I was actually intending to denote Putin, but you’re right that it’s pretty much a “Trump’s Favorite World Leaders” hit parade.
Interesting read, Papadopoulos’ testimony to the House Intelligence Committee:
As regards to the Barr Memo and all of the hidden messages in it, I’d point people to this video:
Will is not a defender of Trump. He is a defender - and he defends it relentlessly - of the crude, crayon-drawn version of reality he has in his head. Naturally, having a worldview at odds with reality will mean that occasionally he appears to be agreeing with Trump, but that’s purely coincidental.
I would like it very much if, when you (or anyone) post links like this, that you would give some sense of the content, particularly what you wanted us to get from it. Were there important/salient points that prompted your impulse to share? Throw us a bone, how 'bout it?
Doesn’t have to be a long summary–just something about why you linked.
Well, he does get burnt so often that his skin has underwent a Mallard reaction.
For the first, summaries already exist, I’m sharing that there is something available for anyone interested in the details. If you’re not interested in the details, then it doesn’t add anything big, it’s just an interesting read. It’s like reading someone talk about having met and subsequently discovering that he had been played by James Bond.
For the latter, summarizing defeats the purpose, but I’d say that if you’re bored you’re better to go out and get some exercise than to try and perform divination by scattering around the words of Bill Barr’s letter. The Mueller report will come out in a few weeks. Just be patient and wait for it. Go for a jog.
Just asking here, if Barr’s memo is indeed massively at odds with the content of Mueller’s report, why wouldn’t (or couldn’t) Mueller just say so publicly? He wouldn’t even have to say where the discrepancies are, just that they exist. IIRC his spokespeople have done similar in the past.
I think things could be a lot more complicated than this. Barr’s report may have used a lot of legalese language that is technically accurate but leaves out a lot of information that could be very harmful to Trumpland, or even make impeachment much more likely. And Mueller may feel comfortable waiting to be subpoenaed by congress before making any sort of statement like this, or have some other plan, or maybe it’s totally accurate but the referrals to SDNY and other offices will be crushing for Trump, or a million other possibilities (include the complete or near-complete exoneration of Trump in all investigations).
We don’t have near enough info to know which one of these is true. All we know is how people are reacting now, and initial signs indicate to me that Republicans don’t want the full report released. I think that tells us something, but I’m not sure what exactly.
Indeed, in a perverse way, trying to not get it released even if it is completely exonerating could play to their hand, if they make sure that it is eventually released: it would be like the fake news they occasionally get news outlets to fall for only to prove them wrong.
My bold. Even this much of a bone is helpful.
I don’t see how it possibly could.
No need to be patronizing. I’m not bored. I’m sitting at the radiologist waiting for the results of a mammogram. You’re a rude fellow, aren’t you?
Typical. How pathetic!
One thing I’m a bit worried about… McConnell could fight tooth and nail against releasing the full report, even if the full report isn’t particularly more damaging than the summary, and drag it out and drag it out, knowing that he’ll eventually lose. The more he fights, the more we all assume there’s something truly devastating in there, and then the more anticlimactic it actually is when it’s released.
It’s possible, but there’s no way to know without seeing the entire report. Somehow I expect it will eventually see daylight, whether through a congressional subpoena, a leak, or something else.
Here’s the mystery: if it’s not particularly damaging, then why not release it?
I suspect it’s a helluva lot more damaging than that summary, which wasn’t even a summary but a few out-of-context sentence fragments. I could never even get away with a book report constructed like that.
It basically has to be, since it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The indictments of Stone, Manafort, Gates and others are just as much Mueller’s work product as the “report” is.
So does anybody understand why the House Democrats aren’t just straight up subpoenaing the report already?
They have a “Friday deadline” where they’ve demanded the report be released by. I take it as a foregone conclusion that release isn’t going to happen. It’s pretty obvious.
So why, if we’re going to play that game, we aren’t just getting it out there now. Extra time plays into Trump’s hands, not the Dems’.
I was not specifically singling you out, but the general aura of discussion was reminding me of all of the conspiracy theorists who come to the site, getting fixated on trivial statements that they’ve decided open up access to whole new dimensions of possibilities or make everything completely not mean exactly what it means.
Personally, I’d rather the SDMB remain a place that fights conspiracy theories and definitely not become one that generates them.
And granted, that’s a complicated line to draw when the discussion is of an actual, possible conspiracy that’s of sufficient enough likelihood to kick off an FBI investigation with the support of the majority of Congress - including the President’s own team.
But, as said, the Barr letter isn’t a window to the truth of the matter and excessive rumination on it is the sort of thinking that has historically gotten people into trouble.
It’s pretty likely that Mueller wrote the report to be easily redactable. We probably will not need to wait for long for it to come into public view.
Personally, I’d recommend reading the Trump Foundation suit, the Kristopher Hansen documents, and considering the question of how Stephen Calk ended up committing crimes with a one Paul Manafort, given that the two didn’t know each other, and why he knew about the Trump Formation and wanted to work for it. I’ll note, on that last, that Trump Foundation raised money for US military veterans and Calk ran a bank that specialized in loans to US military veterans.
The media has been lazy, focusing their attention on collusion - a crime that would be impressively difficult to prove if the Russian spy apparatus way actually running it - and ignoring a whole bunch of other fodder. The people of the land are largely unaware of the truth about what they hired and put into office. It’s more useful to spend this time spreading the information about everything the media has missed and getting everyone on track, rather than spending time in the navel of collusion.
A fun one is the raid that the FTC ran last year as a subtle FU to the boss as regards the Trump Foundation:
That should have been a big point-and-laugh at Trump when it unfolded, because we all knew what he had done. But no one knew. That news was not big news.
The Mueller report will be damn interesting. But there are other things that we could be spending our attention on that are less interesting than a genuine international conspiracy, but that fell by the wayside and shouldn’t have.
That’s an easy one. To keep you focused on it rather than moving on to something else. Then especially if there is nothing of consequence the bigger their gloat when they’re pointing out how much time and money you spent fighting to see nothing.
Oh. So, they already know what’s in it? So sure that they can run a gamble like that?