6335

His talking points coach said it was important, so he’s pushing it.

6336

Look, fuck all this Minnie Mouse bullshit. We need more investigations and hearings on the unmasking. And what about Hillary’s emails? Why is she free??

6337

I’m totally serious about the Dossier thing. Why is that a thing? What exactly is the supposed wrongdoing there?

Cause it really seems like it’s just “Let’s investigate more things so that the investigation into Trump gets lost in the noise.”

I mean… that’s it, isn’t it?

I honestly don’t understand what about the dossier is supposedly scandalous, other than the actual contents of the dossier… which the far right seem to totally disregard anyway.

6338

I think the reasoning goes, assuming the dossier is fake and damaging to Trump’s reputation, and the DNC helped fund the dossier, then the DNC is caught red handed making FAKE NEWS!

Cause otherwise, I’m not sure. Oppo research isn’t usually investigated by congressional committees.

6339

The Dossier thing is extra hilarious because it’s literally the excuse Trump and friends are using for the whole Russia thing. So if the Dossier matters, then what Trump did matters. But they’ll tell you what Trump did doesn’t matter and everyone does it, while also mentioning the Dossier in the same breath.

It’s flagrant stupidity.

6340

I seriously want @Malathor to explain what exactly we’re supposed to be thinking about the dossier thing.

Seriously.

Tell us what you are thinking about it. I literally don’t know what the impact is supposed to be.

6341

I was going to post this exact question. Also serious. I thought it was SOP for any campaign, whether in the primary or in the general election, to do dirt-digging on their opponents.

6342

The Repub conspiracy theory goes like this. The Hillary campaign took over the Fusion GPS Trump oppo research program and ordered them to hire Steele. Steele puts together his “salacious and unverified” dossier from god-knows-where. Fusion GPS hands the dossier to sympathetic Dem partisans (lead by McCabe) in the FBI. They decide to use it to launch an investigation into the Trump campaign as an “insurance policy” against Trump getting elected. They convince Comey to start an investigation then take it to a FISA court to get taps/surveillance on various people in the Trump campaign. Then those taps are systematically unmasked by Susan Rice to look for dirt on the Trump campaign. Voila, Watergate, but instead of burglars and bugs your using a weaponized and politicized FBI to accomplish the same task.

Not saying this conspiracy theory is any truer than the Trump/Russia conspiracy theory, but if that can get 6k posts I thought this deserves at least one. Cheers!

6343

Thanks for the explanation (not being sarcastic).

6344

That’s an interesting theory, but it’s irrelevant at this point since we have overwhelming evidence from independent sources that Trump really was conspiring with the Russians.

6345

Sure, but if you’ve got nothing to lose, obfuscation is a viable tactic

6346

That’s the real puzzle here. Republicans have shut their eyes and jammed their fingers in their ears on the Russia front. Trump can do no wrong, he’s a God, whatever.

If a Democratic President had this level of craziness going on, I’d be the first to want it fully investigated. Of course I wouldn’t have voted for such a sack of shit in the first place.

6347

Do you believe the equivalence you are trying to present here?

We know, without question at this point, that members of Trump’s campaign were in fact working with the Russians.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is established, provable fact.

6348

What do you mean by “working with Russians”? I’ve “worked with Russians” too. I have friends born in Russia too, so? Be more specific.

6349

“Working with Russians” in the same sense that the Rosenbergs were. Maybe that’s a bad example. 2010s Republicans probably think they were innocent.

6350

Trump’s campaign met with Russians with the express purpose of receiving information on Clinton.

That is a thing which we know, with 100% certainty, happened.

And that’s merely one thing among a mountain of connections we already know happened.

To suggest that ties between Russia and the Trump campaign is a conspiracy theory is to demonstrate either profound ignorance or profound intellectual dishonesty at this point.

6351

Well yeah, you’re just giving us the definition of a Republican.

6352

Can you even imagine the outcry from the GOP circa 1986 if the democrats had conspired with the russians against the GOP? And the democrats would have agreed with that outcry.

Today? It’s just a team sport - ethics, morals, and the future of the country be damned.

6353

My preferred counterfactual is to imagine if Obama had been caught on tape saying 'grab ‘em by the pussy’ in 2008.

6354