Since it was specifically mentioned on the last page, maybe I can do a little to clear up my positioning here and where my skepticism and nonchalance lies on a variety of things. I mentioned this before but I find it really strange that it's somehow beyond the pale for a presidential candidate to discuss foreign policy changes privately, when he or she is spending a lot of their time doing it publicly. Just to take Obama, he not only was conducting foreign policy as both President and Senator (except that he didn't show up amirite Sean Hannity) but advocating for extensive changes in foreign policy from the Bush Administration in debates on and on the stump and so on.
There's an inherent quid-pro-quo in establishing better relations, or getting out of conflicts like Vietnam or Iraq. And it's a two-way street, both for not only American candidates, but foreign ones too. Not to mention both parties in our system.
To step back in hopes of clearing up my view some, lots of people accuse Nixon of having committed treason in 1968 by messing with the Paris Peace Talks. Aside from any problems with the factual record (like Kissinger's role and the fact that he was expected to join a Humphrey administration as well) there's the problem of LBJ being able to direct foreign policy to elect Humphrey and this somehow being fine. All while the candidates are making public statements, earlier in that same election you had the revolt against LBJ by McCarthy and RFK. In 1964, LBJ covered up the Gulf of Tonkin while working with the media to portray Goldwater as eager to get involved in Vietnam and drop nuclear weapons on it.
I know I'm losing the plot here, but that's actually the point. This whole assumption about foreign policy and foreign meddling in elections is kinda essential to the whole shebang. Especially considering the role of the Presidency.
That's the grander argument being made and it makes no sense to be applied solely to Donald Trump's campaign nor solely to Russia in just this election. Especially considering how that nation dominated our politics for 70 years.
If we're talking about John Podesta's e-mails, my issue is that the timelines don't add up and the whole plot makes no sense.
I guess I need to reiterate that I don't claim any innocence on Trump's part merely that the current propositions make no sense and/or only are relevant if you start constructing massive conspiracy theories on top like in the Uranium One blockbuster scandal, nor would I care to deny theories about his companies having business deals that wind up involved with criminals Russian or otherwise, or as Steve Contra better put it above:
Kind of crazy to think that a multi-generational new york real estate development company might be involved in some shady shit, but here we are.
There's also a firm layer of skepticism in Donald Trump himself here, I've
seen the guy tune out things happening in front of him and construct his own reality to replace it. His relationship with someone like Omarosa is a perfect example of how others can take advantage of him for their own ends. Hell, Bannon is. And those are losers operating for personal gain. I don't think any real serious masterminds are going to look at Trump, his sons, his organization and say "yep, these are totally people we should collude with on regarding the largest media spectacle of its age" to where I should assume continued investigations are going to find anything new and in increasingly amazing fashion.
That's part of why I don't think an obstruction of justice charge would ever be brought by someone who wants to be good at their job like Mueller. It seems entirely plausible that Trump is completely clueless and would back into a charge like that. I mean, the guy can't even put out the Fake News Awards on time and it's making us all get testy and snipe at each other instead of our normal lovemaking!
Regarding any SECRET massive information hiding in the bowels of the FBI that will blow this whole thing open any day now when the rest of us are finally made privy to it after three years, I find that hard to wait in anticipation for when we're already getting the personal text messages of the staff. Not to mention that Trump hasn't tweeted about it.
