The Russia Investigation: Trump Pardons Flynn (3 Viewers)

[whoknew]

Well I hope this doesn't get me banned, but its an important story that should be discussed.

John Schindler went on a tweet storm about Trump's Russian mob ties this morning. Here is the storified version.

The basic premise is that the Trump organization has had Russian mob ties since the 90s. And this is well known in the intelligence community.

 

[Osaurus]

Listen to his heart

 

[Sabertooth]

Listen to his heart

There's nothing else you can do.  

 

[massraider]

Hillary something something election something something

 

[Amused to Death]

Well I hope this doesn't get me banned, but its an important story that should be discussed.

John Schindler went on a tweet storm about Trump's Russian mob ties this morning. Here is the storified version.

The basic premise is that the Trump organization has had Russian mob ties since the 90s. And this is well known in the intelligence community.

Well its no secret he had/has NJ mob ties.

 

[rockaction]

I also think this is important enough of a discussion to have, and I'll lodge my not necessarily anti-Trump opinion right here.  

 

[Jayrod]

You don't have to go to college. This isn't Russia. Is this Russia? This isn't Russia.

 

[adonis]

Why not just make it about his Russian ties, and have the mob be a part of it.  A thread title like Russian Connection should be a good place to start...

 

[The Commish]

GB you WK....discussion of this sort of thing around here is going to be impossible...not even 10 posts    

I think it's worthy of discussion, but I don't see it happening.

 

[Slapdash]

https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146 

https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

We didn't even make it past post 2 before the tools took over. 

 

[packersfan]

Maybe they're just symbolic ties. 

 

[Slapdash]

Maybe they're just symbolic ties. 

Wharton power ties

 

[whoknew]

Why not just make it about his Russian ties, and have the mob be a part of it.  A thread title like Russian Connection should be a good place to start...

edited

 

[need2know]

Who knew.

More like who cares

 

[packersfan]

Who knew.

More like who cares

If enough people really cared about who this guy is he never would've gotten the Republican nomination, much less won the election. But we live in a country where his behavior is condoned, supported and celebrated so here we are. 

Way to go us. 

 

[Bruce Dickinson]

Well I hope this doesn't get me banned, but its an important story that should be discussed.

John Schindler went on a tweet storm about Trump's Russian mob ties this morning. Here is the storified version.

The basic premise is that the Trump organization has had Russian mob ties since the 90s. And this is well known in the intelligence community.

This does explain even further why Team Trump was in such a hurry to discredit the IC.

 

[eoMMan]

There's nothing else you can do.  

Trump is running with the shadows of the night. We need to grab hands and hold on tight.

 

[Loan Sharks]

Well I hope this doesn't get me banned, but its an important story that should be discussed.

John Schindler went on a tweet storm about Trump's Russian mob ties this morning. Here is the storified version.

The basic premise is that the Trump organization has had Russian mob ties since the 90s. And this is well known in the intelligence community.

I heard they had mob meetings at the ping pong pizza place. 

And actually it is not a important story. 

 

[Mile High]

This does explain even further why Team Trump was in such a hurry to discredit the IC.

Not sure who said it or if it was a link to someone saying it. The fight with the IC will be his downfall. The truth will come out.

 

[badmojo1006]

https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146 

https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a

Are you trying to sell subscriptions to the Financial Times?

 

[Slapdash]

Not sure who said it or if it was a link to someone saying it. The fight with the IC will be his downfall. The truth will come out.

This guy linked in the OP

 

[Slapdash]

Are you trying to sell subscriptions to the Financial Times?

Sells itself IMO

 

[moleculo]

I'd urge everyone to play it cool here.  This is an important allegation made by the Financial Times, which, near as I can tell, is not "Fake News", or biased towards one side or the other.

If true, Trump is guilty of many crimes, including RICO and I'd assume a whole host of others.  This would be grounds for impeachment and a full trial, which, IMO, would be the biggest news story of our generation.  

Lets all refrain from things that have gotten other threads derailed.  Here are some notes from Dodds regarding previous threads that were axed:

I did not like where the political threads were going.  Both from the left and the right.  Tons of attacks on the individual posters.  Now the attacks are all centered at me.  I guess that's progress as the left and right are now talking to one another.

I am done discussing it.  If you want to be civil in the political threads, they will stay. If you find yourself ranting on about me, you are likely way over the line.  You and the thread will go.

I get it - we rarely moderate.  But we expect people to respect other posters.  Many posters have been way out of bounds a lot as of late.  If you want to say I was today, I will accept that take.  I was quasi-fishing at times.  But if you feel like you just have to keep getting the last word in regarding me, you will find yourself without an account.  

I expect everyone participating to discuss issues and not just rail on people.  We all have different world views.  We can see the same information radically different.  Let's seek to understand more.

I did not post in that thread for the last week.  I watched and it was the same nonsense over and over.  Tons of personal attacks.  No less than 5-10 people a day complaining about someone not being excellent and demanding they be banned.  Posts needing to be pruned/deleted.  People giving warnings and timeouts, etc.  Done with it.    

I suggest talking politics on Twitter or a political board.  These threads always end up with posts like these:

Trump (or Hillary) Supporters are...followed by a bunch of generalities that are stereotyping half of the population.

Sometimes they are disguised, but it's essentially the same.

How can anyone with an IQ over 30 support somebody so in love with Russia?

This is BAIT.  Somebody will take the bait and call that person out (or post the smiley) - It naturally escalates and then mods have to delete a ton of posts, issue timeouts, etc.  Or we can ignore and let the trolling, bait, responses continue to escalate and finally the threads find themselves deleted or people get banned.  

I will say what I did the last time.  If you are trying to group a lot of people into a "catch-all" basket, your post likely stinks as bait.

Examples:

- Anybody supporting the Wall is a racist.

- Anybody not denouncing Trump is a racist, bigamist, homophobe and/or is stupid.

- Anybody that likes Obamacare just likes leaching off the government.

- People that trust WikiLeaks over the news are certified whack jobs and shouldn't be allowed to vote.

- How can somebody be so blind as to not see Russia is in bed with Trump?  

Thinly disguised posts that people are going to interpret similarly to these are essentially the same.  They are BAIT posts.  Even if you believe them to be 100% true.  They are nothing but stinky bait.  Most of the political threads have devolved to the most partisan people throwing stink bait post after stink bait post.

 and ####posting anybody that disagrees with their world-view.

I am saying for people to find a new board, because these threads are going to keep getting axed if this stays the norm.  I thought the Russia thread was vastly better than the catch-all Trump thread, but there was still a lot of bait going on that I think detracts from the message board I wish to have.   

 

[adonis]

https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146 

https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923

https://www.ft.com/content/549ddfaa-5fa5-11e6-b38c-7b39cbb1138a

These are interesting primarily because they come from the Financial Times, a respectable news organization.  I'm having trouble sifting through the dense information there, but it certainly seems to be worth reading.  

However at this point it just seems to be something like this: possible connections in the Trump empire to alleged international laundering activities with ties to Russia.  I'm not dismissing the investigation at all, as it seems they have to be pretty confident with what they have to publish it in a high profile outlet like FT, but it's far from a smoking gun I believe.  Just more smoke, added to an already suffocating amount, between Trump and Russia.

 

[massraider]

I heard they had mob meetings at the ping pong pizza place. 

And actually it is not a important story. 

Financial Times=4chan?

Wow.  Mind blown.

 

[HellToupee]

Sigh. We all know John Schindlers back story , don't we?

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Sigh. We all know John Schindlers back story , don't we?

No

 

[Jayrod]

Sigh. We all know John Schindlers back story , don't we?

Well, I know he helped a lot of Jews and lived in a black and white world, but other than that, no.

 

[jamny]

I'm definitely interested and open to the possibility of improper actions but I've yet to see where the money coming in is from ill-gotten money laundering and not just real estate investing at an opportune time in the US. It's no shock that Trump would be involved with high end RE investing, whether from Russia or China. Where is the proof that Trump himself knew that this had organized crime connections.

 

[E Street Brat]

There's nothing else you can do.  

Trump may need a lot love but he don't need you.

 

[knowledge dropper]

This thread won't end well.  It's like whack-a-mole at this point.  

 

[Kanil]

Only read the OP.  Is this like Obama's Kenyan ties?

 

[whoknew]

I'm definitely interested and open to the possibility of improper actions but I've yet to see where the money coming in is from ill-gotten money laundering and not just real estate investing at an opportune time in the US. It's no shock that Trump would be involved with high end RE investing, whether from Russia or China. Where is the proof that Trump himself knew that this had organized crime connections.

I don't think that's been shown yet. 

If there is something to this story, I assume (hope?) that the FT, NYT, WaPo will continue to investigate and get to the bottom of it. I suspect this story is going to continue into his Presidency.

 

[bueno]

If you deal in Russia, you can't avoid dealing with the mob.

 

[whoknew]

Sigh. We all know John Schindlers back story , don't we?

Would like to know it. I'd never heard of the guy until a bunch of people on this board were praising him last week. So I started following him on twitter.

 

[Amused to Death]

Only read the OP.  Is this like Obama's Kenyan ties?

Haven't they been discussed (in some circles) for the past 8 years?  We're on to a new president now.  Let's discuss him.

 

[skol asylum]

Who knew.

More like who cares

We need 2 know. Because knowing is half the battle.

 

[MikeIke]

I'm definitely interested and open to the possibility of improper actions but I've yet to see where the money coming in is from ill-gotten money laundering and not just real estate investing at an opportune time in the US. It's no shock that Trump would be involved with high end RE investing, whether from Russia or China. Where is the proof that Trump himself knew that this had organized crime connections.

Well, there is the little fact that Trump Taj Mahal was assessed a $10 million penalty for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which is one of the government's primary tools for combating money laundering.

http://www.reuters.com/article/trump-ent-trumptajmahal-moneylaundering-idUSL1N0VL2L120150211

Trump Taj Mahal Associates LLC agreed to the assessment of a $10 million civil penalty by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, according to a proposed consent order filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The penalty will take the form of a general unsecured claim in Trump Taj Mahal's bankruptcy.



 



In exchange, Trump Taj Mahal admitted to have willfully violated reporting and record-keeping requirements under the federal Bank Secrecy Act from 2010 to 2012.



 



These violations included many that had been previously revealed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as far back as 2003.

 

[whoknew]

If you deal in Russia, you can't avoid dealing with the mob.

That may be true, but then that leads to two follow up questions:

1) Did the Trump organization do anything illegal while dealing with the Russian mob? 

2) Given the close ties between the Russian mob and Putin/Russian gov't, do Trump's alleged relations with the Russian mob put him in a precarious position when dealing with Russia? 

 

[massraider]

Sigh. We all know John Schindlers back story , don't we?

Whoa.  a quick Google search, and I definitely remember this story.  This dude is a straight up clown.  

http://blackbag.gawker.com/the-crazy-emails-that-took-down-nsa-spook-john-schindle-1610203101

Remember John Schindler, the conservative talking head, retired NSA spook, and Naval War College professor who briefly went incognito after screenshots of (what appear to be) his penis leaked onto the Internet? While he has since reappeared on Twitter—where he first drew attention for defending domestic spying and criticizing Edward Snowden—he has refused to comment on the mysterious emails, sent to the Naval War College by an unnamed blogger, that prompted the school to place him on leave, and his penis under official investigation.

The emails sent to NWC, which Gawker obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, refer to Schindler’s habit of calling himself a “spy”; detail his correspondence with an unnamed woman (who apparently received his penis photo); and, in a lengthy missive, accuse Schindler of staging “cyber warfare” against his online enemies, using “thuggish tactics” to silence NSA critics, and violating various federal laws.

Each of the messages is heavily redacted, and the identities of their senders obscured, due to the ongoing investigation into Schindler’s conduct. But the last email is detailed (and nutty) enough to earn a closer reading, so we’ve embedded it below. You can read the rest here. Let us know if anything sticks out.

Also, it's probably very serious, but I wouldn't be upset if my penis was under official investigation.  I might even brag about it.  

 

[Weebs210]

Man liberals are getting desperate. Guys, it's over.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Perhaps a requirement for running for president would be obtaining the highest level security clearances possible. I mean we make business analysts obtain them so why not follow the money on every candidate before they run?

 

[massraider]

Well, there is the little fact that Trump Taj Mahal was assessed a $10 million penalty for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which is one of the government's primary tools for combating money laundering.

http://www.reuters.com/article/trump-ent-trumptajmahal-moneylaundering-idUSL1N0VL2L120150211

Is this from when Trump's dad laundered money through the casino?

Or is that a different completely shady situation?

 

[massraider]

Man liberals are getting desperate. Guys, it's over.

something something Hillary something something election something something

 

[Weebs210]

something something Hillary something something election something something

Something something Trump something something Russia something something

 

[massraider]

Something something Trump something something something Russia something something

Yep, some mesage board go-to retort is the same as the entire intelligence community in agreement on something.

It's the exact same thing.  

Anyone ever call you Knowledge Dropper?  Cause you just dropped some, dawg.

 

[jamny]

Well, there is the little fact that Trump Taj Mahal was assessed a $10 million penalty for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which is one of the government's primary tools for combating money laundering.

http://www.reuters.com/article/trump-ent-trumptajmahal-moneylaundering-idUSL1N0VL2L120150211

Where is the Russian connection in that?

 

[Weebs210]

Yep, some mesage board go-to retort is the same as the entire intelligence community in agreement on something.

It's the exact same thing.  

Anyone ever call you Knowledge Dropper?  Cause you just dropped some, dawg.

Thanks dawg

 

[Ditka Butkus]

Well I hope this doesn't get me banned, but its an important story that should be discussed.

John Schindler went on a tweet storm about Trump's Russian mob ties this morning. Here is the storified version.

The basic premise is that the Trump organization has had Russian mob ties since the 90s. And this is well known in the intelligence community.

Good for him...Maybe he can use those ties to cleanup South Chicago.