Random Political comments...

Deliberately, he didnt cover how it's also a huge platform for Black/Afrocentric views. Not sure if that's just another typical dismissive action, since he only mentioned gay and White topics. The fact is, YT has given BP the opportunity to voice content the media censors - their perspectives, be they popular or unpopular - I've become aware of a lot watching them, good and bad. Let the viewer decide.

 

Interesting. Who are these Black/Afrocentric YouTubers that you've watched?

 

I couldn't name them off top of my head, way too many found down the YT rabbit hole.
In fact, you introduced me to that one guy...lol, again, couldn't tell you his name from a can of paint, but l remember his comments.

 

So the WHO didn't find anyone better than Mugabe to appoint as goodwill ambassador. They've got to be kidding. Now they are "under fire". Surprise, surprise.

 

Oh ok, actually he's been removed again from that role after a few days. I still wonder how they got the idea in the first place.

 

Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier
By Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman

October 24, 2017 at 7:21 PM



The Washington Post’s Adam Entous looks at the role that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee played in funding the research that led to a dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s links to Russia. (Bastien Inzaurralde, Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump's connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.

Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.

After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the company in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS's research into Trump was funded by an unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS's research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day.

Fusion GPS gave Steele's reports and other research documents to Elias, the people familiar with the matter said. It is unclear how or how much of that information was shared with the campaign and the DNC and who in those organizations was aware of the roles of Fusion GPS and Steele. One person close to the matter said the campaign and the DNC were not informed by the law firm of Fusion GPS's role.

The dossier has become a lightning rod amid the intensifying investigations into the Trump campaign's possible connections to Russia. Some congressional Republican leaders have spent months trying to discredit Fusion GPS and Steele and tried to determine the identity of the Democrat or organization that paid for the dossier.

Trump tweeted as recently as Saturday that the Justice Department and FBI should "immediately release who paid for it."

Elias and Fusion GPS declined to comment on the arrangement. Spokesmen for the Clinton campaign and the DNC had no immediate comment.

Some of the details are included in a Tuesday letter sent by Perkins Coie to a lawyer representing Fusion GPS, telling the research firm that it was released from a client-confidentiality obligation. The letter was prompted by a legal fight over a subpoena for Fusion GPS's bank records.

People involved in the matter said that they would not disclose the dollar amounts paid to Fusion GPS but that the campaign and the DNC shared the cost.


Steele previously worked in Russia for British intelligence. The dossier is a compilation of reports he prepared for Fusion GPS. The dossier alleged that the Russian government collected compromising information about Trump and that the Kremlin was engaged in an effort to assist his campaign for president.


Marc E. Elias of Perkins Coie represented the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. (Matt McClain/)

U.S. intelligence agencies later released a public assessment asserting that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to aid Trump. The FBI has been investigating whether Trump associates helped the Russians in that effort.

Related: [FBI once planned to pay former British spy who authored controversial Trump dossier]

Trump has adamantly denied the allegations in the dossier and has dismissed the FBI probe as a witch hunt.

Officials have said that the FBI has confirmed some of the information in the dossier. Other details, including the most sensational accusations, have not been verified and may never be.

Fusion GPS's work researching Trump began during the Republican presidential primaries, when the GOP donor paid for the firm to investigate the real estate magnate's background.

Fusion GPS did not start off looking at Trump's Russia ties but quickly realized that those relationships were extensive, according to the people familiar with the matter.


When the Republican donor stopped paying for the research, Elias, acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, agreed to pay for the work to continue. The Democrats paid for research, including by Fusion GPS, because of concerns that little was known about Trump and his business interests, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Those people said that it is standard practice for political campaigns to use law firms to hire outside researchers to ensure their work is protected by attorney-client and work-product privileges.

The Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in "legal and compliance consulting'' since November 2015 — though it's impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS.

At no point, the people said, did the Clinton campaign or the DNC direct Steele's activities. They described him as a Fusion GPS subcontractor.

Some of Steele's allegations began circulating in Washington in the summer of 2016 as the FBI launched its counterintelligence investigation into possible connections between Trump associates and the Kremlin. Around that time, Steele shared some of his findings with the FBI.

After the election, the FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue gathering intelligence about Trump and Russia, but the bureau pulled out of the arrangement after Steele was publicly identified in news reports.


The dossier was published by BuzzFeed News in January. Fusion GPS has said in court filings that it did not give BuzzFeed the documents.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that Steele was respected by the FBI and the State Department for earlier work he performed on a global corruption probe.

In early January, then-FBI Director James B. Comey presented a two-page summary of Steele's dossier to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. In May, Trump fired Comey, which led to the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel investigating the Trump-Russia matter.

Congressional Republicans have tried to force Fusion GPS to identify the Democrat or group behind Steele's work, but the firm has said that it will not do so, citing confidentiality agreements with its clients.

Last week, Fusion GPS executives invoked their constitutional right not to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. The firm's founder, Glenn Simpson, had previously given a 10-hour interview to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Over objections from Democrats, the Republican leader of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), subpoenaed Fusion GPS's bank records to try to identify the mystery client.

Fusion GPS has been fighting the release of its bank records. A judge on Tuesday extended a deadline for Fusion GPS's bank to respond to the subpoena until Friday while the company attempts to negotiate a resolution with Nunes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...6fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

 

Exactly why do you think this controversial??

Every campaign pays for opposition research. What's fucked up for Trump is there NEVER should have been any Russia connections to uncover.

GOP senators are retiring early talking about what a bum this guy is, and yet you're still defending him...but didn't vote for him.smh

Trump is well on his way towards impeachment. All Mueller is waiting for is one of Trump's inner circle to pull a John Dean and testify against Trump in an open session of Congress.

 

Lmao

 

Did you really expect much from a white supremacist who hates our citizens

 

No.

 

"My left arm is numb, is that normal?" --Tony Stark, "Captain America: Civil War"

 

Is power lobbyist Tony Podesta next? Hillary campaign chairman's brother quits firm they set up together after Mueller looked at his dealings
By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.s. Political Editor

• Manafort and Gates are charged with failing to disclose multi-million lobbying campaign for Ukrainian political party
• Indictment states they solicited two D.C. firms 'Company and and Company B' to lobby
• Podesta Group has been identified as one of the firms
• PR work to burnish Ukraine's image in the west
• Tony Podesta started the firm decades ago with brother John Podesta
• John Podesta's emails got hacked and are a part of Robert Mueller's Russia probe
• More than $2 million in payments between 2012 and 2014 from Cyprus and Grenadines accounts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...quits-firm-following-Manafort-indictment.html

 

Whatever. This is only a problem IF Tony Podesta lied to the special counsel.

How many Trump family members and officials lied behind closed doors before Congress, on official federal documents and to the FBI and Robert Mueller???
You can have Tony Podesta if that makes you happy.

I'll wait for Trump to take that helicopter ride back to NYC after his entire presidency is disgraced for all of history.

 

So what will you do when he completes his term? Become suicidal?
Nowhere in Mueller's documents is the word 'Russian election collusion', or 'President Trump".
So what are you crowing about? Can you show me, AB?..its been 11 months now and millions of dollars spent by hundreds of partisan hack lawyers...let me know, hun. Time to ejac

 

Meuller was appointed in mid May, so its been just over 5 months, not 11. Page 23 of the Manafort indictment... "Manafort and Gates, together with others, knowingly and intentionally conspired to defraud the United States, by impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Treasury, and to commit offenses against the United States."

In legal terms, that phrase "together with others" could mean a great deal, including Trump, or not. What it does say is that the fallout is most likely just getting started.

 

Comey was conducting an investigation before he was fired in May. So indeed, 11 months and counting.

"Together with others" in 2014 and prior would include Podesta, Hillary, Obama, etc... Not President Trump. Correct?

And posibly Papadopoulos during 2011 when the State Department nominated him as "a top five finalist" to represent the United States at the emerging leaders UNESCO forum in Paris. Maybe? Yes?

We shall see. Circa 2015 was likely very interesting, I'm sure.

 

Well according to Trump, Comey told him on 3 separate occasions he was not part of any investigation, that was in May. "The bulk of the allegations concern activities that occurred before either man was working for the then-Republican candidate. The word “Trump” doesn’t appear in the indictment. But this is not particularly surprising. It’s not unusual for prosecutors to build a case against a potential key cooperator involving charges not directly linked to the ultimate matter under investigation. Even unrelated charges give the prosecutor leverage to persuade the defendant to plead guilty, cooperate in the broader investigation, and provide evidence against the “bigger fish” to earn more lenient treatment in his or her own case. And pursuing Manafort makes perfect sense. With his extensive ties to Russia and his key role as chairman of the Trump campaign, Manafort potentially is a linchpin in Mueller’s investigation." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.e97a10e05edd

 

Interesting article in Vanity Fair detailing that Bannon is concerned that Trump would not survive a 25th amendment removal, interesting...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/201...-is-apoplectic-as-allies-fear-impeachment/amp

“Here’s what Manafort’s indictment tells me: Mueller is going to go over every financial dealing of Jared Kushner and the Trump Organization,” said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. “Trump is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can’t go any lower. He’s fucked.”

 

This was sort of my thinking. I have two attorney friends who teach, one at a top law school. Both are saying that Mueller is very smart, very thorough, and not many in their field are not suprised that there's nothing specific that mentions Trump at this point. One said... "Expect plenty to come out of this, grab a comfy seat and stay tuned"