Official Political Discussion Thread

Rootin4EverybodyBlack · Nov 17, 2017

Slightly random, but Killer Mike's rants about the 2nd amendment really make him sound like an idiot and I say that as a fan of his music.

...So · Nov 17, 2017

frink85 · Nov 17, 2017

...So said:

I still don’t get how serious this is. For a big company to monopolize a local market like that by buying small stations/newspapers, wouldn’t those local outfits have to be for sale?

I guess competition/lack of competition or going up against Goliath would make it tough to stay in business, is that the worry?

deleted · Nov 17, 2017

Belgium · Nov 17, 2017

PLVN said:

Good, but how about they review facts before announcing such buffoonery

EddieDoyers · Nov 17, 2017

PLVN said:

Well that’s something decent he has done for once

But, he shouldn’t approve the decision to allow big game hunting when the time comes.

Belgium · Nov 17, 2017

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rob-goldstone-ready-come-u-s-talk-mueller-n821826
Rob Goldstone ready to come to U.S. and talk to Mueller

The British publicist who helped set up the fateful meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians at Trump Tower in June 2016 is ready to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller's office, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Rob Goldstone has been living in Bangkok, Thailand, but has been communicating with Mueller's office through his lawyer, said a source close to Goldstone.

Goldstone's New York lawyer, G. Robert Gage, declined to comment other than to say, "nothing is presently scheduled."

However, sources close to Goldstone and familiar with the investigation say they expect he will travel to the United States at some point "in the near future," as one put it.

Goldstone helped set up — and attended — the June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower at which Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya says she presented information to Donald Trump Jr. and other key Trump aides. The meeting has emerged as a focus of Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump team colluded with the Russian effort to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

In an email that later became public, Goldstone wrote to Trump Jr. that "the Crown prosecutor of Russia … offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father."

There is no office of crown prosecutor, but Goldstone appeared to be referring to the Russian prosecutor general.

He added that "this is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin," a reference to his long-time clients, oligarch Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, a Russian pop singer. Much of Goldstone's publicity business involves music promotion. He also represented the Miss Universe pageant, at one time owned by President Trump.

In reply to Goldstone's email, Trump Jr. wrote, "if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."

Trump Jr. hosted the Russians alongside Paul Manafort, then Trump's campaign chairman, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser. Along with Veselnitskaya, the Russian delegation included Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze, who works for the Agalarov family in the U.S., and Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist engaged in trying to lift Obama administration sanctions on Russia and Russian entities.

Also in the room was Russian-American translator Anatoli Samochornov, who had done work for the State Department and had translated previously for Veselnitskaya.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the promised assistance from the Russian government was provided, and whether it was part of what a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer called "a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation" between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Veselnitskaya told NBC News she first received the supposedly incriminating information she brought to Trump Tower — describing alleged tax evasion and donations to Democrats — from Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS owner, who had been hired to conduct research in a New York federal court case.

A source with firsthand knowledge of the matter confirmed that the firm's research had been provided to Veselnitskaya as part of the case, which involved alleged money-laundering by a Russian company called Prevezon.

Veselnitskaya said she turned Simpson's research over to the Russian prosecutor.

A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to comment.

RustyShackleford · Nov 17, 2017

malikdagoat said:
Slightly random, but Killer Mike's rants about the 2nd amendment really make him sound like an idiot and I say that as a fan of his music.

I am a fan of him as a person, and a political commentator, but I think he sounds like a jackass sometimes.

trueprada · Nov 17, 2017

trueprada · Nov 17, 2017

gry60 · Nov 17, 2017

http://time.com/5028560/ronald-watts-chicago-police-extortion/

trueprada · Nov 17, 2017

trueprada · Nov 18, 2017

sfc415 · Nov 18, 2017

If you have to avoid talking politics in a sensible manner your family members aren't @#$@. Disown them ASAP

trueprada · Nov 18, 2017

Belgium · Nov 18, 2017

The Alabama Republican governor Kay Ivey yesterday:
"We need to have a Republican in the United States Senate to vote on the things like Supreme Court justices, other appointsment that the Senate has to confirm, and make major decisions. And so um, that’s — that’s what I plan to do, is vote for the Republican nominee, Roy Moore."

"I certainly have no reason to disbelieve any of them. The timing is a little curious, but at the same time, I have no reason to disbelieve them."

"I will cast my ballot on December the 12, and I do believe that the nominee of the party is the one I'll vote for."

"I believe in the Republican Party and what we stand for, and most important, we need to have a Republican in the United States Senate to vote on things like Supreme Court justices, other appointments the Senate has to confirm and make major decisions," Ivey said. "And so that's what I plan to do, is vote for the Republican nominee, Roy Moore."

"Every Alabamian has a right and duty to vote -- to determine who their US Senate person's going to be from Alabama. And yes, I'm proud to vote and hope every Alabamian will be proud to cast their vote."

Belgium · Nov 18, 2017

More nothingburgers. Kushner is just a low level family member. Basically a volunteer who joined at a later date. He only spent a limited amount of time in the family.
http://thehill.com/homenews/adminis...ts-surface-on-kushners-knowledge-of-wikileaks
Kushner told Congress he did not recall campaign contact with WikiLeaks: report

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner told congressional investigators in July that he was not aware of any communications between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, according to a CNN report on Friday.

That testimony appears to contradict a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee this week disclosing that Kushner had received an email in 2016 from Donald Trump Jr. about contact the president's eldest son had with the anti-secrecy website.

According to CNN, a source familiar with Kushner's testimony in July said he answered lawmakers' questions accurately and did not recall whether anyone else on the campaign was in contact with WikiLeaks.

In a letter sent to Kushner's lawyer on Thursday, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, respectively, said that "other parties have produced September 2016 email communications to Mr. Kushner concerning WikiLeaks, which Мr. Kushner then forwarded to another campaign official.”

The letter also said that documents turned over to the committee by Kushner were "incomplete" and gave him until Nov. 27 to turn over remaining documents.

The revelation that Kushner was aware of Trump Jr.'s contacts with WikiLeaks came days after the president's eldest son confirmed that he had communicated with the group and released the messages they exchanged in the months before the November 2016 election.

WikiLeaks published emails that had been stolen from Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, as well as from the Democratic National Committee, before the election.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is one of multiple congressional panels investigating Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is carrying out the criminal investigation into the matter, including whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

whywesteppin · Nov 18, 2017

hear! hear!

aepps20 · Nov 18, 2017

whywesteppin said:
hear! hear!

Excellent post as usual Suspects COMRADE whywesteppin. OUR PRESIDENT keeps DESTROYING LIBBIES and Crooked H.

gry60 · Nov 18, 2017

http://www.normantranscript.com/new...cle_d8383864-cb20-11e7-8206-2bc32ae1169a.html

Holland said the dean’s main objection was that the report made policy recommendations, specifically those in the concluding paragraph of the report:

"Even if a network is owned and operated by industry, regulators must ensure that seismic data are not withheld from the public,” the report read. “Similarly, making injection data, such as daily injection rates, wellhead pressures, depth of the injection interval, and properties of the target formation, publicly accessible can be invaluable for attaining a better understanding of fluid-induced earthquakes.

“Open sharing of data can benefit all stakeholders, including industry, by enabling the research needed to develop more effective techniques for reducing the seismic hazard."

Holland said he was never given a written reprimand and believes conversations were conducted over the phone or in person to avoid a searchable record of conversations available through open records requests.

Holland said he wished he would have recorded the conversations, including those that took place during a 2013 meeting at OU President David Boren’s office with Boren and Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm.

Holland said he was summoned to the meeting after he published a paper discussing hydraulic fracturing triggering earthquakes in Oklahoma.

“Well, the president of the university expressed to me that I had complete academic freedom, but that as part of being an employee of the state survey, I also have a need to listen to the people within the oil and gas industry,” Holland said. “And so Harold Hamm expressed to me that I had to be careful of the way in which I say things, that hydraulic fracturing is critical to the state's economy in Oklahoma, and that me publicly stating that earthquakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing was — could be misleading, and that he was nervous about the war on fossil fuels at the time.”

Holland called the meeting “intimidating,” but he went on to publish another report on induced seismicity in February 2015. By July of 2015 it was made public that Holland would be leaving the university and the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

Holland said energy companies, industry and environmental groups reached out to him to advocate for their point of view, but he said they weren’t the source of coercion.

“I was navigating a difficult landscape, but I was not pressured by industry to change what I'm doing, I was pressured by staff,” he said. “Now, I did — was pressured by Harold Hamm to change the way I spoke about [fracking] in public.”