jcsmith

15 minutes ago, Usernames said:

Again, pollution is population driven.  Obvious to anyone serious about the question. I wonder how much cleaner and more efficient the US would be had its population stabilized around 220 million, as predicted in the early 1970s.  Almost all population growth in the US is because of immigration.  Another 100 billion people demanding the American lifestyle and putting stress on water, electricity, natural gas, agriculture, homebuilding, freeways, etc. 

Population is certainly a factor. U.S. contributes far more CO2 per person than China or India. The world recognizes this as a serious problem, there is a reason only one other country has snubbed this accord in Syria. Nicaragua didn't participate for different reasons (they didn't think it did enough). 

This is about money. Plain and simple. It isn't about jobs, there's more jobs in renewable energy. It isn't about science. It's about a few companies making a huge profit while they can... at the expense of everyone else. 

36 minutes ago, Usernames said:

 

Absolutely 100 percent correct.  The problems are China, India, and the Third World.  And the Paris Treaty does nothing to address these countries/regions, except give money to their governments to spend in their traditional corrupt way. BTW, the video on UK cannibal kebabs that immediately follows is equally disturbing. 

The U.S. is the second largest contributor here. India is making changes despite them having a general power problem. China has been making huge changes. The third world may rely largely on coal but they are such a small percentage in relation. Your information is dated propaganda.

It's hard to disagree with him here. What Trump did today was a selfish act, that will make profit for a small number of companies, while negatively affecting the world as a whole, negatively affecting jobs, negatively affecting the environment, and blowing a serious blow to how other countries perceive America.

18 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

But just what if Trump is right ? I would venture there is a possibility that natural phenomena such as undersea and above ground volcanoes spewing rivers of molten lava are adding more to global warming than our paltry contribution, pouring billions of thermal calories into our oceans 24 hours of every day, unstoppable and seemingly unnoticed by the politicians. And this is not even taking into account the daily contribution of good old sunshine ! 

What if lightning bolts fly out of my arse? 

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

US politics have now deteriorated to the extent that a federal judge blocked Trump's latest immigration halt, not on the content or intent of the ACTUAL edict, but because the judge didn't like what Trump had been saying in the election campaign.

This is a misrepresentation of that decision. Trump is now trying to say that this isn't a muslim ban when during the election, after the election, and when he first rolled it out he and his staff referred to it as such. Changing some wording and trying to say that it isn't a muslim ban simply doesn't fly when he and his staff said the opposite so many times before it was overturned.

7 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

"any other person" could be a spy/Russian agent.

Did I read that they were pointed to such an expert?

 

Not sure I'm understanding your question. Maybe the wording was wrong. Anyone who gets a security clearance should be well aware of the the the magnitude of trying to communicate secretly with a foreign government, or about excluding those contacts. It's a very serious issue that could would sink the average person. So for people who should know better to try to downplay it and say that backchannels are not a big deal is deceptive. Maybe the purpose of those contacts is not a big deal. But if he tried to hide those contacts and the reported attempt to use secure Russian comms to prevent American intelligence from knowing what was said, that is a very serious and should result in his clearance being pulled at the very least. 

It's ridiculous that people are justifying this. His aides claiming it's just back-channel communications and ignoring the reports that he tried to cut American intelligence out of being able to listen in on it. If this had been done by most any other person they'd be in deep trouble. And any military or intelligence person knows this. The notion that he simply forgot to report these is also absolutely ridiculous, especially when you combine it with the fact that Flynn, Sessions, and others just happened to forget to report all of the communications with Russia. His clearance should be revoked and he should be subject to investigation.

On 5/21/2017 at 11:47 AM, otherstuff1957 said:

I voted no, not because I am a Trump supporter, but because impeachment does not automatically mean removal from office. 

Impeachement does mean removal from office. The reason Clinton wasn't removed from office is because the Senate acquitted him. 

4 hours ago, Cuchulainn said:

So she finally admits the country needs reform after her failed, disastrous government?

It needs reform in the sense that the two political parties flood paid protesters into the streets every time and the military then uses that as an excuse for a coup if the reds are in power each and every time. I'm all for peaceful protests. But when people invade government buildings, hospitals, or airports, the police and military need to disperse them. That can't be allowed to happen. But at the same time the military can't be allowed to have a coup every few years and then hold onto power inexplicably for years afterwards. Or where the junta seizes power and then persecutes one side (always the same one) while allowing Suthep to walk away clean after shouting to kidnap the then PM in front of thousands of people, and after bullying and stopping people from voting. 

There are plenty of problems that could use reform in Thailand. But where have the juntas improvements been? The only positive is that Bangkok doesn't have the inevitable protesters. Given the last round of protesters were paid, and that the leader of that effort has been given a lot of liberties since the coup that others have not had if you simply follow logic it will paint the picture that we aren't allowed to speak. And this peace in Bangkok what has it cost? A lot of freedom. A lot of deception. Corruption is still there, it's just someone else abusing it, this time behind the barrel of a loaded gun. 

And adding to that evidence this morning, we have a sourced article at the New York Times. As for who leaked it, it was a fellow FBI member who put his name on it. When Comey wrote these memos (which was standard procedure) he would intentionally tell other people so he had references, and one of those people who he spoke about these events for came out and leaked information as he felt it was important to get this out into the public. The new details include:

- Trump asked Comey directly when he would tell the public that he was not personally involved. Comey informed Trump that if he wanted to inquire about the case he should contact through legal channels and he did not answer or react. 

- The next day Priebus called Comey and applied pressure for him to put out news to the press saying that Trump's team was not under investigation. This of course wasn't true since Comey headed that investigation. Comey of course refused, and was unhappy with the request. 

This is not mentioned in the article, but remembering the basic timeline I believe this is likely referring to information that was leaked some time ago (maybe by the same source) which noted that the white house also contacted congress investigation committee members asking them to do the same thing. 

Also new and noteworthy yesterday were 18 new undisclosed contacts between the Trump transition team and Russian officials during the transition. These were all new contacts and in addition to the other undisclosed contacts which had been public previously. Why is this so important? They claimed there were no contacts with Russians, Mike Flynn even saying "of course not why would there be any contacts between our campaign and the Russians?" on January 15th. And this is in addition to the contacts which were already known previously. 

17 minutes ago, Crowes said:

 

Asking Comey if Trump is under investigation is not a crime. But if crimes were being committed and Comey knew about it, why would he not say anything or act on it while he was still the FBI Director? How did an FBI memo of Comey's get leaked to the press in the first place? I think these are more concerning issues than if Trump asked Comey if he was being investigated.

Asking about it three times is certainly suspicious and he admitted to this in public. Comey was acting in his investigation. He was putting together a case. 

As for who leaked the notes, Comey reportedly told others about these notes when they happened. It was standard routine for him to take these notes. I don't think the actual memo has been leaked, but someone has spoken about it. That is not a larger concern than the Trump case though as that memo indicating that Trump had tried to get Comey to stop investigating Flynn, along with the corrobating evidence that he specifically asked others to leave before he asked it (which indicates he knew it was out of line) and the subsequent firing of Comey who was investigating him are both cases of obstruction of justice. And if this comes down to a who do you believe scenario you are talking about a pathological liar in Trump vs. a boy scout.

The most important question is why is Trump trying to obstruct justice here? There has to be a reason for that. You would think that if he had nothing to hide he would want to get to the bottom of this. Instead he is doing anything he can to kill the investigation. Moreover in my post on the last page you have 15 bullet points (some with multiple cases in them) of information on the Trump/Russia situation. And that's just what is in the public.

37 minutes ago, riclag said:

Google "has trump Obstructed Justice". Then choose the appropriate link according to your beliefs. I think bottom line is it all comes down to ,further investigations would be necessary to know for sure.

There certainly does not need to be any more evidence of him obstructing justice. He has all but admitted that Comey was fired due to the Russian investigation on public television. He has also admitted that he asked Comey for details on if he was under investigation multiple times. Even if you conclude that Comey is lying, it is right there from Trump's own words. He did it. How do we know he did it? Because he told us so.

2 minutes ago, riclag said:

JCsmith I agree with what you said in quotes

"So while there is no smoking gun evidence yet".

 

I think we should just let the"facts" be investigated and not speculate .

The problem is the president has obstructed justice to try to prevent more evidence from coming out. This is a forum, we're here to speculate. And while there may be no smoking gun evidence of collusion, there is certainly a ton of evidence of obstruction of justice.

2 hours ago, Crowes said:

And when the FBI says Trump did nothing wrong, then what? Will liberals let it go or have they already decided what the truth is? It sure sounds like the latter. The democrats are no better than Obama birthers at this point. Let the witch hunt continue.

Huge difference. There was never any evidence on the birther thing at any point, it was a ridiculous rumor to discredit the first black president. 

Evidence in the Trump/Russia case:

- Carter Page was (either knowingly or unknowingly) a Russian asset. Trump mentions him by name in an interview though he was not a household name to anyone else prior to that.

- Paul Manafort (former campaign manager) had his name in a shady ledger, and worked as an agent of Russia. There is evidence of money laundering here. In addition to this his daughter's phone was hacked and the information leaked which included claims that Manafort was being blackmailed in the Ukraine by someone claiming to have damaging information about Manafort and Trump. Manafort would resign as campaign manager.

- Donald Trump and his son both eluded to previously having business interests in Russia, which they now say they have no assets. Trump also claimed to have a good relationship with Putin years ago, then after the Russian stuff flared up he denied ever having met him. This is all documented on tape.  Trump refuses to release his tax returns which might help leave a trail.

- It is now known that Mike Flynn had multiple contacts with Russia, and discussed the sanctions just put into place that day by the Obama administration in response to the Russian hacking.He was also acting as an unregistered foreign agent at the time, and pushed Turkey's agenda on election day (which he was paid for). Flynn disclosed that he was under investigation to the white house. Obama warned Trump not to hire Flynn. Sally Yates warned him that he had been compromised (she was fired days). Trump pushed Flynn through though still, and only eventually let him go after media pressure became too high once things began to leak out. Flynn is currently asking for immunity to testify in congress, which has not been granted. This leads one to believe they feel they can make their case without offering him immunity.

- Vice President Pence defended Flynn, supposedly because he was lied to. He later denied knowing that Flynn was working as a foreign agent, as well. This does not add up though. Flynn's people say they brought this up during vetting, and that they were aware of it. Okay maybe he's lying to defend himself... Except that congress also reported Flynn being a Turkish agent to the white house in an official letter to the head of the transition team... which happened to be Mike Pence.

- Erik Prince (Blackwater Founder and brother of Betsy Devos) tried to set up a back channel meeting between the Trump team and the Russians. 

- Several other Trump members also had undisclosed contacts with Russians including Roger Stone (who spoke with the Russian Hacker Guccifer who leaked the DNC emails) and Jared Kushner (who failed to disclose meetings with Kislyak and a Russian bank exec),

- There is the mystery computer in one of Trump's buildings who had 80% of its traffic linked to the Russian alfa-bank.

- Jeff Sessions when asked directly about Russian contacts in his hearings denied having any then later had to go back and admit to contacts with them during the transition that he did not disclose. Rather than face up to questions about this to congress he released a written statement and recused himself from anything involved with Russia. He would later play a role in Comey's firing when he should have been recused from the case entirely. On top of that the white house has repeatedly refused to confirm that he is recused from the Paul Manafort investigation. - The intelligence community, and foreign intelligence communities conclude that Russia attempted to influence the election in Trump's favor.  Trump for whatever reason always denied it, even insulted the intelligence community over it before finally caving in and saying it was probably the Russians in December. He recently stirred this up again acting as though it could have been someone else. 

- In an effort to distract people Trump went on some unfounded rant about how Obama wire tapped him. This was debunked by pretty much everyone. However Devin Nunes colluded with the White House to get information at the white house, then return the next day and act as though he was informing the white house of this very information. This while he was running the intelligence commitee got him forced off that case and has put him under investigation. Nunes was also part of the Trump transition team.

- Dmitry Rybovlev's private plane had a way of following Trump around during the campaign.

- There was also of course the Steele Dossier where much of the information is said to have checked out. 

- Trump reportedly attempted to get James Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, and before doing so cleared the room so he could speak directly to Comey. 

- Comey asked Trump for more resources to increase the investigation which was reportedly making good headway. Comey went from 1 week reports to daily reports. Then just after speaking to congress about the investigation he was fired unceremoniously while he was out of town. The Trump team scrambled to justify this as not being involved with Russia, only to have Trump betray their lies the next day and admit that it was in a nationally televised interview. It is now admitted (by Trump in the MSNBC interview) that Trump asked Comey for his loyalty and three times asked if he was under investigation.

- The day after firing Comey Trump met with Russians at the white house including Kislyak who was not on the list and who has been a centerpiece of a lot of this controversy. American press was not allowed in but Russian press was. At this meeting Trump leaked highly sensitive information that Israel had specifically asked not be shared with the Russians, during the midst of this entire controversy. When this leaked out McMaster and others rushed to deny it happened... only to once again have Trump admit that it happened the very next morning.

So while there is no smoking gun evidence yet, there is pretty clear cut obstruction of justice, as well as the possibility of much worse. This is a very important investigation. It needs to be completed without obstruction. It is quite possible that Trump himself was involved in collusion with the Russians in this case. He is certainly going out of his way to cause problems for himself to try to make this go away.

The question is why? It may be money laundering. It may be collusion during the election. It may just be that he was trying to validate his presidency. But he has certainly obstructed justice. And unless this is followed through with (which it should be now due to the special prosecution) it would always hang over Trump's presidency. If he has nothing to hide then he should welcome this.

Lol at all of you guys trying to claim this didn't happen. Only to have Trump himself admit to it the following day. Second time in a week he's done this same song and dance, send people out to lie and deny, then admit it himself the next day.

Donald Trump on Twitter:
 

Quote

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.

3 hours ago, myfriendu said:

Get cracking Don.

The FCC is a department that you control. An EO that causes an FCC rule.

YOU PUBLISH A STORY ON A LICENSED BROADCAST THAT YOU CANT PROVE TO BE TRUE

And by proving it is true you mean giving up their sources? Notice the white house denial's specificity mentioning things were not true that the article never claimed were true. 

And if by that logic the goal here is to ensure that people speak the truth, then why don't you turn your ire on Trump for his repeated false claims and doubling down on claims that nobody other than himself will back as being true. Even his own PR staff have taken to saying, "the president believes" lol.

The Russia investigation is very obviously frightening the hell out of Trump. This will eventually sink him.

On 4/25/2017 at 3:52 PM, seancbk said:

 

That is a solution.  

Do you volunteer to be one of the mass starvations?

This years tax returns certainly aren't under audit so he can't use that excuse any more.

This is what happens when you have the public vote on something that only the junta could comment on leading up until the vote.

11 hours ago, mogandave said:

Nothing benefits all citizens.

 

Sure, nothing benefits all citizens, but there are systems in place which benefit people who need it, and then there is the Trump family, benefitting themselves. You don't see the difference between systems that benefit millions of people who need it, and those that benefit a handful who really didn't need it in the first place?

21 minutes ago, mogandave said:

 

All the sudden we're worried about what the tax payers have to foot the bill for.

Too funny

 

Aren't we always? These aren't programs that are beneficial to citizens. They are things that are beneficial to the Trump family only. 

So much potential for corruption in this administration, justified by saying things like Trump won't discuss business with his sons. Or that Ivanka sat in on meetings but was no longer involved in business. From Trump manipulating business on Twitter, to Kellyanne Conway giving ads to Ivanka's business in interviews. 

Then you have obfuscation and lies like Trump won't accept a salary as president... which has sense changed to he will donate his salary to charity... which means he can use it as a write off, which means the tax payers still have to pay it. And oh let's not forget that Trump has spent 1/3 of his presidency on his own properties, and his wife is living separate from him and also require secret service. Both of these cases help his business because people will pay extra to be some place with access to the first family... but of course it's costing tax payers millions of dollars in both cases.

@pkspeaker: People have responded to those things already, but you keep posting them again and again, and it makes it difficult to read through the thread. 

@pkspeaker: Is there any reason you keep posting the same massive links and images in every single post?