So how did "the Russians" affect the vote?

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Freedom is our Strength.

America would not be the United States of America sans "election shenanigans", foreign influence in our elections and voter fraud--our Constitution doesn't get ratified in 1787 without a liberal dose of all 3. It's as American as cutting corners on weight in NASCAR, juicing in the Tour de France and the Patriots cheating to win the Super Bowl.

While Putin likely tries every chance he can to fuck with US elections--whose to say Obama didn't win 2012 thanks to Russian influence--Romney very publicly ( and to the public derision of President Obama ) cast Putin as a looming bad guy on the world stage. And didn't President Obama fuck up and tell Putin's guy on a hot mic that Obama would work with the Russians more openly once he secured re-election? Hmmm....

I don't think whatever shenanigans the Russkies got up to changed the outcome of 2016. Dems ran the wrong candidate, Bernie or Elizabeth Warren likely beat Trump. Tho Trump ran a smart, limited campaign, focusing on battle-ground states with large populations of economically dislocated and *feeling* politically disenfranchised white people. To suggest the Bernie bros likely stayed home on Election Day ONLY after the revelations of DNC chicanery became public knowledge--which could've come from the Russians, tho it could've come from Seth Rich or another DNC insider or the NSA too. http://digipo.io/doku.php?id=digipo:ana ... not_hacked --assumes the Bernie bros were idiots who didn't pay attn during the primaries when the DNC was working to screw their guy.

The money-shot of the DNC email hack/leak wasn't the hack/leak, it was what the DNC did to fuck Bernie in the primaries--to suggest that all that Bernie-fucking wasn't already known by the Bernie bros? Come on, now, they were already out on Hillary. The emails just validated what they saw with their own eyes during the primaries--the DNC working OT to nominate Hillary and undercut Bernie.

As far as the current voter fraud commission. Yeah, that's bs for the Trump administration to pretend they need to ask the states for information on our voting histories when both parties already have databases with every American's complete voting history, political preferences, favorite sexual positions etc etc:

I just want to say I am a big Hussra fan and I am very glad he is not dead.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Seconded. Love me some hussra.

Congrats on getting out of jail.

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He's better as Keeping Score.

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I love how we always have these discussions about the sanctity of our elections yet ignore our history of rigging or influencing dozens of foreign elections since 1948 (starting with Italy).

As I've said before, we deserve to have the Russians interfere with our own elections.

That's why I laugh when Evan McMullin complains about Russian influence. He was CIA, someone should ask him how many elections he has influenced.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

What don't you understand about Manifest Destiny?

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Bad analogy. We are trying to make them better countries. Since we are already the best country on Earth there is no reason for people to interfere with our elections.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I know you're being facetious, but the scary thing is that this is probably what actual CIA officials say to themselves as they overthrow elected leaders

_________________
“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

You didn't post anything to dispute my statement.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Donald Sutherland in JFK does this awesome job summarizing this. It's actually pretty frightening.

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Almost as bad as reading about the crap the World Bank and their "preferred" American financiers & contractors have done wrapped in the American flag

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Well I think the house and senate investigation committees have been very circumspect in their language regarding Russia. The message from the hill is that Russia "interfered" with the election, not that they stole votes or hacked voting machines, etc. Even Trump recently said Russia meddled in the election, so I'm guessing that may cause the skeptics to accept what bi-partisan committees and intelligence agencies have been saying all along.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

It's correct to note the hypocrisy given the history, but why is it relevant? Do you want your election to be interfered with by a foreign state? If some country nukes Florida are you going to say "I love how we always have these discussions about nuclear non-proliferation yet ignore our history of nuking Japan. As I've said before, we deserve to be nuked."

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I do not get this line of thinking fully either. The whole but what about us is of little value when thinking about today's issues or solutions. Well we interfered in elections also or we deserve what we get as far as terrorism does nothing for me.

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Elections have consequences.

Right. And I'm not saying Russia doesn't bear watching. But that isn't some new thing. I know it's difficult for MANY to put aside their feelings about Trump. I don't really think that's the case with you. So for me it comes down to what exactly this is all about and how does it affect our nation/government. I would argue that the whole thing is an attempt to delegitimize a fairly elected American president which is more damaging than the "interference" was in the first place. In other words, the obsession with Russian interference is actually working to achieve the goal of the Russians.

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

At the risk of triggering the MANY by responding directly to you just flip the roles and you would have your answer. Trump and the right lose and Clinton won with the same Russian "interference". Are there as much love for all the coverage, hearings and investigations? No. We have seen that movie before with different recent inquiries.

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Elections have consequences.

BENGHAZI!

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

MOVE ON!

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

Mike, you bring this up a lot and it's easily refuted, in my opinion. Here's my opinion on why this makes no sense:

1) The "right" controls both chambers of government plus the executive. If the country were so anti-right then what I described wouldn't be possible.

2) The FBI investigated Clinton while a democrat was in power while she was in the middle of a presidential campaign. The hypothetical scenario you described in your post actually happened, with some variations, so that alone undercuts your argument.

3) The key word here is bi-partisan. There would be support for a bi-partisan investigation of Clinton if everything that happened over the past 1.5 years was the same and we were focused on Clinton instead of Trump.

4) The coverage doesn't mean shit. What matters are the investigations. You're not obliged to let every Huffington Post article color your thinking on the investigations.

5) One key reason there's so much drama here is Trump himself. He's refusing to cooperate with an investigation that's supported by his own party. He could easily say something like "for the good of the country, I'm fully committed to cooperating with the investigation committees to get to the bottom of Russian interference in our election.". But he won't. He's too busy tweeting wrestling gifs and making fun of cable news hosts. Feel free to explain that one.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

1) Yes but if not for the crazy over the top resist movement and media since just after the election this never gets to a congressional hearing let alone a special prosecutor. Furthermore, you also have many Republican establishment types that also are not happy Trump won.

2) Yes, but we saw similar actions by the Obama administration and DOJ to drag their feet to slow inquiries as well as flat out claiming priveledge or in the case of Holder flat out refusing to cooperate at all.

3) I am not sure many believe that.

4) I am not sure I am commenting specifically on the investigations but in my opinion without the main stream media jumping to resist there are no hearings. To this level anyway.

5) I have said this many times. Perhaps, you allow yourself into believing I am pro Trump as others do. We will see what this all amounts to.

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Elections have consequences.

Yes. After YEARS of investigating, which turned up absolutely nothing, it was time to move past Benghazi.

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Trump doesn't need anyone's help to make his occupation of the White House a farce. He can handle that job all on his own.

"covfefe"
\

I missed those posts even if I don't understand most of them.

Where is Jim Kelly?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That may be the case. But Trump wasn't a stealth candidate. He's the same asshole as president as he was when he was running and America voted for him.

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

In this case the "if you have nothing to hide why not comply" way of thinking totally applies to Trump. It's part of his duty as an elected official, not that he would know or even care. I agree he was fairly elected. That hasn't been disputed to my knowledge among people who should be taken seriously (i.e.not Jezebel bloggers). The bi-partisan folks running the investigations have a duty to investigate the extent of the interference. If this interference had taken place via covert agents in the USA who then fled back to whatever country they came from before they were caught would you be as nonchalant as you seem to be now? This is electronic warfare and I'm just surprised it is being so casually dismissed. Everyone wants to build a wall to keep landscaping crews out or to make sure they're not swinging national elections but when a foreign state virtually penetrates your borders no one gives a shit. And by the way the whole thing about delegitimizing this dumbass can't work because the intelligence agencies, Congress, and the admin started working on the Russia stuff well before Trump was elected. In fact Clinton at the time was the favorite.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Again, I think we both agree that Trump is Trump and everything that statement implies. But think about it this way- even if it were a normal person rather than a narcissistic egomaniac (and I would submit that anyone who runs for president has at least some narcissistic egomaniacal qualities)- how should a guy who was elected to the office feel when he has been under siege since the day after the election? If you know you didn't collude with Russia- and there's been ZERO evidence to suggest that he or anyone involved in his campaign did- I think it's pretty normal to become frustrated with having to constantly deal with this. But you're right in that a different type of person would just ignore it and let it play out. Obviously, that's not Trump.

Finally, there are a lot of "respected" journalists who have cast aspersions upon his election either through innuendo or the flat out suggestion of such.

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

I'm not sure I follow your thoughts here. Are you saying the CIA, FBI, NSA, other intelligence agencies, plus the senate and house are investigating nothing? That they are spending so much time on the Russia stuff because private media companies are setting the agenda for them? Or are you saying there is something to investigate, but were it not for unrelated protests and media stories, the government wouldn't have investigated something worth investigating?

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I don't think we'll ever find common ground on this. I think you're asking me to feel sorry for an arsonist who smells like gasoline, or for a swimmer who smells like chlorine. Not going to happen. If you don't want to be under siege then don't be a crass piece of shit who invites criticism and scrutiny, who goes out of his way to attract publicity. Virtually every single critique of Trump is based on measurably objective grounds.



So I think you're basically saying he's a snowflake who is triggered at the slightest provocation, even if such provocations are not actually provocations. I'm not sure what collude means here. Flynn and Paige have been red flagged.



I just care about the investigation committees. I think you have to believe in our institutions - once public trust erodes in those institutions then this all goes to shit. Trump is placing himself above our institutions, and we knew that would happen.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I'm not asking you to feel sorry for anyone. But I will say that there's a big difference between critiquing a president and trying to run one out of office from Day 1 because your preferred candidate lost. I assume most people don't like the opposing candidate. That's why they voted for the other guy. Unless we want to trash the whole system we have to accept the results when the guy we voted for loses.



I don't use the term "snowflake" to refer to people, but of course Trump is thin-skinned. I don't think even those who voted for him would disagree with that. And what does "red flagged" mean? That they had some business ties in Russia? That they made some phone calls there? It's a big leap from there to saying that they sat down with foreign operatives to figure out how to steal a U.S. election.



That's just it. I don't think Trump is placing himself above institutions any more than Obama did. Obama actually ordered his Justice Department to ignore laws he didn't like. Trump has a grating personality. He's an asshole. A lot of people thought Clinton "deserved" to be president. These are all reasons why Trump is taking the heat he is when Bush and Obama did not, at least not to anywhere near the same degree. The presidency is an institution too. It shouldn't be denigrated by congressmen screaming "RESIST!" because they're angry that Hillary Clinton lost.

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Freedom is our Strength.