I am not sure that the old saying where there is smoke there is fire is always true. But it is worth looking into because you don't want to miss the fire. In case of Trump's associates, there is smoke all over the place. It is hard for me to believe that anyone running for president would collude with Putin. But it is amazing how many of his people had contacts with the Russians. I don't claim to know everybody involved but I am going to see if I can summarize what has been in the news regarding this.
It started with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who may have been paid millions by a pro Russia political party in Ukraine. He represented Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin in business transactions. He resigned from the Trump campaign last August.
Roger Stone is a Trump advisor and used to run a political lobbying firm with Manafort. He claimed he had direct contacts with Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks and correctly predicted release of private documents by WikiLeaks.
Jeff Sessions, former senator appointed to be Attorney General by Trump. He did not reveal that he met with Russian ambassador to the U.S. during his confirmation hearings. He has recused himself from the investigation of Russian involvement in the election.
Jared Kushner, son in law of Trump, who met the head of a Russian bank that was under U.S. sanctions. I don't know why he would do that, consider it is easy to know that this bank is under sanctions and is connected to Putin.
Michael Flynn, former national security advisor, who resigned three weeks into the term after it was disclosed that he had spoken with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. and then lied about it to vp Pence and others.
There might be others but that is all I can think of. Michael Flynn's attorney said that Flynn would testify if given immunity. That is interesting because he was accused of talking about lifting sanctions to the Russians before he took office. Not great ethics but I kind doubt he would be jailed if that is his only crime. Also, prosecutors don't give immunity for testimony unless the accused can give up somebody that is more important to the prosecution than the accused. So who would Flynn give up? The smoke thickens.
Sunday, April 02, 2017
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It's possible that Trump and his people didn't contact Russia about rigging the election. It's pretty obvious that he and his people have had contact with Russians in the past. In fact, in a 60 Minutes interview, Trump says he is friends with Putin. I don't know how you can back from that. Well, he has. So how can we accept him for his word?
ReplyDeleteIn past years, I may not care if anyone had contact with Russia. But it's a bad look and even if there was no conspiracy, it doesn't make me feel confident that a President would not care about how it looks. Everyone that is in his circle is someone he hired personally. Do you mean to tell me he didn't ask them if they had dealings with Russia?
I don't know if I'll get a chance to watch your favorite show, DWTS tonight. The basketball game will be on. I'm rooting for Gonzaga to win it. Funny thing is I didn't do a money bracket this year, but did one for fun and have both teams in the final with Gonzaga to win it. Yet, I would be in 2nd place if it all happens. So, in a way, I'm glad I didn't pay money for the bracket!
-LBOAYM
My biggest criticism of Obama was when he drew a red line about Assad using chemical weapons. Now Trump is faced with the exactly same situation. When asked, Trump said that Assad had crossed more than just a red line, he crossed many lines. So what is Trump going to do? When Obama was president and faced with this situation, Trump tweeted that Obama should not attack. So now he blames Obama for not doing anything. A few days ago his administration put word out that Assad staying in power is the reality. Now that he crossed many lines, is Trump changing his mind and attack Syria? Not so easy when you are president, is it?
ReplyDeleteGood game on Monday night, Gonzaga could have won but NC was probably the better team. Michigan lost to Oregon by one and Oregon lost to NC by one. So Michigan was two points from the national championship!
Lexi Thompson lost in a playoff after being penalized 4 strokes for accidentally misplaced a ball by an inch. This occurred on Saturday but nobody on the course noticed it. On Sunday someone who saw it on tv emailed the officials and then the officials reviewed the tape and then assessed the penalty. This is nonsense. Can you imagine someone calls in a day after any sport and get the call reversed? If the official and the player's playing partners and caddies didn't notice a infraction at the time, the score should stand. If it turn out the player cheated, he/she should be fined and suspended. In this case, it was an inadvertent inch, no penalty should have been assessed, especially a day later.
What's funny is that after Obama remarked about the red line, congress would not let him do anything militarily against Syria. So I don't know what he was supposed to do. I keep hearing that we should not be involved in Syria by certain groups, yet it looks like Trump will get us involved. There's too much irony here. Does he want to help them or not? If you want to help them, why are you not letting in any refugees?
ReplyDeleteI heard about the penalty on Thompson from a friend of mine who was at the tournament. This same friend is also at Augusta this week. He was mad that they penalized Thompson a day after. Apparently there has been a couple more weird rules things that happened this year already. And I had read that changes to rules don't happen overnight and that there's some kind of process. I'm not a huge golf guy. The only time I really watch it is during the Ryder Cup. I like the rowdy crowds. I just view the sport as too uptight. I don't know any other sport that allows a viewer sitting on his ass at home to make a call and a day later the rule is enforced. It's absurd.
But rules are rules, I guess. Just seems stupid.
-LBOAYM