/donald-trump-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn.htmlNow Trump has said that he is open to lifting sanctions on Russia (fact) and 19.5% of Rosfnet has been sold to an unknown party (fact) and the japanese prime minister may have discussed russian sanctions during the visit with trump (mixed reports on if this was discussed)Russian officials are celebrating the trump win (fact) and all of this shit seems incredibly shady.Congress needs to put Trump under oath and ask him questions about these connections.
2/14/2017 1:34:46 PM
man I would love to see Trump under oath. Don't see it happening though.
2/14/2017 1:57:51 PM
As long as Trump is willing to play ball on key agendas with Republicans in the Legislature they'll never touch him.
2/14/2017 2:06:00 PM
Photographic Evidence:
2/14/2017 5:05:38 PM
How do you feel about posting, not necessarily clear connections between Trump and Russia but more general foreign policy moves between US/Russia?Literally the day that Flynn is canned, We in the US get reports that Russia has some kinda god damn missle pointed at Western Europe and several of their jets were again flying way too god damn close to US ships. Which is all concerning enough on it own, I mean if Trump "gets tuff" on Putin, and Putin "complies."Shouldn't that belong ITT. Because that'll be some bullshit...
2/14/2017 6:43:29 PM
I feel like a special committee - of the same sort they put together for Clinton - needs to be convened for this investigation. He should be treated with the same respect (or disrespect) with which Hillary was treated.
2/14/2017 6:54:47 PM
^^ they also have a spy ship off the east coast
2/14/2017 9:25:36 PM
Is Trump the unwitting pawn being manipulated, or is he an active participant (it doesn't matter for culpability but I just don't think he's smart enough to be this plotting). From a resource standpoint this is far cheaper way to get sanctions lifted than a war or having to cede something diplomatically. If the tables were turned and it was the USA pulling strings in another country, we'd be pretty pleased. I also think this makes Obamas team look a lot better for keeping the pressure on Russia despite their effectivene clandestine operations.
2/14/2017 9:50:55 PM
Seeing speculation that Obamas order in his last days giving intel agencies access to each other's data was in relation to the investigations into Trumps Russia contacts.
2/14/2017 11:38:39 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
2/14/2017 11:51:12 PM
^^^ no. It's his people. Doesn't matter though.
2/15/2017 6:15:54 AM
we learned in the 90s you can commit a bunch of felonies as president and it doesnt matter if you dont have votes in the house/senate to do anything about it
2/15/2017 6:58:37 AM
Is it obvious to anyone else that this unsubtle display of aggression shown by Russia in the last couple of days is just a manufactured opportunity to "prove Trump is tough on Putin" when he gets them to "back down"?
2/15/2017 7:39:08 AM
I'm not so sure about that, i don't think russia has a continued interest to help trump. for example, some japanese and american media reported that russian sanctions were not discussed during shinzo abe's meeting but russian media reported that trump encouraged japan to soften sanctions. if they wanted to prop up trump now as being hard on russia i don't think that's how they would have reported the story.
2/15/2017 9:11:16 AM
Partisan intelligence agencies working with a partisan press to undermine the new POTUS based on a narrative invented to hide how they were partisan and their party lost.Did I miss anything?Just look at these smear campaigns from the leftist mediahttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html?_r=0
2/15/2017 10:11:26 AM
I like how JCE tries to show an article and say it's a slanted attack and then shows us a quote from the very article he posted that indicates it's being reasonable and impartial.Also, the headline is a factual statement. "Trump Campaign Aides had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence." Yes, that actually happened.
2/15/2017 10:19:48 AM
Is JCE 18 and this is his first presidency as an adult?
2/15/2017 10:24:00 AM
2/15/2017 10:35:53 AM
2/15/2017 10:58:10 AM
i did my best in my original post to distinguish the facts, claims, and conjecture. the point of summarizing everything is to show all of of the known facts paint a picture that this really looks more than coincidental in regards to the russian contact; flynn discussed sanctions, and that is a big deal by itself, but then he lied to the VP about it and the WH knew that he lied about it but didn't care that he lied to the VP about it________________________________________________________________________i'd encourage everyone to just ignore JCE2011 in this thread, it should be obvious to you that he is trolling and has no interest in a good intentioned debate or discussion[Edited on February 15, 2017 at 11:21 AM. Reason : .]
2/15/2017 11:20:50 AM
2/15/2017 11:35:29 AM
2/15/2017 11:39:28 AM
Headline before the election lest anyone forget that James Comey is a piece of shit.
2/15/2017 11:43:34 AM
i think that ran in the very same edition where they had the comey story above the fold
2/15/2017 11:45:22 AM
2/15/2017 11:52:15 AM
2/15/2017 11:56:09 AM
2/15/2017 12:14:42 PM
Sorry for the double post but just one more thing to add. JCE, you keep complaining that the DNC stuff wasn't reported on. Here are just a few examples that prove you are wrong and also prove you refuse to actually do research. I individually listed three from the NY Times since this is in the context (there's that word again) of the NY Times article we were already discussing which you claim is a leftist media entity that doesn't report on the DNC.https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-wikileaks-emails.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/20/insider/how-we-identified-the-dnc-hacks-patient-zero.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sanders-clinton.html+ all of the referenced articles here (there are 81 of them): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committee_email_leakThat's just a few...[Edited on February 15, 2017 at 12:29 PM. Reason : a]
2/15/2017 12:29:01 PM
2/15/2017 12:56:51 PM
2/15/2017 1:39:42 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFR8DbSRQE
2/15/2017 1:46:33 PM
^You may want to try other sources than RT. Just saying.That being said, going just on the video - I'd be interested to know what was going on before and after that 29 second excerpt was posted. Is there a link to a full video anywhere?Here's a reputable link.http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nuclear-summit-obama-medvedev-idUSBRE82P0JI20120326
2/15/2017 1:57:59 PM
2/15/2017 2:08:25 PM
^^ Not to mention he was the sitting president already, which is really the only counter needed.[Edited on February 15, 2017 at 2:09 PM. Reason : X]
2/15/2017 2:08:45 PM
^^The article you posted (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html?_r=0) covers both.But yes, they're both relevant because of each other.The "abnormal communication" going back several months probably (I say this given everything else, but we don't have proof yet) relates to lobbying efforts to 1) reduce sanctions 2) recognize annexation of Crimea 3) divide the US and NATO. The intercepts regarding Flynn directly reference sanctions reductions and the like.All of this happened during the RNC/DNC hacking stuff which US intelligence unanimously concluded were a Russian State effort to affect the outcome. Hence, the context matters.
2/15/2017 2:14:25 PM
lol, it doesn't seem like ChadLee989 realizes that Obama became president in 2008 and served 2 terms[Edited on February 15, 2017 at 2:32 PM. Reason : lol]
2/15/2017 2:31:48 PM
Unhinged:https://theintercept.com/2017/02/15/carter-page-at-center-of-trump-russian-investigation-writes-bizarre-letter-to-doj-blaming-hillary-clinton/
2/16/2017 8:27:02 AM
can someone point me to whatever righ-wing blog or talking head started the "obama talked to russia too!" talking point?I can't find anything about this and want some more info. are they just talking about a new ambassador making introductions or something, because that is not a story and not comparable.
2/16/2017 10:19:02 AM
I think that was more of Obama talking to Iran in 2008
2/16/2017 11:11:55 AM
^^ChadLee989 (i think, i'm still looking, but he posted the RT thing).NM - It was kdogg(c)message_topic.aspx?topic=648206&page=8#16410379
2/16/2017 11:16:14 AM
I've seen it posted a lot, in facebook comments and reddit etc... but i can't find the source of this talking point nor can i figure out what they are talking about
2/16/2017 11:20:41 AM
I guarantee it's a C&P from the donald reddit forum. The people that read that typically copy and paste anything in there when they're debating someone on any particular topic rather than doing research on their own.
2/16/2017 11:22:41 AM
2/16/2017 11:45:58 AM
@TerdFergusonGood LORD that Intercept article is bizarre. That guy is 100% going down if he actually sent all that. No sane, innocent person would have done that.
2/16/2017 11:52:51 AM
^^It's definitely Trump's first presidency as an adult.
2/16/2017 11:53:31 AM
Yea, it's simultaneously not surprising that they would try to blame this all on Hillary and totally surprising that the best argument they could come up with were half-formulated, unhinged conspiracy theories.
2/16/2017 12:05:15 PM
2/16/2017 12:16:09 PM
^ lol ------CNN says they have names. Still not clear what they talked about. Either way doesn't make them look good. If a campaign is going to talk with a foreign country, they would have gone through normal diplomats or business leaders, not intelligence agents.
2/16/2017 12:36:20 PM
diplomats and business people can be intelligence agents
2/16/2017 12:38:21 PM
2/16/2017 12:53:31 PM