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Robert Mueller's Team Reportedly Interviewed Facebook Staff As Part of Russia Probe (thehill.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has interviewed at least one Facebook employee tasked with helping the Trump campaign's digital operations during the 2016 campaign, Wired reported on Friday. The report, which cited a source familiar with the matter, does not say when the employee was questioned nor does it detail the focus of the interview. Mueller's team has been investigating for months any collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia. During the election, Facebook deployed employees to embed with the Trump campaign to assist its digital operations. The company also worked with Hillary Clinton's campaign team but did not have employees embedded with them. The company has also been scrutinized by Congress for selling more than 3,000 ads to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian "troll farm" alleged to have carried out misinformation operations online during the campaign.
Let the Pro/Anti Trump fights begin!
I think we may just see /. continue to report on this nonsense through the next seven years of President Trump's presidency. Then they'll probably continue to report on it through all eight years of President Ivanka's presidency, too.
I have been thinking since this started that Mueller has the most phenomenal luck in catching this assignment. After running the FBI pretty much everything else he could do would be anticlimactic; a downhill slide to obscurity and retirement.
Instead, everyone in the entire world is breathlessly waiting for what he has got. What his real skills are. What effect he will have on the history of the civilized world.
Add to that there could not be a bigger, fatter, softer target that Donald J Trump and his hapless progeny and minions and cronies. These guys are up to their armpits in Russian mob money that's what has Jared, Junior, and fat old dad so worried. The collusion business is barely actionable, but they know that the trail leads to all the money laundering they have been doing for the past two decades.
I don't expect anyone named Trump to do any jail time. And certainly Trump is immune from the consequences of any action he took as long as Republicans control congress. But if Mueller has even 1/10th of what he is generally believed to have Trump is going to have a very miserable year.
I've been a Newsweek subscriber for the vast majority of the years since the late-sixties, but even I though they were crazy for publishing that. Not going to happen.
unless the electorate turns on the Republican party. That's really what doomed Nixon. I don't see that happening. There's not a lot of difference between the Dems & the Rs right now (excluding Abortion & maybe Gay rights). There's a movement in the Democratic party to change that but so far they've been successfully shut out by the party leaders, even after the huge loss to Trump.
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the mainstream media and mainstream politicians are the ones who created the "collusion" narrative and very deliberately decided on the "collusion" phrasing instead of saying "conspiracy." conspiracy is obviously what they mean to say and should say, but ironically of course they have long since burned the "conspiracy" terminology, having trained the public to instead associate it with an untruth, a false narrative, with outlier schizophrenic lunatics being the only ones to think it true.
Yet another brainwashed fool who doesn't understand how the US electoral college works despite it being explained everywhere over and over again for the past year.
Sad!
Hilary was run because she was popular with the billionaires who basically run things. Between Hilary and Trump they'd have taken either one, but they made damn sure we didn't get Bernie. Already I'm seeing stuff like top ten Democratic contenders lists without Bernie on them. The mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, etc) are doing their best to pretend he and the actual American Left don't exist.
Meanwhile the Republicans took both the House and Senate but lost the popular vote both times. And not by small margins. Dems took home 55% of the votes in the last round of elections to 45% on the Republican side and _still_ lost the House and Senate. You can't even blame that on Gerrymandering since the Rs took the Senate. And then there's Trump's victory despite losing the popular vote by 3%.
It's getting difficult to even pretend we live in a democracy anymore... I don't know what's worse, that these statistics exist or that our government doesn't even have to bother covering them up.
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This. If only pure votes counted, Trump probably would have only concentrated on NY, Chicago, and LA, and most likely still would have won. Instead, he had a smart strategy of trying to win important states instead of using the "50 state strategy" Hillary used. Damn, it hurts for me to admit that.
Eh? That's not quite right. She, among others, approved the Uranium One deal, there's plenty of strange money flowing into the Clinton Foundation, one of their own people complained about such money going to things like Chelsea's wedding, and from what little they've revealed of supposedly Russian operations, they were supporting things like Black Lives Matter.
It seems just a bit odd to categorize that as "pro-Trump" but then again we have so many articles were "sources" say any damn thing they want that I don't really believe anyone any more, and yes, that's including Trump.
The whole lot of you are full of BS.
Despite your attempt to make it partisan, it was a real attack on the USA. It started BEFORE Trump was picked for the nomination, so it was also an attack on the Republican party.
Do you think for a second Republicans want this whiny streak of loser in the Presidency? Their servers were attacked too, Putin's lot attacked them too. Trump attacks them too, undermines them too.
Or Republican supporters, do you imagine they want a Russian sell out? If you think that, perhaps you've forgotten Roy Moore and his "hello, how are you speech" to Putin in Russian. Shortly after dissing the USA and fluffing Putin. He managed to turn a safe Republican seat into a Democrat seat. They rejected him.
I see you're trying to define it as a narrow partisan thing, to avoid discussions of the wider attack from Russia on America.
They are only as loyal as the last payment you made.
Melania, President Trump's wife, was born in eastern europe.
Ivanka, President Trump's eldest daughter, was born in the United States (in New York)
Trump is not a Clinton or an Obama, so nobody is talking about his wife following him into the presidency as people have spoken of Hillary and of Michellle.
People HAVE spoken about his daughter Ivanka (as some have spoken of Clinton's daughter Chelsea) running for the office someday.
As a deeply patriotic American, I find all this dynastic talk rather repellant. We are not a monarchy with royal families, and we make a point of it with a 200 year old tradition that while we are happy that other societies have royals and we can treat them civillay as representatives of their nations, we do not bow to royals (which is why many of us were angered to see Obama do it). With 300Million+ people, it is insane to assert that we can only find leaders within a couple of elite families (and, yes, I was pretty annoyed when the Bushes foisted a son on us once and positively outraged that they would try it again with Jebbers).
Stop embarrasing yourself.
A person can only win a contest by winning according to the rules of that contest. The American electoral system uses an electoral college to protect against the tyranny of a few highly populated cities running the nation. According to the rules, Trump won, therefore no matter what you say with your fevered imagination, HILLARY LOST.
You are like a fool who instsist that the team that lost the superbowl actually won because they had possession of the ball longer, scored points be damned!
... i.e. to paraphrase, if he won more votes then he'd be the winner. You then hypothesize that he could have won more votes if he's done something differently. TV reaches all states, he won the votes he won and would ever have won, NY Chicago and LA saw him on TV and his physical GPS location does not affect the outcome.
But yes, you are accepting the problem with being a 'winner' when the majority of the people across the US voted against you. Power comes from being the democratically elected people's choice, that's how democracies work. It's not that you can't see the issue, the majority of Americans can clearly see the issue.
"Damn, it hurts for me to admit that."
I read your comment trail, it's full of divisive 'Clinton ate my puppy' daily mail fluff and deflections equating Trump as Apple. It doesn't hurt you, you're just being the divisive you that you always are.
The Mueller investigation IS the coverup.
1. Mueller was running the FBI and is a long-time good friend of Comey.
2. Mueller handed off the FBI to Comey and then was involved serving Hillary in the Uranium One deal during the Obama years.
3. Mueller, Comey, and even Obama are all tangled-up in Uranium One (which transferred piles of cash from Russia through the Clintion org to who-knows-whom) and all three were communicating with Hillary via her illegal private server (so ALL are involved in her felonies, which explains why she was not prosecuted)
4. They all expected none of this to come out because they were certain Hillary would win.
5. Hillary funds an "October Surprise" intelligence report using a foreign spy who in-turn used russian spies as sources, and the document gets injected into the FBI where Comey uses if to get a FISA judge to OK spying on Trump and his team, and the FBI and team Obama leak fake tidbits from that "dossier" mixed with bits of info they got from the illegal wiretaps to their friends in the press, but it fails to stop Trump's election. This puts Comey and Obama in Nixon-like legal jeopardy if anybody finds out, so they need it to stay secret.
6. After Hillary loses, she needs to blame SOMEBODY for her loss which cost over a billion dollars, she blames Russia even thoug in the months before the election the entire Democrat team including Obama have publicly scoffed at the idea our elections could be tampered with, particularly by Russia (you can find youtube vid of Obama mocking the very idea). Democrats begin demanding an investigation of "Russian collusion with Trump".
7. The Democrats and the press demand Trump's AG Sessions recuse himself from the "collusion probe" because he worked on the Trump campaign as a volunteer and publicly met the Russian Ambassador when as a Senator he attended an event arranged by Obama's Stats dept - This is very "comvenient" becasue the Democrats have stalled Trump's appointments in the Senate and the #2 guy there is still an Obama person.
8. When Trump fired Comey, a move that SHOULD have been universally-approved given that both Republicans and Democrats had been calling for his firing for months, Comey leaked classified info to a buddy to have him indirectly leak it to a friendly press outlet specifically to try to trigger a special prosecutor.
9. When Sessions stepped aside, it left in-place Obama appointee Rosenstein, a friend of Comey who Comey could count on to name Meuller, which is what happened. While the laws that govern here require a crime to be listed in the documents authorizing the prosecutor, Rosenstein breaks this law and makes the commission open-ended with no specific law listed.
10. Meuller's team was supposedly investigating whether Trump colluded with Putin, but has instead been on quite a fishing expedition and leaking furiously. Every time Trump seems to get traction on something, the Meuller team leaks something (such leaks are criminal acts under the governing statutes) to the New York Times or the Washington Post to start a new distraction - the current leak is a perfect example: Trump goes to Davos and gets some positive press, Meuller then leaks that Trump tried to fire Meuller (a non-story given that [a] Meuller was NOT fired and [b] Fox reported that incident months ago).
It's rather apparent that Meuller's job is to try to keep a non-crime investigation bubbling along for as long as possoble both to immobilize Trump and to keep Trump's AG Sessions sidelined and unable to investigate Meuller, Comey, Clinton and Obama.
Have you considered that perhaps you watch too much TV, "antifa" fa and Dem propaganda ? Serious TDS issues there.
You're moving the goalposts.
GP claimed: "He's the least popular US President in recorded history."
You changed that to: "Trump is the least popular president at this point in their presidential term"
And several of those examples don't appear to be any too far into their terms.
There's been no evidence released yet to prove Russian influence of the election, but all thinking people know it to be true. The media wouldn't be talking about it so much unless it was true.
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The media wouldn't be talking about it so much unless it was true.
Just like the WMD's in Iraq!
"His name was James Damore."
He's alluding to the problem that, from all indications, the Dems have learned nothing from losing to Trump and will find a way to do it again. Probably by trying to run Kamala Harris for instance. So they lose everyone not cool with 'equality is racism/sexism and white men are evil' and eliminating all due process for sex crimes (particularly on college campuses) to staying home or even going (R), then doubly alienate everyone concerned with civil rights (she's a "tough on crime" prosecutor notorious for shitting all over the 1st Amendment and trying to destroy Section 230 from the Backpage case- truly awash in misconduct; defending the conviction of a man based on a confession inserted into a transcript (and saying it wasn't prosecutorial misconduct to submit it when the prosecutor *knew* it was fraudulent), and fighting tooth and nail against improving prison conditions/reducing overcrowding when those were so bad it got ruled cruel and unusual punishment... I could go on).
We're in a *lot* more trouble on the left with party-fracturing ideologies. There's a couple others that are at the top of the list that will have similar problems with getting people to vote instead of stay home (which is how Trump won; not from people switching sides, but so many many more Dems simply not voting over 2012/2008 then R's). Also consider that Trump absolutely 100% is enough of a megalomaniac nutjob to start a war with NK in his 3rd year because someone informs him that wartime presidents are a lock for re-election, which unfortunately is true. Dems would need to put up someone truly compelling, and the writing is already on the wall that they intend to do no such thing. So yeah, 7 more years of Trump. The best we can realistically hope for is taking back the house or senate to block the R's from their worst bs.
You mean those investigations that were concluded before she was even interviewed? Or the times she sat in Congressional hearings claiming she either couldn't remember or "what difference, at this point, does it make now?" - those investigations?
I needed a bunch of nerds who still hang around this obscure irrelevant tech site to tell me there's nothing to see here. Thank goodness you random people on the internet know more than the former head of the FBI and his team. It's good to know there will always be somewhere on the internet I can go to be reassured that Trump did nothing wrong and America is just as bad as the Russians anyway.
Could you name the arrests involved with Russian collusion?
Oh, you can't? Did you know the FBI has a corrupt agent, responsible for one of those charges, that had to be tossed off the team? It looks like that agent is responsible for a REAL "obstruction of justice" charge himself, and any evidence he presented will not hold up and charges he brought will likely have to be dropped.
Did you know Muller covered for that agent instead of reporting his misconduct? That would be aiding a felony after the fact, another felony committed by Muller himself.
Did you know Comey used FBI budget money to help the Clinton campaign? WHOOPS! Did you know the DOJ and FBI colluded with each other to affect the outcome of an election? WHOOPS! Did you know the DOJ was wiretapping Trump's campaign illegally? WHOOPS (remember Watergate)
Yea, I'm against firing Muller. When you have an obvious corrupt cop running the investigation against you, that is probably the easiest way to get out. Also, day 1 Muller was told there is no Russian collusion evidence, so he has just been ripping off the taxpayers since then. Muller is a criminal.
Feel free to ignore this post, but a significant number of people in the country believe the above is true. Since the FBI and DOJ to day have refused to answer ANY questions that would easily clear this all up, including deleting evidence that would clear up or prove it, I'm just going to assume its all true at this point.
And it's been incredibly useful. There's all sorts of nasty things businesses don't do because California won't let them and it's too expensive to run two lines of production (one for Cal and one for the parts of America where people don't get to vote). You shouldn't be content with your 'betters' telling you what to do. You should want your vote to count and be weighted equally.
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If you believe the whole Russian collusion line I feel bad for you.
Interesting that you can't even call "bullshit" without bullshit.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Imagine what the Republicans would do if Muller was investigating president Obama under the same circumstances?
Just like the WMD's in Iraq!
When I try to explain that to people, they say, "No, that was different. Trump is much worse than Bush."
Trump is more annoying than Bush, but so far he hasn't started any wars, so he's better than Bush. That's a low bar but it was a low Bush.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...Or the times she sat in Congressional hearings ... "what difference, at this point, does it make now?"
Since it made no difference....
Just ask Trey Gowdy where your 45 million in witch hunt money went
Many FBI agents are coordinating his take down.
So...nothing but speculation and bullshit?
Figures.
wait to the tides turn and its a republican heavy FBI that takes down the next democrat president.
It's a 4:1 REPUBLICAN FBI now. Where do you think the leak threat came from that caused Comey to give the Republicans their October Surprise?
Why would Teh Russians, not known for their vibrant economy, concern for Americans or charitable nature, be giving tens of millions of dollars to *any* "charity" in the United States?
Why would that be? Do Teh Russians routinely donate to charities not named Clinton Foundation?
If Hillary was doing a "50 state" strategy she wouldn't have skipped campaigning in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. Whereas Hillary's popular vote "victory" (scare quotes because there is no such thing at presidential level) came almost entirely from NY and CA - two states that Trump didn't bother to campaign in because he knew he wouldn't win.
If there was a real popular vote for president, a lot of Republicans in California would have gotten out of the house who otherwise stayed home, same for Democrats in Texas. Which is why talking about the pop vote is misleading at best and sophistry at worst.
No it fucking wasn't. The EC was set up to protect against "the mob" selecting the president of the United States - otherwise known as preventing the poor and working class from having a say in their own governance. Same reason senators were originally selected by state legislatures, and why voting was originally a right limited to property owners.
Because the sacrosanct Founders were all a bunch of elitist assholes (even the ones who didn't own other people) who should have spent five years in a labor camp before being made to re-write the Constitution, before being sent back for another five years.
Another problem with this retcon is the fact that that the number of seats in the House (which the EC apportionment is based on) was capped. If it had kept expanding and each district was made up of ~60,000 residents like at the time of the signing of the Constitution, California would have 650+ votes in the College compared to Alaska's 12+.
Finally, something that isn't a bad comic book retcon. Yes, Hillary lost. After telling independent Bernie supporters to STFU about closed primaries because the rules were known in advance, and after saying that Trump would undermine our democracy if he didn't accept the results of the election.
You match Trump's above-his-average current poll against the absolute lowest point of every other president - how is that supposed to be comparable?
Why not compare everyone's lowest, where his 33 puts him merely sixth from the bottom? Or their disapproval rating, where he's second-worst. Or if you actually wanted to genuinely compare overall popularity, maybe look at the averages over their entire terms, where in a field ranging from 45 (Truman and Carter) to 70 (Kennedy), Trump comes in at a decidedly unpopular 38.5.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
I do not watch or listen to those. Purely the facts from the investigation. If it walks and talks like a duck, it must be a duck. Many FBI agents are coordinating his take down. If that doesnt upset you, then wait to the tides turn and its a republican heavy FBI that takes down the next democrat president.
LOL, right.
- James Comey, a Republican, was head of the FBI until Donald Trump fired him.
- Christopher A. Wray, a Republican, was confirmed as Comey's replacement in August 2017.
- Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General, a Republican, appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
- Robert Mueller, a Republican, is conducting the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
- Donald Trump, POTUS, a Republican, supposedly wanted to fire Mueller last June (shortly after firing Comey) but was talked out of it.
Whatever it is that's motivating the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate the Russian connection to the 2016 election, it isn't partisan politics.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
If you want to win a US election thats the way to do it. Speak to all the different voters all over the USA. Visit and give good speeches on jobs, the USA, eduction, wealth, exports, winning.
Know the name of the state your in and as a candidate have a real, positive story about that state.
Be able to give a long speech.
Voters remember who could give a good speech in their state, who had the energy to speak in their state and who said good things about their state.
Short negative statements to the tame media from coastal states do not win US elections.
No social media and "other" nations needed. An "embassy" cant magically change US votes that get counted at a city, state level and are witnessed by local observers.
Good news and great speeches gets the votes out all over the USA.
Find a good candidate that can give an interesting speech around the USA and win elections.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
US "experts" looked all over Iraq really wanting to find anything to help their political masters.
The expert who could look all over Iraq found vacuum cleaners, license plates, a swimming pool.
The "experts" the US media and press trusted so much all lied to the US media.
Now the same failed media is pushing social media stories about other nations winning US elections.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Photo ID to use social media? That would be a very interesting private sector database to create and keep secure AC.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Indeed. Clinton would not become anything if Trump was removed from office. Speaker Paul Ryan would become Vice President, per the U.S. Presidential line of secession.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
With only a pure popular vote, there would be no United States: it would have disintegrated a hundred years ago into several independent countries. The purpose of the electoral college is to prevent this from happening by preventing the bulk of the country from feeling powerless against a small number of big cities. Here are the county-level results from the 2016 election. Note the small dots of blue in the ocean of red. Of course, while Hillary claimed her $1.2B "participation trophy" from the popular vote, it's telling that her own party doesn't believe in the "popular vote" for use in their primary elections. Instead, they use a regional points-based system with a even large percentage of the electors coming from party insiders. That's how much they value the popular vote!
Of course they were elitist assholes. You don't get to be a slave owner without being an elitist asshole by definition, or limiting the right to vote to those who owned property. And even those that didn't own other people didn't want the proles having a say in their own governance. You can complain some more about those facts, but to paraphrase NDT, the neat thing about facts is they don't give a shit about whether or not you believe in them.
This was always an unbelievably stupid talking point, as that's a distinction without a difference. A state is nothing more than a set of boundaries and the people who live in said boundaries.
Stick to Dems and not this fan-fiction history, mmkay? Because yes, the DNC rigged their own primary, and would rather lose to Trump in 2020 rather than clean up their mess or change course.
Silly person. It's not Rape. It's just an interview because it's the Democrats doing it. Maybe improper touching.